Laos

Well, we set off from Moung Ngoi off up North on the crazy bumpy bumpy road via boat and two local buses, arriving at 8pm and thoroughly proud of our use of transport and making it all in one day. We only stayed two nights and stopped off on the way to Thailand to do a trek in the Nam Ha National Protected Area because they have a real good eco trekking system which puts a lot of money back into the local economy and minority villages. We quickly booked a one day trek, munched some grub and slept like babies.
The trek was bloody hard work, one of the hardest we had done and with little reward, usually you forget the pain when you get the stunning views. There were no views, still it was a really good day, nice group of 6, very good local guide and you didnt feel part of the tourist trekking trap like in so many places in asia. The path was so overgrown we took a local villager to hack the branches away! It was real trekking through thick jungle complete with a banana leaf and sticky rice lunch, eaten with our fingers!! Yum yum!
Oh and not forgetting the leeches, yucky yucky leeches causes us all much paranoia and stamping fits when we saw them making their way up our shoes heading for the blood!
In Luang Prabang there is a program called Big Brother Mouse which produces Laos books for children, we had brought some of these to take to the more remote villages as they have very little opportunity to read and even learning Laos is a problem as some villages migrated from South China and speak a very old Chinese dialect and no Laos. Its an excellent program which employs only Laos people and the profits go into teaching kids in minority villages to read.
So.... off to Thailand now, its a race against time to get through Malaysia and fly to Indonesia on the 7th so only doing a teeny tiny bit of Thailand!

We arrived in Luang Prabang and quickly booked into a guesthouse on the river. We spent two days three nights in the city and could have spent more. The first day we walked around the city soaking up the atmosphere, which was very relaxed and checking out the sights and temples. Luang Prabang is a stunning city with quaint streets set in beautiful mountainous/hilly suroundings. There seems to be a temple on every corner. We visited many, notably phusi hill; where there was an amazing view of the city, the temples across the river; with again amazing views and a more derelict feel. Across the river there were many local houses and people, very different to the rest of Luang Prabang as it was much poorer and real in some ways. whilst ambling through the peaceful streetsof Luang Prabang we stumbled across a temple which was a school for monks, where they learn skills in maintaining and building temples and cratfs, very intersting as we could watch them work on building statues etc.

The second day we decide to take a tuk tuk with some friends that we met up with (phillipe and Sophie) to Kuang Si waterfall . We took an early tuk tuk to beat the crowds. The waterfall was amazing with loads of pools, which you could swim in, streams, and giant jets of water. We heard from some peole we met earlier that you can make it to a natural pool at the top of the falls which were amazing, so we set off to find this pool! we were walking and scrambling up the side of the water fall ignoring the keep out and danger signs to get to the top. The going was pretty easy until we took a little bit of a wrong turn and end up climbling up a small part of the water fall in order to make it, it got a little scary but we pushed on and eventually made it to the holy grail. The view from here was awesome and the pool even better. We shared this experience with only a handfull of other tourists and a few monks who were having a picnic and bathing under the waterfall. We also heard that it was possible to jump from the a tree into the pool. I saw the tree and started to have second thoughts as it was bigger than anticipated, but what the hell a gave it a go. Three times in the end and got the pics to prove it! At the time me and zoe were the only ones bathing in the pool and it was really lush.

We set off the next day by Sawngthaew (truck with seats in the back) to nong kiaw, the journey was an experience! Zoe was on a plastic chair in the middle of the truck, trying to stabalise when going round corners, while dodging sick that was being flung at her from all angles from the baby next to her. Quite amusing, for me anyway, until the girl on my left decided to join the sick club! We were glad to get off the truck after a 4 hour journey! At nong Khiaw we got on a boat to the village of Muang Ngoi. The boat ride was breathtaking with stunning views of limestone cliffs, green hills and the locals fishing and playing in the river. We spent two days in muang Ngoi and loved it. Although tourists have been going for years, there were not many there. You can walk around the back streets of the village, through the wooden huts, past the chickens and get a real slice of local Laos life. We also went on a walk to the next village and dipped in a water hole in a cave, and was again treated to some spectacuar views along the way. The rest of the time we just drank in the atmosphere/ beer laos, swam in the river, watched the local kids playing games and I joined in with some football, showed them some mad skills, got far to hot and realised I was to old. Good times!

Well, its been a while since we wrote anything, mainly because we've been into the wild, yes we ventured to places with no internet, yes thats right, no internet! I am just glad there are still places left!
After an eventful border crossing we made it to Vientaine to find a blissfully quiet city, well capital city! It was all a bit odd after having travelled from the beeping and the crowds in Vietnam. We only spent a day here, just chilling out, walking around the city and a little sleeping too, plus it was very expensive compared to Vietnam which shocked us and urged us to move on, but I guess its the capital!
Next stop on the travel bus... Vang Vieng, we got the local bus, a suprisingly pleasant experience and arrived to find the most bizzarre place so far.... Vang Vieng is incredibly beautiful, the backdrop for the once sleepy town is huge limestone cliffs right next to a river, surrounded by caves and good walks, cycling and kayaking. However the main ''strip'' is a backpacker haven with tv bars playing friends and family guy all day long followed by island bars serving Lao lao buckets at dirt cheap prices. And yes we shamefully indulged in a little family guy.
The main attraction for most in Vang Vieng is Tubing.... in short you rent a tube, go to the drop off point and float back down the river whilst stopping off at bars along the way to drink and do the crazy rope swings/flying fox's. The day started off a little badly, Andy was so hungover he could barely eat his breakfast, never mind the 11 o'clock mojito for the kids st the drop off! Dont despair I had a mojito for the kids gladly (its a charity organic farm project)! By the second bar and after the first swing he was back on the beer lao and much perkier! It was a really wicked day, we were with the nicest group of people, good beer, beautiful day lazing on the river.... what more could you want? Maybe the sleepy town Vang Vieng was 5 years ago before the tourists? Who knows, but its definately worth spending a few days exploring away from the tv bars and island bars!
We didnt just drink, we also went for some walks to nearby caves... I have decided from these walks I am not really a cave kind of girl, well unless you give me 10 torches, a guide and a big strong boyfriend, ha ha! No seriously, they are freaky, so wuss stylee, I sat outside while Andy went off to explore with my exceptionally poor maglite. After coming face to face with a bat he thought better of it and we started the long decsent to the bottom of the hill, having seen not a lot! We also walked to a lagoon, mmm yummy, tho crazy freezing (also with a cave)!
More my scene we found a hotel with a pool that you could pay to use, we spent two afternoons there, my practicing my syncro and Andy soaking up some rays over looking the limestones cliffs! Incredible!