If Christmas in Vientiane was quite unusual, then it has to be said that the new year in Luang Prabang wasn't too normal either. The town itself is a quiet little place in northern Laos; It seems that every other local is a monk or a tuk tuk driver, and the pace of life is nice and slow.
However, on new year's eve we managed to find a street full of late opening pubs (normally they close before midnight), with everything from Beerlao to buckets of whiskey on the menu. The night was far from quiet and the new year was received in style. The next morning when we were trying to find a new place to stay (no, we didn't get kicked out, the place was just overbooked) there was no sign of the mayhem of the previous night and the monks were walking down the streets in orange processions like always (to be honest, there are very few things more annoying than other people's serenity when you have a hangover, but you can't really go and shout at a monk).
We left Luang Prabang on a slow boat and sailed up the river towards Thailand. It took two 10 hour days on the boat to reach the Thai border and our bottoms were getting rather numb from the wooden seats but the scenery was beatiful, and the only other way to do the journey would have involved the "fast boats" that looked like motorised surfboards and had an incredible accident record.
In Thailand our first stop was Chiang Mai in the north. There isn't that much to do in the town itself but there are a lot of trekking and adventure travel possibilities just out of town. We signed up for a one day elephant tour. That turned out to be a truly excellent experience with riding, washing and feeding the elephants.
From Chiang Mai we caught a night train to Bangkok (the first train since Vietnam). Bangkok didn't quite live up to the expectations, although in fairness we only saw a very small part of the huge city. For me though, it seemed like any other big city. Maybe we just went to the wrong places.
Another reason for my lack of enthusiasm may have been the fact that we had booked ourselves flights from Bangkok to Christchurch, New Zealand, and I found it quite hard to concentrate on anything else. I don't really know much about New Zealand, but I think it will be a nice change from southeast Asia. We'll find out soon.
Showing posts with label Laos. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Laos. Show all posts
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Monday, 29 December 2008
Christmas time in Laos!
I think we both started to feel a little homesick in the days running up to Christmas. That's probably a little selfish of us, since I know many people would love to be in our place right now rather than back home in the cold, but still, when you think of your families and friends back home decorating their trees, wrapping up their presents, lighting candles, attending Christmas parties, you can't help but wish you were there. Christmas should be a time for family.
Unfortunately, this year that wasn't to be, but we were determined to get into the festive spirit and bring a little bit of Christmas to Laos. Along with Laura, Andy and Zoe, our travelling companions of the past week, we shopped for presents for each other, found ourselves some Santa hats (which we were not allowed to take off, no matter how hot!), sang some Christmas songs and played some games, and -in the absence of a Christmas meal- treated ourselves to a very nice Italian meal, followed by some wine and cheeses back at the hotel. All of the locals respectfully wished us a merry christmas as we paraded around the streets of Vientiane in our Santa hats, and all in all it felt very Christmassy despite being thousands of miles from home!
Two days later we moved on northwards to Vang Vieng, famous for it's beautiful scenery and even more so for it's "tubing". Tubing basically involves sitting in a big rubber ring (actually the inner tube of a tractor!) and floating down the river. There's a dozen or so bars on the 2 hour route downstream, and if you feel like stopping for a drink you signal to one of the barstaff and they will throw you a line and fish you out of the river! It was a really unusual but fun day. We did plan to do the same again today but we are all suffering a bit, with bad backs, bruised bottoms and Laura's "tube-burn"... oh, and there's the hangovers too, of course!
Tomorrow we are all hoping to move on to Luang Prabang where we will be celebrating New Year. We heard from many other travellers that Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, so I'm quite looking forward to it!
Unfortunately, this year that wasn't to be, but we were determined to get into the festive spirit and bring a little bit of Christmas to Laos. Along with Laura, Andy and Zoe, our travelling companions of the past week, we shopped for presents for each other, found ourselves some Santa hats (which we were not allowed to take off, no matter how hot!), sang some Christmas songs and played some games, and -in the absence of a Christmas meal- treated ourselves to a very nice Italian meal, followed by some wine and cheeses back at the hotel. All of the locals respectfully wished us a merry christmas as we paraded around the streets of Vientiane in our Santa hats, and all in all it felt very Christmassy despite being thousands of miles from home!
Two days later we moved on northwards to Vang Vieng, famous for it's beautiful scenery and even more so for it's "tubing". Tubing basically involves sitting in a big rubber ring (actually the inner tube of a tractor!) and floating down the river. There's a dozen or so bars on the 2 hour route downstream, and if you feel like stopping for a drink you signal to one of the barstaff and they will throw you a line and fish you out of the river! It was a really unusual but fun day. We did plan to do the same again today but we are all suffering a bit, with bad backs, bruised bottoms and Laura's "tube-burn"... oh, and there's the hangovers too, of course!
Tomorrow we are all hoping to move on to Luang Prabang where we will be celebrating New Year. We heard from many other travellers that Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, so I'm quite looking forward to it!
Thursday, 25 December 2008
Northern Cambodia - Southern Laos
Where to start? It's been so long since we updated the blog that I can't even remember everything that has happened since. But I'll give it a go...
From Phnom Penh we took a bus to Cambodia's second town, Battambang. It's a sleepy little town, nice enough but not a lot to do there. Our reason for spending a night there was that we wanted to catch a boat to Siem Reap the next morning. The boat ride was great; we sailed down a little river and waved to the locals who were fishing, washing, and swimming in the river. Just before Siem Reap we went through the "flooded forest" where big trees were growing in the middle of the lake. Weird but impressive.
Siem Reap was always going to be about the temples of Angkor Wat. The area of the temples is huge (apparently the largest religious site in the world), and there are temples that are overgrown with jungle, temples that have been restored, temples that are in ruins, temples on hills, and so on and so on... We spent three days in Siem Reap, which was just enough to see all the main temples but not to get completely templed out.
After Siem Reap we stopped in a couple of provincial towns in northern Cambodia before crossing the border to Laos. The border crossing was pretty relaxed; a couple of guys in a wooden hut asking for bribes. For a dollar we managed to buy all the necessary stamps on our passports and we were heading to Don Det in the 4000 Islands in southern Laos.
Don Det was great for a couple of days of relaxing. There are no temples or other must-visit cultural sites on the island, so we just stayed in hammocks most of the day, then went to watch the sunset over the Mekong river, had a couple of drinks and slept some more. Brilliant!
On our way from Don Det to Vientiane we stopped in Pakse and did a waterfall tour around the area. The tour took us to three different waterfalls; Tad Fan, Tad Lo, and Tad Something Else.
The next stop was in Tha Khaek and went to see a 7 km long cave that has a river running through it. We went to the pitch black cave with small motor boats and drove in darkness with just the guide's torch to help us navigate. Luckily our guides knew the place like their own pockets and we found the way easily, but when you are a few kilometers into a cave that is completely dark, in a small leaky boat you get a little nervous. It turned out to be an amazing experience anyway.
Now we are celebrating Christmas in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It's a nice place, and we have some friends that we met earlier in our travels to celebrate with, so I think it will be a nice Christmas. Different, but nice!
Merry Christmas to everyone!
From Phnom Penh we took a bus to Cambodia's second town, Battambang. It's a sleepy little town, nice enough but not a lot to do there. Our reason for spending a night there was that we wanted to catch a boat to Siem Reap the next morning. The boat ride was great; we sailed down a little river and waved to the locals who were fishing, washing, and swimming in the river. Just before Siem Reap we went through the "flooded forest" where big trees were growing in the middle of the lake. Weird but impressive.
Siem Reap was always going to be about the temples of Angkor Wat. The area of the temples is huge (apparently the largest religious site in the world), and there are temples that are overgrown with jungle, temples that have been restored, temples that are in ruins, temples on hills, and so on and so on... We spent three days in Siem Reap, which was just enough to see all the main temples but not to get completely templed out.
After Siem Reap we stopped in a couple of provincial towns in northern Cambodia before crossing the border to Laos. The border crossing was pretty relaxed; a couple of guys in a wooden hut asking for bribes. For a dollar we managed to buy all the necessary stamps on our passports and we were heading to Don Det in the 4000 Islands in southern Laos.
Don Det was great for a couple of days of relaxing. There are no temples or other must-visit cultural sites on the island, so we just stayed in hammocks most of the day, then went to watch the sunset over the Mekong river, had a couple of drinks and slept some more. Brilliant!
On our way from Don Det to Vientiane we stopped in Pakse and did a waterfall tour around the area. The tour took us to three different waterfalls; Tad Fan, Tad Lo, and Tad Something Else.
The next stop was in Tha Khaek and went to see a 7 km long cave that has a river running through it. We went to the pitch black cave with small motor boats and drove in darkness with just the guide's torch to help us navigate. Luckily our guides knew the place like their own pockets and we found the way easily, but when you are a few kilometers into a cave that is completely dark, in a small leaky boat you get a little nervous. It turned out to be an amazing experience anyway.
Now we are celebrating Christmas in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It's a nice place, and we have some friends that we met earlier in our travels to celebrate with, so I think it will be a nice Christmas. Different, but nice!
Merry Christmas to everyone!
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