The 5hr minibus ride to Vang Vien was nuts. The super curvy roads, coupled with my already upset stomach left me feeling nauseous for the entire trip. The town has lived up to its reputation as a European backpackers party town. Its set up with cheap guesthouses, cheap food, and even cheaper drinks. They also have a tubing run which everyone does in the daytime on the local river. The sides are set up with about 10 different bars, each advertising their own array of swings, ziplines, waterslides, etc. The local Lao workers have ropes that they throw out to you and pull you in with.
River Side Bar
The float down the river would probably take about 1hr at full speed, but due to the stops and recreation we spent about 4 hours. The river is surrounded by beautiful mountain landscape, and its kind of an ironic mix of natural beauty and spring break. Lots of music, drinks, and water activities made for an all day affair.
Rope Swing
View of the river
However, the river is not the cleanest due to improper sanitation and runoff from the upstream towns and I caught a bad bug that I have been dealing with for the past two days. Finally starting to feel better today and I think we are getting back on the non-tourist route and back out to the countryside.
Luang Prabang was a relaxing few days. Originally we were going to rent dirt bikes so we could explore the country side. Renting dirt bikes (or any motorcycles) proved to be difficult and/or expensive. After one afternoon of speaking to local tourist companies and dealerships, I started getting the impression that bike rental was discouraged due to the local tourism office wanting us to pay for the local taxi services. Anyhow, we changed our plans and decided to relax in Luang Prabang for a couple days, then head to Vang Viene for tubing, then to Vientene to fly out to Hanoi Vietnam so we could get dirt bikes there. This cuts our trip a little short in Laos but allows us to extend the time in Vietnam. To try to relax from the frustration, we rented some beach cruiser style bicycles for 20,000 Kip ($3), grabbed some cold beers from the local vendor and rode around the town.
While exploring the town we ran into a UXO (unexploded ordinance) museum that was really interesting. From both WWII and the Vietnam wars, the Lao people were left with an estimated 80,000 unexploded mines, bombs etc. This makes it difficult for them to use land for farming, and development. Museum was really interesting, and we both donated some money and took some photos.
That night we met a Malaysian guy (Andrew) who was in the room next to us. He spoke great English (in addition to 5 other languages), and he joined us at the local pub for some (Tower Beers).
They were the cheapest drink out, and pretty cool looking. We rode our bikes to the pub, in the rain and when the pub closed I offered to give Andrew a ride (the bikes had a seat that you could sit on above the rear wheel). Things were going pretty well (although I was a bit tipsy from the Towers), until I missed a turn. Andrew shouted "There it is", and about 3/4 the way past it I tried to make a quick turn. The bike slipped out like the tire hit a banana peel, and we both spilled...laughing. Luckily no one was hurt. I offered Andrew another ride and he said "I would rather walk"...which I cannot blame him for. I got back on the bike and continued riding down the correct road. Before we got back to the Guesthouse, I tried to jump down off of a curb...and the bike did the same thing...slipped out. I dinged my thigh up on the curb, and it's still pretty bruised at this time. Andrew then suggested that "maybe you should walk too"...I agreed and made it home fairly unscathed.
The next day we ended up renting two scooters from a local restaurant for $15 (3x more than in Thailand) and going to some really neat waterfalls. They had a cool rope swing and also a small waterfall that we could jump off of. We were soon joined by a busload of Buddhist monk children, that were soon jumping off the waterfall and rope swing with us. It was a sight seeing them as playful children, but in their orange robes that they tied around their waist like a wrap. Brian got some great photos that I would love to share, but he is having some trouble with the memory card on his camera. Hopefully we can get them out I will try to share them later.
We are now leaving on a small bus for the 6hr trip to Vang Viene...
More from our interesting night in Chiang Khong... Prior to arriving at our guest house Keels and I were reading up on accommodations in a local internet cafe for the town which we would stay at as the mid point on the slow boat. One of the threads mentioned "very basic rooms, and rats the size of beagles". Although Keels and I are animal lovers, the thought of rats the "size of beagles" left an imprint in both of our minds.
At around 10pm we were laying on our single queen size bed reading books and getting ready to get some sleep before our boat journey in the morning. Out of nowhere, we heard a scurry in the bushes, then a loud bang on the thatch room, then what sounded like a large animal scurrying on he floor above (the guest house was A-Frame with am empty room above). The "animal(s)" kept moving around up there, and making a really wierd screeching sound. Keels and I were both visualizing the beagle sized rats we had read about earlier and super uncomfortable in the thatch house, with large holes in the ceiling between floors. After about 20 minutes of noise, we heard a thump on the roof, one of the trees shake, and nothing. Not wanting to seem like sissies, we both laughed it off and said that we would sleep with one eye open. I then turned the lights (the room was pitch black...couldnt see a thing), and we proceeded to drift off to sleep. I was in a light sleep, when i heard the same bang on the roof, then a loud screech right above our bed... I wanted to see if Keels had heard the same thing and reached over to hit him with the back of my hand. He then jumped up on the bed (I couldnt see him but I heard him) screamed like I have never heard a man scream before, and said " What the #$%^, what the #$%&, its on me" then proceeded to jump from the bed to the floor. I envisioned the "beagle sized" rat, clawing and chewing at his face... so I jumped up on the bed also and screamed like a 10 year old girl. I didnt want that rat to touch me, but I couldn't see anything and from the sounds of Keels (for the 30 some seconds) it was bad. I knew that to reach the light switch I would have to fumble in the dark across the room, so I grabbed my phone at the bedside and used the LED flashlight app to give us some light. When I got the light working, I found Keels on the floor with a look of sheer terror on his face...but there was no rat. He quickly hopped up on the bed, and we scanned the room for any signs of it. Nothing...? Maybe under the bed...? Keels took the flashlight and slowly peered under the bed...again nothing? We knew he was in the room somewhere... but didnt know where. I got off the bed and turned on the light...nothing was there... but the noises above started again and even louder than before. We were both white with fear, and didnt know what to do at that point. Keels didnt have any scratches or bites, and we didnt know what just happened. After pondering leaving, we decided it was best to try to tough it out and go back to sleep. The noises continued until morning, and we both had the heebie jeebies on anything in the room. Neither of us slept a wink, and decided to leave at 6 am to get the heck out of there. We later discussed the incident over food and beers and to this day are not sure what truly happened. Our best guess was that my trying to wake him up but hitting him made him think a rat had fallen, then he must have hit my leg... who knows... funny story.
We left Chiang Mai, Thailand on a 2nd class bus which took 5 hours to get to Chiang Rai. We had to catch the last bus in Chiang Rai leaving to the border town Chiang Khong at 5 pm. The 2nd class bus got us to the bus station at 4:45pm, and when Keels went to buy a ticket to Chiang Khong, they told him that was at another bus station across town. If we missed this bus it was going to put us back another day, so we hustled, caught a truck, and made it to the other bus station at 5:10...luckily the buses never leave on time and we got on just before it left. The 3rd class bus ride was slow but went through beautiful countryside. When we got to Chiang Khong, we caught a Tuk Tuk... and had him take us to Bamboo Guesthouse...which was recommended in the Lonely Planet book. When we got there, the place seemed semi-shady...but the room looked clean (although it was made of thatch and looked like it would fall down if I sneezed to hard), so we trusted Lonely Planet and took it. This is where our interesting night started...(more to come on this later)
The slow boat to Luang Prabang Laos down the Mekong River was pretty cool. The oriental style polished teak boat was great to see, and even better to be going down the river on. Although the boat was slow and moderately uncomfortable, the scenery was beautiful. But back to the uncomfortable... the boat had two options for seating... the floor which was preferred or VIP seating or wooden bench seats. (Mind you that the boat ride consisted of (2) 8hr days). As we started down the river, Keels and I started scoping out where we could hang our hammocks from. We found some good ceiling joists and got them situated so we were partially hanging out over the side of the boat above the water... this was not only a great view but also had a nice breeze.
Despite the looks of pure jealousy from the other passengers, we bought a couple Big BeerLao's, read books, napped, and had a rather relaxing first day. Day # 2, the rug was pulled out from beneath both of us... for some reason we changed boats. The new boats didnt have joists that we could hang the hammocks from and we were forced out of the super VIP hammock section into the wooden seats with the masses. Day 2 was a backbreaker, however we met two cool Canadians (Dave and Jan) that helped pass the time.
The Mekong River had little signs of civilization, other than a few small river villages. The boat must a doubled as a supply boat, because it carried bags of rice, chicken cages, and other supplies on the roof which we dropped off at the small river towns. Most didnt have power lines or any signs of roads leading to them, so I assumed they were pretty isolated. We we arrived at our destination Luang Prabang, it was more of a town than a large city. So far it is a really cool town that seems to have a lot of French influence (used to be a French colony). Dave, Jan, Keels, and I walked into town and found a nice guest house with a large balcony and a river view. Guesthouse was a whopping 60,000 kip ($7.50) for our single room and was completely trimmed out in varnished teak. So far, Luang Prabang seems like a cool place to spent a couple days...we will figure out more and continue on.
Back in Pai, Keels and I took a Thai cooking class that was pretty sweet. The class was put on by a local Thai woman who ran a legit cooking school. It included learning to cook 6 traditional Thai dishes (Pad Thai, Curries, soup, and desert) from scratch, going to the local market, and just a great overall experience. There were six people in the class (2 guys from Israel, 2 from Korea, and us) so it was hands on,
and all of the food turned out great. We even got a recipe book that we could bring home to remind us of the dishes we cooked... the hardest part will be finding the ingredients back home (dried shrimp, fish oil, etc)
We spoke to a lot of people in Pai, and from what we gathered it was a real hot spot in the high season (Dec & Jan)... but we must have caught it in the super low season because it seemed like a ghost town. It had many empty guesthouses, and restaurants... wherever we went we were impressed, but wondering where everyone was. After two days in Pai, we got back on the Mae Hong Son loop with the motorcycles and it was incredible. I had no idea that Northern Thailand would be such a motorcycler's paradise. The roads were great by US standards, 1864 curves (perfect for the bikes... my dad would be jealous http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwkcuGjz0rc ), and the scenery was what you would see in the movies.It was a bit rainy, and would rain hard at least once per day, but we had rain gear and were often dried out quickly. It was a bit cold when we got to the tops of the mountains (50's F), but other than that it was spectacular. We went from Pai to Mae Hong Son, then to Mae Sariang... the further we went the less tourists we saw. Mae Sariang the level of English speaking locals went way down. The towns were a mix of Thai and a local mountain people "Karen" who were refugees from Burma. I will try to post some more photos...it just took forever to upload them for some reason this time :-(.
Next we are on to Laos...we have to catch a couple buses to Chaing Khong, then taking a 2 day slow boat to up the Mekong river to Laos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jD6lqFRIOO4).. it should be a relaxing journey, yet a little remote. They only have wooden seats on the boat, and most people complain about being uncomfortable o the two day trip. However being the clever lad I am, I bought a parachute hammock (for $7) that I am going to string up. Its going to be two days of straight relaxing for me :-) I will try to update when we get to Luang Prabang
We got onto our "road hogs" and made the 120km trip to the mountain town of Pai.
The journey on the bikes was incredible! Probably 50 or 60km of curvy mountain roads and scenic views. We past a handful of tourist buses and trucks carrying young tourists and from the looks of their cramped conditions and noses pressed up against the windows...it confirmed that biking is the way to go. The scenery was breathtaking and almost the postcard perfect view of farms and rice paddies with mountain backdrops. Pai is a really cool, laid back, hippy town... although there are not too many tourists in the area at this time, I can tell its probably bustling during the high season. During our first day there, we went riding through the countryside to a local canyon which had some neatly carved out mountain tops used as trails.We then went to an elephant camp (elephants were a large part of the Thai culture and workforce before machines were popular) and were able to take the elephants down to the local stream and play. They were huge, as I have never been that close to an elephant before. To get up on the elephant they lifted us up with their trunk to head then we climbed up. The ride was basically bareback (on a small blanket), and quite scary as we had to be 8-10 ft up. Our elephant was constantly eating any plants it could find on the way to the stream, and was rather playful when we got there. Pretty wild.... check out the other photos on Keels's picasa http://picasaweb.google.com/keelsb/Thailand#
