Bangkok

Bangkok

That's right it's been over three year's since I was in South East Asia but I never got around to doing my last entry on the trip. It may not be as detailed for obvious reasons but this post will be testament to my memory.

Wednesday 9th

Today was basically a day dedicated to travelling to Bangkok from Suhkothai. We arrived in Bangkok sometime in the afternoon. The [Northern] bus station is not in the centre of Bangkok so we had to get a taxi to the Khao San rd area (real name Banglamphu). It took ages, I think close to an hour. We landed in the heart of Khao San, the street literally and went from hotel to hotel but one after the other were booked out. So we ended up at the worst place of our trip and one of the most expensive to boot!

Very very touristy area, lots of restaurants, massage places, bars and shops selling fake t-shirts and souvenirs, and worst of all - the suit shops! These people do not leave you alone and they are so bad at getting you into the store, "Hey you!", how are you going to bait me with a line like this?

Most hotels were full so we ended up at this piece of shit place. Wasn't fun lugging two bags up 5 flights of stairs either.
We knew we didn't wanna stay at this joint any longer than we have to so we went for a much longer walk to find more suitable accommodation, which we did and booked it for the next few nights. Much easier to do without dragging our luggage.


Thursday 10th

Interesting day to say the least. Eventhough we'd both been to the Palace and Emerald Buddha on our trips to Bangkok with our parents we still wanted to do it again. We decided to walk there because it seemed not too far and we'd rather not deal with tuk-tuks. It was a big walk, so deceiving on the map. Within 5 minutes (when we were looking at the map) we were approached by a man telling us all these things that we should see blah blah blah, he seemed genuine and just wanting to help us, until he started saying the Palace is closed and we should take a tuk-tuk to this place and that place - immediately we knew this bloke was full of shit and was trying to scam us, we read all about this. So we said no thank you and walked off.

He wasn't the only one who tried it on us, two more tried for fucks sake.

We knew there was a dress code about going there and even enquired beforehand at our hotel asking if we were suitably dressed and they said yes. I had shorts that went past my knees and I even cranked them down a bit more before we went in and Kay had leggings on with a top going past her bum. However, once we got in Kay was rejected for not being properly dressed, they wanted her to go and hire some pants to wear, what a load of shit. We said "fuck this" and left. It was ok because we were going to Wat Pho (where I hadn't been) anyway and it's down the road from the Palace. Very annoying to say the least especially because we took precautions.

Wat Pho has the same dress code yet there was no problem! Anyway, it was a lovely pagoda. Not too crowded considering. On the way back I decided to have a bite to eat, I got what I thought was a meat wonton on a skewer, I ate one and was chewing wondering what is this? So we cracked the next one open and it was a quail egg inside, I don't really eat eggs!!!! It was ok, but not my thing. Kay however loves quail eggs.

Interestingly all of the restaurants in the area all have Isan (Northern Thai) style roast chicken, which was beautiful, I had it a few times; yet I never saw this dish in Northern Thailand.


Friday 11th

Huge huge day! We were up very early to be picked up for a day to the floating markets of Damnoansadauk which is just outside Bangkok. It was a little disappointing to be honest, I found it's primary function was for the tourists, it wasn't very big and there weren't that many boats in the canal selling stuff. We also went on a boat ride through the canals, nothing special. It was a very hot day as well.

After the floating markets we got to Kanchanaburi which was the sight of the Burma [Death] Railway built during WWII. We went to the museum about it and had a look at the train that goes of the 'River Kwai Bridge'.

It was mid afternoon by now, it would seem we were running late because by the time we got to the Tiger Temple we had less than an hour to spend there. We were faced with a choice, view both the adult tigers and the cubs or touch one or the other since we were short of time. We chose the touch the adult tigers. The Tiger Temple had a very strict dress code which was enforced, these two silly English women weren't allowed in for their lack of clothing and another girl was lucky she could borrow a sarong to wrap around her legs.

It was a surreal experience to be able to touch real life tigers one after the other. I don't know how they get them so docile. The tiger's fur was quite rough and very thick. A very good experience. Although I wish we had more time there.

I'd recommend that you don't do this tour and that you make your own way to Kanchanaburi to see the railway and Tiger Temple. Probably best to spend a night because it was at least 3 hours each way in the mini-bus, hence the early start and late return.
As such upon our return we were starving!!!


Saturday 12th

Today was dedicated to one thing - Chatuchak weekend market - the largest market in Thailand and the largest weekend market in the world. I had accumulated a bunch of clothes along the way (found Vietnam to be the cheapest) but I still wanted some more items and Kay wanted clothes as well.

Since we had to go to the main Bangkok train station and decided to get a tuk-tuk to Chinatown so we could have lunch then walk to the station from there. The traffic was terrible, the ride took ages. It was probably 10-11am and alot of the restaurants weren't open, we were in despair! But we found one and it was great, really good price as well.

Chatuchak was huge, so many stalls and sections. Probably spent a good 5-6 hours here and it resulted in absolutely nothing for me. I'd say it's more of a local market, I was after fake clothing and it had none. Kay bought one or two dresses. That was it!!!! The pet section was cute, fun playing with the kittens and puppies.


Sunday 13th

Another day dedicated to shopping although this time it actually was fruitful. We went to the MBK Center in Pathum Wan. Finally got what we wanted (for the most part) and I would think so because we spent 5-6 hours here. Structurally it's a modern shopping center but inside it's like a market where there are stalls all over the place, it's packed with them.

I got a bunch of shirts and t-shirts and a R4 card for my mum and sister's Nintendo DS with a whole bunch of games, it was around the $30 mark if I remember correctly. Kay bought an external hard drive, it seemed to be a good deal but when we got home it was pretty much the same price, so no loss really but not a great deal.


Monday 14th

We went to the old Thai capital of Ayutthaya today, which was sacked by the invading Burmese in 1767 after which the Thai's moved their capital to present day Bangkok. I loved reminding Kay about how her ancestors could've been involved in this event.

The main station was a bit of a walk from our Silom hotel, we decided to walk there but be open to getting a tuk-tuk along the way, hence not appear desperate and if we were pissed off with them then we'd already be on our way. Drivers asked us but of course wanted too much so we just walked it, probably took half an hour. We had to wait a bit for our train so we ate at the station, I wanted some noodles and choose a picture as they didn't speak English but I ended up with the typical thick Thai style rice noodles, which i'm not fond of.


The train took around 2 hours, we were a little lost when we arrived because we didn't know where to go, but we could see that alot of people were going in a general direction so we followed and finally found a sign pointing the way. The old city is actually and island situated in a wide moat so you have to get a boat across, it didn't cost much.

When we got to the other side we hired some push bikes to ride around the sign and a couple of bottles of water (February+Bangkok = fucking hot!). We had a map to guide us although we did lose our bearings at one stage and had to ask a local for help, which we received so warmly, this shop keeper was so good to me, they even gave me a bottle of water for free because they could see I was hot and didn't have a water bottle with me (it was with the bike), they flatly refused any money.

The site was much larger than we had expected and unfortunately we couldn't spend as much time there as we would've liked because we had to be back at the station for our train back to Bangkok. We did see everything though, just not in depth and thoroughly rushed. Will definitely return for a proper day next time! I'd even say spent the night in the new city so you're not rushed like we were.

Well didn't we have a fun trip back to Bangkok, the train got delayed on the outskirts for an hour, now this was a normal Thai train, no air con, which is fine when it's moving and wind is coming in but when it's not oh my god, it was terrible! When we were sitting waiting I realised that I had the red dust from Ayutthaya all over my skin, we used some wet wipes to  clean ourselves but even more came out that night in the shower, it was crazy.

We eventually arrived home and went straight to dinner. We got a tuk-tuk back but not without dealing with some arseholes, we got picked up on our way walking back. After dinner we explored Pat Pong, Kay bought some fake handbags, finally after so much looking and bargaining. She got a very good deal.

So we were in Pat Pong and what's it famous for? The infamous ping pong show, of which we indulged. The things they did were crazy but the place was a complete rort, they said drinks were 50B, which was semi true, the first drink was 50B then it went up and up for each drink after that. You only find this out when you get the enormous bill at the end. It was a fucked up situation, I could just see that if we didn't pay that sum then suddenly a couple of blokes with weapons would appear and we would be paying. So we just paid, it left a huge sour taste in my mouth. Probably cost us $100 for the half an hour experience. I'd certainly recommend that you ask for the price list before you sit down, make sure you know as much as possible.

The show isn't full of dirty old men as you'd expect, it was couples and more girls than guys watching. I dare say it's a typical touristy thing to do, without the kids that is.


Tuesday 15th

Our flight home was at 6:20pm so we had a bit of time to just relax and walk around Silom.
I didn't sleep at all on the flight home, I was completely fucked when I arrived home. Thai Airways is very good, I'd definitely fly with them again and would recommend them.



Overall I found Bangkok to be good and bad. It's a big busy dirty city on the whole. The worst thing was the amount of people wanting to blatantly rip you off and waste your time. It's a shame because Thailand is a great country and for the most part the people are amazing.

Sukhothai

Monday 7th

The original plan was to go to Phitsanulok, about an hour from Sukhothai and on the main train line. When we arrived at Chiang Mai station we had missed the 9:30am train and the next one was at 3pm, arriving at 11pm, if it wasn't delayed. So we decided to change plans, go to the bus station (more money on tuk tuks) and stay in Sukhothai instead of Phitsanulok as we would be travelling to Sukhothai as a day trip.

We choose to go to Sukhothai for a few reasons. Firstly, it is halfway between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, saving us from a 12 hour bus ride or longer train ride. Secondly, we had two days to spare in a sense and lastly it is an old capital of Thailand and an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We arrived around 4pm and were approached by a hotel employee about his place. It ticked all the boxes so we decided to stay there. We put our stuff in our room and immediately went out for dinner as we were starving. It was quite hard to find a restaurant but we did. Dinner was disappointing and small so we both got more food from street stalls along the way back to the hotel. We planned on using the internet but the only net cafe we could find was full of school children.

The hotel room had a t.v with 136 channels but alas only two English channels, both of which were Christian channels. The entrance to the bathroom was ridiculously short, level with my nose. Eventhough i bowed my head each time i still managed to hit the top of my head twice.


Tuesday 8th

Since Sukhothai is a small town we decided that to rent a motorbike was the best option to see Old Sukhothai. Old Sukhothai is around 12km from New Sukhothai where we were staying. It was a kick start bike which i had never used so it wasn't always the easiest thing to start but i managed. On the way to the old city we stopped off at the bus station to see when the bus comes and to buy our tickets. 

The old city was said to be similar to those of Angkor although i didn't notice too much similarity. The easy way to describe most of the ruins is that they were simply ruins. Some of the sites we didn't even bother to get off the bike and see in person. It was quite hot out in the sun but we managed to find one spot next to a pool of water which was so nice to sit next to.

At dusk we went to the small night food stalls and market, although we ate at a restaurant call 'Poo Restaurant'. However it had a picture of Winnie the Pooh but the signs had the unfortunate typo.

All in all Sukhothai isn't really worth visiting unless you have the time and want to have a break between Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai

Thursday 3rd


Before we left Chiang Rai we wanted to go to this Chinese-Thai place for cheap dumplings but as it was Chinese New Year they were closed. We settled for this other place near our hotel where i had lots of Chinese bread and a noodle dish which was alright but not what i wanted.

We then went to the bus station on foot only to find out that Chiang Mai buses leave from a different station. Luckily there was a shared tuk tuk for 10B each that we just filled up. We had to wait 30mins before we could leave but that was alright.

On the bus they played an Australian movie we had never heard of but it was dubbed in Thai so it was no good to us. After that they played Thai comedy, similar to the Cambodian style. The bus ride took four hours and was pretty smooth.

We had tried to book places but they were all full so we had to tuk tuk driver in Chiang Mai take us to places he knew, it was about four places before we found one which wasn't full and didn't involve me lugging our bags up four flights of stairs.


Friday 4th


We got up late and went out to eat. Today was all about booking a trek and going to the night bazaar. After eating it was way too hot to be out and about when we could do it later so we went back to our room and watched tv. Most places were offering the same two day one night trek for the same price (1200B), but we found one for 1000B, the travel agent asked us to tell the other trekkers that we paid 1300B as they were not the company running the trek and it could cause issues blah blah blah. Fine by us.

As it was the time of the 'flower festival' in Chiang Mai we got to see some floats and listen to some Thai singing. This part was outside the old main gate to the old city. We didn't have time to walk in the opposite direction from the night bazaar to see the actual parade.

The night bazaar was outside the old city and about 30mins walk for us. It was a whole lot of street stalls and a bunch of food inside a building. I got myself a wallet along the way. There were alot of things to see and buy but it was hard because it was on the footpath and there were people everywhere.


Saturday 5th

We were picked up at 9:30am and got all the others (10 others) along the way. On the way to the elephant camp to ride an elephant, we went to a butterfly and orchid farm which was really nice. We also stopped off at a market so our guide could buy food for our dinner. It was midday by the time we actually got to the elephant camp, we had a crappy tofu and fried rice lunch when we got there. After we ate we went down to see two elephants, one was in labour (elephant labour lasts 5 days) and the other had a two day old calf. It was so nice to see a baby elephant so young and up close, although not too close. The mahout (trainer/carer) was from Burma, although not Burmese (Kachin ethnic group) and was able to speak to Kay though.

We bought some sugarcane for our elephant who was ever so glad to have it, even when it was gone it would put it's trunk back for more. Our mahout was another Burmese ethinic group - Kayah or Red Karen. We basically just did a circle round the camp on the elephant but it was alright because riding an elephant isn't the most comfortable thing to do.

From the camp we started our 3 hour, 7km trek to the Lahu village we would be spending the night at. Unfortunately we didn't have a big enough backpack so we had to use Kay's sports bag, which you can only really have slung over one shoulder and is not the most comfortable bag to carry. The trek was easier than Sapa but as the route wasn't as difficult it was at a very fast pace with minimal breaks. I had fried rice for breakfast and only ate one small plate of it for lunch as i didn't really want it. As such by the 2 hour mark and most difficult part i was exhausted. I felt like throwing up, i felt faint and was trailing the group.

It was one of the worst feelings in the world, compounded more so by the fact you know there is no other option but to soldier on. It wasn't as though i was sore, i felt completely drained and it was like my legs weighed a tonne each. I reached the village without anything going wrong thankfully.

Our village had electricity but not in our house. We were all dying for a shower, no hot water. So everyone had to have a cold shower at sunset. Once the sun was down we had only candles and a large fire as light. The bedroom was for everyone, no privacy, eight double beds, rather thin mattresses on the floor with mossie nets next to each other.

We had yellow curry and a chicken stir fry for dinner, i made sure i ate properly so there would be no repeat tomorrow. At dinner time we got to know our fellow trekkers better.


Sunday 6th

We officially woke up at 8am but the roosters made sure we were awake much earlier. Breakfast consisted of toast with butter (the butter is terrible), scrambled eggs (i don't eat) and fruit. So i had dry toast and fruit for breakfast. Today was all downhill and about two hours of trekking before white water rafting and bamboo rafting. I felt much better and the walk was absolutely fine, hard but fine. The first hour downhill to a waterfall was quite hard. We were able to swim at the waterfall but the water was freezing cold eventhough it was a hot day.

We continued walking, went past some villages, stopped at one and fired some slingshots. Our guide was very good at it. We got to our base for white water rafting, i actually thought it would be quite gentle. Well i suppose it was but it wasn't at the same time. It was such a good experience, i can't wait to do it again. Straight after we got onto some bamboo rafts, the raft was just afloat with Kay and two other girls on it, once i got on it went under the water so we were slightly submerged.

After the bamboo rafting we had lunch, a noodle dish with bloody tofu. Straight after we got in our big tuk tuk, which barely got all 12 of us inside it. As it was the weekend in Chiang Mai there are a number of streets blocked off for what is called the 'walking market', this made it hard for some people to be dropped off and for us to pick up our bags from the travel agent.

We decided to have McDonalds for dinner. Surprising the servings were bigger than in Australia and of course cheaper. It was pretty much exactly the same as home. On the way back we went through the walking market which was absolutely packed. It was like every tourist in town and half of the locals were on these streets.



I would've liked to spent one more day in Chiang Mai eventhough we had done most things but we didn't have the time. We definitely come back though. Unfortunately Northern Thai food was very hard to find so we didn't get to try any here or in Chiang Rai.

Huay Xai and Chiang Rai

Saturday night into Sunday 30th

When you cross into Thailand overland you are only allowed a 15 day visa, hence we had to stay in Huay Xai for one night, although it still means we will be overstaying our visas by one day. Lonely Planet seems to think that we won't get fined as they allow for an extra day, but worst case scenario we have to pay a ~$15 fine each.

As per normal we were left waiting at the bus station for some unknown reason, after thirty minutes we were off for our '12' hour overnight trip to the Thai-Lao border town of Huay Xai. Eventhough i had previously said that we would not do another overnight bus, we decided it was the better option over the two day one night slow boat ride up the Mekong. Big mistake.

The ride was so much worse than the one we had from Hoi An to Nha Trang. For one we didn't have a sleeper option so it was just the slight recline of your chair. The driver seemed to be driving slower than he should've at some parts of the trip. After our first stop at 10:30pm, it seemed like we were stopping every 15 minutes for some reason or another, be it dropping people off, province border crossing or smokos.

The entire night i felt i only got two hours sleep. I literally watched the sun rise. With all of the stopping and the like, we arrived two hours late in Huay Xai at 9:30am. We got in a larger tuk tuk to get into town with some of the other passengers. On arrival most of them headed for the border but we went to our guesthouse. We put our stuff in our room and went for breakfast. Then we had a little walk (not much to do in Huay Xai) and went back to the hotel room, watched 'red dragon' on tv and slept until dinner time.


Monday 31st

We got up, had breakfast and headed for the border crossing. Very easy to do, we filled out our departure forms, they stamped our passports and we were off on a boat to Chiang Khong in Thailand. Another easy process on the Thai side, as Australians are exempt from needing a visa per say, we didn't have to pay anything.

We then got a tuk tuk to the bus station for our trip to Chiang Rai. It was a local bus with all local people and no  air con, although it wasn't really necessary since all the windows were open. It took about two hours, thankfully Thai roads are so much better than our previous countries.

Arrived in Chiang Rai at the bus station, thankfully it's in the middle of town. We didn't know how far to our guesthouse so we got a tuk tuk, we bargained it down to 30baht, as it turned out, we were 5 minutes walk away, so we got ripped hard. As it was afternoon we didn't do much but walk up the main streets and have dinner - our first Thai food. Thai food was readily available in Laos and Cambodia but we shunned it knowing we would be having it everyday in Thailand. It was very good, we would return to this restaurant the following night.


Tuesday 1st

We decided to leave our guesthouse for a number of reasons: one the bed was so incredibly hard we both woke up sore, two, there was broken glass in the shower, lucky we wear thongs and three the bathroom roof was leaking water.

Kay was very low on money so we had to find a bank. According to the map there was four banks on this one street, we figured we would kill two birds with one stone and get something to eat there. We found no food on the entire walk to the last bank on this street. There were some places but they had no English menus and no English speaking staff. We ended up walking back to our area to eat. We also had trouble at the banks before we left, very hard to get our query across.

After lunch the first bank we went to had an acceptable exchange rate and charged no commission on the cash advance. Unfortunately the Australian dollar has since shot up a few more cents.

The bank was near the market so we had a little look there, didn't get anything but some fruit and sticky rice. There were plenty of Wats in Chiang Rai so we only went to the main one - Wat Phra Kaew. It had very nice paintings on the inside and a large number of turtles in the pools before you got to it's stairs.

Our day was also made up of going to travel agents to get quotes for a golden triangle tour. For the most part they offered the same things at the same price - 1400b ($47) each. Very expensive, but we figured we didn't do any tours in Laos because they were too pricy for what they offered and we did want to do this.

At night we had a look at the Chiang Rai night market but didn't buy anything, we would return tomorrow night.


Wednesday 2nd

As it turned out no one else booked the tour so it was effectively a private tour for us, if two others had of then it would've been 1200b (~$40each). Our first stop was a hill tribe village with two different tribes living together, the main reason we were going was to see the Padong tribe (part of the Karen). This is the tribe with the long necks (brass rings around the girl's necks). They originally come from Burma but left because of the hardships at home.

Second stop was the monkey and fish caves. Basically it's on the edge of a mountain where there's alot of monkeys to feed and fish in a mini lake. We walked up to the buddha inside the mountain. I had to take a stick to fend of the monkeys, we were fine on the way up but i had to use it to scare an aggressive monkey on the way down. I gave my stick to some Thais who were being harassed and grabbed by the same monkey after we passed.

We next arrived at the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot, Thailand's most Northern point. First we went to a Jade factory, didn't get anything of course. The best Jade comes from Burma. They was a Burmese girl working there that Kay had a chat to, turns out a Burmese bloke owns the factory.

After the factory we went up to Scorpion Hill where we were able to look in Burma. There are no casinos in Thailand so there are alot in the Burmese side of the border to service Thailand's gambling needs. We also got to have a look through the market on the way down. There was an array of b.b guns for sale (pellet guns), very tempting. Throughout Kay picked up on many Burmese voices.

We had lunch at a mediocre buffet in town and then headed for the golden triangle - the point where Thailand, Burma and Laos all meet. The Lao side also has casinos, bankrolled by the Chinese we were told. After we saw the viewing point we went to the Opium museum, which gave some history on the drug and it's cultivation in the golden triangle region.

Our final stop was the old capital of Chiang Saen, from over 1000 years ago. As such it is not in the best of condition and was not cared for soon enough like Sukothai and Ayuthaya (old capitals). Then we journeyed home. A positive of having an effective private tour was that i was able to ask our guide many questions about Thailand and the Thai people.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang seems to do things differently to the rest of Laos. You have to purchase maps instead of them being made available for free and hotel check out is 11am not 12 noon.

I forgot to mention earlier that in Laos, rice is sticky rice unless you ask for it steamed, or you get given the option. I had never had sticky rice with a meal before and i love it. Even with a stir fry it is very nice, the thing it does make you do is to eat slower. Because it is sticky you need to chew it more, slowing down the process of eating.


Monday 24th

We chose to get the mini-bus instead of the normal size bus as it took two hours less and only cost 10 000kip more. We left at 9:30am, there were six other travellers with us on the bus, although it wasn't full. Along the way two Laotians were picked up. The whole trip was up and down through windy mountains. We only stopped for a break once, which was fine by everyone it would seem. I wasn't feeling very good when we stopped and made myself throw up for good measure.

We arrived in Luang Prabang at 1:30pm at the bus station to awaiting tuk tuk drivers. They all seemed to work together as all of the passengers bar us were piled into one tuk tuk at 15 000kip each. We refused and walked off to the main road, along the way another driver asked us and accepted 10 000kip each. So we paid less than everyone else, got dropped off where we wanted to and weren't crammed in with five other people.

Arrived at our hotel of choice to find it was booked out. We went up the main street but found nothing adequate, we then went towards the Mekong side where we found our first hotel (more on this later) for 100 000kip. We had a rest and went out for an early dinner as I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and I felt much better.


Tuesday 25th

We didn't notice it earlier because we had the t.v on but when we were in bed and the room was silent, it was not silent. Firstly, there was a dripping noise coming from our drain in the bathroom, eventhough our tap and toilet weren't leaking and as we found out later, a water pump connected to a water tank was right outside our window, thus making noises constantly. We were too lazy to get up early and find another hotel so we slept in, found another one in the afternoon for our next three nights. It was two minutes up the room, a nicer room and the same price. As a bonus it has computers which are not meant to be free but we've never been asked to pay for any usage. Although it didn't have a t.v, however it didn't really matter.

We had dinner at sunset at one of the many restaurants lining the Mekong River.


Wednesday 26th

We left our first hotel this morning, went to our new hotel, put our stuff in and went out for lunch. After lunch we went up to Phu Si, which is a 100m high hill in the middle of Luang Prabang with many Wats on it. Up and down involved 800 steps, although the first set of steps were the hardest. The peak gave an impressive view of the town.

On our way down on the other side i saw two novice monks and decided to ask one of them some questions. He said he spoke a little bit of English but it turned out to be alot and pretty good. He told me that there's an Australian woman who teaches English to the monks at his monastery. He told me what a monk's day involved, what food is donated and that he wanted to be a monk for life as opposed to someone who takes it up for a period of time.

After dinner we had a look though the Hmong night market, which opens up in front of the old palace on the main street. We didn't purchase anything other than a fruit shake.


Thursday 27th

We decided to get the overnight bus to Huay Xai instead of the slow boat (2 days, 1 night) so we booked that. It cost us 180 000kip ($22.50) each. We noticed that in terms of both time and distance, Laos is much much more expensive than Vietnam and Cambodia.  After doing this we went to the old palace, which is now a museum. When the Communists took over Laos the Royal family were removed from power and escaped to some caves in the North.

The palace wasn't as grand as the Cambodian equivalent but in the main rooms it had stories on the walls with the main aspects have coloured glass on them, it looked very nice and certainly unique. Part of the museam was the King's old cars, basically four old cars in a garage. There was also a photo exhibition of monks in various states of meditation.

The cost of entry into the sights of Luang Prabang was also excessive, with the palace costing 30 000kip and Phu Si costing 20 000kip.


Friday 28th

The other downside about our second hotel was that the walls were fairly thin and we could here snoring on both sides. It wasn't over the top and at times quite funny, particularly to Kay.

Today we went down to the Nam Khan side of the town and walked all the way to the tip of the peninsula and returned back down the Mekong side. Whilst near the tip we had a look at the most famous Wat - Wat Xieng Thong. There was an admission fee of 20 000kip so we didn't go in. It's not right that you should have to pay to see what is an active religious site, oh that's right, only foreigners have to pay. We wanted to be extra tight as not to have to buy more Kip, although this didn't quite work out.

We ate at the Hmong night market for dinner, having various noodles and char grilled chicken, Kay had a papaya salad aswell (not my thing). Kay purchased a cotton and silk table runner for her mum and i got what i dubbed 'my nut bowl' - a wooden bowl.


Saturday 29th

We had to be up before 11am so that we could check out today, we heard our neighbours leave earlier so we suspected that our power had been turned off instead of theirs. We didn't mind as we had plenty of natural light in the room bar the bathroom. As it turned out there was a black out in the whole town.

We went to the Scandinavian bakery for lunch, i had what was similar to a subway chicken sub. Unfortunately for alot of people they couldn't enjoy a coffee. We then went to go to the internet cafe to use Skype but of course we couldn't do this without electricity. We then went down to the Nam Khan and sat there opposite a makeshift beach for almost an hour. When we went back into town we saw the power was back so we called home and booked our hotel in Huay Xai (not wanting any difficulties on arrival).

After that we went for a walk to the opposite part of town that we hadn't been to. I saw a soup place so we sat down and i had a beef noodle soup. The fruit man came past and Kay got some watermelon for us. The watermelon in Luang Prabang (we had some before) was so good, best fruit of the trip. On the other occasion Kay bought some fruit that i don't know the name of and she only knows the Burmese name (which is Burmese for balls, as in a man's balls), that was very sour to me.

Pick up is at 6pm so it's purely killing time up until then, hence i'm writing this now.

Vang Vieng

Thursday 20th

We were due to depart for Vang Vieng at 9:30am but it was an hour of delays before we finally took off. The trip to Vang Vieng involved alot of mountain driving, meaning ascends and descends combined with lots of twists and turns. The roads were somewhat bumpy aswell.

We arrived around 2pm at a guesthouse car park. We were approached by someone with a guesthouse up the road for 60 000kip so we checked it out and that's where we stayed. We were starving as we only had a bread roll (plain) for breakfast so we had lunch and went for a walk around the main streets. We looked in alot of shops as Kay wanted a sarong, but we didn't find the right one.


Friday 21st

The objective of today was to find out the specifics about tubing, to book our next leg, call home and to write up my blog. We had decided against going to Phonsavan for a couple of reasons. Firstly it would be an eight hour bus ride from Vang Vieng, then we would need another eight hour trip from Phonsavan to Luang Prabang. So effectively we would spend two days on a bus to only spend one proper day in Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars.


Saturday 22nd

Today was our first day of tubing. Tubing involves floating down the Nam Song river in a tyre like blow up tube, making stops at bars along the way. We got up, had lunch and went to the tubing shop. It's 55 000kip ($6-7) plus a 60 000kip deposit. They then take you along with others up to the tubing launch point around 4km upriver in a tuk tuk. Funnily enough the bulk of the bars were at the launch point or there about. This explains why we see so many people coming back when we're having dinner, yet they don't have tubes with them, meaning they just go up there to drink all day.

First thought was the river is so dirty, it's a reddish brown colour. Not very appealing that's for sure. The riverbed was all stones so trying to get in the tube was hard at first, i fell and cut/bruised my elbow a little bit in the process. Along with the water colour was the fact that the mud was that colour. At the end of the day, Kay had to scrub my boardshorts for me (i asked).

We weren't going to stop off for a drink so soon but when there was a sign saying 'only three bars left', we decided to stop. The section before this bar was very shallow so we had to walk along the rocks to get there. Alot of the locals were looking at me, i think because of my white skin. I almost lost my thongs in this part, not the first time. I was lucky that one of them got stuck on a pole and didn't go down the river. We didn't really want to drink so we just shared a vodka bucket and had a shot of liquor with bees inside it.

We had to walk down the river til we got to deep enough water then we took off properly. As we were passing our unopened bottle of water, 'we' dropped it in the river. We floated for who knows how long until there were some large rocks protruding out of the water. As we split up i ended up hitting the first big one and effectively crawling my way through the others. I came out of it unscathed luckily. In the town we had seen many people with battle scars from the river, be it scabs and bruises or one particular girl having a limp, tape and cotton on her chin and wound dressing on her shoulder.

We came along more rocky parts but they weren't as bad as the first. Another nuisance on the river was boat after boat with tourist going up and down the river, creating waves along the way. They liked to come fairly close to your tube aswell.

As we did not have a watch on our person, we did not know what time it was, but we did know the sun was going down and we weren't anywhere near the end. So we followed numerous others as they disembarked at a specific point where tuk tuks were waiting to take people back to town.

We were originally planning to tube on Sunday aswell but we felt it wasn't worth doing again. It wasn't a let down either that we didn't finish because you get a bit sore from the way you have to lie in the tube.


Sunday 23rd

The only real thing we did today other than go out and eat was to get a massage. We found a place, they took us upstairs where there were three rooms. We were led into one where there were four mattresses on the floor, two occupied by half naked Japanese men getting massages. We were led into another room where there was one European bloke getting a massage...with just a towel on. We had originally wanted oil massages but not like this. So we ended up getting Lao massages, which meant our cloathes stayed on. I'd say it was better than the shiatsu one we had better, not so many elbows in the back.

Vientiane

Saturday 15th

We were picked up at 7:30am for our 10:00am flight to Vientiane (Laos), as it is an international flight we did the norm and got there two hours early. We took note of the 100ml of liquids not being on board but we neglected our brand new 160g toothpaste, customs pulled us up and we had to throw it away.

The plane was very small and took us first to Pakse in Southern Laos where no one got off but some people did get on. We had to get off the plane to go inside and get our visas. I was confused reading the guide as it stated that Lao visas are between $30 and $42. We found out that different nationalities had to pay different prices. Australia was $30, China was $20 and Canada was $42, don't know what they did wrong. The majority of the plane had to get visas so it took about 30 minutes. It's very easy and cheaper to get visas on arrival we have found so i would recommend doing this to everyone.

We arrived in Vientiane around 1pm and straight off the plane we were hit with a cool breeze, which was a pleasant change from the heat of Cambodia. Whereas Phnom Penh will be 33 degrees max and Vientiane 29 degrees max, the difference is in the minimums - Phnom Penh will be 23 degrees and Vientiane 13 degrees. Much better sleeping weather.

We got in a taxi and went into the centre of town. We tried a few places but the only rooms they had available were with shared bathrooms and certainly overpriced for that. We let the driver take us to one and that was the winner. 100 000 kip per night ($12.50) with air con (which we didn't need) and our own bathroom. It was much easier going in Vietnam and Cambodia when it came to figuring out how much things truly cost. For Vietnam you divided by 20 (20 000), Cambodia mostly used the US dollar, which is basically the same as ours at the moment, but in Laos you have to divide by 8 (8 000), which is as friendly a number for quick calculations.

Maria and Bronwyn were in Vientiane for our first three days so we met up with them for dinner. We decided to go to Nazim Indian restaurant, to pay homage to our friend. Not as good as Indian should be but it was decent. I also had my first Beer Lao, which comes in a long neck bottle (unless you want a can).


Sunday 16th

We met up with Maria and Bronwyn to go to the national symbol of Laos - Pha That Luang. It's a big golden Wat a few kms from the centre of town. As far as national symbols go, it wasn't that grand. We paid to get in and literally could only walk around it. We went to the Wat next door and had a look around. The National Assembly is just up the road so we went and got a photo of that. We went back to town together and had a break before meeting up for dinner.

We went to the Lebanese place next door to the girl's hotel for dinner, it was very disappointing for all of us.


Monday 17th

Kay and I went to the Scandinavian Bakery for lunch/brunch. I had tzatiki with bread, which was very nice. We went to an internet cafe as i had to write my Siem Reap post (which took two days and three hours to do). After that we went to That Luang market (which was really a shopping centre) where i bought a new luggage bag - in Siem Reap i locked the keys inside my bag so we tried to get the padlock off but broke one of the zips in the process. I was still able to lock my bad but it was on a different zip and not completely safe.

We went round to the girl's hotel before dinner but Maria wasn't feeling well so we Kay and I went out for dinner ourselves. Whilst near the river we had a look at the stalls step up and one of the stores on the main road. This was a legitimate store selling all illegitimate items. Nothing tickled our fancy, well nothing that we could take home. They had nun chucks, retractable batons and switchblades for sale.


Tuesday 18th 

We had lunch at this place which was always packed and they offered a lunch buffet, which gave us a good chance to try many Lao dishes. I had a kebab stick which had what looked like a small capsicum on it, it turned out to be the hottest chilli i've ever had. My mouth was on fire for 20 minutes and i had to have water constantly in my mouth as it feel slightly better.

We went to the internet cafe, where for another two hours i got my blog done and we uploaded our photos to facebook. After finishing there we went to the Wat Si Saket, Vientiane's oldest Wat. It wasn't that good to be honest.


Wednesday 19th

We had seen a Chinese restaurant with a Peking Duck set for 98 000kip ($12) so we decided to go there for lunch. The whole trip i had wanted to have Peking Duck since it's cheaper than home and i like duck. It involved some duck with the wrappers, stir fried duck (though mostly bones) and a duck soup. It was very nice but certainly not worth the amount it costs in Australia.

We walked along the river front and took photos of some monuments and the presidential palace. Alot of the streets in Vientiane are one way - but not all. As such, i didn't look both ways crossing the road and i was almost hit by a tuk tuk, literally centremetres away from hitting me. So i was very lucky. No more being complacent, that's for sure.


One of the unfortunate things about t.v in Laos is that unlike Cambodia and Vietnam, they dub English channels instead of subtitles. This effectively meant we only have four channels to watch, two of which are BBC world news and CNN.