Lao, Photos (Finally)

Sorry about the wait, the internet here is powered by two old mice on a wheel - finally some photos for you!

Our first view of the Mighty Mekong, and Laos in the background. Very strange from a Kiwi perspective to look over a river narrower than Auckland Harbour and see another country!

Sunset over the Mekong after 2 days on the slowboat.

Michelle and I enjoying some french colonial charm in Luang Phabang

Michelle in front of some cute villas, now converted into US$50 a night hotels.


Our beautiful wedding anniversary room! Bliss.

Kueng Xi Waterfalls

The top teir of Kueng Xi

Michelle entering the cave in Vang Vieng.

hehe, Michelle now actually IN the cave...

Me in the cave

Kayaking along the Nam Song river

Hopefully we should be able to get some more pics up soonish (hopefully tomorrow) we've still got a bit to catch up on!

South Laos and beyond

Its been a while, but we're both doing great!

We've been all the way through Southern Laos and are now in Siem Reap, ready for 3 days at the amazing Angkor temples around here, the most famous of course being Angkor Wat.

We blasted our way through Northern Laos, due mostly to the high price of everything and the amount of tourist traps that held sway in that part of the country, and found ourselves right down the bottom of Laos with a lot of time left on our visas... so we took things pretty slowly - Pakxe for 5 days, then a fantastic trip to the Bolaven Plateau to several waterfalls, a coffee and a tea plantation, and a great local village. It was an eco-tour so part of the cost of our trip went back to the villagers (something the majority of tours don't do) - and it was obvious from the interactions between the villagers and our guide that there was a lot of mutual respect there, I'm sure Michelle will elaborate when she posts very shortly...

From Pakxe it was on the Champasak to see Wat Phou - a pre Angkor temple, we arrived in time for a local festival, with thousands of Lao and Thai people making pilgrimages to the ancient site. We were planning on staying at that relaxing riverside town, but were awakened in the middle of the night by the sound of a rat trying to chew (and barge, by the sounds of it) through our bathroom door, so we left early and headed downriver to the island of Don Khong for 4 days of relaxing. The island is a little smaller than Rarotonga, and smack in the middle of the Mekong. We met 2 new friends - Chris and Rachel, from Calgary - and headed down to the smaller island of Don Det, for 4 more days of relaxing, floating down the river, swimming etc... Don Det has no mains power so relies on generators which run from 6 untill 10. When its 35 degrees during the day and high twenties, but really humid at night, you really start to wish for a fan!

After a 2 day bus ride (not too bad - we stopped to sleep at night), we're now in Cambodia!

Sorry, can't put more photos up at this stage - the net is pretty dodgy and 30 minute "downtime" is pretty common!

Tales from Lao-Lao Land

Lao-Lao is the local rice whiskey, its similar to the Thai whiskey - Mekong, or Saamsong, but with more of a Turpintine flavour, but more on that later...

So we've moved south from Luang Phabang. Michelle and I both came to really enjoy that city. It has a lot of charm, and the Kueng Xi waterfalls were completely amazing (and brilliant for swimming...as per the video which has hopefully attached)



We spent our last night in a beautiful hotel, to celebrate our Wedding Anniversary... fantastic!

Then it was on to Vangvieng - a 5 hour minivan ride along a windy, potholed road. I don't know what we were expecting from Vangvieng, but the reality was something completely out of the ordinary. Packed with bars that pump untill curfew (yep, theres an 11pm curfew here) - it seems that every falang (forigner) in the country comes here to party - and party they do! The main attraction in the town seems to be tubing - sitting on the Nam Song River on a tractor tyre innertube, and floating from bar to bar getting very wasted on Lao-Lao Buckets and various "special" items! When you sit at the bar they slip a little menu in front of you with "additional" things to try...

We were put off this on the first day we arrived, as very intoxicated (and sopping wet) people filled the town up, stumbling around. Not pretty. We decided to do some caving, and kayaking instead, which was a brilliant experience.

The town is also filled with bars playing "Friends" re-runs. Probably more than half a dozen bars, where you sit on pillows and cushions and relax in front of some TV - something which Michelle and I did on our last day there, as we were both feeling a bit under the weather.

Currently we're in the capital, Vientaine (pronounced Vienchang) for one night before heading south to Pakxe on the 14 hour overnight bus. Exciting.

Hmmm... I can't seem to link to images, Firefox is in Thai on this computer! You'll just have to check back again soon, or have a look on our facebook pages.

Capitilism is Alive and Well in Laos

So we're finally in Laos, land of a million elephants (or something). The slow boat was very scenic, but no as pleasant as it could have been thanks to some extreemly drunk aussies and some fairly drunk poms (who proceeded to become extreemly drunk outside our guesthouse bedroom untill 2am). It was definately a worthwhile trip though, Pakbeng (where you stop for the night, to break up the 2 day journey) was a cute little town, and there is something romantic about floating down the river. Let me quickly dispell any notions of comfort though. The seats are little, narrow wooden bench seats that more suited to being some sadist ministers church pews. You have very little space (much of which is taken up by aforementioned drunk Englishmen). Luang Phabang came as a relief... Many Many thanks to B for suggesting we buy the cushions. Amen for those.

So thats where we are now, Luang Phabang - a beautiful city with lots of French Colonial charm, on the convergance of the Mekong, and the Nam Ou rivers.

Luang Phabang is a bit of an anomoly though. Prces here are fairly high, thanks to a huge influx of package tourists paying top dollar for everything. There are also some pretty well off Loatians - we've seen someone driving around in a Hummer H2! It doesn't help that the currency here is ridiculous, the smallest note is 500kip, but I haven't seen any of those, mostly everything is in multiples of 1000. Its terrifying to consider that our fairly basic guesthouse costs us 80000kip per night! They use 3 currencies actively here, just to confust things more! USD, Thai Baht and Kip are all accepted... Michelle and I spend half our time trying to work out what everything costs!

At the moment we're waiting untill 1.30 when we head off to Kueng Xi waterfalls for a dip to cool off in the heat of the afternoon. Tomorrow we're planning on going to the Pak Ou Caves where there are apparently several thousand buddha statues, then to the Whiskey Village. Alright. Although I've heard that Lao Lao (Laos Whiskey) tastes kinda like paint thinners.

After that, who knows... we've booked into a FLASH hotel to celebrate our wedding anniversary, then we'll head off to Vang Vieng for some tubing.

Jared, beer in Laos is amazingly, cheaper than Thailand. Even though it sounds expensive 8000kip is about 30baht, for a big bottle. Where are you man, I need a drinking buddy!

Thats it from me for now, will post again after we've had some more adventures.

Love to all.