Laos - Luang Prabang bowling, Vang Vieng the start....

So its been a bit of a whilst since my last posting - its been a combination of being busy, having better things to do ha ha and being lazy :-)

So lets see how far I can remember back - all the way to 13th December - ah the flight to Luang Prabang, on the smallest plane I have ever been on! I think it seated about 70 people but it was tiny with just two propellers on the wing!

  

Nicely it wasn't full so no one was sat next to me for my hours flight so I got to spread across the very tiny seats.  I got a taxi from the airport into the tiny main town of Luang Prabang to the guesthouse that I had booked online.  I turn up and they find a scrap of paper with my name written on it and then half don't speak to me but tell me to follow them.  I was a bit dubious as one of the reviews (but out of many on the site) said that they had overbooked and put them in another place up the road.  Well it turned out thats what they wanted to do to me, and they took me to this place that was a bit of a hole and felt all grimy and horrible.   I decided I would do the same trick I did in Pai.  I put my bags down and they hadn't asked me to pay anything yet so I went off for a walk around.  Unfortunately Laos is quite an expensive country in comparison to Thailand for anything half decent to stay in.  They charge or at least quote prices in US dollars so yet another currency to try and convert back :-)

All the guesthouses I found around the same area were wanting about $35 or $40 a night or the others were full already.  I found one place eventually who wanted $30 a night, managed to get them down to $25 a night and then when I said i would take the twin on the ground floor and no breakfast, got them to $20 a night.  It was well worth it as the room was really nice and clean with air con, a great bed and a decent bathroom - and hot water! woo hoo!  Anyway I figured it was a decent price and I could carry on looking but it would do.  I headed back to the other place to pick up my bag and told them I was leaving.  They tried to charge me about 20,0000 kip (only about £2) but I told them I wasn't going to pay them anything as I hadn't booked that place and I didn't want it - so I just walked off :-)

It was getting late on in the day and I was still feeling pretty crappy after being ill and not sleeping well so I went for a sandwich for dinner and tried to have a walk around town but felt so rubbish I went back to the hotel and just laid in bed watching stuff on the laptop (great!).

The next day was just the best!  I got up after an amazing nights sleep and went for an exploration.  Luang Prabang is a really pretty town in itself as well as having a nice setting.  The roads are fairly quiet so you don't feel like you are going to get run down by a scooter the whole time and its small enough that you can't really got lost.  The more I am going on the more I am realising that I really do prefer the small towns and small Islands to the bigger ones.  People are so much nicer and its much easier to get around.  It makes me think more about where I would want to live again when I come back to the UK.

I found the local food market where you see all the live chickens stuffed into baskets waiting to be sold - like I saw this woman walking down the street with dinner in her hand waiting to be prepared.  I wondered back up and out of the market and right down to the edge of town and saw some lovely old Wats and lots and lots of Monks.  I'll post those photos on facebook....eventually :-)

I got down to the river and was just mesmerised by how beautiful it was.  The place was just so calm and picturesque with farming going up the banks of the river on the other side then loads of trees.  The evenings in Laos are quite cool and the mornings start off very cool and misty and cloudy but it gradually breaks up as the day goes on so I decided to stop off at a place just on the side of the river to take in the view and watch the clouds break up. Laos coffee is a big improvement on thailand - although it depends if you like your coffee so strong you can stand your spoon up in it! Some of it so strong you put the milk in and you can't get the colour to really change :-)

After my coffee I carried on wandering down the road when I passed by this small house with loads of music, singing and chatting coming from it. As I was walking by I slowed down just to see what was going on and they turn round and beckon me over!  There was one man there who could speak english so he said hello and asked me where I was from etc.  I then asked if I could take a picture of them all in the house.  They said yes no problem - and could they take a picture of me! Of course the answer was yes ha ha. Anyway I begin to talk to them and they invite me into their home which I eventually accepted.  It turned out that one of the fathers of the extended family had passed away 2 weeks before and they were having part of the funeral celebrations.  The guy who spoke english was actually living in America for the past 30 years and was there on holiday.  He told me he hadn't actually seen half of his family for the last 30 years as until recent years there was a ban on anyone coming into to Laos as they had closed their borders to foreigners for a long time after the vietnam war.

  

They explained to me that it was a funeral celebration and that in their culture they have to celebrate the death in order to get the spirit up to heaven so they sing and have music and basically party! They were the most hospitable people and kept pooring me beers (which in all honesty I didn't want after being ill so recently) but they drink it with ice as its not chilled so I just drank it really slowly and diluted as I didn't want to appear rude by refusing their hospitality.  The same went for the food, they practically forced me to eat! There was sticky rice with some kind of pork salad with lots of chilli and lots of fat! I just about managed to force a small bowl full of it down.  Then out came a local specialty - fried seaweed sheets with sesame seeds - which was actually really nice!  Then out came some soups - one really spicy one which I didn't try and one tomato type one which was delicious. Then came the sweets which I tried a bit of which was really nice.  The atmosphere was so nice and happy and fun with them all singing and doing a bit of dancing.   I can't really describe it but I did film a bit of it which will really help to give the idea - I'll see if I can work out a way to upload it to the blog so you can see, if not it will be on facebook.  I think the one of the older guys was trying to get me married off to the guy who spoke english after I had been there a while which was hilarious, especially as he was about 50! They told me that they didn't want me to give them any money which I thought was strange but maybe it was because they were giving me so much beer and food - it either meant they genuinely didn't or they were hinting for it - either way I didn't but I ended up being there for so long that I went and bought some beer for them.  Well I say went, I told them I wanted to get them some beer and asked where to get it from and in the end they took the money from me, went themselves and brought back the beer and the change - i mean you can't get more hospitable than that!

It got to late afternoon and they had all been on about going to do Karaoke which i presumed they meant that evening.  I had been saying no when they had been inviting me (well you know me and my singing!) but in the end I decided it would be a fun experience.  Literally the minute I said ok I'll go they said great, and started packing up the food and everything else and we were off! It was about 5 in the afternoon :-)  I didn't realise but it turned out that the music equipment and the player was actually hired as we had to drop them off on the way to the Karaoke. I think there was about 8 of them and me - but they were so nice it didn't matter.  You could tell it was a genuine offer and they were a nice family.  So at the Karaoke bar they had a private room and of course I didn't think about the fact that most of the music would be Laos music.  There were a few english songs which they tried to get me to do but I wasn't having any of it.  The Laos music was very traditional and they got me up with them to do some traditional style dancing which is all in the hand movement with a little bit of hip movement.  The music was so loud in there though that i have to say I got to about 7 or 8pm and had enough as I had a massive headache.  Luckily they were also finishing up so we all headed out again and i got a lift back to the guesthouse.

You would think that the Laos hospitality ended there but oh no! I get back to the guesthouse and the owners brother was sitting outside with his friends and he was also visiting from the US so again spoke great english.  I went outside to have a cigarette before bed and they again forced me to drink beer! Mum I know what you are thinking - forced me? Surely not but you don't realise. I sat down and they offered me a drink which I said no to as I was going to bed and had already had quite a bit to drink, but they get a glass and poor it out in front of me anyway! Its really rude after someone has done that in such a poor country to refuse it so you end up drinking it! They also tried to force me to drink some Johnny Walker whiskey (THE drink over there!) but I managed to refuse that!  It turns out that the brother is in the Federal government over there working for the immigration service and gave me his card as he is in San Fran - so incase I have any problem! It also seemed that the Mayor of Luang Prabang was also sitting at the table with us - but spoke no english.  I finished the beer and they were literally trying to force refill the glass when I made it clear finally that I was off to bed!

The next day was an early start as I had booked an elephant trip to make up for the one that I missed in Chaing Mai as I was ill.  We went to the Elephant village about 30 minutes drive away from Luang Prabang.  There was an Aussie family booked in with teenage daughters and an Aussie couple called Kim and Sylvia with their 3 yr old son who were lovely.  When we reached the elephant village we had quite a while to wait to get on the elephants so I was sitting chatting to them.  It was great as they knew Laos and SE Aisa really well.  They are film makers and have done a lot of work and research in the country and lived there for a while.  They told me about a place in Vientiane which really gave an insight into the country - its called the COPE centre, which also showed one of their films - Bomb Harvest http://www.bombharvest.com/ which is well worth watching - but more about that later.

I had a lovely hours ride on one of the elephants down the river and back up to the camp.  Next was a buffet lunch all included  in the beautiful setting and then a very small boat ride up river to the Tad Sae waterfalls. I was so sure I was going to get soaking wet or worse in the boat but it stayed up right all right and I managed to get in and out of it without getting wet too!

The waterfalls were lovely and pretty but I wasn't prepared for how blooming cold the water was going to be! Stupid I know as the water is constantly running so it doesn't really get warm - but then I guess some might do.  I managed to have a little bit of a paddle but it was too cold to stay in it for long.

   

So after a nice peaceful afternoon we headed back.  I showered and changed and went out for the evening in search of people to talk to! At first I couldn't find any bars apart from a quiet wine bar. I did sit there and enjoy a nice glass of red wine which was bliss! It was a bit boring though so I figured there was nowhere really to go so was going to head back to the room early to watch tv. I went past another busy place on the way back so decided to stop there for a drink to see if I could meet anyone.  I was sat down and a few minutes later these 2 girls sat down on the table next to me. I was listening to their conversation a bit trying to work up the nerve to just jump in and say hi and join in, but eventually Amanda turned round to me and just said "Hi, are you on your own? do you want to join us"!  So of course i did, Amanda and Aoife were from Ireland and travelling together and they had met up with a guy called Matt from Hertfordshire again that evening that they met on the slow boat on the way over from Thailand.  So anyway I joined them for a drink and then they told me there was a bar called Laos Laos around the corner which was really busy so off we went.  It was a great night as I ended up meeting a load more people in there.

Laos is still a very traditional country which has curfews in place - these do vary depending on the town, but I think its there for safety so people aren't out roaming the streets at all hours of the night.  The curfew in Luang Prabang is actually 10.30pm, but some of the bars stay open until 11.30 like the one we were in.  They seem to have arrangements with the police to do this. Really promptly at 11.30 the staff come round and if you have a drink left they put it in a plastic cup for you to take with you and shove you outside! Next up is the Bowling Alley - one of the only places in Luang Prabang open later.  There is a disco but its all Laos music and only open till 1am but the bowling alley stays open till 3am ;-) A bit group of us pile into the truck to take us down to the bowling alley and its already packed - all the lanes are taken but there's a bar in there too so its a late night drinking den too!

The next day I was pretty wiped out so didn't get up to much apart from arranging a trip for the following day to go to the Pak Ou caves.Everyone that I had met the night before had moved on the following day or evening so I was on my own - no bad thing considering the hangover :-)  So my trip to the caves involved taking a boat up the river (slightly larger than the last one and at least I didn't think I was going to fall out of it!)  to see the cave of 1000 buddahs!  Before we reached the cave however we went to see a local village where they make what they call the Laos Laos Whiskey!  Its evil stuff I tell you - especially at the 11am that I tried a shot of it!  The cave was kinda cool to see and that afternoon I was supposed to go to another waterfall but I had a splitting headache the whole morning so I just went back to the hotel and chilled out for the afternoon (it wasn't a hangover I might add seeing as I hadn't been drinking the previous night!)

The next day I had my VIP bus booked to take me on the 6 hour journey down to Vang Vieng!  I got a pick up from the Hotel by tuk tuk and got checked in to the bus.  It was actually half decent as it was a proper coach with a toilet and they give you water and lunch is included at a stop on the way.  I was lucky as I ended up sitting next to a guy from the netherlands who was really nice and we chatted nearly all the way there so the time went really quickly.  Unfortunately someone was ill in the toilet so the bus smelt pretty bad for a while!

I reached Vang Vieng and decided to walk to the guesthouse from the bus station as on the map it looked really close.  Little did I know it was about 2km away.  Well 2km is ok - but not in the 35c heat with a massive back pack on my back.  I walked for about 15 minutes and then stopped to ask some westerners at the side of the road where it was and they told me it was really far, so I stopped and flagged down a tuk tuk.

So the place I stayed in had really mixed reviews on Hostelworld - its called Babylon.  Some of the reviews said that the owner was really rude and horrible others said the staff were amazing. Anyway I turn up and I had booked a small double room.  It was ok but definitely in the list of one of the least nice places I have stayed in with terrible pillows!  the first couple of nights in there i was ok but on the 3rd night I was about to go to bed when I discovered loads of bed bugs - ergh! I moved rooms and they put me in a triple room, I got into one bed and I think after it had been warmed up from my body heat all these tiny little ants appeared - ergh again! I got into the other bed and kept checking for bugs and it seemed ok.  I stayed in there that night and then the next night I had to move to another room again - and this time it was ok but the bed was rock hard! I guess it makes up for the lovely place I stayed in Luang Prabang.

So that night I met up with some of the guys that I met in the bowling alley in Luang Prabang, they had all been drinking all day tubing so were pretty knackered but we headed down to Q Bar which is the "happening" bar of the moment in the town. I ended up bumping into Amanda and Aoife again in there and stayed with them for a while and then bumped into a guy who i met in my bangkok hostel!  I ended up managing to loose the girls somehow and spent the rest of the night chatting to Mark and a female friend of his whose name i don't remember but was really nice.  I had arranged the next day to meet up with Amanda and Aoife to go tubing but they wanted to go much earlier than I did so I thought, well maybe I would just see them down there.  I think i ended up going to bed quite late and the next day woke up very late!

I was a bit nervous the next day about going tubing on my own but thought i may as well take the plunge. To be continued....seeing as this has taken about 3 hours to write so far :-)