The last of S.E. Asia - Krabi and Koh Phi Phi

So my time in Perth is coming to an end and I’m about to pack everything I own into a small bag again and say bye bye WA…..hello the rest of Australia!

I know I haven’t written anything for months, and of course I have forgotten lots of details but I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on the last 10 months as I’ve only told you about up until the start of January this year!  So to remind you – I left you in Koh Tao and my next stop was Krabi with Aoife. 

Koh Tao had been a fantastic place to spend a week or so getting into the real party spirit of Thailand and also a nice change for having to meet people all the time to go out with – I had ready made party friends right there! 

However, after my break on antibiotics and then the partying to make up for it – I needed another rest!  So off to Krabi Town Aiofe and I headed.  After a long long boat ride back to Koh Samui, and another overnight stay (a pretty mild night apart from Aiofe attempting to hustle the thai kids hustling tourists to play connect 4 against them for money),we headed off to the airport and said bye bye to Amanda at Koh Samui Airport where she headed off to Kuala Lumpar and Aiofe and I jumped on a plan to Krabi.

We arrived in Krabi and headed for the cheapest transport transfer option of a minibus which will drop you at your hotel or at the beach for boats which take you to another amazing beach resort.  Aoife had to get on a plane herself the next day to head also to Kuala Lumpar so that she could extend her thai visa for another 30 days by flying back into Thailand.   That was our main reason for stopping in Krabi on our way to Phi Phi as the town itself isn’t all that great.  We had already booked ourselves in to a hotel in the middle of town and gave the information to the minibus people and headed off.  As usual there was the normal confusion at one end of whether we should be getting off or not as they started to unload our bags outside this shop in town.  EVENTUALLY it became apparent that they wanted to transfer us and our bags into the back of a pickup truck to transfer us to our hotel – what style! This was another one which didn’t have even bench seats in the back – it was just the back of the truck and we ended up sitting on top of our backpacks and hanging on for dear life.  I was kind of used to it by then having spent a good month or so travelling around Asia by that point.

We finally arrived at our hotel and it wasn’t all bad – it had air con, comfy beds and a proper bathroom and tv albeit a bit tatty around the edges.  It was advertised with a bar/nightclub as well……..I peeked in one night and it was full of the locals and some dodgy thai’s singing – we decided not to venture in for a drink – it looked quite shabby and dodgy!  So what was Krabi town like? Well a bit boring really.  I even attempted to find somewhere to get a pedicure and found it impossible – nearly unheard of in most of the places I had been to in Asia . Aiofe and I decided to use it as downtime to recover before heading to Phi Phi fully recovered to attempt scuba diving.  Aiofe headed off for her flight the next day and I was left to my own devices…….I explored the town and found it slightly lacking!  The best bit about it was going to the night market with Aiofe the evening we arrived for dinner.  MEAT ON A STICK GALORE!  Full of stalls cooking fresh food on order and loads of locals sitting there eating away.  I ended up filling my time sleeping in and sitting in cafes write to all you lot!  She arrived back from KL and we headed off the next day on our adventure to Phi Phi Island! 

So first off – yes – I do think that Phi Phi is possibly over touristy, yes – I do think that 10 years ago it was probably so much better…..BUT! I loved it!  You arrive at the harbour which is pretty basic apart from a very long pier leading you out to the boats.  Get off and are confronted with loads of touts either trying to get you to go to that hotel or to meet you as you have pre-booked. 

We had decided to pre-book somewhere for just the first two nights after our experience in Koh Tao!  It was still pretty soon after new years so it was massively busy everywhere and still high season prices.  Having looked around beforehand some of the prices were ridiculously high and it was really hard to find anything under 2000baht – that’s about £40 so quite expensive for Thailand.  A lot of places were much much higher than that.  Whilst in Krabi Town I had done loads of research on all the places recommended in Lonely Planet and on other places on the internet and it was hard to find anywhere and when you called them they didn’t speak enough English if they even answered the phone!

I ended up getting a local agent to book us a room in a place called Uphill Cottage.  It had an en-suite inside bathroom with hot water and air con! Bliss but expensive at 1600 bath a night – 800 each – that’s a whole £15 a night each!  It definitely blew my budget and I became an official flashpacker, but it was well worth the money!!!

So we found our guide on the pier at the harbour and he led us into the start of the town and told us to wait for him there as he went off to round up more people he was “picking up”.  After dragging a few more similarly bemused looking tourists over he started loading our packs onto what can only be described as a large trolley.  On and on they went and we were told to follow him. 

Phi Phi has no roads, no cars and very very very few motorbikes.  The walkways are fairly small lined with shops and restaurants and plenty of tourists and loads of locals on pushbikes. (at the end we weren’t sure what was worse – motorbikes that you could hear or pushbikes that you couldn’t!).  

It’s a real assault to the senses arriving and following the man with your bag quickly down loads of little streets and trying to remember which way you are going and taking in everything that’s going on around you.  We started dropping people off at different places along the way and me and Aiofe kept going.  I started to think..whoops have we made the wrong choice….we are heading so far away from everything……but no we certainly hadn’t!  We finally ended up at the end of the path at the bottom of a hill where the reception was in a little hut.  We got checked in and then hiked our way up the steps to our “Uphill Cottage”. 

We were tucked away in the corner and had no view to speak of from our terrace with two little chairs out the front.  Our room was one of the best we had stayed in – very comfy beds and the place looked practically new!  Whilst we were there we had cleaning every day (or would have done if we had gotten out of bed early enough!) and it was just so comfy and – quiet – especially at night.  Well apart from the monkeys that ran across the roof sometimes!  The thing was – that long walk that made us think we were away from everything was great – most of the accommodation was really close to all the bars and the night went on really late sometimes so an early night was impossible in some areas.  We were only an extra 5 minutes walk in reality so it was well worth it for a bit of peace and quiet sometimes!  Believe me, it did happen on our 10 night stay in Phi Phi.

  

The plan was to head out the next day to find somewhere else to stay that was cheaper…..never as easy as it sounds.  We did find quite a few places, but they were so shabby and horrible and dirty compared to where we were we couldn’t help but carry on and shell out paying for Uphill Cottage and managed to negotiate a discount to 1500 a night!

Phi Phi is a small place especially the area we stayed in – Ton Sai Bay, there are two main beaches, and neither are that amazing to swim in. One side where the harbour is, is full of boats (of course) and the other side has a beautiful view but the sea is very shallow for ages out and isn’t very clear.  The main town is just shops and tour companies and restaurants and bars. 

Aoife and I spent our time firstly focussing on sorting out something for a scuba diving course.  We spent a fair while going around the different companies asking them what the deal was.  All of them offered the same thing so it was working out which one we liked.  We ended up going to one where my brother-in- law knows someone.  A girl he met when travelling around the world.  She was working in a scuba diving place in Phi Phi.

Well we went there and got our books and spent all night studying.  We passed our first exam the next day and headed out to try the equipment just off the beach.  We struggled our way into a wetsuits and had to poke a hose down them to soak us through before we went outside in them and boiled.  It was only a few minutes walk from the scuba place to the beach but it felt like hours – it was well over 30c in the wetsuits and the tanks weighed a lot!  We had to get into the water and start practicing all different manoeuvres.  Unfortunately it was at this point I discovered that scuba diving is not for me L.  I couldn’t control myself in the water with the tank and the flippers and really didn’t like it.  I attempted to put my head under the water to use the regulater and mask and didn’t like that either – although I did get to see a few fishes for a few seconds!  I ended up having to get out of the sea and trek back to change and wait for Aoife.  I was disappointed that I didn’t like it but I just couldn’t do it. 

Aoife came back and had been having great fun learning and had gotton all the manoeuvres right so she could go and do her final exam that evening and then go on the boat the next day.  She went out diving and successfully did her padi!  We watched the video in the place and it was amazing.  So……..it had been about a week since we had left Koh Tao and it was time to head to some bars!

What can I tell you about the rest of our time in Phi Phi?  Of course there was plenty of eating and drinking.  The food was fantastic – a mixture of our meat on a stick and various other mysterious things from the stalls on the streets, to little restaurants serving fantastic thai dishes to a good ole burger (its nice to mix it up a bit!).  We discovered a rooftop Banana Bar

 Which became a firm favourite of ours with amazing Magaritas for less than £3!  Very cute and nice bar staff and a good vibe.  It was only open until 12 or so though so after that it was time to head down to the beach to another bar, the name escapes me at the moment, which is where we usually hung out to finish off the night.  There were trips to other bars, trailing down the beach, trips to another bar in the centre, the Regae Bar in particular which is where Lou and Yazz met all those years ago, and we watching 3 year old boys thai boxing.  Chris, who I met in Pai ended up in Phi Phi at the same time as us and we ended up meeting up with him for a drink too. 

 

 Of course, however, a trip to Phi Phi cannot be complete without a trip to Maya Beach.  It’s a cliché but it had to be done.  We chose to go out on one of the smaller boats- a traditional thai boat.  I think there was about 10 of us in it, plus our slightly dodgy looking captain.  We sailed out and visited lots of different bays and lagoons on the way to Maya Beach and then when we arrived we could just explore for a bit.  Its fairly developed in that there are signs saying this way to this, and that….

 But other than that there isn’t much there at all.  A few sandy paths and that’s about it.  The bay itself is very pretty but you don’t get a sunset from it.  You all get back into the boats and head back to watch the sunset, all in all a lovely day and a lovely place to visit. 

 Aoife and I had great fun in our 10 days or so on Phi Phi but by the end of we both needed a rest from all the partying.  Aoife was heading to Koh Lanta for a more peaceful time on some of the other islands whilst it was time for me to start heading even further south to Singapore to get me one step closer to Australia!

The story finally continues - Samui, Full Moon Party and Koh Tao!

So I arrive in Samui airport a bit dazed and tired after the short flight and a busy day but keen to get in touch with Burley and the others to meet up with people from back home.  It was strange as I’ve not actually seen Burley for years but had seen Baz recently through other people.  Got in touch by text message and found out they had landed but they weren’t too sure where they were or where they were staying, Burley seemed to think because I had been travelling for a while I knew Samui which made things a bit harder to find them.

I managed to get a taxi from the airport up to Chaweng Beach, the area of the island I was staying in and arrived at the Embassy Hostel there.  It’s a small place with a café downstairs and then rooms upstairs.  Nice enough though with a couple of sofas to laze about on during the day and free wifi – perfect! I had booked my accommodation there months in advance and it turned out to be one of the most expensive places I stayed – that’s what you get when you book from home and don’t really know what the deals are in Thailand. It was fine though, more than I needed as I had a double bed with an extra sofa bed and a private bathroom with supposedly hot water but a shower that didn’t work for 3 nights with only cold water L Thankfully Samui was boiling so it wasn’t the end of the world.  Oh – I forgot to mention the really crappy air con that didn’t work properly either. 

I did a quick freshen up and headed out to meet Burley and the boys which was interesting as again, they were talking to me about the bar they were in as if I had any ideas of anything in the main town!  More by luck than judgment I managed to find them!  After 3 months on the road it was nice to see some familiar faces (obviously Lou and Yazz count but this was good too!). 

So what to tell you about the evening!  Well – one beer led to another which led to another which led to them dragging me into a strip bar! Not sure they want me to publicise this on the net – but it was an experience for me that I hadn’t planned on doing – or doing again!  They have about 15 or 20 girls up on this stage in their underwear grinding away to music and the stage has seats all around it which of course the boys wanted to sit at to be close to all the action.  Well I’ll leave it as an interesting experience in which one of the boys (not naming any names) got a bit to close to one of the girls and then decided to use me as his excuse not to go any further with her and said I was his girlfriend!  We only stayed for one drink and then ended up in some others bars and out till about 4am I think on a bar on the beach. 

The next day of course I was pretty wiped out and ended up doing a similar thing the following night with the boys.  The day after was New Years Eve – Nikki Burley and Karl were flying out as well so I went down to the guys very posh 5* hotel to meet up with them.  We organized boat tickets to get over to Koh Phanghan and the aim was to leave about 3pm as had heard horror stories about people leaving it till later on like 7pm and not even getting to the Island until after midnight – if they got there at all. 

Well we didn’t quite make it for 3pm as there was lots of toing and froing getting ready but we did end up over on the Island for about 5pm I think.  It was definitely the right idea to go earlier as we didn’t have too much trouble getting on the boat.  It was a bumpy and slightly scary ride though as soon after leaving the port they seemed to be having trouble with one of the engines and had to keep turning everything back off and then on again and then they seemed to sort it by having one of the crew sat at the back of the boat doing whatever was needed to the engines to keep it going!  Once they got it going though it was a bumpy ride and I was thankful I was sitting down!!!

The plan was to meet up with Leanne and some other peeps from home who were staying on the island itself.  First we went off to get some food (to be nice and sensible of course J ) however managed to choose the worst restaurant ever as the food took forever to come out.  Nik managed to spend the time though painting a lovely mural on Burleys back.  Unfortunately there are no pics from me for NYE as I didn’t want to take my camera in case it got stolen so you’ll just have to imagine it. 

We got down to the beach about 7pm and got us some buckets to drink to get the party going and it ended up being a great night, meeting random strangers to join our group and making our way down the beach.  Different bars in different sections playing music and then eventually we get down to the end of the beach and end up meeting up with Leanne etc which was great!   We ended up down at a bar playing techno music for midnight which was heaving and had this huge scaffolding structure with New Years Eve 2010 written on it – but in flames!  Very cool!!

Midnight came and loads of fireworks went off and carried on going off which was great until the first one went off funny and fired right into the crowd – apparently it landed really close to us but I didn’t notice.  I have to say I even managed to get a midnight snog off a random kiwi guy on the beach – but when everyone I was with left, I left him there J

We all ended up splitting up into different groups and I stayed with the girls and ended up having a bit more of a chilled end to the night sitting and chatting on the beach and having some meat on a stick and then as they were staying on the island I was planning on heading off to find the boat back as the boys had disappeared.  I followed the girls up off the beach to head towards the road/town thinking I would find somewhere but we managed to find the only dirt track uphill road which led to nowhere except a pickup truck with a thai family inside.

Somehow – one of the girls went up to them and managed to persuade them to give us a lift back to the girls resort –which we were happy to give them some money for.  Anyway – the 4 of us piled into the back of the pick up – and I do mean the back, you know where you put all the luggage and stuff like that.  Sat down and hung on for dear life.  It seems like this was a family who had also been to the party and were dropping various members off home on the way as we kept making stops and people kept piling out of the cab in the front.  Eventually we got back to the girls resort about 3am after an hour of driving in the countryside and by that time I had given up getting back to Koh Samui.  The girls were great though and piled the 3 of them into the big bed and let me sleep on the single in there. 

Next morning started my mission to get home which luckily enough their hotel helped me out with by sorting me a taxi to the port and a boat ticket.  A very funny ride in hindsight as the boat were full of people covered in neon paint and looking very sorry for themselves.  I made it back to the hostel and needless to say collapsed and relaxed. 

The next day Aoife and Amanda who I met in Laos were due to arrive in Samui after being on Phanghan for 10 days but didn’t end up meeting up with for NYE.  They didn’t have any accommodation but having sat in the lounge area on new years day and seeing about 20 people looking for accommodation and being turned away – I knew there wasn’t really anything available.  I told them to come down to me as I had a place that was plenty big enough for the 3 of us which they gladly did. 

The girls only had the visa you get on arrival and both of them needed to extend it so the next day we decided to take a taxi to the immigration office on the other side of the island – a complete waste of time as the bloody thing was closed it being a Saturday and which the taxi driver well and truly knew – so another time of being ripped off!  Anyway we made him take us back to the resort and then told him we were only giving him a bit of money as he knew the office was closed (there was a guy in a shop next door to immigration who told us this was a regular scam they pull).  Oh and I can't resist this photo of Amanda in the back of the cab fast asleep!

  The next few nights in Samui were fairly quiet as I had managed to get some kind of bite on my leg just before new years that hadn’t cleared up and seemed to be infected so I was on anti-biotics – a very good enforced and well needed detox!  It was good to be with the girls though and have some company.   It was fortunate as well though that we weren’t up for much as I experienced my first bit of Thai rain storms.  It wasn’t too bad and wasn’t constant but definitely meant we couldn’t sunbathe.

Both Aoife and I wanted to go to Koh Tao to try diving so the plan was to head there after a couple of days with Amanda. 

Off to the ferry we went expecting it to take about 3 hours to reach there but of course it took more like 4 and a half!  We hadn’t booked any accommodation before we reached there thinking we would find something when we arrived.  Of course that wasn’t the best plan as it was still so busy from New Years Eve everywhere and people moving on from the other places they had been.  We got off the boat and were bombarded with touts offering us places to stay which we decided to ignore and got in the back of a pick up truck to take us down to Sairee Beach, the area which has the most nightlife (of course!).  Our cunning plan was to leave Amanda in a café with all our bags whilst Aiofe and I hiked it up and down the beach looking for somewhere to stay.  We didn’t arrive on the Island till about 5pm and the sun sets by about 6.30pm so after an hour of asking around everywhere we were on the verge of giving up but then tried a travel agency place who said that there was maybe some rooms in a place in the main town.  It wasn’t cheap and not in the area we wanted but figured that it was better than not having anywhere to sleep that night.  Off we trotted and even went against the golden rule of paying before having seen the rooms figuring we had no choice.  Well it wasn’t the worst place we could have ended up staying – but it sure wasn’t the best.  We walked up stairs and got the shock of our life when you turn the corner and the building is half finished!!  I’m not joking – one end of the building had these glass doors in with a balcony and the other end was just open – no wall no nothing.  Then next to that was a room that was also half finished – a floor but no walls on 2 sides.  It was freaky!

Both of the rooms in there were petty basic with only a fan but had hot water and kind of comfy beds.  We booked it for 2 nights to give us a chance to find somewhere better to stay on the beach which was needed as there wasn’t much else around.  Anyway – we had to get a taxi from there down to the nightlife on Sairee Beach – its only a 5 minute drive – the way they drive ha ha ha!  So we asked the people downstairs to call us a taxi and this guy appears from nowhere and takes us down there.  Unlike everyone else on the Island he has a proper songthaew thing where you have proper benches in the back and a roof.  He also charged as a reasonable amount as on Koh Tao they have a taxi mafia and won’t take you anywhere for less than 100 baht a person which is a rip off.  The main reason is scooters are so cheap to hire so it has to be worth their while.

We managed to get him bartered down to 200 for the 3 of us so I decided to ask him if we could have his number and call him when we need to get back up to the hotel – he said no problem and I asked until what time I could call – he said any time!  Unfortunately I don’t think him or his girlfriend/wife were bargaining on us calling at 4am – although it might have been later – whoops!!!

Actually I think that night was fairly quiet and we went out for a few but I was still on my antibiotics.  So Koh Tao is definitely my favourite Island I have been to so far in Thailand.  Its small and friendly and apart from the taxi mafia, the locals are great.  On our second day there we took to the beach again to ask around for rooms and ended up just booking a place in the first place we went to which is where we had dinner the night before.  Wind Beach.  The staff in there were really friendly, the food was good (apart from Rudy who forgot my order) and it had a really nice vibe about it even though we couldn’t see the room first!!  Oh and they had free wifi – always a good plus for me!

They had a triple room as well which was perfect but only a cold water shower – ergh!

So we made it down to Wind Beach to move in and had a fantastic time on the island living by night and seeing a few hours of daylight each day J  There are some great bars there – Fizz a good chillout place with these huge beanbag chairs and fab cocktails, then Lotus bar who have about 5 or 6 guys doing fire shows on the beach each night which also includes fire rope jumping! (film to follow on facebook eventually!).  Lotus is basically the place to go until about 2am when you walk up the beach to Cave bar, which isn’t really a cave, but a building built to resemble a cave inside, and that tends to keep going till about sunrise. 

The first couple of days my leg hadn’t gotten better so I didn’t want to go in the sea or diving with it and then by that time we were too late to book a diving course so all 3 of us decided to turn it into a bit of a party week!  Needless to say great fun was had by all J

Next stop – bye bye Amanda – hello Krabi and Koh Phi Phi!

The return to Thailand -

So amazingly although I knew Lou and Yazz were flying to Phuket the following day none of us had worked out that we were all staying in Bangkok the same night!

We got in touch by text and once they had checked into their hotel they took a cab over to me.  It was sooooo good to see them after 3 months on the road and gave each other the biggest hug!  We headed out so that they could go and see Khao San Road again after nearly 10 years and reminisce a bit.  I thought I could find the way again walking without a map and we went past City Hall as there was some kind of event going on there – although we aren’t sure what but there were loads of locals and stalls and stuff going on.  From there we headed towards KSR but I ended up not really knowing where we were so we flagged a tuk tuk down and it turns out it was only across the road – whoops! 

Still we walked down KSR and they said it hadn’t really changed much and stopped off for dinner in one of the busy bars down there for their first thai meal.

We were all pretty knackered so headed back to our respective places at a reasonable hour.  That night I shared my dorm room with 3 Japanese guys – who came in, turned the lights on, faffed about doing stuff and then went out again without turning the lights off! V.annoying!

I had to get up really early the next morning for the 2^nd day in a row to get my flight to Phuket. I am being quite a bad backpacker really as I seem to be flying everywhere apart from my overland journeys in Laos, but when I look at the costs of the flight and they aren’t that much versus the amount of time taken to do an overland on my own, I can’t help it. Lou and Yazz were taking a slightly later flight than me so the plan was for me to hang around the airport for a couple of hours for them to arrive as their friend Josh was picking them up.  Typically their flight was delayed but Josh came and found me and we waited for them to turn up. 

We headed out to Josh’s place which was in a very residential area of Phuket away from all the touristy stuff, then he took us to a beach (can’t remember where again!) to chill for the afternoon and have some lunch.  

  

We all took a dip in the lovely warm sea J and then headed back to Josh and his girlfriends place for takeway thai food!  Thai style!  Its great, apparently they call this guy up and he delivers this big box which has this electric plate and bowl thing into which you pour a stock soup thing and then add all manner of other veggies and meats and fish to and just let it all boil up together and then start helping yourself as you add more stuff to it.  They even supply all the bowls and spoons and stuff and after you are done you chuck it all back in the box and leave it outside for them to collect the next day – I’m liking this style of takeaway J It was yummy and healthy with absolutely no work – well apart from cooking it yourself!

  

The next day we took a drive into Patong and I have to say I’m pleased I didn’t spend much more time in this area than the day as it felt like a really touristy resort full of tourist shops and bars but more than anywhere else I have been.  It felt a bit like a cheesy Spanish resort – but in Thailand - and the beaches were heaving and not particularly pretty.  Josh did tell us though that there are some much nicer areas of Phuket which aren’t as developed so if you go, don’t go to Patong, find somewhere else, we saw a bit more of Phuket as Josh gave me a lift to the airport that afternoon and we took the scenic route and saw a lot more of Phuket than just Patong.  We mainly went there as its where the Resturant group Josh works for is based and Lou and Yazz know the owner there as well so they wanted to go and say hello. 

Pum the owner wanted to come out to Lunch with us as well but didn’t want to eat there as she wanted “traditional” English fish and chips so we drove out of down to this amazing 5 star resort where we had lunch.  It was beautiful but nearly ruined as I think I got a bit overly hot and felt quite nauseous!

  

So as I say, after lunch Josh gave me a lift to the airport for me to head over to Samui and it was time for another tiny little plane.  This time though I have never seen a plane full literally of young people going over to party! I ended up sitting next to an aussie guy who was scared stiff of flying – not what I needed as I was pretty nervous myself on that tiny plane. 

Next installment - party times on the Islands!

Tubing on the Mekong River and cycling in the Vang Vieng Countryside....then on to Vientiane for Christmas

So this is the day I tell you about tubing down the river.  A legendary thing to do in Laos Vang Vieng.  So I had said to meet up with Amanda and Aoife but I didn't get up in time and was umming and arghing about going there alone.  In the end I gave myself a kick up the arse and decided to go for it - I could always come back home if it was crap on my own!  I headed over to the shop where you pick up a tube - its basically an enourmous rubber ring which comes from the inner of a tyre. Not too expensive to hire it but then you have to leave a deposit as well, and if you return it late they either take all your deposit or part of it - or you might not return the tube at all!

Afterwards you get in a tuk tuk truck which takes you 3 km down the river, and you have to wait in the truck until more people arrive to go down there.  I was really lucky as I got in the truck with some really nice people.  An aussie couple who i met briefly on the bus to Vang Vieng and 3 other girls.  Viivi and Laura travelling together from Finland and another girl called Pauline who was from another country in the netherlands but i can't remember where - oops!  We were all quite nervous about the tubing as didn't know what to expect.  We get down there and basically there are bars and more bars, well shacks that are bars, all built along the side of the river.  You chuck your tube on a pile of others at the side of the bar and grab a drink.  You have to be careful not to loose your tube as people loose theirs and take one and sometimes if you are late you end up with no tube, so you have to keep an eye on the pile to make sure there is still a tube left for you to take back - it doesn't matter which one as long as you have one!

So we all got a drink for dutch courage and after that we climbed into the tubes, it was surprisingly nice and calm although the current is faster than you expect, and you don't really have any control over the tube, you can paddle a bit but its hard to direct it!  as you float past the bars they chuck out a rope with a float attached which you grab hold of and they pull you over to it.  Basically tubing is just a big bar crawl!!  Quite a few people went a few days in a row and after the 2nd day they didn't even bother getting a tube and just caught a truck down there and went to a few different bars as you can walk to them they are that close.  My first day we made it to 4 bars which is more impressive than some people as they usually only make it to the 2nd bar!

Unfortunately I have no pictures of tubing but i may be tagged on some from facebook - i didn't want to take my camera just in case it got wet or broken.  In the end though it was a great day! We didn't make it all the way down the river because by the time it was the 4th bar the sun was going to be setting and its 30 minute drift down the river back to town so we crossed over the bridge and got a truck back into town.  We were 15 minutes past the cut off time of 6pm and they tried to keep all our deposit but we kicked up a fuss and they only kept a bit of it - cheeky buggers!

Anyway - we decided to all go back to our places and shower and change and meet up for dinner an hour later.....then carried on partying until far too late!  It was a pretty mad night as we ended up going over to an Island nearby when the bar shut where I spent ages chatting to the owner and an ex-pat.  The party broke up when a local plain clothes police man turned up with a gun in hand (mum don't panic please!) to say to everyone go home.  I've never seen a bar been closed and people depart so peacefully and quiet.  I think the only reason for this is because Laos is still an old fashioned place with a curfew so when the police say go home, you go home!

Pauline left the next day for her next destination but I made arrangements to meet Viivi and Laura the next day as we said we wanted to go tubing again but actually go all the way down the river properly without drinking! well we did meet up but were very very hungover.  We went down to the river but I felt so rubbish I decided to leave after a short while and collapse back in the hostel :-)

People slate Vang Vieng as being just a party town full of bars showing back to back friends and family guy but I have to say it made a nice change after everything else to veg out in front of a tv chilling out.  The next day I was fully recovered and Laura and Viivi had left for their next stop so I decided to hire a bik and go and see a bit of the countryside - best decision ever as the town of Vang Vieng isn't that nice to look at but the surrounding area is beautiful.

I did actually manage to break my camera so I have no pictures of this either :-( I cycled way out into the countryside on these dirt track roads for about 3 hours - it was hard bloody work at some points but I got to see some real villages - rather than ones there for tourists trying to sell you things.

The next day was my 6 hour bus ride to Vientiane!  Well I booked my VIP bus again, but this was certainly no VIP! I had heard about these things happening but there isn't much you can do about it.  I was sat next to a Laos guy for the journey who also lives in America and was on holiday - i seemed to meet a lot of them.  We talked a bit but not a huge amount and I spent the long long journey listening to my Ipod and then sleeping when the bus stopped rocking me from side to side after we got off the mountain roads.

So I didn't have anywhere booked up for Vientiane but had done some research on where a big block of different hotels were by the river and got a truck up there from the bus stop.  I tried a couple of different places but ended up in one called Riverside, a proper hotel with a good bed, good shower, good air con and a lift! The room was so cool with the air con I even decided to make myself look nice by blow drying my hair each day!

As usual my first day there I didn't do too much, that evening I went out for dinner and ended up chatting to two english guys who were very entertaining and told me some very funny stories about how they inadvertantly took part in a great race type thing and all the stuff they had gotten up to as the "british team" by default as no one else really entered from england!

The 2nd day I decided to go and try and find the COPE centre - a rehabilitation centre I mentioned before for people who have lost limbs due to the unexploded bombs. I walked quite a way but it was hot so decided to try and take a tuk tuk, i stopped a driver but it took  far too long to try and explain where I wanted to go so took to my feet again.  In the end it was only another 15 minute walk down the road to get there and was well worth it.  The visitor centre there shows films telling you all about the history of Laos and the unexploded bombs and land mines.  A very very sad story.  In brief, during the Vietnam war, America waged a secret war against Laos that they didn't tell anyone about (and back then no one knew about it) because the Vietnamese were crossing into Laos to get to South Vietnam.  This lead to America making Laos one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world.  So many people died back then and now they are still left with thousands of bombs which haven't exploded. The kids go out into the countryside in search of scrap metal to sell or pick up these cluster bombs which haven't exploded and play with them and then they go off and kill or maim them.  The film I saw was made by the couple I met in Luang Prabang and told the story of an aussie bomb disposal expert who went there to train "big bomb" teams in how to defuse these bombs that are still being discovered all over the place, mostly near schools and villages or buried underneath paths.

I saw another film afterwards which was the most moving one and actually made me cry as it told the story of a young boy playing with friends who picked up a cluster bomb which went off.  It killed most of his friends but he was only badly wounded.  His parents managed to get to him and hired a truck to take him to hospital....only to find that there was no blood or oxygen there, they then travelled to the next hospital miles and miles away to find the same thing.  They couldn't even get to the next hospital as it was too far and had to persuade the truck driver to take them and their dying son back to their home so he could at least dye at home.  Its just too awful to think that they only reason he died was a lack of medical facilities and makes me emotional to even write about it now.

Anyway after my visit there I took a walk around the town a bit more and looked around the markets and stuff.

Christmas Eve I managed to find an english pub I had walked past during the day that was advertising a christmas dinner but was closed everytime I did walk past it.  I went in there and got chatting to an old guy probably about 60 odd - what is it with me and these old men - none of them are even chatting me up!  But again, a really interesting person - was a writer and had done all sorts of things over the years so was a nice way to pass the evening.  So the pub was offering a xmas dinner the next day with all the trimmings and it wasn't cheap but thought it might be a good way to spend the day and hopefully meet some people.

Christmas day 2009 I woke up and went for beans on toast for brekkie :-) then an amazing aromatic oil full body massage that cost me a whole £6! After that I went and got spruced up for my lunch.  I turned up at the pub and got chatting to a few people but most of them left after the lunch - couples off to do couples things :-).  The lunch itself was ok - enourmous and not too bad but not the same as at home - but it did feel a bit more like christmas day at least.  I wasn't sure what to do afterwards when the people I eat with left but decided to go and have a gin and tonic outside and see if I could talk to anyone.  And I did!  I ended up chatting with an American girl called Alexis, another american woman who I don't know the name of and an aussie guy called Simon.  He was there visiting some locals that he knows and was meeting up with them that evening and said that Alexis and I were welcome to join them.  It's one of those moments you go - hmmm why not!  His friends - two women, came and picked us up in a minibus van thing and we went off to this very nice river front restaurant.

The Laos people are so funny and definitely like a drink - like the other family I met, we were never short of beer!  The took charge of the ordering and I had no idea what they ordered and I even tried ducks bill!  Work out what it is for yourself! It was interesting but not something i'll be eating again :-)  After dinner we went into the bar area and danced for a bit and then we ended up getting some crates of beer and sitting outside their house until about 5am!  A very random but completely fun Christmas day that I don't think can be topped for something different to do.

Needless to say after all that Boxing Day was a day to spend sleeping and recovering :-)  The next day I took another mini plane back to Bangkok for the night - where I discovered Lou and Yazz were arriving and we didn't even realise we were going to be in Bangkok at the same time!

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 :-)