Laos

Hello there peeps hows the craic? Good? Good!
Another handy sized blog for you lucky lucky people coming right up. The Chaos in Laos is here for you to read!

So we crossed the border from China with relative ease. I always talk about the contrast between countries but the contrast here was remarkable. You leave China thats busy and manic with scooters "tooting" at you everywhere you go, people shouting at you with babies strapped to them and doing their blood pressure no good at all at all. Then you cross into Laos where the living is eeeeasy.. Ahhhhh.

And the chicks are way hotter than Chinese ones

Our first stop was a place called Luan Nam Tha a small town that exists for tourism. This was one of the main changes. We left China where there's no such thing as a pub and people who have never seen a Westerner in the flesh before. You come to Laos where Tourism is the main industry, everyone speaks English and everything is catered to your need. Noone staring at you and asking for photos just blokes trying to give you a lift in a tuk tuk. We no longer felt special, or loved and it took a bit of getting used to.

Also, a big difference was the pace of the trip has slowed considerably. We're no longer haring through China at a rate of knots every place we go we have three or four nights there. How did we deal with this new found amount of time? Got fuckin drunk!

Anyway, Luan Nam Tha was a real homely little place with plenty of activities and was a welcome break from the madness of China. The first day we all hired bikes and a local guide took us around the surrounding countryside and I was introdued to the new incredible humidity. I have never sweated so much in my whole life! But the cycle tour was briliant we stopped at a waterfall at the end and had lunch served in Banana leaves and had a swim in the river it was really cool.

Stopping for water!

Denis feeling his age

Lunch in a Banana Leaf

When we were on the cycle, the guy took us up and showed us a local village. They were a tribe that had emigrated from China years ago and had settled here. It was really like going back in time as they live together and have their own schools and economy. The girls brought bracelets from naked children!

Local Village Children

Local village

Bracelets for sale

We spent the next couple of nights getting drunk in the bar the details of which, I'll spare you!

From here we went to another small place called Non Khiaow. Again, there wasn't a lot there but it was nice to relax and admire the scenery. We stayed in cabins on the river and had a terrific view of the river and the surrounding mountains. The humidity continued to kill me. I had dinner with two nice Dutch girls who turned out not to be sluts :)

The river at Non Khiaow, a tributary of the Mekong

Some scenery in Non Khiaow

After two nights there we travelled down the river on a boat to Luang Prabang while CJ and Jim raced us in the truck. Luang Prabang was a much bigger place and a massive tourist town but still had that relaxed feel about it. Luang Prabang was great just to wonder around. The first day there I didn't do a whole lot but wondered. Whilst there we visited this large Buddist temple up on top of a hill. It was very cool to see the monks around and also the statues of Buddha that dot the hillside. Luang Prabang was also brilliant for its night market. It was about a mile long with all sorts of things for sale. We also celebrated Zoe and Susan's engagement with a surprisingly civilised party in a really cool bar overlooking the river. We even had wine and Champagne..very civilised!

A view of Luang Prabang

Buddas on the hillside

Buddas

Dinner at the night market

The three nights in Luanag Prabang flew and before I knew it, it had arrived! Tubing day!!!!! We left early in the morning and arrived in a town called Vang Vieng that is famous for one reason and that's tubing! Ok let me explain this to you if you don't know. Basically, you hire a rubber ring and float down a river. You stop at bars and drink Laos whiskey out of a bucket getting slowly more shit faced as you go. It's immense fun. Yeah yeah yeah it can be dangerous if you're an idiot but we stuck together as a group and had a great time.

Before the madness

Half way through!

Lucey relaxing!

A soft landing

Mmmm Lao whiskey in a bucket

Towards the end!

In the mud pool where I was blinded with mud in my eyes

Some funny stuff that happened whilst tubing:
1. We were talking to these guys that found out that Denis was a grandad. He became known as "The Tubing Grandad" for the rest of the trip. Something I enjoy winding him up about.
2. In one of the bars there was like a bouncy castle in the water and you could jump off the bar onto it. If you managed to stay on someone else could jump onto the edge and shoot you into the air. Me and Denis tried jumping onto it with Susan on the end. But instead of shooting out into the water she shot directly up into the air and landed down on top of us. I will forever have a vision in my mind of Susan's arse three inches away from my face!
3. Mud wrestling! The last bar we went to had a mud pool so we kicked the crap out of each other in there and I spear tackled a few women. Good craic!
We finished up Tubing around 6pm (It was enough!) had a shower and hit the town again for another drunken night. Anyone seeing a pattern here?

The next day, battered and bruised, we moved onto the capital Vientiene. After the excitement of Tubing there's not a lot to tell you about this place. A much bigger place than anywhere else we'd been in Laos and less to do. The was a very French 'Arc de Trioumph' and a good market. We had a couple of sessions Aoife's birthday being the best. We also saw a lot of creepy old guys hanging out with Ladyboys in one of the bars which was a tiny bit strange but is all in preparation for Thailand!

And finally, my second favourite thing about Laos after Tubing was this poster we saw on the way through the border. It had the rules of Laos for foreigners and then there was little sketched cartoons to symbolise the rules. They had one which said to take your shoes off when you go into someone's house. Then a picture of a Laotian freaking out looking at a foreigner wearing shoes. There was one which said not to do drugs in Laos and there was a picture of two tourists stoned and two Laotians freaking out. But the funniest one was one which said that Child abuse is illegal in Laos and then a picture of a tourist holding hands with a child, walking away and a Laotian freaking out!

The poster!

It truly was Chaos in Laos, our favourite pun of the country!

Currently in Vietnam being very sensible and going to bed early. can't wait for that blog!