Vang Vieng and Vientiane!

As we were expecting, the pace has slowed considerably since entering Laos...

In recent years, Vang Vieng has transformed from a sleepy town with little more than a potholed track, to the self styled "tubing capital of the world" and a major hub for party hungry travellers!

This is the deal. You get a large tractor tube, go a few km up river, tube down the river stopping every few hundred metres at a bar, most of which offer 'happy shakes' and have jumps and slides into the river. At least that was the jist of things until about a month or so ago!

After a string of recent deaths surrounding the river tubing (20 deaths in 2011!) the government has finally imposed strict fines on river side activities. That has pretty much put and end to it all.

Our experience was really relaxing. There are now just three bars open along the route, and that is all we needed!

I think Vang Vieng is going more upmarket now, catering more for the hiking and climbing than the drink and drug fuelled tubing.

Back in town, every guesthouse/bar had Friends playing on repeat at pretty much every hour! ...how presumptions of them, assuming all westerners like Friends. Good job we do!! We actually catered 'Friends watching' into our itinerary.

Eventually we managed to pry ourselves away from Joey and Chandler and onto a bus, bound for the capital-Vientiane!


The capital of Laos, Vientiane is sat perched across the Mekong from neighbouring Thailand. It has been Laos New Year whilst we have been here. This involves everyone taking to the streets with water pistols, hoses and buckets! As we found out, you literally can't go anywhere without getting soaked. It is pretty fun and the theory is that this 'scented water' washes away all of the bad, setting you up nicely for the New Year ahead. Win-win!

On a more somber note, we have probably had our largest bout of illness since we have been here! Of course, I will spare you the details, but lets just say we will be avoiding the fruit shakes and spicy soups for a few days. Every cloud has a silver lining though, in that we are in the best/least worst place in Laos to have been ill!

This hasn't stopped us enjoying the local morning and night markets, food stalls and rooftop bars though :)

In terms if the next stage of our travels, our plans have changed daily if not hourly over the last few days!

We were planning to head South into Vietnam around Hoi An but after being accepted on an awesome 1 month volunteering placement in Hanoi, we are heading North instead.

We are volunteering with a community development organisation, helping teach English to children In Hanoi and the neighbouring towns. In exchange we have all of our food and accommodation sorted, and hopefully a lot of local travel tips for our time off in the area too!

We are pretty excited about this, and sorted our Vietnam visas yesterday!

Today we embark on a marathon sleeper bus ride into Vietnam and Hanoi...

Wish us luck

Now in Laos!

With our passports stamped and a 30 day visa in tow we made our way towards the harbour on the Mekong river on the Laos side to catch the 'slow boat' to our first stop... Luang Prabang!

As the name suggests the slow boat was pretty slow... It took us two full days (10 hours per day) with a stop over in pakbeng, to get to our destination. The boat itself can only be described as a rickety old long boat that got packed to the rafters with travellers and locals alike, so much so that the late comers were ushered onto the roof! Each person brought with them about 15kg of luggage that was stored 'below deck' (basically they just lifted up the floor boards of the boat and chucked everything underneath!)!

Across the two days Alec and I made constant evaluations on the boats safety and had several escape routes planned and ready to implement should things go ariy. To say that these two days were the most nervous we had felt all trip would be an understatement. The boat was heavy leaning to one side and we often felt that it was about to capsize! However we got to the end of the second day safely be it with a few stories to tell about a drunk Japanese man who fell overboard! Have you ever heard 'no woman, no cry' sung by a sluring Japanese man who can't pronounce W's or R's? Trust me, you don't want too!

Onto Luang Prabang...
From 1893 to 1953 (with a few exceptions) Laos was under the control of the French which explains the cultural influences of this diverse country. Luang Prabang is one of many towns where European construction techniques and architectural designs can still be seen today.

Riding through this sleepy town on a hired bicycle it's hard to remember to say kob chai instead of merci to the local people. However the night food markets are far from coffee and croissants, here we paid under £2.50 for two BIG plates of freshly cooked Lao food and two bottles of water. And what a magnificent feast it was. As well as full tummys we also came away with an authentic recipe (noted down on a napkin) for Lao sour pork sausages passed on to us by a local street vendor who spoke broken English.

The location of Luang Prabang is set right on Mekong river making for a perfect bicycle ride to one of the many markets in the area. These markets sell anything from tourist junk to hand made silver jewellery. I myself came away with 4 bags of different types of tea (about 50p each)!

We have spent our time here reading in temple gardens, relaxing in the colonial cafes and enjoying the many different Lao dishes, we even managed to catch a hip hop show, tomorrow however we are on the road again (note, not by another boat!) heading towards Vang Vieng, tubing capital of the world!!

Chilling in Chiang Mai

Leaving the city of Bangkok we made our way to Chang Mai via the night train. Leaving at 1800 and arriving at 0900 the next day we booked ourselves a first class cabin so we could lock the door at night and avoid others going through our bags. First class... Not exactly backpacker style but at £22 per cabin for two we managed to not break the bank too much!

As we discovered, Chiang Mai is a great place to kick back and relax, a nice change from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. Early mornings in Chiang Mai are swamped in an orange haze. The rising sun mixing with the mist and the bright orange colour of the monks simple dress give the city a strange calmness and serenity. Here book shops and laid back cafes outnumber glitzy shopping centres, while the local temples invite you in to study meditation.

We spent most of our time in this city in the 'old city' which is a neat square bounded by a moat. The remnants of a medieval-style wall, built over 700 years ago, still stand to defend against Burmese invaders.

While exploring the city we discovered many of the 'wet' markets we had been taught about in our cooking class in Bangkok. These markets consist of local farmers selling their produce, mostly fruit and veg but the odd meat stall pops up every now and again.

The night markets too, were a nice change from Bangkok as the venders were less pushy and aggressive. Alec purchased some Thai boxing shorts for himself and for Harry (they looked everywhere for some in Bangkok, but were not prepared to pay the extortionate amount asked by the Bangkok vendors)! I on the other hand found hair clips, that reminded me of my first visit to Chiang Mai, made from cola bottle caps and sweets. I bought 6 for a pound!

After reading several blogs on adventurous things to do in Chiang Mai we decided on the 100km track of the Samoeng loop. So we hired some mopeds and set of into the mountains. The track took us up steep hills, around hairpin corners and overtaking elephants along the way. The whole trip took us around 4-5 hours including stops for drinks, food and pictures.

One thing that we did blow our budget on (but not without haggling first) was a full day of mahout training. Mahout is Thai for elephant trainer!

We learnt how to get on (climbing and struggling) and off (jump and hope for the best) the elephant. We learnt the Thai words to control the elephant including; go, stop, reverse, left and right! After our lesson and armed with our new knowledge (plus our Thai elephant phrase list) we set off atop our elephant and out into the jungle!

It's safe to say that our elephant did about 10% of what we told it to, and even then we think that it was down to luck! We washed the elephants in the local river and were lucky enough to have the added company of the newest elephant to the heard, baby Lychee.

After all our washing and brushing we were told the next stop was to the mud pit... The what?? That's right folks we had a mud fight with with two and a half elephants! Needless to say they won, by a long way, and made our hours of washing them down to be a fruitless act.

The whole day was so much fun and we had the added bonus of getting seconds at lunch, which was a plus due to the fact that we blew the budget for the next three days so weren't going to be eating for a while!

Our trip to Chiang Mai sadly came to an end but as we took the bus to the Thai- Laos border we were excited to experience yet another new country with its different culture and of course... A new Cuisine!

That time when 'Arry was 'ere!!

Wow! So we haven't written a blog in a long time. 4 weeks to be precise! In that time, we have been lucky enough to frequent KL, Langkawi, Phuket, Bangkok, Chaing Mai, Huay Xai, and now we are on a 2 day slow boat down the Mekong River into the heart of Laos!!

For the first two weeks, between KL and Bangkok we had a guest appearance from Emma's brother Harry, here on a pitstop tour of Malaysia and Thailand in his Easter break!

Kuala Lumpur:

First stop, the great Kuala Lumpur. Emma and I had been saving the main sights for when Harry arrived, so we were all eager to visit the Petronas Twin Towers, along with the Menara Tower which afforded a great view of the city 276 metres below. There were giant telescopes, which were scarily good! I could see a guy having tea with 2 others, on an iPad, on Facebook!! (How anti social). The highlight of the evening was in part a result of amazing market food, and in part a result of Harrys response to us discussing the Tofu in our soup. Harry: "Isn't Tofu a place??". Emma and Alec: "bahaha...Corfu maybe?"

The next day, we travelled 13km north out of the city to the Batu Caves. This was a very photogenic system of three caves, at the top of a quad burning flight of stairs. There were monkeys aplenty, and a giant 43m Murga statue. The highest in the world!

The highlight of these vibrant South East Asian cities is surely the amazing street food, and the absolutely no nonsense taxi/scooter driving. They really do have an imaginary third lane!

But, if you can't beat them join them as we were about to find out in our next stop Langkawi!

Langkawi:

Langkawi is a duty free island 30km off of the west coast of peninsula Malaysia. At over 450 sq. km it is the largest island in an archipelago of 99 islands. Getting here meant a long bus from KL to Kuala Perlis and then a casual 1 hour boat.

Setting the standard early, we hired three 125cc scooters for our time there for optimum exploration!! After a rudimentary pep talk from the shop owner which involved a lot of flailing arms and thumbs up we were away!

It turns out there is much more to Langkawi than just duty-free alcohol. We basically did a 3 day scooter tour taking in the main waterfalls, beaches and tracks. The enjoyment of just riding around exploring with no real aim is not to be underestimated and we spent hours doing just this!

The beaches here were all but deserted, which was really relaxing! The water was warm like having a bath, and the sand white!

In the evenings we did, of course, make the most of the duty free status of the island, especially after beers had been pretty expensive in the rest of Malaysia, and Singapore!

Phuket:

After an extended stay in Langkawi, our last Malaysian stop over, we swapped our Ringgit for Baht, Malay for Thai, and headed for the Thai border via the sea. Our next stop was Phuket, the largest Thai island. If we could have gone straight there by boat we would have! Sadly, you can only get these silly visa things from certain places!!

Hours, and hours, and hours, later, squashed up to the window by a sweaty, 'seasonally' plump, pungent Ozzie, we arrived!

Our accommodation in Phuket was in the heart of the 'entertainment' area of town, Patong Beach. Lady boys, ping pong shows and preying middle age westerners were the order of the day here! Not exactly the Thai cultural experience we were expecting, but an eye opener nonetheless...

Our hostel manager had an uncanny resemblance to Mr Chow! (From 'The Hangover'). The way he walked, the way he talked had "we had a sick night bit**es" all over it. Hilarious! At the time, we assumed he was aware of who he reminded everyone of, but in hindsight, maybe he wondered why everyone laughed at everything he said!

Despite its overwhelming seedy side, we had a lot of fun in Phuket.

Harry and Emma had given me a good account of what to expect of the Tuc Tucs from their previous experiences. So, we were all surprised to see the modernised ones here. Don't worry, they still take you wherever THEY want, and charge too much though!

In between beaching, and touring all of the happy hours along the coast, we (Emma) thought it prudent to have a pedicure! Why not...

With all of our feet sorted, and a free Aloe Vera rub down for Harry and I, we decided to get our hair done as well!

Emma had her hair braided, Harry and I had a short back and sides. Well, Harry got a bit more than he bargained for... Not my place to say :D hahahaha.

Phuket was a good initiation for Bangkok to come...

Bangkok:

Having been spoilt with beach after beach in last couple of weeks, we shot off to the buzzing metropolis of Bangkok.

Bangkok punches an equal weight as London, in terms of both population and square metre-age! That is about where the similarities end though...

As we experienced...

Bangkok has so many methods of transport. Some worth trying, some not! Hopping on the back of a taxi-motorbike is a personal favourite. This is definitely the fastest mode, weaving in an out of traffic at speed, paying complete disregard to all traffic rules and lights! Loved it! And somehow all three of us managed to turn up at our destination at the same time..

Next, tuk tuk. Once you have bartered and bartered and bartered, these can be affordable and certainly exciting as well! However, almost always the drivers are borderline blind and have no clue where they are going. Pros and cons...

Metered taxi, cheapest, air con, but boring and nightmares in traffic!

Bus, absolute no go if you want to get somewhere, ever!

Finally the metro. Fixed prices are a bonus, but like KL, the stops never really seem to be near anywhere!

Our first main excursion was to the stomach churning Forensic Science Museum! If you want to see photos, see Emma, as Harry and I have erased all photos from any hardware and long term memory! Highlights, if you can call them that, were preserved Siamese Twins and two headed babies etc. I would explain more but I'm eating!

China town was awesome. We ate here several times. Some of the seating was literally in the road, and cars were swerving around us!

Koh San Road was party sentral! We didn't take part in the western unpleasantries and opted for a Thai Massage instead.

On maybe the second day, we partook in the Silom Thai ookery class. This was such a great day, not only because we widened our culinary expertise, but we also ate everything that we made!! First we went to the local market and purchased all of the necessary ingredients, then we created Pad Thai (Yes!!), green curry, Tom yam soup, spicy salad and a banana coconut desert!

On maybe our third day, we visited the largest market in Bangkok. After a dehydrated yomp around 37 square acres, we weren't disputing that... Everything was available here from books, to dogs, to clothes, to antiques, to plants!

As a last hoorah before Harry left we treated ourselves to a cocktail or two on the Blue Sky Roof Bar. Getting there was an ordeal and a half, involving a tuk tuk through an underground car park. Don't ask! Once there, the views of Bangkok below we're awesome. A great way for Harry to leave for England, and us to leave for Chaing Mai!

Taman Negara National Park

The next leg of our travels took us deep into the Malaysian rainforest! At 130 million years old (give or take), the Taman Negara National Park seems to have a fairly legitimate claim to be the oldest rainforest in the world. This beautiful national park lies on the eastern coast of mainland Malaysia in the state of Pahang. A good 6 hours from Kuala Lumpur, we imagined the journey was going to be a right ordeal!

Instead we were pleasantly surprised as we cruised east for 3 hours in a 'luxury' bus to Kuala Tembelling, and then a further 3 hours by boat up the Tembelling River. I am using the word boat in the loosest possible sense, as whilst we travelled in considerable local style, we were essentially in a motorised punt :)

This journey was one of the highlights of our time in the park. It gives you a great perspective of the rainforest and a lot of the wildlife hang out at the rivers edge...mainly water buffalo!

Once at Kuala Tahan, we explored the different accommodations and decided on a pretty unique mud hut called Agoh Chalet. This was our humble abode for the next 4/5 nights. After a very long day travelling, we swept the geckos aside and set about recharging the batteries...

The next day we spent 6/7 hours hiking in the valley and eventually to the peak of Teresek Hill! Experiencing the longest canopy walkway in the world was surely the highlight. 40-50 metres above the rainforest floor, delicately perched in the tree canopies, are a maze of rope bridges. The guides seem confident that each section can hold 5 tonnes but we were far from convinced!

After a swift summit of Teresek Hill we made our way down to Lumbok Simpon, a greatly recommended swimming hole on the river! The best way I can describe the water is brown, clean and clear. (I imagine the brown comes from all of the iron). There is nothing better than a swim in a cold river after hours of hiking in mid-high 30s. We had a small hike through leechy dense forrest ahead, otherwise we would have stayed here well into the evening!

For an evenings meal, there was a selection of floating restaurants along the river at Kuala Tahan. After a few dodgy dishes, we decided to stick to the 'Mama Chop' barge. They sold a pretty tasty prawn curry that Emma had every night! Mango Lassi aswell..mmm.

After we had exhausted all of the options around the area that didn't need a guide, we booked ourselves onto a 4x4 night safari. Without a decent 4x4 and a powerful spotlight to hand, we gave in and paid the RM40. This actually turned out to be one of the better £8s we have spent. Two hours winding through rainforest tracks, sitting on the roof of a 4x4, searching for any manner of wildlife. We saw....leopard cats, wild boar, birds of prey, owls and angry looking cows! So, sadly no tigers, elephants, or monkeys but good fun anyway!

As far, our blog hasn't exactly been aimed at giving advice for future travellers. However, if there is one pearl of wisdom that we can offer, it is this...

(If you are on a budget) Avoid money grabbing tour companies at all costs.! When travelling to remote parts of the world, people are easily persuaded that you HAVE to be part of a tour and pay through the nose to experience that place. In fact, if you are willing to do the leg work to research and plan your own trip you will not only pay a fraction of the price, but most likely get much more out of your experience as well! However, If you have a larger budget and like everything to be organised then tour companies are a good way to go. So long as people realise that it is not the ONLY route, I'm happy :D

The bus ride from Kuala Tahan to Jerantut was a unique and awesome experience. This was a 1.5 hour local bus, packed with far too many people, going far too fast and seemingly too close to the cliff edge! But we paid RM7 (<£2) compared to the RM75 that tour companies charge. Experience the way that locals travel, and pay less! Win-win!

Next stop KL!