From Hanoi it took us 11 hours to reach the Loas border by bus, it wasnt that bad as we slept for most of the journey lol! we stopped off at a really small village called Lac Sao. it was really stange as it only had one shop, one restaurant etc and was completly different to Hanoi. The restaurant was very strange and we were the only people in there, we ordered our food which was chicken with rice ( the usual) and that wasnt what we got, infact no one got what they ordered lol!!
The whole village was alittle scary and it seemed like we were in a horror film, what made it worse was the hotel only had one english channel and a horror film was on :(
The next day we left Lac Sao at 7am and travelled for 6hrs to Vientaine (the capital of Loas) it was completly different to Vietnam, no bibbing of horns or thousands of motorbikes, It was alot quieter. We attempted to hire some bycycles when we arrived there but found out they were pretty rubbish and had no brakes so decided against it lol! in the end we got a Tuk Tuk and expored the city, we stopped at the Patuxai monument and got a classic photo with us jumping off the fountain with the monument in the background :)
In the evening there were fireworks going off everywhere and floating lanterns filling the sky. it was amazing!! we realised it was due to the 'light festival' there were crowds of people everywhere lighting candles. it was so unexpected and very beautiful. We bought a floating candle, lit in and placed it on the mekong river with thousnads of others, it is seen as an offering to the gods and you will get good luck for the rest of the year. It was an amazing sight.
The next day we travelled to Vang Vieng (the home of tubing) we decided to go tubing as soon as we got there, the weather hadnt been that good so it didnt matter if it rained as we would be floating down the river in rubber rings anyway lol!! we signed a disclaimer which none of us knew what it meant and got a tuk tuk to the river with our rubber rings attached.
when we arrived there were bars complete with body spray, rope swings, slides, music and shots. Each bar we passed through out robes to help us in from the river, they also gave us shots of god knows what, all i know is that at the bottom of the bottle there were crickets and snakes errr!!!
As it got later obviously it got darker and we were still floating down the river, we managed to get out but a few people carried on down the river and lets just say Steph had to do a rescue mission in the dark, all those years of swimming paid off, although she did come back without any flip flops or shorts lol!!
As we had so much fun tubing we went again the next day, however i was alittle more careful this time as i slipped over in the shower right on my butt lol!! (has been an occuring thing on this trip) i decided not to do any of the jumps or swings but steph did. i was petrified for her but i knew she wanted to do it, everyone was cheering and encouraging her. we also managed to get to the end of the river before it got dark woohoo!!
After Vang Viend we headed to Luang Prabang, the bus journey was 7 hrs and it was the most uncomfortable journey so far, the roads were really windy and bumpy, not very good for 7 hrs lol!! we arrived at UNESCO heritage listed town and stayed in a guesthouse, it was so pieceful so we decided to hire bycyles to explore the local area, i loved the bikes :) we stopped off at a bar called utopia, it had a river view and you could lie down looking over it, it was so relaxing. in the vening me and steph ordered a bbq for dinner, this consisted of cooking the food ourselves at the table lol! was very strange cooking in the middle of the table whilst having a conversation with other people.we had buffalo which was lovely. after dinner we browsed the night market , the loas style of selling was much more enjoyable as they let u look and didnt hassle you.
in the morning we went to the Elephant village , a santuary for elephants. they previously worked in the logging industry and are very old. we went on a trek on the back of the elephants through rough terrain and a river it was incredable. on a few occasions i did think we may fall out lol! we also fed them bananas, they eat 250 kilos a day!! whilst feeding the elephant a banana it got confused with what was my hand and what was the banana and my hand nearly got eaten hehe!!
after spending time with the elephants we headed up the river on a small thin boat to the waterfalls, we swam in them but the water was freezing, i climbed up the watrefall and jumped in lol!!
the next 2 days we travelled up the mekong river passed Pak Beng to the loas/ Thailand border. on the way there we stopped off at a small village and saw how they live, it was so basic, living in little wooden huts. the children were so lovely and followed us back to the boat hehe!!
our adventure leads us to Northern Thailand, we will keep u updated :) x x x x
Lou and Steph x x x x x x x x
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