Laos Part 2

I was a little unsure about Laos the last time I wrote, but I've been here over a week now and I really love it. It's a fascinating place; you can almost see it changing every day, with new roads and hotels and bars everywhere. Apparently 5 years ago there were no major roads. Now they do have some, although potholes are common and they twist and turn in a vomit inducing way for hours and hours up and down various mountains.

I left Luang Prabang after a few days, and I'm now in Vang Vieng, about to take a bus to the capital Vientiane this afternoon. Luang Prabang -Vang Vieng -Vientiane is the major tourist route, and I don't know whether I can honestly say that I've seen the 'real' Laos yet, but I am going south through the rest of Laos after Vientiane, so perhaps I will then. I'm feeling much braver now that I've had a week here. We've been travelling in a group since Chiang Mai, have met so many people, and have had ridiculous amounts of fun, but I'm striking out a little bit more on my own now. Although I do know 4 other people taking my bus. You really do never travel alone when you travel alone!

There's so much I could write about the stately beauty of Luang Prabang, the Mekong, the good food, the Frenchness, or the incredibly expensive everything. Or about Vang Vieng, and the tubing on the river, the drinking, the awful food, the sleep deprivation, the euro house soundtrack, the amount of English people, or the endless fun of it all. Or more about Laos and the Lao people, and the poverty and the super fast change, the curfew and the government and the currency that makes you feel like a millionaire. Or even about travelling, and all the people you meet and talk to about all the places you've been and are going to, but I'm not going to write about any of that as my bus is coming in a few minutes and I need to buy a cheese sandwich for the journey. Will write more soon!

Oh, and yesterday my camera got wet when we were tubing on the river, so I may be photoless for a while unless it miraculously dries out... Hong Kong camera purchase here I come.

Slowly getting to Luang Prabang

My last post was written from Chiang Mai in Thailand, and this one is written from Luang Prabang in Laos, after a 6 hour overnight bus ride, 5 hours sleep in a hotel room, one short ferry across a river, a border crossing and 2 days on a slow boat. Of the various ways to get to Laos from Thailand, the slow boat is definitely the one to go with: it is admittedly cramped and uncomfortable, but the views along the Mekong are stunning, and the whole boat is full of travellers all doing the same thing (Laos people take the 11 hour bus) we met loads of like minded people and swapped all the usual traveller stories about where we've been and where we're going. The other water based option was the speed boat in 6 hours. Everyone warns you not to do it as it's really dangerous and uncomfortable, but the true horror of it escaped me until we saw the tiny speedboats flying past us, with 5 or 6 people curled into tiny balls and wearing crash helmets and life jackets. 6 hours like that would have been hell - I'm glad I could take 2 days over the journey.

The boat ride includes a one night stop at a tiny village called Pak Beng, as it obviously can't continue down the Mekong in complete darkness. Pak Beng is, to be honest, a pretty crude introduction to just how poor Laos is. Within a second of getting off the boat, a small child spotted the packet of pistachios in my bag and started begging me for them, and another asked Marcella for her bottle of Coke. They got both and looked so genuinely pleased about it that I spent the next hour or so feeling terrible about all the money I've spent in the last couple of weeks. The average yearly wage in Laos is 1000 USD a year, and I've spent more than that since leaving London 4 weeks ago. Pak Beng only has electricity between 6pm and 10pm, and there's technically a 10pm curfew, although they don't really enforce it for tourists. Post the Pak Beng stop, day 2 on the boat was more subdued than day 1 - we all read and listened to music and idly watched the scenery - we were on the darned thing from 9am to 5pm and our games of hangman and making lists of the best James Bond films didn't entertain us for long.

Luang Prabang is beautiful - it is apparently a UNESCO World Heritage site. It's full of backpackers, but also lots of older people travelling in tour groups. Heaven knows how they get here, as I wouldn't put a 50 year old on that boat for 2 days. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot to do here apart from wandering around, eating, drinking coffee and seeing temples, but I really like it. The boys that we are travelling with are already bored though, and will probably head to Vang Vieng tomorrow. Vang Vieng is backpacker drinking central, where you can take an inflatable tube down the river whilst stopping at lots of bars. I will inevitably go there, as it sounds fun and is on my route south, I just don't know when yet. Our room is the nicest so far since the Ko Samui luxury - 5 pounds a night for hot water and clean white sheets and wooden floors. After 2 days on a boat, all that stuff is genuinely exciting.

Laos is very different to Thailand: it's much poorer, there are no scams, and each place has a curfew. In Luang Prabang it's midnight, although last night we broke it to go to the bowling alley, which is apparently the only place open after midnight in the entire town. It was full of Brits (so many English people everywhere, it's insane) and it was lots of fun if a little bizarre. I got a strike, for the first time in my entire life. Twas a shame none of you were there to see my triumph. I'm not sure what happens to the tuk tuk drivers who break curfew to take us there and back. Or how people survive here when the daily wage is 1USD - less than the price of a can of BeerLao. Or how they remain so content when they see travellers everywhere flashing money and gadgets that they will never have. Maybe I'll work it out in the next 2 weeks.

All Laos suggestions from those of you that have been here before much appreciated: Lonely Planet is officially useless and I'm going on other people's advice for the rest of my South East Asia time!

Thailand is...

- the land of the unpronounceable language
- my frustration at not being able to pronounce the language
- a 7 Eleven on every street
- a noodle seller on every street
- buying Chang beer at the 7 Eleven and drinking it with noodles from the street seller
- learning the next day that it's worth spending the extra 10 baht on Singha beer rather than Chang
- everyone saying 'same same but different'
- trying to eat spicy food at breakfast and giving up
- eating lots of tiny meals every day and never feeling full
- being eaten alive by mosquitoes
- wondering whether I really need the perfect fake red Ray Bans on sale at the night market
- a really gory kick-boxing match featuring 2 six year old fighters
- a small bottle of Sangsom rum from the 7 Eleven with a bucket of ice and Coke bought in a bar
- learning to accept slow internet connections
- meeting lots of people, all the time
- the easiest place in the world to travel
- so many services for travellers and backpackers that it's impossible to travel like a Thai
- where I am for the next few days but I must eventually leave for Laos
- not as beautiful as it would be if all the people I miss were here
- but still beautiful

Chiang Mai - 2 day treks and real live elephants

I realised very quickly almost as soon as I left Bangkok that the reason I was so lethargic there was because of the crazily heavy pollution, which coupled with the humidity, makes it really hard to do anything at all. Bit of a relief not to feel like that anymore as I was fearing the onset of glandular fever.

I took the night bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, spending 11 hours on a freezing cold bus listening to people snoring whilst I got no sleep at all. As you can imagine I wasn't happy. We were picked up on arrival in Chiang Mai by people from the Nice Place guest house, who took us to their hostel and gave us coffee whilst trying to get us to stay there and buy their trekking packages. It's apparently very common for this to happen when you get a tourist bus: your ticket is really cheap but you've already been sold into a guest house in your destination. As it turns out, the Nice Place is well named - I'm sharing a big room with another English girl for only 100 baht (2 pound or so) with hot water, it has a pool, and I've met lots of good people there, so it wasn't so bad to have been pre-sold. As you all know, at 6am I'm not capable of making a decision on anything, so I'm glad that taking the easiest option of staying there and taking their trek has worked out well.

After a day hanging out in Chiang Mai (read making up for lost sleep), I headed off with a group of 8 (2 Aussies, 2 Italians, 2 Israelis, a Swede and me) to spend 2 days and 1 night trekking in the mountains. We drove for about 3 hours north of here, ending up at a village that was only a few miles away from the Burmese border. We were pretty near Pai, if that means anything to anyone. We were fed and shown round the village, then went off trekking to the village that we were to spend the night in. We only walked for about an hour and a half, but it was right in the middle of the day and was really really hard work. I was trying not to be pathetic and start whimpering and wanting to go home but I don't know how successful I was.

The village that we stayed in belonged to a hill tribe called the Lesu people. I was expecting them to be an ancient Thai tribe, but actually they've only been living there for 35 years since they fled Burma. I felt slightly cheated!

It was more than a little strange spending the evening with them. Trekking was similar to diving - I did it because it's a cool thing to do when in Thailand without really thinking about what it actually entailed. The village people have trekking groups staying with them every night, and it crossed my mind more than once whether they would actually be doing their 'traditional Chinese New Year dancing' if we hadn't been there. A fair few of the village teenagers looked really bored by it, and seemed more interested in playing 'Wonderwall' for us on their guitars. Our guide cared most about the Liverpool score. Still, I'm really glad I did it, as it was really beautiful up there in the mountains, and because Day 2 involved elephants.

After a crazy 7am start to avoid the heat, we trekked off again, this time climbing a few mountains in a couple of hours, before a stop at a (freezing cold) waterfall, where I was hoping to get some food but was not in luck, them a few hours more trekking before we got to the hotly anticipated elephants. We rode them for a whole hour, and it was so incredibly peaceful just padding through the jungle watching the world go by. Klaus the Swede and I got a proper seat on the daddy elephant, but one of the unlucky Aussies had to sit on his neck and grab hold whilst suffering leg cramps. Daddy elephant kept hitting him with his ears and didn't seem happy at all. It seemed like the elephants were pretty well treat; we didn't see them being hit and they were free to stop and eat when they felt like it.

Post elephants there was yet more trekking, which was again painful as by this time it was pretty hot, before being driven to the river where we were taken bamboo rafting. We went on some rafts down a river, they were made of bamboo, it was quite peaceful but we all got soaked. This was the last part of the trek, and by this time I was so hungry I could have eaten the bamboo. I find that, although I really like Thai food, my body just can't cope with the lack of protein (there's tiny amounts of meat in the dishes) or carbs (rice just not as good as pasta!), so I have to eat Western food every couple of days. At the end of the trek all of us were craving pizza, steak and chips. I'm here for months, and hunger pangs are winning over keeping it real.

We've been lazily hanging around Chiang Mai today, doing washing and sitting by the pool. We wandered around some markets for a bit, but today is frankly not a day to do very much. I'm going to an all day Thai cookery school tomorrow, then heading off into Laos at some point in the next few days, where I will be for a few weeks.

I'm enjoying writing this blog, but the internet connections here are so slow, and will only be slower in Laos, so I may not write for a little while. I hate slow internet connections about as much as I hate bad grammar and being patronised, which is a lot, but hopefully the fact that I'm having an absolutely amazing time comes across when I write, rather than my frustration at the advertised 'super fast connection' being a blatant lie. I fear I haven't quite let my London self go yet.

Learning to do nothing much at all

I'm still in Bangkok but heading up to Chiang Mai on the overnight bus tonight. I haven't been using my last day in Bangkok time very productively though - I've been sat in a cafe reading (Russell Brand's autobiography, quite the page turner, incidentally) since I checked out of dingy hostel this morning. I'm fighting the guilt pangs that I'm getting from being so lazy; I'm so used to doing so much stuff every day in London that it's hard to get used to doing so little. Part of me feels like I should be out there seeing every last drop of what Bangkok has to offer, but during the day it's so hot and humid that I can't really move about much during the day. Poor northern little me just can't cope with this heat - so so tired...

Knowing I'm on such a long trip doesn't help either - it's not that I have 2 weeks off work so I need to make the most of every minute - I have 10 months stretching ahead of me, and given that I haven't even been away 3 weeks yet, that seems like a very very long time.

Some of my laziness might also have something to do with being in Thailand, or South East Asia, rather than somewhere less relaxed. People here are really laid back, even in Bangkok, and the urge to do not very much is quite infectious. Also, since I can't communicate properly with Thai people, which is still annoying the hell out of me, there's a limit to how many people I can get out there and meet, and as beautiful as the temples are, they are all remarkably similar once you've seen 10 or so. All in all, being lazy seems to be the way forward. I'm still beating myself up about it though, despite all that justification. Probably the Catholic guilt again.

I've met some cool people in Bangkok - mainly English teachers who've been here a couple of months but are still living in Khao San hostels rather than having their own apartments. I've gone from hating Khao San on sight when I frist arrived to actually quite liking it - I had it described to me as a permanent version of Glastonbury, which in some ways it sort of is. I think as long as you accept that it is nothing more than a few streets where everything is geared towards backpackers, and not some exotic place where you go to find yourself (or similar Thai inspired hippy drivel) then it's a perfectly nice place to spend a few days.

More Bangkok. But a bit more Thai.

2 posts in 2 days - get me.

I'm still in Bangkok, and still don't know when I'm leaving - I'm dragging my heels about making any plans to go north as I really like it here. It's a bit of a curse being a city girl - I'd have so much more money to travel with if I felt happiest in small mountain villages...

I've just got back to the backpacker ghetto after a brilliant day out in proper Bangkok. Philip Sweeney and his really lovely wife Naline (I think that's how it's spelt) took me out today and showed me loads of cool stuff that I wouldn't have otherwise even known about. We went to a tiny island north of Bangkok called Ko Kret, which you access by river ferry after a big taxi ride. There are no cars on the island, but lots of temples, and all you could hear was dogs barking and birds singing. We walked about a bit, had some amazing food, and I had lots of things pointed out to me that I would otherwise have missed, like what each of the different fruit trees are, and why the Buddha statues at the Wats (temples) have different poses. I believe Ko Kret to be in the Lonely Planet, but there were no other farang (that means foreigner) there at all.

Once we'd gone round the island once, we got a taxi back into central Bangkok, and went into one of the totally amazing and better than the UK shopping malls for some much needed air conditioning and coffee. Just outside the shopping malls are a few Buddhist shrines where shoppers go to pray to the saint of love, or work, or probably lots of other things. It's a brilliant sight to see people with bags full of clothes going to buy incense and flowers and spending a few minutes praying before going shopping again. The shrines look beautiful as they are almost entirely covered in flowers, and the smell of incense is overpowering. I took some ace mall/shrine juxtaposition type pics.

We then got back into a taxi - lots of time has been spent in taxis today, but they are super cheap as long as the driver uses the meter - and went to Chinatown for food. Phil and Naline took me to this tiny place where we ate some of the best seafood I've ever had in my life, France included. We shared barbequed prawns, oysters, crab and sea snails - mmm. There was then time for a quick wander around the streets of Chinatown with me gawping at the gory food you can buy and the amount of gold shops there are, before coming back up here to relate all this on the interweb.

I feel like I have a much firmer grasp on all things Thai now - I've had food, the monarchy, politics and religion explained to me today, and for that I am very grateful. I just need to get over my inability to learn any darned Thai. Have I mentioned that I *hate* not being able to make myself understood? My brain keeps trying to break words down the way that you do when you're learning a European language, which is obviously useless with Thai. Lord knows what I'll be like in Japan.

I'm exhausted now and am off for an early night before doing the tourist essentials tomorrow. I feel a bit guilty for having been here for 3 days without having been to the Grand Palace or any major temples yet, so that is my task for demain.

PS - Lovely to talk to you today Mum xx

Diving in Ko Tao and dancing in Bangkok

I realise I've been very bad at keeping this up to date, so this is probably going to be a very very long post...

Since I last wrote over a week ago, I've managed to pack in more things than I would have in a whole month in the UK. I left Ko Samui on Sunday and tried not to cry as I said goodbye to Ian, then got the ferry to Ko Tao. The whole island is set up for people learning to dive, but I signed up with a school on a recommendation and I'm really glad I did. They all offer about the same deal - you got 4 nights accomodation and tuition to become an Open Water diver for about 200 quid.

The school I went to was run by a French/English guy and most of the instructors, dive masters and students were either one or the other. I met loads of really genuinely nice people, most of whom came to Ko Tao for a couple of days and ended up staying years. I can understand why: Ko Tao is still really quiet and much less package touristy than Samui.

The Open Water course was brilliant - I was lucky enough to be the only student of my ace instructor, Dave, and although I did freak out for about 5 minutes before I had to go *into the actual sea* for the first time, I was a lot less rubbish at it than I had feared. I didn't realise that diving was a) incredibly tiring and b) incredibly rewarding. I think I took the course because it's something that you're supposed to do, without really thinking about what the diving itself entailed. I'm so genuinely glad that I learnt, and hopefully will get to do a lot more over the course of my trip. You feel like a fish!

As an aside, some of you will be unsurprised to note that I have now added 'in the sea' to the inexhaustible list of places that I've been sick: a 7.30am dive, no breakfast but too much coffee, a rocky boat ride - it was always going to happen.

As tempting as it was to spend the rest of my SE Asia time hanging out on Ko Tao, I made the move up to Bangkok on the Friday night overnight ferry/coach combo. My 'sleeping absolutely anywhere' skill kicked in on the 10 hour bus ride, and I arrived in Bangkok at 5am feeling like I'd had a proper night's sleep in a real bed. Given that it took me (with the help of a lovely Irish couple) an entire hour of wandering around the Khao San Road and its surrounding streets to find anywhere to stay at that time in the morning in high season, it's pretty fortunate that I had a good 8 hours sleep on my side.

As a result of this late arrival, I'm staying in a less than amazing hostel, but it is very cheap, my room does have air-con, and I'm gradually getting used to the prison cell style decor they've gone for.

I wandered around Bangkok a bit yesterday, going on the river ferry and the up in the air Skytrain. I'm really happy to be back in a city again - Bangkok may be full of backpackers but there are at least some actual Thai people here rather than just Westerners as there are on the islands. I think I understand Ian when he said he could live here - it's Asian and western and traditional and modern and super tolerant all at the same time. I don't think I've ever felt so safe in a city of 16 million people.

Last night I was invited out by Chloe's cousin Serge who lives and works as a dj/promoter out here. He'd mentioned that it would be a good idea for me to get back for this Saturday as there was a good night planned, but I hadn't realised that he was actually talking about Bangkok's biggest dance music festival, with 10,000 people going crazy for lots of flown in from Europe djs. It was heartening in a way that these events are pretty similar across the entire world - same fashions and music styles. The only difference was the utter absence of the cooler than thou attitude that is so omnipresent in London. The Thai crowd were endlessly smiley and accomodating, and I didn't see any agressive drunken behaviour from anyone at any point, even as I was scrambling for a taxi at 4am. I did lots of dancing, met some lovely people and was really glad to see a side of Bangkok that I probably wouldn't have known about had I not been invited by Serge.

Predictably I don't feel up to doing much in the sweltering heat today, so I am reading and blogging in an air conditioned cafe... I'm being shown around some Bangkok sights by Philip Sweeney, who some of you will know went to school with us, and lives out here working as an English teacher. I can't wait to pick the poor man's brain with a million Thailand questions.

I still don't know how long I'm going to stay in Bangkok. I imagine I shall be here for at least a few more days as I haven't done any of the big tourist sites yet, or sorted out any of the things I need to sort while I'm here. After BKK, I think my trip will take me north, via Chiang Mai through Laos and Cambodia, before coming back to Bangkok or perhaps having a few days beach time before leaving for Hong Kong. But I may change my mind - who knows.

It's pretty hard to believe that I've only been here for 2 weeks - I've done so much and it already seems hard to remember what life is like without a backpack, a big guidebook and a mango shake 3 times a day. I can't let myself think how much time I still have left of my trip, as it scares the hell out of me, so I'm trying to just concentrate on my SE Asia 2 months for now.

I don't feel that I've really seen much of proper Thailand yet, and I'm hoping that will change in the next few weeks. I'm learning 2 new Thai phrases every day (today's are 'I understand' and, more importantly, 'I don't understand'). The taxi driver that drove me out to the festival site last night was trying to explain what's going on in Thai politics to me (one of the main roads was closed for a pro Thaksin demonstration) and I could only catch half of what he was saying, between the Thai words he was using and the heavily accented English, and it *really annoys me*!

Apologies for the enormous post, and well done for getting this far. I could write so much more, but my internet money is running out, so instead I shall pledge to update this more than once a week, meaning that you'll get much more managable blog chunks from now on!