Vientiane

Patuxai

I arrived in Vientiane two days ago and upon my arrival got a good feeling about this town. I booked into a great guest house and the place had a really nice feel to it. As I arrived after dark I didn’t explore too far but found a nice pub in the road adjacent to mine. It was showing ‘Wimbledon’ and during the course of the evening a number of people who I met in Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng who obviously had the same idea, turned up and we had a good time.

I went on a walking tour the next day as recommended in the guide book but quickly found this disappointing, most of the sights were foreign embassies or just buildings and not really of much interest.

View from Patuxai... Not bad

The biggest attraction in Vientiane is a building called Patuxai, which is basically an Arc de Triomphe done on the cheap. It was up in the 1960s and made entirely of concrete, even the marketing department of the Vientiane put a plaque on the wall describing it as ‘a monster of concrete’. The interior had not been decorated and the staircases were similar to the ones found in multi story car parks.

The only other recommended tour was of the ‘Lao textile museum’ which I didn’t really feel up for. It’s probably better than the ‘museum of counterfeit good’ in Bangkok (this really does exist) but I didn’t want to pay to find out.

Love the honestly!

Sadly Patuxai was the highlight of the sightseeing tour in Vientiane. There was not much else to see or do. I’ve checked the internet and the guide book but there is nothing. Not even a bar with a pool table. I met a number of people I knew later in the evening who had come to the same conclusion and had already booked tickets to move on out of town.

Tonight is my third and final night in Vientiane tonight and have booked a bus for 7pm tomorrow. I’m really not sure what I’m going to do with my day. The only thing I can think of is to find the mayor of Vientiane and present him with an award for ‘the dullest capital city in the world’. I could even chip away a piece of the concrete monster and get it mounded in some away to present him as a trophy. 

Vang Vieng - Tubing

Vang Vieng town centre

I arrived in Vang Vieng two nights ago. Another journey, another old bus but I made it safely. The trip involved going around lots of tight mountain roads with cliffs on one side and huge drops on the other. This didn’t deter the driver from driving as fast as possible and overtaking on blind corners. There were a couple of times I had to shut my eyes and just hope we stayed on the road but as I said we made it in one piece.

Vang Vieng is another ‘party’ place but is also home to tubing which I was told is a must do activity. This involves being taken about 4km up stream then sitting in a big rubber ring and floating back to town. The whole trip takes about 60 minutes but littered along the river are many bars playing loud music so this usually takes a lot longer. Each bar has a different attraction to get people in like water slides. The staff at the various bars throw bottles tied to rope to drag you in. Getting everyone from your group to the same bar was a challenge and often involved teamwork.

The river we floated down

I started at 11am with a group of people I’d met at other points on my trips. It was very busy with people exchanging stories of how good it was to not be working and spending the day drinking and floating down a river on a rubber ring. At the second bar I played in a game of football on this sandy pitch with people from all over the world, a few minutes in we got hit by a monsoon but carried on playing. The pitch became a swimming pool but it was great fun (I scored the winning goal!!)

Bridge across the river with cliffs

The rain lasted for about 2 hours but added to the whole strange experience. One of the bars had a waterside which has been dubbed the ‘slide of death’ as rumour has it a few people has not survived it. It was the best slide I’ve ever been on. It shot you out into the river from about 4 metres up and very fast. To make sure it was safe I let this other chap I was with go first (he was a Spurs fan so it’s ok) once I saw he was ok I took that as confirmation that it’s safe.

View from my Balcony

We ended up getting back at around 7pm at which time it was very dark. It was a fantastic day, such a bizarre experience and one of the most fun things I’ve done. The scenery was again amazing with huge cliffs providing the backdrop. Unfortunately I couldn’t take my camera with me due to it not being waterproof but I’ve got some shots from around town.

I’m off to the Laos capital Vientiane later today, as I think you can have too much of a good thing!

Phonesavan and 'The Plain of Jars'

I arrived in a town called Phonsavan yesterday from Luang Prabang. I feared the worst when I arrived at the bus station and saw my bus; it looked older than me. It was a local bus so I was one of only three western people using its services. Fortunately it wasn’t too hot so the bus was relatively cool. Things did get worse when the driver turned on the TV and played what I can only think was Laos Karaoke except the same song played for about an hour at which point I think it was even too much for him and he turned it off.

At one point it started to rain outside which somehow made it rain inside, the whole bus was leaking and thoroughly soaked by the time we arrived after the 9 hour journey. Saying that as always in Laos there was some great scenery en route which took us over lots of mountains.

US Bombs

The Phonsavan region is well known for a couple of reasons. Firstly it was repeatedly bombed by the US during Indochina wars (which were around the same time as the war with Vietnam), even though Laos was neutral. Around 1.5 million tonnes of bombs were dropped over a 9 year period, killing thousands of people and unexploded Bombs (UXOs) are still blowing up people today. I went to see some films put on by the local museum about the problems facing the people in the area. Efforts are being made to clear the UXOs but large numbers are still on land which mean the people can’t use these areas for farming or building which in turn keeps Laos from developing as a country.

Very old Jars....Hundreds of em

Secondly Phonsavan is close to the Plains of Jars, which I visited today. The Plains of Jars are basically 2000 to 3000 year old Jars on hills and no one really knows why they are there. It’s a bit like Laos’s Stone Henge. Some theories are that the Jars were used to put dead bodies in to decompose and some think they were used for cooking and making Whisky.

There are a total of three sites. The third one could only be reached by going through some paddy fields which was pretty fun. All through the Jar site visits we had to stay on the marked tracks due to many bombs still in the fields. The guide told us that occasionally cattle walk into the long grass and get blown up. The fields are full of bomb craters and trenches from the wars.

Paddy Fields

We also were taken to a place called ‘Whisky Village’. We watched an old man making some rice whisky in his shed and were even lucky enough to be given a free sample... It’s not something I’ll be rushing out to buy any time soon and don’t expect to see this stuff in Tesco.

Moving again tomorrow morning to a place call Vang Vieng. More about that later.

Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang

I’ve been in Luang Prabang for the past two nights and tonight will be my last before moving to a place call Phonsavan which is close to the Plains of Jar, an area that was involved heavily with the Indochina wars some 40 years ago.

Luang Prabang is one of the biggest towns in Laos but what is strange is that it’s comparable in size to Swanage in Dorset. It’been a good few days as all the people who travelled on the boat from Thailand have also been staying here so there are lots of people to socialise with.

Waterfall near Luang Prabang

The town is set on the Mekong River which when added to the mountains means there are some great views. The town mainly contains small French style cafes and there is bread on sale which is nice as this was not really available in Thailand.

Yesterday I did a walking tour of the Town which involved some Watt seeing and climbing this big hill in the town centre which has a Watt on top. The best part of the climb was the views of the town and countryside at the top.

Street in Luang Prabang during the storm

Today 15 of us, after lengthy negotiations, got in some tuk-tuks which took us to a waterfall some 20k outside town. One of the Waterfall pools had a great rope swing which was entertaining.  On the way home we were caught in a tropical storm. Tuk-tuks are not the best place to be when one starts and we all got soaked, however the rain is warm which I’m still having trouble getting used to.

What else that is interesting is everything shuts at 11:30pm; it’s a bit like England before 24 hour drinking and all night supermarkets. My bus leaves tomorrow morning at 8:30am and is a 9 hour drive to Phonsavan.

Please note Ive added a new album to the right hand side of the screen.

Passed by Banking Exams!!!

Just a quick note to say that I got confirmation today that I passed the last unit of my Banking exams. The qualification is a Diploma in Higher Education in Financial Markets and Management. I'm sure it will come in useful one day and if nothing else I learnt lots whilst completing it.... Thank you RBS

Thailand to Lao - The Mekong River

Mekong River separating Thailand form Laos

I’ve now arrived at a town called Luang Prabang in Laos after travelling for the past three days from Chiang Mai in Thailand. I left Chiang Mai on Wednesday morning and took a 6 hour mini bus ride to the Thailand Laos border. I had to stay at a small town called Chiang Khong and wait for the ferry the following day that would take me across the Mekong river into Lao.

View of the Mekong River from our Hostel in Pak Beng

After arriving in Laos and completing the visa formalities I took a two day boat ride down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, this would take a further two days. This included a stop off overnight at a very small town called Pak Beng.

On the whole the journey wasn’t too bad. Both day trips on the slow boat were approx 7 hours long and not the most comfortable but I was with many other travellers who were doing the same thing so it was good to chat to all the various people.

The Mekong River

The views from the slow boat of the Mekong River were very impressive. The route was lined with large jungle mountains and small wooden hut villages. Stopping at the small town of Pak Beng was very strange as it contained one small road with wooden hut shops and one bar selling ‘Lao beer’ (the local beer for this country). Met some interesting locals at the village who joined us at the bar. Most of them had spent their whole lives in this small town.

Snake and Scorpion Whisky

One thing they have in Laos is snake whisky. This is basically Whisky with a Cobra stuffed in the bottle (see the picture attached). It looks like they also do a variant of this called scorpion Whisky.  This stuff was being sold everywhere on our arrival at the Laos border u its not something I’ll be drinking anytime soon.

I’ll be staying a total of about 3 weeks in Laos before moving over the border into Cambodia. However there is lots of see and do before this time.

Chiang Mai - Day 3

Cooking green curry with chicken

I went to the Muay Thai boxing again last night with some people i'd met who did not go on Saturday. It was another great evening and good entertainment for the price. most of the matches were great and went the distance, it's a great night out and something I could watch more often. I'll have to see if this is something they do in Vietnam when I finally get there.

I've been on the cooking course today, we were picked up in the morning and taken to the cooking  school which was not far from our hostel.

Being shown around the market by our guide

First of all we were taken to the local market and given a tour of how it works and the various ingredients used in Thai cooking. This was really good to be shown what some of the strange vegestables are that ive been seeing over the past month and told how they are used.

I got to cook seven different dishes during the course of the day which included fried rice with chicken, green curry with chicken, fried cashew nuts with chicken, spring rolls, chicken in coconut milk soup and mango with sticky rice. I did get to choose from a list what I could cook and only realised after that prety much all my dishes were chicken based.

Sitting down to eat the fried rice with chicken

I was suprised how easy and tasty alot of the dishes were. One great thing was that we got to eat the food we cooked but as you can imagine we were all pretty stuffed by the end of the day.

I'm leaving for the Thailand / Laos border tomorrow morning. I'm booked on a 5.5hr minibus to Chiang Khong where I will stay the night before crossing the Mekong river into Huay Xai, Laos. I'll then have a two day slow boat ride down the  Mekong river stopping at Pak Beng for the night before ending up in Luang Prabang. It will be a shame to leave Chiang Mai as there is so much more I'd like to do.

I made this! Fried rice with chicken

Everyone ive met has said that they really like Chiang Mai. The hostel im in is great and ive met some great people however ive only heard good things about Laos so im looking forward to it and seeing some great scenairy on the slow boat trip.

Chaing Mai - Day 2

Near the top of the moutain

After yesterdays excitment at the Muay Thai Boxing I went Mountain biking which was fantastic. We started about 9 am and was taken to get our safety equipment from the mountain biking shop. I'd opted for an intermediate course which was good as there were a number of other guys had done the same.

We were driven for about an hour up a Jungle mountain. When we did stop there was a noticable difference in the temperature and humidity.... This was such a nice feeling and reminded me of England. We had driven to a height of 1,600 meters above Chiang Mai and would be mountain biking down to a height of 400 meters over the 3 hour ride.

Clouds on the hills during the ride

After our safety briefing we set off and after 5 minutes I crashed. I put my front tyre in a huge pot hole and went over my handle bars. I was going pretty quickly and hit my shoulder and knee. Fortunalty the safety equipment had done its job and I only got a couple of scratches.

It did make me more cautious after and I didn't crash again. One Australian chap who was with us crashed about 5 times. The crashes were spectacular but he was ok everytime but had some good cuts and bruises... It could have been alot worse.

The scenery on the way down was breath taking. Being able to look over a Jungle mountain and see all sorts of strange wildflife was fantastic. We stopped for coffee at a small shack up in the mountain and were shown some opium plants that has been cut down in the area - the guy couldn't give us any more details than that....... The ride was very challenging and I can honestly say that at the end I was shattered.

Lake hut where we had lunch

We stopped for lunch at the end of the trip at a small hut on the side of the river. It was a nice location and a good chance to have a good chat with the other cyclists and the tour guides. Im going to have a rest day tomorrow but will be looking to book onto a cooking course on Tuesday with some other people I've met in the hostel before leaving for Laos on Wednesday.

Chiang Mai - Day 1

Sukhothai to Chiang Mai

After thoroughly exploring Sukhothai National Park I took the bus from Sukhothai to Chaig Mai. Unfortunatly it appears my luck was all used up on the quality of my last bus as this one had seen better days. I think it may well have been an old Wilts and Dorset bus from 15 years ago. Despite this the 5.5hr journey went quickly and was helped by the great scenery outside.

Chiang Mai is in the mountains so alot of the uphill journey was travelling along roads surounded by hills and Jungle. I arrived at the bus station and had a to carry out the customary in depth negotiations with the tuk tuk driver to take me to my hostel at a reasonable price. I feel I won a moral victory as I managed to agree the ride for 100 baht from the quoted 150 baht (£2 not £3!!!). Although the lonely planet guide later told me it should have cost about 60 baht.

Buddist prayer session

The hostel im staying at is fantastic and the first thing I noticed is how many outdoor activities there are to do. Due to the surrounding mountains you can do pretty much anything like Rock Climbling, White water rafting, Bungy Jumping, 'Go Ape' in the Jungle tree tops surround by Gibbons etc. Ive opted to do downhill mountain biking tomorrow which im looking forward to.

I went on a bit of Watt spotting after settling in and was fortunate enough to see a Buddhist prayer session. I stayed for about 20 minutes at which it was still in full swing and didn't look like ending any time soon.

Peter from Poland vs Thai guy

The town has a really nice laid back feel for asia which ive not really experienced yet. I think its somewhere I'd like to come back to do some more activities which I maybe able to do as it has an airport so flying from Ho Chi Minh City should be pretty cheap and easy.

In the evening I noticed there was some Thai boxing which I really wanted to see. This was arranged through the hostel and a large number of us went along so it was another good opportunity to meet people.

Not happy...He'd just been whooped by Peter from Poland

There were a total of seven fights starting with young teenagers and getting better. I was weary of the Thai boxing as I'd heard that some fights are fixed and made to look good for the tourists but I wanted to see it for myself anyway. The first two fights were very suspect and first round knockouts done with what looked like wwe style 'finishing moves'. I managed to catch one on my camera on video and slow motion revealed that the kid had clearly taken a dive.

However after the first two matches the fights improved and looked quite nasty. The main even was a chap called Peter from Poland, who looked a bit like Ivan Drago from Rocky IV, against a Thai guy. Peter was about twice the size of the thai guy who didn't really stand a chance, he did well to last till the fourth round though. We went back to the hostel and showed the video footage of the dive to our Hostel manager who was not impressed and phoned the boxing promoter to complain saying she would not be recommending this arena to any more residents should this happen again... It was very funny!

Sukhothai Old City

Ayuthaya to Sukhothai

Caught the bus yesterday from Ayuthaya to a place called New Sukothai which has a historical park near by. The journey was actually quite enjoyable and flew by considering it took 5 and a half hours. It was a local bus and possibly the best bus ive been on. They had a TV and a waitress (like htey used to have on the national express buses) and they gave me a goodie bag containing water and a muffin when I boarded. We stopped at a 'service station' for some food after about 3 hours which was included in the price of the bus ticket. The Pat Tha looked the safest option and was pretty tasty. I didn't really know what was going on but fortunatly a thai girl was there who spoke good English and told me what was happening.

One of the many many Watts in Sukhothai Park

I went to the historical park today which contains vast numbers of old Watts. I hired a bike with a dutch person I met on the bus that morning and we cycled to all the old sites that were in the area. One of the routes was a 5k ride where lots of the Watts sat on hill tops. One involved a 200 meter climb to the top. It was quite nice cycling through the Thai countryside seeing all the rice fields and watching the locals going about there daily routines (which looked like lying down and doing as little as possible). It was a pretty hot day and I got through 2 and a half big bottles of water in about 3 hours. I'm not sure why most of the Watts were not in good condition. Most of them were build circa 1200 but only re-discovered a few hundred years ago. Im suspecting it has something to the Burmese again but I could be wrong. Unfortuantly the lonely planet guide which I rely on for most of my facts didn't explain this.

Watt at the top of a big hill

It looks like I timed the trip perfectly because when I got back in the late afternoon (Ive got my own bungalow set in the gardens of a guest house) it started raining big time. Im leaving for Chiang Mai tomorrow which is another long journey. I only have 6 days left on my Thai Visa so at the moment im planning to make my way to Laos after Chang Mai which is to the East of Thailand.

Ayuthaya

A long Journey

Travelled from Krabi to a place called Ayuthaya yesterday. This involved taking the coach from Krabi to Bangkok which took a total of 14 hours then a train from Bangkok to Ayuthaya taking a further 3 hours. Wasn't looking forward to the journey but it went relatively smoothly. This time I packed a survival guide in the form of a tube of pringles to keep me going and to stop me getting grumpy.... It worked pretty well. We were dumped in Bangkok at which appeared to be at a random location of the bus drivers choice at 5am in the middle of a thunderstorm. I managed to get a taxi to take me to the train station surprisingly easily. One benefit of being dropped at 5am is that all the tailored suit shops were closed so any taxi driver couldn't try to take me shopping which is a constant problem for all tourists in Bangkok.

Arrived in Ayuthaya and found accomodation relatively easy. I hired a bike which was recommended in the lonely planet guide to see the sights of the town. There are some pretty impressive ruins and Watts here. The city used to be the Royal Capital many years ago until it was moved to Bangkok due to contant attacks from the Burmese. I assume they moved to Bangkok since they knew the Burmese would not want to go anywhere near that place for fear of being hussled into buying tailored suits.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram

In the evening I went on a boat cruise with some other people I met at the guest house where I'm staying. The town in basically on an Island and the cruise went around its perimeter.  This was pretty nice & chilled and I got to see the town from a different angle. After we went to a night market for some dinner time russian roulette then for a few chilled drinks near our hostel.

Moving again tomorrow to a place called Sukhothai for some more Thai culture, I think this is only a 6 hour journey before moving to Chiang Mai in a few days time.

Ko Phi Phi & Maya Bay

Bamboo Island

Went on another boat tour today around a number of other Islands. Ko Phi Phi, Bamboo Island, Maya Bay (where they filmed 'the beach'), Monkey Lagoon, Hin Klang (where we did some great snorkling) and Viking Cave.

All the Islands were amazing, you can tell which are the pictures of Maya Bay as the beach was full of hundreds of people. Viking Cave contained drawings that were 1000's of years old but im just going to have to take their word for that as we wasn't allowed to see them due to some birds that now nest in the caves.

Maya Bay

I really liked Bamboo Island which was as I would imagined a desert Island to be. It had a fantastic beach, it wasn't too busy and there was a jungle in the middle. Most of the places we visited had great snorkling where you could feed hundreds of tropical fish.

Im heading away from the Islands in the next few days to the north of the country. Im planning to stop at a town called 'Ayuthaya' which used to be the Royal Capital of Thailand and now has some good ancient ruins and Watts

Hong Island

Went on an Island tour today to Hong Island, this also included shorter trips to the lesser known Daeng Island, Lading Island and Hong’s Lagoon. Hong is a small uninhabited Island off the Andaman coast, close to Krabi where I’m staying (the south west of Thailand). The beaches were fantastic! We also got the opportunity to do some snorkelling and see some great fish.

On Hong Island there was a trail which took us into the jungle (didn’t meet King Hong). I went with three Chilean guys I met on the boat. We saw some interesting wildlife including some enormous spiders.

What was fascinating was that there were some boats a fair distance in land it turns out they had been swept there by the 2004 Tsunami. I also noticed that on the beach there was a Tsunami warning system in place and instructions on what to do, should a one happen basically you run into the jungle as quick as possible.... simple.

On the way home our speedboat broke down, the warning signs were there earlier in the day when we were at the Lagoon and the engine cut out. The guide, who didn't tell us the boat was broken, suddenly told us we could get out and have a swim which wasn’t on the schedule.

This was good as we got to dive off the side of the boat, however whilst we were doing this the boatmen had all the floorboards up trying to fix the problem. Fortunately when the boat finally did give up for the second time it was close to end pier and another boat arrived quickly. We all moved to the new ship which got us home safely. It was a cracking day.

http://www.baracudastourkrabi.com/

Krabi



Krabi

Left Ko Phangan yesterday and made my way to Krabi. The journey consisted of getting a taxi to the Islands pier, then ferry to the mainland and finally a coach to Krabi. The journey took approx 8 hours.

Most of the people on the ferry, like myself, had been out all night at the black moon party the night before. knowing I had a big day ahead of me I didn't stay too late and didn't drink too much. Seeing the pain and suffering in the other passengers eyes was enough to convince me I'd made the right call on that one - I put that down to experience.

Night market - 'dodgy tummy russian roulette'

When I arrived I booked into the hostel and went to get some food at the nightmarket. Nightmarkets are a good idea and most Thai people seem to eat at them as opposed to cooking at home. Ive had mixed experiences with them so far, about half the time they've given me a dodgy tummy but the food is still tasty and very cheap.

Krabi is a good place as they do lots of tours to the Islands, ive booked myself onto a tour of a group of Islands tomorrow.

View from the hostel window

One thing Im still getting used to is how quickly the weather changes here. I left the hostel in sunshine this morning and was worried that I hadn't put enough sunscreen on only for literally 5 minutes later the sky to turn black and heavy rain to set in.

The rain was so heavy that everyone just stopped what they were doing and took cover

It was still very hot and its a strange sensation to be wet from the rain but also from sweating at the same time too.

Ko Phangan



Sunset Beach

I’m about to stay for my fifth and last night on the Island of Ko Phangan. I’ve been staying at this nice resort with a couple of people who I met on Ko Samui but as there are lots of other people doing the same thing I’ve been able to meet and chat to lots of other travellers, a number of them have also taught English in various countries so it’s been good to hear their stories and ask advice. There is not much sightseeing to do here so just trying to relax at the moment.

Ko Phangan to Krabi

It does appear that this Island is like ‘Asia’s Ibiza’ with parties going on every night till the very early hours. There is a ‘black moon’ party tonight (any excuse for a party) which is scheduled to go on till 10am. We have been going to the beach for a few nights which have parties with people doing entertainment with fire sticks. It has been fun and I’ve done my best to keep up (well sort of) but I’m partied out so a change of scene is in order. I’m off to Krabi tomorrow and them onto Ko Phi Phi. 

Also learnt that all Thai people are amazing at connect 4, I’m not sure if it’s in their national curriculum but they play it everywhere, at bars, on the beach and they always win. I think a lot of them use it as a way of making money which is not a bad idea.... I may get good and start hussling around Bournemouth town centre on a Friday night.