Loas...the unexpected beauty words
Sabadee!!!
First day - April 20th
The day we crossed the Thailand boarder to get to Laos. To do this we had to take a bus to a big river , the mankong river. You are then too get on a boat to cross over to Laos area. Once there we had to fill out the wonderful paper work that we do once a week at this point in our travel ... I have now memorized my pass port number haha. After filling out the paper work you then have to wait around for your visa. The visa was about 30 US dollars. Good thing I had that currency on me because they wanted US dollars. Once getting our visa we went to find the office for the Gibbon Experience! Once there we filled out our will paper work ;) we were then directed to a nice guest house in the small small boarder town. We went to bed early because we needed to be up early for the zip lining !!
Day two - April 21st
We meet up with our "zip lining crew" everyone that was part of this crew seemed to be from Europe areas. All of them were wonderful fun people. This is where Christie and I met a guy named chuck that ends up going in the same route as us so we decided to travel together. Our first day consisted of much hiking in the hot humid weather but the jungle was amazing. There was lots of bugs! We finally get to the first zip line! We were all excited but nervous. We were happy to not be hiking anymore and ready to glide from place to place like a monkey :) . The first line and the rest if them were at least 500 meters long the longest one was 700 meters!! All in all I was never able to see the end of the line ..... Lets just say that for 2 days I felt like I could fly over the Jungles in Laos! After each line we would have to hike a little bit. We finally make it to the tree house! We had to zip line into the tree house because it was so high above the jungle! The views were amazing I will never forget it. There was 3 levels to the tree house.
1st level : zip line in. Take off shoes and zip line gear. On this level was the bathroom and shower! The door was a curtain .
2nd level : beds! Dinning table , sink. The water was drinkable from the sink! They go the water from the fresh spring near by.
3rd level: smaller level. Just a bed for 2 people up here. This is we're Christie and I slept. :)
Ate dinner then went out to zip a little more ! When we came back all the beds were made and someone brought some great dinner for us to eat! It was like a magical fairy came by. The guides told us enjoy the food and to make sure at night when we go to bed to put our zip line gear in our tents/ mosquito nets because the rats come and night and might chew on them. They then left ...... Most of us where a little concerned after him saying this but after the night happened I think it was all a lie and just something to scare us a little... Not very nice... That night there were many crazy bugs that is come out so I decided an early bed time wad a good one as did everyone else ..
Day three - April 22nd
Day 2 of zip line life . As soon as we woke up we went zip lining! Didn't eat or anything it was a great way to wake and start a day! I kind of felt how Tarzan would in his every day life. Came back ate breakfast , rested then zip lined out of tree house to our end. This was a different route to get back so a bunch of new lines that we did not do the other day. We got to the end and it was a nice shack house farm place were our group went swimming and then had a nice rice dish with some ants in it! I lost appetite quickly when seeing this.. I guess ants are a good source of protein? .... And we are off to be dropped off back in town. Christie and I stayed on more night in the quite small boarder town. We had a night bus the next day to Lang parang .
Day four - April 23rd
Did laundry . Did some Internet things. Waked around town. This was a boring day just waiting for our bus. Yes, while traveling in these areas some days are not jam packed! Thank goodness because we were so tired this day... Chuck , Christie and I got on the night bus and I had a lovely Laos stranger to cuddle with. I will forevermore remember this lovely 15 hour bus ride ...... It was this long because the bus luckily kept breaking down! Lets just say I was not in the best of moods when walking off of the
bus...
Day 5 - April 24th
LUARNG PURANG!!!!! (Sp?) once off the wonderful bus .... Went straight to the guesthouse and slept !!! I needed to catch on some zzzz I was grumpy and didnt need to talk to anyone until it happened.. We shared a tuk tuk with chuck and mich .. We decided to met later after the nap . We met at Utopia!! This is a bar that the wonderful Lauren hardy told me about but I couldn't miss it when in the town cuz it was kind of advertised everywhere .. This place was the best chill out place I had been yet.. I then understood why Lauren told about it first . We all loved it and relaxed there for the most of the time we were in this town. I forgot to mention that Christie and I were going to take the slow boat to this town but decided against it cuz we didn't really hear lots of good stories then we realized we wanted to have more time on land so to cut that time we went with the bus. The slow boat would have taken 2 days.
Back to the utopia bar , it was located right on the Mekong river. The views were amazing and they did yoga in the mornings . I was going to get to this but my partying in this lively town got in the way ;) . I did my own at times. Everything wad great at this bar so we left and came back later !
Before heading back to the bar for drinks before curfew we all went to dinner and had traditional Laos BBQ ... It was very similar to Korean BBQ so Christie and I loved it. Reminded us of wonderful times..
After more drinks at utopia we then decided to do what everyone else does "late night"..... GO BOWLING! After last call every one gets in tuk tuks and goes to the bowling place! For some reason they can sell beer so this place is full of shit faced backpackers ... It was a great scenario , people just falling into the lanes people doing other things that are not legal back home.. But totally legal in Laos .. Haha ... Fill in the blanks ……… 1 2 3 BED!!!
Day 6 - April 25th
Sleeping in was in order! Done! Got up went to town met up with chuck and mich ... We got a tuk tuk and went to the waterfalls ...this place was more than beautiful !!! It took about an hour to get there. Once there , we saw a big area with black bears :) it was a resue centre for bears.. It was nice to watch them play for awhile. We then walked to the lakes and waterfalls ... Rope swing!!!! Into the bluest water I have ever seen ... Not clear blue like this beautiful aqua light blue.. Pictures to fallow. Words don't do this place justice ... Or at least my limited vocabular does ;) ... We spent about 2 or 3 hours in this wonderful park. Once back in the town Christie and I went into shopaholic mode. Many gifts were bought on this night at the huge night market . We were asked to go back out again and do the same thing this night (drinking bowling) we said no and went to bed! Yay for a good nights rest.
Day 7 - April 26th
This day was not very eventful .. Christie and I ran around town. Went to the post office , ATM , police office and shopped a little more. To skip the boring stuff ..... We had a night bus to vang vieng got yo the station and Christie realized she left her ATM card somewhere so needed to get to wifi to be able to call to cancel her card. She promptly got into a tuk tuk and went to find wifi ... We were to hold this bus for her when need be. So chuck and I start to tell them we cannot get on the bus cuz our friend is in the bathroom having problems .... We didn't really know what else to say or do they gave us 5 min then looked at as again and we got really nervous as all of this happened she pulled up In the tuk tuk ! Thank goodness!!! On another overly booked bus .. This one was only for about 4 hours ..
Day 8 - April 27th
Arrive in VANG VIENG at about 1 am. First thing we see is a field with really drunk lady boys yelling... It was a nice laugh for 1 in the morning and getting off of a bus with people sitting the aisle once again. Oh Asia just full of wonderful surprises.
Lady boys: boys that have turned into lady's. most are very convincing. Some seem to be more
Lady like than I am.. Kind of eary.
No reservation at a place so we walked into the 1st good looking place .. We did well with this air con and fan! For about 9 each a night :) . We all were happy .
Day 8 - April 28th
TUBBING DAY!! This could be a long entry but I will make it shorter ... This day was great . We rented a tub got driven in a tuk tuk to drop in area. Chuck Christie and I chilled out and rolled down the river taking in the wonderful scenery ... This river used to have a lot more places to stop and party at but irresponsible people have made it so they had to shut down. Mind you, we did go in low season cuz the water was not very high. We stopped at the only bar left o. The river.. This was a great place ... We met many new people and played beer pong .. The competition did get crazy we then left when our new friends left also. This Peter guy I met was interesting and got to know him more while floating down the river... We all hangout later for drinks and the full moon party but this was about it. It was an awesome day .
Day 9 - April 29th
Christie leaves :-( ... She ventures off to Vietnam .. She only was gone for about 5 days then we would met back up in Cambodia.. I had already seen what she was going to see so I didn't go with. I would travel the next day south to see 4000 islands with chuck ..
As I write this I am sitting on an airplane with someone passing the worst smelling gas! ... Wow.
Anyhow.... It rained a lot this morning so we had a later start.. Also tired from last night. Chuck and I decided we wanted to see this place called the blue lagoon . To get there you had to walk, ride a bicycle or ride a motor bike. Your next question is well , what one did you pick? What one do u think if I was with a boy??? Yes, a motor bike. I thought oh this will be fine I drove one in Bali. We went to rent one and ran into a guy I dove with in koh phi phi island! He was doing the same as us thus day! I then find out that I will be driving a simi auto motor bike.... Um what? I do not drive Stick.... The boys told me u will be fine... This is how u do it.. Crash corse in about 5 min! I said okay I can do this ... And I was off! It was hard at first but then I got used to the feeling of shifting the gear. But then we drove over the more narrow bamboo bridge... Oh and it rained a lot earlier so I was driving through the biggest puddles and then had to put it in N to push it through a part of the river then drive it on small rocks... I think I can now have my motor ID ... I surprised of what I was able to do it was fun! Very muddy but muddy fun. The blue lagoon was very nice it was simalr to the waterfalls . Chuck and I went to the caves and went exploring in these caves that didnt have any lights other than our crappy ones we brought ...we had to get with another group of people with 2 monks to help lead us out of this huge dark cave. After leaving the cave and getting back to the water to swim a bit more we decided to drive back before sunset. It was still muddy! We met up with Mitch and others for dinner then went to bed. We needed sleep!
Time to travel to wonderful 4,000 islands! This was an overnight bus because it is at the very southern part of Laos. Before going to the bus we had a easy morning and ate backpackers central hostel and this annoying guy named max asked us where we were going. We told him and within a minute he was buying the same ticket this ticket was to the capital of Laos then we had to transfer to the sleeper bus from there.. He thankfully didn't fallow us the entire way. He was nice he just a little off his rocker and always asked for things. Chuck and I tried to help him figure out what he was doing then quickly left him to go eat and we didn't see him after that.. After many complications of what bus we had to be on we finally got to our sleeper spot and the bus started to go then we slept until morning time.
Day 11 -- April 30th
When we get off of the sleeper bus we are close to 4000 islands but not quite there yet. We had about a 4 hour bus ride to get there! Once on the bus I met a girl earlier named Leah and we sat together on the bus and talk for most of the time. She was awesome. She had lived in Colorado once and loved it and wants to move back! She was in Thailand teaching English . She was on a vaca. Once at a stop chuck tells us it's the stop we want so we all get off take our bags and everything once the bus drives away we realize that we should've stayed on cuz we then had to take a expensive hour and a half boat ride to the big popular island! Oh we'll! It was a beautiful boat ride! The island we wanted to stay at was called don det. The most relaxing place I have been besides some beaches :) .once on the island we find a bungalow to stay at for 2 or 3 dollars a night. And we were trying to find cheaper ... Haha...
Relaxed to the max!
Day 12 April 31st
Walked around the island saw more of it beauty .. Walking back it started to tropical rain forest storm on us. We had to get shelter! It was nice and tranquil to watch and listen to this storm. We would hop from building to building to try to keep maybe a little dry. We just layed around talked read books and had a relaxing day ... We needed to move onward the next day to Cambodia!!!! The capital :)
Day 13/1 May 1st!!!!
Travel from Laos to Cambodia!!!!!!!
My Cambodia route was Phnom Penh ---> sihanoukville ---> Koh Rong Island ---> SiemReap(Angkor wat) ---> Thailand (Bangkok )
Next entry will be all about my crazy stories in this wonderful country :) stay tuned !
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