Party Politics and Pyjamas

Well, my idea of an island paradise at the South of Laos turned out to be not quite what I expected! Laos is a landlocked country (no beach) but there is a place right at the bottom of it called the 'Four Thousand Islands" which is basically a load of islands on the Mekong River. So I had the idea in my head of relaxing on a hammock on the beach, cocktail in hand, a fancy bungalow with all the mod-cons....errr no! Quite the opposite. Turns out the island has only been accepting tourists for like, 5 years and everything was soooo basic! The best accommodation we could find was a wooden bungalow with a cold shower and a squat toilet - not quite the luxury a girl needs! The island only has electricity from 6 - 11pm so after that unless you had a torch you were basically stuck, the entire island was pitch black... scary! We did, however, have a fantastic time there. We met up with a guy (Alan) we'd originally met months ago in Goa, we'd flukely met up again in Luang Prabang and now we bumped into him again!! He was travelling with two Finnish guys and we all had a really fun few days together. The island was really going back to basics. It was a beautiful place, the tourist's bungalows are actually in the midst of the local's houses so it was great to hear and watch them going about their business every day (unlike most tourist resorts where the hotels are set up miles away from any local villages!) Me and Jon went on a five hour walk on our first day there and explored the island. We walked to a waterfall which was the most impressive one I've seen. Huge volumes of water cascading over these enormous jagged rocks and flowing down into a green pool. It was so powerful and amazing - and this is the dry season! We also found a secluded beach on the banks of the river, surrounded by huge rocks you would never know it was there. Clean, white sand and greeny emerald water - it was paradise! The island has a few bars with hammocks in which were perfect for sipping on a beer and watching the world go by. We also had the bright idea of hiring out two traditional Lao canoes to paddle around the island in. We'd seen the local kids doing it and it looked easy enough. How wrong were we!! No sooner had me, Jon and Alan got in ours it started wobbling furiously, the bars overlooking the river were filled with onlookers pointing and laughing at us. No matter how hard we tried to stay upright, more water kept pouring in the sides until finally our canoe capsized and sank taking us with it, much to the amusement of the onlooking crowds - how embarrassing!! The river current was so strong and was pulling the canoe and the oars downstream, we all had to swim frantically (me in my skirt and frilly top... grrr!) after everything to salvage it. Thankfully we managed to get it all onto the bank with the help of the Finnish guys and we dragged ourselves out, soaking wet and covered in river slime - yuk!
After three funny days on the island, we reluctantly had to leave. The island didn't even have a bank let alone an ATM and we were running out of money so we had to cross the border to Cambodia pretty sharpish. We done by minivan in about five hours. This was the most crazy border crossing ever! It consisted of us basically driving through a forest on a severely bumpy road, paying a Cambodian policeman a few dollars to get past the border, then we were in Cambodia!

So far in Cambodia I have noticed two things. Firstly, there are political parties EVERYWHERE. I mean, every village has at least three different party headquarters, there are signs up everywhere with party slogans, pictures of politicians etc. You kind of get the feeling that all is not totally happy here with the way the country is run. I done a bit of research on it and it seems that even now the country has a lot of corruption in it. The guy who currently runs it seems to be a bit of a dictator, anyone who goes against what he says is liable to be arrested. His closest political rival is living in exile outside the country after contesting the country's current state of affairs! It seems that even now after years of civil war and tragedy, things still aren't totally democratic here.

The other thing is that all the women here wear pyjamas!! Not just to bed but actually outside during the day and at work, it's quite normal to go into a shop to buy a drink and the woman serving you will be wearing a pair of flowery linen PJ's. It's quite surreal. I'm temped to go outside in my own sleeping attire and see how it goes down! Anyway we have been in Cambodia a few days now. We spent two days in Kratie where we hired bikes out and saw some dolphins (from far off anyway). We caught another bus to Siem Reap which took 10 hours!!! including being dumped in the middle of nowhere on our own for an hour or so until another bus came and picked us up.

Today we saw the famous Ankor Wat, which I would love to explain to you more but I don't know enough about it. I think some monks built it in the 11th century or something :o$ Anyway it's an amazing building and we got up at 5.30am this morning to watch the sunrise The weather here is still very, very hot. You cant actually do anything from the hours of 12 until 3pm, it actually hurts our skin being in the sun lol. Soon I will be on a proper beach sipping cocktails and away from all these towns...not long now...!!

Turning up the Heat in Laos

We have been in beautiful Laos for about two weeks now and it is getting HOT! I checked the weather today and it's a scorching 38degrees... and as we get further down South it will only be getting hotter - arrghh! Luckily we have sort of acclimatised a bit by now. We've been in hot countries for four months now so it's pretty normal to us to be waking up in a pile of sweat haha.

Laos is like Thailand's poorer but prettier cousin. I can imagine Thailand being like this about ten years ago, before tourism ruined certain places. It's nice to have some home comforts but when you travel thousands of miles away from the UK you want to go to places that DON'T have a Macdonald's or a Pizza Hut.

We started off our journey at the top end of Laos, a place called Huay Xai. From here we caught a slow boat down the Mekong River for two days. On paper this sounds amazing, but it was bloomin' hard work at times. The scenery was AMAZING... cruising down the river with mountains on either side, small villages perched on the banks with little children playing and swimming in the river (mainly naked - the boys would stand on rocks totally starkers dancing and waving whilst the girls would run shrieking for their sarongs... so funny!). On the first day it was a brilliant warm day and we drank beer and chatted with the other passengers. We also blagged some comfy seats so it was quite a fun journey. On the second day our boat had mysteriously disappeared and been replaced with a much smaller one with NO comfy chairs only hard wooden benches - not good when you have to spend 8hrs sitting on one! This day was hard work for me... it rained, our bums were sore... there was NO BEER!! When we finally arrived at our destination both of us felt pretty ill. Boating down the Mekong River was amazing, I'm glad I've done it, but would I do it again? Maybe not!

The boat dropped us off in Luang Prabang which is a gorgeous town in the Northern part of Laos. It was totally NOT how we expected Laos to be! I'd had in my mind the image of dirty streets, dusty villages, chickens everywhere etc. Well Luang Prabang is about as far away from that as you can get. It has been built in the style of French village, there are five star hotels and restaurants here, a great night market where locals sell their handicrafts, and lots of sites to see. I would quite easily recommend this town to all of my friends (even the high maintenance ones!) to go and see - it's beautiful. The town is based between two rivers so it's perfect for anyone who just wants a few lazy days wandering around the streets.

It isn't however, the "real" Laos. We spent four days here and then caught a songthaew (basically a truck with seats in the back) up to a little mountain town called Nong Khiaw. This was real Laos for us. Only a few guesthouses, a couple of little Laos restaurants, none of the home comforts that we'd had before! The town is nestled in between two mountains and on the banks of a river. It's soooo beautiful... it was one of those places where I wish I could have had all of you there for just one minute just to take it all in with me. It's the kind of place that when you step outside in the morning and the clouds are settled around the mountains and on the river and it just takes your breath away.

After two days in Nong Khiaw we started to move back down South. Our next stop was a town called Vang Vieng, again on the banks of a river! (Lots of rivers and mountains in Laos!). We'd heard Vang Vieng was the new "Khao San Road" - basically meaning a place where loads of young travellers gather - so we had mixed feelings about going there. After Nong Khiaw did we want to spend any time in a place with loads of beer'd up idiots? Luckily it wasn't that bad and we actually had a good laugh there. The famous "sport" of Vang Vieng is tubing, where you are taken about 20mins North of the town by tuk-tuk, then put in a rubber ring on the river and left to slowly float down back to Vang Vieng all day! It sounds strange but it was brilliant! Every 5mins on the river there are bars with massive rope swings that everyone swings off into the river. Some guys even have competitions doing crazy stunts, back flips etc. It was such a nice day, we met some cool people and just drank beer all day in the sun with them. We stayed with the same group in the evening and had a funny night out in the bars - it was good to have a night out at last!
Oh - and I found a place that done the best roast in SE Asia... God knows I had been craving one for about three months, well this one was great, Yorkshire puddings and everything YAY!

From Vang Vieng we had a long bus journey to the capital, Vientiane. As capital cities go, this one was rather nice. It's only small, kind of the same size as a town back in the UK (Watford?) which was nice because it meant we could walk around it quite easily. We done a day of sightseeing, we saw the Victory Monument which was erected when Laos finally gained it's independence from all the countries who had invaded it, and we went to the museum which taught us loads about the Lao history. It was amazing how this small little poor country has had to put up with so much hassle from the Western world! First France invaded and took control of the country, then America waded in with their bombs and caused widespread devastation. It took years until the Laos people finally managed to gain their own independence and be recognised as a country of their own, rather than being just a French province!! It's crazy, the mess us Europeans and the USA have left over in SE Asia. I've heard it only gets worse once you reach Cambodia.

The next stop on our journey was Thakkek, South of Vientiane. We'd planned on hiring out motorbikes here and doing a tour called "The Loop" which was in our guidebook. Apparently it's a 3day bike ride which takes you out into the heart of the Laos countryside, passing some tiny villages along the way. It sounded great on paper, but when we made enquiries we found out that the whole road was being dug up at the moment to make way for a new road which will be able to take tourist package coaches!?! Plus the bikes themselves were very old and we heard a lot of people had had problems with them (breakdowns, punctures etc). So... we decided to do the sensible thing and not risk another Bec and Jon travel disaster and didn't do "The Loop"!! Instead we got a songthaew out to a remote village called Mahaxai. This place was TOTALLY remote - only one actual building in the whole town - the "guesthouse" which conststed of about ten dilapidated rooms with paint peeling off the walls, squat toilets, and the biggest mofo spider we've EVER seen in our lives. I'm talking tarantula size here - very scary! Anyway beggars can't be choosers and it was a choice of sleeping here or sleeping in a straw hut with the rest of the villagers so we opted for the spider room haha.
It was a cool place to visit though... the kids there were amazing, always running up to you to say "Sabaidee!" and some even knew how to say "Good Morning" in English! Tourists are a rarity there so everyone was so warm and friendly. They have nothing, most huts don't even have electricity let alone any basic appliances but they are all so happy. There are animals everywhere, chickens, pigs, goats, dogs!! I guess when you've never had money you'll never miss it, it was certainly an eyeopener for us. The kids here were always playing and smiling, yet they've probably never even heard of an X-box let alone played on one!
We realised while we were here that we're in the prime area for the Bird Flu virus at the moment. Two people have died in this area already and there are posters up everywhere warning people of it. We've stopped eating chicken and eggs for now until we are in a safer area. We have both had so many jabs for travelling, plus our Malaria tablets which we take every day are an antibiotic so I'm sure our bodies are pumped up full of enough drugs to fight off any viruses!

From here we had another looooong bus journey to Pakse, the town I'm writing this from! I have to first of all describe the bus journey. Laos doesn't have a railway yet so we have done all our travelling by bus. You normally have a choice of a VIP minibus, or the normal public bus to go between towns. We'd always chosen the public bus... it's half the price, and you see so much more than whizzing through towns in a private car. So far all the buses had been ok, all left on time and all had loads of windows so a nice breeze goes through as you're travelling. Anyway, the bus from Thakkek to Paske was like HELL ON EARTH. Firstly, it had no windows, only tiny A4 sized gaps in the side which allowed air in. there was no emergency exit, so if the thing caught fire or crashed you were basically trapped! They piled on about 30 extra people than there were seats, so everyone was squashed in, people were sitting on eachother's laps just sweating in the heat. the drievr stopped at literally every village on the way (a 5 hour journey turned into an 8 hour marathon). They don't have bus stops in Laos, so if 10 people on a street want the bus, it pulls up at EVERY house to pick them up, even if they are 50 yards apart. it's ridiculous!! It's the worst journey I've ever had - if you think the UK transport system is bad times it by 100 and you have the Laos system! I'm surprised we didn't die of heat exhaustion but thankfully we made it to Pakse ok. We have a few days here before heading down to the "Four Thousand Islands" area (basically the bottom of Laos) which is like a beach resort, only on a river! I plan to spend as long as I can lying in a hammock and drinking cocktails - I need it!