Horizontal Laos

So we crossed the border into Laos with no problems whatsoever thankfully. It even worked in our favour as it was cheaper on the border than it was from the embassy! We’d arrived to the border by minivan and it was our first crossing where you walk past a barrier for 100m and then enter another barrier and you have miraculously change countries! In the middle of those 2 barrier I felt like I wanted to do something really naughty, like pull my pants down and moon the patrol police as I was no mans land wasn’t I? No law could touch me! Haha – but I didn’t. Just incase!

We got into another minivan that brought us to the water front where we caught a boat to Don Det, an island that is one of 4000 islands. That’s what the whole area is called as…well you get the drift – there are 4000 islands!

And what a place!! We have finally arrived – this beats the Bodhi Villa backpacker’s vibe – this is the epitome of backpacking. It’s the epitome of chill out! It’s heaven! Temperatures of hell – but heaven to chill out. It’s a small island connected to another, but Don Det is the place to stay, chill and party. The local villagers have all built bungalow huts on stilts with a bed in and the toilets are blocks with a toilet and shower across the path. (I am actually pretty used now to prisoner like toilets and sharing them with flies, moths, praying mantis and spiders!) Very basic but does the job- well almost. One night we got into bed and the back right leg went crashing through the wooden floor! Lols, thankfully it was only one leg and not the whole bed! The following morning we were given a new plank of wood and a hammer and they left us to it to fix! Haha. But it was all in good fun – the Laos people so far as we can tell are so much friendlier than the Cambodians and they have a sense of humour! It’s seems that since Vietnam it keeps getting better and better locals wise. They all say hello and it’s just SUCH a great place! Forget holidaying in Europe – 4000 islands is awesome! We’ve been here 5 days as I write this and pretty much have spoken to or know every other backpacker here. Large groups of friends form and you’d think we’ve all known each other for ever! We’ve been hanging out with an Irish couple who are very cool and have pretty much spent our days, sleeping, eating, drinking & whatnot. We are on the Mekong River so go for a refreshing dip with the water buffalo when it gets too hot to bear (and it does believe me!!) or else we grab a tube (a big rubber donut ring) and let the current float us down around the islands with a bottle of beer in hand. Although the other day we got carried the wrong way and then had to struggle upstream against the current which was bloody hard work! Definitely brings home the point how strong and powerful water is, this small current was enough for me to use all the body strength I have and I was still sitting in the same place going absolutely nowhere! But it was a good workout and after criss crossing our way back as that was the only to move across the currents, we got back to the island! To celebrate we went to the bakery and ordered some home made Aussie cake – carrot cake, chocolate cake, jam sponge – yummy. I mean not actually the best cake ever as some were a bit hard – but still I’ve been craving a good bit of cake and it did the trick!

We also celebrated Paddy’s day! A big group of us got all dressed up in green bits and bobs and a couple of girls brought along some green marker pens and were drawing Irish art all over themselves. We stocked up on booze and green stuff (we even brought a green table cloth from a local restaurant for EUR 2) and headed to the party hostel bar. This was at about 1pm and we were all pretty hammered by 3pm! There was singing and dancing and after having been given the first ‘tattoo’ on my back by Tymon, which was a pint of Guinness in a big shamrock, he became man of the day by spending a good part of the afternoon tattooing everyone else that wanted one! It was so funny – have a look at the vids and pics to catch the artwork – they’re really cool! So yeah – a lot of drinking and smoking (as it’s about as available and freely done here as back in Holland). But you know when the party’s hit the peak when a German falls down the stairs to the river, slashing his back and elbow up and is so out of it he can’t stand or talk, when the Irish start shouting ALL the time about how great the Irish are and the ‘C’ word starts being used! But all in all a really great day with a great group of peeps. We actually flaked out pretty early at around 11pm! We saw the others worse for wear the following day for breakfast at midday and they hadn’t yet gone to bed!! Gone are those days for me! I just can’t handle it!! We didn’t even go to bed that drunk in the end so only a small hangover!

It’s a sticky place in the 4000 islands! We were supposed to leave after 6 days on a Friday but then we heard there was a big party being thrown at one of the hostels. The news was spreading like wild fire around the island so we decided to stay another day for the party – which turned into 2 days as we didn’t want to travel with a hangover – and boy did I have a hangover!! The party was great. We went for some dinner to line our stomachs and then brought 3 small bottles of local rum, which was actually not too bad and got stuck in. We actually went till 4am! The night just flew by – talking a lot of crap, dancing to bad techno music, searching for more alcohol and ending up with the very local homemade moonshine which is called Laos Laos, which quite honestly tasted like petrol and which I blame 100% for my mammoth hangover the following day! Honestly I’ve not had one like that for soooo long! So that was really easy day!

Finally, the following day we dragged ourselves away up to the Bolaven Plateau and a place called Tat Lo which we heard from everyone was another backpacker haven. Although to be honest Laos seems like it going to be a real backpacker place. Already I’ve come across more Westerners than the rest of the entire trip put together and that’s only in one place! Up North in Vang Vieng where you going tubing and Luang Prabang it’s supposed to be like Ibiza! Anyway after a very long bus journey, and a bad mood for me, we arrived in Tat Lo. It was dark so we couldn’t really see much but grabbed another bungalow hut and settled in for the night.

The Bolaven Plateau is higher up in the mountains and therefore cooler than down in the 4000 islands which was very much welcomed. Although during the day it’s still sweat city! The area is well known for its coffee plantations and waterfalls. There are about 8 dotted around a circuit of about 300km. So the next morning we were up early and hired a scooter, got a basic map of the circuit and packed an overnight bag. We were going to drive around the circuit taking in all the waterfalls and stop a night in another town called Paxsong. We left our big backpacks in the room in Tat Lo and off we went. We needed to cover about 160km in order to reach Paxsong and the roads were great. All tarmaced which made it a lot easier to pick up some speed. We only saw 1 waterfall that day and it was a big rip off as they charge you to see it and to park your bike! I mean it’s so rude – it’s not like they created it or even maintain it. It’s a waterfall, it’s nature, but it’s theirs apparently! And it was a pretty pitiful waterfall if you ask me too! So we spent about 5 minutes looking at it and then left again! But then we had to do the second leg of the day which cuts across the mountain on a dirt track and that was brilliant. It was really bumpy so we were jumping around all over the place but the scenery was gorgeous! Literally winding our way through the jungle. As we started to make our way out and onto the village roads again at around 4pm the sky got really dark and we were caught in the rain!! We’d come completely unprepared for cold weather or rain. Tymon only had one set of clothes with him which he was wearing and I only had one change of top. I had a vest top on and it was sooooo cold! Going along on the bike in the rain and cold front wind was not nice!! But thankfully it didn’t last long and we managed to get to a hostel before dark! We even found one with hot water which was sooooo good – I was freezing.

The next day we set off nice and early and took in 3 waterfalls which were much better than the first – although they still charged you! One was 120 metres which was pretty amazing! It was sooo big. There was a pathway marked ‘dangerous’ that you could walk down and I thought that perhaps it would take you all the way to bottom as there seemed to be a great pool at the bottom which would have been awesome to swim in! So off we went and it was pretty treacherous. There was a clear path but it was very overgrown and not kept up at all. Leaves were everywhere which made it really slippy and it was very steep and the further we followed it the worse it got. We got to one viewing platform and then decided to carry on as it was really good fun – if not very dangerous. So we carried on climbing down big rocks with the sheer drop to the bottom a few feet below us. Rocks were crumbling and we joked that it was the kind of thing that would make an episode of ‘I Shouldn’t Be Alive!’ Haha. Before much longer it got too much so we reached another platform where the path actually came to an end, took some photos and carefully climbed our way back up! At least I felt I’d got my 5000 kip worth.

We took a swim at the next waterfall which was very nice and as it’s dry season there was loads of boulders and rocks that we could hop from which was fun. It reminded me of when I was young and on holiday with mum and dad and dad and I used to go climbing over the rocks at the end of the beach looking for star fish and climbing round to the next bay. I loved those adventures!!

Then we pushed on through to get back to Tat Lo before dark. We were just ahead of a rain cloud which caught up with us once so Tymon hit the accelerator and after what seemed an absolute age on the road, wondering if we’d already whizzed past, we stopped for directions and the woman looked at us like we complete idiots and pointed to the road next to us which was full of sign posts to Tat Lo! So we made it. It was a great trip – very worth while doing! So now we’re just chilling for one day in Tat Lo which is about as laid back as you can get and swimming in the waterfalls. It’s a very nice little village, very quiet (apart from the chickens that cock a doodle do between 5am and 7am!) There are animals all over the place and it’s a good idea not to order food when you’re really hungry – you have to anticipate your hunger ahead of time as it can take up to an hour to get food here! Lols.

So now we are waiting for the night bus to come and head up North to Vientiane.

Check out you Tube as I have uploaded LOADS of videos finally as we’ve had no good internet access for ages and check out the photos!

Take care and miss you all,

xxx