A return to Vientiane. Originally we had planned to travel down to the 4000 Islands in the South, but were advised not to with the onset of Typhoon Haiyan, and the continued case of... ahem... digestive system delicacy (WHO KNEW THIS COULD LAST 2 WEEKS!)
As a result, this will be a shorter entry than usual. Firstly, this might have been the nicest hotel of our entire stay- the Vientiane Garden Hotel. Populated by a nice mix of travellers and Thai holidaymakers, with incredibly comfortable rooms (an essential when you're unable to leave!).
What better way to spend Halloween that with a drive through the mountains with a certified psychopath. 15 terrified tourists in a minibus taking corners that a man and his goat might struggle with at about 70mph! After 2 hours of unbridled terror, we arrived in Vang Vieng, a tiny town, nestled between enormous mountains, with a river running through the center.
The view from our room.
The town is very chilled, with most of the bars laying out the tables as beds that you lie down on, with cushions and such, and nearly all of them show endless repeats of Friends, South Park or Family Guy to lure in homesick tourists! The town used to be more of a piss up paradise, with tubing- literally floating down the river from bar to bar in a tractor inner tube- being the town's main selling point, but the river front bars have been closed as a result of one too many drownings! You can still go tubing, minus the booze, and it was a great way to see the gorgeous scenery (sadly we didn't get pictures due to the camera not playing well with water!)
The last waterfront bar!
You can also walk out into the mountains and explore, in what is an incredibly wild and beautiful corner of Laos, although it is very easy to get lost before you even get near the mountains if you are an idiot. (Ben is).
YEAH COWS!
Unfortunately, the week then took a turn for the worse, as the dreaded traveller's stomach struck- thank god we had a nice hotel, and a pharmacist who spoke good English! As a result, the following few days are probably a little unpleasant to report (and no, we took no pictures of the view...) but the smallness of the town was an advantage, as we could get takeaway when we needed it, and were never more than a panicked sprint from relief.
Even so, we ended with a gorgeous dinner by the river, with steamed chicken in banana leaf, lemongrass skewers and sticky mango rice.
As there are a lack of pictures, to finish, here are a couple of lovely bits of 'Engrish' from menus:
After crossing the border on foot, we arrived in our third Communist country, Laos! A quick bus over the Friendship Bridge, and a tuktuk into town and we were in the Lao capital, Vientiane. The word capital almost feels inappropriate here- even city feels strong, as it's so laid back here, it is more like a small town, save for the inevitable Asian lunatic traffic!
Our first hotel was seconds away from the Nam Phou Fountain square, where live musicians performed evening.
Nam Phou fountain
The center of town is set at the edge of the Mekong river, so you are looking back over into Thailand as you walk along the front. All along the front there is an enormous market, selling pretty much everything you can think of. Every single stand is red, and it paints the whole front that colour. On the day we arrived, there were also enormous public exersise classes going on, with hundreds of people taking part, which was very entertaining to watch. Especially when you're still sleep deprived and bewildered from the journey the night before!
The night market
The large part of the first two days was spent in the Kafkaesque nightmare of ferrying back and forth to the Thai Consulate to obtain our visas to return and explore the South of Thailand. However, the journey there gives you a view of the impressive Patuxai, a Lao copy of the Arc de Triumph, made slightly larger. This was built using concrete the Americans had donated for a airstrip (possibly out of guilt, the country was badly hurt by the Vietnam war, despite not officially being involved), and as a result, has the amusing nickname of 'The Worlds Tallest Runway'. It's still impressive the fifth time you go past!
Patuxai
Lao cuisine is also amazing! Their national dish is Laap, a mix of minced meat (traditionally eaten raw), sweet basil and mint that is delicious. Beerlao is great ('Beer of the Wholehearted People' is a great slogan too). Laolao, a blindingly strong rice whisky is very popular, and does this;
Before
After. It tastes like burning.
The best restaurants in Vientiane appear to be the worst looking- on one street there are five consecutive cafes all cooking amazing food for around 10,000 kip (just shy of a quid), under a crudely fashioned covering made out of old canvas and beer adverts, with kitchens made from a gas bottle and some knocked together metal, serving barbecued meats, spring rolls, fresh coconut and fish caught 30 metres away in the Mekong. Not a bad meal between them.
Great restaurants- they look terrible!
And despite very strict laws prohibiting such recreations, we were offered opium, and the services of a transvestite. Which was kind of them.
Firstly, sorry for the lack of updates. To spoil the surprise, we're now in Melbourne, and have been busy looking for gainful employment! Should speed up now we're settling!
Ayutthaya was our next stop, a mere 7 hours on the bus down the road! We got there, and our hotel was... limited. We decided that sleep there would be impossible, so elected to move down the road to a nicer (and cheaper) establishment. This took us till midnight, and Ben got chased by a pack of feral dogs. Ben insists these were tiger sized Rottweilers. Jenny is certain it was a pack of fluffy Shihtzus. The truth may never come out!
Regrettably, Ayutthaya was probably the first disappointment of the journey. Mainly concrete and traffic, with none of the charm of the prior few towns. I think that we both had a spot of temple fatigue after the charm of Chiang Mai, and the Indiana Jones scope and size of Sukhothai. As a result, we were much less snap happy- hence the lack of photos herein!
Due to the length of Thai visas, and that we wanted a change of scenery, we decided that our next stop would be a visa run to Laos. We booked onto the night train to the capital Vientiane, and readied ourselves for the 15 hour journey! As we had checked out of the hotel at midday, we had an 11 hour wait to even go to the station, so spent the day idling and eating- our favourite pastimes!
Waiting for the train at Ayutthaya. Chang beer model's own.
Our sleeper cabin seemed okay on arrival, and we went to the restaurant car for a snack and a few beers, and met the real life Borat! He was from a small disputed territory of Georgia and Russia called Abkazia (which actually has quite an interesting history if you like that kind of thing). He showed us a picture of his alarmingly young wife, and offered to introduce us to a Triad arms dealer in Bangkok on our return to Thailand. Suitably intrigued, inebriated and terrified, we returned to our room, sadly to find that cockroaches had settled in. We slept as best we could (Ben, being quite tipsy slept very well...) and woke up to find ourselves by the Mekong river, the border of Thailand and Laos.
Our luxury room. And appropriate Hitchcock film...
The first thing to hit about Sukhothai New Town after our previous stops is that they don't expect so many English people there. This is a very Thai town, with very few hawkers trying to sell you suits/taxis/massages/drugs. We arrived around sunset, as their Night Market kicked off in earnest. The market is based round a Buddhist Wat, with a huge statue, and a big portion of the market is run by the monks themselves. A big town festival was starting in a few days, and they had a small (and incredibly rickety) fun fair, and a small area where locals were playing matches of a strange hybrid of football and badminton...
A luvverly bunch of coconuts
They don't have the hang of ripping people off here. For 20 baht (40p), we won 4 toys.
We also found several lovely restaurants. The first in a shed by the river;
The second had the greatest name ever;
Surprisingly tasty
And the final one, Dream Cafem just had the best food ever, and a selection of alcoholic elixirs claiming to give you energy, good health and virility!
Spring rolls 3 ways
Larb or Laap or I don't know they keep changing the spelling. Minced meat with mint and basil and chilli. It's lovely,
Various potions and crazy decor.
Chicken fried in banana leaf.
The main draw of the town is the UNESCO protected historical park in the old town. Tens of temples built by various rulers and kings over decades- proper Indiana Jones type stuff. You have to cycle round to see even half in a day!
Jenny being excitable
In other news... Ben ate insects and we failed to get a good picture of the music festival that we went to!
Much like Hanoi, Chiang Mai just seemed welcoming from the moment we arrived. We werw staying in the old town, a mile and a half square inside the old city walls. You can't walk more than 100 yards without passing a temple, and within hours, a local Buddhist had filled us in on the best ones to visit, and the best way to get cheap fares around. It's that friendly.
The original temple was HUGE, but then an earthquake made it just big
Jenny disapproves
We went to the Night Market by 'tuk-tuk' (a motorbike with a couple of seats attached to the back) in the evening. Ben bought vests (shock!) and on 'Halal Street', the Muslim section of the market we bought the tastiest and hottest dish made from rice balls, made fresh in front of us.
A picture cannot capture the sheer amount of chilli in this!
We washed it down with much needed Tiger beer, and watched a fan dancer in the middle of the market. The beer was lovely, and the fan dancing odd, but very watchable.
Later in the week, we arranged a trek through our guesthouse, involving an elephant ride, which was a little scary, as our elephant liked running up hills to fetch bamboo, but brilliant;
There are very few pictures where Ben isn't looking terrified...
This was followed by a trek through the jungle, with our guide Neo. He was a very funny chap, and had loads of info on the local wildlife (and what it tasted like!). We saw a chameleon, which was bigger than expected;
Some creepy spirit houses, where the local villages encourage evil spirits to stay out;
Shudder
A huge waterfall;
Some amazing views;
And rickety bamboo bridges;
We stopped off for a swim in a little lagoon by a waterfall, which was much needed after the walk, and was beautifully secluded. On the way to get some lunch, our tour guide showed us how to blow bubbles using plant sap!
After lunch, we went down the river on bamboo rafts. Ours was piloted by a 10 year old boy who liked hitting rocks!
And then we went and drank a lot of mojitos. There is so much more that's brilliant about Chiang Mai, but I think this post is now a little long. So I'll just put some food pictures to sum up the rest!
