Entry No.10 by Josh

Our second day in Luang Prabang was just an exploration day really. We woke up fairly early to try to find ourselves some cheaper accommodation, but even dorm beds in a hostel were 6 dollars each, and finding nothing even as cheap as what we were paying, we decided to stay where we were. We went and got some street food for breakfast, and just did little bits and bobs, like book exchanging and walking around looking at what is around the town. Then as we were walking we saw a couple who we had shared a tuk-tuk with from the bus station from the night before. We arranged to meet up with them the next morning and share a ride and go to the waterfalls together, which is about 25km outside the centre of Luang Prabang. That evening we went to a bar where they were hosting a free ethnic fashion show and a hip hop dance group were peforming after. We ended up staying there until it was closing up, and both the shows were good fun. It was a little bit expensive for drinks, but we made sure we got the best deals by drinking LaoLao, which is like a locally made whisky, at around 50% strength. It tastes rough, buts it is drinkable as part of a cocktail. We had the same problem that night, as we did with every night in Luang Prabang, the town closes at around 11pm so we just had to make do with buying beers from a supermarket and taking them back to our room. The following morning we got a bit to eat before meeting up with Kristof and Alix, the couple who we had arranged to meet. They were a really nice couple from Belgium on a 3 week holiday in Thailand, Laos and Hong Kong, who we ended up spending practically all day with. We got a tuk-tuk to the waterfalls and spent a few hours there climbing to the top (anti-climax because there was no amazing view at the top like we had hoped for) before going back down the same way and going for a swim. The waterfalls were beautiful and really refreshingly cold, definately worth going to. There is also a Moon Bear sanctuary we had a look around next to the waterfalls, before getting the tuk-tuk back to the centre. When we got back Alix and Clare wanted a foot massage so Kristof and I left them doing whatever you do when you egt a massage and we went off to find a nice bar. When we got back we arranged to meet up later for some dinner, and reserved a table in a restaurant called 'Tamarind Cafe' that the other guys knew about. We met them there in the evening and the food was really good there. It had a really good veggie selection and it was Laos style dining, where you make balls of sticky rice in your hand and dip them into different dishes, not using any cutlery at all. We had a really good night and by the time we left, the town was shutting down so we went back to our rooms. Kristof and Alix were leaving to go to Thailand the next day so we didn't see them again, but we exchanged details so maybe we will meet them somewhere again. The next day we booked our bus tickets for the next day to Chiang Mai, which was a lot more expensive than we thought it would be, but still cheaper than the other choices of slow boat or fast boat. We spent our last full day in Luang Prabang visiting a temple on the hill, with the best views of the city, where we also released a caged bird as a good luck symbol.  We went to the museum but didn't end up going inside because the entry fee was a little bit much, so we just walked around the grounds and sneaked into the side buildings and managed to see the vintage car exhibit without paying anything. In the evening we decided to go to the Luang Prabang Film Festival, which coincidentally was going on for a week and for the whole time we were there. It is completely free and open air in the centre of town, surrounded by cheap beer tents and street food. We had watched half of one of the films a few days ago and it was alright but we looked at the lineup and wanted to watch the Malaysian film called 'Talentime', that they were showing that night. We found a street vendor selling veggie food buffet style, where you can have a bowl for about 80p and just have as much as you can cram onto it. So we topped up with overflowing plates before going to watch the film. We caught the end of a terrible Lao film called 'From Pakse with Love' which the locals found hilarious but for us, it was really bad. But Talentime was pretty good, but didn't finish until about midnight so we had no chance to do anything after that.
The next morning after checking out we dropped off our bags at a travel agents and had time to kill before our bus to Chiang Mai at 6pm, and spent the day going to a few cafes and reading, and looking around the markets. Then at 6pm we got on the bus and had the worst journey of my life. It was a 14 hour trip to the border, even though we only covered about 250km in that time. It was overnight but the roads in Laos are terrible so it just makes everyone feel sick and the 5 foreigners on the bus couldn't sleep all night. Somehow the locals can sleep through anything though so they were Ok. We were seated at the front of the bus and they had wedged loads of water bottles in our leg room so we already had the worst seats on the bus apart from the girl on the other side whose chair was broken. Being a gentleman, I offered to swap seats with her but I didn't realise how much worse the other seat would be. The driver now in front of me was chain smoking all night and my head was now directly next to a loud speaker blaring out Thai music non-stop all night. On top of this I was feeling sick and used all the plastic bags we had as sick bags that for the second half of the journey I was reusing the same bag again and again. The journey really was horrible, and between me and Clare, we probably managed about 2 hours sleep put together. When we arrived at the border town at about 8am we then had to queue at customs before getting a small boat over to the Thai side of the river. It was such a relief to be off the bus but we still had another 5 hours journey to get to Chiang Mai, which was pretty daunting. I was feeling better now and my body was completely empty so I wasn't being sick anymore but we had to wait until half 10 before a minibus picked us up. In comparison, it was an amazing journey, and 5 hours seemed like nothing, but we were both knackered and it was a relief to get to Chiang Mai. When we got off we just both needed sleep and looked for the cheapest gusethouse we could find. We eventulally found one for 200 Baht (about 4 squid) and thinking it was better to wait a bit until it was dark before crashing out we explored around the city for a few hours. We went to a veggie cafe (Chiang Mai is full of vegetarian places) and Clare had a nice Thai curry, but I wasn't up to eating. We slept around 15 hours that night. The following say we wanted to find a new guesthouse because our room was right next to street works and if we weren't in the state we were in, then surely we wouldn't have slept that night. We found one not oo far away for 250 Baht and it was much cleaner and generally nicer so we ended up staying tehre through all of our time here. Then we spent the day looking at what to do. We found a nice vegetarian cafe that donates all of its profits to Burmese refugees, so that was quite nice, and really cheap as well. That evening, we spent 4 hours in a huge market that is held every Sunday. It was probably the best market we haev been to so far and we bought a few little things. I got Joel a really good Christmas present, but I wont say what it is on here, and also bought some other bits. Went out for quite a few drinks that night, and spent a lot more than we have been used to, but we went to some good bars, and I watched some Premier League football (when Chelsea played Tottenham and Drogba missed an injury time penalty) for the first time in weeks. The next day we alked to the museum with hangovers only to find out that the museum does't open on Mondays so we spent the rest of teh day looking at what to do for the rest of our days here. We booked a day trip doing various things, and also booked oursleves onto a vegetarian cooking class. Also made some other plans. We also discovered another cafe that sort of became our local, and where I had the best veggie burger in my life and Clare had the best salad in her life. That evening we went to see some Thai boxing (Muay Thai). There were 8 fights and we had really good seats, I lost 200 Baht stupidly betting with a local guy, and there were womens fights, kids fights, title fights, International fights (English guy and Swiss guy fightin Thai guys) and also a special fight with 4 blinfolded boxers in the ring together. It was a really fun night and the first time either of us have ever seen live Boxing or Thai boxing. The next day we got a tuk-tuk to the 'Tiger Kingdom', a tiger conservation centre which ahs about 30 tigers in, from all ages. The tigers are well looked after and not drugged, like some people say about other places. It wasn't cheap but was a rare oppurtunity so we paid to be allowed into the enclosures with the Tigers. We got some amazing photos of us feeding the small tigers and playing with 6 week old tigers. We also chose to go in with the biggest ones they have. It was pretty scary at first but you get used to it, the tigers normally just sleep during the day and they aren't taken from the wild so they are used to humans. I even spooned the tiger, romantic. After the Tiger Kingdom, we went to a snake farm. As soon as we got in, they put huge snakes around our necks without any warning and then practically forced me to hold a huge scorpion. It was a small place but run by a guy who is in one of the Rambo films, so there are photos of him with Sylvester Stallone around the place. Then they had a snake show, where a nutter was basically just winding up snakes as big as 6 metres and he had paralysed some fingers from snake bites. Then just round the corner there was an insect farm so we thought we might as well go there as well. It was really tame in comparison to what we had been doing all morning but they did have some huge stick insects you could hold and a nice little butterfly farm as well. The driver tried to get us to see the funny monkey show, but as we got there, the monkeys were in tiny cages and didn't look very well treated so we didn't want to go there. Instead we went to a centre that does extreme sports, run by a Kiwi. We didn't fancy the bungee jumping or anythying because its a really simulated environment, dipping into a swimming pool at the bottom. But we agreed that if we are going to do something like that we would rather do it with better surroundings and less Aussies around trying to prove how 'Extreme' they are. We were thinking of going 'Zorbing' (look it up) there but it was too pricey for only 15 minutes worth. Back in the centre we spent the evening at the night market. It was Ok but nowhere near as good as the Sunday market so didn't stay that long.
The following day we had our day trip booked so we got up early and went for our free breakfast that we had haggled as part of booking the tour. The day started with a group of 9 of us being taken to an Orchid and butterfly which were alright but nothign special, then we were taken to a car park before having an hours trek up to a waterfall. It was a shallow waterfall and not the best we have seen, but still nice to have a swim in and it did look quite impressive. After walkign back down the same route we got back in the jeep and taken to go white water rafting for 45 minutes. It was really fun actually and afterwards we had to get off our raft and move onto a bamboo raft. The bamboo raft was really slow and we had no influence on direction, as we had a guide who was controlling. It was boring and you are sitting in water so you get really wet but it was only 15 minutes long so it was alright. Afterwards we got taken to a lodge to do some elephant riding. There were only 4 elephants there so one guy had to sit on an elephants head, but I didn't volunteer, it looked really dodgy. The elephant riding was a strange experience. It wasn't very comfortable and you feel like you were going to fall off and it doesn't seem like the elephants are very happy. The trainers (mahouts) were quite rough with them using sharp sticks to control them and they pulled their ears quite hard as well, even though one was pregnant and making noises, probably in distress. They also threatened the elephants with stones in a slingshot. The ride was about half an hour and the track was up a mountain and down again, which didn't look very easy for the elephants either. It wasn't very enjoyable because the whole time we both just ended up feeling guilty about how they were being treated. I think because we had found a cheap tour (about 15 quid for the whole day) they had a deal with a badly run elephant camp. It is a shame because there are apparently a lot of good elephant centres where they look after them properly. I don't think we will do it again now, we felt too bad after that time. The next day we went to the museum, which was quite fun, it was a really good exhibit, its just that Chiang Mai doesn't have a particularly interesting history so it seems like a waste of a good museum. That afternoon we had the cooking class. We got to choose 9 dishes between us and cook them with a teacher called 'Poo'. It was fun but it dragged on a bit and cooking isn't my thing at all, but Clare had a really good time. After the class we tried to eat all the food we made but got about half way through before giving up. We felt a bit special when they gave us a ceretificate for passing the class, and gave us a recipe book for the dishes we had made. To be fair, the food was really good and I actually I did learn quite a lot. We had a day of resting and visiting markets the next day and a half but in the evening of that second day we went to the night safari about 10km out of town. It was amazing, but I would describe it as more of a zoo than a safari. We arrived early and did the 'Jaguar Trail' where you walk around and see loads of enclosures with different animals in. We saw loads fo animals, like Tigers, Lions, White Tigers, White Lions, Leopards, Hippos, Crocodiles, Jaguars and loads more. Then later we went on the 'Savannah' safari for half an hour, and that was the best bit. There were loads more animals, like Bears and stuff, and we got to feed Zebras, Giraffes, Wild Hogs and Deers. It was really good, and because it was late, the animals are a lot more lively. The second Safari was the 'Predator Prowl', which had Tigers, Elephants and Hyenas and stuff but wasn't as good because they were further away from the vehicle because they are more dangerous obviously. There was then a water and laser show in the lake which we stayed for before leaving. At one point, we were standing around and someone told us to stand back. Not knowing what it was for we casually moved back a bit and then turned round to see a white tiger coming straight towards us, only being held by his tail, on no chain or anything. After shitting our pants scared, we went back to the centre of town. The next morning we got oursleves to the bus station and got a 6 hour bus southwards to Phitsanulok. After arriving and finding somewhere to stay we walked around town and found a good Night Bazaar. We couldn't find anything to eat in town as there aren't many tourists there so bars and restaurants don't really exist. We ended up eating snacks from 7/11. The next day we went to the local Folk-lore museum, which was quite fun, then went to a Buddha statue making factory and an Aviary which had some huge birds in small cages, so we didn't stay there for very long. After spending another day there relaxing, using some local bars on the riverfront, and even going to floating bars where we are the only ones drinking beer (everyone else drinks blended spirits with soda), we decided to move on to our next destination. We wanted to go to Kanchanaburi next which is where we are spending Christmas but this means going via Bangkok so we spent most of the next day on buses or at bus stations before arriving in Kanchanaburi at around 8pm. This town is famous from the film and is where you can walk on 'the bridge on the river Kwai'. After having some drinks when we arrived, we found a bar called 'get pissed for 10 Baht' where we stayed and spent a lot more than 10 Baht. That was last night anyway, and today we have spent the day going to different museums dedicated to the POWs that worked here and we also visited the cemetry where most of the bodies are. Then we walked to the bridge itself and walked across the death railway on it, which was interesting. Its Christmas eve here now and it doesn't feel anything like it probably does in England. Occasionally there is someone wearing a Santa hat but that is about as Christmassy as it has got for us. Tomorrow we will try to make it feel festive but we are not sure how yet.

Entry No. 9 By Clare

Day 83, We left for Na Hin early by bus, we had to catch two buses to the nearest bus stop from the town and we luckily got a free lift from there (40km from the town) by a man who had a guest house. We politely stayed as he had been kind and also stopped at a beautiful view point of the mountains on the way too. We found a small market, lots of empty guest house's and not much else. We found the tourist info, all the trips they arrange seemed to be very pricey. We decided we would sleep on it and think about it tomorrow. We deciding the following day to visit a waterfall, 3km walk each way through the jungle, we swam and it was very peaceful with no other people there. We left Na Hin the following day. The guest house tried to charge us 50,000kip for our 'free' lift but we refused. We arrived in Vientiane after about 6 hours by bus. It was really touristy and quite expensive. We spent $10 on a room but it was quite nice, really clean but no TV and shared bathroom. In the evening we just went for a little explore and a drink. We walked out to the market, its really really big and sell everything you can image. We found a locals restaurant which is veggie and for 20,000kip you can get all the veggie food you can image, amazing. We went to a book exchange and got a really good deal of $5 per book so we walked away about $13 dollars richer and 2 new books. We went to the stadium and found a girls football match about to begin so we stayed and watched. They had linesman and everything, took it really seriously. The stretcher was used 7 times. The end score was 11-0. In the evening we went to an English pub and watched the Man U-Blackburn match. We visited the National History Museum, it wasn't so interesting. We went to the famous Arc afterward and got some beautiful photo's over Vientiane. I send another bundle of postcards also. We found a really crappy bowling alley and the lane was really uneven. Needless to say we both did really badly, the winning score about 70 points. We also played pool at the bowling alley. We had to sort out our Thai visas on Monday morning, this took about 2-3 hours waiting and just spent the rest of the day reading and playing cards. We had to go back the next day to collect our visas which took equally as long. Later we went along the riverfront visiting local shops, seeing lots of people selling fabrics and handicrafts. We left for Vang Vieng the next morning. The bus took about 8 hours. When we arrived in took a while to find a cheap room but we got one for 30,00kip (under $4) and went out for some drinks. Vang Vieng is full of bars and restaurants. We ended up having quite a lot to drink and I
went to bed very early. Josh went out for dinner in a restaurant nearby that plays family guy all day. The following day we went tubing. I felt pretty bad so didn't drink too much all day. (Tubing is when you are given a doughnut ring and float down the river for about 6km being pulled in by bars along the way. lots of spray paint, loud music, water slides and swings). It was really fun, we met lots of cool people, you have to finish by 6pm to get a deposit back so we just went to a local bar after. We did miss the 6pm deadline by ten minutes also. The next day we relaxed by the riverfront most of the day, reading and paddling. We booked a day trip for tomorrow too. We went for a day trip to a local cave first which we went tubing through it in a group of about 15 people about 15km from town, then had a really nice lunch of vegetable kebabs and rice. After we drove to the riverfront and went kayaking for the afternoon about 10km. We stopped half way at one of the tubing bars for a drink and some people went on the slides etc, it was a really fun day and Josh and I were the fastest kayaks by a mile. We went tubing again for our second time the next day. This time was much better for both of us. We went by tuk-tuk with a group and mainly stayed with them for the day. We played mud volleyball, went to some really cool bars and got back by 6pm this time. We went out after for a few more drinks and dinner after. The next morning I woke up early to get Josh and I bus tickets to Luang Prabang for that morning. We left at 10am and its only just over 200km distance but it took over 8 hours because the road are in such bad condition, you just travel on the edge of the mountains most of the time and the air-con didn't work so it was really hot. We found a room after about an hour of looking around, everywhere is really expensive, $30+. We managed to find a Twin-bedded room for $10 which was good enough. We went out for an explore and looked around the market, its really nice handicrafts, fabrics, jewellery, clothing and foods. It got to around 10.30pm and everything had closed. We later found out that its illegal not be within the property you live in after 12am for locals and they get heavily fined for having bars etc open later. We went back to our room then after.