4000 islands in Laos

After the great loop Manuel left for Thailand and I took a day of rest in my fabulous room in Tha Khaek. The next day Chuss (Maria-Jesus) and me teamed up and went to Pakse in the south of Laos. As a French guy at the bus station had already told us... Pakse... hmmm well there is not much to do there either. Again a little outside there are the great plains but we decided to go straight to 4000 islands. One might ask himself now (those who know geography a bit) „well, island in laos... there is no sea“! Precisely, yes there is no see... yes it is a landlocked country BUT the great Mekong river flows through Lao and in the south of Laos you ll find many tiny islands in the Mekong river... the so called 4000 island area.

I expected that to be a backpackers highlight and therefore crowded with people BUT no. When we arrived there we took a little boat to get to „our“ island. Okay we went for the less-touristee island but anyway it is super quite and the locals are happy to see you. Every now and then kids cross your way and greet you with a load SABAIDEE wildly waving at you. In these apart from the friendly people the island is a paradise itself! Palm trees, little bungalows and nice food. Chuss and me rented a small bungalow for 60.000 KIP =6 Euro = 3 Euro per person per night!!! AND this is supposed to be the more expensive island!!!

On our first day after the arrival I simply passed out on my bed for a 3 hour nap. The next day we went to explore the sights of the island by bicycle. They are cheap and very easy to find on the island. Apart from a few scooters I haven t seen any motorized vehicles here... no cars or tractors...(I think now you can imagine the kind of peace on the island)
First again some waterfalls... they were the wildest that i ve seen so far in Laos cause usually in the dry season they have little water and are sightly boring but these had strong currents and consequently exhibited some action. After a small coffee in the shade we went to see the sweet water dolphines of the Mekong. At a small beach some fishermen offer their services... to cut down the costs we teamed up with an Irish and and Israelian guy. The boatride itself was already amazing.

Suddenly we stopped somewhere in the middle of the Mekong close to a few rocks where we were supposed to watch out for dolphines. As it was crazy hot I went for a swim first (like our fishman, he acutally took is daily shower in the Mekong) and then I tried to see dolphines. Well I saw something in the far distance which could have been a dolphine.... the Irish guy had binoculares and he confirmed my assumption. Anyway the trip is more about the nice landscape and boattrip but not sooo much about the dolphines....

On the way back we were sweating like crazy as we were cycling in the sun. After a small rest in our guest house we got on our bikes again and went to the other island Don Det. Usually if foreigners want to cross the bridge they have to pay but the control person had already gone into his weekend. The other island seemed to be a bit more touristee in general but still quite laid back as it was not high season. We finished the evening off with some nice food and the company of a French and a Belgian girl.

The next day we had again rented bicycles to surround our island. We felt a little bit like Julia Roberts cycling through the forest in Indonesia in the book „eat pray love“. BEAUTIFUL but again on our way back, crazy hot. When we arrived at our guest house we just passed out for a while in our hammock and took a cold shower afterwards. Ahh not that we have the choice between hot and cold, cause the cheap rooms do not include hot water. Anyway we were well advised to go for the room with cold water as there would have been anyway no use for warm water.
In the afternoon we went for a drink and some fruit salad with our new neighbors, an Aussie, a Finish guy and a Swiss guy. This evening is Chuss and my last evening traveling together as she will leave to Cambodia and I will take a 20 h bus (juhhhuu) to Bangkok. Therefore we intend to treat ourselves with some delicious food!

Kisses from Don Khon (4000 Islands) in Laos
Astrid

Tha Kaek - the loop (Laos)

Tha Kaek – The loop

Even though we took the VIP bus which was supposed to take only 5 hours from Vientiane to Tha Khaek, it took us 7,5 hours. There have been rumors that the PDR in „Laos P.D.R“ stands for „please don t rush“. Being from Austria, where efficiency is a top priority, makes it more difficult to getting used to the Lao speed, everything takes a while and a little longer :-).

When we finally arrived the Lonely Planet recommended guesthouse was full therefore we had to go to a hotel. The hotel looked pretty fancy and out of our price range BUT we were lucky, for 120.000 KIP = 12 Euros we were able to get a double room. Luckily the receptionist made a mistake and we got it for 70.000 = 7 Euros.... hurray that s an excellent deal.

/>

Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng (Laos)

Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng

Finding accommodation is never a real problem. The moment you arrive 20 different TukTuk driver are waiting for you and try to drag you to the guest house they get commission from. To advertise they show you nice fotos of the rooms with a very low price. The moment you show up there, they show you first the room for the price they told you.... usually a really crappy one and if you try to leave disgustedly, they will show you another much nice but bit more expensive room. Then the bargaining starts.... At first they will tell you“cannot“, after that you need to leave to check other guest houses, if they for any reason decided that the „can“, they will stop you and offer a better price. More bargaining then usually does not succeed. So either take it of leave it.
Not so this time, Too many people tried to get a room, so no opportunity for bargaining. The room was clean and the bathroom was creepy but we anyway took it as it was just for two nights.

We decided to stay only 2 nights in Luang Prabang as we wanted to meet Manuel (Fabians brother) in Vang Vieng for his birthday on the 9th. Luang Prabang is a nice quite small charming city with nice bars, cafes and restaurant. You can still see sometimes an architecual influence from the French (Laos was formaly occupied by the French).
On the 8th we decided to'visit the waterfalls. Actually I didn t expect it to be something special but... what else to to. According to our guest house a motorbike is 20!!!! USD per day (in Thailand a motorbike is 5 USD), a tuktuk is around 25 USD per day BUT he offers a minivan to the waterfalls for 6 USD per person. Hmmm the minivan seemed to be a better option but we wanted to check first ourselves. After a bit of bargaining we found a tuktuk driver who would be willing to take us for 5 USD per person. It seemed to be a win-win situation; good price for him and for us!!!! Therefore after our breakfast – kao soy soup, we left for the waterfalls.

Originally I had suggested to go by bike but as the waterfalls are a ride of 35 km, Fabi was not enthusiastic about it.... and he was actually right not to be :-)

When we arrived at the waterfalls we first went to visit a bear-rescue center...

The waterfalls turned out to be a piece of heaven!!! The water was sooo clear, light blue with little water-terrasses.... As it was the international women's day, many lao-families where having a picknick!

After hanging out the whole day at the waterfalls we returned to Luang Prabang... one more good night beer and then off to bed (bars close anyway at 11:30) as we needed to leave early for Vang Vieng tomorrow. The bus was supposed to pick us up at 8.30, but as this is Laos, things are much more chilled than for example in Thailand... not to talk about Austria. Eventually the TukTuk which brought us to the real bus, showed up at 9.20. Between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng there is a mountain range, so we spent 7 hours doing one curve after the other. I felt slightly sick but nothing more... but a local girl who was sitting in the front with her baby on the lap had to puke every half an hour. After she finished she just threw her puke-bag out of the window and that for 5 hours. I felt terribly sorry for the guy sitting next to her :-). Manuel had already arrived in Vang Vieng and organized a room for us three. That was so far the cheapest room we ever had so far... 1,6 euro per person per night!!! The cheapest but not the nicest but neither the creepiest room we ever had.
That night we went to have barbecue and a couple of drinks... until 12 o clock, when bars close :-) but of course we had to stay until 12 because by then Manuel's birthday would officially start.

The main attraction in Vang Vieng is „Tubing“. You hire a tube and a tuktuk will take you up the river and you use the tube to float down the river from bar to bar. Actually the tube is not necessary at all because the bars are 20 meteres from each other. So we stopped at the first bar to hang out in the sun, have a drink and mingle with the other „tubers“. These bars also offer crazy swings and slides which Fabi of course had dto use. As there is currently during the dry season not too much water in the river, it is slightly dangerous if you dive into the water at a low water area. If you check youtube for „Tubing accidents“ you really start to think about it once more... whether to swing... or maybe just enjoy the sun :-)
Tubing is certainly fun but I couldn t do it longer than a day. Some Europeans started working there in the animationteam but it seems that they have completely lost the excitment and all they really want is to sleep for at least 24 h.
Tomorrow we will leave to Vientiane but just for a stop over as we want to go to Tah Kaek for a motorbike tour, the so called „loop“.

Kisses from Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng
Astrid & Fabi

Trip to Luang Prabang

Trip to Luang Prabang Lao

As I have mentioned already in my last blogg we took a minivan to the border. Our pick up was around 9 pm and we arrived there at 3 am. Fortunately our ticket included a bed in a creepy guesthouse to sleep for a couple of hours. Boys and girls were not allowed to stay in the same room (a Thai lady indicated that quite strictly) so I shared with an Argentinien girl.
We had to get up a 7 to get some breakfast and cross the Thai-Lao border. To do so you have to cross first the river by water taxi, so far was everything still under Thai controll which means there is still some organization. The moment we arrived at the visa application in Lao with turned crazy. Even though people tried to queue this has obviously no value for the Lao border officers. To finally get a stamp and a visa you would need to fill out the application, put it in your passport, include a foto and pass it via other applicants through the window of visa application office. Than wait!!! Once in a while a door would open and a passport would be given to any person waiting there for their own passport. This person checks the name and starts calling for the owner of the passport. Then payment issues are handled. 36 USD for 30 days.

After we got our visa, we went to the pier to board our boat as we would continue by slowboat to Luang Prabang. The slowboat takes 2 days but is supposed to be really nice. Lao is famous for it „Lao-Time“ which means basically everything is not that efficient and rather slow and people just take it easy. Maybe it can be said that Lao is the Greece of Asia :-) Before we left a nice gentlemen gave us a introduction about how to find accommodation in Pat Beng (the village we would stay overnight). According to him, there is not enough accommodation for 200 people and therefore it will be difficult to find something and unfortunately it is not too safe BUT we need not worry because FORTUNATELY he has a guesthouse with a couple of free rooms for ONLY 500 THB (12 euros, that doesn t sound much but actually it is). Of course this had to be a scam and we did not go for it but some others of course did!!
When we arrived in Pat Beng many many people were standing there with there signs offering rooms! We got a really nice one (fan, hot shower and very clean) for 250 THB – half of the price!
This village exists mainly because the slowboat stops there. As a result you ll just find guesthouses, sandwich shops, restaurants, marihuana vendors and ONE bar. The bar is called „The HiVE – the best and only bar in town“ and it has a cerfew at 11.30 pm!!!! PARTTYYYYYYYYY :-)

The next day – again a boat day. We arrived around 5 pm in Luang Prabang. I had imagined it to be much bigger but it is rather a small town. Program: find a guesthouse and food. Mission accomplished for today!!!!

regards from Luang Prabang (Lao)
Astrid and Fabian

Chiang Mae

Chiang Mae

This time after several really long busrides we decided to take the train, even though it took longer than the bus and is more expensive but you have actually a bed! VERY nice on a 15 h train ride.

The train ride turned out to be very nice. Around 4 in the afternoon a gentleman shows up, showing you a menu from which you are supposed to order your dinner. At around 6 another gentleman installs a table and cleans everything neatly. Food is served!!! Well.... for train food, not to bad, but the service and the effort that they make is MUCH better than any service you will find in Austrian trains.
Just opposite of your seats a special dedicated compartment for „elderly, disabled and monks“ is located. I was wondering why monks would prefer to be by themselves. In the hall, next to the open door, where smoking is allowed I meet two monks smoking.... award (they are not allowed to smoke at all). During a small chat I found out that he is a Cambodian monk and that in Cambodia monks are allowed to smoke. (A couple of days later I found out, that monks are not allowed to touch women (not even handshake) and that s the reason why they keep to themself not to be in trouble due to intensive body contact in the train ;-))

The train arrives at 5 in the morning in Chiang Mae. I was happy that this time I had already reserved a guesthouse. As they don t have 24/7 reception service, they had just left the key outside next to the fridge for me :-)! Fabi went immediately to sleep but somehow the coffee I had at 7eleven kept me awake. So I went for a 2hour walk through Chiang Mae. It is really lovely at 6.30. Many many monks in orange clothes are walking around with small boxes asking for food. When somebody donates food to them, they start praying together. Everywhere in the city you can find small temples with a huge golden Buddha.

In the afternoon we rented again a scooter and explored the surroundings of Chiang Mae. The next day we signed up for a Thai cooking class. Fabi and I were the only students and both of us cooked 6 different dishes!! Before we started to cook we went with our teacher to the market to get an explanation of the ingredients of Thai cuisine.

With our cooking teacher on our side it was sooooo easy and fortunately we got a cook book at the end, to be able to remember how to do it at home. That day we were really full, as we had to eat all 6 dishes by ourselves.

On the next day I joined a 3-day-trekking-tour. Fabi wasn t too much into trekking so he hired a scooter and went to Chiang Pai for 3 days. As I am the author of this blog, I am gonna write about my trekking trip :-)
We started in an elephant camp where we „enjoyed“ a one hour ride on an elephant. We had declared that we would not need a sattle, cause this would be MUCH more authentical. Actually it is just inconvenient. I was sitting on the neck of the elephant, which moves all the time and I thought that I am gonna fall any second. Moreover the two Belgian girls behind we were holding on to ME.... So in case.... all of us would fall. Our elephant called Sumsi :-) was afraid of cats, dogs oxes and basically any animal that is smaller than her. I am not scared of animals smaller than an elephant but I am scared of a scared elephant lady trying to run off when she encounters any small animal! fortunately our guide could keep Sumsi under control.

After the elephant ride we started the trek. The first days trek can be discribes as EXTREMELY hot and VERY steep. The jungle is really beautiful but if you are sweating your ass off and you are busy breathing, you can t actually enjoy it as much. That evening we arrived in a minority village (Hmongh village) were we slept in a simple bamboo hut. Our guide cooked a delicious meal and we had a good time chatting in the evening.

The next day we continued towards some waterfalls were we took a shower. It was again really hot but this time not as steep as the day before so slightly better and I could really appreciate the nature and its beauty. Our guide really knew the jungle very well, cause every now and then we would show us plants that you could eat and most of us tried. Of course I tried and I became a huge fan of tanmarine. It is a brown fruit in a shell and it looks a little bit like a peanut just a little longer. It s taste is slightly sour but really delicious and as I ve learned already in my cooking class it is widly used in Thai cuisine.

After the waterfalls the group split as 4 of us (7 in total) only did a 2 day trek. Moreover one Belgian girl decided that the trip was too hard for her and that she didn t want to do another day. So there was just me and another girl from Belgium left + the guide. More sweating and walking for us BUT it was really worth it! The landscape was just beautiful up there!!! Amazing view and we slept again in a rather remote village in a bamboo hut with nothing but a view blankets and no electricity. Our dinner was cóoked in the house of one of the locals. Unfortunately I was not supposed to take pictures in there but the house consists of one roome around 18m2. In there you ll find a fireplace for cooking and a couple of thin matresses to sleep on. This house had electricity via a solar pannel (very advanced!!!) and is a home to around 6 kids (I am not certain cause there were soooo many) 2 parents, 2 grandparents and an aunt.

After the dinner, around 20 kids came to our bamboo hut to sing a song for us :-)

The night though was not too pleasant, mosquitos, dogs loudly barking, roosters screaming and lots of people talking. After a short breakfast in the morning we went down to the river for some rafting!! Loved it!!! was really fun. Unfortunately no fotos cause I was scared to bring my camara and I was right to be.

In the evening I met Fabi in front of the guesthouse were a bus picked us up to go to the border of Lao.

Kisses from Chiang Mae
Astrid and Fabian

Bangkok

Crazy, busy, sporty, loud but lovely Bangkok

Battangbang was a quiet but lovely place in Cambodia but not too well connected to other areas except Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. I actually wanted to go to the north west of Cambodia cause there is very little tourism as it is quite remote. It would have take us at least 2 days of traveling and we would have needed to go back at least to Siem Reap, which we really did not want to. Therefore we just changed plans on the spot and took a bus to Bangkok. I was slightly worried as we would cross the border between Thailand and Cambodia and just recently there had been gunfires at exactly that border. But wen asking several locals, all of them told me that it is fine and I didn t need to worry.

When we arrived there we had to walk over the border and get on another bus. While crossing the border on foot, there was no sign of any armed disagreement. At the otherside the Thai's crammed us in a minibus and drove like crazy in the direction of Bangkok. Fabian was convinced that it could not be far and kept on telling us that. ACTUALLY it was still far ... another 5 hours of crazy thai driving, stopping twice for gas and pineapple :-)

The driver dropped us off close to Kaosan Road, which is the main tourist – guesthouse area. Perfect for us, as we needed anyway to find a guesthouse. Everything seemed to be occupied except one really cheap one – 250 THB for a double room = 1,5 Euro per person. Well.... it was very basic and we both were slightly afraid of bedbugs but for one night it would do. As we were back to REAL civilisation, we had a night out! Kaosan Road is not only famous for its load of guest houses but also for its party area.
This backpacking community is really small and obviously most follow a similar route. When walking through Kaoson Road we met two Canadians for the 3 time on our trip... to celebrate our reunion we went for a beer and it turned into a great night. Around 5 a clock in the morning it started to rain and people were dancing on the street. If we would be dancing on the street when it is raining in Austria, we would not stop dancing i guess.

The next day we changed to a much nicer but also more expensive guest house and took it easy.... walking around, having nice food and SHOPPING. We took the water taxi to the MBK shopping mall, which is famous for its lot of crap and the need to bargain for every single piece. 2 hourse later, I had bought a new (well secondhand) mobile phone, a Thai sim card, hotpants and earphones for around 1200 THB = 20 euro ! Please if anybody of you is Thai and would get a much better price, please do not tell me. I am actually quite content with my bargaining power.

The next day started again rather late, as we went out again :-) While Fabi was still hanging out in bed, i got up and went to see the royal palace which he had seen anyways already. This time I went on foot, as the watertaxi really confuses me. I was perfectly prepared as I had brought a longsleeve shirt and long pants, as you need to be dressed „appropriatly“ for the king. When I arrived there, the palace just closed (15.00). So I had a walk around and found a really nice park. Inside people were using a Hulahup – it is a ring which they circle around their waste. They invited me to join.

After that I moved on and found some fitness devises, just standing in the park, open for use to everybody – 30 minutes of stepping! After that i continued to walk through the park and met a lot of Thais playing table tennis, again I was invited to joind – 20 minutes of very poor table tennis (poor on my side). After the embarrassment of playing table tennis agains a pro I joined a yoga class in the park! I finished of with a bit of apes training and decided to call it a day. When passing the royal palace, it turned out that there „sound and light show“ on the history and the kings of Thailand was talking place. As we had anyway no plans I just went for it! The lady at the entrance was totally convinced that I would understand EVERYTHING..... VERY EASY!!!! Actually it turned out after 5 minutes that I wouldn t understand most of it.
BUT a Thai whiteknight was sitting next to me and volunteered to translate the whole show (1,5 hours) for me. So now I have a pretty good impression about the Thai king and his hobbies, past and family. :-)

This evening some more nice street food and a couple of beers with 2 German girls... nothing much as we would leave tomorrow for Chiang Mae in the north of Thailand.

PS: sorry for the lack of fotos, but it is difficult to show the multitude of facets of Bangkok - and maybe I was a little lazy this time ;-)

Battangbang - Cambodia

Sorry it took me a while to write again, but fast internet is not really always available.

So from Siem Reap (Ankor Watt) we went by boat to Battangbang. We heard that is an amazing trip therefore we took the boat (8,5 h, 20 USD) instead of the bus (2 h, 5 USD. The pick-up was already at 6:10 in the morning. At 7 we stopped at a little cafe and a lady told us that this was the last opportunity to get something to eat or to drink, as there would be nothing on the boat. It smelled a lot like a scam but I anyway bought some breakfast and a water just to be safe.

The boat was quite small and packed with people. We sat for 8 hours on a small wooden bench our knees kind of in the but of the person in front ... extremely comfortable. But the worst issue we hadn t recognised so far.... THE ENGINE. It was CRAZY loud. For the first hour or so, that s fine but after 4,5 I had a terrible headache and after 8 hours I was close to swimming the remaining way just to get away from the engine. Never the less, the landscape was very nice and we passed lots of floating fishing villages. We spend those 8,5 hours waving a small kids from those villages as there was nothing else to do cause listening to music or talking was impossible.

That night in Battangbang we just fell in our bed and that s about it. The sound of the engine killed us!!

The next day we rented a Tuk Tuk and went to visit the sights nearby the city, as the city offers rather little. First we visited a crocodile farm, where we just arrived to watch the crocodiles being fed. A little disgusting but interesting as well. Pls check the foto where the crocodiles tear apart the mouse:

Next we had a ride on the bamboo train. This so called train combines according to Fabi the "DON'Ts" of engineering. Just a platform and 4 wheels powered by a maw loaner engine. Great!!!! If two trains meet, one is just disassembled so that the other one can pass.

After that we tried the wine in a cambodian wine yard. Hmm Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvingnon hmmm well they still have to work on their wine making skills... But anyway hanging out a bit in a wine yard is pretty nice. Battangbang is a nice place to visit... a rural town, in my opinion typically Cambodian, where people don t try to constantly rip you off because you are a tourist.