One Big Week

The bar was full for the football and with beer flowing like water, as they are the same price, we watched Chelsea dismantle Liverpool much to the delight of one of the travelers 'Frankie Lampard' who had one too many Beer Lao and tried to wind up or fight everyone in the pub. And we wonder why England fans have a reputation?! Before this I was chatting to a friend from Uni who had randomly crossed our path and on me mentioning the word 'India', good old Frankie shot over and gave a lecture, dangerous similar to this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKFjWR7X5dU), actually saying the words, "Best thing I've done on my Gap Yah..". Some people really don't help themselves! We made a swift exit ready for a busy next day.

During the morning pick up for elephant trekking and bathing we found it was to be just us and two girls; incredibly, the two girls being Cass and Jess from Ha Long, Hanoi, Vang Vieng etc, what are the chances! We arrived and met the elephants (couldn't understand our ones name so dubbed it Nelly) and were happy to see them looking healthy and treated well. The four of us then jumped on the two elephants, all seated and ready, and stomped our way for an hour though the bush, encountering various spiders, flies and other creepy crawlies en route. This was cracking fun with these redonkulously powerful creatures making paths where they wanted and certainly always in control! Next up, as part of our 'Mahout' training we learnt some basic elephant language and rode without a guide or a seat, sounded easy enough. Well, to reiterate, the elephant is always in control and regardless of how many times you shout a command, if it wants to stop, it will. Also getting on and off the beast, without a ladder, proved to be a less than graceful task! It was however great fun, but the best was yet to come as the last part was where we got to bathe the elephants in the Mekong. Once down at the river our elephant seemed to be energized by the surround liquid and went crazy in the water, splashing around, bucking like a bronco, rolling over, basically whatever it fancied and with the elephants strength it was a battle to stay on. It was an amazing experience watching the elephants playing and cleaning themselves (although the girls one was much more placid....) and definitely one of the best experiences we have had to date. Highly recommended. After this excitement we realized that the cave trip wasn't happening, no biggy, and headed straight for a local village to try some Lao Lao Whiskey, uber strong, and see some local crafts before cruising back to Luang Prabang for a chilled evening with the girls in a beer garden. All in all, a pretty good day!

After the excitement of the previous day, the pace slowed somewhat and the morning passed with just two DVDs to show for our efforts, the things we have to do now Larry has gone! We spent the afternoon at Kuang Si Waterfall, one of Luang Prabang's main draws, which gave the day some purpose and after a longer than anticipated walk to the top, we walked back down and jumped in the pools below, attempted backflips off the rope-swing (await hilarious video), got our feet eaten by fish and had a general splash around before heading back to our hostel and a chill-out.

During the previous evening we had decided we should be cultural and watch the Monks' being given there Alms by the locals at 5.30am, a daily ritual in Luang Prabang. So with blearing eyes we headed, got there early, believe it or not, to watch this spectacle which unfortunately has turned more touristy than we had realised with most of the givers being foriengers who had brought some sticky rice off a local and just wanted good photos. It was, however, still impressive to see 500 monks around the cobbled streets collecting their daily food (even if we have already seen them buying food and other items in local markets..)

Now, the bad luck part. As you may or may not now, Thailand is protesting like crazy, the Red shirts aren't happy and aren't shy of putting their opinion across in the form of firing grenade launchers at public transport. Anyway, we had been waiting to see if the situation dies down but with the Foreign Office still advising against travel to the whole of Thailand, a new plan was required. It was decided, after entertaining various options, that we would head north in Laos to Muang Ngoi for a few days trekking and chilling in this remote part of Laos followed by working our way back down to Vientiane (Laos' Capital) via Vang Vieng for some more Tubing fun!

So off to Muang Ngoi it was, a place only accessible by boat and with electricity only between 6 and 10pm; it wins the most rural place on the tour so far. On route we stopped at Nong Khiaw where for the first time this trip I had a funny turn and my stomach decided to make everything it had consumed for the last 4 weeks reappear, nice! Luckily this was only short lived and arrived in Muang Ngoi with no dramas and bezzed up with an couple of Ozzies (Matt and Sandy) and a Israeli couple (Norkasaurous +1) and decided to book a two day/one night trek around the area with guide 'Aoot'. This decision was not taken lightly with this part of Laos being possibly the most humid place on Planet Earth, but it was agreed it was worth sweating out, and we were certainly proved right. Also our room for the evening came with both no water and the World's biggest spider who was grande enough to eat us for supper, once in the mossie nets, we didnt leave....

The first day started at a leisurely pace, visiting some caves where the Lao people went to hide during war times, and carried on over flat terrain, passing by paddy fields and very large water buffalo, till lunch at a local village, that Aoots helper 'Water Boy' had been carrying, and some respite from the sun in the hammocks! The next four hours were to be uphill in the heat of the day, not for the fainthearted! The six of us plus the two guides worked hard and sweated so much I rang my vest out on two separate occasions but were rewarded both by spectacular views and an immense sense of achievement when we arrived at our night stop, a local Hmong village. Staying at the village was one of the main reasons we had gone with the two day option; we arrived to find farm and domestic animals everywhere, ranging from pigs to dogs, and loads of children playing.

We were stared at to start with, but a few 'Sai Ba Dees' later the kids were loving us and enjoying Western company in this very traditional village. It felt like a step back in time with the living conditions and philosophies but it was an incredible experience as by no means was this a show for us, we were in their weird and wonderful world. After a 'shower' and dinner of bamboo and sticky rice, we relaxed and enjoyed our surroundings before tiredness and the lack of electricity took hold and it was bed time in our paper thin bungalows.

Day two started early with the ever-present cockrals who cant "cockadoodleooo" properly, very frustrating, we grabed some more sticky rice for breakfast and headed off for what we were told was a more relaxed day trekking. However nothing is too relaxed in 1,500,000% humidity, but with a significant proportion of the walk in a small stream, it wasn't as strenuous as the previous day. With different scenery it was still a pleasure to walk with various slips and trips making banter available for use. We arrived at the river and proceeded to enjoy some well earned shade and lunch before starting our Tubing back to Muang Ngoi. This is not the same event that Tubing in Vang Vieng is, this time you are allowed to slowly (maybe too slowly as current was non-existent) drift down river taking in the sights and sounds of the majestically beautiful place. It got so relaxed at one point I actually fell asleep! Its a hard life. After a quick helping hand from the boat we reached Muang Ngoi safe and sound and completely shattered, but what a couple of days!?! Why did we even think about Thailand! As evening drew closer we chatted amongst the group over a few Beer Lao before hitting the sack.

For our last day in Muang we decided to chill the hell out and spent the morning reading before going for lunch at the bar by the river. We however didn't not leave said bar not till gone midnight as various backpackers came and went. The most impressive being 'Bear Grylls', Matt from Cornwall, who was kayaking down the river from the very north of Laos and had already sunk three times, hero. With the town being in Low Season everyone got to know each other over more beer and food, stories from all corners of the globe were shared and a cheeky game of poker was won by me, easyyyyy!

Today we have just made our way back to Luang Prabang with the only action of note being our boat crashing head on into rocks when leaving Muang Ngoi (the driver was more like Massa than Alonso...). Hopefully this picture shows the extent of the crash, our first in 250 days of travelling, which was luckly patch up with only pride hurt. Tonight its sports night with F1 and football frequenting the screens.....Two Beer Laos please?