21st June - Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng

When we had been looking at buses from Louang Prabang, we noticed that they did something called a VIP bus for a few extra dollars. At a distance I'd commented that the picture of it looked like an ARRIVA bus and on closer inspection, it actually was. Not that ARRIVA are operating in Laos, they'd obviously just nicked the picture from the internet because it even said 'Southend-on-Sea' or something like that on the front. Anyway, it was still more expensive and so we didn't catch it but the picture had made me smile.

So, we took the non-VIP minibus to Vang Vieng and it was so cosy that we started making some of the friends that we were going to spend the next few days with. There was a younger English couple called Paul and Alex, and a Belgian guy called Yens - who we got to know a little better during an impromptu stop when we stood outside the bus waiting for a road to be rebuilt and retarmaced along the route.

We ended up in the same hotel as Yens and went together to explore the town a little bit more. Despite being famous for being a party town where drunken tourists can tube down the river, Vang Vieng is actually in a very attractive area, surrounded by cloudy karsts and stunning scenery and so we didn't need to walk far out of the main area to appreciate the beauty of it.

After some food and a few beers we decided to take a closer look at the clubs across on the little island. We were the first people there so we sat in hammocks with our promotional 'buckets' and watched the drunken tourists start to arrive. It still wasn't particularly busy but once the fires were lit and a few people were dancing, it started to feel more like we were expecting.

Not that this was particularly fun for Matt, who headed off to bed while I got more into the spirit of it all. A few hours later, after a particularly memorable few minutes of dancing to Madonna in the pouring rain, surrounded by blue sparkly lights and fires, Jens and I grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel - where I went to bed clutching a sandwich for Matt. He must have been tired though because I couldn't rouse him - so I picked out all the best bits and went to bed.

20th June - Louang Prabang

For some reason last night was a restless night and so when the alarm went off at 5am, my desire to see the alms procession was overcome by my desire to get some more sleep.

We had arranged to go and spend some time at a waterfall with Sam and Nick last night and so met them around lunch time to take the long tuk tuk journey there.  There was a bear sanctuary there and though it was good to see the bears that had been rescued from miserable lives of 'dancing', fighting and general abuse, it was still distressing to see their repetetive and peculiar behaviours.

There were quite a few people swimming in the nearby waterfall and we watched people swinging from a tree into the water. I was particularly taken by a Japanese lady who did the jump wearing a pink rubber ring. I'm not sure the ring helped much as she hit the water because she came up looking rather shocked and disorientated.

After plucking up the courage to climb into the freezing water, I was glad to have the Isle of Wight sea shoes that Rachel bought me so I didn't have to cope with the sharp rocks underfoot too (Ta Rach!). After a short swim and a sit under the waterfall with Sam, we climbed back on to dry land and had a wander around some of the other waterfalls in the area.

The biggest waterfall had a path that led to the top of it and we decided to have a look. It was more of a scramble than a walk in places and although Nick skipped ahead like a monkey-man, the rest of us laboured behind. I was determined to get to the top and left Matt and Sam behind with my bags - it was a good job I did because I couldn't even hold my towel on properly and so ended up scaling the hill in just my bikini.

Much to my disdain, even though I made it to the top I could not get to the only bit where there would have been a view over the waterfall without wading through bigs pools of water and making my shoes all wet and muddy for the descent. Given how slippery it already was, I was glad that I hadn't. Especially when it started raining on the way down.

By this time Matt had decided to swim after all and slipped into a deserted pool near a smaller waterfall. After joining him quickly to wash off the sheen of sweat, we headed back towards the car park where the tuk tuk driver was waiting for us - along with some other passengers who'd ridden there on bikes and didn't fancy the ride back.

Due to the general problem of a lack of change that seems to plague anyone who sells anything in Laos, there was some confusion over money that meant that we nearly cheated the tuk tuk driver. Luckily, we'd stood for a while making arrangements and so were still only meters away when he realised the mistake. After lots more confusion and money swopping we were fairly sure that if anyone was out of pocket it was us and not him.

After a chat with my mum, we booked our bus and headed to the night market. This time we were late rather than early and so many stalls were packing up but this was probably for the best because there were lots of lovely things that I would have been tempted by. We have resisted many beautiful things so far but I did give in to a lightshade. It was made of real flowers pressed between paper and looked subtle and delicate. However, he way the flowers illuminated and glowed with colour when they were put near the light filled me with such emotion for my family that I'm amazed I ony left with one.

19th June - Luang Prabang

The alarm didn't go off and so when I woke up it was already light and we had missed the monk's procession. It happens every day though so we planned to go another day.

After a quick walk up to town for money and breakfast, we changed hotel to Villay Vanh. They'd been so nice to us the day yesterday when we were waiting for Jordan and Belinda, and had such a lovely bed and air-con that I couldn't resist. We made the most of it and chilled out on the balcony during the heat of the day, enjoying the free coffee, bananas, star fruit (ynummy!) and water.

We ventured out again with the intention of seeing some of the many wats in the town. We took a nice walk up the hill to That Chomsi stupa. We didn't go right up the stupa itself but we did take a walk round where there was a (giant) footprint of Buddha's and a shrine in a cave, as well as bomb casings being used as plantpots.

We also visited Wat Pha Mahathat and took some time to admire the decorative carved friezes that adorned the outside. A monk came and opened up the doors and windows of the main room and we saw detailed paintings depicting the life of Buddha curving around the walls, as well as an altar with countless tiny Buddha's worked into every detail.

We were back in town in time for the night market to start setting up again so we stopped for food at one of the buffet style stalls. Like all buffets the world over, the food looked great but was reassuringly disappointing and so we left feeling a little bit grubby and oily.

After a nice, long chat with my mum, we joined the Miriam and Amber in a little bar/guesthouse called Mojos. It was a million miles away from any bar called Mojos that I've ever been to and was a nice mix between classy and cool. We enjoyed watching some of the musicians there and were impressed that the Kiwis played the banjo and sang even though we missed the performance because we were out trying ot find Nick and Sam. I liked the idea that they had bought one while they were travelling and were teaching themselves songs as they went along.

By chance, Nick and Sam wandered past just as the musicians were winding up for their 10pm curfew and the Kiwis were thinking about going home to bed ready for another long leg of their journey the following day and so we ended up in a bar called Utopia.

We couldn't believe how full it was considering that everyone there must have had to walk past our guesthouse to get there. It was very much the place to be and Matt and I felt far too uncool to be there but we did enjoy catching up wth Nick and Sam again.

18th June - Nong Khiaw to Luang Prabang

There was still no working ATM so we scrapped together our last US dollars to change for the fare to Louang Prabang and walked the long road to bus station.

The minibus had a reasonable amount of room at first but soon became more clautrophobic as more people squeezed on and contorted themselves into the small spaces that were left. It didn't improve any when the kid in front of us threw up all over but it didn't seem to shake her mother at all and it was soon all cleared up and forgotten.

We arrived at bus station , helped unload the chickens from the roof and talked a songtheaw driver into taking us into the town for little bit of money we had left. As soon as we stepped off, we bumped into the Kiwi girls, Amber and Miriam and arranged to try and catch up later.

After checking into the nearest guesthouse, Villa Aphay, we found an ATM but were still left without much cash because we pressed the wrong button and payed all the stupid fees for just a few quid. It's easy done when there are so many noughts on everything. Just $122 makes you a millionaire in Laos kip. We did manage to get a sightly better rate on our Dong though and so cashed that in too.

The absolute highlight of the day was managing, after a fair bit of faffing, to catch an hour with Belinda and Jordan, who I met on my mega-trip from Cambodia to Chesterfield when I came home. I could not have asked for a greater source of comfort after I'd said my goodbyes to Matt and took my first step on the long journey home. Their kindness and companionship kept me afloat all the way to Bangkok and I was overwhelmed by how much they did for me just by being there and being them.

After yesterday's news it just seemed so appropriate that they were there again. It somehow felt like I had come full-circle from when I had seen them last and, despite the sadness of the situation, I was delighted to see them just before they headed home to the US themselves.

We spent some time exploring Louang Prabang in he afternoon and trying to unearth the charm that many people find there. We walked by the river a while, looked in some windows and saw the start of the night market but headed back before it got started properly as I wanted to Skype my mum and we were intending to get up early to see the monks receive their alms at 5am.

17th June - Nong Khiaw

Today I received the bad news that I had been hoping would not come. It was very difficult to be so far away from my family and I would have done anything to be with them. I could only be thankful that they all know how much I love them and appreciate them for all they are.

There's nothing else to say here other than that Matt was his usual wonderful self and stayed close by my side as my head spent time back home with my loved-ones.

16th June - Nong Khiaw

Matt woke up earlier than me and opened the door for some air and so I spent a very pleasent hour or two dozing off and waking up to the karst view outside our door.

We spent the rest of morning blogging on the balcony and munching on fruit. We later discovered that, contrary to what we had heard so far, Laos food can be very tasty indeed. We found a lovely restaurant that was run by a local guy who spent some time chatting to us and answering our questions. He told us that businesses in Laos pay a fixed fee for tax every month, regardless of how much money they make and so sometimes he had to go back to rice farming to make the money to pay the bills. Considering how many restaurants there are even in this small place, and how few people are currently here in the low season, it must be hard for most of them to make ends meet.

Unfortunately, our surprise ATM had a further surprise for us and was now out of order and so we were on very limited funds. Luckily for us, you don't have to spend much to enjoy a balcony view and watch TV series on the laptop so we took advantage of this.

15th June - Muang Khua to Nong Khiaw

In the morning I flooded my 2nd  room in two weeks. I didn't notice that the shower water was hitting the door and running out into our bedroom. Unfortunately, Matt didn't notice either until he went to pack his bag and realised it has soaked up some of the huge volume of water that was now on the floor.

Despite the boat not being due to set off until 9.30, one of us had been told to be there at 8 so we made a quick getaway and trooped down to the river but the ticket booth wasn't even open.

We joined Lucy, Vince, Nick and Sam for breakfast and had our first taste of how long it takes to get food in restaurants in Laos: Thirty-five minutes after we'd ordered, my baguette turned up and had to wait alone for a little while until my omlette arrived. When it did, I noticed that the baguette was yesterday's and too dry to eat. I took it to the waiter just as the restaurant were receiving a new delivery of bread and he was passed some fresh ones by the owner. He then walked past me, took my baguette off the plate and continued into the kitchen! Several minutes later he wandered over with one of the baguettes on a different plate. By this time I'd eaten my omlette and we needed to get down to the river.

The boat journey was ok and initially much more comfortable than a bus but after an hour or two, we all started to get very numb bums. Matt and I ended up snuggled up on the floor at the back of the boat with a minority woman who was very nice to us and really enjoyed the lollies and sweets that Sam kept handing out.

We chugged noisily down the river amongst mist veiled karsts and beautiful scenery. It was a cloudy day and it had rained for the whole night so was also much cooler than usual, which was a blessed relief when more people started to cram on further down the river.

 

We left Miriam and Sander at Muang Ngoi - a village that we had planned to stay at until we met the abondoned American yesterday - and they were replaced by a family of three. We nearly got left behind ourselves anyway because we'd had a loo break and they were just setting off as we ascended the steps to the river.

We arrived Muand Khua maybe 4 or 5 hours after we set off and crossed the bridge to look around for a place. The first one we saw had bungalows overlooking the river with little balconies with a hammock (and wifi at the restuarant nearby of course!) so we stayed there.  Sam and Nick were with us and so we negtiated a cheaper rate and got some nice next-door-neighbours to chat to over our balcony. There was also a surprise ATM there so we could get some money out at some point and wait to change our Dong until we got to a bigger town.

After food and a massive downpour we went for a walk to try to get to some caves we'd read about but the mud was sticking the bottom of our shoes so much that we got taller and taller and couldn't plant our feet properly.  We resolved to try again when the ground was dryer and headed back to wander around the village itself a little more.

We wandered both sides of the river until it got dark and we didn't want to venture out into the wilderness too far. We stood and looked for the stars we'd heard were magnificent if viewed from the big concrete bridge but it too cloudy. Instead we spent a pleasent evening on our balcony reading books before Matt went to bed early.  Sam and Nick came back shortly after so I shimmied over to their balcony and got to enjoy a beer and a chat for a while.