Luang Prabang - The town of a million monks, waterfalls and barbequed fish

So the long awaited arrival to Luang Prabang has come by so quickly. It seems like yesterday when we were in India with Katrina and Rachel when they recommended the waterfalls at Luang Prabang and we were thinking, shall we go to Laos again?....sure

We arrived at silly o clock around 5am I think, way too early to speak and again getting dropped off away from the town, so after a short tuk-tuk ride and our lungs filled with diesel fumes we arrived at our guesthouse for £3 a night...That day we had nothing planned apart from to sleep! The night bus was a seated bus with what seemed like no suspension so again, no sleep! (since this we have purchased some valium to do the trick).
We walked around and down the river. Having followed the Mekong river all the way from 4000 Islands, Champasak, Pakse and Savannahket we feel like buddies now, he's always at our side.

We bumped into Adam who yet again has changed their plans, then we just happened to come across a bar that sold a large Beer Lao for 7500kip..bargains!! so that's where we settled for the rest of the day and were busy planning our next few days in sunny Luang Prabang.
We had planned to go to the waterfalls the next day. We deliberately bought our tickets from a guy who said under any circumstances we can change when we go, so we would definately go on a sunny day. 10am we got up and saw the clouds, and thinking that going on friday 13th might not be the best idea, we cancelled it and arranged to go the day after. This was a definite schoolboy error...They also did a trip there at 1.30pm and by this time it was beautiful sunshine and boiling hot! we got a swift pace on to say we would go then but arriving at 1.32pm we had missed it.....that's not the worst part. As we had now booked our waterfall visit for the next day it meant this would be the day where we would climb the mountain to see the view of Luang Prabang. Instead of swimming around we were now halfway up, climbing a mountain!!
Although the views were awesome, it was wayyy too hot for climbing...After kicking ourselves the whole way up and down the mountain we slowly got over it and tried to look on a positive side...."atleast now we're going tomorrow, we still get to look forward to it"...that was about it...

We had found some food stalls which have to be mentioned on here purely because they were amazing!...in all 5 months of being away I have seen more chicken feet and heads than I have chicken breasts...and there it was all boneless and freshly cooked on a bbq!!! I felt like we were back at the Wains' household having a bbq on a saturday night! That was lunch and tea sorted. That wasn't it either, it got better, they also had whole fish on the bbq for £1!

The next day I finally got up at 5.30am to go and see the monks receiving alms from the locals. I had planned to get up the previous 2 mornings but never made it, bed always seemed the better option. Ofcourse I went solo, Sar once again gave in to the bed option!
I was glad I saw it, there were sooo many monks about and so young, it's as if they are in hiding in the day, there was absolutely loads coming from everywhere! Some lady was giving 1000kip and some rice to every monk that passed her...more money than sense, in a few days she'll be regretting that decision...
After getting some snaps and monked out I returned at 6.30 to go back to sleep...




10 o clock came around way too quickly and we got up to go see the waterfall. So far the weather was holding out, we got our baguettes on the way and caught our tuk-tuk. We picked up a few others and just as they sat down and we set off, it rained!...poo!!
Turned out we had a Don Self (Prison Break Cop) lookalike onboard with us, who thought he was the big man. The whole 50minute ride he talked and talked about his work/business in Dubai...That's what you want to talk about when you're on holiday isn't it?...I was going to mention I used to work at M&S and we both decided to jack in our jobs and come travelling but I think he would have died....seriously

Feeling pretty ill from his lectures (We knew pretty much all about his new website by now) and the diesel fumes we had inhaled from the dear little tuk-tuk struggling to climb the hill, we finally arrived.
Luck was in our favour too....sunshine!!! It was beautiful, and dry! there had been no rain - perfect!!
We went to the large waterfall first which was sooo impressive and then made our way down to the smaller pools to swim in. 1 had a rope swing in it which was delightful and the other was ice cold!
Sar had a dip after being pressurised into going in and well, she thought she was going to die!...as Sar gets out of the water, teeth chattering and her arms flapping around her face, she says (deadly serious) "now I know how it would feel to freeze to death!"...haha...of course!!
As soon as we left at 3pm, the heavens opened! What timing! That night we decided to have a whole BBQ fish (the biggest we could find) and a bowl of noodles (all for £1.50) to share for tea back at the guesthouse on the balcony (sure). That's when our chopsticks we had stolen in China came in handy...sooo good - a great steal!



The next morning I got up to see the monks again, something about it amazed me, maybe it's how religion is so big over here compared to back at home. Although this time it wasn't as good as there were lots of tourists joining in, giving alms which ruined the authenticity of it. Nevertheless I got some better pictures.
We got bikes out after being inspired from talking to an Aussie guy who is cycling round S.E Asia, and decided we would bike to the bus station (3km away), no irony meant, (we refused to pay the prices the guesthouses were charging) to book our tickets to Vang Vieng. A lot of uphill and it was so hot but we were determined!
We had a bike round and then stopped for a beer...Before we knew it, time was up and the bikes were due back, it was good fun.
Our last day consisted of nothing apart from heading to the pharmacy for Sar's eye (it's all red and puffy), buying BBQ chicken, fruit shakes and baguettes (we have learnt, if you want a baguette with lots of filling, go to the largest lady's stall...she made the best sarnies) and finished it all off with a few Beer Lao's.



All in all Luang Prabang was awesome...our next stop on the adventure Tuuuuuubing!!

Si Phan Don - Paradise, hammocks and 4000 islands!

Leaving Pakse at 8 o clock in a minibus, we arrive opposite Don Khong, on the mainland ready to cross the river. We pay a local fisherman 10,000 each and climb aboard his long-tailed boat, no wider than a kayak but long enough to fit around 12 people in.
It only takes about 15minutes to cross the river, and before we know it, our bags are all loaded off on the side and we can hop off.
"Welcom to Don Khong!" We are greeted by the locals and we arrive in Muang Khong, the apparent capital of Si Phan Don. There we found our guesthouse for 2 nights. The Island consisted of 1 road that goes around the island, 1 road that goes across the island and our road in the "capital" which, about 600m of road consisting of no more than 10 guesthouses and a Wat at the end.
As for tourists, you could count them on your hand. We chose to stay on Don Khong as it was best for the most 'authentic' experience, and it certainly was.
The amazing thing about Si Phan Don was the lack of traffic and tourists.
The day we arrived we decided to go for a walk and see what was around. The street we were staying on was a small rural village, full of houses on stilts and each household owning atleast 1 boat. Once we walked away from the river, the surroundings were rice paddies, buffalo and again their stilted houses in the middle of their fields.



Every person we passed along the way shouted out 'Sabai dee' whether it was an adult or a tiny child. Some even ran up to Sar and kissed her hand!! Everyone was so friendly and almost proud to show us their countrylife! Hardly any traffic made it even better, being out in the sticks and everything being soooo peaceful and slow!..perfect
That evening we had a meal out on the river before turning in after a long day!
The next day we rented some bicycles out so we could go further into the countryside and stroll around on the bikes all day!...I started with a sweet bike, but Sar soon swapped them leaving me with the cranky one! we must have cycled for miles, along 1 road. There were tracks off from the main road, but these were mainly dirt tracks leading into the middle of the paddies and coming face to face with a Buffalo! We biked to a crossroad where there was a little village, with a few shops where we could stock up on water and shampoo! we forked left and we biking to the south of the island, much the same scenery, rice paddies for as far as we could see and houses on stilts. Random children walking around with sling shots and parents out in the fields working. It was certainly an authentic experience!

After 2 days on Don Khong we were ready to see what Don Det ('fabled the travellers Mecca') had to offer. That morning we got a 1 and a half hour boat ride down the Mekong to Don Det, a much smaller island, and more of a paradise! Lined with palm trees and no actual roads, it was soo cool. We got off our boat, made our way down a track and managed to find a little hut on stilts, right on the river! with a balcony and 2 hammocks!!! Heaven!! that was a done deal, for £2 a night!! ridiculous...the hut was a bit rough and ready, a massive hole under the door, cracks in the floor boards and every join had gaps in....Our first worry was mosquitoes...thank the lord we are on Malaria tablets...surely malaria would be guarenteed!! But we had a mosquito net which for once didn't have any holes in! we were safe.
(Although we had not noticed the shower...back to Delhi ways, no shower just a bucket and a smaller bucket to tip the water over you with....although Delhi was a bit more luxurious, this was cold water straight from the Mekong...the water was brown, the same colour as the river!!...yummy!)
We spent the rest of that day relaxing in our hammocks admiring the fact we were on the river soaking up the timeless Laos way of life on a paradise island!

That evening we decided to get a drink, a cup of tea and some chips (so English!) and we bumped into James and Joe who we had met in China and 2 of their friends from home . Of all places, we bump into them on a pretty remote island...how strange!!..anyways we went for a few Beer Lao's and caught up with each others trips, and it turns out they are going to the same full moon party, flying to Bali around the same time as us and also spending Christmas and New Year in Sydney, surely we'll bump into them down the way!...While we were having a drink a MASSIVE fight kicked off between 3 dogs, 2 ganged up on 1 getting him in the water, almost drowning him before 1 was biting his throat and the other was working on his leg. It was sick, truly a bloodbath. Luckily some Lao guy stopped the fight and let the injured dog limp off. No medical care on these islands for humans let alone dogs...we spent the rest of the night thinking about that poor dog.

The next day we got bikes out and decided we would bike down the island to the bridge which connects Don Det to another island Don Khon. Don Khon was notorious for seeing the irrawaddy dolphins but we thought we would give it a miss, afterall we had been swimming with wild dolphins in India, what could compare to that!?
The old railway bridge was left over from WWII but wasn't running any more, although they did have the train there still which was pretty cool.
We biked further down the island and reached the massive Li Phi Falls...Wow!!! they were amazing, you could see why 2 travellers died in it recently, you'd be a fool to try and go in, it was crazy!! We biked further down to a "beach"...a sheltered bit of water with a raised sandy bit, so I guess it resembled a beach in a way!
It was pretty cool and I was so hot I had to have a swim, even though the water was brown and the undercurrent was pretty strong....sure!!
After a cool off we got some lunch on Don Khon, on the river and had a cycle through the mini villages before heading back...our hammocks were calling!
We got some tea and then spent the night chillin' out in our hammocks on the river with 2 candles...definately a paradise!



We had 2 more days to relax with our hammocks and that's exactly how we spent those remaining days, Sar hasn't moved from hers since that biking trip!...oh actually we did go for a walk, into the centre of the island briefly which again was out in the countryside with rice paddies, stilted houses and lots of kids! One night we did go for tea at an Indian restaurant and had the usual, malai kofta only to find out the 3 waitresses/waiters were ladyboys but a poor attempt. These were dressed in women's clothing, speaking all girly and dancing all girly, but when you looked at them, definately blokes!!! a bit strange and definately put us off our food. I tried to steer Sar away from the subject just while we ate our dinner but still the conversation always came back to them!! the worst part was a foreigner was at the back of the restaurant, slaughtered! and was chatting up each one of them, putting his hand through their hair and on their lap etc....he's going to have to find out the hard way!!!....we never went back....food was great though!!

The last day I decided to go for a walk down the sunset side of the island, and met a friend. A local Laos country lady, who was working on her Rice paddies, she was going around catching fish with a basket!! it was genius!...she had a fish in 1 hand so I asked her where she got it from, and she showed me how she caught it and where! she couldn't speak any english and probably not a lot of Lao as she had no teeth but used the pointing technique and I got the message! She let me get a picture of her, although I'm not sure if she was happy...she certainly wasn't smiling in the picture...lovely old lady though...I thanked her, showing off with my bit of Lao and headed on my way back to my hammock...



4000 Islands was certainly a paradise! Away from the beaten track; the most chilled out place I've ever been, definately unspoiled by tourists due to the lack of them and easily worth the 3 days travelling down to them! 'Asia's most relaxing destination'....definately!!

Hello Laos, aren't you a pretty thing

An hour and a half after leaving Hue, our bus pulled up, our bags were thrown on the floor...we knew it was our cue to get off...so off we went without a clue what was really going on. Before we knew it we were casually boarding another bus (this one was the right one, we only knew this as it had Savannahket Open Tour Bus written down the side in huge letters) and then we were off to Laos (The land of the orange monks)...finally! 8 hours later and a Vietnam/Laos border crossing passed we arrived in Savannahket wondering where on earth they had dropped us off. We bargained down a tuk tuk driver with 4 other girls to take us to a guest house...which was full...obviously. We then set off on foot, they were refusing to pay for a 1minute drive round the corner, to another guest house. We only found this cheapie one after stumbling upon it on our walk. It was £3 exactly...Yess its cheap again!! It definately wasn't luxury...we had some slugs and some cockroaches...the usual..haha...but the staff were so friendly and definatley a big help, so we stayed put, we couldn't complain at the price after all!



Our first day...well we arrived at 6pm...was nearly over, so we all grabbed some dinner together and had a little walk around the town. We were planning on leaving the next day to get down to Pakse asap, there was more down there that we wanted to see but we just didnt have the energy to travel for another day on the trot, so after some deliberating...well me persuading Dom to stay for two nights...we planned to sight see (haha) the next day!




Savannahket definatley wasnt the type of place you could sight see...that was for sure! It was more of a place to walk around and see the place for what it is....We walked around for 4hours...visited nearly every Wat in the town, had a little walk along the Mekong River and realised that that was pretty much it!...It was fun though, the locals were so friendly, all the kids wanted to shake our hands...well they wanted to shake mine and I think Dom scared them..so they ignored him...they even wanted to pose for pictures with their puppies...Considering Savannahket is one of the main cities in Laos, its crazy to think, there are about 2 streets, and it's soooooo quiet! hardly any traffic anywhere!...I think this is what we loved about Laos from our previous trip, a complete contrast to Vietnam!




After a relaxed day wondering around Savannahket, we got some sleep ready for our early morning bus to Pakse....Early mornings for Dom and I are definately a no-go! We had got up, packed, got a tuk-tuk to the bus station (the price was bartered down by our landlady to 'Laos price'!) and put our bags on the bus before we said a word to each other! (both wayyy too tired) ...we got a local bus which was pretty cool...we had missed using the local transport in Vietnam mainly because it was easier to go on the tourist services. We bought our tickets and set off on the 5 hour journey south to Pakse...We decided that we would start taking malaria tablets, being in Southern Laos, next to the Great Mekong in the wet season!...so far everything was fine! We stopped at every corner possible and had a 30minute stop with the opportunity to buy some fried crickets. We passed on this and set off again....this journey was surely going to last forever...we were wrong, 5 and a half hours, and we had arrived...not quite in Pakse though, 9km outside of it! So off we went in a Sawngthaew (a kinda pick-up truck thing with two bench seats...they strap pigs and chickens to the roof...haha...and inside is crammed with people) 20,000kip each (Laos prices I'm sure) to Pakse. We found our guest house with ease...we were beginning to get good at this...and set up in our cabin of a room for the night. As it was only 1pm, we had the rest of the day to do the usual, walk around! So we grabbed some cheap lunch and set off...another large town yet it still only had the same old two roads...there was less to see here than in Savannahket, so after a beer on the Mekong and the talk on when should we leave...we agreed...the next day it was...4000 Islands here we come!!

Back to Hoi An...more whiterose, mopeds and amazing beaches

We got the bus to Nha Trang which took forever as we kept stopping... we had taken yet another baguette for the journey
("if you've never tried a Vietnamese baguette you've never tasted Vietnam" to quote Lonely Planet!) so we were ready to go straight there.
Having said that, 1 stop was at some Cham towers which were pretty cool.




We got to Nha Trang, had another baguette and headed to the beach until our next bus left at 7.30pm.
We saw a bit of genius in our short time there...the Vietnamese may well be awesome at fighting for their country but to me this was more impressive...
A guy walks out of the sea with a brick in his hand, and inside the brick he has caught a squid!!! That was awesome, how on earth do you catch a squid!?..with a brick!!
What a guy!!



Anyways, we got our sleeper bus at 7.30pm and arrived in Hoi An around 6am the next morning. We decided to try somewhere cheaper to stay than last time and ended up walking into old town. We found a fairly cheap place which would do us just fine!
That day was a designated beach day so we picked up some bicycles and set off on the 5km ride to the beautiful beach!! :-)
We stayed out in the sun until around 5 when we grabbed a freshly made doughnut from the street and you guessed it...another baguette with laughing cow cheese...yummy!
Cycling in rush hour traffic was fun...so busy, cut through a few red lights but thats fine! we're foreigners what do we know!Once we reached Old Town it was the opposite, so so quiet!



That night we planned to go back to Hoi's restaurant for the 3000 dong beer and the amazing local food (Whiterose...yummy!!) she served. It wasn't until we were about to leave when Hoi says to us that she thinks she has seen us before!!haha
We triggered her memory after reminding her that last time we were there, there was 6 of us and we had drank her dry of beer before the infamous beach party night!! (still nobody remembers anything of that night apart from me!)

The next day we decided we would get a moped out... requesting a manual now! It was so much cheaper to rent a manual than an automatic, hence why I was eager to learn how to ride one! We headed on our 30km trip out to the marble mountains...we had a bit of trouble finding the right road and asked a guy which way to go while we were filling up on petrol. Although we nearly started a fight between this guy and what appeared to be his mother! She was clearly unhappy about something, judging by the hand gestures it was about which way to go!! We just sood there until there was a silence and I chipped in "that way and then right yeah?" BAD MOVE u idiot!! Off they went again at each others throat, so we got on the moped and headed out of there!
We had gone around 30km surely (the speedo and petrol metre didn't work; also we weren't even sure if we were going in the right direction!!) and luckily passed some mountains with pagodas on top...that must be them! Nothing is signposted...that would make it just too easy, so we had to go on our instinct, jsut as we did with the petrol..."how much petrol do you think we have?" "we'll be fine!"...sure

We pulled in and were greeted with "hello, marble mountain, marble mountain!" not a bad job hey!! this navigation mullarkey was too easy!
The mountains were awesome apart from the giant steps and how steep it was to get up there!! Not as bad as Cat Ba so no need for a sweat rag!
Once we got there, there were loads of HUGE caves, pagodas and views of the beach and the surrounding villages...it was amazing and definately worth the ride out!
Each cave led to another one if you managed to scramble over the rocks and made your own path...which ofcourse our flip-flops, once again conquered! (Although mine are held together with cellotape and Sar is on her 2nd pair!..Abercrombie though this time!...all the real brands in Vietnam!!)




After having lunch at a roadside cafe with possibly the best pho we have ever had, for £1.50...2 phos and 2 cokes, we headed to the beach...
We ended up finding a sandy track heading off the main road and took it...riding through a little village getting some funny looks we carried on and the sand got thicker, enough for us to slide everywhere. Sar opted to get off and walk. I planned to push the moped over the dunes and onto the beach but this proved to be a bit harder than my guns could handle!
Luckily a local fisherman saw me, started the engine and told me to get on and while I revved the baby, he would push!! good man! He made sure I was on the beach before running off into his boat (which was more of a tub) and went out to sea!!...
That was the last we saw of any people!! The beach was deserted, just the 2 of us on the whole beach, accompanied by some fishing tubs and our moped which we brought right onto the beach with us! cus we could!
Easily the most amazing beach we have ever been to, white WHITE sand, bright blue sea which was shallow and calm so we could lay and sit in the water without getting smashed by waves, and it was sooooo hot!!!....Paradise!!

We stayed until around 5 when we thought we had best head back so we managed to get the bike over the sand eventually!...I think I had burnt out 1st gear though... Since then I could only get neutral or 2nd geear!...sometimes i'd give her a kick and we found 1st
After stalling it a few times trying to pull away up a slight hill in 2nd, we set off...As we passed each small village it was awesome to see the locals riding their water buffalo on the side of the road!...This changed a few kilometres further down... it was prime market time where on the roadside dozens of foodstalls set up and people on their bikes just stopped in the middle of the road to buy a bag of rice etc! This created a huge traffic jam! We had to try and weave in and out of pedestrians whilst trying not to knock any cyclists down!...utter chaos!!
We arrived about an hour later, again using our instinct to get back. We made a few wrong turns but got back all ok,,,surely we had earned ourselves a few beers and some whiterose for tea! :-)

The next day was another beach day with the bicycles again and the following day was a complete surprise!...It had been red hot but during the night we had a power cut due to a storm. We had a fan room and at 2am the power cut off, so within minutes we were sweating!! Well I was absolutely drenched! Sar once again slept through the whole thing! At about 3.30am it was getting ridiculous so I got a cold shower which was sooooooo good!...20minutes later I was wayyy too hot again, I was sweating that much I decided to sleep in my towel! this worked until around half 5, 6 and I gave up and went to sit in the lobby with a breeze
That day was a laugh, it rained all day! This wasnt rain like in England, this was proper rain...terrential and intimidating!! we got our raincoats and umbrella and made our way to breakfast...sure I'd have a beer and Sar went for a coffe...with the intention to last a while...the coffee came in the most pathetic excuse for a teacup I have ever seen! (more useful as a shot glass)...that lasted a mouthful.
The rain got pretty high and it was literally knee deep in some parts, so we spent most of the day playing in the rain!ha
When it stopped we ceased the opportunity to see the rest of Old Town

Our last 1 and a half days consisted of 1 full beach day including lunch at a local food spot under the palm trees on the beach where you can order some local Hoi An food like Cau Lao or Mi quang (noodles with egg and prawns) for 50p...tasted tip top!
Our last half a day was spent walking around the Old Town, along the river and to the main market, it was pretty!
That night we said goodbye to Hoi who had fed us great food and beer for the past 5 days and were reluctant to leave..we loved Hoi An!

At 1pm we caught our bus to Hue and arrived at 6pm to be greeted by some polite Vietnamese guy asking us to stay in his hotel for $7...that was easy enough! We didn't see much of Hue as our bus for Laos left every other day so we could either go the next morning or spend 3 nights in Hue then go...Excited for Laos we decided we would rather be in Laos for a few more days so although we missed the Imperial City, we weren't bothered to be leaving the next morning...We walked down to the perfume river in the evening and around the city before having tea and planned our route for Laos....

Goodbye Vietnam, you have treated us well and we have had a great time staying with you...all the best xoxo