Laos: Vang Vieng + 4,000 Islands (Don Khone)

Woahhhh...it's been a long time since I last posted! Will try to piece it all together - apologies if you've heard some of this before :)

So....after Luang Prabang, we got a 7 hour bus south to Vang Vieng - the tubing capitol of Laos. I'll let Michael describe the bus trip, as it had a more profound effect on him:

"The road which looped up and down and round and around the mountains provided some absolutely magnificent views. Unfortunately, I spent a good part of the journey sitting down stairs with a middle aged Chinese woman, each alternatively vomiting into our own tiny plastic bags. I'm not sure whether she realised it but we were actually racing to see who would fill their bag first, and thanks to a traditional Laos stew of basil, coriander, lemongrass, dill and what looked like ragwort, I won!

Feck the Chinese! That night the medal for the 200km Hurl went to Ireland."

During this ordeal a man across the aisle also passed me a note behind michael's back as he was hunched over and looking queasy: "What's his problem?" Michael was not impressed, but as it turned out later he was a very nice Turkish guy who was wondering if he could offer assistance - so it was all just lost in translation.

The thing to do in Vang Vieng is tubing down the Mekong river surounded by the gorgeous mountain landscape. You basically get pulled into a bar every 50 meters for a drink, free shot of Mekong whiskey (if you want it - we didn't!), and a giant swing or zipline into the river to cool off. It was a great day, perfect weather, and we met some really nice people along the way.

After Vang Vieng it was on to Vientiane, Lao's capitol, where we caught an overnight bus down to the 4,000 islands in the Mekong River. The bus was composed of two rows of beds with both a "top bunk" and "bottom bunk." Seemed comfortable enough, but to my uncontained amusement we soon realised that the beds (about 3 1/2 feet by 5 feet) were actually meant for 2 people, rather than one. Not exactly "western style proportions." At least we weren't one of the 10 unfortunate people who were put at the back of the bus in rows of 5 - like a giant slumber party full of German strangers!

My plan to work on my tan in the islands wasn't exactly the best, particularly because of serious rain, but nonetheless it was a lovely couple of days on quite a rual and beautiful island (electricity only from 6-10 pm, and most of the island used for farming rice). It was mainly just reading and relaxing between meals, but our 2nd day was a little more adventurous than we had planned.

We rented bikes and rode down to the south of the island, where it's possible to rent a small boat to go out in the river to see the rare and nearly extinct fresh-water irawaddy dolphins. It had been showering a bit, but didn't seem like it would rain. So we went out in the little boat with a local guy and about 30 seconds out it started to rain...and then pour...and then hail. Suddenly we were out in the middle of the relatively wide river in this tiny boat, the mist and rain preventing us from seeing the shore, being hammered by rain. As we laughed nervously and gestured that we should go back, the motor suddenly puttered out and wouldn't restart. Hmm. the "skipper" went to the front and began paddling - forward, rather than back. I handed michael a board on the bottom of the boat to paddle with and tried to help out with my hands as we scrambled, totally soaked towards shore, where there appeared a little hut with a woman and a baby and the standard packages of food and cans of soda and beer.

We smiled and sat under the hut, out of the rain. Looking around I suddenly noticed something -- the typical signs and cans of beer Laos were instead Angkor beer - "My country, my beer." Hmmmmm.The skipper smiled, "Oh yea, this Cambodia!" Holy illegal border crossing!

Luckily the border police never came, and on the up side, we were actually able to see a lot of dolphins from the shore - seemed like they were almost playing in the rain, and we made it back safely to shore once the rain had subsided.

After our adventure in Laos (that actually continued with "scary-dilapidated-bridge-crossing-in the-pouring-rain-with-a-bike + leech," which I've decided to leave out for our mothers' sake) it was on to Pakse to fly to Siem Reap for our legal border crossing to Cambodia. Siem Reap is the city closest to spectacular Angkor Complex, which consists of lots of temples built by the former Kmher empire kings - the main attraction, Angkor Wat, is the world's largest religious monument.

More on that soon!