Luang Prabang (Laos)

Luang Prabang is so pretty and is set on the Mekong River. Our guesthouse Soutikone was welcomed after 2 days spent on the Slow Boat.

We even had a balcony!! 

On our first evening, we explored the 'city' by foot and eventually by chance found this amazing bar, Utopia. It is set on the river and the vibe there is, as they describe 'zen' and there seems to be a mix of hippys and travellers, which explains the reason why we had to leave our shoes at the door. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any great pictures though.

Day 2 we visited a waterfall which also has a bear sanctuary. It was amazing, we brought our swimming costumes and were able to explore and swim in the waterfalls. 

This is the biggest waterfall and we were able to climb to the top, which wasn't easy. We were have been better wearing walking boots, but we had to settle for barefoot. But the view from the top was worth it.

Me and Mel got this picture at the bottom, which is pretty incredible. 

We then headed home for another evening of Utopia.

Now a day on with a slightly sore head, we are heading to Hanoi on a 30 hour bus, wish us luck! 

X

Chiang Rai - White Temples, Golden Triangle and Long Neck Karen

So I thought for those of you regularly read my blog, I thought this post could just be pictures of our day in Chiang Rai rather than a mammoth explanation like my last one. 

Hot Springs on route to Chiang Rai

Very sunny at the White Temples 

White Temples 

Pathway to enter the White Temple

'Eternal luck'

Golden Triangle - Chiang Rai, Laos, Myermer 

Long Neck Karen tribe - they start to wear these bangles from the age of 5, increasing the amount as they get older. They eat, sleep, wash and work in them and they are never taken off and are worn as a sign of beauty. 

Me with a 5 year old girl, who was very interested in my earrings.

We are off to Laos tomorrow on the long boat, so will blog in the next few days.

Ciao x

Chiang Rai (Thailand) to Luang Probang (Laos) via Slow Boat

This slow boat was really slow, I mean people were rowing fastest. However no regrets and all. The scenery was incredible but since all my posts have being created via iPhone the pictures are not of the same quality as my camera. 

We started the journey from the Thailand border where we stayed in the nicest guest house which even had a pool and all the rooms were similar to log cabins.

We even bumped into a friend of ours from our course at university by coincidence. 

The next morning we left at 8.30 and within 10 minutes we had arrived at the Laos border. We then had to get our passport stamped and travel to the Mekong river for the Slow Boat. We stocked up on Beer Lao for the 7 hour journey and sat with a group of backpackers from California, Australia (Cairnes) and Holland (Amsterdam). 

A few drinking games and many beers later we arrived in a very small village in Laos, where we had dinner in the most bug infested restaurant I have ever seen. We also had to get money out and it was like an episode of 'I'm a Celeb...', I couldn't bring myself to do it, so poor Nathan did and there were literally hundreds and I mean hundreds of bugs attacking him. 

The view of the Mekong River from our hotel in the small Laos village.

Day 2 of the slow boat was much the same, but a lot less of the drinking and a lot more sleeping. However we did allow for time for a few games of Rummy.

The scenery was incredible, with green forests and low clouds and there were plenty of opportunities for pictures. 

We finally arrived in Luang Probang at 5pm on the second day of the Slow Boat. For those of you that are travelling or thinking of travelling, I would recommend the Slow Boat if not for the beautiful landscapes, a way to meet people from all different places around the world. 

Night xxx

North Chiang Mai - 3 day trek

So we then headed north of Chiang Mai to the jungle and mountains for our 3 day 'elephant' trek. Now I have put elephant in inverted commas for a reason, this trek consisted of 2 long days of about 10 hours trekking in total and a grand total of 45 minutes with the elephants. However as much as this sounds like a moan, it was a great workout. And luckily, the sun wasn't shining so it was slightly cooler but we still managed to sweat buckets. 

During the trek, we were able to stop at waterfalls for a swim. Some of the waterfalls had levels with little pools, which we could climb to. However disaster struck when Mel asked Nath to carry her waterproof camera whilst she climbed up some rocks and he put it in his pocket. He then proceeded to clim up and managed to slip the entire way down and then realised he had a camera no more and it had fallen in the not-so-clear water. 10 minutes of panic later and he managed to locate it! 

This is one of the waterfall pools we stopped to swim in, but there was a torrential rain downpour at the same time.

Our accommodation, was simple but did the job. 

The bedrooms, a dormitory which slept the 9 in our group. 

A very basic toilet.

This is a picture of our group at breakfast. We were luckily to have spent the time with a great group of people. There were a couple from Alberta, Canada, 3 girls (twins and their friend) from Belgium and a girl from Indiana, America. Over the 3 days, we learnt so many things about the different cultures. It's strange how different everything can be from everyday routine, to schooling to diets etc and there were always questions to be asked. Everyone in our group, came across ridiculously intelligent with a great deal of universal knowledge. So Mel and I often found ourselves a little confused, Nathan not so much.

A picture of the 3 of us at the top of a waterfall on the day of the elephant trek.

Baby elephant

Trekking through the jungle 

 

View from the top 

Water trek 

And finally, my last and least attractive picture.. Me feeding an elephant bananas. For those who don't know me, elephants are my top most favourite animal so this is practically a life long dream. I am also hoping to spend a day with elephants later on in the trip.

So all in all, the 3 day trek was an experience and an adventure and for those visiting Thailand I would definitely recommend it, as included in the package you are also feed very local food. 

Enjoy reading x

Chiang Mai - Tiger Kingdom

The scariest thing I have ever done, beats Great White Shark diving any day in that category.

Chiang Mai

So our last day in Bangkok, we visited the Grand Palace which certainly lived up to its name. Everything was gold, red and glittery or patterned.

We had to cover up our shoulders and legs and Mel wore leggings, however because these were tight and too 'sexy sexy' we were told she couldn't go in. So she had to borrow some material to wrap around her waist.

 

It was clearly tourist season as there were a ridiculous amount of Chinese people who wandered around slowly and we soon become quite impatient. The heat was unbearable but we think this was because it wanted to rain and it sure did. 

Our 'VIP' bus arrived at 6 and was not dissimilar to a normal bus. The 10 hour journey went relatively quickly, however I only managed to get 1 hours sleep. On arrival to Chiang Mai, we were picked up by a taxi who to us to, what the travel agent described as lovely hostels, 'luxury'.

We are now awake after a 6 hour sleep and are heading to the hospital to check out Mel's infected/swollen foot.

Bye x

Bangkok Day 2

Day 2 is Bangkok was a million times better. 

We browsed Khao San before being advised by people outside the hotel to was on a Tuk Tuk tour of Bangkok for only 10 baht each, I mean what a deal.. Obviously we were keen to jump on board a money saver.. 

We firstly headed Wat Intrawhian, which was simply a giant gold Budda and a temple. I couldn't quite believe how openly religious the Thai people were. We all had to remove our shoes before entering and then there were people on their knees praying to a statue with incense. To be honest I didn't really understand and I really wanted to laugh. 

Way Benchamabophit was next on our tour and was just another temple, however this time Nath and I were taught how to pray and I couldn't keep the giggles in and burst out laughing, luckily the man found the funny side of this. 

Our tuk tuk guide then randomly took us to a tourist office. Don't worry, I was advised about this in my tour guide 1!: basically this is how they get the petrol for the tuk tuk if we go in for 10 mins. We didn't know this at the time and found the situation awkward and after feeling quite uncomfortable made a quick exit. The tuk tuk man clearly didn't get commission as we then when to another one, but thankfully for him but did actually book and he was given petrol. 

We then got taken to the river, where the three if us got on a board for a tour of the Klongs (river). It was really interesting seeing these huge houses right next to shanty houses. We also saw 2 crocodile sized lizards. The guide then took us to an area where you could feed fish for good luck and there we literally thousands. Hopefully this will provide us luck for the rest of the trip. 

So then last night, we headed over to the red light district of Bangkok (Pat Pong) and visited a show, let's just say those who have been will know what I mean when I say, it was eye-opening. We then went out for a few drinks and by this point it was the early hours so we headed back, however the 150baht head, shoulder and back massage was too tempting and was in fact amazing.. 

Night x

Bangkok

Welcome to Bangkok

We flew from Gatwick to Dubai, arriving in Dubai at 6.30am and I kid you not it was 29 degrees. The airport was incredible, and everyone seemed super rich, diamonds everywhere, but unfortunately we only had an hour or so stop over. So we then boarded our flight to Bangkok. 

Emirates is amazing and Nathan was super impressed with the food selection and the choice of movies. Also, they had this thing on the TV which allowed you to look at the view from the bottom of the plane and also a forward facing camera, which provided Nath and I a great deal if excitement when it came to take off and landing. 

So then we arrived in Bangkok at 18.10 local time, where we located Mel who had been there since 12.30 (midday), friend dedication or what. The next bit of the story is where all went down hill. So basically I bought a well-established guide book, however this wasn't so useful when it came to finding a bed to sleep for the night. The one we had chosen 'Lub D', was in an area called Siem Square just outside the made hubbub, so we caught a train from the airport to a stadium which was 45 baht, which is around £1 and for 30 mins seemed like a pretty good deal. 

We then, instead of choosing the train which we advised to do, we decided to take a Tuk Tuk and Mel flagged down the first one, they suggested the price 200 baht, we attempted to barter for 150 and he said no and even after such a pathetic attempt, we were too tired to argue so argue. He then went on to drive like a mentalist and dropped us at what we thought was the correct location. Turns out we were still 30 mins away and at this point we are starting to perspire. We then spoke to a G4S guard (finally someone we could trust) and he advised us to get another train, which we did and took us to the middle of no where and after after staring a map for ages, a Thai girl now living in Melbourne helped us out  in guiding us to the hostel and even rang them to check availability however there were no rooms available. So she directed us to main back packers area, which we were definitely completely unaware of an which was in Khao San Road. She advised us to travel on the BTS train which was 18 baht and then told us to get on a boat which would take us to Khao San Road. She gave us what seemed like great directions and we headed on our way. We then got on what we assumed was the correct boat, however I was a little apprehensive and my conscious was right we headed to the opposite way down the river and only found this out when the boat stopped 15 minutes later. As you can tell this was a nightmare and it was now gone 9pm.

We made an executive decision to get back on the boat (which was free) back to where we came from. We then paid another 200 baht for another tuk tuk which would take us to Khao San Road finally after 4 hours after traipsing around the city. 

As soon as we arrived, we grabbed some English backpackers and asked them where we could stay and they directed us in some direction. First attempt was unsuccessful, but luckily for us we managed to get lucky on the second attempt and got a relatively cheap room with air con, 3 beds, and a bathroom. After this adventure, we ignored hunger pangs and just crashed. 

So I'm sure you'd all agree, a successful first evening... To be continued! 

No more sleeps

The day has finally arrived!!

Nathan and I are all packed and ready to go, in fact this is a very last minute post as I have to leave for the train station in 5 minutes so it will only be a quick one.

However, as per usual we managed to schedule in a photo session, so here you go!