Our journey on the longtail boat continued down the Mekong after a sleepless night in Pakbeng.. hard bed.. power cut at 10pm (no fan).. toilet plugged.. good times. LOL.
We stopped at a couple of villages along the way, including one where the High Laos people live (Mhong tribe), and another where they make some particularly potent whisky. We also stopped at a cave with a Buddhist temple inside.
We arrived into the lovely city of Luang Prabang late in the afternoon and got to our hotel by tuk-tuk.. this place was much more comfortable. After settling in, we headed off for dinner, wandering through the fantastic night market on the way. Had pizza (best pizza ever) for dinner.. mmmmm pizzzza.
Next day.. super lazy. Breakfast at 10am after a fantastic sleep, just wandered the streets all day with a few of my Aussie tourmates and looked in shops, stopped for drinks/coffee, just chilled all day. Dinner by the Mekong River.
Today.. crazy adventure through the jungle. Five of us, plus our tour leader and a local guide, set out for a small village from which a trail leads through the jungle to another small town with a lovely waterfall. I wasn't going to go, but decided the exercise would do me good. En-route to the start point, the tuk-tuk (a four wheeled version for this trip), got stuck in the mud along the very bad road we were travelling, so much so we had to get out and push (all of us). The trek was fun, about 3 hours long, slipped in the mud and landed on my butt a couple of times, saw all sorts of interesting insects (none of which bit me, fortunately!), finally arriving at the town/waterfall area around 2pm. I was covered in mud.
The waterfall has a swimming area, which was full of freezing cold water, I lasted about 5 minutes. Had lunch in the small town before getting in a tuk-tuk again (same one, the fellow drove around to meet us) and heading back to town.
We arrived back to a hotel without power.. turns out the whole town was without power. Only lasted an hour, however it prevented me from having a shower and getting my shoes, camera bag, belt, and other items cleaned up. The whole process took over an hour when the power finally came back on! Good times.
Headed out for dinner around 7, went back to a small cafe to use their free wifi (yay free internet) and had a lovely sandwich... about to head back through the night market, hopefully will find myself a fridge magnet, before heading back to the hotel.. early night tonight, up at 6 tomorrow morning!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I swear we ate at the same restaurant for pizza - ymmmm.
After Thailand I loved the simplicity of Laos. Our guide was a monk for 10 years but had left the "monkhood" and was recently married with family - very nice people. We walked through a rice field and I took about 25 pictures of the workers, then gave our guide US$ to get a copy printed for each of them. They were so animated - it was very cool even though we didn't understand a word each other said.
I'm absolutely living all my travel memories through your blog. This will be fantastic to read a few years from now!
Israel was wonderful - hot at 30 - 34 but very safe on the whole. Only exception was that a Muslim drove through a crowd celebrating Yom Kippur with his radio blaring. He was caught and stoned but I couldn't find out if he was stoned to death. Made huge headlines and the newspaper referred to it as another Bosnia. POLICE AT EVERY TURN AND EVERY FEW FOOTSTEPS. I found the country similar to South Africa in that emotions are just simmering under the surface and it doesn't take much for things to erupt into a full boil. The trip raised more questions than answers as I realized how much I had forgotten or never knew regarding religion and politics of this area. It was really something to see where Jesus was born in Bethlehem and also the manger. Also to walk the street where he carried the cross. Bethlehem was a dirty little town, garbage everywhere and alot of stores closed due to lack of business. I don't know what I expected, I guess to see Jesus arrive on a donkey. About 15,000 people live there, 2% Christian and the remainder Arabs, under Palistinian Authority. A surprise addition was going to the Golan Heights and I also made a side visit (not part of the tour) to Jericho which is the oldest city in the world at 10,000 years. Almost nothing to see except to say that you have been to Jericho, kind of like Timboutoc, Mali as it was hell on wheels getting there. The first day we drove 18 hours and the second day 10 hours, 40 degrees outside the vehicle and 42 degrees inside! It was a very famous salt caravan town in it's day.
Tel Aviv was absolutely gorgeous and I don't particularly like large cities. Very clean and great road system throughout the country. Our hotel was right on the Med.
Toodles for now!
Redhead Redneck
Post a Comment