Laos: Luang Prabang

The bus left at 10.30am and we arrived in LP at 5.15pm, it was definitely not a boring trip with incredible scenery and such winding roads it was hard to stay in the seat... Some people threw up but luckily us four were fine. We went up and over the mountains, at one point completely whited out in mist/ cloud. Our "VIP Bus" was decked out in psychadelic chair covers and wallpaper, with three layers of frilly curtains flapping, and tassells all over the place! The aircon didn't work but it was pleasant with the windows open, only when it rained heavily everyone shut the windows and it got hot. The driver was a nut, heaving the groaning bus uphill then letting it roar down around blind corners and through tiny villages, scattering dogs chickens cows motorbikes and children, and squeezing past tractors and trucks.

Luang Prabang is so nice and relaxed, Vang Vieng was chilled out but had a bit of a schoolies atmosphere. I haven't heard anyone actually speaking French here but everything is bilingual; Lao then French, and they sell baguettes and french crepes on every corner (not the thai roti style pancake we've loved everywhere else so far.) We haven't done too much but I've walked around the town a lot, found some really cute bookswap cafes where you can lounge upstairs in aircon drinking ginger tea and reading all arvo (did this one day), struggled up all the steps to a temple at the top of Phousi hill to see sunset and chatted to Lao english students who were keen to practise with the tourists up there, and gawked inside all the temple grounds at the millions of monks who seem to just chill out and carry towels around all day. LP is famous for the procession of monks who walk around the streets in a line at sunrise, collecting alms from the villagers, so one morning I got up at 5.45am to witness it, and so began an episode I will refer to as 'the chasing of the monks.'

Basically I was just too late as I turned into the main street and saw the tail end of a bright orange snake of monks disappear around a corner. This was no slow procession, they were striding it out! I tried to cut through some side streets to end up in front of them but kept glimpsing them tantalisingly close and then suddenly far away at the end of streets! To add to the idiocy, in my dozy state of pulling on respectful clothes I'd put the top on inside out, and for some reason I was convinced it was raining (maybe I was dreaming?) so I was lugging an umbrella around with me in the steaming sun! I gave up by 6.10am and swear the monks had a smug look as I passed them, cool as they like, back in their temple grounds! Another fail, like the Bangkok experience, and like when on Phi Phi I was desperate for a sunset photo so we power-walked over to the other side of the island, taking a 'shortcut' and ending up hotfooting it straight into the jungle as the sun went down, instead of finding the beach!

The night craft market here was really cool, stacks of jewelry, lanterns, 'handmade' things, and plastic cups of fresh fruit selections you choose and they blend with sugar and coconut milk for 5000 kip (under $1) smoothies.

And finally, for a note on my sanity. The ant bites are awful and seem mysteriously to be multiplying, my itchiest ones are clusters on my neck/ shoulders, and forearms, so i'm scratching at them furiously like some druggie. We bought tiger balm which helps. The malaria pills haven't given any side effects so far and amazingly we haven't gotten sick from food or water! The most annoying thing is that for SOME BIZARRE REASON whenever I see or think the word 'elephant', I get the playschool song '2 grey elephants balancing... step by step on a piece of string..' playing around and around in my head, and I don't know the rest of the words!!!! And this happens many times a day as most activities around here involve elephants, and they are all over jewelry singlets bags hats etc... oh no here we go again

So apart from the strange workings of my brain, I am having the time of my life, we aren't driving each other too mental and often spend a bit of the day apart doing our own thing or hanging out with new friends, but we're having an awesome time and aren't missing Melbourne at all!

Laos: Vang Vieng

Or "The Town of the Killer Ants"

We got to the train station ok despite Bangkok peak hour traffic and a confusing taxi driver who took his shoes and socks off while swerving all over the road, spoke to us in Thai, refused to answer questions or confirm where he was taking us, and told us the meter was broken moments before switching it on. He also kept gesturing madly out the back window, until we realised a RedShirt propaganda newspaper was sitting on the back of our seats and he really wanted us to look at it even though it was all in thai.

The station was disgusting; people laying all over the floor, homeless people peeing in the corners. We had 2 hours before our train and didn't want to sit in the hot smelly station so ended up checking our packs and going on a wild and frustrating tuktuk goose chase (they promised us MBK was open, but of course it wasn't-and was guarded by armed military- so promised to take us somewhere else that was open... but wasn't) and anyway ended up back where we started without any food and kindly relieved of some baht. Typical tourists! Luckily a delicious and cheap chinese restaurant opposite the station restored Scott's love of life ;) but we couldn't get out of BK fast enough, especially when we planned to buy snacks for the train and bus but everything shut down for the curfew!

The overnight train to Nong Khai was okay, the sleepers were clean and we felt very safe from theft because security guards and men in military uniforms were in our carriage. The only bad thing was that I was on top bunk close to the fluroescent light, and I kept waiting for it to be switched off... but 12, 2, 3am came and I realised it was going to be left on! So didn't get much sleep with the light in my eyes and was a bit of a zombie grump the next day.

From Nong Khai we tuktuked to the thai border and then laos border with some backpackers we met getting off the train- an Aussie, 2 Brits and a Canadian- and jumped on a bus with them straight from Vientiane to Vang Vieng which was about 4 hours. The whole bus was full of westerners around our age, it was like going off to a uni camp or something, Swiss germans drinking beer, loud and embarressingly stupid Aussies up the back, someone playing a mouth organ.

Vientiane (capital of Laos) was interesting after Thailand because they drive on the right side of the road and everything has a french influence, like the streets are called 'rue's. It's a tiny and quiet city... more of a town really, but it was pretty.

Vang Vieng itself is a tiny town on the Nam Song River, and is surrounded by karst mountains. It relies on tourism from the infamous tubing which is a S/E Asia backpacker rite of passage like the Thai full-moon party. We 'tubed' for one afternoon but didn't actually hire tubes to float in, meeting our friends at the first bamboo bar on the river and just swimming across and back to buy buckets and go on the different giant swings and to different bars- and it turns into a big party when the sun goes down. It was hilarious watching people trying to swim across the quickly flowing river keeping their buckets above the water and dodge the cannonball people flying off the swings, ziplines and flying foxes. Would definitely not be able to run in Australia, so many people get injured by falling in shallow water or onto rocks! There were more bars further down the river which you could float down to, but we didn't bother. Sitting on the side of the river we got absolutely massacred by ant bites but didn't really notice until later- now we look like we've got chicken pox and they're so itchy!!!

Scott and I also hired a scooter one morning and rode around Vang Vieng, luckily the streets were pretty empty because we kept driving on the left and turning onto the wrong side of the roads.. We followed a hand-drawn map to some caves in the mountains where the Laotians hid during Vietnam war when they were being bombed. To do this we had to ride through some muddy paddocks where men and women were working and cows didn't even bat an eyelid at us. It had rained the night before and the little trail was so muddy the bike kept spinning out, we only took one tumble in the mud though!

I hardly knew anything about Laos before I researched coming here, but because they allowed North Vietnamese troops to hide and walk through their jungle, the Americans bombed Laos more than the Allies bombed Germany and Japan combined in WWII. Laos is the most bombed country in history. It was something like a planeload of bombs was dropped on Laos on average once every 8 minutes, 24/7, for a nine years. Anyway the most affected area is around Phonsavan which is about 8 hours from Vang Vieng, where they are still digging up UXO every day.

I didn't remember I was so scared of caves before we climbed right up into a massive one... I guess I expected it to open up nice and wide right from the entrance, but as soon as we had to duck around a couple of walls so it was pitch black (we had 2 little torches though) and walked through a couple of big caverns with bats I freaked out and had to get out of there! Suddenly remembered the last time I had been in a cave was on school camp and I'd hated it then. So no more caves for Jess this trip.

Laos is cheaper than Thailand, even this tourist trap. Our room was the second nicest we've had (after Phi Phi) and it was the cheapest so far! Some people stay in VV for a week or more, tubing every day and partying every night, most of the restaurants are set up with pillows and low tables in front of TVs for people to zone out to Friends and Family Guy repeats, but after 3 nights we were ready to move on even though it was fun.

We caught a bus from here up to Luang Prabang with Nadeane and Soraya, two of the friends we made from the overnight train- the others bussed straight to Hanoi.

Thailand: Koh Phi Phi Don & Phuket

We sat on the front of the ferry and enjoyed the breeze off the ocean as we napped and read and watched the giant jellyfish float by on the way to Phi Phi island. Rookie mistake! The wind was misleadingly cool as we burnt to a crisp on the ferry!

Arriving at tonsai village on Phi Phi we were suddenly confronted with tourists, lots of them, and touts, and even westerners working there asking if we want to go diving, snorkeling, see Maya beach, every two steps up the road. This continued the whoooole way along (our hotel is right at the end of the beach) and even when the road finished and we had to walk along the beach there were Thai's sitting in little shelters saying 'taxi boat? taxi boat? where you going?' non stop. But the scenery, and the bungalow, is amazing. We splurged for phi phi and got a really nice bungalow with air con and hot shower and the most incredible postcard view out the window.

Pictures don't do it justice: we can see Phi Phi Ley (a small island, which has Maya beach where 'The Beach' was filmed) straight in front of us, and the end of Phi Phi Don stretching around to the right, obscured by palm trees and frangipanis. The ocean is sometimes silver, pink or dappled blue under cloud, but when there's a clear sky the water glows fluorescent turquoise. The islands and the water and the trees, the sand and the longtail boats bobbing quietly, noses pulled up and wrapped in bright scarves. It's such a quiet, hazy scene, flattened on my retina to look like a screensaver, it's hard to realise I'm actually in it even when I'm standing neck deep in the hot, quiet, salty sea.

We had a couple of fun nights out at the bars on phi phi, there was lots of fire-twirling to watch, and tourists boxing each other for free buckets, and fell in love with the tiniest new born kitten who didn't even have it's eyes open yet. There are millions of stray cats here, and one even camped out on our balcony for a night and a day. We had a news channel in english on our tv which was good to keep up to date with the situation in Bangkok!

We got the ferry to Phuket yesterday and Scott was frothing at the mouth to see Robin Hood, so we went and saw it last night! I've never been to the movies in another country and it was awesome, we got 'premium' seats which are massive and comfy and the seatbacks rock back for 110 baht which is under $4. There is a 5 minute song about the King where everyone stands up to show respect before the film!

Anyway today we're just doing some internet, laundry and buying bits and pieces for Laos. Heading to Bangkok tomorrow (the plan is just to get from the airport to the train station) to train into Laos, so hopefully it goes smoothly.

**Also I'm really happy about the olympus tough digital camera I got duty free at the airport because I was being a ninja on some slippery rocks at Phi Phi and smashed it down on a rock when I landed on it... and not even a scratch!

Thailand: Krabi Town

I expected Krabi Town to be a bit of a hole but we actually had a lot of fun there, for not much money. We stayed on the third floor of a guesthouse with amazing air con and purple paint for cheap) took Public transport around town, and ate at the night market near the pier. And there were a couple of English channels on the TV (one seemed to only show Flintstones though).

We hardly saw any other tourists around here, we were the only Caucasians in a lot of situations which was fun, especially when we found another night market where only Thais were shopping for clothes and jewelery and things, so they were cheap and not touristy. The food night market was lots of fun, walking past all the stalls with unidentified meat hanging and sitting and frying, plucked ducks with their beaks still on, offal... No english menus, but some incredible sweet and spicy smells coming out of woks and pots. We got big bowls of noodle soup with duck for 40 baht, which was one of the yummiest meals I've had so far here.

Also enjoyed using free wifi in some quiet restaurant/bars on the street and going through their book swap collections. I finished Tales of the Unexpected by Roald Dahl and swapped it for Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, while Scott enjoyed drinking coke and eating chips while watching live supercoach scores on his laptop!

After 2 nights here we hopped on a ferry to Phi Phi!

Thailand: Railay

Scott & I at the airport

Goodbyes and flights went smoothly (and my pack only weighed 14 kg!) and Scott and I arrived at Krabi airport on Monday afternoon. The first thing that hit us was the thundery humid heat which feels like you are trying to breathe through a doona! The second thing which stood out about Krabi was the awesome silhouettes of craggy karsts against the horizon; they are strange shaped limestone lumps, tall and humped, striking up in clusters in an otherwise flat terrain. They're covered in dark green foliage apart from when the cliff-faces drop vertical and the rock is pockmarked with caves, it looks like there used to be huge rock bubbles which burst and left honeycomb holes behind.

I like them because they're strange and mysterious, Scott likes them because he thinks he is James Bond (Man with the Golden Gun was filmed around this coast.)

We made our way by taxi and longtail boat to Railay, a skinny peninsula hanging off the Krabi coast. It's attached to the mainland but feels like an island because the mountains completely block access to it, so all arrivals and deliveries are made by longtail boat. We waded in off the boat to West Railay beach which is a beautiful wide white sand bay (it's the expensive 'sunset' side) and followed a skinny inland track to get across to the cheaper East 'sunrise' beach where we stayed. The east beach is a smelly, mangrovey beach but it has all the cheap bars and food stalls and it's only 15 mins walk to pretty much anywhere on Railay.

Our first whole day at Railay we decided to go exploring up the east beach- we started following signs to 'view point' and 'lagoon' cos they sounded nice. Walking through Railay is so easy compared to other parts of Thailand, someone might half-heartedly say 'hullo, you come back tonight?' to their bar, but there's no taxis, pingpong shows or anything else to be spruiked in your face. The most we had to worry about was dodging fruit that monkeys were dropping out of trees!


The signs to lagoon and viewpoint suddenly pointed straight up a clay cliff/ hill, and we weren't sure how to climb it until we spotted a skinny rope hanging down amongst the vines! If I'd known, I would have worn runners and shorts not thongs and a dress! But we scrambled up and were rewarded with a postcard view over Railay- can see both beaches. Next was the lagoon, this time we had to climb down the inside of the hill, hanging off ropes and vines and rocks on the steep bits. We caught a glimpse of the bright green lagoon and were determined to get down there, it involved some unofficial vertical rockclimbing down a couple of drops! I ditched my sunnies and big nikon camera in order to just concentrate on my hands! 2 other aussies made it down with us, some other tourists weren't keen to do the climbing.

The lagoon was magical, it was something straight out of a movie... Bright green, surrounded by cliffs, echoing every word. The climb up was tricky cos now we had slimy wet feet covered in red clay, and slipped off our thongs on every step. So I wore my thongs pushed up my arms, camera slung over my back and we made it back to the top and then down to where we started, sweatier than we'd ever been in our lives and looking like we'd just rolled around in red clay. It was amazing!

Another highlight of Railay was actual rockclimbing on the beach with a thai guide called 'Noo'. we did a couple of 15 metre climbs and a 25 metre climb! We were on limestone cliffs at the top of east beach, I took my little olympus tough digital camera up in my back pocket and took pics of the view from the top. It was so hot, the chalk just melted off my hands every minute. Scott got to lead-belay Noo up as he set the top-rope for the rest of us, and Noo belayed us (Scott and I, and a french couple). I freaked out the first couple of time I looked down at Noo because he was sitting on the sand, both hands off the rope, rolling cigarettes but then I remembered he was using a gri-gri belay device which locks by itself (freaky when I'm used to ATC belay devices!)

Railay nightlife was very quiet, not many tourists, we had a couple of cheap cocktails lying on bamboo mats on east beach. Our bungalow air con was pretty much non-existant so to cool down we had a freezing shower everytime we came back into the bungalow and stood in front of the fan til we cooled down, and kept a wet flannel in the freezer! It got a bit expensive though, so after 3 nights we decided to go to Krabi town for a couple of cheap days before the expensiveness of Phi Phi!

Itinerary

10 May Depart Melbourne 00:45
Arrive Krabi (Thailand) 12.25

15 May Koh Phi Phi

20 May Phuket

21 May Bangkok overnight train to Laos

22 May Vientiane

Vang Vieng

Luang Prabang

1 June Hanoi

down Vietnam coast

18 June Ho Chi Minh City (leave Scott in Vietnam)

19 June Paris (meet Mel)

More France

27 June Barcelona

1 July Dublin (meet Zoe)

8 July End Ireland roadtrip (then Zoe and Mel go home)

U.K

Europe inc Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Rep, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia, Switzerland

21- 26 September Iceland stopover

New York

Los Angeles meet Scott

Mexico

Guatemala, Belize

15 November Volunteer project IVHQ begins

(In Cusco, Peru)

11 December IVHQ project ends

14 December Buenos Aires flight home

15 December Auckland

16 December Arrive Melbourne 3pm

This is the year...

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone- it's May already and that means I'm about to depart Australia and go traveling around the world for 7 and a bit months. I'll be leaving my home, family, friends (and dog!!) for much longer than I ever have before, and my return flight home at Christmas seems like both a long way off, and way too short a time to fit in everything I want to see and do.

Since I finished Uni last November I've been working for, reading about, and planning this trip almost full-time which makes it surreal to imagine that in just 5 days I will have set out and begun it. And somehow I've left it until now to buy important things like shoes and clothes!

The word is wanderlust.

Pictured is a stack of books that are currently living on my desk and floor beside my bed, which have inspired this trip and kept me saving money over the last 3 years.

These range right back to my childhood with Swallows & Amazons- which made me want to have adventures in the Lakes District in England, through to studied texts like The Quiet American, Diary of Anne Frank, and Auschwitz & Apres. These all affected me to the extent that I feel a need, almost a duty, to see the places on this earth that they occurred. And then there are the exciting and inspiring Lonely Planets with the big glossy pictures and the little travel novels with the funny anecdotes which people have given me for birthdays and Christmasses.

As for movies... the ones which really made me think 'I want to go there' include: Amelie (Paris), Vicki Cristina Barcelona (Spain), The Beach (Thailand), The Motorcycle Diaries (South America) and The Sound of Music (Austria.)

Anyway, this first blog is just for me to get the hang of it, and to try and get my head around the fact that I'm leaving soon!

Next update will be from somewhere more exciting than my bedroom on a drizzly May day in Melbourne.

Jess :)