Chiang Rai-Chiang Saen-Chiang Khong-Huay Xai-Pak Beng-Luang Prabang-Vang Vieng-Vientiane

Thinking of alliterative titles for all of the above places seemed like too big a task I am afraid.

So I met Sophie in Chiang Rai and we spent a day and a half exploring the small but nice town. Wandered around the night market, looked at a gold clock, ate a Thai sausage which was nice but was just a sliced sausage on a plate with some raw vegetables (that does not a meal make), and visited the White Temple. The temple was really beautiful, and completely different to any other temples I've seen. I was more than slightly perplexed by the paintings on the inside of the temple, which featured images such as the twin towers falling down, Spiderman, Superman and Neo from the Matrix, among other strange images, supposedly with some kind of symbolic meaning about reaching Nirvana but I didn't buy it. I then collected my laundry from the guest house, most of which had been dyed blue and therefore ruined, and we made our way to Chiang Saen, where it turned out there was nothing going on, not even the night market, which the Lonely Planet had promised us. We arrived too late to go to the centre of the Golden Triangle (where the borders of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet) so ended up having a quiet evening in our very jungly guesthouse (i.e. MASSIVE spider on toilet seat). We set off early the next day for Chiang Khong, which should have been a breeze as it was only 53km away, but which actually involved walking 2km down a road with our heavy bags on looking for the trucks to take us there, getting a taxi back down the road as we had walked too far and were too tired to walk back, and then waiting for about 2 hours for the truck to leave as the driver wouldn't go until it was so full that people had to hang off the back of it. We got dropped off somewhere half way, where we were told another truck would come to take us the rest of the way. This did not happen, so we had to charter a truck to take us there. We crossed the border to Laos in a tiny wooden boat which took about 2 minutes, and spent the night in quiet and not particularly interesting Huay Xai, before getting the slow boat the next day to Luang Prabang, stopping off at Pak Beng for the night on route. The slow boat journey was much better than expected; pretty comfortable and with absolutely beautiful views along the Mekong river. On the second day a group of locals who seemed to be moving house as they had so much stuff got on, and entertained everyone sitting around them by getting absolutely smashed on BeerLao, and playing a drinking game which involved spinning a ducks head in a sticky rice basket (whoever the head was pointing to had to drink). They were very friendly, offering cucumber to all the tourists and even trying to get us to join in on the drinking. Sophie and I spent 4 nights in Luang Prabang, which I absolutely loved. The city was really charming and beautiful, with amazing river and mountain views everywhere you looked, and some of the nicest people I have met so far on my trip. Days were spent wandering/cycling between eateries, drinking strong and sweet Lao coffee, sampling the Beer Lao, visiting temples and shopping in the night market. On our second night there we made our way to the nearby bowling alley where most tourists go once all the bars have closed, since everything closes at around 11pm in time for the midnight curfew. We expected the bowling alley to be a bar with some bowling on the side, but it really was just a brightly lit, standard bowling alley, where everyone was actually bowling. It was pretty funny though and we made some friends there. One evening just before it got dark we walked up the 300ish steps to Phousi hill and admired brilliant views of the city. On another day as we were on our way to go into a temple we got invited to have a beer with some locals inside their shop, where they tried to get us drunk in the middle of the day and told me I was Miss Luang Prabang. They were lovely and it was very amusing. One of the guys was a tuk tuk driver, so we agreed to let him take us to some waterfalls the next day, where we had a swim and saw some elephants.

After 4 nights Sophie had to leave to make her way to Bangkok for her flight home, so I left the next day and headed to Vang Vieng with an Australian guy called Glenn, who we met in the bowling alley. I was very sad to leave Luang Prabang though. The journey to Vang Vieng should have been 5 hours, but it actually took 8 on account of the recent mud slides that had blocked some of the roads as it had been raining so heavily. We were also delayed somewhat by the stop we made at a local market, where two of the passengers (one of whom later started driving the van) bought some live crabs, some dead birds and some chicken feet (the feet were a snack for the journey). Vang Vieng was as touristy as I expected, with every single bar/restaurant playing episodes of Friends and Family Guy on big screens, but the river/mountain views were again absolutely beautiful. On our first day Glenn and I rented bikes and cycled to a nearby cave. We thought the 7km journey would be a breeze, but unfortunately the roads were not really roads, just mounds of rocks, and because of the recent rain there were also some fairly huge mud puddles to wade through. It was really nice cycling through the villages though, and when we made it to the cave we were able to wash the caked on mud off our legs and have a swim in the lagoon. We then had to climb up a 200m practically vertical slope (there were steps so I may be exaggerating, but it was hard) to get into the cave, which was very dark and very slippery. By the time we got back into town we were filthy and tired, but it was good fun. The next day we decided to sample tubing, which is what everyone goes to Vang Vieng for. You hire a rubber tube in town, get driven to the river, get a boat to the first bar, then float to the next bars inside your tube where the staff throw you a rope to grab onto and haul you in. Optimistically, Glenn and I decided to share a tube, and I thought it would be a good idea to wear my bikini and just tie my dress around my neck so it wouldn't get too wet. Unfortunately the river was flowing faster than expected, and Glenn and I nearly drowned trying to get to one of the bars. We fell out of the tube, my dress floated off down river, and we gave the guy pulling us in rope burn. After that we just walked to the other bars.... We did manage to hold on to our flip flops and the tube, although it was pointless looking after the latter as in the end we made absolutely no effort to locate and return our tube, which meant we didn't get our deposit back (I think the tubing company makes a lot of money from tubes returned late or not at all). Aside from the near death experience the tubing was fun, the atmosphere at the bars was great, and the views were stunning.

I decided to leave Vang Vieng the next day as there isn't much to do there if you don't want to drink buckets again, so I got the bus to Vientiane on my own this afternoon. I arrived this evening, and luckily bumped into a girl I met in Pai, so we went and sampled some food at the night market. Haven't seen much of the city yet as it was dark when I arrived, so I am going to explore tomorrow.

Whoever is reading do keep me posted on news from you and from home. Lots of love xxx