We hadn't heard anything really positive about Vientiane other than it was just a city that happened to be the capital of Laos. We needed to go there anyway though becasue it was on our way to our next destination and we needed visa's for Vietnam.
We arrived in Vientiane around 2pm on a Friday and quickly found a hotel and dropped our bags in the room and then started walking towards the Vietnamese embassy.
I've never been outdoor rock climbing, I used to go semi regularly indoor rock climbing while I was living in London but I have always thought outdoor rock climbing seemed really exciting and I finally got the opportunity to give it a try today.
As I said yesterday a big reason that people come to Vang Vieng is because of the tubing. A typical day of tubing goes something like this:
Wake up late, no reason to get up early.
Go to a "Friends" restaurant and have a baguette for breakfast/lunch with bacon, eggs, or pretty much anything else that you want.
Yesterday we got a transfer from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. Sometimes we have been prebooking accommodation online when there is a good deal or a place has really good reviews. We did this in Vang Vieng and when we checked into our accommodation it was nothing like what we had expected. The back door was a sliding glass door that over looked the river but the only way to close it was to pull it towards you on one side while simultaneously pushing it left and pushing the lock down. The bed was resting on a piece of cardboard that was covered in 1/4 of an inch of dirt.
To most people Southeast Asia means beaches, cheap everything, sunny weather, temples and elephants. Today we got to command elephants, ride them, feed them and wash them in the river.
Spent the day walking around Luang Prabang, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city has a lot of French influence in the architecture, which line the river with villas.
We went to Wat Xieng Thong one of the most important Lao monasteries.
Despite feeling awful we headed out to as scheduled. (Mostly because I couldn't change our reservation without paying a substansial amount.)
(cue the guitar)I was up all night doing just as my song suggests but strangely Janelle was feeling fine. Maybe my finishing of Janelle's beers gave me a terrible Chang-over (Hangover from drinking too much Chang Beer) yet left her unscathed. Regardless, we had a big preparation day planned so I pulled my stuff together and headed out.
Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand and I thought it would be would be fun to take a lesson myself. In my search I found this website:
"Before joining our school it is necessary to pass a basic interview so we can be sure of the personality and motivation of our students. When you are in Chiang Mai and you are ready to start training please give us a call so we can meet with you for the brief interview. If you pass the interview we will reveal the location of the Muay Sangha School. When you start training you will need to bring to the school three white lotus flowers, three jasmine garlands and an envelope containing one month's payment of 10,000 Baht ($316)."
Let me guess, the revealed location is a dark alley and the flowers are so they can put them over your lifeless body after they beat you up and take your envelope of cash. No thank you!
We were unsure where to head to next, our plan was to go to Laos next as our Thailand visa's run out in 5 days. We checked transfers from Pai to the border, but they didn't leave until 6pm the next day and claimed to arrive at the border at midnight (I did some reading online and found out that you actually arrive around 3am) and then have to be up at 7am to cross the border into Laos. That did not sound like a good time to me, so instead we got a bus back to Chiang Mai.
Yesterday we got a transfer from Chiang Mai to Pai. They told us it would be 3 hours but ended up taking nearly 5 by the time the driver picked up everyone else in town at their hotels/guest houses and then got on the road. Pai is a hippy town up in the mountains of Northwest Thailand.
The purpose of coming to Pai was for the white water rafting.
We rented a motorbike and drove it to a the top of a mountain to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep with Amazing views of Chiang Mai and then finally found some waterfalls in Thailand!
I finally bought some stuff!!! Tonight we went to the Night Market with a plan to spend. Janelle was on the prawl for some fisherman's pants and I was looking for a speaker to listen to my Apple iPod Classic and some new headphones as mine are in the process of failing. First we needed to eat though.
Okay, so maybe there weren't actually snakes on the train, the journey was so long that I could have done with a couple to increase the excitement level.
If you don't like pretty pictures, bicycles or history then don't read this, otherwise check out what we did today.
This morning we got a ride to the ferry port from our hotel managers “papa” and his little girl in their pickup truck.
The dress code for the party is to be as neon/flouro as possible,
When we arrived in Thailand we didn't have any plans of where to go or what to do. We realized that the full moon party in Koh Phanang was scheduled for July 3rd, and I thought it would be a lot of fun, so we used that to drive our plans.
To get from Khao Sok to Koh Phanang we could either take a tourist mini bus for 650 BHT or try and organise the journey ourselves.
