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From John in Thailand
Hello to you all,
I hope that you are all well and in good spirits. I have
now returned to Thailand again and I'm in a place called Chiang Kong, which
is on the Mekhong river bordering Laos. Its been nearly 3 months since I
left and it feels good to be back. Almost like returning home.
I had just arrived in Vientiane in Laos when I wrote my last email and I
stayed there for over 1 week. There wasn't really very much to see there but
I met some really cool people there, including Hans (Kiwi Experience and the
Ritz in Melbourne) and had a TOP time.
After Vientiane I travelled 4 hours north to a town called Vang Vieng. Lots
of people say there don't like it here because its too touristy but I stayed
for 2 days and I enjoyed it. The good thing about places that are touristy
is that theres lots of other people to meet, good bars and restaurants and
more activities to do. The main thing to do here is 'tubing', where you get
a big inner-tube from out of tyre and float down the river. It was good fun
and there was lots of stops where you could get beer and it was a good way
to meet lots of people. I managed to lose my sandals but thats too long a
story to tell.
I next travelled up to a place called Luang Prabang which is about 6 hours
further north. The bus journey itself was woth coming here for because the
scenery was awesome. Its probably the most scenic bus journey I have ever
taken. Its also full of backpackers but again I had a good time and met lots
of interesting people. There is some awesome waterfalls nearby but I forgot
about them until I had left.
I booked to travel further north to a place called Nong Khiaw by river and I
think it it was a good decision. We travelled up the Mekhong for a while and
then on to the Nam Ou river. The scenery again was amazing because the river
wound its way through beautiful tree covered moutains. We also stopped at
some caves called Pak Ou, which have lots of statues of Buddha in them. Most
of the people on the trip thought these caves where amazing but I wasn't
that impressed. I have seen more statues of Buddha then you could shake a
stick at. The funniest part was that we ran out of fuel 2km away from Nong
Khiaw and the 2 people running the trip had to row the boat to the bank so
we could get petrol. I think everybody on the boat rushed to get their
camera to get a photograph of this. Myself included. I had already told the
people I was travelling with of all the disasters I seem to have on my
travels and so they all blamed me. But I thing it was one of the highlights
of the journey.
Nong Khiaw was very quiet with not much to do really but it was a pleasant
little village to visit.The following day we caught a boat to take us to
another little village called Muang Ngoi. The journey passed without
anything going wrong and the village itself was really nice. You can only
reach the village by boat and so there are no cars or motor-bikes. The
streets where dirt roads and the where chickens, roosters and other varoius
farm animals running around. It felt a little bit like going back in time.
There where a few other backpackers but not that many. Some people where
complaining that it was better a few years ago when there wasn't any
backpackers at all but I think thats a bit selfish because its not their
country and it has nothing to do with them who comes here. There was a
couple from Germany who where sat near to us in a restaurant and they where
calling us stupid fucking tourists and saying people like us where ruining
it for real travellers. I don't know why because we where just quietly
eating lunch and wheren't drinking alcohol or anything. There where talking
in German and they where a bit surprised when they discovered we knew what
they where saying. We didn't say anything nasty to them because they where
pretty old but we let them know we knew what they where saying.
We stayed here for 4 days because it wasn't an easy place to leave and you
had to rent a boat to go further up the river. We managed to get a group of
10 people together and hired a boat to travel further north to a place
called Muang Khiaw. The boat journey was good but the village itself was not
very interesting and so we only stayed for 1 night.
The following day we got another boat journey north towards a town called
Phongsali. I wanted to catch the bus because it was a lot cheaper and I felt
they too many boat journey would get boring. I was out-voted and so we
travelled by boat. The scenery was again beautiful but was the same as the
other boat journeys we had taken and the boat was really over-crowded. The
boat took us to a tiny village called Hat Sa where we had to then catch a
songthiew (a truck with 2 benches in the back) to Phongsali. We missed the
only songthiew by about 10 minutes and so we had to spend the night in Hat
Sa. There wasn't much to see but it was the Chinese New Year and so all the
locals where celebrating, so it was an interesting night.
We managed to catch the songthiew the following afternoon but it was full
and so the 4 of us had to stand on the step at the back and hold on to the
luggage rack. The road was really bumpy and you had to hold on really
tightly, it was also very dusty and when we arrived in Phongsali we where
pretty dirty.
We had heard that Phongsali was really interesting but it wasn't. The one
good thing about it was that they where still celebrating the Chinese New
Year and they would invite us into their houses to drink lao-lao (rice wine)
with them. Not many backpackers come here yet and so everybody wanted to say
hello and the children would act really excited when they saw you, so I was
glad I came here in the end.
After 3 days of celebrating and drinking lao-lao we caught a bus to Oudom
Xai. The road here was very bumpy and dusty but at least we got to sit
inside. Unfortunately we got 2 flat tyres and there was only 1 spare tyre
and again everybody in my group looked at me as if it was my fault. I
shouldn't have told them about all my other disasters. It was interesting to
see how they managed to fix the second flat tyre though and it got us to our
destination o.k.
We only spent 1 night here and then travelled to a town called Luang Nam
Tha, The journey was o.k. and nothing went wrong. When we arrived everybody
else caught a bus to go north but I only had 2 days left on my visa and so I
had to stay and catch a bus to the border the following morning. It felt
strange to be on my own after travelling in a group for around 3 weeks. Its
also a little sad because you may never see each other again.
I managed to catch the bus o.k. in the morning. It was due to leave at 9.30
but we still hadn't moved at 10 o'clock. Then we did set off but 5 minuted
later we where back at the bus station again because they was some problem
with the bus. They fixed it and we set off again, I had noticed that my seat
was slighty broken but it was the only 1 left and so I had to hope that it
wouldn't get worse. The journey was so bumpy that everytime you went over a
bump you flew out of your seat and landed back with a real jolt. This meant
that my seat was getting worse with every bump and it collapsed before we
even got half way. Everybody on the bus thought this was most amusing and it
was but the rest of the journey was a bit uncomfortable. Then just over
half-way the bus broke down and we all had to get off and wait for the
driver to fix it. He fixed it after a while but we didn't arrive at the
border town until 9 O'clock at night. I managed to find a cheap guesthouse
for the night and the following morning I caught a boat across the Mekhong
River back to Thailand. Thankfully it didn't sink.
I have been back in Thailand for over 24 hours but I've not done anything
interesting because I was really tired. I slept for nearly 20 hours and when
I woke up this morning I seem to need to go to the toilet every 5 minutes.
There surely can't be much left inside me by now.
I must say sorry for the lenght of this email but there was so much to write
and I had to miss some things out.
Cheers John |
