Leigh & Sharnz Travels 2011

After almost a month in Laos we though it was time to head to China, which was something that I had tried to block from my mind as I wasn’t very interested in going. From Luang Prabang we caught a six hour bus ride on a small bus to Udomxai. This bus ride was not fun, being foreigners we were both made to sit on sand bags in the isle of the bus the whole way! Nothing really to report about Udomxai, a small town in the middle of nowhere. The next day we then jumped on yet another bus for yet another six hours and ended up in Luang Namtha, a small pretty town with lots of trekking opportunities. After exploring for a few hours on pushbikes we decided that there wasn’t really much that would keep us there for another day. So we booked the bus to leave for Jinghong, China the following morning. Eight hours on a bus that we pretty much had to ourselves took us through the Laos/Chinese boarder, where we got our stamps for leaving Laos and entering China. It was amazing to see the different maintenance, quality of roads and the gardens in China that where not existent in Laos which was only a few meters behind us. A few hours more on the bus and we arrived in Jinghong, where we pulled up at the bus stop and was quickly grabbed by a little Chinese lady dragging us to her hotel. It was cheap and relatively nice so we stayed. We were yet to hear a word of English, and with no signs in English we both felt a little apprehensive and nervous about being in China. Then came the ever so welcoming and attractive sound of many people around us, business men, business woman dressed nicely, trendy teenagers all coughing up the biggest gorbies I have every heard. By this stage I was literally disgusted and cannot count how many times I dry retched. Trying to order dinner was a bit of a mission, but we ended up getting steamed rice with chicken and vegetables, hot chips with you got it, condensed milk as ‘sauce’! We left the following morning on a ‘sleeper bus’ that is literally filled with bunk beds and we laid down the whole nine hour trip. On our 1st toilet stop, this is when I really made up my mind that I wasn’t going to like China. I followed a stream of Chinese woman into the ‘toilets’. The ‘toilet turned out to be a female urinal where I was made to stand up and attempt to wee into a trough just like men do it urinals. I could not believe it, I did not want to do it, but with 10 other women behind me I was quickly pushed into a spare standing spot. With woman doing number two’s in the trough, throwing used sanitary products everywhere I had to get out. I have never ever felt so intimidated and humiliated in my entire life. They all watched me ‘attempt’ to wee like a man, which I can happily say I have never had to do before and of course I was no good at it. With 20 women all laughing a pointing at me, I pulled up my wet shorts and held back the tears. Leigh knew something was up when I walked out by the look on my face. That was my first real ‘’welcome to China’’! A few more hours on the bus and we finally arrived in Kunming. Again with no English anywhere, we had no idea of where to go, how to tell anyone where we wanted to stay. This was hard and I know Leigh was doing just as much wigging as I was. A Chinese man grabbed Leighs arm and took us to his car. We had to pull out the computer and show where we wanted to stay. More time in transit and we finally arrived at the back packers. I wasn’t expecting much as already my first impression on China wasn’t great, but I was pleasantly surprised. Free internet, bar, library, DVD room, pool table, ping pong table, delicious food and other westerners I felt a lot better.

We took the bus south from Luang Prabang zig zagging through the hills to Vang Vieng. The trip took about eight hours it would have been shorter if we didn’t have to stop while a truck was getting winched up after falling down the side of the cliff. Like all things in Lao this was done with no rush and little hassle. Vang Vieng is positioned besides a river surrounded by dramatic mountains, it is this river that provides the number one tourist attraction in the town, tubing. The principal is simple, grab a tyre tube sit in it and float down the river while stopping by at the many bars along the way usually greeted with a shot of some sort of spirit. The only problem is as time has gone by tourists are getting more and more lazy and usually now just stick to the first four bars. This means that the tube has become obsolete as the bars are in a 100m radius from the starting point. We met up with Dean and Brodie again. They had been tubing a couple of days earlier so they educated us with some useful tubing tips. We set out to the first bar settled in and drank, swam, played drinking games, jumped off things and watched the hardcore people that had been there way to many days in a row. It was a great day much better then I thought it would be, everyone there was there for a good time and it’s hard not to have fun. And it’s always entertaining when Sharnz gets caught up in the moment downs a few buckets and decides that the bamboo mat will be her dance floor. I even did my best Mr. Bean impression and climbed to the top of the 10m dive platform for a few terrifying tumbles into the water. Tubing has got a bad reputation for the common occurrences of injuries and even deaths, however from what I saw unless you are blind drunk, on drugs or can’t swim you should be able to get through the day unscathed.

The next few days we spent sitting around our very comfortable and friendly guesthouse, and going out for lunch to watch either friends or Family Guy which is played everywhere, with Dean, Brodie and Tameka. We did go for a bike ride to the Blue Lagoon which was nice, although the bike ride was a bit long and bumpy and we were tricked into paying for another ‘lagoon’ (a bend in the river) before we found the right one. We headed back to Luang Prabang for a few days rest, say goodbye to Dean Brodie and Tameka and make our way up to China.

Leigh

We had 2 options in getting to Laos. Three days on a slow boat along the Mekong River or a 50min flight from Chiang Mai to Lunang Prabang Laos. Clearly I wanted to fly and leigh wanted to take the ever so slow slow boat we flipped a coin and I won!! We nervously booked a flight on Laos airlines which has the worst reputation in the world for the most dangerous airlines thanks to a large number of crashes and a few fatalities.

We didn’t crash and what felt like we took of and landed straight away we where in the lovely Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a sleepy town right on the Mekong River. The streets are full of monks in their bright orange robes and frangipani flower trees line all of the walkways. As soon as we settled in our guest house (with a TV showing all the AFL games over the Easter weekend we went to a bar that was recommended to us. A few beers Laos later we were ready to move on to the next bar only to find that the whole of Luang Prabang has a curfew! All bars and restaurants shut at 11:30pm so that everyone is “where they should be” by midnight. We spent the next week or so hiring push bikes and exploring the town drinking coffee along side the Mekong and eating some delicious baguettes full of all sorts of meats and salad which soon resulted in me being very ill. Maybe some bad chicken caused me to have excruciating tummy pains, diarrhoea, vomiting, high fever and the chills which lasted for exactly 28 hours. After this I pledged I would never eat chicken again… that only lasted a few hours. We did some more exploring crossing some more scary bamboo bridges and a day trip Kayaking 20km down a huge river with many rapids which was great fun. The scenery here really is breathtaking being surrounded by huge mountains and jungle we would have to take cover every morning while a downpour of heavy flood like rain lasted about 1/2 hour. The days here are hot and humid and the nights bring a little of relief After almost two weeks here we were ready to see more of Laos and head to Vang Vieng to meet up with Dean and Brodie to experience tubing on the Mekong with the slow pace and smiling faces of Luang Prababg, a relaxing holiday destination would be at the top of the list.

Sharnz

What a great little town Pai is! A magnet for hippies and the alternative, Pai has a great relaxed vibe going for it. While it is short on ‘attractions’ the town is surrounded by picturesque hills and scenery. The bus ride there has become famous for making it’s passengers see their lunch for a second time and it didn’t disappoint. Three hours and 762 bends of very windy roads resulted in some green faces among the travellers. We settled into Pai quickly finding a cheap guesthouse and had a look around town. Songkran (Water festival/ Thai New Year) was still in full force our entire time in Pai so much of the time was spent either dodging people on the street with water pistols or giving in and coping a bucket of water over the head. We decided to hire a moped and go for a explore around the town, we stopped and had a look at the canyon, WWII bridge and even saw some elephants hanging out by the side of the road. The next day we decided to get a bit more adventurous and make the 80km round trip to Soppong to go visit the Tham Lot Caves. The windy roads on the moped were much more fun then the claustrophobic busses and after a few stops along the way and more soakings from buckets of water we made it to Soppong. In what seems like the middle of nowhere Soppong is part of the well known Mae Hong Son loop and has a large hill tribe community with a fantastic rural charm. The caves were spectacular although our guide was less then enthusiastic, I think she had probably been taking tourists through the caves for many years and the novelty and beauty of the place had well and truly worn off. It was a shame we only spent a day in Sappong as it deserves so much more, maybe next time.

We had a good night out once back in Pai for the Thai New Year everyone was in high spirits around the town and I do love a New Years Eve! We decided to park ourselves at a bar, enjoy some large Changs, take over the jukebox, play some pool and talk rubbish to anyone that would listen. We payed for the festivities the following day and spent the majority of the day feeling sorry for ourselves and getting ready for the bus ride back to Chiang Mai. The bus ride back was much worse and resulted in 4-5 people vomiting up there breakfast at random places along the road. It was funny watching all the hippies applying different types of oils and creams to “stop nausea” while me and Sharnz were popping pills. We were two of the few that didn’t get sick. Once back in Chiang Mai we flipped a coin between catching a slow boat or plane into Laos, much to Sharnee’s delight the plane won and as much as I tried to scare her with Lao Air’s very dubious safety record the one hour flight rather then the three day bus and boat ride won out. So it was goodbye Thailand and hello Laos!

Leigh

After spending maybe a few too many days off the tourist track, arriving in Chiang Mai we where pleasantly surprised with what it had to offer. After walking around in circles for a few hours we found a great place to stay. The Royal Guest House with a pool! $7 a night for a great fan room, and being on the 6th floor we had a great view of Chiang Mai and its surroundings. The 12 flights of stair where a killer every day but great for the quads. Our first night out we headed to a long strip of bars with not so cheap alcohol; plenty of pool tables and so many old western men with potbellies surrounded my gorgeous Thai woman. We saw a big man that had 2 walking sticks, pressure stockings and no hair who we guessed would have been over 65 years old with 5 Thai woman kissing him, stroking his bald head while he touched their bums and kissed them back! Not a pleasant sight but we decided that there was no way he would be able to ‘’throw the leg’’ so to speak and was merely in the bar for a bit of company and comfort. We also saw plenty of other Western men that where there for one reason and that being to pick up a Thai woman. We learnt from a local lady that a lot of Western men come to Thailand to find a wife. If he does find a wife he then supports her and her entire family with no questions asked. Family comes first to Thai people and after talking to this young lady we learnt that she had an American boyfriend of whom she sees twice a year. He sends lots of money to her, which enables her to support her family nicely. Very interesting stuff. As our Thai visas had already expired we needed to cross the boarder into Burma to get another 15-day visa. We hired a little car and off we went, headed to Mae Sai where Thailand meets Myanmar (Burma) The drive there was great, plenty of villages along the way, Leigh managed to sleep for most of the way but I found it easy enough guessing what speed limits where, and which way it was to the boarder. We arrived at the boarder after a 3.5-hour drive. It was a simple process, went to Burma, got a stamp then went back to Thailand paid our fine and got another visa. We then applied for our Chinese visas only to find out that they would take 10 days instead of 4 due to Easter holidays. With 10 days to wait we decided to leave Chiang Mai for a few days and head to Pai, which has been recommended by friends back home. I really enjoyed Chiang Mai, plenty of sights to see, lots of delicious Thai food and a very laid back and relaxing vibe to the city.

Sharnz