Cruising the Mekong

Hello again everyone, we've got a free day today, so we've actually got a chance to update you all, without having to have left it for almost a week! We've not been doing a huge amount over the past few days, so hopefully this will be a slightly shorter blog than normal?!

THURSDAY 26th April

This morning we got up fairly early, and after having breakfast we paid up for the meals we'd had from the guesthouse and waited to be taken by pick-up truck to the river. After a bit of a bumpy ride we were pulling up by the river. Nok collected our passports with our new Laos visas in and we were taken across the Mekong to Laos. We quickly got through the visa checking process and then met our guide, Chan. We then got loaded onto a couple of tuk tuks and were soon pulling up next to our 'private chartered boat', which we would be calling home for the next 2 days. It was pretty nice - it was huge considering there were only 14 passengers, there were loads of seats to camp out on, a huge dining table to eat at (and play cards), tons of seats to lounge in and it even had a 'sun roof'! So we made ourselves comfortable and enjoyed floating down the Mekong, with the most beautiful views of mountains and hills springing up from nowhere, lush green trees, buffalo's wading in the water, hill tribe families playing and fishing in the water, it was so relaxing! On our journey to Pakbeng, where we would be sleeping for the night (as the boats are not allowed to navigate after dark), we stopped off to visit a Hmong hill tribe village. Chan told us about the different tribes and how they are changing their lifestyles etc. Unfortunately he has a very strong Laos accent, so it can be very hard to understand him at times, so I'm glad I paid attention at the hill tribe museum we visited yesterday, as he was covering the same information. There were lots of children trying to sell us bracelets and other ornaments that had been hand-made by the villagers and lots of the girls wanted my hair clips too! After walking around for some time, Chan took us back to the boat and we continued towards Pakbeng. We finally arrived and took our bags up to the guesthouse we were staying in for the night - it was up a hill, so was rather sweaty work! We had time to freshen up (with a nice cold shower - mmmmmmm) and then we met in the dining area to order breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. Chan took us to a small Temple before taking us to his favourite restaurant. We went back to the guesthouse and made the most of the temporary electricity supply (it got turned off at 11pm) by getting the fan on and cooling the room down!

FRIDAY 27th April

After paying for our meals from the guesthouse we were back on the luxury boat and enjoying floating along for another lazy day. It was quite chilly this morning, as it was thundering and raining over night and then continued to rain this morning. But by lunch time, the Sun was out again and it was much warmer. We stopped en route to Luang Prabang at Pak Ou Caves. Here one of the Kings of Laos created a Temple. In the lower cave, as well as the stunning view, there was a shrine to Buddha and 100s of Buddha statues in all shapes and sizes. The top cave housed the Temple itself (along with a ton of bats), there's not much left of the Temple, but it was interesting to see, even if we had had to climb over 200 steps to get to it! Luang Prabang was now just an hour or 2 away, so we enjoyed the last of our time on our boat before we were being picked up and dropped off at our new hotel, which will be home for the next 3 nights. Nok took us out to dinner down on the night market street. We ended up spending the majority of the meal in candlelight, as the power cut out! It was a really nice meal and afterwards Steve and I took a slow saunter through the night market on our way back to the hotel. It's so nice, although our room is small, the air-conditioning is fantastic, so within a couple of minutes turning it on, it becomes a fridge!

SATURDAY 28th April

Today we had a guided tour, from Chan, of the Royal Palace Museum. It was quite surreal, as in the public rooms of the Palace it was incredibly opulent and ornate, but the private areas were incredibly plain and sparse, it was quite an odd contrast. We were then driven up to the Khong Sii Falls. It was a bit disappointing, as there had been the option of trekking to the Falls, which would have meant people would have had 2 half days to do their own thing. But the majority of the group wanted to have a full free day to do their own thing, so we were driven up instead. We walked a little way to the Falls and saw Phet the Indonesian Tiger and some Asiatic Black Bears, all of which had been orphaned, due to poachers, and then rescued by the authorities. The Falls themselves were startlingly beautiful - the water was crystal clear and an unbelievably vibrant turquoise/blue colour. Steve managed to get me to jump in off of a tree and the water was wonderfully cool. Steve then jumped in from the top of a waterfall (about 10 feet high) and I thought I'd have a look to see if I could do it, but it was so scary! I really wanted to try, but tons of people were watching etc and I spent the next 2 hours standing at the top being coaxed on by people to jump in! But I couldn't do it - my fear of heights and falling got the better of me. We arrived back quite early and so had some time to sort ourselves out before going to dinner at 6.30pm. We thought there would be a group of people going, but it ended up just being us 2 and Nok. It was kind of awkward at times, as we weren't sure what to say to one another. But it was nice being taken to a lovely little restaurant by the Mekong river to watch the sunset. We even got to watch a praying mantis which was having dinner on the table next to us! Steve ended up staying up until about midnight drinking the most awful whiskey with some of the other lads on the tour. They were all very noisy and Steve stank, as one of them in their drunken stupor knocked a Laos Beer over him!

SUNDAY 29th April

Today is mostly free for us. We had a little bit of a lay-in, but were soon up having breakfast. We've rented some bicycles to have an explore of Luang Prabang on our own and then this afternoon/evening we're doing a Laos cooking class with some of the other people on the tour, so that should be interesting.

We're not sure there's anything else to tell you. I have about 6 mosquito bites over my feet and they're right where all the straps are on my sandals (very itchy) and Steve's very proud about having got his first mosquito bite yesterday on his forearm!

Happy Birthday mum, hope you have a good day!

Hope everyone is still doing well, we're having a great time still. Missing you all!