Day 663 - Raining in the bus!

In a tourist trap town where most travellers seem to part with their money with ease, the tuk-tuk drivers must be disgusted with 2 backpackers walking the 2km to the bus station instead of paying the ridiculous prices! At the station we waited for our bus to take us to Phonsavanh, about a 6 hour drive away. The drive there was absolutely stunning, and got even better the higher up the mountains we weaved - the views over the rivers and out onto the mist shrouded hills was breathtaking. The journey was enjoyable until it started raining and the roof of the bus leaked right on top of all of the tourists sitting down the back!

Arriving in Phonsavanh was a bit of a let down as this town really is not up to much at all!! It's pretty ugly and accommodation options aren't great and finding them in the rain wasn't much fun. After finding a room another traveller gave us the tip of eating at the local market where we joined Sam and Nicole (a couple from the States we met on the bus) and dined local style on noodles and gooey dessert.

With not much to do we set about organising a ride out to the Plain of Jars sites tomorrow - the draw card that brought us out here.

Adlibing it to pathetic Phonavanh.

Day 662 - Another day in Vang Vieng

This morning we headed out with Joe to Tham Chang - another cave, this one famous for being a bunker when the Chinese invaded. When we got there we found the ticket price had gone up even more that we thought, so instead we settled for having a dip in a beautiful cave lagoon. The turquoise waters beckoned us 30-40m into the cave and provided some respite from the day that was heating up around us. It's amazing to be able to see everything around you, in and out of the amazingly clear water as if you've been given the gift of seeing into the world below you - it just happens to be a wet world. Later on Adam headed off with Joe back to the river for some more drinking and flips, while Liv had a much needed chat with mumbles and pops back home. While on the river Adam and Joe met a cool British couple and so we all went out for dinner together for our last night in Vang Vieng. Even though there are a lot of tourists here, the good thing is that the restaurants are used to travelling vegetarians which means Liv has a lot of choice for a change!

Adlibing it in the water.

Day 661 - Caving

After mucking around all morning trying to get people organised and motivated to hire motorbikes and explore the surrounding countryside, we ended up setting off on a bike along with Joe. A stunning 20km journey out of town took us past a cool little kids' fair and through numerous little villagers where we watched the distinction in wealth through the transition of rock houses back to wood and thatch (the further from Vang Vieng, the less tourist money going to the locals).

We eventually found our first destination across the river from the Elephant Cave, where in typical "rip-off-the-tourist" fashion the locals tried to charge us to watch our locked bike, or let us cross their bridge. We hid the bikes in the bush instead, and walked across a rickety old bridge 100m downstream instead where kids were happily splashing in the waters.

The Elephant cave houses a large Buddha and his footprint, with the main attraction being the rock formation that resemble an elephant (though it had obviously been added on to with concrete).

From here we walked through a small village and correctly guessed our way between multiple paths to get to the next caves. The first one we explored was extremely impressive with a huge array of stalactites/mites covering the walls, ceiling and floor. The variety was phenomenal - some pure white and sparkling, others muddy looking. We made our way through the gigantic caverns, enjoying the cool air but eventually resurfaced into the sunlight.

After Joe left us to get back to town, we entered Tham Hoi - a huge cave that stretches for 2-3km deep. With our torches and the several bright orange arrows pointing the way we managed to walk, crawl, and slip our way to the end where we were treated to an underground, crystal clear river cascading down the rocks. Despite being underground and in the dark, Adam was keen to jump right in for a splash and explore, while Liv wait patiently. Eventually we attempted to make our way back, and had a 5 minute panic after taking a few wrong turns - not the best feeling to be walking round in circles in the wrong caverns!

Luckily we found the right way, and 2 hours after we entered we let our skin be warmed by the sun as we made our way by foot towards a water cave. Here we hired tubes and grabbed hold of the ropes to drag ourselves into the depths of the cave. Even though by this stage it was getting cooler outside, the late hour meant that everyone else had gone home and we had the whole beautiful cave to ourselves!With the sun fading, we headed back through the fields to our motorbike and set off for the ride home with the sun setting in the distance. After 3 days here the karst peaks still blow us away and the colours of the sunset create a whole new world out there.

Adlibing it in the dark.

Day 660 - Recovery

After the day in the sun, floating down the river, and downing a lot of toxins, the first half of today was spent relaxing in the sun. After lunch we went with Matty (an aussie guy travelling over here with his wife Leanne) to a cave a few kilometres away from the river. The walk was a good way for the boys to finish offloading their toxins and provided a closeup look at the karst formations that had captivated us the day before, as well as observing the lives of the local farmers. We made our way in and out of rice paddies under the forest canopies - the only downside to the day were the exorbitant price they wanted to charge to have a look inside the cave!Instead of paying we walked up to have a look, and Adam risked his life by climbing the fence and going inside without a torch!! There are big holes in there ...We stopped off at the river on the way back for a dip in the cooling waters as the sun faded behind the peaks - we're not sure where the boys found the energy to continue their hacky/volleyball game, but it sure was entertaining to watch!
Later on we enjoyed dinner with our new friends, dining on Laap (the local Laos dish) and avoiding the Friends Bars (showing rerun after rerun of "Friends")!

Adlibing it close to the karsts.

Day 659 - Tubing down the river

After brekky our group of 11 made our way towards the tubing centre to collect our tubes for the day. Vang Vieng is famous on the South East Asia tour for travellers to come here and tube and drink their way down the river - the antics that go on here are totally festive and give us the impression of what "spring break" is like in the states, with hundreds of young travellers barely-clothed drinking themselves silly and making out in the crowds.

Despite this, we managed to have a great day on the river, with no one in our group hurting themselves more than a few belly-flops from the many swings and slides that are attached to every bar along the way. Back in town it's a case of the walking wounded dominating the streets - it seems like every second person has either bandages on their heads, arms in slings, or plasters in various places - our guesthouse even rents out crutches!!!

During the day we stopped at many of the bars along the way - Adam had a ball busting back flips off swings and managed to walk away with a pink back instead of broken bones! When bars give away multiple free shots of whisky and sell cheap buckets of booze (or mushroom shakes), many people are left without their ability to see the dangers involved in these makeshift swinging toys.

With the sun keeping us warm for the majority of the day it was amazing to slowly float down the river with the karst peaks looming above us, we were never without something to look at, or without someone to talk to.

As we came to the end of our journey we floated by one of the bars that had its black boombox speakers positioned inside a cave where we saw a family of goats just going about their business eating and sleeping - seemingly oblivious to the changes that tourism has inflicted upon a country with such stunning scenery. People's main focus in Vang Vieng is tubing and drinking (which is heaps of fun) but hopefully people don't forget to look around once in a while, and just say wow.

After spending all day on the river (and in the process losing some of our deposit after not getting back by 6pm) we were pretty knackered and spent the evening chilling out on the deck of our guesthouse with the rest of our group.

Adlibing the tubes.

Photos to come ...

Day 658 - Vang Vieng, here we come!

On our bus to Vang Vieng today we were lucky to meet Daniele, an Italian guy who joined us in our search for a room once we arrived. We managed to score an amazing bungalow perched on the edge of the river for a mere NZ$12 - which is pretty good for Laos.
In the mid-day heat we walked down to the bus station past the temples that see little tourists here (as most people are here to party, and not much else!) to suss out bus timetables, and on the way back wandered along the riverside, and onto the Island that's home to as many bars as can be jammed on its banks.
In the evening we met a fun-lovin' crew who had travelled to Vang Vieng together from the border with Thailand, and we set about enjoying the stunning sunset behind the karst rocks, while local families bathed in the warm waters. Even from where we were, we could hear the laughter of the kids playing with each other in what seems like a daily ritual for them. Kelly and Reese, who both live on Ko Tao (an island in south Thailand) have all but convinced Adam to go down there for some diving with them in about a months time. In the meantime, they commandeered us into their tubing crew for tomorrow, which should be a whole lot of fun!

Adlibing it to Vang Vieng.

Day 657 - Walking in the wet

As we only plan to stay in Vientiane (the capital of Laos) for 2 nights we really had to get out and about today if we wanted to see anything. So even though dark clouds threatened we had our first taste of Lao coffee and tea and set off to Patuxai.

This monument was built in the 60s with US money that was meant to be used to build a new airport, but clearly a strange, over-the-top "Arc de Triomphe" look-a-like was a much better spend! Well, at least it gave us some cover from the rain when the clouds finally opened, and while the rain fell down we gazed down over this chilled out city. From here on we played a game of hide and seek with the rain - sometimes the victors, other time the wet loser. Our first dash led us straight to lunch where we had a great vegetarian buffet and managed to sit out phase 1 of the storm. We then snuck into the markets for a browse around the mixture of goods - from traditional Lao clothing to tacky, plastic Chinese shoes.

With our bellies full we skipped the street vendors that circle like predators to catch the shoppers as they leave, and made our way to That Dam. This is one of the oldest stupas in Vientiane, but not much more than that so we then marched onto Wat Si Saket built in the 1820s and believed to be the oldest surviving temple here. This temple is a beautiful old structure and houses thousands of various sized Buddhas - some dating back as far as the 15th Century. Here we were well and truly caught in a down pour and after waiting for half an hour for it to stop (at least we had plenty to look at as a religious army draped in gold watched over the aging temple), we braved the rain and headed for the shelter of our guesthouse.
We spent the rest of the day just listening to the pitter-patter sound of rain on the roof of our guesthouse before making a 20m dash to a nearby restaurant to dine of delicious Lao curries. Before long we were back to the same old routine of packing up our backs and readying ourselves for yet another bus trip and another location of fun!

Adlibing rainy Vientiane.

Day 656 - Hopping across to Laos

This morning we farewelled terrific Thailand and drove to the border - along the way our tuk-tuk driver tried to take us to an agency to get our Laos visa, but we were not to be suckered in and made him take us straight to the border where a visa is available on arrival. The border was pretty efficient but involved a little bit of waiting as there were so many people crossing over into Laos. We wondered where everyone had come from as we hadn't seen that many tourists wandering around in the last few days.

While many people paid the 50 baht tuk-tuk fare to get a ride into town, we soon found a tuk-tuk bulging with friendly locals who told us to jump on and informed us of the correct price in Laos Kip. Even though this was much cheaper Adam had to spend the first half of the trip precariously half in half out of the back of the truck!

We got dropped off at the market in the middle of Vientiane, picked up some oranges and set off on foot to find a room. The second place we looked at seemed like a pretty good deal and we'd heard rumors that rooms fill up fast here so we didn't want to risk looking around for too long and then missing out.

We met a couple of travellers at the guesthouse who took us to a cheap place for lunch - these guys both came from China (one a Chinese guy, the other French but living in China) so we had fun talking about all our time there (and dreaming of when we get to go back).

After lunch we had a slow amble around town, trying to get our heads around yet another new currency, and icecreams in hand slowly made our way to the Mekong to gaze from Laos into Thailand instead of the other way around. Here we watched for a few minutes as a lone fisherman worked his nets, and then popped into one of the many wats (temples) that line the roads. For dinner we had yet another amazing Lao feed, and were soon sitting down and chilling with some fellow travellers in front a movie - something we haven't done in a long time!Adlibing it to Laos.

Day 655 - Busing it closer to Laos

If we stayed any longer in this town we might just fall into the pleasant sleepy life along with the rest of the town, so today we packed up and made our way (by 3 buses) back to Nong Khai, where we dumped our bags and went out for food!

Tomorrow we'll be crossing the border into Laos, so we were stoked when we met a couple who had just come from there and who passed on their guide book to us plus a few dollars worth of Kip. This gave us a good excuse to buy them a beer and have one too!

Adlibing it back to the border.

Day 654 - A lazy lie-in

Even though we woke up just as the sun was finishing coming up, we managed to spend the morning doing nothing much - which actually was the plan when we chose to come to Chiang Khan, a sleepy riverside town with nothing much to do. We basically swung on the hammock, lazed on bamboo beds and spent some quality time with our books! Though we occasionally broke our eyes away from reading to gazed upon the Mekong as it lazily flowed its way past our veranda.

Around lunch time we finally ventured out for food and then in the heat of the day decided to hire bikes to explore some of the surrounding countryside. We made our way out to a popular picnic spot on the river, famous for its rapid, though these ripples wouldn't hardly qualify for rapids in NZ!! It was nice to cycle around though and watch local Thais enjoying their Sunday afternoon banquettes while watching their kids swim in the water.

We cycles along a small lane sheltered by banana and coconut trees - a nice respite from the glaring sun, and made some detours down some more bumpy and forested trails. At each time though the trail came to an end and we found ourselves at the entrance to a local's home hidden amongst the trees.

At the end of the day we found ourselves relaxing at a local kids park beside the river, where Adam had his fun on the super-sized slide! We ended zipping off home as lighting and thunder made its way towards us - though the storm never fully eventuated, it was a nice excuse to get back to the hammock!

The rain cleared and we got another great sunset, and after dinner we went for a stroll along the river and picked up some delicious Thai pancakes for dessert.

Adlibing it on wheels.

Day 653 - A quiet day on the river

Good morning Mekong!!

Last night we met some French guys also at our guesthouse, and after a very slow morning (including breakfast gazing across into Laos) we set off out with them for lunch at a small road side restaurant. We also managed a stroll a few kilometres out of town to investigate hiring a few kayaks to float down the Mekong. Unfortunately this was far out of reach of our backpacker's budget, so we settled for a slow amble back along the riverside instead. Along the way the boys stopped off to play in the river with a group of young kids doing all manner of kids' stuff like having backflip competitions and shoulder fights.Oh what a good excuse to act like a kid for a few hours (though, really, when does Adam ever need an excuse?!). The kids really enjoyed having the farang ("westerners") there (and seeing themselves on the camera), but after an hour or so they were summoned home by mum. On the way back the boys came across some young monks, who after swimming left their orange robes drying in the sun while they snuck off into the bushes to sneak a cigarette!!

We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying fresh fruit, icecreams, cold beers, and watching one of the most stunning sunsets we've seen on this Adlibing tour so far. Pretty cool that we got to watch the sun set over 2 countries at the same time!!

Adlibing it slowly.

Day 652 - Busing along the Mekong

Today we farewelled Nong Khai and set off on the only old rickety bus left in Thailand (all the other buses here are comfy air-con ones) to follow the Mekong river around to the small town of Chiang Khan. This involved quite a lot more travel than we had initially anticipated, given that our hotel owner told us there was a direct bus that would only take 3 hours to get there!

Well ... it turns out this bus route is the retirement option for an elderly, smiling driver who spent as much time driving a he did shopping for fruit and veges, visiting friends, and restaurant stops! Nonetheless we were pretty happy sheltered in the bus from the rain outside, and got to enjoy the phenomenal scenery at a slower pace - the river and surrounding mountains had a very mystic feel as they bathed in pools of mist.
Our bus deposited us in Pak Chom, where things went from slow to lethargic, and in the wrong direction. From Pak Chom it's supposed to be 40km away, but after travelling in a sawngthaew (public open air pickup truck) for over an hour we were dropped at an intersection, leaving us still 20km from Chiang Khan! The driver then tried to charge us double for half the distance, but we stood our ground and paid the same as everyone else.

We did eventually arrive at the shadowy banks of the Mekong in Chiang Khan, and quickly scurried around in search of a riverside bedroom and balcony to occupy us for a few days in this sleepy riverside village.

Adlibing it from Mekong Town to Mekong Village.

Day 651- Back on bikes

The lazy morning that has become a common thing on the Adlibing Asia tour was eventually disrupted and exchanged for a morning bicycle through Nong Khai. First of all we went to Wat Pho Chai, famed for a large Lan Xang era Buddha whos claim to fame is that it is one of 3 statues - but this one was lucky enough not to sink to the bottom of the Mekong in a storm.
We then cycled out to Sala Kaew Ku - an incredibly weird sculpture park created by a shaman over 20 years. Here there are very strange looking Hindu and Buddhist sculptures set around a nice garden - some of the statues are actually kinda nice, but many of them quite comical in their weirdness.
We detoured back via Wat Noen Phra Nao,a beautiful temple shadowed by a forest, which is unable to prevent the golden temple from glimmering in the daylight.
Our bike ride continued down to the banks of the Mekong where we gazed upon Phra That Klang Nan - this was the unlucky Chedi that fell into the river on its way from Laos in 1847, and can only be seen during the dry season when the river runs low (dropping by 13m).
After lunch at the delicious vege restaurant we biked out to the Tesco Lotus mall where we did some supermarket shopping and upon leaving found it raining outside. So, we set off in the rain back to town, where we spent the afternoon reading and catching up with family online.
Adlibing the weird and the wonderful.

Day 650 - An easy Mekong pace

Now that we're in Thailand we've started to do something we've been trying to do for a long time: slow down and chill out a bit: the world's so huge and we can't see it all, so we might as well take our time and enjoy the places we make it to. So today we well and truly hung out.

The highlights included an amazing vegetarian meal, which was a tantalising explosion of flavours, and a visit to a golden Buddha overlooking the Mekong. From the top of the temple we got dual views over the one-storey town and the mekong river.

Our day was so relaxed we didn't even mind the few drops of rain - our attention was more focused on the phenomenally young drivers hooning around the streets as they left school on their motorbikes. Seriously, some of these kids look about 10, and they don't even watch where they're going!!

We're really enjoying it here in Nong Khai - the simple, relaxed way of life in this riverside town is captivating. We loved watching the kids making their own fun on an old wooden raft splashing the afternoon away. Everyone seems to be smiling and willing to help - even if it means directing you to an opposition's store for something you want.

Adlibing it quietly.

Day 649 - Bye-bye tent, hello Laos

This morning we sadly packed up our tent and said goodbye to this piece of quiet paradise - we're just so glad we made the effort to come out here and even happier that we're leaving with our lives!

We said goodbye to all the nice restaurant ladies who'd fed us over the last few days and again scored a ride in the back of a ranger's pick-up to the road where we sat for almost an hour waiting for a bus to pass by.

After flagging down the first bus we bus hopped our way from Nam Nao National Park to Khon Kaen to Udon Thani to Nong Khai, where Murphy's law struck: the first guesthouse was the best and cheapest, but we spent an hour with our packs charging around town checking out all the others!

In the evening we had a meal beside the Mekong River that marks the boundary between bright-lighted Thailand and much dimmer Laos - somewhere we'll be headed in about a week's time.

Adlibing it towards the Mekong.

Day 648 - CAUTION: ELEPHANT

We spent the morning hanging out around camp, reading under the trees and doing some exercise (well, you can guess who did what!). The peace, quiet and solitude here is kind of addictive - we didn't want to do anything to disrupt it. It's nice to be able to recharge our batteries that were sapped during our Indian adventures.

This relaxed morning soon turned to afternoon and our intention was to do the small 1km walk that we missed yesterday to find somewhere nice to have lunch. Somehow we managed to diverge onto a nearly 4 hour trail which once again took us through open pine forest and deep jungle terrain. Where's Liv ... ?It also provided a near death experience as well as some intense excitement ...

Over the past few days we kind of laughed at the Caution Elephant signs posted everywhere, but were desperately hoping we'd get to see some of these majestic creatures in their wild habitat. Our wishes were granted quite early on in our hike as we suddenly came across a lone elephant eating her way through her lunch right in the middle of our trail. We slowly crept our way closer for a look, but her massive ears gave her the heads up that we were there and she bolted for the bush. Spurred on by the initial excitement of our encounter we decided to track her, which wasn't too had considering she left a trail of broken trees and rising dust in her wake. When we finally caught up with her we got more than we bargained for: not only was she joined by 2 other females and a big daddy elephant bull, but there were also 3 babies protectively encased between the shear mass of their parents. This should have been warning enough to stay at a distance, or even smarter would have been to leave them to their peace. But something inside us just wanted a closer look - yes, we know, this sounds so stupid, but we're from NZ and we don't have any wild animals like elephants there, and the only big animals we see are caged which strips our natural fear of them away.

Anyway, we were enjoying our vantage point of about 10m (Adam) - 20m (Liv) from the elephants when the elephant bull unexpectedly turned, stared right at Adam and took offence to his proximity before raising his trunk, and sounding his aggression as he charged our way!
A loud "shit! run!" came from Adam and we were soon running for our lives!! This was pretty difficult considering we were on a cliff edge and as opposed to the elephant who could just barge his way through the jungle growth we had to weave our way through. This was made even worse by the vines as thick as a baby's arm completely covered with razor sharp spikes just begging to puncture silly little humans that comes its way! And that's just what it did as Liv attempted a deadly leap over the vine (on the way in Adam had calmly held the said vine down while Liv climbed over) which resulted in puncture wounds to the feet and a stunt-like tumble that could have been the end had the bull not given up his chase!

And so ended our elephant adventure. We slowly made our way back to the trail, as the adrenaline depleted from our bloodstream the shakes and reality of the past few minutes set in and we realised how lucky / stupid we were! It took some time to decide whether we should retreat to the safety of our camp or continue our hike, but we were soon back on the trail and cautiously taking in all the signs of elephants around us - every little sound made us stop and we hoped we wouldn't encounter one of the bears we'd heard the night before - goodness know what we'd do - probably try to give it a hug: bears are friendly aren't they?!

We made it to the Poo Kor view point where we sat down to lunch with both Nam Nao and Pukadung National Parks stretching out before us, as well as Phu Pa Jit Mountain - the highest in this area. Adam climbed the lookout tower before realising the time, and the fact that we had another couple of hours walk through wild elephant infested jungle until we got to the safety of camp.
On the way back we started to realise how safe it is walking in NZ - here we came across a colony of fire red ants that took bites at us as we passed, a spider as big as Ethan's fist, a couple of snakes, not to mention the afore mentioned pack of charging elephants - so many things out to get us that we can't wait to walk (naked if we wanted) through NZ's forests!

We set in for another sunset and night in the protection of our tent.

Adlibing an elephant attack.