Rapid riding down the Nam Ou River Laos

Video of rapid riding Christmas Day 2012 Nam Ou river 2012

Laos late December - a slightly seasonal tale.

Our Arrival in Laos.

We crossed into Laos by taking a bus from Chang Mai, then a tuk tuk, then a ferry then walked into the border town Houayaxi.(We never really found out how to say the name of this place). It was a really easy boarder crossing and a fabulous start to experiencing Laos hospitality. Good afternoon sir, where are you from, can you please fill in these forms and then return to the window. - Boring form filling and giving forms in then a short wait, then 'Welcome to Laos we hope you enjoy your stay!' What a great and easy start it didn't take more than 5 minutes.

Our first meal was fabulous, I asked for what I thought was going to be grilled fish but instead, they had filleted the fish cut it into strips then with a light batter like you get with tempura, battered the strips and also what was left of the fish they then put it back together again. It was quiet delicious and the food has been great since we got here. 

View from the restaurant!

Just to make you feel better this far north and this high it gets warm for a few hours at around midday but otherwise it is pretty cold especially at night. We have only got sandals so I have been upholding the fine British tradition by wearing socks with them! I have also been wearing my cardigan and jumper and could probably have done with a jacket as well. This however did give us a slightly Christamssy feel.

We then caught the bus to Luang Namtha

All the buses also serve as goods vehicles so we were late as roofing material had to be loaded.

Andy found us some fabulous eco bungalows to stay in.

I had a weekend. Because we are running around a lot we forget to take some time out to do nothing, on the one hand it seems like a waste when there is so much to see, on the other hand I need to process what I have seen and catch up on my sleep so I can enjoy the next stage. Andy managed one day of doing not very much, before he went off to explore and came back with lots of stories of what he had seen.

We then decided to go on a trek. I wanted to do a 3 day trek into the jungle but they didn't have any 4 hour trekking days just 6 hours each day. I decided that this might be a bit of a stretch for me depending on what the terrain was like so we would do a 1 day 4 hour trek and see. It turned out this was a good move. As we had not taken our walking boots, we were in walking sandals. It was a bit slippery in places.

No serious harm was done to either of us, although I did get blisters on my hands from holding onto my walking stick for dear life for most of the walk. I didn't like visiting the villages, I felt like an intruder and that we were visiting a zoo. They have obviously chosen this route as it provides them with an income and we chose a company who gave a fair wack to the guides and the villages but even so it did not feel comfortable. What I find weird though is that I am quiet happy to wonder round a town looking at everything and everybody and trying to work out what is going on so why does it feel so different?

Note satellite dish and chickens!

The bus ride to Phongsali.

Phongsali is in the far north of Laos, it is about 30 miles from both China and Vietnam. It is also very difficult to get to. Two buses a total of 14 hours and a lot of bus station tactics (which involves getting up early and being assertive!) in order to get seats rather than stools in the aisles or having to stand. They are currently resurfacing the road, and most of it is now graded and some is even newly tarmacked making the journey at least partially comfortable. It is absolutely beautiful despite having to look through slightly grimy windows.

 Health & safety on Lao busses - little offerings of rice and flowers placed on the front!

 School artist at work!

 Day one stop over involved a sauna..... old school!

Note the fish trap in the river here!

One of the highlights was however a stop along the way where we saw a local market.

I didn't feel like a voyeur here as they were doing what they always do.

We arrived at Phongsali on Christmas eve slightly travel weary to find There was no room at the inn. We tried all the guest houses in the town and in the end the only room available was a 'special room'. There was a room which looked like a doctors waiting room and bedroom and an ensuite bathroom which had the following pictures in it. You can draw your own conclusions!

Christmas morning we awoke at 5.30 to the town announcements which went on for the next few hours. Were they announcing local news like the birth of Mrs So-and-sos first child, telling popular folk tales or churning out communist propaganda? Unfortunately there was no-one we could ask. At 6 O'clock there were 35 people out in the village square which was about 400m2 sweeping it, we have no idea why about that either!

We then headed off to the bus stop to get a bus to Hat Sa. Once again the views were amazing as we dropped 3000ft. We were well above the clouds when we started, they sat in the valleys looking like fairy land.

Down the Nam Ou

So then the main point of our trip to Phongsali was so we could ride down a river called the Nam Ou over 3 or 4 days and watch the beautiful scenery go by.

 Note local shop selling clothes, food and propellers!

We shared the boats with locals who got off along the way with various sacks of things including at one point two puppies and were happy to share their food with us and vice versa.The driver was very skilled as the river is low in some places with lots of rapids along the way. At the end of the dry season the water is so low it is no-longer navigable  It wasn't quiet white water rafting but each rapid would throw a bucket of water at one passenger, that passenger seemed to be chosen at random, so everyone got a good soaking at some point. The next post will be the rapids video - when the very very slow Lao internet connection finally uploads it.

What a way to spend Christmas day! 

Seasonal felicitations to all.

Pai - northern Thailand - just the two of us.

Pai is the Kendal of Thailand and a place where Thais go on holiday, it's up in the hills and for Thailand  cold.... The Thais therefore all show up in coats and gloves and spend their time wandering around town buying each other woolly hats.... It was sharp before the sun burnt off the early morning mist and then climbs to about 25c. It is a really beautiful place and we enjoyed tree days of added luxury by keeping the jeep we had when we were in Chaing Mai with Julia and Kate. I had a ball taking the jeep up and down the hills which go to about 3000m. Many many sharp hairpins lots of good quality roads and not much traffic.

 We had a couple on nice walks in the hills and enjoyed a trip to the hot springs which were beautifully constructed with pools made in the springs for bathing which we thoroughly enjoyed. The Thais however do  not. We smiled at how they enjoyed it which was to bring eggs to boil to have for lunch.... they were only allowed to do it in the pool I didn't photograph! The really adventurous ones - men around 16 - 25 would take their shoes off and dip their feet in.

More scenic shots from around Pai... It's been good to get into hills as Cambodia - well the bit we went to, Bangkok and all the way to Chaing Mai has been flat.

Am writing this from Laos, where we have now been for 2 days Hence new banner picture

Seasonal Felicitations, I hear the weather has been exceptionally seasonal....sorry - sort of!

Laos for Christmas

We are heading into Laos for Christmas and the current plan (sorry about using the p word Andy) is to stay there for a while.  We have been told that the internet is intermittent to non-existent so if you don't get any more posts for a while, its not because we are suffering from a bout of bah humbug or that Liza has got eaten by a giant tarantula, its just location, location, location.

Seasonal felicitations to all and hopefully we will get a chance to post before the new year.

A week of luxury in Chaing Mai

We've had a great week with Julia and Kate with us, we've had a nice self contained two bed house for the week and strangely enough one of the things that I've enjoyed is the chance to cook! I think Julia and Kate have enjoyed being cooked for so it's all worked out quite well. We've also had a small jeep for the week so buzzing round in that rather than the joys of public transport have also made a very nice change. It's a very small jeep so it's been fun watching the ladies climb in and out... being the only driver I've not been affected but I think they've found it a bit of a strain. I threatened to shoot a video of the embarkation and disembarkation but got voted and shouted down, probably as well but watching my sister get the giggles every time she got in and out was fun on many different levels! 

 
We did a drive around into the hills stopping off at a butterfly and insect park/zoo.... here's some pictures.

 I like this one of Julia and back lit butterfly!

 One very large bug disguised as a very large leaf!

Two millipedes, curled up out of harms way.

 A Preying Mantis - very cute!

 We then moved on to the Thai equivalent of Kew.... So queue pictures of lillys!

 And Orchids

 Jungle Kate explores!!

 There were a few waterfalls

 And the scenery scored bonus points!

 We went for a wander in town and crossed this bridge in town... I was slightly concerned about the erosion.... It will not be long before the next flood takes this away!!

 Of all the Wats we went to we decided to visit this one based solely on it's name.... Please note - no pictures of the actual wat!

 An old house in Chiang Mai that caught my eye.

Carving detail on an old house.

We also went to the highest point in Thailand which provoked some amusement, firstly there were a number of wonderful waterfalls - here's some pictures

 When we got there - we did as all Thai's do and take a picture - here's the Mrs - well known for being the most susceptible to cold in the UK standing at 7500 ft in mid winter. The Thais were in coats, scarfs gloves etc!

 OK... we saw a wat... sorry!

 On top of the world at this height the colours just change!

 We found another waterfall on the way down - not another tourist in sight so we sat and ate the rather nice strawberries we had bought and enjoyed the view.... More pictures!

We saw Julia and Kate to the airport in Chiang Mai and decided to enjoy the luxury for a little longer and kept hold of the jeep for another three days and head out to North West Thailand to a mountain town called Pai, from where I write this. Hopefully Julia and Kate will have landed safely back in the UK by now.