Taking the slow boat...
Hello again, my many and various friends and other readers!
I've swapped countries again, and now write to you from the Lao People's Democratic Republic, commonly known as Laos (pronounced with a silent 's'), or amongst some backpackers as Laos, Please Don't Rush. Yes, if Thailand can occasionally seem like it's operating on a different time system, and Fiji frequently so, Laos apparently takes this to whole new levels. I've only been in the country a couple of days, so haven't seen enough to judge, but it seems plausible.
Those couple of days basically encompassed the trip down the Mekhong river from Huay Xai (where I crossed the border, which at that point is the river, from Chiang Khong in Thailand) to Luang Phabang. The last day or so in Chiang Mai I spent doing some cookery classes (yes, I now know how to make Thai curries properly, woohoo!) and occasionally wandering around the markets. I didn't do the Hill-Tribe trekking in the end, partly from time constraints, partly because I don't have shoes any more and didn't think my sandals were really up to that much walking, and partly because the weather forecasts were universally iffy (although, it turned out, mostly wrong).
I also kept up my usual record of having one of my best nights out in any particular place on the night before I have to leave - I'd got all my stuff packed up, and popped down one of the local bars that I'd earlier seen advertising live music that evening, just to listen to a band for a bit, got invited over by a girl whose birthday it was to have a a drink with the group she was with, and ended up out in a place glorying in the name of "Spicy" until around 3 in the morning. Subsequently, I didn't get up and check out quite as early as I'd planned, meaning that when I got to the bus station all the early buses were booked up and I couldn't get on one until lunchtime, meaning that (when I'd made my way across northern Thailand to the border), I arrived just too late to get across to Huay Xai that night. Which was a slight problem as I was on the last day on my visa. Meaning I got a 500 Baht fine (about 7 quid or so) for overstaying by a day when I crossed the next morning. Ah well, that'll teach me to go out drinking the night before leaving somewhere. Actually, who am I kidding, it blatantly won't...
For the trip down the Mekhong, I took the advice of people everywhere (apart from a few demented petrolheads) and forewent the joys of the ultra-fast and ultra-dangerous speedboats for the pleasures of the slow boat. This takes two days going down the great river, serving as a bus service for some of the local villages by the river as well as carrying hordes of backpackers, which meant it had the unintended pleasant consequence of providing a whole new bunch of people to get to know, something that Thailand's guesthouse-based scene (as opposed to the hostels I'm more used to) is not all that brilliant at. Hence, my travelling companions included the usual numberless host of fellow British, a stereotypically Irish lad called Liam who spent the best part of both days drinking lao-lao (the local rice moonshine, which smells like meths!), a couple of Dutch girls, a Swedish lad, a German-American girl called Jessie who'd been studying in China and a trio of French girls who gave me plenty of practice for my rusty francais.
The weather was mostly good (we went through occasional light squalls of rain, but there were always blue skies in sight a little further on), the boat was less hellish than some guidebooks lead you to believe (ie those on both days had seats, the second day they even had cushions, and the toilets, while less than pleasant, weren't the hole-in-the-deck variety that I'd halfways feared) and the company was pleasant, making the trip significantly more enjoyable than most of the buses I've taken recently. The overnight stop in Pakbeng was amusing, mostly because there wasn't a lot to do in the village other than have a few more beverages, so a lot of us got quite merry - for all that I regard lao-lao with deep wariness, I am already getting quite fond of Beer Lao, and the prices here compare VERY favourably with those in Thailand. The fact that we were there the night before a big Buddhist holiday also meant that all the local kids were running around throwing firecrackers everywhere, which was hard on the nerves at first (and not the nicest way to be awoken in the morning), but actually quite atmospheric.
So, now I'm in Luang Phabang, Laos' second city and former capital and, well, it's basically a very beautiful riverside town - the population's something like 20,000, so it's not exactly a teeming metropolis, which is great after the madness of Bangkok. Planning on staying here a couple more nights before I start heading on south through Laos, most likely staying at Vang Vieng before I get to the capital at Vientiane. All good fun.
Hope, as ever, that you are all well and enjoying yourselves wherever you are. Take care and have fun,
Pat
I've swapped countries again, and now write to you from the Lao People's Democratic Republic, commonly known as Laos (pronounced with a silent 's'), or amongst some backpackers as Laos, Please Don't Rush. Yes, if Thailand can occasionally seem like it's operating on a different time system, and Fiji frequently so, Laos apparently takes this to whole new levels. I've only been in the country a couple of days, so haven't seen enough to judge, but it seems plausible.
Those couple of days basically encompassed the trip down the Mekhong river from Huay Xai (where I crossed the border, which at that point is the river, from Chiang Khong in Thailand) to Luang Phabang. The last day or so in Chiang Mai I spent doing some cookery classes (yes, I now know how to make Thai curries properly, woohoo!) and occasionally wandering around the markets. I didn't do the Hill-Tribe trekking in the end, partly from time constraints, partly because I don't have shoes any more and didn't think my sandals were really up to that much walking, and partly because the weather forecasts were universally iffy (although, it turned out, mostly wrong).
I also kept up my usual record of having one of my best nights out in any particular place on the night before I have to leave - I'd got all my stuff packed up, and popped down one of the local bars that I'd earlier seen advertising live music that evening, just to listen to a band for a bit, got invited over by a girl whose birthday it was to have a a drink with the group she was with, and ended up out in a place glorying in the name of "Spicy" until around 3 in the morning. Subsequently, I didn't get up and check out quite as early as I'd planned, meaning that when I got to the bus station all the early buses were booked up and I couldn't get on one until lunchtime, meaning that (when I'd made my way across northern Thailand to the border), I arrived just too late to get across to Huay Xai that night. Which was a slight problem as I was on the last day on my visa. Meaning I got a 500 Baht fine (about 7 quid or so) for overstaying by a day when I crossed the next morning. Ah well, that'll teach me to go out drinking the night before leaving somewhere. Actually, who am I kidding, it blatantly won't...
For the trip down the Mekhong, I took the advice of people everywhere (apart from a few demented petrolheads) and forewent the joys of the ultra-fast and ultra-dangerous speedboats for the pleasures of the slow boat. This takes two days going down the great river, serving as a bus service for some of the local villages by the river as well as carrying hordes of backpackers, which meant it had the unintended pleasant consequence of providing a whole new bunch of people to get to know, something that Thailand's guesthouse-based scene (as opposed to the hostels I'm more used to) is not all that brilliant at. Hence, my travelling companions included the usual numberless host of fellow British, a stereotypically Irish lad called Liam who spent the best part of both days drinking lao-lao (the local rice moonshine, which smells like meths!), a couple of Dutch girls, a Swedish lad, a German-American girl called Jessie who'd been studying in China and a trio of French girls who gave me plenty of practice for my rusty francais.
The weather was mostly good (we went through occasional light squalls of rain, but there were always blue skies in sight a little further on), the boat was less hellish than some guidebooks lead you to believe (ie those on both days had seats, the second day they even had cushions, and the toilets, while less than pleasant, weren't the hole-in-the-deck variety that I'd halfways feared) and the company was pleasant, making the trip significantly more enjoyable than most of the buses I've taken recently. The overnight stop in Pakbeng was amusing, mostly because there wasn't a lot to do in the village other than have a few more beverages, so a lot of us got quite merry - for all that I regard lao-lao with deep wariness, I am already getting quite fond of Beer Lao, and the prices here compare VERY favourably with those in Thailand. The fact that we were there the night before a big Buddhist holiday also meant that all the local kids were running around throwing firecrackers everywhere, which was hard on the nerves at first (and not the nicest way to be awoken in the morning), but actually quite atmospheric.
So, now I'm in Luang Phabang, Laos' second city and former capital and, well, it's basically a very beautiful riverside town - the population's something like 20,000, so it's not exactly a teeming metropolis, which is great after the madness of Bangkok. Planning on staying here a couple more nights before I start heading on south through Laos, most likely staying at Vang Vieng before I get to the capital at Vientiane. All good fun.
Hope, as ever, that you are all well and enjoying yourselves wherever you are. Take care and have fun,
Pat
posted by Pat at 7:34 am
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