Smokin'

Greetings from Laos! We've arrived safely into Luang Prabang after a two days boat journey from the border in Thailand. But more of that in second, I'll forget stuff if I don't do this chronologially.

So, after Sukhothai (the place with all the temples, we biked around there) we got a bus north to Chiang Mai. We checked into a quite nice guesthouse and then proceeded to not do very much! The guesthouse had a pool so I swan a bit, but we just walked around the city and ate food every now and then, simple enough.

As it was my birthday last week (21, eeek - adultish), David decided we were gonna go to a nice town just north of Chiang Mai called Pai. It's a really funky little place with a chilled out vibe going on, most of the time. The bus ride there was dirt cheap, but there's a reason for that. The seats were the most cramped I've ever been on! I literally could not sit down and was hovering about the seat. Managed to squeeze in eventually, but not fun. We checked into our little hut and sat outside and just thought, wow this is nice. It was so quiet and peaceful. We were happy. After that we went out to dinner and had curry.

That night, as we settled into sleep all of a sudden an extremely loud electric guitar started playing and someone obviously had a brand new effects pedal as they were trying to do every trick in the book - at volume 11! There went our peace and quiet. After he'd decided to shush it, we started to fall asleep until a trio of Aussies came back from a loud night out and decided to shout loudly about every little detail. Bamboo huts really don't have any sound insulation. I half wanted to get up and tell them to shut up but I was starting to feel really ill. And guess what? As soon as they finished being extremely loud, I found myself making friends with the toilet all night long. Not fun and one of our worst nights ever.

Next morning, we moved outta there straight away and into a new, nicer place - we splashed out and got a room right by the river AND with in-room internet - very swish! I spent the day in bed feeling like crap, hoping and praying I'd better for my birthday the next day as I knew David had things planned.

It was just a 24 hour thing and I awoke the next morning early, feeling all healthy and 21. David had got me a few small gifts which were lovely and I got to talk to the rents. We had to be somewhere at 8:30am so it was up quickish and off into town.

And the surprise? We were going elephant trekking! Through the jungle and then into the river. We arrived at the elephant camp and got to feed the elephants, there were four in total. All very cute, but big. If you put the banana behind your back the elephants would wrap their trunks around you to grab it.

We were on a rather large lady elephant called Phanom (pronounced Pa-nom) who was 48 years old. A very odd german guy had to share our elephant as well. I was sat the front and for most was sat right on the elephant's neck, probably the most comfortable position! After a pleasant trek through was would have usually been jungle (but the farmers burn it down for land) we made out way to river for the most fun part of the day - swimming with the elephants. Such crazy creatures they are, the mahouts would get them to go under water or turn or literally throw you off like a bucking bull! It was lots of fun in the heat and splashing around with elephants isn't something you get to do every day. It was a really awesome suprised and a great morning.

As a little extra treat, David got us both traditional Thai massages which are more of yoga and pressure points and such than your usual relaxing kinda thing, still it was a worthwhile new experience.

And of course, next day (when we were gonna hire scooters and see the countryside around Pai) David got the same thing I did from a different curry so it was his turn to lie in bed and mine to pamper him. Bless.

From Pai, it was a over night stop in Chiang Mai before we started our adventure into Laos. We had meant to get a bus straight CM to the border, but the bus was sold out so we got a bus to a city half way called Chiang Rai and stayed the night there. Our guesthouse in CR was great, it was just that it took fifteen minutes for the guy to turn up! We were just stood in the deserted reception area with no-one about until a voice from next door (a German, we think ) called over and said he'd get the guy, so he proceeded to shout for him and he turned up. Good thing he did. We got a nice room for cheap.

Early morning next and a bus to the border. Easy time to get through the Thai and Laos borders, we got visas just there for $35 each and that was that. Just out of the immigration office was the lady selling boat tickets so we bought our tickets and 10 f us loaded into a pick up truck to get to the pier. Our boat was very long and had two benches on either side most of the way back. I say benches, but they were more two planks of wood hammered together. Luckily the boat wasn't too full so we got a bench each. There were pitiful cushions on the seats so good thing we bought our own with us.

Our trip down the Mekong was very enjoyable. The scenery along the way was stunning, coming from Thailand where a lot of it was very arid, it was great to see beautiful green rainforest. Along the way we stopped at a few little villages and children would come on trying to sell you crisps and drink and such. We left on the first day at 10:30 and didn't arrive at Pak Beng (the night stop) til 6:30pm so it's 8 hours traveling, but 9 hours in total sat there. When the boat landed you just get leeched by the locals getting you to go to their guesthouse, we followed one guy who said his was 150 B, but getting there it was 250 but that did include bathroom.

It was, our worst guest house ever. By far. The bed was rock solid, the duvet was like a massive newspaper (flat and hard), it was noisy and when we woke up in the morning in our room with no window the electricity didn't work so no lights for us! Their saving grace was a yummy banana pancake for breakfast!

Back on the boat, but this time it was a different one with more seats (less space) and a whole lot more people. We ended up on the same seat, alternating sides when someone's bum got too numb. It was still a nice ride, we saw water buffalo and working elephants. The previous there was a huge eagle just perched on a rock, quite a grand site. Today was 9 hours travelling and very uncomfortable so what do you do? Get a massage! Here in Luang Prabang we both got Lao massages which were heavenly - and two pounds a hour. Such a great little luxury.

So that's where we are now. Happily massaged and ready for bed.

As for the smokin' title, it's not any sort of illegal activity but the fact that all around northern Thailand and Laos (that we've seen) has been covered in thick smoke/mist. It means the sky is never completely blue and it's dusk from around 3pm onwards. Gives it all a nice atmosphere but means it's difficult to get good photos.