Day 125 – Luang Prabang to Chiang Rai, THAILAND BOUND!

The only thing on today’s agenda was to book our bus to Thailand. When we went asking the other day we discovered most buses were in the evening but found one place that did a day bus so we went on the hunt to refind that shop. We were unsuccessful, well we are pretty sure we went in the right shop and they said evening so we think we were given duff information the other day, which isn’t surprising! So we had two options, do we leave today or tomorrow? As you already know from the title we went with today. We grabbed a quick lunch and went back to our hostel. I was all ready to haggle our way out of paying for a whole night because we were checking out now instead of tomorrow but the guy didn’t seem fussed and checked the book and said ‘2 nights?!’ I said yes and that was it. We only paid for 2 even though we didn’t check out until 2pm… sweet deals!

We were originally told we were going to be picked up at 6pm and then someone turned up and said it would be 5. Either way we were staying in the hostel until our pick up so it made no difference. 6.15pm and still no one has turned up… we got someone to ring them and eventually someone appeared. They didn’t seem happy we were late but it wasn’t exactly our fault! I already feel like this journey is going to be terrible…

There were only about 10 people on this bus but we knew from previous experience it would stop a million times, pick up and drop off random people (probably family/friends) and just take forever to get anywhere. We were handed a snack, which was a surprise and it was alright. Chrissy and I watched a few random things on my laptop and then decided to try and get some sleep about 11pm, so I moved a few seats so we had two each. This journey was suppose to take 12 hours, it took 18. Some guy decided to sleep on the floor behind my seat (I was at the back) and open the windows and generally just be rude and annoying (he was the man who was angry at the station too). I couldn’t find a good way to sleep and overall I was just very happy it was our last bus and we were finally leaving Laos!

Day 124 – Luang Prabang Waterfall.

Free breakfast! The best thing a hostel can do is free breakfast because it actually makes people get up and out of bed to make the most of the day and when you’re trying to organise 10 people it becomes very helpful. Some people from our room along with some others we met last night decided that today we would go and visit the Kuang Si Falls, which are located just south of Luang Prabang.

The weather wasn’t great and as we were waiting for a couple of people to get drinks and things the weather turned and started to chuck it down. We were told it was dry season… I think you’ll find we are in monsoon season with the amount of storms we have encountered recently! We were trapped under a tent for a good 40minutes before it stopped. We decided, as it was a couple of people’s last days that we would go to the waterfall. Chrissy and I debated about going tomorrow instead but the more people you go with in a tuk tuk the cheaper it is so we gave in and went anyway. It took about 20 minutes to drive there and the views were stunning.

On arrival we paid £1.50 to enter the park and the first place we got taken to was to see the bears. The bear sanctuary looks after 23 Asiatic Black bears and they have been brought here by the Laos government to save them from being tortured in a bile farm. Apparently they are kept in small cages and there bile is sold because it is used in traditional Chinese medicines.

Kuang Si Falls has a 60m cascade and is collected in various pools along the path until you reach the top. This place would have looked amazing in the sun but just seeing it was good enough. Within minutes of reaching the waterfall the rain started again. Chrissy and I made shelter in a café whilst some of the others went swimming. We got the tuk tuk back to town after the rain had stopped and I was very excited to have a warm shower and put on my joggers. Four of us went out to explore the market and get some cheap street food for dinner. We found a street off the market that had these buffet stands. You pay 10,000 kip (75p) to fill your plate as much as you can. It was a cheap and satisfying dinner!

Day 123 – Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang.

We were picked up in a mini bus around 9am to be taken to our last Laos destination. We had been informed this part of the journey was going to be windy and quite long. I’m glad we had been told because I felt more prepared! It took about 6 hours to get to Luang Prabang and although the bus was quite cramped and a little hot the journey wasn’t that bad. We were dropped in what seemed like the center of town for once! Obviously we were hassled by tuk tuk drivers so we made our way through them into a travel agent and discovered the hostel was only a 5 minute walk away.

We found it, got a dorm room and because there were two of us we saved 5,000kip each, doesn’t really make sense but I’m game! Although we haven’t done anything being sat in a van for most of the day we still feel a little tired so decide to chill out here for a bit before going out for some food. The thing to do in the evenings in Luang Prabang is to go to a bar called Utopia and then because that shuts at 11.30 everyone then goes bowling, as it’s the only place that sells alcohol.

We went to Utopia with everyone else that was staying in our dorm room but Chrissy and I were the only ones who needed to eat. I had the chicken satay and oh my god, I think it might have been the best satay I have ever eaten. It was just SO GOOD! The drinks in this place were actually really expensive (well in kip anyway…) and I don’t really understand the hype over it but bowling on the other hand was awesome! It was the first time I had played in a long time and might have been the first time properly without the barriers and I wasn’t THAT bad. I even managed a half strike, that’s called a spare isn’t it? Anyway, it was £1.50 for 10 rolls of fun!