LUANG PRABANG

Have been here about 6 days now as I come to type this and the fact that I've not really been arsed to update the blog is probably testiment enough to the fact that this place is awesome!
After Bangkok and Chiang Mai being the busy places they are it's also been great to get somewhere where the pace of life is a lot slower, people friendlier to the extent that you don't just represent a walking wallet - even the street vendors selling the same old dodgy beads and necklaces are polite!

The place itself is right on the bank of the Mekong, between Namkhan river so everywhere you look is great scenery. The large hilltop that sits in between also means you can get a great view of it all happening from above as well - loads of steps (especially after a late night) but well worth it.

There's still temples everywhere, although trendy little bookshops, boutique type places and bars probably outbumber them now, although it all seems to have been done without feeling or looking touristy or

in a 'Bangkok'stylee.....easy to see why people stay here for longer than they originally planned.

What's also been good about this palce is that you can just chill and read a book eating the great food (big thanks to the French for getting the bakeries and baguettes over here - good work!) and watch it all go by, or you can wait til it gets dark and go massive on the beer Lao!

Because of the group I'd been travelling with have been here most of the time it's been more the latter than the former - although it's Christmas time so that kind of makes it justifiable!
As per the previous post, photos will follow as soon as I can find somewhere that doesn't have it's internet connection powered by a hamster running a wheel, just so you can see what I'm on about.

Have booked myself onto a semi hardcore trek for the next couple of days (50KM cycle, 6 hour kayaking) so after that will head south to Vang Vieng next to party it up for new years there. Hopefully all the excercise should balance out some of the abuse of the last few days leaving me party it up again guilt free!

Until then....be good everyone, hope the Christmas break is as good for you as it has been for me so far!

THE MEKONG MISSION

Am now in Luang Prabang in Laos but the journey here has been quite a long one so thought it worth an entry into the blog on it's own.
In short, it's been a 7 hour bus journey from Chiang Mai to the border town of Chiang Kong, with 2 days of 11 hours on the 'slow' boat to Laos with an overnight stop halfway...which although as the name suggests is pretty slow it's 10 times better and safer than the mentalists that choose the speed boat!
It's basically sitting inside a milk crate with a crash helmet on for 6 hours, everyone I saw coming off was deaf, crippled and wet! Not a good look.

My journey has been far more lesuirely, and because of the route have travelled with the same 7 people for a few days now which has probably been the most sociable I've been...and have now successfully got them all hooked on poker so spent half the journeys and evenings getting there playing that! A right touch.

Got to see a few interesting places on the way as well as the boat stopped off a couple of times. Pictures are from a local (Hmong) village we stopped at, the others are the slow boat leaving Thailand and my new weapon of choice - the hangover proof Beer Lao!

Am now living it up in Luang Prabang so will update with all the stuff from here soon...have a good Crimbo all!

CHIANG MAI

Considering it was a 16 hour journey all in all I actually arrived around lunchtime feeling pretty good, sleeper trains appear to do exactly what they say on the tin!
Got into the main drag and got myself booked into a hostel and a 2 day trek before pretty much straight away - they were recommended by LP so I knew I was in danger of getting something half decent.

Chiang Mai as a place itself (besides the trekking) is pretty cool all round - the climate is a but more bearble than Bangkok without half as much of the smog, and there are also a few 'nice' type shops selling all kinds of stuff, without so much of the in your face sales techniques that all kids under 10 years old seem to employ.

The trek itself the next morning was a lot less hardcore than I expected, and we only actually did about 2 or 3 hours walking on the first day.
Thrown into the whole bargain (20 pounds) for the 2 days was elephant riding which although I really wasn't that arsed about actually turned out to be quite a good laugh, although I did have the biggest baddest Mofo elephant who pretty much kept smacking into all the other ones and going off on it's own random wanderings!
Glad the little seat thing on top of it had a proper bar on it or I would have ended up in the drink or the bamboo within about 30 seconds!


Rest of the day involved trekking the rest of the way to a village and stay overnight with one of the hill tribes. The tribe name was actually called the 'Karen', and depsite being tempted svereal times to ask, I don't think there were any rival 'Dave' or 'Colin' tribes operating within the area. Although it was flippin freezin at night there, and hardly an authentic experience, the village stay was a good laugh with loads of decent food cooked on the fire and a ruck of Thai rice whisky....think I now have a way to try and reduce the alcohol bill on my trip without cutting back on the intoxication - nice!

Second day basically was the hike back, with a stop at a waterfall for a (freezing!) swim and some more food before some bamboo rafting. Bamboo rafting, like sleeper trains also does exaclty what it says on the tin - rafting on strung together bamboo!
The water wasn't very deep, and the currents nothing too major, although the guys running clearly made an S.B.E of gigantic proportions by making me be the gondolier / steering person at the back of our raft!
After colliding with rocks a fair few times I got the hang of it, and the others (3) on board were fairly confident of me not sending us all into the drink. However, the Czech dude from our trekking group decided to rock the raft for a laugh and he basically just tipped the whole thing at an angle.....my steering stick thingy kept me and the guy next to me onboard but the poor American girl with us got launched into the water fuly clothed! Amusing.

A couple of scary ass mini waterfalls to raft down followed and that was it - like I say not the most authentic type experience I'll ever have but it was still a good craic doing the whole village / elephant / rafting thing so was pretty pleased.


Will update again once I've got into Laos, all being good I should start the mission there tomorrow.

BANGKOK

After what felt like the longest jouney in the world from London I got here Sat lunchtime too tired to know what to do with myself I went on a bit of a random wander around on my own.

Bangkok is pretty much easy to get yourself around (whilst dodging the 'Ting Tong' couples - of which there ae loads!!), and because of my total newbie status as a backpacker type person I've been quite pleased at the lack of schoolboy errors so far - have been managing to eat only where the locals are eating which has been met with lots of thumbs up and smiles.....not sure if that is because they like to see someone doing as they do or the funny looking / tasting meat dishes I've been eating....I'm not gonna ask a question that I don't want to hear an answer to!

However, the odd event has got the better of me.... I've already managed to get fleeced for the bus at 5 times the nomal rate (1 pound instead of 20p - hardly an issue though!) and got emboiled in the most long winded (20 min) scam from some other guy to try and get me to use his Tuk Tuk to view the temples....I think the phrase 'do one matey' hasn't made it over here yet!

Will be here for a couple more days it looks like whilst my visas for Laos and Vietnam are being done in Khao San (backpacker central - see pic!), then of to Chiang Mai to trek it up.

Until then.....

Map of Cambodia

Map of Vietnam

Map of Laos

Map of Thailand

Right, OK...so this is the first proper post in my blog, after much Richarding about with trying to create a nice looking blog template and pictures etc. I've just used a basic old template in the end, so although it looks a bit rubbish that's unlucky!

I obviously haven't gone anywhere yet as I'm posting this from UK, but thought I'd attach a picture of my route so that you can see where I think I'm going.
Will also be quite amusing to compare this to where I've actually been when I come back - the odd random detour here and there is far more tempting than sticking to anything 'organised'!!
So that the map makes sense, this is the plan in a bit more detail:

• Land in Bangkok
• Head North on the train to Chiang Mai
• Head to Laos Border at Huay Xai
• Cross into Laos and into Luang Prabang via the Mekong river
• Luang Prabang into Vang Vieng and Vientiane
• There into Vietnam and head towards Hanoi
• From Hanoi travel down the coast of Vietnam via Hue, Hoi An heading to Hoi Chi Minh City (Saigon)
• From Vietnam into Cambodia heading to Phnom Penh
• Phnom Penh to Angkor, including Siam Reap and Battambang
• Back into Bangkok from there to head into Southern Thailand's beaches
• The South into Malaysia and Singapore before flying back to Bangkok to fly home

So...basically the whole thing is a clock-wise Richard fest then heading south for a bit, which is the best way I can think of seeing everywhere without any back tracking.

I'm also going to post some better maps of the countries I'm going to as well in case you want to see exactly where the hell I am at any one point, which would help make sense of any random detours / schoolboy errors I make along the way!