The view from our balcony at the elephant lodge
Elephant bathing
Livi getting dipped
Saturday, 6 March 2010
Laos
Hey readers. we're leaving laos tomorrow (not sure how) so i thought i'd do my first post on here and tell you all about it.
we arrived in laos' capital vientiane about 10 days ago after a hellish 24 hour bus journey with loads of babies. vientiane is more of a capital village than a city, pleasant but tiny and weirdly empty. the town of oundle was honestly busier. i don't think there are many people in laos. although nice, there wasn't a whole lot to see so we made a quick exit for vang vieng, which was different to say the least.
according to a lonely planet guide we found from 1994, vang vieng used to be a tiny unspoilt town on the nam song river. since, it has transformed into laos' party capital where people 'tube' down the river (hiring a rubber ring and spending hours floating back towards town), stopping at riverside bars populated entirely by westerners, primarily canadians, preppy english kids and israelis fresh out of national service. each bar has its own increasingly dangerous gimmick, whether it's a rope swing, mud wrestling or 'the slide of death'. then everyone migrates back into town in the early evening to sober up sleeping or watching back to back episodes of friends in video bars. our three nights there were good fun but messy, and aside from the drinking and our hotel's pet baby monkey there was pretty much nothing, so we moved on for the sake of our health.
our next stop, luang probang, from which i'm writing, is a fantastic place. the lonely planet describes it as 'the pearl of the orient', and although it says similar things about some of the least interesting places we've been, it may well be right. it's dominated by great cafes and restaurants set in colonial french architecture, and as a world heratige site it's completely unspoilt. from here we took a 2 day 'mahout experience', a trip to an elephant sanctuary where we learned to ride a group of female elephants, some as old as 50. the elephants were everything we'd heard they were; huge, intelligent, friendly animals, and bathing them at 6 in the morning as the sun rose over the forest was an unforgettable experience, though slightly hair raising at points - balancing on the elephant's neck isn't easy, especially if it gets spooked by a motorbike and decides to charge through the jungle.
so that's laos. see you in thailand. x
we arrived in laos' capital vientiane about 10 days ago after a hellish 24 hour bus journey with loads of babies. vientiane is more of a capital village than a city, pleasant but tiny and weirdly empty. the town of oundle was honestly busier. i don't think there are many people in laos. although nice, there wasn't a whole lot to see so we made a quick exit for vang vieng, which was different to say the least.
according to a lonely planet guide we found from 1994, vang vieng used to be a tiny unspoilt town on the nam song river. since, it has transformed into laos' party capital where people 'tube' down the river (hiring a rubber ring and spending hours floating back towards town), stopping at riverside bars populated entirely by westerners, primarily canadians, preppy english kids and israelis fresh out of national service. each bar has its own increasingly dangerous gimmick, whether it's a rope swing, mud wrestling or 'the slide of death'. then everyone migrates back into town in the early evening to sober up sleeping or watching back to back episodes of friends in video bars. our three nights there were good fun but messy, and aside from the drinking and our hotel's pet baby monkey there was pretty much nothing, so we moved on for the sake of our health.
our next stop, luang probang, from which i'm writing, is a fantastic place. the lonely planet describes it as 'the pearl of the orient', and although it says similar things about some of the least interesting places we've been, it may well be right. it's dominated by great cafes and restaurants set in colonial french architecture, and as a world heratige site it's completely unspoilt. from here we took a 2 day 'mahout experience', a trip to an elephant sanctuary where we learned to ride a group of female elephants, some as old as 50. the elephants were everything we'd heard they were; huge, intelligent, friendly animals, and bathing them at 6 in the morning as the sun rose over the forest was an unforgettable experience, though slightly hair raising at points - balancing on the elephant's neck isn't easy, especially if it gets spooked by a motorbike and decides to charge through the jungle.
so that's laos. see you in thailand. x
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Hanoi in photos
Hanoi's lake by night
Water puppetry
A dark moment for animal rights
The snake that went for toby's armpit
Friendly snakes
bye bye vietnam
So it's our last day vietnam, and everyone's a bit sad to bid it goodbye. the last week has been ace, a culmination of heavy drinking, meeting new people and seeing some spectacular places. i'll start with snake village.
well. what a crazy night. we went with a group of fifteen odd to this strange little place in a backstreet of outer hanoi famed for its imaginative use of the many snakes kept there. first we got to hold some - well, we basically got thrown a few snakes and had to deal with them, mine kept trying to sneak up my armpit which isn't a pleasant experience. luckily they were just small, non-poisonous critters, but the cobras the guys got out next and let roam around the floor definitely were. the vietnamese do not do health and safety. next we all sat down at our table and they brought over a big bag of snakes. now, snake village is primarily famous for the fact that a couple of people out of each group can cut the heart out of a live snake, put it into a shot with rice wine and put it away. both me and mulac had talked at length at how we planned to do it, but when push came to shove we both pussied out, something i'm quite proud of now because both the guys who actually cut the heart out looked pretty traumatized, and even when you're dealing with an animal like a snake, i'm not sure i could actually pull its freaking heart out.
after that we were all brought over a shot of snake's blood and snake bile, both mixed with rice wine of course, a drink which we've all fallen out of love with pretty hard ever since that night. both drinks were pretty nasty, particularly the bile - mulacs had chunks in! - and it was kind of a relief to go back to just knocking back rice wine, which i never thought i'd say. we had as much of the stuff as we wanted, and we must have put back at least 20 shots each while we ate various snake dishes. some were good - ground up snake ribcage - some were not - fried snake's skin. we were all pretty gone by the time we got back at 10, let alone when we got back to the hostel at 2.
a couple of good nights later we went to ha long bay on what i can only describe as a booze cruise. the weather was misty unfortunately, but as we kayaked and caved ourselves around one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, i coulnd't help wondering whether i've seen anything like the place before. the only comparison i've got is the set of a james bond film or the new king kong, but it is definitely, definitely worth a visit to see for yourself. we slept on the boat the first night - ring of fire, jumping off the top deck, all that good stuff - and on the second night camped on 'castaway island', a tiny piece of land owned by the company we went on.
we all had a go at tubing, played some volleyball, listened to the maayan nidam's excellent podcast. good times. we got back to hanoi a couple of days and spent yesterday sleeping and watching the sopranos, and today went to see 'ho chi minhs body' in the mausoleum, which lets be honest was definitely a wax model. now we're waiting for a 24 hour bus to vientiane in southern laos, where we'll stay a night before pushing north to vang vien - very excited about that.
so, it's goodbye vietnam and hello laos. hope everyone's well, speak soon.
ps can i use this opportunity to point out the clear resemblance of samir nasri to liza minelli
well. what a crazy night. we went with a group of fifteen odd to this strange little place in a backstreet of outer hanoi famed for its imaginative use of the many snakes kept there. first we got to hold some - well, we basically got thrown a few snakes and had to deal with them, mine kept trying to sneak up my armpit which isn't a pleasant experience. luckily they were just small, non-poisonous critters, but the cobras the guys got out next and let roam around the floor definitely were. the vietnamese do not do health and safety. next we all sat down at our table and they brought over a big bag of snakes. now, snake village is primarily famous for the fact that a couple of people out of each group can cut the heart out of a live snake, put it into a shot with rice wine and put it away. both me and mulac had talked at length at how we planned to do it, but when push came to shove we both pussied out, something i'm quite proud of now because both the guys who actually cut the heart out looked pretty traumatized, and even when you're dealing with an animal like a snake, i'm not sure i could actually pull its freaking heart out.
after that we were all brought over a shot of snake's blood and snake bile, both mixed with rice wine of course, a drink which we've all fallen out of love with pretty hard ever since that night. both drinks were pretty nasty, particularly the bile - mulacs had chunks in! - and it was kind of a relief to go back to just knocking back rice wine, which i never thought i'd say. we had as much of the stuff as we wanted, and we must have put back at least 20 shots each while we ate various snake dishes. some were good - ground up snake ribcage - some were not - fried snake's skin. we were all pretty gone by the time we got back at 10, let alone when we got back to the hostel at 2.
a couple of good nights later we went to ha long bay on what i can only describe as a booze cruise. the weather was misty unfortunately, but as we kayaked and caved ourselves around one of the 7 natural wonders of the world, i coulnd't help wondering whether i've seen anything like the place before. the only comparison i've got is the set of a james bond film or the new king kong, but it is definitely, definitely worth a visit to see for yourself. we slept on the boat the first night - ring of fire, jumping off the top deck, all that good stuff - and on the second night camped on 'castaway island', a tiny piece of land owned by the company we went on.
we all had a go at tubing, played some volleyball, listened to the maayan nidam's excellent podcast. good times. we got back to hanoi a couple of days and spent yesterday sleeping and watching the sopranos, and today went to see 'ho chi minhs body' in the mausoleum, which lets be honest was definitely a wax model. now we're waiting for a 24 hour bus to vientiane in southern laos, where we'll stay a night before pushing north to vang vien - very excited about that.
so, it's goodbye vietnam and hello laos. hope everyone's well, speak soon.
ps can i use this opportunity to point out the clear resemblance of samir nasri to liza minelli
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