Trip through Laos!!

We’re so sad this is our last day in Laos. We easily could’ve stayed here for another week, it’s so gorgeous and the Laotian people have been so nice. It was amazing trip and we have some great photos and souvenirs (my favorite is the hand-made Lao silk we found at the morning market) for everyone at home to see.

We have to catch a plane back to Bangkok this afternoon, then from there we go to LA and back to Calgary, the same as when we arrived so at least we know what to expect. Before we leave though, we each need to find $12 USD to pay the exit tax at the airport. Tanis keeps whinning about the flight, this is going to be an interesting trip home!

Well the taxi is here to take us to the airport, Goodbye Laos!!!

Si Phan Don (Four thousand Islands) is our final destination; it’s a group of Islands in the Mekong River near the south of Laos close to the Cambodian border. Don Khong is the biggest Island, that was initially were we planned on staying for our entire time in Si Phan Don but we met a couple of people who told us that there really wasn’t a whole lot to do there. Which there wasn't, though I did get a lot of swimming in and there were some beautiful hiking trails. We decided to spend our first night there and then move on to Don Det. Here we should be able to find something interesting to see and do. We had to drive and then take a boat to get there but travelling in less conventional methods is just part of being in Asia.

Accommodation here has been very interesting, pretty much the only thing we could find were these bungalows basically you’re on a hammock with mosquito mesh around you on someone’s porch but it’s only 1USD a night, major savings here!

What’s cool is that you have to pick a side of the bungalow depending on whether you want to be up early or late, cuz if you pick the wrong side you the sunset or sunrise affects the heat and the light during the morning!

Tanis

This morning we had to head back to the airport to catch a short flight to the south to visit Si Phan Don, a group of islands on the Mekong River. We arrived in Pakse and decided to move on right away to Don Khong.

We took a slow boat down the river to the island and it only cost us about $2.00 CAD! I think the slow boats are becoming our favourite mode of transportation. We arrived at Don Khong, the largest island in the area; its 18km long and only 8km wide.

The boatmen will drop you off at any guest house you choose. We decided to stay at the Don Khong Guesthouse and Restaurant because it’s in a former French Colonial Building, not something you get to stay in every day. The owners are very nice and like many Laotians we’ve met they speak Lao, English and French.

Not Sure what we're going to do yet, Tanis really wants to go and find some waterfalls and do some more swimming, apparently this is one of the best places to find good swimming and Tanis may as well be a fish.

Robyn

Okay if we thought yesterday was good today was unreal, I actually sat on an elephant, I rode an elephant through the jungle…without falling off!!! Even Robyn’s amazed, we all know that Robyn isn’t the most athletic of people, I don’t think I have ever seen her run! But we all knew she’d do fine on an elephant, me on the other hand well Robyn was taking bets on how long it would take for the creatures to trample me to death. Needless to say we both made it through fine…

We ate Larb for lunch today, its there national meal; it's a meat salad made with really any type of meat, usualy though chicken beef or duck. It's flovoured with fish sauce and lime. Then you mix it up with assorted vegtables and sticky rice.

Sticky rice is on its own their biggest dish and is seen in almost everything. This is what differs from other Asian cultures. They drink most of the same things that we do, just locally grown or brewed they even have a laotian brewery and it is very highly regarded by most of the people.

A local custom in Laos is to eat communally, they place the food on a raised platform called a Ka Toke. Traditionally they used spoons only for soups and chopsticks for other things.

There are all sorts of other things to do in Luang Prabang, like the Royal Palace Museum, Mount Phou si, which apparently has an incredible sunset view – but to be honest that’s more something you do with a significant other than a friend from college, no offense to Robyn or anything – and theres a great little fruit market right at the base of the mount. Anyway we decided to keep with our theme and visit the Golden City Temple, it’s a monastery at the base of the peninsula. The roof is tiled and tends to carry you through the entire place. There’s also this beautiful tree of life mosaic at the back that depicts the ‘tree of life’. It also has beautiful gardens and amazing statues and art, definitely worth seeing.

We move on again tomorrow. Good night.

Tanis

Oh My God! Yesterday we saw the most beautiful sights; I can hardly even express the beauty in this country. First we went to the Pak Ou Caves they are only accessible by boat and it’s a two hour ride upstream from Luang Prabang. It was definitely worth it though, they are so cool. They’re made up of two caves one is lower (Tham Ting) and then a higher (Tham Theung). They are filled with Lao styled Buddha and motifs; really a sight to be seen.

Then we went to Kuang si Falls, now I’m slightly more well, emotional, than Robyn and I swear I couldn’t keep my head straight when we got there. Pictures could never capture a quarter of this beauty, but we’ll post them anyways

Kuang si Falls is comprised of one main fall that is 180 feet high and then lots of smaller ones. The pools are filled with turquoise water that spill into each other, but its more than that it’s the trees and the flowers and the overall feeling of this place, even Robyn was softened by it...

We passed out the minute we got back to the room. I haven’t slept that good in ages!

Tanis