Yes yes yes i am still alive and i know iv been rubbish with the updates but been having so much fun that been forgetting to make the rest of u folks jealous at home. After some stern emails from the mother one telling me people are thinking im six feet under (sorry nan and grandad i am still in the land of the living) i thought i'd better catch up with my beloveds in blighty!!! Miss you all loads and loads by the way x x
Well, well will give you the brief version of the last 2 months (god has it been that long??). Think i left you guys in north vietnam, since then i've done the whole of vietnam, cambodia and laos. In Northern Laos at the moment which is by far my favourite country so far its stunning and so much to do here been having loads of fun. Anyway back to nam, fave place there is still sapa wer i did my trek and stayed with local villages (as detailed in last journal entry) but also loved a place called hoi-an in central vietnam, it was stunning, really french old looking place full of brightly painted houses right on the river front. Hired motorbikes there and discovered the place, got to ride through rice paddies, villages and finally ended up on the beach which was so nice, beautiful white and turquoise waters-defo recommend for a holiday, we were there during the full moon festival though so there were parties in the streets and eveyone was setting floating candles off down the river-wow, it was breathtaking. Enjoyed other parts of vietnam too but not as much as rest of southeast asia, really fast paced place and developed cities with so much motorbike horn honking that u have a constant headache, glad i went though, still loved it. really enjoyed gettin to learn the history of the place regarding the war and visited some famous places such as my son (place were loads of village were slaughtered by americans), cu chi tunnels (were the vietnamese hid during the war) and ho chi minh city (got to see the famous guy himself in his mausaleum-bit eerie really, feel sorry for him too, he wanted to be cremated but country had other ideas and decided to preserve him). In southern Vietnam we did a 3 day cruise of the mekong river, visiting all the ethnic tribes along its banks which was really cool before eventually crossing the border into cambodia.
CAMBODIA
Wierd to be in nam one minute then cambodia the next. Met up with some really cool guys on the boat into cambodia- 2 canadians, 3 americans and 2 cockneys, and me and nathan needless to say it got a bit rowdy on the boat and we had the best time, ended up spending the rest of cambodia with them. Phnom Penh the capital was so nice, really shocked me, was expecting it to be a bit undedeveloped but it was so well maintained really pretty city, again very french like. Went to all the war places (didnt realise cambodia was involved in the vietnam was too so also full of tragedy) such a the war museum which is were the khmer rouge kept and tortured all their prisoners-really chilling place, then went on to the killing fields-place were they took all the prisoners to bludgeon them to death, including children, really upsetting and this all happened only 40 years ago, really chilling, interesting to learn about though!!! In the eveningswe had to chill out with some beers and reflect on things but we still had lots of fun, went round the markets and sampled some local delicacies each ate crickets, snake (i was the brave one to try this first), tarantula (yes u read that correctly, i ate a whole one-the size of my hand), baby bird (i chickened out of this one, get it chickened out he he!!) and cockroach (though none of us were brave enogh for this one).
Headed up to Siem reap with the canadians kyle and megan and checked out all the famous temples, they were incredible, watched the sunset over the famous angkor wat and got up super early next day to watch sunrise ove the bayon (famous temple full of all the faces). Sunrise was unbelievable (more so as we managed to get up after having several cocktails the night before-im not a piss head honest) as we were the only ones there as everyone else goes to angkor wat for sunrise, really magical being there on our own, moment i'll always remember-wow!!!!! Loved siam reap so much, there was a really cool restaurant area so we lived like kings for dirt cheap!! After Siem reap we headed south to sihanoukville aka beaches galore!! Stunning white sandy beaches, nicest beach iv ever been to, u should try it guys, so cheap too, rooms like 3 dollars a night and its a private bungalow!!!! Met up with some friends of nathans there so had some more fun and jollies. Loved cambodia so much, my second favourite place after laos!
LAOS
Finally we got to laos, started in the south at a place called si phan don otherwise known as for thousand islands. This place is so beautiful its basically hundreds of island formed where the mekong river merges with the mainland and created lots of little lush green havens. We stayed on one of the largest called don det and met up with one of the americans from cambodia, adam, such a cool guy who was with two english guys joe and joe, and dutch girl johannecka who still ravelling with. Had a great time with them, hired lao boats out which are like long wooden canoes to canoe round islands but as we're not experts just ended up goin round and round in circles most the time with the storng currents, well funny and tiring. Also hired bikes around island to see stunning waterfalls and dolphins aswell as slobbing out in hammocks and eating loads at the local bakery-pumpkin burger and caramel slice to die for!!! After that we headed north to see a ruined temple in champasak which was stunning and really cool to see as we arrived during a festival so got to see the place in full swing. We also took a tour of the lush central laos called the bolaven plateau which is full of coffee and tea plantations, waterfalls and cool ethnis villages, got to play with all the local kiddies.
Laos is amazing, so much fun as travelling with a really good group of people, next stop was the capital vientiane were we checked out the famous gold temple and some other site before heading further north to the place all backpackers look forward to vang vieng the heart of laos. Really buzzing place loads to do, we went tubing which is basically floating 4km down the river in a rubber ring stopping at bars for buckets of cocktail and swinging from high ropeswings (hit water really hard and got a nice bruise on my thigh but not as bad as dutch girl who broke her nose ouch), well first time we cheated and just did the bar crawl, did the real thing few days later! Also did caving, cycling, chilling in hammocks near river, hired motorbikes and rockclimbed-my new favourite hobby. In evening had lots of yummy food and beer lao-best beer in the world, and watched friend as all the bars play it all day-heaven of a place and so scenic too, set in mountains wow wow wow!! Loved it so much, said goodbye to nathan which was sad as travelled with him for last 8 weeks but will see him in oz, and continued on with the rest of the group.
Last few days been in luang prabang which is high north laos so bit chilly at night, did some more climbing, drinking, illegal bowling (place has curfew of 10pm but police have set up an after hours bowling, so cool), temple seeing and got up at 5.30am to watch the village giving alms to hundreds of monks (give rice and stuff) and watched a parade before heading further north to do some trekking over last 2 days, stayed with another village with the 2 joes, was really cool played football with the kids. Loving Laos so so much.
Gonna be in laos until 16th march, doin some more treking and maybe kayaking in next few days then doin something called the gibbon experience were you live in the treetops like a gibbon and do 1km zip lines between trees and get to see them wild, so cool. After that back into thailand doin one or two places in north that missed out last time then heading down to the islands to get some sun and fun!!! Then may do an orangutan project then oz for end of april, then new zealand after that, so much left to do, loving evry second of it and its going so quick, cant believe ive been away 5 months, wont be ready to come back for a while!
Loving travelling, loving the people iv met and meeting and the places iv seen and things iv done and so mush more to come. Miss you all at home though, love you all loads and think about you all the time, wish you could see these things with me, anyway that is the longest journal entry ever, i promis not to leave it so long next time,
love and huggs laura x x x
