Southern Laos

After five days in Vientiane (and a wonderful massage and herbal sauna treatment in a temple), I finally got myself organised enough to continue my travels further South. After a 6 hour bus ride I found myself in the sleepy little town of Savannakhet and settled in to a very friendly guesthouse. I was hoping to go on one of the many community-based eco-tourism treks around Savannakhet (that don't exploit the local villagers and the environment quite as much as most trekking companies), but there were so few tourists in Savannakhet that no one else had signed up, making it much to expensive for me to do on my own. Instead, I made friends with the handful of other travelers in my guesthouse (a Swiss woman, a Dutch girl, and a Dutch guy) and together we made our way further South (on a bus that played Lao and Thai karaoke music at a huge volume for the whole 5 hours) to the convenient but uninspiring town of Pakse. After a nice (and much-needed) evening of drinking chilled beers while watching the sunset over the Mekong and a delicious Italian dinner, we headed off the next morning to the tiny riverside town of Tat Lo, famous for its waterfalls and relaxed atmosphere. We spent one day just doing nothing - reading, relaxing, eating, eating, eating - and I finished The God of Small Things ( a WONDERFUL book). As I am not very good at doing nothing, however, we decided to do a 4 and a half hour trek the next morning to a couple of waterfalls and through several of the nearby villages with a local guide, which was excellent!! It was just the right amount of walking (not so much that we were completely exhausted but enough to feel like we had done exercise), the right sized group (just us 3 and the guide), and perfect weather (not too hot and not raining!). The scenery was gorgeous and very lush and the villages were very welcoming but not touristy at all. Now we are back in Pakse (minus one), walking the streets looking for other travelers to join us on a 2-day trek in the next day or so...we are keeping our fingers crossed but most of the other tourists here are only in transit or are not willing to pay considerably more to do a non-exploitative trek! Regardless, over the next few days I plan to head South to the Angkor-style temples of Champasak and then have a few relaxing days in Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands) near the Cambodian border.

Koh Chang - mid April...

Until I can find a computer that can read DVDs, these are the only photos of Koh Chang that I have

:(

Journey to Lao(s)

Having spent about a week total in Chiang Mai, I was more than happy to be on my way to Laos with my little group of travel buddies - Rob & Charlotte, Laureli, and Bee (and, later, Graciella). After struggling with whether to let our hotel manager take all of our passports or to arrange our own visas at the border (and possibly face a 2 hour wait), we finally succumbed to her pressure and handed over our most important documents, hoping that we'd see them (and her) again in the morning!Perhaps, in retrospect (and, seeing as there was NO queue for visas in the morning), it was a bad idea, but all worked out fine and we safely putt-putted across the Mekong to Laos the next day. It was the next part of the journey, however, (a 2 day boat trip from the border to Luang Prabang) that we were completely unprepared for. The seats on the boat consisted of little more than a plank of wood and a cottonwool-stuffed flimsy pillow, which would have been fine for a couple of hours...but after 8 hours of trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable and watching our fellow travellers get progressively more drunk we couldn't stand to be on that boat for another minute. Except we had to get right back on again the next morning for the same amount of time! Needless to say, we were all relieved to finally reach the beautiful old town of Luang Prabang. It has a delicious mix of French architecture (and croissants and coffee) and Lao culture. When you need a break from temple-watching, you just stop somewhere for a latte and a baguette! On our 2nd (or was it 3rd??) day we journeyed out to these beautiful waterfalls about 30kms out of Luang Prabang with the most amazing coloured water and set amongst lush forest - we spent hours climbing, swimming, and swinging off ropes into the crisp water! We also discovered L'Etranger - an adorable bookshop/restaurant/cafe/movie venue - with the most delicious food I have had in months, where we watched Stranger than Fiction (GREAT movie...suprisingly, considering that it has Will Ferrell in it!)! Eventually we had to pull ourselves away from Luang Prabang and get back on the travel-wagon (along with most of the people from our boat trip from the border...they just keep popping up everwhere...I guess most people take to same route through Laos), so we headed for Vang Vien - NOT a cute, charming town at all! In fact, Vang Vien is full of tourists and backpackers under the influences of multiple substances all glued to televisions playing Friends on repeat and at the highest possible volume! However, the AMAZING scenery around Vang Vien almost makes up for the abnoxious travellers and blaring TVs - it is surrounded by huge limestone cliffs that shoot up into the air dramatically...full of caves to explore and a quiet river running through it all. It took us a few days to really get anything out of Vang Vien...partly due to the incessant rain and partly due to the lure of pizzas, internet, and DVDs! When we finally did visit some caves and go tubing down the river (virtually a right of passage in Vang Vien), we were hugely rewarded! Having felt (finally) like we had done some justice to Vang Vien, we hopped back onto a bus (no trains in Laos) to the capital city, Vientiane. Very possibly the quietest capital city in the world, Vientiane is quaint and small, but still a convenient place to hang around in or pass through in between other travels. Although it is much more expensive than the rest of Laos and despite the VERY messy and muddy combination of massive road-works and the rainy season, the cafes and convenience (and, perhaps, waiting for my Chinese visa to be processed) will keep me here for a few more days. Unfortunately all of my fellow travel buddies have now left me - Laureli to Cambodia, Bee to Thailand, Graciella back to the US, and Rob & Charlotte to Thailand and then to Aussie, so I will be on the lookout for more poor souls to latch myself onto over the next few days!

Chiang Mai and Elephant Nature Park

After a few days of hanging out in Chiang Mai with Tina I hopped onto a mini bus to start my week of volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park. It was such an incredible experience! Every day we woke up to the sounds of elephants trumpeting and roaring (yes, elephants roar!) and fell asleep every night to the sounds of crickets and frogs!!! After waking up at 6:15 to do early morning yoga (we were lucky enough to have a yoga teacher amongst the volunteers) first thing in the morning (after breakfast, of course!) was morning chores - I usually got to shovel elephant poo, which actually isn't half as bad as it sounds. After that we would do various other bits and pieces that needed doing until 10:30 when the food trucks came to deliver tons and tons of fruit and veg for the elephants' lunch. We would make a long line and pass along the huge bags of pumpkins, watermelons, bananas, and cucumbers to the food preparation area. Then there was washing, chopping and disributing of all of the food into each elephant's basket. Finally (and by this stage the elephants are all waiting not-so-patiently to be fed), we would stand on the feeding platform and hand feed whichever elephants we wanted to. It was amazing how picky some of them were - apparently one piece of watermelon tasted much nicer than another piece! Many would try to steal food from other elephants baskets because apparently those watermelons tasted even better!! Even more amazing, however, is how much control they have with their tentacle-like trunks (not surprising, I guess, when you consider that the trunk has about 450 muscles in it!). Only after the elephants had eaten everything in their baskets were we humans allowed to eat - and, ah, the food at the park was so so delicious!! For every meal we piled our plates with a huge variety of delicious dishes. After lunch (and multiple cups of tea) the elephants were bathed in the river and you could see how much they loved being splashed and scrubbed by heaps of hands! After the bathing it was time for projects, which could be anything from taking down old fences through aggressive thorny plants, picking mangoes with crazy mahouts (people who take individual care of each elephant and are responsible for each elephant), collecting bamboo rafts and sitting on top of them on top of a truck (clinging for dear life) and then floating down the river with them, filling in potholes in the road, or 'cleaning' the elephants' mudpit! After projects we usually had time to have a much-needed shower before beer-o'clock (as the kitchen staff called it) and another scrumptious meal for dinner! By about 9pm every night we were completely exhausted, but each day was so amazing and challenging! Probably my favourite thing was just watching the elephants in our free time. They are such intelligent and social creatures - each was part of a family group, usually consisting of a baby and several aunties - and they are also amazingly quiet! Despite their huge size, an elephant can sneak up on you without you having any idea! I also met a lot of great people at the park, a few of whom I will be travelling with to Laos this week! So, all in all it was an excellent week. And if anyone is going to Thailand anytime soon, or knows anyone who is, I highly recommend that they go to the Elephant Nature Park for a very unique and unforgettable experience that doesn't harm elephants (unlike most elephants treks). If you really want to go on an elephant trek, insist that you walk alongside the elephant rather than on top of it (cuz elephants' backs are not designed to carry chairs and people).