Saturday 24 January 2009

Busy busy bee

Hello!

How is everyone? Thanks for all your messages, I love getting them, but I have hardly had any time to reply to them.

I have been very busy the last couple of weeks. Started off with the trek into the jungle for a couple of days, which was a hard going mountain climb for 1 day then an overnight stay at a hill tribe community, then downhill the 2nd day. The trip ended with some white water rafting, but the water was slow as it is the dry season here, so not really one for the adrenaline junkies!

I then made some friends in chiang mai, 2 girls who I spent the next couple of days with. From there we took a marathon journey over to Laos, which involved a days bus ride, and 2 days on a slowwwwww boat into luang prabang. The boat was pretty tough, they crammed 100 people onto a tiny boat so you could only sit on a wooden bench with no legroom for 7 hours, then they stopped over night in a little village for some rest. The 2nd day they bought an even smaller boat for us all to get on, and we got on last so had to sit on top of the engine (but inside) and the smeall and noise was awful!! We managed to make some friends though and the scenery on the river was amazing.

By the time we made it to luang prabang we are travelling in a group of 6 people (all lone travellers). All of them are lovely and range from 22 to 30 in age (3 guys, 3 girls). We planned to travel all of laos together. The city was lovely, lots of temples, and a few nights bowling (as thats the only place they serve booze!).

From there we took the bus round the mountians down to vang vieng where we have been for 5 days. Its on the bank of the namkong river, and is a beautiful setting. The town is full of backpackers, and we keep bumping into the same people from the slow boat which is nice! The main activity here is tubing. This involves floating down the namkong on a tyre and as you pass bars on the river banks they pull you in on a rope. There are heaps of swings, slides and zipwires that all dunk you right back into the water. Its so much fun. We have spent 3 days doing this, and have a day off today for some R&R before we hit the nam again tomorrow!

From there its down to vientiane (capital) for 1 day, then off to meet sally in philli!

My friends here are great, and I expect I will meet many of them again after philli back in thailand.

Laos is so cheap, so I am living in a private room with daily massages, a few beers and lovely food for about 15 quid per day, so it doesnt get any better than this!!

Lots of love to everyone, apologies for going AWOL for a couple of weeks!

Hayleyxx

2 comments:

  1. You think you have it good... well it is a beautiful spring day in Cornwall, still, sunny and quiet - the nearest we get to bliss but later have the hoovering and a trip to the supermarket (knew it wouldn't last)and helping Debbie with a curtain track. It is VERY good to hear from you and know you are having such a good time and meeting lots of lovely people. Glad the boat made it... bet you had your eye on where the life jackets were just in case! Much love and will email regarding the 'lec' soon. much love, x x x x x

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  2. Well, i had great concern that you weren't chilling out enough by laying on your back cruising down a river sipping beer, so i'm really glad to hear you've taken a day out for some r'n'r. Phew!!

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