[Barts trip of a lifetime!] Viva la Vida in Laos

[Bart]

Ladies and gents!

Live from Hanoi, Vietnam, I bring to you the absolute highlights of my 2 week stay in Laos! A country consisting basicly of jungle, nature, mosquitos, leeches and cheap food and beer.

In a nutshell; it has been 2 absolutely amazing, crazy and adventurous weeks. The two highlights of Laos were the 'Gibbon Experience' and 'Backpackers Walhalla - Vang Vieng'.

First things first. After the girls and me (still travelling with Tamara and Hanneke) arrived in a shithole called 'Luang Namta'  (which was the first 'major' place in Laos after we crossed the border of with China by bus) we decided to stay here for a few days! The trip by bus was exhausting (being folded with your legs in your neck for 25 hours) so we needed some rest. The minute we arrived in Laos we laughed our asses off because of the prices. A double bed room for 4 euro's per night. A meal for 2 euro. A beer for 50 cents. Its ridicilous. The currency in Laos is called 'kip' - which is dutch for 'chicken'. For one euro you get 10.000 kip. I felt like a millionaire.



The teacher and his student!



In Luang Namtha, we didn't do much, since there was nothing much going on there. However, the countryside, simple villages and hills, were awesome. We decided to rent some bikes the first day and explore the countrysidr with beautiful riceterracces and hills. We met a nice dutch girl that day as well - Heleen. The next few days she would be travelling with us as well. Awesome companionship. The other day in Luang Namtha we rented proper motorbikes. I was going to teach the girls how to drive a motorbike, because for our upcoming trip in Vietnam. They picked it up fairly quick and before I knew it they were driving like mofo's in the countryside, avoiding passing chickens, oncoming traffic and playing children. The girls are now confident enough to get on a bike in Vietnam. Awesome!

From Luang Namtha we took a bus to Huay Xai, near the Bokeo Forest. This is a very small town near the border of Thailand (you could actually see Thailand at the other side of the Mekong river). In this place was nothing much going on either, but the only reason we came here was for the WORLD FAMOUS Gibbon Experience. For everyone who don't know what this is:

With the Gibbon Experience you will hike and spend time in Bokeojungle for 3 days and 2 nights. During the hikes you also have to ZIP from treetop to treetop by long ziplines who are spanned between the treetops, sometimes over lenghts of 400 meters and up to heights of 150 meters above the ground. The first time I took the zipline I experienced the ultimate feeling of freedome. Zipping at high speed through a jungle from a massive tree to another tree, heigh above the ground is just surreal and almost unbelieveble. During the nights of the experience you stayed in massive treehouses, only accesable by ziplines. Another awesome thing.: zipping from a tree right into your 'home' 100 feet up in the air! The smiles I had on my face couldn't be wiped off my face for days! All the meals were included during the trip and were prepared outside of the treehouse in 'the kitchen area' somewhere behind some trees. Our guide would ZIP in with the food hanging in a basket. 

The treehouses were absolutely fantastic. Your 'shower' consisted of a pipe which contained fresh forest rainwater, and while showering you had a panorama view of the forest. (again you still stood 100's of feet up in the air). At the other hand, however, the treehouses were also the home of all kind of shitass creatures. Spiders, the size of a small cup, mosquitos, leeches, wasps, cockoaches, gekkos and even a rat were our 'roommates'. The laughs we had while one of the creatures appeared while having a nice cup of coffee in the darkness of the treehouse, were magnificant.



Absolutely Awesome ZIPPING TIME



We did the experience with a group of 8 people and 2 guides. The group was awesome. They were all of my age or slightly older and from every corner of the world. We met Allix, an actor from the UK who's been afraid of wasps :P. Dan, a latino fella who's been the worst zipper ever (doing 360's by hitting trees, losing flipflops while jumping off on the zipline etc). Jurian, my dutch roommate in the treehouse. Urs, our 'medic' who had tons of bandage and desinfectant with him for all the fucking leeches who were eating my ass alive. And ofcourse Hanneke and Tamara, but I concider them one of my own by now, we're almost traveling for 2 months together now. And last but not least there was Thom, my partner in crime when it came to 'midnight zipping' even we have been told not to go out of the treehouse after dark. (we did anyway hehe). As you might understand, in the middle of the jungle there are no lights. Which means, after 7 pm. you have complete darkness outside of the treehouse. And by complete darnkess I mean ABSOLUTE zero visability. If you hold your hand in front of your face you are not able to see it. Thom and I decided to get out of the treehouse  nevertheless and equiped with a head torch we zipped our asses back into the forest. In can tell you, while zipping for 400 meters in complete 'blackness' with only a headtorch, and the inmense sound of the surrounding jungle creatures, you can not be 'afraid' of the dark ever again any more. It's was absolutely forbidden by our guides, yet absolute amazing to break that rule :P.

Anyway, the Gibbon Experience costed some big bucks, but the experience you get back is simply unforgetable. After three days of hiking and zipping you're dirty and exhausted as hell, but the beer after the hike has never tasted THAT good.

Vang Vieng.



Vang Vieng

Backpackers walhalla. I had heard many great stories of this place before and therefore putted it on my list of 'must do's while in Laos'. Vang Vieng is a another shithole in the middle of bimboefuck in Laos. But very touristic. Why? TUBING BABY. You get yourself an inner tube of a tractor, get yourself to the river and drop your butt in the river. While drifting at a rather relaxing speed over the river, with the burning sun (30C* in Laos) on your head you will pass 'bars' where the locals are 'fishing' you in by throwing ropes at your tube. Simply grab a rope, get yourself reeled in and for 2 euro's you get a bucket of booze! (BUCKET). Besides the bars, the locals also made all sort of 'attractions', consisting of swings, dive towers, glides and ziplines all above the 'deeper' parts of the river. (at least that's what you're hoping for when jumping of a height of at least 5 meters.) Every attraction was very high and to an extreme level sometime. Many accidents happen when tourists drink to much booze (BUCKETS) and pretend they are acrobatics on the swings. But rather than a perfect backflip, they crack their backs flat on the water (so did I - LOL).



Jumping the water!



Another selling point of Vang Vieng are the bars. Instead of regular bars, they only have 'lounge bars' with pillows and sometimes even blankets. While crashing down on one of the pillows and ordering a refreshing 'anti hangover meal', the bars are showing all kind of popular tvshows like FRIENDS and the SIMPSONS almost 24/7 a day. Needless to say, I spend some time there after a long and exhausting day of tubing. Vang Vieng is simply a must do for every backpacker in the age of 20 to 40.

Kuang Si Waterfall

Our last stop in Laos was Luang Prabang. A fairly big city in Laos, from where our flight would leave to Hanoi - Vietnam. We spend one day here and decided to go to the main attraction, the Kuang Si Waterfalls. A large waterfall, surrounded by clear pools of water where you were able to swim, relax, and jump of the rocks! Check the pics!



And now, I'm in Hanoi. All excited for my big motorbike trip. Together with the girls & Dave and Neill, we will leave for our adventure on wheels tomorrow. I bought myself a awesome russian black Minsk, which (hopefully) will bring me to the most amazing places of Vietnam & Cambodia. First we will head to Halong Bay, one of the finest and most gorgeous places in the world, so I've been told. We'll see!

click here for pictures

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Geplaatst door Bart op Barts trip of a lifetime! op 11/08/2010 12:22:00 PM