2nd Week traveling! the adventure continues and we are still well and alive! hehe

So its been a while since we last updated our blog but we have been so busy moving from place to place by all means of transport. I mean all.

Okay so we left Chiang Mai by firstly walking to where the minivan would pick us up from. Once on the ‘luxury’ overcrowded bus (we had a German pensioner sitting on the floor) we headed for Chiang Kong(?) to stay in an over night hostel before setting sail for Laos. During the night we managed to meet a group of excellent friends who shall be named later, for now we have dubbed ourselves Team Rubbish.

We woke up at 7 to catch a longboat into laps where we passed a very orderly border control and headed towards the giant river which cuts the north of Laos in half, the Mekong. Team Rubbish bordered the boat to set sail at 11 to find the most uncomfortable conditions for a two day slow river boat expedition to Luang Prahang. The ­boat is designed to take roughly 100 people on an 18 hour journey over two days, but the crazy (and I do mean crazzzzy) Laos like to add another 50%. People sat in aisles, next to the motor, on the side, under the benches and at the so called bar. So what do 150 westerners do when stuck together for 18 hours I hear you ask. Well to your amazement we drank, then drank some more and topped off both days with a night cap. It was truly a sight to behold.

A particular highlight was getting off the boat on the first day to stay in Laos equivalent of Moss Side. As soon as we landed little lao ‘ninja’ kids sprang onto our boat to get to our backpacks. So add the 150 drunk westerners and all hell broke loose. I found myself (Tom) climbing along the side of the boat in order to beat the kids to our bags. Once in the storage area it became apparent that our bags had gone missing which led to another lethal concoction ‘fear of losing fresh underwear’. I saw grown men running after children who were skipping away with their travelling life.

Honestly you really have to experience it to believe it. Well team rubbish (not so rubbish anymore as we found ALL our bags) found a little hostel which did buffalo steak and crinkled chips (menu said French Fried, though luckily they were chips and not battered Parisans) which was absolutely delightful after such a traumatic event.

Anyway we landed in Luang Prahang which a ‘World Heritage sight’ and a lovely but expensive city. We enjoyed jumping from waterfalls on our one and only day there (see pics). Because of the price we moved onto Vang Vieng which is like an 18-30’s holiday in breath taking scenery.

Tomorrow Team Rubbish (yes somehow we managed to stay together) are going tubing which involves giving my liver another beating whilst floating down the Mekong on rubber donuts.

Olga & Rui - I must add that hats off to Sara as on the slow boat into Laos she drank some whisky from a bottle which contained a dead cobra and scorpion, I managed to escape this torture. (tenho-vos a dizer que foi nojento e sabia a whiskey com peixe! lol)

Team Rubbish
- Egg smuggling Charlotte
- PC Lucy
- Sara
- Me
- Sven Goran (He was on my uni course one year behind??)
- Nicky (She was also on BISM a year behind and I went on rugby/netball tour with her??)
- Lindsay (Tiny tiny Canadian)
- Justin (brother to Canadian, but also a discovery channel addict)
- Mark (like the Mr T of team rubbish)
- Rich ( the mascot)

All the best from Lao.

Tom & Sara
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