The Gibbon Experience

30 April - 3 May 2013

We arrived in Houey Xai around 8 am absolutely exhausted. We had very little sleep on that bus thanks to the overly tall Europeans behind us who asked us to not put our seats back. Meanwhile opposite us on the other side of the aisle was Mikkel, one of the tallest men I have ever passed in my life. The girl in front of him put her seat back and managed without getting his legs crushed. The people behind us were just selfish and rude.They could have their seats back and be comfortable so why shouldn't we??

We headed for the Gibbon Experience office which had many staff manning the phones, the computers and anyone who walked in. So why the hell didn't they answer me yesterday?? I mentioned my email and booking but they didn't get it, luckily the waterfall experience (the more difficult one that treks deeper into the forest to a waterfall) had vacancies and we were booked in for the next day - May 1st!

The view from our room in Houey Xai

We checked into Sabaidy Guesthouse which was recommended by another tourist outside of the Gibbon office because apparently they have a proper locked storeroom for your baggage while you're in the Jungle. A fan room there cost 90,000Kip ($11) which was the priciest fan room we'd paid for without air con. I guess in this small border town they can charge more as there is nothing around by miles. We were taken to the top floor and blow away by our room. We were right on the corner so we had windows spanning two walls of the room with a great view of the river below. We also had this large balcony outside our room with the same view and table and chairs - it was awesome! Perfect place to smoke weed, which is exactly what we did all day. We had a great lunch when the munchies hit and then a small afternoon nap before catching up with Mikkel and Liede for dinner.

Houey Xai, border town

The next day began at 8.30am when we were shown a safety video on how to zipline in the jungle. We were then piled into an open pick up truck and drove 2.5hrs to a small village in the jungle which was our starting point.Sam and I were in the back of the truck with two danish girls and about 40mins of the drive was off roading in the mountainous jungle with us all laughing and hanging on for deer life. It was crazy! We're getting pretty use to crazy driving now though.

Cool bamboo branches in the jungle

We walked for 3hrs into the jungle, crossing rivers, going up and down hill. Some parts were seriously exhausting. As Sam and I hadn't done any real exercise in a long time I was struggling the most. Our group were all 19, 20 and 21 so they were young and fit and barely puffing at all! I felt like such an old person haha.We even got a beautiful rain shower after some dark clouds and thunder came over us. We asked our guides if it was going to rain which they said no, 30mins later we're sheltering under a hick vines bush. Our guides ripped up a poor banana tree so we could use the leaves as an umbrella which was pretty cool :)

We reached the waterfall after an exhausting afternoon of going up and down the mountains only to be disappointed by how rank the still water was and how small and non existent the waterfall. I was really looking forward to jumping in and washing all my sweat off to! Liede and Mikkel went in but the two Danish girls plus Sam and I watched on.

It was now finally time to zipline! We climbed up this steep hill with all our heavy harnesses and caribeeners on. I had to stop as my heart was beating so fast it was actually beating in my head and I felt like vomiting. I really hate being this unfit. Once we started our first zipline it was all go go from there as we did zip line after zip line. The views were to die for. You're flying at incredible speeds over the forest canopy and as you come out of the tree tops into the middle area the view opens up to the whole jungle. Seriously jaw dropping! I wish i could've taken pictures while ziplining but I needed both hands to help control my speed and use the brake when we came to the other side so we didn't crash.

Off Sam goes!

After about 40mins or so off zipline after zipline, we finally reached the zipline that took us straight into our tree house, our accommodation for the first night. It was the coolest thing ever! This one was 40m above the forest floor and the only way to access it was to zipline into it. No stairs or ladders going up the tree at all. It was a very basic layout with two levels, one with our kitchen, table and stools and our tents for sleeping and the lower level was the bathroom. There are no walls so you literally go to the toilet and shower looking out over the forest canopy - so surreal! It was like a giant kids tree house  - the real deal! Our guides showed us where our dinner was, in metal pots to stay warm and then they said see ya! That's right they left us there to zipline the circuit around the tree house on our own. Straight away Mikkel, Liede and Sam ran away like excited children while the Danish girls and I stayed back enjoying our green tea with fruit snacks and Laos traditional sweets. We were exhausted and couldn't be bothered doing the circuit again.

Sam zip lining into our tree house - night no.1

As we were talking we could hear the others yelling out and cheering as they flew along the ziplines. They came back on incredible highs saying how they went backwards and two at a time - stuff the guides wouldn't let you do if they were around. I still can't believe they leave you completely alone in this tree house to zipline as you please! They stayed in 'The Kitchen' which was a home nearby in the jungle where all the food is prepared. They did have one rule though, no ziplining in the dark. And as you can hear someone ziplining a mile away they would be able to hear us. I wouldn't want to do it in the dark anyway - talk about scary! You wouldn't be able to see yourself approach the other side and probably crash full speed. Some rules really are there for a reason and should not be ignored.

Enjoying afternoon tea after a hard day trekking & zip lining

That night as it got very dark and we had no electricity, we used my head torch to tie above the dining table and ate our dinner by the very soft red light. We couldn't use the white light because it attracted too many bugs and you can imagine when you are the only light for miles in the jungle that every bug is going to swarm to it. Liede, Mikkel, Sam and I smoked a lot of weed and got progressively high which made being 40m above the forest floor in a tree house even cooler! We talked alot of shit, and even though the Danish girls didn't smoke with us they didn't mind it around them and the 6 of us had a great night. At some point we started hearing serious noises all around the palm-fron roof and decided to shine the torch up to see what was going on. We spotted some seriously giant rats running all around, unfortunately we also spotted a massive spider that looked like our huntsmans back home. It didn't take long before we were spotting these spiders everywhere! We counted about 10 just one side of the roof, 3 near our heads! I am pretty stoned at this point and really starting to panic. I hate hate hate spiders! Thankfully Sam had made sure our sheet tent was tucked into our mattresses when it was still light in preparation for the bugs later on.

The Bathroom!

We were warned about rats already by other tourists who had been on the experience and they told us to put all our food in the eski's provided or else they will chew through your bag to get to it. We stopped shining the torch up as everyone was starting to get uneasy at the sheer amount of spiders we kept finding. The Danish girls were mostly afraid of the rats. The whole time we were up and talking we had a storm in the distance that seemed to be coming closer and closer. The lightening flashing and thunder grumbling- how cool would it be to have a storm in a tree house!

Smoking weed under the red light

Everyone went to bed about 11.30pm and sure enough, within 20mins the storm hit. The lightening was freaken cool, lighting up the whole tree house and the forest canopy. I had to jump out to watch. It was more sheets of lightening and not bolts so I didn't bother get my camera out. Plus I was pretty stoned which always makes taking pictures that much more difficult. Sam went to his shoes thinking he should keep them in the tent so spiders don't go in and as he grabs them a giant spider runs out and across the floor! No way I was touching my shoes haha. Eventually we drifted off to sleep as the rain hit. Luckily there was no wind or we would've been drenched!

I am woken the next morning about 7am by the sound of our guides ziplining into our tree house. They politely say 'wake up now', so soft that no one gets up and they just zipline off again before returning 30mins later and trying again. Breakfast was laid out on the table, fruit, eggs and toast with a pot of tea. Mmm I drink so much tea these days. I drank about 5 cups of tea the night before alone! I don't add milk or sugar so I think it's not too unhealthy?

Breakfast

We start our day by zip lining out of the tree house and then walking 3hrs through the sweaty, humid jungle, reaching our zip line circuit and next tree house just before lunch. The zip line to the tree house was pretty cool. You start off by flying towards a bunch of trees which shield your view and then as you go through and it all opens up to the most amazing thing you will ever see. This tree house, visually, was way cooler! It stood an extra 10m higher then the night before and had no trees blocking any view. It stood out on it's own high above the forest canopy. So bloody cool!

Our guides put our lunch on the table, once again in metal pots to keep it warm until we were ready to eat, then they told us how to do the surrounding zip line circuit before taking off and saying they will be back after 6pm with our dinner! We are literally left alone from 11.30am until the evening to do as we please! It was amazing. We relaxed, ate our lunch, zip lined, talked shit, smoked weed. The freedom we had was just incredible. We even monkeyed our way back out on the zip lines to take photos of the tree house and ourselves just hanging there at 50m above the ground.

Finally the sun set and night fell. This tree house had some dim lighting so we didn't need my torch this time. We were waiting for the rats and spiders but they never came - how strange! Once again we got a storm, this one was way more intense as the wind was psyco, blowing our tents way above everything into the roof and leaving millions of sticks and leaves all over our bed. As we were sitting around the table, very nicely stoned once again, the wind really picked up as lightening flashed and thunder struck. Next thing we are moving! We are literally moving! The whole tree was swaying in the intense wind gusts which meant the tree house was also swaying! It was crazy! I have lived through many of these storms back home in tropical Darwin but I have never been through one 50m above the forest canopy in a wooden tree house! Luckily there wasn't heavy rain to go with the wind or everything would've been drenched.

More bamboo as we walked through the jungle

The temperature dropped significantly to 20 degrees and I didn't have any warm clothes with me so I shivered. I stupidly put my travel clock on top of the eski which was our source of time for the past 7months and also alarm clock because neither Sam or I travel with phones. It also showed the temperature which has always been a cool feature. I remembered looking at it on the eski which was leaning against the wooden railing and thinking someone could very easily sit on there or lift the lid and knock it off. why I ignored these thoughts and did nothing is beyond me because sure enough, Mikkel goes into the eski, not seeing it at all and off it slides, down into the pit of darkness and rain, never to be seen again. I've always had travel clocks  my whole life as I use them alot and I've gone through many over the years, accidentally leaving them on trains, or breaking them in some way.  This one I had managed to hold onto since 2010, which is definitely a record. Sadly that record came to an end haha..

Loo with a view :P

I was amazed that my travel clock was the only thing dropped off those tree houses because it would be so easy to accidentally kick or drop something off the edge. Luckily that's all we lost :)

The next morning once again we are woken by our guides zip lining in. I found it much harder to get up this time. I was so tired! Too many late nights, early mornings and very active days which I am not use to. It was very sad packing up as we knew we would not be at another tree house that night. The Gibbon Experience was almost over. We began our morning with 7 zip lines in a row, some of the coolest yet! The views were definitely the best and once again I was itching so bad to be able to take pictures. Two zip lines were in a row, meeting up in the middle on a very skinny tree with some wooden stairs, kind of like a mini tree house. You had to stay attached to a safety wire at all times while swapping to the next zip line. I never got any photos dammit!

Mikkel enjoying his surroundings on a break

We left our harnesses at another kitchen before walking 3hrs back to the village we started it all in and then the 2.5hr drive back to Houey Xai. Everyone exhausted and sad at the same time that barely a word was spoken the whole way.

Sam and I were hoping to get an overnight bus that night back to Luang Prabang as we only had a few days to make our flight from Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam. We went straight to the first open travel agent and a lovely man greeted us outside in a really really good mood. He told us about the different options of either going straight to Vientiane or Luang Prabang to break it up. He said we couldn't go that night as it was full so we should just chill and have fun. He said chill man alot. The next second he is opening his office doors and revealing about 7 of his friends all sitting around a table drinking many beer Lao's and eating lots of different foods. He grabs us chairs, chucks beer lao in our hands and soon enough we are part of the party! This guy was hilarious, the stuff that was coming out of his mouth made us laugh so hard. He was extremely drunk, obviously, and he continued to tell us that for the rest of the day as we did stay there and drink and eat all afternoon with these people. Half of them were Thai and had to leave before the border closed by 6pm. The border only 20mins away. After a few drinks some tourists arrive wanted to ask about travel and guess who it is - Liede and Mikkel! Haha. They see us and soon enough are also pulling up chairs and drinking beer lao. Then some time later the two Danish girls arrive also asking about buses! haha.The party just kept growing as every tourist that came past would end up joining in. We ended up continuing out to dinner with these Canadians who we met there. Our drunken travel agent friend was meant to join us but he drove off home for a shower completely out of this world drunk and we didn't even think he would survive the drive!

Th drunk manager is on the left

He never did meet us for dinner but we were all nicely drunk with our new friends so we kept partying on anyway. Somehow we accidentally ordered those cook your own BBQ things which I hate because I don't want to pay to cook my own dinner! Mikkel and I were on one together and had no idea what we were doing. We were laughing at our disaster but I barely got any food in the end. We continued on back at Sabaidy guesthouse by smoking as much weed as possible on that balcony area on the top floor. A massive storm rolled in which drove us to the other side of the building. The huge undercover area was not safe because the rain was crazy sideways! Before the rain hit we were almost getting blown away by the intense wind but the lightening was soo cool we were loving it! Great storm to smoke weed during.

Having dinner with our new friends

We were staying in a different room this time to, it was on the opposite corner and one floor down, so basically it was exactly below the massive balcony we were sitting on. I had opened all four windows as we had no air con again to air the room out. When the rain started upstairs and we had to flee to the other side of the building it didn't even click that our room was completely open to it. It wasn't til after I took many photos of the extreme heavy sideways rain for 40mins that it finally clicked! Oh SHIT! I raced downstairs to our room and sure enough it was completely flooded. Luckily none of our stuff was really in the firing line and only the floor got flooded and half our bed completely drenched. The head of the bed was the worst offended so our pillows were soaked. It was really bad. By this stage it's about 2am and we had to uncomfortably wake up the night duty man who came out of his room in the grumpiest mood ever. He didn't speak any English so we are trying to explain with our hands that the rain came in and our room is wet and we need new bedding. At first he's trying to give us towels but finally gives us a new blanket. We ended up stripping the bed, flipping the mattress over, using our blanket as a sheet and our other blanket which was only wet on the bottom as our cover. We just had to deal with the wet pillows, we put towels over them which helped. But seriously you would think after living in a tropical climate with these kind of storms for my whole life I would've learned to close the fucking windows! haha some a dumb arse.

My failure at trying to capture the lightening storm - I was very drunk & stoned

The main street during the sideways rain

The next day we were on our way back to Luang Prabang with Liede and the Danish girls. We said our goodbyes to Mikkel who was heading to Bangkok. Sadly our group was breaking up after 3 awesome days in the jungle together.

Even though we never actually saw any Gibbons, The Gibbon Experience was one of the best experiences of my entire life and definitely on this 8month trip through South East Asia. If you go to Laos don't miss it!

Luang Prabang - the city no one wants to leave

26 - 29 April

We arrived in Luang Prabang early afternoon by mini bus, probably the bumpiest ride ride we've ever taken. Many times we were thrown out of our seats, almost hitting the roof. I was worried about my laptop as it's so fragile now since the crack in the screen. Every bus ride it gets progressively worse. Sure enough it was way worse, not just the screen this time however, the hard drive was playing up to. I couldn't watch any movie files as it would skip really badly. Every program I opened would lag and have this cool fade in and fade out thing. Sam kept saying how awesome that looked but it only worried me more. How much longer is my computer going to hold up? I need to get it home and to repair fast.

Golden Lotus Inn

Luang Prabang is a town of outstanding beauty with a very strong french influence so the bread is incredible. Lonely Planet even calls it one of the most sophisticated places in South East Asia, There is this old world romance about the city and the streets are well maintained. The mekong runs past on one side with a line of outstanding seafood restaurants and Nam Khan river on the other side with picturesque mountains all around.

Tha Nam Khan River

The tuk tuk dropped us on the main street in town and we went in search of cheap accommodation. Usually we find something within the first 20minutes and for only $7.50 without air con. Not in Luang Prabang. We quickly discovered how expensive this town was going to be to us when hotels were quoting $75! Finally we found a lovely place tucked down an alley way called Golden Lotus. It was double what we had been paying still it was very good value and we were exhausted, ready to give up on our search.

We found the row of baguette ladies on the main street where we had lunch for $1.50 each. The bread was so fresh and tasted amazing and they were so big that even Sam couldn't finish his! 

The baguette sandwich stalls along the main street

We met up with this European couple who had been on our mini bus and agreed to join up on a tuk tuk to the waterfall the next day. Tuk tuks were asking for about $25 in total, so the more people you have the cheaper it is. That night we had a massive wet season storm with lightening, wind, rain, the whole works. We woke up to a beautiful wet season morning which back home I would normally be excited to sleep in to. However here it meant you would get wet going outside to do anything. Sam and I still  got ready for the waterfall but our friends next door bailed and said it was too wet for them. So instead we spent the day doing absolutely nothing. I updated my blog and Sam slept.

We met up with our Kiwi mate, Matt for dinner down by the riverfront. I had the biggest fish I have ever seen for $9 which is the most I've paid in South East Asia. It was so full of tender meat and the bones were so big it was easy to get to the flesh. I was in heaven. God dammit it was amazing! They had this incredible chili sauce on top which just added to it. I can't believe I managed to eat every single bite. By far the best whole fish I've had yet!

My incredibly fish - it's massive!

The next day was lovely and sunny so Matt, Sam and I set out for a tuk tuk. We found one with 4 other tourists to join in and the driver was still asking us all to pay $5 each even though there were now 7 of us! I actually stood up to him in front of everyone and said 'no', 7 of us should be paying maximum $2.50. Eventually we got him down to about $3.50. I could've kept arguing but everyone else agreed to easily and were already jumping in the back of the tuk tuk.

The best bread we've had in a long time

The waterfall was pretty spectacular even for a Northern Territory girl who grew up camping by some of Australia's best. Our tuk tuk driver gave us 3hrs in total which was the perfect amount of time to explore the many cascading waterfalls and swimming pools which all came down from one very large waterfall. The most popular swimming whole had a rope swing that proved quite popular and had an eager line of tourists and locals waiting to use it. Sam and Matt both had a few swings but I wasn't interested. I just went snap happy around the place instead.

There were so many local families around with picnics set up enjoying their day off. I was fascinated by these 3 girls who were scraping sand and rocks from the bottom of the pool we were sitting at then running down a small waterfall before coming back for more. They did this over and over again and I was very intrigued at what they were doing with the sand and rocks.

The water was freezing so I couldn't stay in for long but was definitely refreshing on a hot sticky day. Sam and Matt decided to walk to the very top of the waterfall which I sat out because my hip had been playing up ever since a dodgy massage in Vang Vieng. While I was waiting I was talking to this Danish guy, Mikkel who was on our mini bus from Vang Vieng as well. He was waiting for his Dutch friend Liede. In our conversation I discovered that they were heading up North to do the Gibbon Experience as well! He was aiming for May 1st which is when we needed to do it and had already booked his overnight bus there and booked the jungle adventure. I started to worry that Sam and I needed to do this so that afternoon I emailed them to book us in for Thursday and booked an overnight bus for the next day, Monday night.

Enjoying the pool where the rope swing was

We had dinner that night with our friends who had arrived from Vang Vieng. Sam was drinking many beers with them and got very happy drunk. The Swedish girls turned up as well so I was chatting to them for ages. They were heading South the next morning to 4000 Islands. 

The next morning when there was no reply from the Gibbon Experience I started to freak out. We decided to call them instead and book it over the phone. It's the most popular thing to do in Laos and is often booked out way in advance. As we were on in off season we didn't worry too much about booking  but we had still left it later then I wanted. We called on the hr every hr all day and the phone just rang out every time. No answer over and over. Sam got really panicky as this could mean they are booked and not answering us on purpose. I sent another email and told them we were on our way tonight.

We met up with Mikkel and Liede on the bus that night who said they had been replied to that day, after both my emails and several calls from me. Wtf? We were on this 13hr bus to this nothing border town where you only go to cross into Thailand or you do the Gibbon Experience. We crossed  our fingers praying we would get in with 1 day notice. Sam took some valium and we tried to sleep sitting up as the people behind us did not want our seats back. The worst overnight bus ride ever.

Arriving in Vientiane on the last day of the water festival and party times in Vang Vieng

16 - 25 April

We had just had the most amazing cave experience of our lives, now we were arriving in Vientiane (the capital of Laos) on the last day of the water festival. I don't think we really thought about it too much or we would've been better prepared. We arrived around 2.30pm, jumped straight into a tuk tuk which was bound for the city centre and then laughed as groups of locals water bombed us along the way. About 10mins into the drive, a kid thew another water bomb at us which hit with a horrible 'BANG' and at that moment we see a car tyre fly up the street in front of us and precisely 2 seconds later our tuk tuk falls to the front left, where that tyre use to be and we hear this horrible metal scraping sound as we fly along the bitchumen on the metal where the tyre had been. I was amazed at how our driver handled the whole thing. He kept us fairly straight as we crossed to the other side of the road and into oncoming traffic before we finally came to a safe stop. My heart was racing. Did we just escape death? I cannot believe we did not collide with any traffic! Or even a pole or building. This guy kept his calm and control of the vehicle as if he'd done it a million times. Maybe he has.

The tuk tuk after we lost the wheel

We had to wait around for about 30mins before another tuk tuk came to take us the rest of the way. It was a fairly long drive to the city centre and the whole way we got water bombed like crazy. I was on the wrong side, the right side which was closest to the groups of locals with their buckets of water. Plus I was also in the middle so I saw in slow motion someone with a bucket throwing the water at us but with the speed of the tuk tuk the water always hit the middle - where I sat! Now getting drenched by buckets of water is not so bad when you're standing right next to the person, but when you're going 70km an hr that spray of water almost turns into cement. It hit me hard every time. Not only was I getting completely drenched from head to toe but I was getting slapped in the face and body from this hard substance. I had to moved my bags into safety at the front of the tuk tuk as the driver kept that part dry. It was all fun the first few hundred times I got slapped and drenched but eventually as the drive never seemed to end I got tired of it. How can people handle this for 3-5days straight? I would get sick of it.

Sam in the line of fire after I changed sides of the tuk tuk

We finally arrive in the centre to absolute chaos. I have never seen anything like it. It was like a massive street riot except nobody was being killed and everyone was merry with massive smiles across their faces slamming beer lao down their throats. Our drive dropped us at the beginning of the main street and said he wasn't going down there and we had to walk. This street was the worst infected. There were groups on both sides soaking anyone who walked or drove through and 90% of the traffic had their own water ammunition in the backs of their trucks with locals also attacking anyone around. I started to panic with my baggage, I did have my laptop and SLR after all.I took the necessary precautions and plastic bagged my valuables up before joining Sam and Pascale (the German guy we had been traveling with since the nowhere town).

About to hit the chaotic main street

Sure enough we got absolutely drenched walking down. It was mental. It was also hard to find guesthouses through the crowds of people everywhere. Sam kept taking photos and actually got some awesome ones but I was just desperate to get my valuables in a dry room. We finally found a guesthouse, dumped our bags and changed, god knows why when we just walked out and instantly got drenched from head to toe again. Finally I was in the mood and ready to join in! We got some beer lao and walked up and down the street, allowing anyone and everyone to drench us with their choice of weapons. Whether it was a hose, bucket, water gun... We found the buckets to be the most efficient in getting you wet! Some guy ran up and rubbed my powder all over my face! It was funny but then I instantly smelt something foul. No idea why powder stank like that!

Back at our guesthouse we sat out the front in plastic chairs to watch the chaos but this group of locals next to us wouldn't have it. This lovely young gentleman kept running back over and pouring a whole bucket over each of us which was absolutely freezing! When we finally got up and joined their party I caught him putting ice in his buckets - sneaky bugger! Our reception guy of our guesthouse was their friend and he kept running out and joining in with the party and then running back in to reception soaking wet. He was so funny and very very drunk. Of course they fed us beer lao! I got given a bucket and started joining in throwing buckets of water on oncoming traffic. Getting the people on bikes was the best part!

This guy from our party snuck up on me while I was refilling my bucket - it was an ice filled bucket!

About 8pm we decide to head to famous Beer Lao party. We had already called our friend Dale who we met in Kong Lor but he hadn't been answering his phone. Finally he decides to on the 3rd attempt and was already home from the party and going to bed! So off we head to this party on our own, only to discover it's already shut down.What kind of party ends at 8pm? Only a party in Laos of course! By this time the evening is starting to unwind and there are less people in the streets firing water at you. We decide to have an early one ourselves and head to bed about 11pm.

2days later we're on a bus bound for Vang Vieng. The home of the famous tubing. Except now of course it's trying to change its reputation of the party town by tearing down all the bars along the river, leaving a measly 2. We ended up spening 8 days in Vang Vieng which really was too long. But we kept meeting awesome people so we didn't want to leave as the social scene was just too good!

The stunning view from one of the bars

Vang Vieng is a stunning town, with beautiful mountains around it and the mekong river which adds to the beauty. On our second day I decided to catch up on blog time while Sam goes to one of the bars on the hill overlooking the mountains and river as they played South Park non stop. He had beer after beer after beer. I went down to see him a couple of hrs in as I was hungry and needed a break and he was already all drunk. I told him to slow down as we were going to the once a week 'Jungle Party' that night. 'No worries' he assures me. So I continue to blog it up until about 7pm when we'd agreed to head to this bar where you get free tuk tuks to the party. We were meeting a french girl there for dinner then we'd all go to the party together. As I'm locking our door guess who walks (well stumbles) down the corridor. Sam of course! He is so far gone he doesn't even acknowledge me. He looks straight past me, walks into the room while I'm saying "I was just about to get you, it's time to go to the bar" he just flops face first onto the bed and doesn't move. I'm shaking him trying to get him moving. No hope what so ever. So then I make the decision to go this bar and party on my own.

I get to DK 3, the bar and wait for the french girl who never shows. I eat some pizza and down a few beers when this group of 3 (2 boys and 1 girl) walk in and sit opposite me. I see them point on the 'Happy' menu which I didn't even know existed! So I grab a menu and realize it's not on the normal menu it has it's own menu altogether. There is a list of ways to have Opium, Weed and Mushrooms. I'm starting to get excited already!

After many beers I finally have the courage to join the giggling 3 English kids in the corner. They happily let me join their party and for the rest of the night we are a team. They had mushroom shakes but surprisingly kept themselves together very well. About 11pm I realize I'm short of money and need to run back to the room to stock up. When I get to our guesthouse I'm walking to the door and run into Sam in the corridor. I had locked him in the room and taken the key as I assumed he'd be out cold for the night. He's stumbling, looking all confused and saying that I wouldn't let him  in so he broke the door trying. I start freaking out and run to our door but it's in perfect condition, just locked. So he'd managed to get himself out of the room and locked himself out. No ide what he was up to. He reckons he was at the jungle party and it was crap. Yeah right.. haha. If he had gone I would've seen him at the bar as that's the only place to get the tuk tuk. I ask him if he wants to join but instead he flops on the bed and is out cold again. haha my boyfriend is so cute.

My new English friends

I return to my friends and soon we are in a tuk tuk heading to the jungle party. It was a pretty good night as I was happily drunk, made some awesome new friends who shared my love of smoking weed so we shared many joints. I hadn't had any weed in ages so it was really good to be stoned again. There were so many randoms on shrooms acting really strange and couldn't hold a conversation with you. It was quite hilarious! The night goes on and we get more and more trashed before the boys decide we should share a mushroom shake. It's 5am by this time, most of the party is gone and it's pretty much over now, the English girl has gone home with an Aussie to have her own fun so it's now just the 3 of us. In my silly drunken state I happily agree to share a shake. We get 3 straws and scull all at the same time. The shake is gone in seconds and I barely get two mouthfuls in. What a rip off for me as they so would've got more. Soon I am extremely grateful that's all I had.We get a tuk tuk back almost straight away and that's when the shake hits me. It hits hard. I am out of my mind fucked. I have never been this fucked from shrooms before and I only had two mouthfuls! I head to the boys bungalow and we smoke some more weed, talk a bit of shit but everyone is kind of losing it, just staring into space. They can't even talk which makes me think these shrooms were stronger then what they had at the bar earlier when they could full function and talk to me. I soon get a little awkward and uncomfortable sitting in their room while they're spacing out and decide to head home. The sun is rising and the town is lit up. I have to cross the bridge over the river as their bungalow is on a mini island in the middle of the river closer to the mountains. I am absolutely blown away by the beauty around me and just gape as I stand on the bridge for who knows how long. I think it's maybe 6.30am or even 7 at this point and everyone is still sleeping so I'm free to wander and stair at my surroundings on my own.

About 5am at the Jungle party

I walk into our room and find Sam asleep so I lay on the floor not wanting to wake him. I'm so fucked that staring at the floor tiles and the towels is making me trip out. Not long and I hear Sam stir then jump out of bed to head to the toilet, he walks past me and freaks out as he almost steps on me "Shit, what the hell are you doing on the floor.' I tell him how mind fucked I am at this point and then I can't stop laughing. From then on I am in a massive giggle fest. Everything is hilarious and the way Sam is sitting on the bed with the blanket wrapped around him and on his head is cracking me up. I tell him about my night and eating the shrooms and how awesome these new English kids are that I met. They were only staying two nights, doing the tubing today and leaving tomorrow and I was supposed to meet them at 11am to join them. I never did actually make it. When I finally stopped tripping and fell asleep I didn't wake in time for tubing and I felt so ill all day I wouldn't have been able to join them if I wanted. It was actually quite sad as I never got their details and I never did see them again.

Sam and I went back to DK 3 and bought a bag of weed which is probably how we ended up spending a week in Vang Vieng. It was too easy to live the stoner life again which we'd missed from our Sihanoukville days. Eventually we decide to do the tubing so we can leave. It's a shitty day that we choose to do the tubing, the sun is behind the clouds and we sleep in too late so we are pre drinking too late and then all of a sudden we are smashed and it's 2.30pm and we are getting on a tuk tuk with a group of Europeans. Sam and I are so unorganized that we both need to run back and forth to the room to change or leave stuff behind. As I'm coming back he yells that they are waiting but he has to run to the room because both our wallets don't fit in the dry bag. Anyway I jump in the tuk tuk and ask them to wait outside our guesthouse. Sam is taking a very long time and I'm getting horrifically embarrassed that we're holding these people up. we're losing time in the day and you have to get the tubes back by 6pm to avoid a fine. I end up runing upstairs to see why Sam is taking so long and see him sitting on the bed fiddling with the bag. What the hell is he doing!

We run back downstairs to the tuk tuk and in this commotion I realize I left my camera upstairs when I went to get Sam... Oh well too late now. We are finally on our way to the starting point of the river. We meet these two awesome Swedish girls who got a tuk tuk after us. They're so young, only 19 and traveling after finishing school. We get along like a house on fire and spend the whole afternoon drinking and floating down the river with them. The first bar is the best as it pulls us in with bamboo sticks. About 10 to 6pm we realize we're not making it to the end in time so we jump out and negotiate with the tuk tuk to take us back for 5000kip each (60c). We get to the office about 10mins late but they don't penalize us thank god!

Everyone is wet and needs a shower so we decide to meet back in an hr and go out drinking. There are these sandwich stalls in the streets which we've noticed for the past 5days we've been here but never thought to buy from them. In our drunken hungry state Sam and I get burgers and and are blown away! They are so god damn tasty!!! And only $2 each! Why didn't we discover these earlier?

Sam getting a chicken burger from the street ladies

We meet the girls an hr later, hit an irish pub the night goes a little foggy from here. Sam and I are wasted and we just keep on drinking. We meet more people at this pub, a tattooed lesbian from Adelaide who is an extremely opinionated feminist that makes everyone uncomfortable. Her 'mate' as were told who is also from Adelaide and traveling with her, then a couple of hilarious guys from Ireland and Europe who we ended up sticking with for longer then Vang Vieng. Not too mention Matt, the kiwi from Don Det! that's right we ran into him again at the irish bar. We all decide to meet up at 11am the next for tubing. Sam and I wanted to do it again with our cameras this time as we'd been too drunk and both forgotten them the first time.

We drink until the bar kicks us out on curfew around 11.30pm and follow the lesbian and her mate to a nightclub filled with locals and heaps of lady boys! haha pretty funny. Soon the club fills up with tourists who have all obviously been kicked out of every other bar. I am pretty much in my element dancing like crazy with the Swedish girls and having the time of my life. While I'm having a rest, drinking some water I turn and see the lesbian getting it on with one of the swedish girls. I had no idea she was into girls as well! I find out later she's into both as I had remembered her talking about a guy she liked that worked at one of the bars.

Soon it's time to go as I'm danced out, Sam is ridiculously drunk and needs to be walked home. A group of us all head off at the same time. The swede and her lesbian hook up had left earlier all over each other. I end up walking alone with the lesbian's mate and he starts talking about their friendship. He tells me they're best mates back home and now their traveling together and he'd told her how keen he was on the swede girl just before she went and hooked up with her, but apparently he's told he can join in when he returns. I'm pretty drunk and just taking everything he said on board though it's not everyday you hear of someone partaking in threesomes!

The next morning Sam and I drag our hungover butts out of bed and to the tubing place to meet everyone at 11am. The day is much better with bright blue skies and no sign of rain or clouds. We didn't even pre drink this time as we realised yesterday we got way too drunk. I have a hangover burger from the ladies in the streets and we're off! Much earlier then the day before and a much bigger group!

Hangover food of champions - chicken, bacon & garlic burger from our street ladies.

As great as everything was our second time there also had to be a downside didn't there. Sam drops his camera in the first 5 minutes and it happens to be in the deepest part of the river with a strong current. He dives down a couple of times but it's hopeless. His camera is gone. The worst part of it of course is all the awesome pictures he lost. He hadn't backed up anything since Pakse so all his Kong Lor cave and Vientiane water festival pics were gone... He had the best ones of the festival to. Way better then mine. It put a huge dampener on my mood even though Sam seemed to let it go straight away. I wanted to go back and keep trying to find it but the water was a dirty brown and visibility was non existent. Plus the depth and current... It really was the worst spot to drop your camera!

Our tubing group round 2

5mins later we stop at the first bar and I try to cheer up by ploughing into my first, second and third beers. Oh man it's awesome when alcohol is around to take away your pain and worries. We stayed at this bar a long time and when we finally moved on I was nicely drunk. I took a beer for the road as it was awhile before the second and last bar. Even though all the bars were gone and the crazy fun activities, it was still an awesome day floating down the river with our very large group which kept multiplying as we bumped into others along the way. it kind of reminded me of my tubing experience with my sister in Phoenix, Arizona.

We stayed awhile at the second bar to and at this point our irish friends decided to get into the shroom shakes! I was tempted but decided against it as I was happy with my beers and new friends. I didn't want to get any paranoia who not be able to talk.

The first bar, getting pulled in with bamboo

Towards the end Sam decides to capsize me and I lose my favourite sunnies of the whole trip. Losing thongs, hats and sunnies was a common thing for me but I'd had these sunnies since Burma which was almost 2months ago - a record for me really! We make it to the tubing shop at 6.30pm and the bastard keeps the deposit this time. We try to argue but as it says, after 6pm there is a fee, which was only about $2 anyway so nothing to worry about really. We just like to argue when drunk.

After our massive feast from the burger and sandwich ladies everyone decided to go home and not meet until 9pm. I knew this was too late and I would crash by that time so I tried to argue for only an hr but it didn't work. Sure enough I never did go out again. Sam did though and had a great time without me. It's nice for us to have fun with other people and have a break from each other sometimes so I was happy he went out with his new friends.

Our last day in Vang Vieng we visited the 'Blue Lagoon' which was quite picturesque. The water was freezing though and I couldn't stay in long. It was a really good place to come to with a group of friends and just relax in the shade, have a swim, drink some beers. We wished we had organized to go with our new friends. Still we had an awesome afternoon. There was this European who spent about half and hr setting up this contraption across the water which we soon discovered was a tight rope. He then walked across it calmly several times and even did a few tricks. Everyone was really impressed! Random people started having a go but no one could make more then 2 steps before losing their balance and crashing into the lagoon below. It was so funny watching them all.

Tight rope over the blue lagoon

The next day we got up bright and early for our long bus trip to Luang Prabang - a beautiful french inspired city surrounded by mountains and of course the mekong. About time we moved on from Vang Vieng! haha

Southern Laos - long bus rides, new year water festival and the best cave experience in the world.

12 - 15 April

Sam and I didn't want to leave Don Det at all. It was the perfect chill out place we didn't even know existed the week before. I only found out about it when we were looking at leaving Siam Reap and trying to find if we can head South of Laos first. It became one of our 3 highlights of Laos - a must do!

Pakse bars along the Mekong

We decided to break up our trip a little instead of jumping straight into 10-12hr bus trips like our fellow Don Det friends. So we took a nice and easy 3hr bus to Pakse. A lovely town that is only really visited by tourists who are heading to Don Det. Because of no tourists there were also no tuk tuks. We had to walk everywhere. We decided to head down to the mekong where there were a bunch of restaurants and bars built over the edge of the water looking out at the mountains on the other side. Quite a picturesque town really, and it was so peaceful. Just as we reached the river this group of locals grabbed us and threw a glass of beer Lao in our hands with ice. Ice in beer is very common in Laos as it is rarely refrigerated.Tthese guys were taking them straight out of cartons and putting ice in to cool it down. Strangely it worked.. It was almost the Laos new year so the locals were very merry and drinking many many beer Laos. They wanted us to sit and join them I think but after they made us skull one beer each we politely moved on to try find somewhere to eat dinner.

The merry locals who gave us beer along the riverfront

We met this really enthusiastic Italian guy who we originally thought was very drunk the way he was talking and throwing his arms everywhere. He was hilarious! We ended up hanging out with him for a beer or two before walking back to our guesthouse for an early night. I booked myself in for a day tour of the Bolaven Plateau - an area around Pakse of lush rainforest, waterfalls and their tea and coffee plantations. Sam wasn't interested and decided to spend the day in bed instead.

Me and a nice french girl I made friends with on the tour

On the tour we visited a couple of local villages which was really cool. Kids were running around naked wanting our attention. One boy looked severely malnourished as he had that big bloated stomach you normally see on those African documentaries. We visited some beautiful waterfalls and this one particular was a local swimming playground with locals everywhere smiling like crazy, they were in the best moods. I guess they were all excited for the new year which goes over 3 days and officially started the next day. I would think 3days of celebrations would be enough but they like to get in earlier then that and stretch it to 5 days.

Local kids in a village we visited

As we arrived back in Pakse one of the streets was full of locals with hoses, buckets and water guns soaking anyone that drove or walked past them. We were in a van nice and safe but I loved watching the craziness out the window and knew Sam and I had to walk this way to the river for dinner. Sure enough we did, and we didn't really think about it because we walked straight into the firing lane with our money, bags, bus ticket for the next day... haha stupid really. Of course we got completely drenched! This one family close to the Mekong pulled us in after drenching us and fed us beer after beer, yelling 'Mort' every time we had a new class which meant 'finish' and we'd literally have to scull only for them to fill it up again. We were there for maybe 15mins and the glasses were small but after sculling so many of them we made it to dinner realizing we were actually quite drunk!

Sam enjoying his 100th beer with the locals on the street

We had promised we'd return after eating so we did and of course this meant many more free beers and more buckets of water pouring over us. No one spoke much English at all but we still managed to have a great time with them laughing, sculling beer, yelling Mort and dancing. There was this girl who looked about 15 or 16 who was sculling beer like a champion. She really seemed to take a liking to me and kept close, constantly smiling and hugging me and holding my hand to drag me everywhere. Eventually she was too drunk so an older lady got the scooter out and she jumped on the back before they sped off. Both of them heavily drunk. On our walk home we had to dodge all the drunk locals on scooters who were playing chicken with us as they sped full speed for us then swerved at the last minute laughing like crazy. Sam informed me that Laos has the highest mortality rate in the world for bike crashes. I can totally believe that! We took a wrong street in our drunken state and found ourselves walking in the dark. This is where I managed to fall in an open drain which pulled my big toe nail back and scraped my shin up pretty good. Not to mention the filth that now covered my foot and leg! lol

The young girl who took a serious liking to me

The next day we were up bright and early ready for our long local bus trip to Kong Lor (slightly south of the centre where the famous cave is). The travel agent said our ticket took us all the way to the village and we'd arrive about 4pm. It was the slowest bus in the world. I don't think I have ever been on anything more slow in my life. It stopped a million times throughout the day. Sam and I never ate because we never knew how long it was stopping for. It was the first official day of the new year water festival so I kept looking out the window and watching the different groups of locals bomb the bus with water along the way. At some points the bus had to stop as there were so many locals on the road and they all swarmed the bus, banging the windscreen, desperate to get water inside. The driver's assistant would occasionally open the door to tease them as they ran to throw buckets of water inside but he'd close it a the last second. He failed a couple of times and as I was sitting at the front I would feel the spray all over my legs.

Groups of locals dancing and drenching the bus as we drove past

It was a long long long day and finally around 9pm we stop in the middle of nowhere. No one on our bus spokes English. Sam asks "Kong Lor?" It's now they gesture us to get off, grab our luggage from below and take off, leaving us there in the dark in this small town in the middle of nowhere. We have no idea where we are and we soon realize we're not in Kong Lor. There are some locals outside drinking so we ask one after the other until we find someone who speaks little English, he points down the rd and says 'Guesthouse'. It's the only guesthouse here it seems and the owner speaks no English. The bathroom has a squat toilet and there is no sink. So weird for a bathroom to not have a sink! This town obviously doesn't see any tourists and is purely for the locals. We find this German guy sitting alone at the restaurant of the guesthouse eating some noodle soup - the only dish they serve. He had been through a similar day to us and knew the name of the town we were in. He'd obviously found someone who spoke English. Turns out we were still 80kms from Kong Lor which off the main rd in the middle of nowhere. So in the morning we'd have to get another bus about 8am, hopefully arrive before lunch, do the cave and beeline it out of there the same day. Wishful thinking in Laos.

So the 3 of us are waiting on this rd from 8am. Waiting for this 'bus' which ends up being a local pick up truck. ahh just like Burma! Not quite. Instead of there being a nice friendly guy at the back taking your bags and tying them to the roof there is only a driver who does not even acknowledge us at all. So we have to squish in the tray with our massive bags, trying not squash the poor locals. 2.5hrs later we hit this crossroad with 'Kong Lor cave 44km' pointing right and we drive left. I pointed this out but no one seemed to listen to me. We then stopped almost immediately, thinking we are in Kong Lor village. There is only one guesthouse in this small town so we head off looking for it. Instead we pass many guesthouses and soon I discover we're not actually in Kong Lor after all, but a town called Bahn Khoun Khan - still another 45km from Kong Lor.

Waiting in for our 'bus' to Kong Lor in the middle of nowhere

We go back to the small station we were dropped off at and see there is a pick up truck leaving in 1.5hr for Kong Lor. Hopefully this time we will actually get there! Well we do get there, but it takes over 2hrs to do 45km as our driver stops a million times and keeps turning around doing circles back and forth, stopping in random spots where no one gets in or out then drives off again. We think he was drunk. It's about 2.30pm when we finally make it to the tiny but stunning Kong Lor village. There is not much here at all, one guesthouse, one restaurant, some home stays but that's it. The town is surrounded by magnificent mountains and there are fields of luscious green crops which add to the beauty. We're all completely blown away. Our guesthouse is run by a sweet old man who of course, does not speak any English. Our room is clean, big, comfortable with hot water and everything you could ask for, for only 60,000Kip a night ($7.50). We decide we'll spend the night here, see the cave then catch the 7am local bus to Vientiane in the morning.

The walk to the cave is only 1.5km and with stunning surroundings and locals water bombing us as we walked. We reach the entrance to walk into a massive local festival. There are millions upon millions of bikes parked everywhere. Stalls of games and food like you would see at a carnival. Locals are everywhere, laughing, drinking, playing games. We could not see a single tourist. The river into the cave is filled with locals swimming with tubes and having the time of their lives. That's right it's the new year festival still!

The river at the cave entrance

We have to walk across the river and inside the impressive mouth of the cave to find the boats. We are given life jackets and as we walk to the boats we finally see some other tourists coming out. I notice their pants are sopping wet.. uh oh. This doesn't look good! haha.

We climb into the very low and rickety boat which has water at our feet and we set off, wobbling all over the place and feeling like we're going to capsize at any moment. I grip tightly onto my camera bag and wonder if I should've even bought it with me as it's not water proof. From this moment on we are constantly blown away. We fly through the cave in these motorized boats with the sound echoing spookily off the cave walls which are so high and far from us it feels as big as a chapel in some areas. About 10mins in we reach a sandy beach and clamber out to then climb some stairs and walk through a lit up area with lots of cool stalactites. We get back into the boat after a few minutes walk and keep heading up stream. I honestly thought we were heading back after that but no - there is so much more of this incredible cave! We hit some rapids and the boat suddenly floods while the guides motion us to get out of the boat so they can pull the boat up the rapid. We're walking through the freezing water which goes up to my knees and thighs in some area. Trying so hard to see with my dim flashlight as you step off a rock and you'll fall into a deep pool. Wearing thongs was not the brightest idea as I struggle to walk through, lifting my feet as I go. Eventually we reach the other side and we see an opening in the cave.

We burst out and are blown away by the towering mountains and lush forest all around us. It's magnificent. We head round a corner, reach a bank and jump out. Our guide says 'Go back?" And I'm like does it cost money? He then smiles and says no. We didn't quite understand that we weren't in the same area we started in. There is a massive dance party going on up the bank with locals going crazy dancing and drinking. We soon realize that we are a few kms away from Kong Lor village as we are on the complete other side of the mountain! haha... So back we go to our boat where our guides are waiting for us and we get to go all the way back through the cave but this time down stream which meant no getting out of the boat as we fly down all the rapids!

It was definitely the best cave experience I have ever had! And I have seen many caves. I don't think I ever want to see a cave again. Nothing will ever compare to Kong Lor. It's not the biggest or the longest, but it is totally the BEST in the world! The whole trip in and back took roughly 2.5hrs. This cave had everything, scary boat that flooded every time we stopped, rapids, walking through water, lit up stalactites, incredible scenery on both sides... I mean WOW!

Sunset over Kong Lor

We were all buzzing after our cave experience and as I raced back to our guesthouse to get some sunset shots over the field of crops, I met this English guy and his Lao wife who were visiting from Vientiane staying at the same place. We ended up all having dinner together and arranged to meet up in Vientiane the next night - the last day of the water festival. He told us about this crazy Beer Lao party on the Mekong which we were eager to check out. Kong Lor is one of our 3 highlights of Laos. EVERYONE who goes to Laos needs to experience this cave. You will not regret the long journey to get there because every minute will blow you away :)