Ok, so, we’re home. Overnight flights really do suck. My feet swelled, I hardly slept, could hardly read, the people in front put their seats right back, I felt I could blow in the dudes ear and whisper a “”f…off” message to him. But I didn’t.

The six hours waiting at Qantas Domestic terminal are a drain, that zombie feeling that you’re there but you’re really not, nodding off to sleep, not feeling like eating. The relief of landing  in Dubbo, I can’t explain how nice it feels, even the heat when we leave the plane. Tonight we’ll sleep the sleep of the dead, tomorrow recovery and then back to normal.

Some things about the trip to Thailand and Laos

E Sims are great  – The Navigator and I had Airlo Asian region e Sims 30 days 5gb data. Cost $30. Did the job perfectly.

Money – travel cards and AUD cash work well. Thailand both are ok to get local cash, Laos not many money changers around so travel card and cash withdrawal work well. In Laos US dollars is the alternative to Lao kip. Do yourself a favour and have a currency converter card made up. We used the Wise card and CBA travel cards and AUD cash.

Shopping – negotiate most places. Not food, its non negotiable and mostly cheap if you eat local food. Wuth normal shopping always ask ” Best Price??” And if they pull out a calculator, negotiations are under way try for 25 -30% reduction, maybe 50 % if you do the walk away then turn back. Always do it in good spirit, and don’t start bartering if you have no intention of buying.

Food – try street food, particularly in Thailand. Its cooked in front of you, even if it’s just chicken fried rice. Google Maps ” best name of food…. in Chiang Mai” and see what comes up, some the street food is rated better by every day travellers than Michelin hatted restaurants. Eg I Google mapped ” Best Khao Soi in Chiang Mai” , it brought up a place of the same name but rated 4.6/5, so we followed Google Maps there thinking it was a sit down restaurant, but it was in a food market, street food stall, plastic tables, clean, a line up for food and tables, for $6 the best dish of the trip by a mile in a plastic dish at a plastic table on a rickety stool. Try it. We did not get sick on the trip. Dave’s eyes sweated a few times because of the amount of chilli he shoved into dishes. Coffee in Laos was really really good.

Best things and places; Chiang Mai – need more time there. Beautiful city, nice climate, great food, good coffee, a lot of digital Nomads live here. Elliebum hotel was lovely, great location in the old city. Explore the night markets, the weekend market is fantastic.

Nagi of Mekong – the 2 day slow boat on the Mekong from Chiang Khong to Luang Prabang, over nighting at Pak Beng is such a great trip to do. I think the Shompoo company do the same trip well, as well. Probably don’t do the backpacker version of this trip , its way cheaper but you’re  crammed like sardines and not fed, squat toilets, maybe I’m getting old !!!

Luang Prabang, Laos – I love this place. First sold to me by my sister many years ago. My 2nd time here. Best area to stay is the middle Street between the river and the night market or on the river, on the northern end where the Nam Khan River joins the Mekong. Lots of accomodation options, Booking.com, Air BnB etc. There are lots of food options in this area, local, western, French Italian, and the night market food is good but it’s crowded. This time of the year the temperature is so nice. Save some money for local textiles, Hmong silk, hemp and cotton. Do a trip to Krung Si Waterfall Falls, a magnificent natural Waterfall , visit an elephant conservation place eg MandaLao, do a craft day like Ock Pop Tok Living Craft, visit UXO the UneXploded Ordinance centre. 

Bangkok – do the 150 baht Tourist boat for one day, ride the khlong boats from Phanfa pier to Saphan Hua Chang pier or Pratunam, shopping at MBK Centre or Pratunam markets, or serious shopping at Chatuchuk markets, sample the night moves at Khaosan Road until your ear drums can’t take any more. Visit Wat Arun, Wat Pho, the Royal  Palace, Talat Noi, the contrast between the old and modern Bangkok.

So many things to do so little time!

Cheers, ciao and sayonara

Pauolo

Early breakfast pending our flight, bags packed, secured with cable ties and locks.

10.15am our driver arrives, dapper looking chap, good English and we find out later he’s also an air traffic controller. His new Kia wagon gets us to the airport quietly and smoothly, 200,000 kip ($14) is money well spent.

We’re checked in, stamped out of Laos and Dave’s at the bar in no time, sampling a last BearLao. For a while anyway. We’re alerted to a pa system call for ” Mr Alan David Robson, please come to the information desk” – Dave heads off with his passport and boarding pass, not sure what the issue is? I have visions of my episode in Thailand last year when I got hauled in because I had an empty 9mm shell casing in the pocket of a pair dirty shorts. Dave doesn’t do guns so it can’t be that!!!! In fact, he left his Ipad in his checked in bag, rooky error, so he has to fix his “blue” and re secure his bag. Crisis averted.

Bangkok’s industrial spread and the scale of industry is a contrast to Laos, a country struggling to find a way to give people a better life. At the moment China seems to be seen as part of the answer.

Bangkok becomes “pick on Pauolo” time, my backpack is run through security a few times, I have to explain little metal Buddha, and why I have two cameras. We get  checked again getting into our gate for the flight to Sydney, which took us a little while to find in the  behemoth thats Suvirbahmi airport. I’m guessing yesterdays madness at Bondi Beach has put the world on watch security wise. Extremist behaviour by any religion is intolerable.

We leave on dusk, Sydney next stop.

As usual, an overnight flight means no or little sleep.

Ciao from Lao and Thailand – tomorrow we’re home.

Pauolo

Breakfast at Le Benetton this morning, its a good breakfast but but the Lao girl serving us is ever so quiet with a beautiful smile however her English makes it difficult to get the order correct. But we got there. Hbum and moi finish my low THC gummies. I’m sure they won’t affect me like hers near undid me back in Chiang Mai. All us good, all day!

Shopping at Lu’s place is first, we finish up with still  a bit more shopping, The Navigator does a bit more shopping, again, funny that. Our bags will be stretched to the limit. I think Lu likes Dave, just a little bit!

We take a break then lunch on spring rolls on the Mekong bank at Belle Rive Restaurant. Its pretty up market and attached to a very nice hotel The Belle Rive. Our end of town and the centre street is definitely the place to be. Our spring rolls are good, but not as good as Big Tree Cafe, which is shut today. The Chinese karaoke on the river blasts away at top volume, none of them aware of how crappy it sounds, its an abomination, sound polution.

There seems to be an influx of visitors today, new faces strolling with their cameras and smiles on their dials. 

I have a massage, the others go shopping, again. I walk along the river heading south, trying to find the cut outs in the river bank where men in singlets with smokes hanging from lips playing petonque for money. They were there three years ago but not now. That area is way grungier than our area, more a backpackers area.

Dave and I have drinks at Villa Santi Hotel, again, in their beautiful garden while the women go for a massage. A few Jamesons later they arrive back with smiles on their faces.

We decide on Popolo for dinner, funky venue, 70’s music, Italian food mostly. I’m looking forward to some regular food at home. We meet the boss, a French man who has been here 16 years, he runs 2 restaurants, and we have a nice chat about corruption, politics, family etc etc, as you do with strangers.

Last job is to try and pack the shopping in our bags and not bust our 23kg limit or our bags, I think we’ll be ok but The Navigator is a little worried. Tomorrow at the airport will tell us if she was right to be worried.

The trip has been wonderful, the Lao people are delightful and their country is beautiful but poor. We’ve had excellent travelling companions, travelling to remote and beautiful places..

Looking forward to getting home Tuesday afternoon

Ciao from Lao

Pauolo

Breakfast as per normal at the hotel then we join Dave & Heken at Le Benetton for  coffee. They’d been at the early morning market, eels, innards of anything you think of, wet butchery, you name it sold there.

Decision was made by the Navigator “Let’s start proper shopping today”. The Navigator is like thoroughbred before they go into the starting gates, champing at the bit, ready for the break, red light flashing ” and they’re away!!!”

Lu’s shop is first, hemp stuff ( not the smoking kind), and nice gear. We teach her little Aussie sayings and how to address Australians negotiating too hard by using tilted head and saying ” maaate, come on!”

Kinthong and Californian husband of 16 years are next, a beautiful silk shop where they buy mainly Hmong tribe weaving from villages. Not cheap, but not dear for the work that goes into them. Our table runner is a hand woven  silk piece that took a woman 10 weeks to make. Their wrapping paper is from the Por Shah Tree ( Paper Mulberry).

We then make 1.5m kip purchase craft shop in Middle street, lots of gear, mainly cotton stuff.

Lunch is at Popolo, we regroup over a pizza. Meanwhile over the street instagramers are pouting, posing, cocking legs in a supposedly in a provacative way, throwing things in the air and jumping to catch, its so contrived it makes me cringe.

A short rest and she’s off by herself, by the time we catch up agailn at 6.30 the bag market in Luang Prabang has risen significantly.

I spot some young novice monks beating one of the big drums in a monastery before drinks with Dave and Helen at The Library, a ritzy looking hotel near our lodgings.

Dinner is at Red Rose Restaurant on the Nam Khan River, beautiful Thai food tonight. Bit exxy, 1.5m kip for dinner and drinks at a fancy up market place ($98)

Hard to believe we have one more day.

Ciao from Lao

Pauolo

Luang Prabang, Laos, still.

It rained most of the night, solid rain, it will be good to wash the early dry season dust and grime off plants, the streets and roof tops.

The morning is The Navigators reconnaissance mission for serious retail activity in our last two days. She buys some things to test her negotiating skills, tick, the market for bags, tick, and remarkably no shoes (none sold here that’s why). Table runners also get a full workout, initial indications are she may have cornered the table runner market. She’s still debating cotton versus silk.

We meet at Ock Pop Tok shop to get the pink tuk tuk to our afternoon appointments doing craft out at The Living Craft Centre on the Mekong just on the edge of town. I’m doing silk weaving on a loom, The Navigator is doing natural dying and Hbum is doing batik piece. It’s a beautiful setting on the Mekong, a collaboration between an English woman and a Lao woman to work with local silk weavers. We had a wonderful afternoon, but we were all pretty weary. Telegram Sam ( aka Dave) chilled at home reading his book and joined us later. The Lao weavers and craft team are wonderful, softly spoken, gentle with a dry sense of humour, and sooo patient fixing my stuff ups.

We get the pink tuk tuk back in the rain and retire to BOUANG Asian Eatery for dinner. An excellent meal, fusion SE Asian food and the same smiles and excellent service.

The Navigator does a run of the Night Market where she pushes the scarf and cotton pants market up – you know the old economic thing demand v supply!

It’s been a long day!!!!

Ciao from Lao

Pauolo

Its 9pm, raining properly here in Luang Prabang. Its interesting settling into a sort of mini life here, its such a chilled place, gentle natured softly spoken locals, a lack of “rush”  that you find in other south east Asian places, no tooring horns. But that said, the volume of Chinese people is a little offputting at times, they tend to be loud, block the footpath and like loud Chinese pop music playing. But they have the same right to be here that we do, they just annoy me a little.

Back to todays activities, early breakfast, we walk up through the temple, find a tuk tuk truck, negotiate a 500k kip return trip to Krungsi Waterfalls. Dale and I went there 3 years ago on the Intrepid trip with Naa, truly a magnificent sight. It’s  dusty and the road is crap but we get there. Old mates truck has dust all through the back, a hammock where he sleeps, we think he comes in early with goods for the morning local markets, tries to get a few tuk tuk jobs then heads home in the country. He’s a little weather beaten, smoke hanging out of his mouth, and has a warm smile. He’ll do us.

The crap road is made interesting by the poverty we see on the roadside, little stalls, rickety farm buildings, dusty roof tops and plants, roadworks, children playing, scooter riding locals and tourists.

Vans full of Chinese pass us, we hope it won’t be too busy by the time we get there.

60k kip each to enter, we bypass the slow line of chattering Chinese and ride up with a young Polish man ( Janus I think his name was ?). He put his mountain bike of a plane and is riding it through Thailand and Laos. He’s a serious cyclist.

We walk through the jungle, bypassing some more you know who people, and enter the park

Its also a Sun bear and Moon bear sanctuary  so we check them out.

We ease our way via the lower levels which is very pretty but the main Krungsi Waterfall is truly spectacular. A Swiss couple take some photos for us.

Coffee and icecream at a cafe to rehydrate and energise for the walk back. We talk to an American couple, they are Air BNBing near the buffalo dairy, they seem clueless on a lot of things, not enough time here to explain their ineptitude.

We meet Seamus & Ciara in the queue to get back to the car park, a young Irish couple from Dublin, 9 months on the road. I love talking to young people who have the courage and adventurous spirit to do this sort of thing.

The ride back is dustier, we stop for a pee on the roadside ( not the Navigator), coffee cycles through me quickly.

Shower and rest at home then lunch a Big Tree Cafe. Shopping, a massage to ease the aching back then dinner at a sort of Thai restaurant near us costs 215k kip ($7.40 each and that included drinks)

Sleep in in the morning.

Ciao from Laos

Pauolo

Slow start to the day, again. A little shopping and The Navigator is distraught, she lost her hat purchased from Chiang Mai. We look for table runners for our table at home, the batik Hmong designs are eye catching but we haven’t made a decision yet.

Lunch of sorts at Homs Home where Dave And Helen are camped, bread, cheese, honey and green tea, yum!

Three of us decide to get a tuk tuk to the UXO Centre. It’s the UneXploded Ordinance centre, hugely important work in the most bombed country ( person capita) on the planet. A plane load of bombs, every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day over 9 years (1964-1973) and 30 percent did not explode. There are still 30 million unexploded bombs, mainly cluster bombs in Laos and people are injured or die regularly. The UXO organisation are clearing 5,000 acres of land every year but are aiming to clear 100,000 per year. Australian is a major partner in this work. It’s a sobering reminder of how lucky we are in Australia.

Drinks are at a Big Tree Cafe, a leafy garden setting near the bank of the Mekong.

Dinner is at La Poppolo, a Lao Italian restaurant, great pizzas, nice vibe lovely staff.

Tomorrow we’re going to Krungsi Waterfalls, a truly spectacular sight.

Ciao from Laos

Pauolo

The Navigator is up early, three of them have booked to go to Mandolao Elephant Conservation Centre out on the Nam Khan River, they are going walking with elephants and seeing how the conservation bit works. I did this on the Intrepid trip 3 years ago and think it’s worth doing. I wave her goodbye, thankful for the solitude for a short time, don’t tell her I said that!!!

I have a late breakfast, then a short walk through the streets, then up to Viewpoint Cafe for an iced latte. It’s peaceful, except for the riverboats  full of Chinese tourists on short river cruises singing karaoke to loud Chinese music, obviously they are being plied with copious amounts of BeerLao because the singing is dreadful.

I find a massage place and get myself a foot massage, which helps my swollen feet and ankles a bit.

It’s been a tough morning so I return to our hotel to chill and read a book. The temperature is very pleasant.

The Navigator finds her way home, its been a epic day I think. I hear the baby elephant is a hit, their guide is a very impressive young Lao man from a remote village who has learned English by watching TV and going to where Helen and I were last night. Check the photos out.

Rest time this arvo, then dinner at Le ‘Elephant, an expensive (relatively speaking) restaurant but a western meal is nice after nearly 2 weeks of spicy Asian food and rice.

Ciao from Laos

Pauolo

A sunny morning, no Mekong haze or fog this morning, at least it was like this when we got up, which was a little late.

First stop was Wat Xien Thong, just up the street from us. Beautiful mosaic work and quite old. There are lots of Chinese people around, they are here in droves, and they speak loudly. We run into Helen at the temple, she’s contemplating the teachings of Lord Buddha on a seat in the shade when we see her.

Next, we walked to the Junction of the Mekong and had a coffee at the River Point Cafe, lovely view over both rivers, shady and seems a step up in quality. Of course the price reflects this a little.

The Royal Palace is a little but of a let down but might be we’re a little weary by now and a little less patient. We go inside but the rules are a little frustrating so we dontcreally see much.

A short, late lunch in an Indian Restaurant on the river then Its chill time for an hour or so.

Between 5 & 7pm Helen and I attend ” Big Brother Mouse” where holiday makers, ex pats etc come to meet locals and converse in English to improve their English up to conversational level.

It was started by an American philanthropist who we met there, he sold a publishing and travel business to sysrt this up. I had 3 Hmong boys, 16 and 17, from northern Lao villages, they live in dormitory accommodation, see their families once or twice a year. They are motivated to learn. The motto they have is “Education is not the filling of a bucket but the lighting of a fire.”

Dinner is at Riverpoint, the food is great

Tomorrow is Elephants, for some.

Ciao  from Laos

Pauolo

A lazy Sunday is on the agenda after over a week of heavy duty travelling and two lazy days of riverboat life with a mixed group of ages and nationalities.

The hotel has a very nice breakfast, we leave some washing to be done, issue some requests to our front desk regarding oil on the squeaky bathroom door, extra pillows and some milk for The Navigators cups of tea. She needs her tea before retiring at night and when she arises, otherwise…… things aren’t good!

We wander down a small ally towards the Mekong, and follow it along the river bank. We stumbled on Dave and Helen at a funky Cafe and decide on a coffee at Le Bennetton, down near our place. A quick check on their Air B&B called ” Homs House” which is very nice then a 5 minute walk takes an hour due to stops at shops and slow walking. A brief stop to withdraw 2 million kip in cash, but I feel safe with the equivalent of $140 AUD in my wallet. When we eventually get to the cafe it’s good coffee and French bakery stuff.

The cool morning is starting to warm up, its muggy so we decide to have a break and reconvene later at the Villa Santi Hotel bar  at 4pm.

The weather has cooled, and its pleasant at Villa Santi, Jo from the Phillipines, one of the ” boat people” is walking past, she joins us for a drink and a chat. It’s good to see young people make big life decisions like she has, she joins us for dinner in the local market area as well.

The local khao soi is good, but not up to the standard we experienced in Chiang Mai. We see more “boat people”, Reece from London, Sophie from Devon, Sanjeev from the USA, a blonde woman from the UK ( can’t recall her name) and some other young backpackers, all having a drink and enjoying the food. It’s a nice thing to talk to young people who have the courage and conviction to head off into the world into remote places ( like where we are), experience other cultures, food, people like the Lao people who are less fortunate than a lot of us. 

We wander back home via the river down the local market ally ways.

Ciao from Laos

Pauolo