Laos, Monks, Hill tribes, a million Elephants, and "meat on a stick"

It was with a heavy heart that we left Sri Lanka on the very last day of our 30 day Visa, however I'd heard such good things about Laos (and especially Luang Prabang) that we were pretty excited about stage 2 of the trip.

After a quick pit stop to resupply in the Kuala Lumpur shopping malls (and some guilty pleasures at the cinemas/food courts) we then grabbed our next super cheap Air Asia flight to Laos (£65).  I'm loving Air Asia by the way.  It's like Easy Jet but really cheap and really good.

First stop Vientiane...  This the capital city and is described as a city with no hustle or bustle.  I was sceptical about this but it's one very chilled out city.  It's on the Mekong and borders Thailand.  People drive slowly here, food takes a while to come, no one hassles you and everyone seems really chilled.  Apparently Laos's full name for is Laos PDR. The Locals claim this stands for Please Don't Rush.  How very apt?  We grabbed a couple of bikes and set out to see the sights.  Cycling in a city (especially an Asian Capital city) would normally scare the bejesus out of me but here it was an absolute breeze.  Cars seem to slow down for you and traffic just nicely, politely flows along at a easy pace.

We took a trip around some of the what seemed like hundreds of temples which were all pretty spectacular.  We stopped for lunch at some lovely bakeries, visited some sprawling markets where someone selling pigs trotters, and intestines was jammed inbetween a stall selling kids toys, and another selling fabrics.  Crazy.  After a couple of sunset drinks looking across the Mekong, we hit the night markets for some clothes shopping and a few cheap snacks.















Almost everyone I've spoken to about Laos has told me I'd LOVE Luang Prabang so after a couple of days we excited headed off to the Ancient capital.  We came to Luang Prabang with high expectations and booked into a cheap guesthouse for a few nights.  We ended up staying 10.  It turns out "everyone" was right and we did LOVE Luang Prabang. 

Luang Prabang is a leafy, quiet, Uber chilled town full of Monastries, temples, markets, old traditional wooden villas, and most importantly some of gorgeous cafes with delicious menus.  The old town is almost an island being 80% surrounded by rivers with temporary bamboo bridges.  It's in a valley surrounded by forested Mountains on all sides.  At this time of year there's a pink blossom on lots of the trees.  We fell in love with the place at first sight.



On the second day we got up at 5.30 am to see the "Giving of Alms."  Every day a procession of the local monks walk through the early morning misty streets of the old town and the locals (and tourists) give food to the monks.  At first this seemed a bit of a tourist carnival but later we found some back streets and quietly observed some of the local old ladies offering rice to what seemed like a never ending stream of monks.  It was a very serene experience.

I'd say Luang Prabang has something for everyone and as we didn't want to leave we tried most of it.  First we volunteered at the local library and ended up teaching some young monks English.  Unfortunately I couldn't help them with some of their homework which included filling in the words to Westlife songs (you've got to draw the line somewhere right?)  There are several Elephant rescue centers near Luang prabang so next we decided to take some Mahout lessons (to learn how to drive an elephant).  Laos is known as the land of a million elephants. These days the truth is there's only 1,600 left.  Of the 1600 I got paired with the biggest, greediest elephant and she was determined not to listen to me.  She did however enjoy feeding and bathtime where if I'm honest I got more of a bath than she did.  Needless to say I left being a little bit in love with my elephant.  We trekked into the mountains and stayed with a hilltribe, then Kayaked back down into town.  I can now say hello in Kmu and Hmong.  You never know when that could come in handy.  Tinas been enjoying learning the language, and has done really well.  I haven't been quite as successful.  Yesterday I told the guy on the toll bridge that he was delicious (I was trying to say nice to meet you.)

The Night markets in Luang Prabang are a sight to behold.  The main street is closed and each night hundreds of stalls set up blocking the street, selling millions of different handicrafts, jewellery, silk scarves, T shirts, and fabrics.  Most have been hand made by the ladies of the hill tribes.  Tina was of course in her element.  Luckily for me they also had food stalls.  I'd call this part of the blog Meat on a stick heaven.  "Stick around" and I'll tell you why.  The Laos people are close to my heart as they love a good roadside BBQ.  Fish, Lizard, chicken breast, leg, feet and the rest- (nothing was wasted).  The smell from 4.00 onwards as the food starts to cook is just mouthwatering.  To go with the BBQ there are several Buffet stalls setup.  For 80p you can fill your plate with soo much lovely food, of all sorts of variety.  The only challenge on the BBQ or the buffet is guessing what a lot of it is, but it all tasted pretty good to me (especially for 80p).

 

Finally after 10 days we realised sadly we had to move on....  We're now down at a town called Vang Vieng. This is a riverside town that is set with a dramatic background of Limestone Karsts/mountains.  The scenery is amazing.  It's the adventure capital of Laos, but the town itself seems to have become a bit of a tourist party town, which seems a shame given the beauty of the area (especially after the quiet and chill of Luang Prabang.)  We took some bikes out yesterday and to explore the area.  We found some huge Limstone caves and and dangled our feet in a beautiful blue lagoon, but just cycling between these giant mountains is breathtaking.  It's a beautiful area and in our last 2 days here we'll probably do some more kayaking before heading back to the airport, and onwards to our next destination.....  Nepal.

Wildlife, Tea plantations, Mountains, Culture and the edge of the world

Well where do I start.  As the title suggests the last 2 weeks have been action packed, and I'm not sure what to write about first...  I guess we should start where I left off.  We left Tangalla and the coast behind (although a big part of me is still there.)

Next stop was Tissa, the gateway to the National parks and Safaris.  We chose Yala National park (thanks for the recommendation Al).  There are 21 leopards in Yala, aswell as a bunch (sorry Keith) Herd of Elephants, crocodiles, deer, water buffalo, lizards and millions of different birds.  We booked a full day Safari and set off at 5.30 am, in our private jeep.  Our guide had come highly recommended.  He took us straight to the best spots to see the leopards.  Nothing.  :-(  We drove around all morning.  No signs of any leopards.  We saw leopard tracks, leopard poo but no Leopards.  Apparently they are pretty lazy and it was a really cold day so they were probably asleep under a bush.  We saw a lot of birds but I couldn't help feeling somewhat gutted.  It was all about the leopard for me. 

 

Finally at lunchtime after all the morning safaris had turned tail and headed home, just as I was about to lose heart, our driver got a call from one of his spotters.  We set off, and 5 minutes later were staring into the branches of a huge tree straight at the rump of the biggest cat I've ever seen (fast asleep!)  It was amazing to see.  We soon found another (again fast asleep) in a tree.  We parked up and got comfy.  After about 20 minutes this one got up to stretch.  Our guide told us that every 15 minutes or so they move around.  This one however seemed to be moving along the branch towards us.  Our driver told us to be quiet, as this amazingly stealthy cat lightly picked it's way right down the tree, and crossed the path right infront of our jeep.  I swear I stopped breathing for about 5 minutes.  A truelly magical moment I'll never forget.

 

The next day we got an early bus which climbed higher and higher clinging to the side of mountains, as we headed up through tea plantations, past waterfalls, higher and higher until we reached the highland village called Ella.  This was my favourite place in Sri Lanka.  A small village/town that really caters to backpackers and trekkers.  We spent our days with trekking along railway tracks and up mountains to get some amazing 360 "top of the world" type vistas.  Afterwards we'd come down to one of the many chilled out cafes serving great food, with shakes and smoothies.  I'd like to say the walks were the reason I'd recommend this place but if I'm honest the food and drinks here sealed the deal for me. 

After 3 days of eating (with the occassional stroll inbetween) we got the train to another Highland town called Nuwara Eliya.  This was the most spectacular train journey I've ever been on (£2.50 for 3 hours and about 80km).  Clinging to the sides of mountains, with waterfalls, amazing views and tea pickers waving at us from seas of green leaves.  Nuwara Eliya is otherwise known as Little England.  There's some old 5 star colonial villas, and hotels where you can eat roast beef, play billiards or have a round of golf, but we really struggled to see the resemblance to good old Blightly.  That was until the rain started.  3 days of torrential rain....  well we now know why it's called little england.  We did a trek to a waterfall through the Pedro tea plantation and were greated on the way there by all the workers who curiously watched us go by and occassionally waved.  On the way back they stopped us and offered us lunch.  It was a really nice genuine experience.  All the guys wanted to say hello, shake hands and practice their english.  They seemed really curious about us and what we thought about Sri Lanka and their town.  I guess we did look quite Bizarre trekking through their fields in waterfproofs in the pooring rain while they took shelter.  Crazy English!

The next few days involved a lot of treks.  We started with a dawn trek to Hortons plains and a Vista aptly called "the edge of the world".  It's a huge plain with a dramatic drop and views over mountains, lakes and apparently all the way to the coast on a clear day.  On our day it was raining, but still the view took our breath away.  Next up the mighty Adams Peak.  This is a sacred mountain and lots of pilgrims climb the mountain to the temple at the top starting at 2am to arrive for Sunrise.  What a great idea we thought....  The day we chose it happened to be raining.  Still as Tina told me "there's no such thing as bad weather....  just the wrong clothes."  Waterproofs donned we started out following the twinkling lights of the path up the side of this mountain.  We got to the top for sunrise (around 6.20), unfortunately there were was torrential rain and huge winds. Despite the weather it was pretty special.  It really felt like the top of the world (it was certainly a bloody long way down!).  We sat in our waterproofs and took in the sunrise (it went from dark to not quite so dark) before the climb down.  All 5200 painful steps.  Guess what!  After breakfast the sun came out.  (Madeleine- You'd have been proud of my swearing).  That was over a week ago and I'm still walking like I've soiled myself. 

Funnily enough 5200 steps in the middle of the night was the last trek we did.  Since then we headed north for some culture (and less walking).  We've been to Kandy with it's beutiful lake and dance shows, Sigiriya-(Lion Rock) a massive ancient rock that sticks up out of the flat landscape and is surrounded by ancient ruins.  Tina had me up at 5.30 again and we were the first up this rock.  Again it was pretty special (just not what my legs needed).  Only 370 painful meters up to the ancient monastry and palace on the top.  On the way down we took in a pretty cool cave with amazing rock art of naked ladies with three nipples (Scott- Total recall tastic!). The old bloke next to me made me chuckle when he told his wife he'd got some ideas of how they should redecorate...  :-)

  The next day we cycled around the ruins of Polonnaruwa. We rested in the shade of ruins and watched monkeys play infront of massive reclining Buddhas. Finally we're back in Colombo for one last rice and Curry before we get our flight to Kuala Lumpar and then onto Laos. 

 

 

Good bye Sri Lanka...  You've been amazing.  What a great start to our trip.  Soo much variety in such a small place.  I can't recommend Sri Lanka enough.  The highlight has to be the Sri Lankan people, the friendliest people on the planet.  (Although Ella comes a close second).

Sri Lanka: Cities and Beaches

Well we're off....  The much deliberated year off is finally underway.  We finished work at the end of 2012 and had 3 hectic weeks trying to read lonely planets, pack up all our other stuff, get jabs, organise insurance, say our goodbyes and eventually booked our first plane ticket...  A one way ticket to Sri Lanka.

We arrived in Colombo and given my low expectations I was really pleasantly suprised.  We arrived late afternoon and headed straight for Galle Face Green which is a coastal park where the locals gather for kite flying, eating ice cream, yoga, exercise or just a family outing.  My first impressions were of a very smiley friendly people, a gorgeous sunset and a fantastic first first meal for less than £1.50.  On the second day in Colombo we set off to explore the city further and were met by a lovely helpful old chap who told us we were going the wrong way.  His name was "Bernard" and he was a Buddist teacher who was off to pray.  "Apparently" it was a bank holiday so the markets and temples we were planning to visit were closed but our new found friend suggested another temple which was just 15 minutes walk.  Of we went, with "Bernard" showing us the way.  To cut a long story short after 30 minutes walking we realised we'd been had and "Bernard" was taking us to his temple where no doubt he'd ask us for a donation.  After 45 minutes we reached the temple and sure enough "Bernard" asked for a donation.  We actually had a lovely walk through some of the nicer parts of Colombo (lovely colonial buildings, cricket pitches and wide tree lined streets) so we gave "Bernard" a small "donation" and set off for the Markets...  On the way we encountered several more elderly gents all with traditional english names all of whom were teachers and wanted to help us in our touristic endeavours...  Albert was another favourite.  Bless them!  :-)

The Markets weren't closed but they we're soo impressive so we took ourselves on a walking tour of Colombo. It is a strange city.  There's a fusion of old colonial architecture, and very new.  Since the end of the troubles in Sri Lanka the economy seems to be booming and there's building work everywhere.  I suspect Sri Lanka and especially Colombo will be a very differnt place in 5 years time.

As neither Tina or I are city people we didn't linger in Colombo, so on day 3 got an early bus south for the coastal city of Galle.  Getting the right bus was a learning experience.  At one point we asked for the air con bus to Galle and were directed to the bus right next to me.  Somewhat skeptically we got on and were sat down (with 4 back packs and about 60 people crammed on the bus this wasn't as easy as you'd think).  It was then we realised that the bus wasn't air con and it wasn't heading south to the Coast.  :-)  Good job we're seasoned travellers eh?  Sometime later.....

Galle is an old dutch coastal fort with a really mellow vibe.  There's not a great deal to do, so we chilled out for a couple of days, walked around the fortress walls, drank milkshakes, ate some of the best rice and curry I've ever had and people watched.  The local families on the beach seemed as curious about us as we were about them so there was a lot of "Hellos", "Where are you from?" and smiles all round.

Day 5 saw us heading further south to the beach town of Mirissa which is a beach town famous for it's whale watching trips.  The beach here was lovely, with lots of Beach bars serving cool shakes/cocktails and playing Bob Marley on repeat.  Everyone here seemed to be good looking and have the perfect bronzed beach body.  I obviously, immediately felt right at home...  :-(  We treated ourselves to a lovely resort Cabana, and could easily have stayed for a lot longer.  The Whale watching was good and we got to see a bunch of whales including the planets largest animal the Blue whale, however it was quite sad to see some of the smaller less qualified hotel boats which weren't giving the whales enough space.  After 3 days we decided to move on, so I sadly dragged my still palid corpse onto the bus south (hopefully the right one!)

We thought Mirissa was paradise until we headed further down the coast to Tangalla.  The beach in Tangalla stretches for miles and is pretty much deserted.  We walked for miles and only saw a handful of people.  Most of these were local fishermen taking shelter from the sun under the palm trees.  The surf is quite dangerous so you can only swim in a few spots but the crashing sound of the huge dumping waves will stay with me forever.   We came for 2 days and stayed 5 (most of which in a hammock).  At night we saw giant green turtles coming ashore to lay their eggs, and fire flies gliding around our cabana, all with the constant rythmic sound track of crashing surf.  Paradise.

We eventually dragged ourselves away to head to off for some Safari and Highland trekking...  I'm missing the beach already...  Tangalla I'll be back.