Laos was certainly not lousy

Loas was the antithesis of lousy. It was amazing from start to finish. It was phenomenal even with the terrible luck I had. I was sick, I broke my camera, and I broke my watch. Thank goodness bad things only happen in threes.

Last time I wrote we were on our way to Luang Prabang. The trip there was absolutely stunning. We drove a long 9 hours on a bus through the mountains on a VERY, and I mean VERY windy hilly road. The drive was beautiful, although typical Sarah style I slept through most of it.

When we arrived in Luang Prabang the tuk tuk driver dropped us off in what seemed to be the middle of no-where as far as guest houses were concerned. After walking around for about 30-45 minutes with our bags, asking every guesthouse we saw for prices and to look at a room, we finally found an English girl who pointed us the right direction for a cheap and clean place. We settled on Hoxieng Guesthouse and it was lovely. Luang Prabang is a bit more expensive than Vang Vieng. (We paid $7.50 each per night here). After a delicious green curry dinner and a stroll through the night market we passed out pretty early in the evening. There is not much night life in Luang Prabang, although we hear the place to go is the bowling alley.

The next morning we had the expectations of renting bicycles and going on a 35 km each way cycle to the waterfalls. That quickly did not happen when we FINALLY heard back from the Gibbon Experience in Houy Xai that we were booked on the trip starting on the 14th but we had to pay immediately. Pay Pal is the devil. We spent all morning long trying to get an Internet connection fast enough to set up Pay Pal accounts, call the Gibbon Experience, book a slow boat, set a schedule for the next few days and so on. By the time the day was practically over we had accomplished none of the above. My pay pal account did not want to work, The Gibbon Experience was not answering their phone, we realized we had an extra day in Luang Prabang so no boat tix had to be bought yet, and it was a hectic morning. Although by the end of the day after seeing a lovely temple and having a delicious meal once again, doing a little retail therapy at the night market all was good.

The next morning we did end up renting bikes, and we started on what was supposed to be a fairly easy 35 km bike ride to the waterfalls. We quickly learned that this was not an easy bike ride, and at the end of the 1 hour and 50 minute ride I was well exhausted. Thank goodness there was some absolutely icy cold water to swim in once we got there. The waterfalls were spectacular and it was well worth the bike ride. After swimming and hiking for a few hours we had to get back to town. I opted to take a tuk tuk back with the bike tied to the roof with the only other 3 crazy people who biked there. Heidi was wonder-woman and biked back to town.

We were absolutely shattered by the end of the day and after a cheap 5,000 kip vegetarian buffet (did I mention I have become a vegetarian on this trip?) and a cake for dinner we re-packed our overstuffed bags and went to bed early in order to be at the boat for an 8 am departure.

The slow boat is exactly as it sounds. Slow. It took about 9 hours to get to a town called Pak Beng where there is a compulsory overnight stay. Thank goodness the night before we left we ran into a french girl who told us Pak Beng is run entirely on a generator and there is no electricity from 10pm-6am. There is NOTHING in Pak Beng aside from a few guesthouses, a few restaurants, and lots of people selling breakfast on the street in the morning when everyone heads to the slow boat for day 2 of 2 to get to Houy Xai.

The second day on the slow boat Heidi and I opted NOT to sit on the solid wooden benches but instead park ourselves on the floor with all the local Laos people. This was a more comfortable option except for the feeding times when the sloshing and chewing, and gnawing of meat (who knows what kind of stinky meat this was) was being ingested.

When our 9 hour boat trip was over we ran, literally I could have gone no faster with my backpack on, to where we thought the office to the gibbon experience was. It was 7:10 pm, and we were supposed to have been at the office by 7. Once we found it, after kilometers of walking uphill, we were relieved to find out (don't forget we couldn't get ahold of them) that our reservations were there and we would be leaving for the experience the next morning.

A little about the Gibbon Experience... We originally heard of it from our friend Simon who we traveled with in Australia. We really knew nothing about it, and had only met one girl on our travels who had done it. She said it was a wonderful experience but the rats and the spiders in the tree houses we sleep in are out of control. Great... We all know how much I love rats and spiders. The only other thing we knew was that we zipline from tree to tree, hike for a few hours a day, and that was it. We had also been to the website once or twice, but it is also pretty vague. www.gibbonx.org/

We woke up and after a 3 hour drive to the jungle outskirts we met our guide Jaa Lee. After trekking for about one hour, we got a a base where we received what would be our best friend for the next 3 days. Our harness. We came to the first zipline pretty soon thereafter and it was frightening, exhilarating, amazing, and all things in between. The first one is always the hardest but once I was zip-lining hundreds of feet in the air with spectacular views, the wind blowing fast against my face so hard and fast that tears formed, I felt like a bird and I was loving it. We zipped and hiked for about 5 hours the first day, and once we reached out tree house for the night dinner awaited us as well as coffee and tea and a hornets nest in the bathroom. The first night I got zero sleep for fear of rats and spiders coming into my bed (although there was a tarp around me) and an early 6 am wake up call was no help either.

Day two we did more trekking, zip-lining, we swam in the most icy cold water I have ever been in. This was our only "shower" for three days. The hiking was not easy, it was not the most difficult climb, but with a harness on, walking in the super humid rain forest, it was a great workout. The guide we were with has done this every single day for one year and 5 months. They whistled as they walked up these steep hills and rocky terrain while wearing flip flops. Insane.

Night number two is when the rats came. I was lucky enough to not see any huge spiders, although I know they were there as the other members of the 6 person trek saw them. The rats on the other hand were very much present, and made lots of noise fighting with each other at night and crawling over the tarps that covered our beds in a tent like fashion. All said and done, the rats were not too bad, and in fact some were even ( I cant believe I am saying this) cute. Day three over breakfast and coffee in the tree house we were lucky enough to see some monkeys playing in the trees. Wonderful, and surreal.

We got back to Houy Xai at about 4 pm on the 16th. Those three days were by far one of my most favorite experiences while traveling. The forest was unspoiled, the guides were amazing, the zip lining was something I never thought I would do, and it was overall fantastic. I highly highly highly recommend doing it.

We got to Chang Mai Thailand yesterday (boat then bus) and this rainy morning we went to see some tigers. The tigers were adorable. So cute. We were allowed in the cage with them and were able to cuddle and lay with them. I am not sure if they are sedated or what, but they were awfully sleepy. So soft, so cute, so happy that I cuddled a tiger. The one we were with was named Boo, and he was about 10 months old. AMAZING how big they are at 10 months.

Tomorrow we head on yet again another trek. This one is only 2 days, but should be wonderful. We get to ride elephants! :)

Sorry for the long entry today, there was a lot to catch up on. Hopefully the internet in Thailand will be much faster and more abundant that Laos.