Thailand - Elephants, Islands and Even More Temples

We have taken our first flight of the trip from Luang Prabang in Laos to Chang Mai in Thailand. In order to get our thirty day visa, we had to enter by air. We would only get a fifteen days visa by arriving overland. It was disappointing not to complete the landmass without flying, but we are proud of the journey we have made, all the way across Europe, Russia, China and through South East Asia.

 

Chang Mai is a great city. We met up with Jerry and Aisling again. We booked into the same guesthouse as them, Kamala Guesthouse. This first evening we went for dinner and drinks and met with Nick and Dan again and another lady they had met previously, Jen. We had a great night chatting until the wee hours. The next day, we embarked on our own walking tour. Chang Mai is covered in Wats (temples), it has Wats coming out of its proverbial arse. And we probably saw all of them. We have displayed a select few below. After all our Wat watching we deserved a big cup of tea and were supplied by the lovely people at Farm Story. For many people a green tea tastes like grass, at best. These people are wrong, especially the green tea at this place. It was one of the most delicious liquids I have ever consumed.

Donald Duck...An ancient buddist symbol!

After a little disco nap we visited the night bazaar with Jerry and Aisling, which sold everything you can imagine and got some grub and a beer. We then had a really fun party where we had a scrabble off and played pool. Stop judging. We had our fun and thats all, that matters.

Myself and Emmet booked into do a cooking course that the others had done previously. It was one of the most fun activities we have done. We cooked six dishes and made curry paste from scratch. And of course ate it all, fat bastards I know, but if you cannot have six dinners when your travelling, then when can you? One of the best dishes was druken noodles, which involved putting water on oil so it explodes and you look shit cool.

Out next destination was Pai, the hippie capital of the world. We got the vomit bus there, which gets its name from the fact that many people vomit on it. Neither of us are bad travellers, but Niamh did start feeling pretty queasy. Maybe eating six dinners in one day before getting the vomit bus wasn't the best laid plan.

We stayed in a guesthouse outside the town called Amy's Guesthouse. The place was nice, the owners were lovely, they went out of their way for us, but it was a bit far outside the town. Pai is a cool place with loads of great cafes, bars and shops and we would have liked to spend more time in it.

The best way to see the area is moped, which we were all for. Pai has a mini grand canyon, so that was our first stop. We tried to complete the walking circuit, but parts of it were too treacherous, so we decided to live instead.

Our second stop were the hot springs. These ones were without the dodgy overhead cables like the ones in the cave in China. You can buy eggs on the way up and boil them in the river. We didn't. That was just a fact we thought we would share. It might come up in a table quiz sometime, but in reality probably not. The water at the spring is 80 degrees and it was very hot where we were sitting a little further down stream. It was pretty cool sitting in a river outside but with the freshly poured bath effect.

Our final stop of the day was a Chinese village, in the middle of Thailand! Whatever will they come up with next. It did feel like being back in China. All the houses had the red good luck messages over the front door and we got dumplings for the first time in months. The houses were made of mud and straw, which was a bit less Chinese, but very rustic looking.

 

After all our sightseeing, it started getting late so we decided to hit for home before it got dark. Of course, at that very moment, it starts pouring out of the heavens. We managed to get home during a drizzle period, but affected our plans for a fun night out. What hampered the plans even more was the fact that there are no taxis after six o clock. We had to arrange a lift home with Rob the owner of the guesthouse. We didn't want to be keeping him up too late so arranged a lift for eleven o clock. It felt like being a teenager again! Luckily we had checked with him though, otherwise we would have had a long walk home in the rain. We went for food in one of the great little restaurants and went to a cool bar with a pool table. We ended up bumping into a couple we had met on the cooking course and had a few drinks with them.

We returned to Chang Mai the next day on the vomit bus, where loads of people vomited, eugh, to be ready for our visit to the elephant nature park the following day. This was the most expensive but most amazing thing we have done on the trip so far. The park rescues mistreated elephants and provides a sanctuary for them. Elephants eat a lot, so they make the money to house and feed them from tourists.

When we arrived in the morning, we fed them baskets of fruit. You hold out the fruit and they take it off you in their trunks. When we got a little more confident, we learned how to put it directly into their mouths. Some of the elephants we really fussy, one of them hated pumpkin and refused to eat any that was given!

Afterwards we went down to the river. Some of the more placid elephants were brought for their wash. They wash daily to cool themselves and wash off the mud they use to protect their skin.They stood in the river and we threw water on them. This was probably one of the funest things we have ever done. One of them loves her bath and rolled over while people scrubbed her. We then went to a look out point where we watched the baby elephants bathe. The mothers are very protective so they don't let tourists in the river with the babies. But we were able to approach them afterwards.

After lunch, which was an amazing buffet, we watched a documentary which told us more about the park, its owner and the elephants. The domestic elephants in Thailand are not treated very well. The wild elephants are classed as endangered and are given certain rights. However, the domestic ones are classed as livestock and can be killed or harmed with little repercussions. The park is campaigning to give domestic elephants the same protection as wild ones, which is probably not enough as it is considering how their habitat is being encroached upon. The most shocking element was definitely how the elephants are trained. They are tortured into becoming submissive. They are locked in a cage just big enough to hold them and beaten with sticks with nails in them until they learn the commands. For an animal that is in one hand revered and is the symbol of the country, they are treated really badly. It was horrible to watch and we are glad we didn't go on any of the elephants riding tours now. Hopefully the laws will be changed sooner rather than later.

We had a great day visiting the elephant camp and it was a highlight so far. The following day we decided to head to Ayuthaya where there are some more nice temples. It was a long trip, so we went for the night train instead. The train left at 5.30 p.m and was to arrive at 6.44 a.m the following morning. But this is Asia. The most dangerous of our delays to date, and hopefully remains as such.

We felt a huge jerk and we came to an abrupt halt, much like you would if your leading train carriage had derailed for example. In fact, thats exactly what happened. An hour and a half into our trip, the engine came off the tracks, managed to stop before the 30 to 40 foot drop just to the left of the tracks themselves. Ppphew! So all was well thankfully, but we sat there for hours upon hours. There is only one track, so it took ages to get the correct equipment there to sort it out. We finally left and ended up arriving in seven and a half hours late. And there was us thinking, great, no buses this time, should be a smooth trip. Lesson learned S.E. Asia.

We got a tuc tuc to our guesthouse called Baan Lotus in Ayuthaya, which was thankfully still holding our booking, as we said we would arrive about seven in the morning.It was a nice place and the lady who owns it is lovely and very helpful. She has this massive pond, about half an acre, with a wooden decking built out onto it, with hammocks and all. It is a great little spot, even if the town isn't much to write home about. So I won't. The area where the temples are was really nice though. So myself and the birdfriend rented bikes the following morning and checked out a couple. Not too many as we have seen many, many temples over the last few months. A commonly used phrase one hears on the backpacker trail is "templed out", and we certainly are.

Our plan was to head to some of the islands on both the east and west coast over two weeks starting with Ko Tao. However, when we showed up to get our bus tickets, the bus was full, so we bought tickets to Ko Phangan instead. We got the VIP bus which sounds fancy and looks nice until you realise you have to sit for the entire overnight journey. They also don't include customer service as part of the package. Our conductor was one of the rudest creatures you will ever encounter. Fun times.

We got the bus to a pier and were to get the first boat in the morning from there. We were waiting for the boat to arrive when a little soap opera unfolded right before our very eyes. One of the passengers robbed a blanket from the bus. Our 'delightful' conductor realised. However, instead of being professional  and taking the person aside to ask for it back she decided to create a scene instead. The girl who robbed it wasn't much  better and instead of owning up and giving it back, she denied the massive bulge in her bag was the blanket and got quite aggressive. The whole thing escalated from there and the police were called and then another police man with a gun showed up. Lets not forget that this is over a blanket! Our boat was delayed as they threatened to kick the girl off the boat. Eventually the whole thing was resolved and the entertainment ceased.

We got an overpriced taxi to the west side of the island and looked around for accommodation and after a long walk in the heat found Shiralea. It is a great place. We met a fella Bryn from New Zealand and had some great sessions. We had only planned to stay a few days, but were having so much fun we decided to stay longer. We passed away the days on the beach, in the pool and at the bar.

At this stage it was getting close to full moon time. We originally weren't fussed about going, but when in Rome. Shiralea was booked out for it so we moved over to the South side of the island for a few days to Coral Bungalows. We have heard so many things, both good and bad, about the Full Moon Party. We headed down to the beach around midnight. At that stage the beach was jammed. We bought some buckets and went to meet Bryn at Rock bar. It turned out to be a great spot. There was a really good DJ and a relatively quiet spot where we could dance. We plonked ourselves there for the night and had a great time.

 

 

At this stage, we debated whether to head to another island or head back to Shiralea. It was raining on Ko Phi Phi and didn't seem worth the overnight journey. So we decided an island is an island and when you have found a good one stick with it! When we got back to Shiralea, some new guests had arrived. Bryn introduced to a group of friends from New Zealand and the UK. They were great craic and we had another few days alternating between the beach, pool and bar! Not exciting reading, but a great few days.

It was eventually time to leave, so we got an overnight train to Bangkok with some of the Shiralea crowd. We stayed the first night at Home guesthouse. That evening we passed up the opportunity to see a ping pong show and went to the cinema for the first time in months to see the new Batman film. Emmet liked, Niamh fell asleep!

We needed to lay low for a few days to rest our wallets and livers after Ko Phangan and decided to look for somewhere with a TV for the evening times. We spent hours wandering around Bangkok in search of clean but reasonably priced accommodation. It seems this does not exist in Bangkok. Everywhere is either an absolute shithole or else pure luxury. We ended up moving to a place called Wild Orchid Villa. It is pretty mediocre but done for a couple of days. Emmet got a really high temperature the first night so Niamh freaked out and googled malaria symptoms. Luckily, he was fine but it scuppered any sightseeing plans for the following few days. We'll have to save the next adventure for New Zealand.

Luang Prabang - Waterfalls, Temples and Relaxing

The drive to Luang Prabang was spectacular. We went through the jungle in the mountains. Pity we weren't awake for more of it. Niamh managed about twenty minutes of non-snoozy time during the eight hour journey. We arrived in Luang Prabang to torrential rain in the dark, as the bus was late, not exactly unexpected. Emmet went on a food run and we settled into our sweet guesthouse called Alounsavath Guesthouse that Jerry and Aisling booked for us. The next morning we met them for breakfast and planned our day.

The four of us got a Tuk Tuk to a waterfall called  Kuang Si falls, an hour outside the town, which ensured sufficient quantity of brain shake for the day. We walked past the random bear conservation park first. They looked healthy enough. There was a nice hike up to the waterfall with swimming and picnic spots along the way. The waterfall was beautiful. It was really high and has lots of smaller falls beneath it. We went swimming in a pool, but ended up getting out quickly to get away from the fish sucking at our feet. Except for Jerry who braved a few rope swings into the water as well as an impressive dive off a rapid.

Later on, we climbed Phousi hill for sunset. We left a little late so had to sprint up the hill to make it. The sunset was a bit of an anti-climax but the views over the town were worth the sweat.

There is a good food market every evening which serves barbecue for ridiculously cheap prices and bottles of Laos beer. We figured it would be rude not to indulge. We went with Jerry and Aisling and two Kiwi lads they met in Vietnam, Nick and Dan. We then went to a great bar called Utopia. We sat at a low tables on cushions on the floor drinking more Laos beer.

We decided to go to a small rural village set in limestone karst mountains called Nong Khiaw for a couple of days. It is only just over two and a half hours away by bus. We stayed in Nam Ou River Lodge. The rooms were grand, but I wouldn't recommend that people stay there. We didn't trust the owner and felt quite ripped off by the end.

We arrived early and had most of the day to play with, so decided to go for a walk. We walked a couple of kilometres to Tham Patok Cave where locals hid when the Americans bombed to country to shit. Laos is the most bombed country in the world. It was used as a supply route by the Vietnamese, which gave the Americans significant incentive to drop masses of cluster bombs, many still in the ground unexploded.

The cave was a little less developed that we had anticipated. We first had to walk across, or rather through, the bridgeless river to the "guides" (ie some lads who hang around all day waiting for people like us). This was doubly fun since Jerry had just seen a water snake in a nearby stream. There were five or six fellas so we planned how we take them if they turned out to be opportunists. It mainly involved letting karate Jerry do his thing. We then climbed up a rickety stair case until we hit a gate half way up. So, a gate as an obstacle, what is the normal thing to do? Open it? Not if it is padlocked with no key. Instead, we climbed over this gate 20 foot up. The cave itself was quite small, and like most other caves in the world, paled in comparison to Khong Lor. The "guide" told us at one stage five hundred people were camped in it. They even had signs showing were the governor, communications unit etc congregated. Getting down the gate was less troublesome than we expected.

Emmet showed his steely determination in the face adversity on the way back through the river. Something started sucking at his foot (I am glad this is not a problem we have in Ireland, although I have heard it is known to happen in Coppers), so he started screaming and thrashing his leg about. It gave up and sucked somewhere else and Emmet bolted across the river faster than I have ever seen him move.

That evening after dinner, Jerry and Aisling introduced us to the joys of Liverpool Rummy, an addictive card game that we will be having parties centred around when we get home. You have been warned. We attempted to drink a few beers but the fella working was more determined to sleep than we were to drink apparently. He went for a snooze in the beer storage room and was not bothered by our incessant knocking.

The next day we rented out some bicycles. You would think in Asia of all places the bikes would be suited to people of smaller stature. You would be wrong. Niamh struggled to find a mountain bike small enough and Aisling hadn't a hope. Aisling ended up getting a city bike with no gears instead. We cycled out the road, which was a lot hillier than necessary for leisurely cycle. We went through beautiful scenery and quaint little villages with small wooden stilt houses.

The people were very friendly and every child shouted Sabadee (hello) to us. At one stage Niamh was waving to a child and pulled on the brakes to slow down a little. Unfortunately, she pulled on the front brakes and ended up going over the handles bars. It was just what she needed, more injuries. A few villagers were standing around not really knowing what to do and just to add to the embarrassment, sure why not, a few more villagers came out of their houses to see what the commotion was. Other than a sore wrist, she got off lightly, especially considering what could have been.

We booked a boat back to Luang Prabang. We arose early in the morning to the mother of all rain storms and reconsidered our mode of conveyance (we have been playing a lot of scrabble). The owner tried to convince us that the rain wasn't too bad. Unfortunately for him we have eyes and therefore were not fooled. We lost half the price of the boat fare and then he took advantage of the fact that there are limited transport options and fleeced us on the bus ticket. Nice little earner for him. Sneaky fecker.

That evening we went to the market again for food and a gander. The market is much more low pressure than many of the markets in Asia and full of colourful tribal handicrafts. However, like the other markets, sells a limited range of things, with loads of stalls selling the exact same product. I don't know how they make a living selling the same things. But it is nice to walk around and Niamh got craft envy looking at all the embroidered bags.

That night we went to a really nice bar called Icon. It's run by a Hungarian lady. It is really nicely decorated, kind of French boudoir style. It was expensive though. It is twice the price for a Beer Lao than anywhere else, which is the bar you set on prices over here. But she has a good selection, the cocktails look good, so a second visit will be done. Did someone say White Russian. Nice!

Jerry and his Aisling were to head off on their boat to Thailand the next morning. This was not possible as the rain had been so bad, there had been a mud slide and full trees were floating down stream. Basically half a forest, so no boats that day. Unless of course your a mental Laos lad who loves a bit of fire wood and chooses to jump into his rubbish row boat that he has to empty the water out several times a trip. Then jump into said fast flowing river and tie ropes around the massive tree trunks to haul them to the river bank. Health & Safety would have a shit fit if they saw these lads. One trunk took one of these boats from under one bloke, who happened to be beside one of the larger boats. He jumped and grabbed onto the side of the other boat and swung out of it while looking up at me and laughing. Barking mad I tell ya. I stayed firmly rooted to the footpath and figured I'd leave them to it.

So that day Niamh, Jerry and Aisling all went to the National History Museum. Emmet wasn't feeling the may west, so he stayed in bed watching awful Asian TV and even worse HBO. They are the equivalent of an echo with amount of repeats. I've seen Transformers, Dark Side Of The Moon four times this month. I mean it's good but come on. The one decent movie channel they seem to have is dubbed. Terribly dubbed at that. One woman does everyones voice, without emotion. Ah well, at least the Olympics is on and good aul Katie Taylor won the gold medal. She is amazing, and probably our best ever athlete. PROUD TO BE IRISH!!!!

Myself and Niamhington have decided to stay in Luang Prabang for the week until we get our first flight of the trip to Thailand.  It is a very pretty town, full of French style colonial buildings, temples and lovely cafes, bars and restaurants. It is one of our favourite places in South East Asia and a great place to just hang out. We moved to a cheaper but still nice guesthouse called Sikoukhone Guesthouse. We have decided that for the next five days doing stuff is over rated. So instead, we will chill on the balcony, read, drink lots of cups of tea and play scrabble on the computer (Jerry's fault). We will also gorge ourselves on lots of great meals for under a fiver before we resort to living on cheesy puffs in Australia and New Zealand. We need a rest, I know, I know, go and f*#k ourselves, but traveling does take alot of energy. Your nearly always on the go. A couple of fourteen hour bus journeys on Asian roads, mixed with humidity and you'll soon see what we mean. Beats working though.

Well that will be all for now folks. Thailand next. Then onto New Zealand. You know, the closer we get, on quite nights, I swear I can almost hear O'Dowda snoring and other times the sound of a knee being slapped rigorously with echo of ah man, ah man......

For more photos follow the link.

Cambodia to Laos - Temples, flat tyres, bribes and hammocks

We got off the bus, we went with one of the many persistent chuck chuck wagon drivers. Our hotel Hak's House was a little far out, a fifteen minute walk maybe from the town. We booked a room with a fan for the first two nights and because of Emmet's unnatural and profuse sweating, we booked the next two with air conditioning.

The first room was a bit of a cockroach flying at your face room, which was exactly what one did when it saw Niamh. Mating season I reckon. So we proceeded to try and kill it, after waiting for it to get out of the fan. We bashed it with a towel, threw it over it and stamped on it a few times. We were both screaming like girls, Niamh included. Nothing compared to the yelp we let when Niamh slowly pulled the towel back, only to see it, guts hanging out, still crawling. It was like the Terminator! Niamh danced on it, nothing fancy, just a quick reel. Then Emmet stamped on it again until we were satisfied 'he wouldn't be back'.

We hung around the town the first day. Siem Reap has lots of shops and restaurants and a Pub Street, which obviously does what it says on the tin. There were a few markets too, which we got some bits on different occasions, a nice dress for Niamh and another pair of flip flops for Emmet. We stopped off at a fish pedicure place where you put your feet in a big tank with fish that eat your dead skin. Yum! Niamh tried it out. Unfortunately, she has the most tickly feet in the world and spent most of the time dipping one toe in and collapsing into stitches laughing. The fish were not well fed on this occasion.

Two of the days there we went to see the amazing temples in Angkor. We bought the 3 day ticket, which was $40. The temples were very impressive and would definitely recommend anyone go see them, but maybe get the one day ticket instead for $20. You could do the lot in a day really, unless you were really into the whole history and wanted to stare at every thing for hours or head further out to see more of them. Unfortunately they don't let you rent scmoped's anywhere in Siem Reap, to keep the Tuk Tuk drivers in business.

The first day we hired a Tuk Tuk for 12 dollars and went to some of the temples just beyond the most famous Angkor Wat. We went to Preah Khan, Preah Neak Poan, Ta Som, Eastern Mebon, Pre Rup, Banteay Kdei, Sra Srang and Ta Prohm (we are aware this list is incredibly boring for anyone who hasn't been there, skim over it and stop moaning). Our favourite of the day was probably Ta Prohm, where Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider were filmed. The jungle has started to reclaim the temple and some of the walls have big trees growing up through them. It is quite eerie looking. The ambience is enhanced by the flocks of chinese tourists in matching hats. See if you can spot them in the pictures. It's like Where's Wally without the hiding.

While we were in the temples, we saw a spider almost the size of a small hand, Emmet's hand to be exact, with his little Mary Flinter hands. Bless. So Niamh got the camera ready, I threw my hand up very quickly, picture taken and gone like a flash. Excuse the pun.

The second day we rented bicycles and cycled out to Ankor Thom, which is a complex with several temples within it. It was great cycling around and then walking off to explore more when we felt like it. Our last temple of the day was Angkor Wat. We decided to save the best for last. We parked our bikes beside a food stall, filled our bellies with some biscuits and then headed over to the temple. It was a beautiful building and most of it was still intact. Intricate inscriptions covered the walls. We were advised by a Korean fella we got chatting to, to go at lunch time when the tour groups go off to eat, so luckily the place wasn't too busy when we were there.

When we emerged from the temple we went back to collect our bikes. However, they were no longer where we left them which worried us a bit. We found them moved a few feet in between some other bikes. We checked them and thought they were not damaged until Niamh hoped up on the bike and realised the air had been let out of the back tyre. This created an immediate sad face. A Tuk Tuk driver mysteriously appeared and offered to drive us back, we decided to walk the 8km instead. At this point, we realised Emmets bike also had an airless back tyre. Coincidence or something more sinister. After about one kilometre some lads on a bike told us that there was a fella with with a pump down this little dirt track and sure enough there was. He started to change the tyre until we pulled out our well honed signing skills and told him we just needed air. Five minutes later and one dollar lighter we were back in business.

That night we went to see traditional Cambodian dance in a restaurant. The costumes alone were amazing. Khmer dancing is all about the hands. They bend them back into awkward and mad looking positions. The kids have their hands strapped back from a young age which is slightly cruel, but it looks deadly. One of the dancers was particularly good, some of the others were very amateurish and spent most of their time pissing themselves laughing.

Our plan was to either get a massage or do a cooking course on the last day. However, we were both reaching burn out again and ended up watching CSI for the day and planing our route to Laos.

The next day we got a bus to Kratie. It was another epic bus trip. 8 hours quickly turned into 12 and we arrived in the dark without being sure if we had a booking. Sounds familiar. Luckily the guesthouse had got our email and reserved us the last room. We even had free pick up! We met a sound German couple, Suzie and Sven (or seven to the Vietnamese). We were staying in the same guesthouse and the next day we rented mopeds and went to see the rare Irrawaddy fresh water dolphins. We didn't expect to see many, in fact we thought we would be lucky to see even one. But there were loads, even some calves. It was amazing. We spent an hour and a half going 'oh', 'ah', 'look over there'!

On the way back we stopped at a little food stall and bought some famed sticky rice in a bamboo stick. It was delicious. We ate it beside the stall owner and had a sign language conversation with her. We started back to the hotel. On the way we noticed an ominous looking rain cloud. Then it started to rain in the river alongside the road, but not on us, which was fortunate. This stroke of luk was not to last however. All of a sudden we spotted rain on the road ahead of us. It was very strange, driving from dryness into a horrific rain storm. The downpour only lasted about ten minutes, right up until we arrived in the hotel in fact, but managed to soak us to the bone. Needless to say, we proceeded straight to the showers and into clean clothes.

That evening we went out for dinner and had a few beers. We said goodbye to our German friends and got ready for our next adventure in Laos.

The border crossing plan was to take a mini van to a nearby town called Stung Treng. Then get a bus to the border, then a mini van to the port and then a boat to the island Don Det. Luckily the hotel was able to organise a ticket that covered the complicated transport changes. When the mini van arrived to pick us up it was already over crowded. We just about managed to squeeze in. We thought we would be the last people picked up, how wrong we were. They must have packed twenty something people into a twelve seater minivan without air conditioning. This was fun enough until we got a flat tyre. Our second flat tyre of the week, including the bikes! We stood in off the road beside houses on stilts, cows grazing at the side of the road and half naked children. A good send off from Cambodia!

The sketchy conductor kept trying to sell us tickets for the next leg of our trip. He told us we couldn't buy bus tickets on the island, which doesn't really make sense and told one of the lads who was going to cross the border the next day that it would be closed. Our bull shit metres were immediately on alert. We decided, strangely enough, not to hand over fifteen dollars to a stranger we may never see again for a ticket that didn't make sense. We found out later that you could buy tickets on the island and the price he offered was too much. Shocker.

He offered to change money to local currency kip and told us that people wouldn't accept dollars on the island. We didn't believe him but decided to get some kip anyway just to have it. Afterwards we were kicking ourselves thinking we had been slightly scammed. We have learned to be very cautious of friendly charming strangers who tell you there is a problem, but they have a solution! We mentioned it to an expat we got talking to later on the island, and he told us the rate actually wasn't that bad which made us feel better.

We arrived at the border, which was a dirt road with a metal barrier and walked up to the Cambodian office to get our exit stamps. We had been warned about bribes at some of the smaller border crossings, but have been lucky until now. The officers asked for two dollars each to stamp our passports. They were so blatant and unashamed. They had their briefcase that they put the money in sitting on the table in front of them. We had kept a dollar each in a separate pocket. We told him we only had a dollar and after thirty seconds of saying we had no more money he relented, gave us our passports and sent us in our way to the Laos side.

We had discussed the whole bribe issue prior to arriving at the border. The corruption is quite frustrating and it feels wrong giving into it. However, we are not in Europe and things work differently in this part of the world. We could stand there and argue, but at the end of the day, they have the power. They decide whether we can get through or not and for the sake of a dollar it was not worth the fight for us. On the optimistic side, at some of the crossings we had been warned about, we came across no problems. It does appear that things are starting to change at some of the more popular borders, so you can only hope that with time, this corruption will be tackled.

We then went to the Laos side to get our visa, which cost thirty five euro. In Cambodia, everyone pays the same amount for a visa. In Laos, it depends on where you are from. We were not able to find out how much Irish citizens have to pay in advance. We knew it would be between thirty and forty two dollars. We then paid our second bribe. Again, he wanted two dollars each. We said we only had one each; after thirty seconds of repeating this we got our passports back and boarded another mini van, not dangerously overcrowded this time, and drove to the port.

We went to the dock to look for our 'ferry', which was actually a small wooden kayak. A German expat steered it to the island. We decided to go to the south of the island which is quieter than the north. We didn't have accommodation booked. We checked out a few places and found some wooden bungalows with hammocks looking out over the Mekong. That was our bed for the first night. We went for a walk while the room was being cleaned and found some beautiful huts further down with a great chill out area and booked in for the following night. The bungalows were great and we really enjoyed a few days of sitting in hammocks, reading, chatting to the other travellers and generally chilling out.

We went out for dinner the first night to King Kong restaurant, which is run by a Scouser and his Laos wife. It was a cool place, good music, good food and good company. We had a few drinks with the owner and a few travellers who were hanging out there too and were great craic. We ended up going back every evening.

Feeling refreshed and relaxed we set off on a bus for Savannakhet. Little did we know, this bus journey was to undo all of our chilling out. It was the single most frustrating journey either of us have ever undertaken. Considering we have gone overland to get here, this is quite an achievement. We got a mini van from the mainland to Pakse, which of course was over crowded, sure how else would you travel? It arrived in late. We then boarded a big bus which was to bring us to our final destination. This bus proceeded to stop every 100 yards to pick up passengers. Why these people didn't go to the main bus stop literally just down the road is beyond me. It took us about an hour just to get out of the town, which at this stage meant it was time for a food break of course. We then repeated driving and stopping every ten to twenty minutes for the rest of the journey. Luckily the driver was a maniac and made up some of the time while playing with our lives. We arrived to the bus station two and a half hours late. We were tired, grumpy and ready for bed.

However, our 'adventure' was not over yet. The Tuk Tuk drivers told us that our destination was too far away and wouldn't bring us. We were at a loss, we thought we were 2 kilometres away from the town centre. We assumed they were trying to just get more money out of us. Then some people with a mini van told us they would bring us. We weren't entirely comfortable with the arrangement, but didn't really know what else to do at nine o clock at night in the dark. He told us we would leave at ten, so we had another hour of waiting time to enjoy. At ten a large local bus appeared and we were loaded onto it. I think they were just letting us sit in the van until the bus arrived. The whole thing was very confusing, but they really helped us out. We climbed over the sacks of rice and squeezed into our broken chairs. It turns out our bus never stopped in Savannakhet like it was meant to, but let us out 30 kilometres away in the middle of no where without telling us. The conductor was a rude dick anyways, but leaving two people stranded is pretty shitty. I hope he believes in karma and comes back as one of those grilled chickens that were stuffed in our faces at every food stop, all five of them.

So we finally arrived at the bus station, which is two kilometres from the town centre. We flagged down the only Tuk Tuk and asked him to bring us to the guesthouse. He told us it was closed, but he could bring us to another one called Leena Guestouse. Our immediate thought was 'hmm, we have heard of this before, I suppose you know a fabulous guesthouse, which in reality is not so fabulous, but will give you a nice commission for bringing us.' We asked to be brought to the centre instead and we could find somewhere from there. In the centre we saw a westerner. Niamh bolted off the Tuk Tuk faster than lightening and asked him about the place he was staying. He said a lot of he places were closed and his was meh. So the Tuk Tuk driver was telling us the truth after all. The second time in one day a Tuk Tuk driver told us the truth and we thought he was lying. Maybe they don't deserve the bad rap! We took his advise and asked him to bring us to Leena Guesthouse. Stat. The place was grand and was our home for two nights.

The main reason for stopping in Savannakhet was to break up the long journey north and use the Internet to do some research and make some bookings, that we had been putting off for a while. We had been without the Internet for almost a week, so some Facebook and email time was also in order. The town itself is pretty mediocre and not really worth visiting. We took a quick cycle around it in the afternoon and had lunch in a small Thai restaurant. Luckily, we were occupied with our Internet jobs most of the day.

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