Laos Laos LAOS

Well we almost reached the lazy and over the blogging stage and I thought NO we will carry on.

So a little catch up of our recent adventures which have being long, tiresome, hard but at the same time amazingly refreshing and a eye opener!

We crossed over to Laos By stopping at Chiang Rai and crashing the night in a cheap as guest house that was the colour of grass, josh treated himself to a few drinks with some new found mates and I had one or two but my headache situation had not improved at this stage so bed and family guy seemed the best option for myself, we woke refreshed the next morning (well i did) and grabbed a bus to the Chong Kong border crossing, this was a two hour trip and we both felt sick the whole time due to a lovely young lady in front who had decided to go all natural and her leg hairs were as long as joshs head hair and her arm hair was the length of my head hair  and it was black as a cat(slight exageration) I did not understand as good on you if your the feminist type whatever floats your boat but this girl had makeup on and clearly took  pride in her appearance elsewhere...This was seriously a good 6 months worth of backpacking and been to tightarse to puchase a 5 cent razor!

Back to laos, we crossed the river on a five minute boat trip and "Hello Laos" we had every intention to crash the night here and then catch a public bus to Luang Probang and then got suckered in by the all convincing commission workeres that we should get the "VIP" bus now which leaves at 5pm and arrives at 4am in the morning, our logic for the slightly high prices was that we would not have to pay for accommodation and our travelling is organised so we go ahead. THIS WAS THE TRIP FROM HELL many would say it was an experience and I will argue this! Everything about this trip was awful from the:
Fact our knees wouldnt fit in the seat and we have brusing from them being pressed into the seat infront
The bastards who put there seats down in front so we had less room and my knees were actually up in the air
The 40km/hour speed limit the bus seems to follow
The stopping every 30mins in the middle of nowhere to do god knows what
and I wont bore you with every detail but worst off the fact that it was not a 11 hour trip BUT a 18 hour trip...We have heard that Laos roads are terrible(mainly due to the fact that they are a bumpy dirt track more then a road) but this was awful.

We arrived quite disgruntled into Luang Probang and went straight to a guest house to shower and freshen up, eat and stretch our legs, it took about a day to get over our anger and soreness and by then we had come to love this tiny place. It is oh so charming with french Villas at every turn the amazing array of foods and beautiful night markets that have lantins lighting the way and i purchased a very special gift for myself which I have wrapped expertly in half my clothing to avoid breakage! Here we took a visit to amazing waterfalls where we swam and Josh swung from ropes on trees to land in the emerald waters and while swimming you cringed at the little fish you could feel biting your feet and legs, we also witnessed some black bears at the adoption centre which kept me happy:)

 We chilled out pretty much just eating and takin in this amazing place and meeting fellow travellers to discuss travelling stuff, until after 4 nights we decided we best head onwards, those who know Laos one big highlight is tubing in Veng Vieng ( you hire a tube get dropped so many km up stream and float down while bars throw ropes to you along the way pull you in and sell you an assortment of alcohol, weed and mushroom skakes and you float all the way back down and have yourself a lovely day) we actually passed this up as not only was it too time consuming but deaths happen often and we spoke to a few people who had either being present or had family present when death had occurred to friends or people they had met that day by drowning from a concoction of all things above and some just plain bad luck, obviously its wet season as this river flows fast and strong. So we travelled onwards, yes on another bus though this one was actually VIP and they stopped for food and we had plently of room, it still took 2 hours longer but you just come to expect this here, in Laos they really dont rush and that brings us to now in Vientiane pronounced wieng chan, we found super accommodation for 80 000 kip a night ($13) and decided to book another night as it includes breaky and we actually like the look of this capital city, so today ( its only early morning still) we will see a few temples...maybe:) and check out what this place has to offer.

I had all these things I wanted to right in this blog but as I let too much time slip past unfortunatley I have forgotten it all so I'll just say instead  the food is amazing here, indian, french, thai and lao is the main cuisine you find at every turn and last night I was so full from eating the best Indian ever! 

The country is one of the poorest you will go to in Asia and the people are still so friendly and happy with their simple lives that it honetly makes you feel like the most selfish person in the world, the streets are dotted with temples, french villa's and monks dressed in orange robes holding umbrellas to avoid the extreme sun walk the streets that are lined with monastry walls covered in moss add a magical ambiance to the country, the jungle is so think it takes you straight back to a movie like predator, you cant tell apart one tree from another!

85% locals live in villages and it makes you smile as you drive past these bamboo huts with no electricity or if they have electricity you see 30 village locals crowded around the one TV on the side of the road. I would defiantly reccomend seeing this amazing place though be prepared as it is still only new to tourism so everything is slow and long but in the end its defiantly worth it:)

Will keep you up to date

Nat and josh x

Mai Ai

Well we have gone now from Chiang Mai to the little village of Mai Ai on the Burma border, My grandpa lives here so we have been having a little rest and recovery before we make our trip tomorrow to Chiang Rai and finally out of Thailand and across the Laos border.

 It rains all night here and the noises are extreme I awake all night grabbing josh thinking the giant lizard making that odd noise is going to eat me up. The heat here also makes sleeping hard and i did not appreciate getting stung by a wasp yesterday!OUCH!

We took little trips locally to a few temples and a few more...Honestly I dont know what im sick of more...temples is asia or churchs in europe!

We are taking a river boat down the river to Chiang Rai and we get to go to a elephant camp on the way and see a few little old school villages that live along the river, its a 3 hour trip so fingers crossed it doesnt rain on us!

Thats all for now hopefully something a little more exciting for next time when we arrive in Laos

xx

chiang mai!

hey!sooooooooo last time we left you we had been riding around koh samui gettin burnt,well after that we decided to go to bangkok which was a 15 hr trip with mini bus boat and bus,once again for the 3rd time we got the leaking air con LUCKILY i got some good sleeping tablets from chemist and slept the whole way :) dont think nat did!(the beer helped).After we got to bangkok at 5am we checked into  a small backpackers with another dude from germany slept a few hrs got up walked around and decided we just didnt wanna be there so of we go again onto a train this time to chiang mai which was another 14 hrs overnight,and because we booked last minute got sepearate carriages which sucked,this was gonna be a long trip but once again beer and a book helped.We arrived in chiang mai around 9 in the morning and checked in and scored a free upgrade (score)but beginning to think they gave it to us because it was on the 5th floor with no lift!Today we have decided to hire some old school bicycles to cruise round on and see some temples and markets,but it is literally boiling and we have moved away from beaches now!!!I must mention my beard again as im growing rather attached to it i think im a beard man(MAJESTIC) and its gonna stay!We are still on the hunt for potato twists but no luck.

I think that is all that has happened since nat updated you all last,im pretty effin shit with fillin people in,tonight we are going to a reggae bar/restaurant which is on an open rooftop should be good!

I hope all you kiddies are behaving at home and not missing us too much ;) best be off!
peace to all josh and natty!
xxxxx

Ep. 2- Im a .......................... on a motorcycle

Currently we are trying to work out how to put photo's up, so far no good.

Josho is a little ill at the moment, not serious no need to worry, just a fever from the injections we recieved before coming over hear, so ill keep you up to date until he is feeling a little better. We decided to stay at the beautiful accommodation we are currently at until josh is better and up to travel the 18 hour trip to bangkok then head over to Cambodia, so for the moment we are stuck on Koh Samui! life sucks, right? :)

We have spent the last few days on a motobike discovering the Island and having a adventure, along the way we made some friends which I have vowed to set free (we have both developed a habit of naming the animals we see, im not sure if this is just to pass the long days or what goes through our heads but we went from naming monkeys to insects) Buff bill was Natalie's first wild buffalow experience, with her convinced it was a bull, still not sure whether she would be charged or not she crept up to have a little convo and a few happy snaps. The elephants are still our favorites despite the spider monkeys and we are determined to go elephant trekking some time on this trip...touristy I know but come on! ELEPHANTS THEY HAVE TRUNKS.

Im not going to lie and pretend I rode us around on the bike as if you know me which I assume you do by reading this, I would be really bad! I had a little practice in a paddock we pulled over in which put a smile on my dile and settled it for josh that he did the right thing by banning me, apparently nana drivers shouldnt ride a motobike. Seriously though cheers to joshua for putting up with me on the back all day fidgeting trying to get the perfect pictures and scooting through the thai traffic "man oh man" are they reckless drivers! To the parents yes we wore helmets, I refused to get on without one purely because I know the situations josh and I tend to get in! The helmets actually were refused at first and then finally after many communicative hand gestures they presented us with two helmets with broken straps but we did a good job of tying bows under our chins. Personally I think we looked adorable, who said helmets arn't cool.

Here I will quickly add in you know that song by (Im not 100% sure this is right) machine gun fellatio " im a mutha f***a on a motorcycle??? that was our theme song for yesterday, really that is the only line I know of in the whole song so a repeated it occassionally changing it to his a... and she's a...(yes its a horrible song that swears but when your on a bike you feel pretty cool)

We havent had a good meal yet on Koh Samui, not sure if we just always pick the worst possible place but we keep leaving feeling a little down, Thai food is really good and its sad to not eat a good meal, I vow to become as big as a elephant while over here (prob impossible as its so hot) even josh is eating the curries! Last night would of being the worst experience when I ordered mossamen curry and it came with chicken, I still refuse to eat the meat and usually only order vegie meals, the chicken was two bones that looked like doggy legs and then a quarter way through our below avergae meals two little dogs came out of the kitchen, seriously didn't three go in! they then put them on the table behind us and started to de-flea them, I understand this is necessary but come on! a time and a place please, we left our plates unfinished and I really did not want to tip but if he went to all the effort to chop up his own dog to feed the customers...we left a little.  (I dont think any dog was really chopped up...)

Ill quickly end with telling you a few personal favorites of ours over here, so when your here next you know what to look out for:

The suit men wearing cowboy hats who only know the English words of "G'day mate" and "how are ya", actually i received how the F*** are ya the other day! and "buy suit" they have this technique that if they shake yur hand you cant get way due to them refusing to end the hand shake, yes your trapped. Or if you have a tattoo of some sort they stop you and ask you all about to end with "buy suit" Josh actually got told never to walk on the street we are staying in again as he would not stop and show his tattoo.

Previously mentioned Potato Twists, I cant express how happy I am that these exist and am determined to start selling them outside pubs in Aus.

How every taxi whether it a motobike, car, truck honk there horn at every passerby to try and get a fare as obviously we have no arms and cannot wave a taxi down ourselves. I now know why the horn was invented.

The sudden downpour of rain, quite refreshing compared to the heat and its fun to watch everyone run and all the thais put up plastic sheets over street stores its actually quite charming.

Obviously the beaches are amazing and unbelievable how clear and pristine they are, we have fun running away from these little fish that chase you...we thought we must have sat on a fish friend as we ran for ages and they still caght up, oh the playful youth of twenty something year olds:)

The street food, especially the nutella pancakes, I discovered this in Phi Phi and can honestly say im obsessed, plus the thai's who cook for you are pretty sweet to chat to and watch how they make a living making this amazing invention.

Last but no least the dogs, yep the possibility of rabies at every turn, its a hard job training josh to NOT pat them!

peace and love, im off for a swim xx