Nadine and her tiny prisoners

16th December 2010...

Christmas is coming. Actually it's here! It's everywhere and it's bloody brilliant! Santa stands beside the doorway of our guesthouse here in Luang Prabang. He's as tall as me! We've stuck up a few decorations in our room. Liz has set up an advent calendar on her iPad for Nastassja and Oskar. Every morning begins with this before they get dressed. At breakfast today we were served by young Laos geezers in Santa hats. Who says they don't celebrate it here!?

Last night we watched "Enchanted" and "On her Majestys secret service". Both have a very Christmas vibe. Oh shit, this is actually starting to make me feel homesick. I'm starting to long for the freezing cold 5.30 am starts back in Morden. I want CK and all the boys at Kennington Park. I want Mummy! But hang on, what's this? Pink eggs?

We spent much of today, post Pink eggs shocker, doing a very relaxed walking tour around the town, stopping off at a few temples where the monks hang out. One group had a pet monkey called Mickey who they'd adopted from someone bitten a few times too many by the little feller.

One of the monks in particular, seemed to know how to handle the little monkey who is probably in very safe hands with these men of very bright orange robe. These guys even have orange towels, you could see them hanging out on their washing lines.

We came to the foot of a very large hill called Pho Si. Liz had wanted us to come here for sunset. Here we were, early afternoon and it was extremely hot at this point. We toyed with blowing this one out till later but a pretty lady called Nadine beckoned us to where she was seated. In front of her were several tiny cages, each housing a pair of very small but perfectly formed birds.
She smiled and began to explain that these tiny birds were her prisoners, but if we were to pay her 20,000 Kip ( about two quid ) for one of the cages, we could then take it to the top of these huge slopes and set these poor creatures free, bringing us all much, much luck.
" Go on my bald Prince " she purred, " everything deserves a second chance."
So we payed for two cages and proceeded to carry the four prisoners up some 190
Steps to the top of the hill. It was incredibly hot and we were in grave danger of melting, so before we turned to liquid we pulled at the tiny bars of the cages until there were gaps big enough to allow escape. And then they were gone.
I heard Stash and Oskar whispering that they wanted to spend their Christmas money on freeing the rest of the birds down there with Nadine, so beautiful yet so ugly.
High up there on the hill was a cave, with a big fat Buddha sat inside it. Turns out, when real live Buddhas walked the Earth, they were in fact giants. We saw the footprint of one of them up there on the hill and it is huge, with toes as big as eggplants.

There are also the remains of a Russian anti aircraft cannon which may have been instrumental in bringing this Buddha down. I wonder if I can talk Liz and the kids into going for a curry tonight?

Location:Luang Prabang

Cakey Wakey

This country is seriously laid back. We had rushed to breakfast at 6 to allow a stupid amount of time to make a 7.30 bus and we were still in danger of not making it in time. Things just happen at a different pace around here, when they happen.
Breakfast finally appeared, so we shovelled our omelettes and boiled eggs down in the fifteen or so minutes we were left with and bid farewell to Mrs Bon Appetitti (her spelling, not mine),her two beloved dogs and a single puppy. We had spent two nights at her small, slightly run down but friendly guesthouse while searching for that big 7km cave that runs through the mountain.

ALL ABOARD THE SKYLARK!! It's six hours of joy to Vientiane. Six hours of people clearing their throats (we're talking fully fledged snorting up a green one) and for our entertainment, music videos with themes that seem to be set around domestic situations, for instance, man gets up and writes a shopping list, (into chorus) man visits a supermarket. Another featured a girl who gets a bit of a runny nose. Has to be said, some of the music is quite interesting.
Nastassja ended up sitting next to a lovely Laos girl who had a pretty damn fine Anglo Saxon tongue. She took a few pics of Stash on her mobile and bought her a bottle of orange from the refreshment ladies who randomly board the coach for a mile or however long it takes to walk up and down the bus selling their stuff, before hopping off again.

Things is getting very festive in these parts and the kids are very excited.  So too are we, though it's still weird passing through shops and bars with decorations and Christmas trees when you're in shorts and tee shirts.

So, Vientiane.  We stayed a couple of nights in a sexy hotel, found a good Indian. Did a bit of a walking tour which took us along Th Lan Xang, a street described as the Champs Elysees of Laos. Visited a bloody humongous Sunday market where we attempted some Christmas shopping.  Got told to put my camera away as we passed the U S Embassy,  I was pointing it at That Dam,  one of the towns oldest Buddhist stupas.  Bit of a Khmer vibe to that one actually.

Walked along the riverfront, not much river there at present though, where art thou Mekong?
It's just a really nice little town to spend a couple of days in. The end.

Now, we decided to try our luck with a night bus for the next leg of our journey, so we specifically booked a VIP bus which included a pickup from our hotel at 6pm to shuttle us to the big fancy bed on wheels. Actually, it didn't have bunks, they're not allowed on that stretch as the roads are too bendy. So, we're on this Nightbus and amazingly, tonight we have all the seats we've paid for, one each. This is a first, normally the kids get squeezed together into one seat if they're lucky, South East Asian transport companies always overbook by at least ten people. We're 5 minutes into the journey and a guy asks where the toilet is located. Unfortunately there isn't one because the coach dudes have piled all kinds of luggage, boxes, tables and crates in front of it. It's rammed down there and there's a rope thing tying the emergency exit shut. I start to feel for the German guy sat a few seats away from me, he's just coming to the end of another can of Beerlaos. That's gonna hurt in about half an hour! Oh, but here comes a man with a cake each for us all, something nice for us to munch on for the long journey. You can't take a piss when you want to but you can have a nice cakey wakey.
Oh and of course, as sure as eggs is eggs, at around 12.30 am, the plastic stools come out and are placed down the centre of the bus as another ten poor sods hop on to join us for the journey. Love em.
As the darkness began to lift at around 5.30, we were treated to some spectacular views of the mountains shrouded by fog. At 8 o'clock sharp, some thirteen hours after we'd left our hotel, we arrive in Luang Prabang Province. Soon be Christmas.

Location:S E ASIA

A small little something, Nastassja Leith

Animals is what I love. I will love them till I die. I could write about them, type about them, anything about them; I wish I had a pet, dog, cat, mouse, hamster, rat, gerbil, chicken, duck, pig, cow, horse, fish, frog, turtle, tortoise anything I will love them till I die remember how you treat them and never beat them.

I love pets by Nastassja XXXXXXX

Currently on our iPods and DS things...

Liz is enjoying The White Album, by The Beatles
Oskar is rocking out to A Thousand Suns, by Linkin Park
Stash has been playing Mario Cart on her DS, so has Oskar
Bob is doing everything he has by Jaga Jazzist, especially
Toccata. Also, Obsession by Killing Joke and the brilliant
Everything Everything album.

Oskar and Nastassja's blog about the cave

...back in Laos

Stash says, " We went to this massive and extremely long cave but the day before that we were staying in a massive and extremely 'tall' hotel
On our last day there we had our last buffet breakfast and then enjoyed not a very nice squashed mini - bus journey to a bus station where we caught another squashy bus journey to Laos. We then was dropped off in the middle of know where on the side of the road with heavy bags then having to walk for miles with our bags on our backs, looking in villages trying to find this mysterious guest house with a swimming pool. When we did get there we found out there was no swimming pool at all but it was a nice hotel and it had wonderful staff and the person that we liked the most was the one that did the cooking,cleaning and took us to the most amazing cave in the world which Oskar is going to write about."

Oskar says "I am not!"

Stash says "yes you are!"

Oskar says "fine then, we went to this cave. It was 7 km. Deep under the mountain we got wet not so wet. But it was very good. Sorry I am just going to laugh my head off. I am going to write now. When we came out of the cave we stopped for a break at a little place where we found a lost chick this lady gave it to us and we had fun stroking and holding this cute little chick and now it is tucked up in a cute little bed."

Some pics of the cave, both inside and out

This is us rowing back into the cave after a Pepsi break!

Thank you for listening ,see you on the other side bye

Location:Tham Kong Lo - Laos

Malaria

God I feel terrible. It makes no difference whether I sit back, sit forward, stretch out or ball up, everything hurts. I woke up at four this morning with a temperature and flu like symptoms and frankly the last place I want to be is on this train doing a ten hour journey.  Liz did query malaria at one point, but i don't think it's that.
Poor Cheryl Cole (or is it back to Tweedy?)
This journey takes us to Vinh, where we'll spend a night or two before carrying on back across the border into Laos where there is still much to see, taste and smell.

So, that was three wonderful days and nights in Hoi An, which turned out to be a bit of a high note. Though it rained the first day as hard as it snowed in England, the old town was charming, lit by hanging orange lanterns and decked in places with fairy lights and Christmas trees. The people are wonderful, especially beautiful were all the ladies at the tailors, who measured us up for some clothing, as were the fine ladies who cobbled us some footwear to replace our ugly crocs and flip flops.

Then there was the receptionist at our hotel which became the kids favourite stay to date. I think the outdoor pool helped. Luckily the weather warmed up on the second day.
We found a great cocktail bar on the last night, all purple lit and playing great music. We had one in there and then Stash and I went and hit the nightlife nearer our hotel, leaving Liz and Oskar to pursue a night time Vietnamese cookery lesson.

And now it's bloody miserable, only four hours into this journey, though the stuff going on through the window is pretty special. Sometimes it looks very much like bits of England out there, but hang on, that's a row of palm trees so maybe not.
It's Christmas carol karaoke on the screen in the carriage (Vietnamese style) for our entertainment.
The ticket man walks through the carriage wearing a head set microphone and as he talks into it his voice comes out through a speaker he has strapped to his waist.
Oh and now we could quite easily be next to the A5 in Milton Keynes...but there are some water buffalo...and some ladies wearing those funny cone shaped hats.
Hmm, i wonder if they really do love you long time...

Location:Vietnam

Suits you sir

If I was many miles from here, I'd be sailing in an open boat on the sea
Instead I'm on this window ledge, with the whole world below

..

..

Location:Hoi An

On our way to Hoi An

My lovely romantic husband booked us a night in a beautiful wooden chalet overlooking jungle and a stunning waterfall in the middle of the Bolaven plateau; it was a bit over our usual budget of $9 a night but was worth it! This is the view from our balcony.

Over the course of the evening (and a few beer Laos later) we decided to ditch our original plan of going north through Laos and decided we would go east to Vietnam, so as not to miss out seeing Hoi an. We had a 'jumbo' driver pre arranged to pick us up at 7am to take us to the South bus station to go to Laos, so when he arrived we explained our change of plans and asked for the North bus station saying we now wanted to go to Vietnam. Hmmm.... I am not so keen on tuk-tuk, jumbo or songthaew drivers, they are always the ones who seem to rip us off the most; we finally ended up at the south bus station $20 lighter after a tour of all the private VIP bus stations in the area. The good news was we had a 3 hour wait! Stash and me filled the time well by having an 80p manicure, which included rubbing our fingers with lemons, clicking our joints and cutting dead skin off our fingers with what looked like a pair of wire cutters.




We finally set off on our 9 hour bus journey passing our original hotel 5 1/2hrs since we had left it, Bob and me were not talking to each other by this time. We were on our way to a border that had only recently been open to tourists and was well and truly off the banana pancake trail. Luckily we are all good travellers, Bob has a love of afternoon naps and the kids are able to play on their D.S's for 5hrs at a time (these are easily the best items along with the pirate '156 games in 1' that we have brought on this trip) and I'm pretty happy as long as I have a window seat and my beloved iPad. We arrive in Attapeu and taking a lonely Spanish vet from Sheffield under our wing, set off to find a place that sells pizza- yea, right boys, that's not gonna happen! After asking one of the only English speakers in the town where we can get pizza, and being laughed at, we end up in a little restaurant with our usual fare of vegetables, rice and egg. We had the choice of more adventurous options but decided against them - I have no idea what the thing with the hair is?

Another day of squished travel along the Ho Chi Minh trail through beautiful mountains and a complicated border crossing, we arrive in a rainy Hoi An; I am so glad we came. It is a magical place set on the Thu Bon river, filled with ancient buildings and streets hung with silk lanterns. It is the number one place go to for tailors and cobblers (and there is an amazing pizza place). Bob and the kids are very excited as they are getting clothes made and Oskar and me are off to do a vietnamese cooking course tonight - not sure he'll like the food, but it should be fun anyway.

Location:Laos to Vietnam