Thai - Lao border crossing and slow boat to Luang Prabang

After a very educative week at the ENP, we were back in Chiang Mai for some days before crossing the border to Laos. The first thing we did was finding a washing machine on the street to wash all our things. That evening we met some of the others volunteers at the night market. We had dinner there and bought some souvenirs to send home. The next night we met again with friends from the ENP to watch a Ladyboys show at a Cabaret, which was really funny and amazing! They are very good dancers! 

The ladyboys with nothing to hide

David was actually lucky that he had Tachi by his side, otherwise those ladies would jump on him! They were really "aggressive" against the men!

It got hot on stage

One of the performances

We decided to cross the border to Laos with 3 other friends from the ENP, Roberto from Puerto Rico and a couple, Fabrice (France) & Franzi (Germany). We bought bus tickets to Chiang Khong for the next morning. At the border we got our stamps out of Thailand and had to take a bus to cross the bridge to Laos. On the other side we had to get our visa on arrival. As we arrived 30 minutes after their regular office time, we had to pay 1 dollar extra as an "overtime fee". Good start. 
We had to take a tuk tuk to the city, Huay Xai, where we would spend the night before our journey on the slow boat would begin. David, Fabrice and Roberto went hunting for a room, while Tatiana and Franzi waited with the backpacks. We got a big room with aircon for all five of us that night. As we were very hungry we decided to try the first place we were suggested, by a guy in the street. He was handing out fliers for a home kitchen where all the profits went to the Hmong tribe in the area. Later on we had some beers and played cards until it was bed time. Early the next morning we went to the dock to buy our tickets for the slow boat to Pakbeng, our first stop. Arriving early to the dock was a good idea so we got some good seats. As for a group of tourist who arrived late, were pushed onto the boat by an angry and impatient crew even though the boat seemed to be full. While we drifted slowly down the Mekong we past time playing cards, reading, making bracelets, eating and enjoying the views. 

All the slow boats waiting in line

We literally filled up the boat before leaving 

Ready to drift down the Mekong

The first day on the boat ended after about 7 hours downstream. We barely got off the boat before the locals were offering us weed and room for the night. And yes, there were many people buying. After 7 hours sitting still on a boat we decided to explore the small village of Pakbeng. We saw more or less the whole village on our 20 minute walk along the only road. 

Exploring Pakbeng

The next morning the boat left around 11 AM and was supposed to be a 5 hours trip to Luang Prabang. This time the boat stopped many times picking up local people. At one of the stops 2 women and a sick baby got on the boat. David gave his seat to the woman with the baby. When some people stood up to go to the toilet the other woman just laid down on their seats, using 4 seats only for her. When the others got back they didn't say anything and ended up having to sit on the floor or stand.

Enjoying the views

The slow boat used to arrive in Luang Prabang, but as the locals have learned how to exploit the tourist, they moved the landing pier for the slow boat about 20 km away from the city. As we found our tuk tuk we saw another group having problems with a driver who was cheating them for money. They had paid the driver and were expecting change, but the driver walked away and when he came back he was demanding more money. When we were driving away we saw the driver unloading all the backpacks and shouting "F*** you!" as he walked away in anger. We made it to the city with no problems. Tachi and Franzi sat down at the night market while the boys, again, walked around trying to find a cheap place to stay. Unfortunately they didn't find a good deal, so we all brought our luggage and headed in the direction of some guesthouses we had gotten fliers for. On our way we found the place that ended up to be our home for the next few nights. Again we had found a nice big family room with aircon, fridge, balcony, and a hot shower. 

Dinner at the night market

After dinner at the night market we bought some beers and sat outside the shop to play cards. It's obviously a big weed business in Laos; as we were playing cards, a man on a scooter approached us asking: Hello! What are you doing? We just looked at each other and answered him: Playing cards! What are you doing? He answered us honestly: I'm selling weed! 

Luang Prabang is a lovely city, specially the old town that reminds us of the French colonization with its restored mansions, mostly guesthouses and boutique hotels today. We could also spot many bakeries and find some good breads around there! Almost everyday we had a baguette sandwich from the street market. Tachi was actually craving for some bakery goods and western food. She was happy that she could finally have a delicious spaghetti carbonara in Luang Prabang.

Two young monks trying to get some shade on a hot day

French colonial buildings

30 km away from Luang Prabang, are the stunning Kuang Si Waterfalls. We got a tuk tuk to a village called Ban Lo Lao, from where we hiked to the waterfalls. When the tuk tuk driver left, a man wanted us to pay 2 dollars each just to walk through the village, and that was about 3 minutes walk. We didn't want to pay so we just walked and he followed us for sometime until he understood we would not be paying. It was a 13 km trek, crossing some private lands where we got chased by protective cow moms, trails through corn fields, and some muddy paths in the forest. In the forest we heard many loud shooting sounds. We had no idea what was going on, or if we were being hunted or something, but we were quite frightened as some of the sounds were very close. Franzi and David saw a guy carrying what looked like a rifle who ran just as they saw him. That makes us believe the sounds we heard were poachers who didn't want to be spotted.

Finding our way to Kuang Si Waterfalls

The cows were very protective when we passed

Arriving to the falls was a relief! We could finally enjoy our baguettes for lunch and refresh ourselves in the pristine water. We walked from the top of the waterfall down to its pools. The color of the water is just stunning!

Happy to arrive at the waterfalls

This amazing color is from limestone minerals

When we were nice and refreshed the same tuk tuk driver that drove us to the village was waiting for us to bring us back to the city. The next day we went to the Vietnamese Consulate to get our visas. As a Norwegian, David could enter Vietnam without visa for 14 days and we knew we were going to spend more than 2 weeks in Vietnam, so we asked them if he could get his visa in Vietnam, but they couldn't answer us. Communication was really difficult there. It would take 3 days to get our passports back, so we decided to go to Vang Vieng in the meantime.

A beautiful sunset over Luang Prabang

Oh my God, we're back again!

We headed back to Bangkok because we had bought tickets for a concert in a couple of days. Yes, you guessed it; Backstreet Boys! 

This time back in Bangkok we decided we would try staying near the famous backpacker street, Khao San Road. We knew that it would be a quite dirty area, but we were still surprised when we arrived our hostel at about 4 am, and rats and cockroaches would be crossing the floor of the reception area. The receptionist not even caring or noticing our discomfort. As we didn't have any other option at this time, and we were tired, we took our chance and checked in. Luckily the hallway with rooms, and our room was much cleaner so we could get a good rest! When we got up some hours later it had totally changed, and the place was filled with life! By night Khao San Road is a street filled with tourists, street food, people selling everything from fake ID's to fried scorpions, people offering "ping pong shows" and probably anything else you can imagine! Tachi even got her hair cut, but most likely David could have cut just as well, or even better.

Walking down Khao San Road

Before the concert we were hoping to meet up with a friend of Tatiana. She had been staying on Bali for some time, but just visited Koh Phanang with a friend of hers, where we originally wanted to meet her. Since we never made it to Koh Phanang we made the effort to meet her in Bangkok before she headed back to Bali. Darcie had visited Tachi and her family last year, as a Servas visitor, and by coincidence we would be in Bangkok at the same time. We met up with Darcie and her friend for lunch, and just spent some time talking about life and our travels! It was great to meet up with her :)

Meeting up with Darcie

Finally the day was here! The day that Tachi had been waiting for for almost a month. The day she would finally get to see the Backstreet Boys live. In Bangkok!

Who would have thought this would happen? Definitely none of us.

That morning we didn't do much, just eating and relaxing, until we started to find our way to Impact Arena. We decided we wanted to start out early just in case any problems would show up along the way. It would have been devastating if Tachi had missed the concert! There were no problems, and we arrived 2 hours before the concert. That gave us the chance to take a picture with the Backstreet Boys!!! We got some free cookies to enjoy until they opened the doors, and then we easily found our seats.

Waiting excited for the Backstreet Boys

It was a bit weird seeing the old guys on stage, and singing songs we sang back in the end of the 90s! Tachi had a dream come true, but she had to manage with the company of David instead of all her girlfriends...

Photo with the Backstreet Boys

Sa wat dee, Thailand!

Wow! What a difference! First of all the communication is much more of a challenge here, hardly anyone speaks English. To find our way from the airport to our hostel we used simple words and pointing on maps. We caught a train from the airport to downtown Bangkok, about 1 hour, for only 5 Thai Baht, which equals about 15 cents (USD). Several times during the train ride people tried to throw water in the windows. From April 13th - 15th is a big celebration of Songkran in Thailand, also known as the water festival. This is why we left India before our visa ran out, so we could join the Thais in celebrating their New Year. From the train station we could just jump on the metro taking us nearby our hostel. In the street where our hostel was everyone was playing around, soaking each other with their water guns and buckets. Of course as we were arriving they wanted us to be washed as well. Luckily we managed to keep our backpacks dry, but not clean, and we arrived happy to the hostel.

Songkran welcoming in Bangkok

We were planning to go right back out to participate in the Songkran celebration, but Tachi was having more problems with her sore throat so we decided to take it easy and regain energy for a big Songkran celebration the next day. Unfortunately Tachi didn't get much better, and it wouldn't be good for her throat to get soaked by cold and warm water and enter or exit air-conditioned buildings all the time. Tachi decided to stay in and insisted that David went to celebrate and enjoy the last day of Songkran, and bring back some of the experience to share. David walked down Silom Road among thousands of Thais and other tourists!

Silom Road during Songkran

The next day when Tachi was feeling better we started our sightseeing in Bangkok. There are so many temples and other things to see and do. We started the morning with a soup in the streets for breakfast and headed for the Grand Palace. From the end of the MRT we walked through parts of Chinatown to get to the taxi boat which would take us all the way to the palace. To enter the Grand Palace you must cover your legs and shoulders. We were prepared for this, but it was an extremely hot experience. The details and colors of the Thai temples are amazing! We must have used about 3 hours sweating and looking around the huge area.

Grand Palace

After cooling off in the shade with some nice Pad Thai and fried rice we got back on the taxi boat, back to see Wat Pho, the reclining Buddha. The reclining Buddha is 15m tall and 43m long, an impressive view! Wat Pho is one of the biggest Wats (Temples) in Bangkok and they say that we could see 400 images of Buddha in different postures there. We did not count them all because we also wanted to try out the famous Thai massage they offer before closing time. The temple is considered the birthplace of traditional Thai massage. First we tried half an hour of body massage, but when we finished this we decided to do another half an hour of foot massage. It was so good after a long day of walking around in the heat!
On our way back we stopped for some dinner in Chinatown. It was incredible watching them make our food with high flames in the middle of the street, and it tasted so good!

The huge reclining Buddha in Wat Pho

Included in the ticket to the Grand Palace was another museum, a bit further north. We decided to stop by here on our way to the famous street market in Chatuchak. The museum seemed to be an old mansion where the royal family spent vacations. It was a quick walk-through, especially trying to avoid loud Chinese tours! We got onto the skytrain heading for the largest market in Thailand. At the tourist police office we got a map and description of the different areas of the market. It was pretty big! We felt like we walked through most of the market seeing everything from clothing, antiques, foods to pets. It was a lot of walking in the heat again, so for David's Birthday the next day we woke up late :) We took a nice and relaxed walk in Lumphini Park, enjoying some green parts of the capitol with the lowest amount of vegetation in the world.

Loving the green part of Bangkok, Lumphini Park

Tachi had made a reservation for a fancy dinner at the rooftop restaurant at Sofitel Park Society, and we went over there to confirm the reservation and question about the dress code. Obviously David had to wear pants, which he does not have, so we ended up going shopping.
We had a delicious dinner with a great view over Bangkok!

Bangkok by night from the rooftop of Sofitel Park Society

The next couple of days were also spent in Bangkok, getting our visas for Myanmar and having the camera for service. Early morning the 22nd we had our train for Kanchanaburi. We had two main goals for Kanchanaburi, learn about the construction of the Burma Railway, also known as Death Railway, during the second world war, and refresh ourselves in the waterfalls of Erawan National Park. The day we arrived was just for exploring the nearby surroundings. We got a view of the Bridge over River Kwai from distance, checked out prices to rent a scooter, but the best part of that day was visiting the night market. Every night, near the train station there is a market with second hand clothes, gadgets of every kind and lots of food :) We walked around trying a lot of new and different foods! One of Tachi's new favorite desserts after that night is the ice-cream balls covered with some kind of marshmallow thing, called Mochi Ice-cream.

Our plan for the next day was to wake up early to catch the train to the Hellfire Pass Memorial Museum, but when we woke up it was pouring from the sky. We decided it would be a bad idea going to the Hellfire Pass if it was going to rain like this, and went back to sleep. Luckily David woke up again not long after, and the weather had cleared up. Quickly we got our stuff together and went for the bus. We got some good help from Joy, who worked at the museum. She told us to get off the bus with her, showed us where to catch the bus back, and helped us prepare our walk on the Death Railway before the museum even opened. Thank you Joy!
We chose to do the whole trail which took us about 4 hours with some stops to listen to our audio guide and also admire the scenery and reflecting along the way.  This railway was built by the Prisoners of War and Southeast Asian labor workers, known as romusha, as Japan was in need of a more secure supply route between Thailand and Burma. They constructed 415 km of railway in 14 months under severe conditions. More than 12 000 POW's died during the construction, and the number of romusha who died is assumed to be as much as 90 000. It was a very emotional and educational walk along the railway where all of the cuttings and embankments were done by man power!

Hellfire Pass

Today a part of the Death Railway is still operational from Nam Tok. We got on the train to experience the ride on the historical tracks back to Kanchanaburi. The ride was quite long but we passed by very nice landscapes and we could see how impressive it was to have built this railway in the way it was. After passing the famous Bridge over the River Kwai, we got off of the train and took a short walk on the bridge before returning to our guesthouse.

Riding the train on the Death Railway

The next day David woke up earlier to rent a motorbike before we had breakfast and took the road to Erawan National Park. Tachi was a bit afraid that we would face crazy traffic but it was actually an easy ride and we could enjoy the green around us.
The Erawan Waterfalls consist of 7 different waterfalls, with green emerald or light blue refreshing ponds full of hungry fishes eating the dead skin off the visitor's feet. When the small fishes nibbled on our feet it was just tickling, but when the big ones did it, it wasn't that comfortable! At one point Tachi decided to enter the pond with her shoes.

Refreshing in the Erawan waterfalls

The next morning we visited the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery to try to watch the ANZAC day ceremony, but it had not started by the time we had to return to do our check-out. We took the bus to Ratchaburi where we were going to catch the bus to Phetchaburi, but with a lot of misunderstanding and a lot of Thais saying that bus stopped going years ago we just barely got on the train heading south. We had to stand during the 1 hour ride, and as the only tourists we got a lot of staring at us.
At the train station in Phetchaburi we got on a pick-up taxi, called songthaew, and hoped to get a room at one of the few guest houses in the area. We got a room, had dinner at the night market and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
The next morning we had a soup from the neighbor for breakfast, and started walking towards the Khao Luang Cave. We didn't get far before we realized that it would be too exhausting walking all the way in the burning heat, so we caught a songthaew. There is a temple inside the cave with many images of Buddha. Outside the cave are many hungry monkeys waiting for the tourists to give them food, and they can become quite aggressive. Just in front of us a tiny monkey jumped onto a lady, giving her a shock. Luckily we passed without any monkey attacks ;)

Khao Luang, temple inside a cave

We were hoping for a songthaew for the trip back, as our driver didn't want to wait and said there would be others to catch, but there were none, giving us no other option than walking back in the burning sun!
For our last day in Phetchaburi we were planning to walk up to the temple on the mountain, but it was under maintenance, and we were also met by a lot of angry monkeys, so we decided to just walk around the town. We had our dinner at the night market again, before heading to the train station. Our train was supposed to leave some time around 10 pm, but didn't arrive until past midnight.
Time to hit the beach!!!