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

Trekking and Mandalay

After a tough bus ride up the mountain, with several of the passengers getting road sick, we finally arrived Kalaw. Kalaw is a very small town where we only stayed for one night. The next morning we started a 3 day trekking with Corinna, Lara, an American guy we met on the bus, David, and another German couple at our hotel, Justus and Lina. We started walking out of the city towards the jungle, with Johnnie Walker as our guide.

Team Johnnie Walker

We walked in some beautiful mountain landscapes, past by green tea plantations and saw the local people working in the fields. At the end of the first day's trekking we got to a monastery in a tiny village where we would be spending the night. While Johnnie was preparing dinner for us we got to spend some time with the very shy local kids. David also got to play some "bamboo ball foot-volley" with the teenagers. 

One of the local monk kids

Tachi showing off some photos to the curious kids

David in action playing foot-volley with a ball made out of bamboo

We experienced a new type of shower at the monastery. It was like a concrete reserve of water where we used a bucket to pour water over ourselves. The water was freezing cold! Girls had to use specified toilets and showers, while men could choose between all. Johnnie Walker cooked us some good food and we had dinner with candlelight and the company of a giant spider on the wall. We played cards until the praying time was finished so we could go into the main hall of the monastery where we would be sleeping. 

Spider joining us for dinner

Nice table of good Burmese food

The next day we had a 24 km route passing cabbage fields, rice paddies, young peanut plants and some fields with yellow flowers that we think were canola. In the evening we arrived to a little village where we would be sleeping in a bamboo hut. While dinner was getting prepared the guys went out for a walk around the village for some great views and playing with some kids.
We got a great meal, and afterwards we shared a bottle of Myanmar Rum (less than 2 dollars!) while playing cards. During the walk the guys had found a place that would be nice for sunrise, but unfortunately it was too cloudy so we decided to keep sleeping.

Young boy working alone in the fields

The third day would be the day we arrived to Inle Lake, our final destination. We made an early stop passing by an old, wooden monastery. When we saw the lake from the mountains we had to pay 11 dollars to enter the Inle Lake area, and the last few hours of the trekking our guide was really in a hurry to get down the mountain. The track was tricky and not so easy to walk. We had lunch in a village close to the lake before we took a boat with no seats or roof to cross the lake to Nyaung Shwe. In the middle of the trip our boat broke down and we had to wait until someone came to fix it. The heat was extreme, but they gave us some umbrellas to make some shade.

Waiting for help in the middle of the lake

We even started to paddle with our flip-flops

The locals of the Inle Lake are famous for their way of paddling with their legs

When we finally arrived Nyaung Shwe it started to rain. Johnnie Walker brought us to a very cute guesthouse where our big backpacks were waiting for us. We decided to stay there for some days to relax and wash some clothes.

Our 3 day trek to Inle Lake

Nyaung Shwe is a small town where the electricity is off every day for some time, but at least we had a power generator at our guesthouse, so we could use the fan in our room. We didn't do too much there, just reading, writing postcards, playing cards and going out to eat. 

The view from our guesthouse in Nyaung Shwe

Sunset behind a beer poster

One evening we had dinner David ordered a mango lassi, and a few hours later he started to feel sick. That night he couldn't sleep due to his visits to the toilet. The next day he had fever and started shaking, so the nice guesthouse owner brought us to a doctor. He prescribed antibiotics and said we had to cancel our bus to Mandalay that evening.

The next day David was feeling a bit better and started to eat again, but the only thing the guesthouse could offer us was the Shan noodle soup that wasn't good for David's stomach quite yet, so they said Tachi could use the kitchen if she wanted. She boiled some vegetables and they had new steamed rice for David's lunch. Tachi was tired of having Shan noodle soup and decided to go out for lunch. In the evening David was feeling stronger and we could take the bus to Mandalay. We arrived there at 3:40am and, as always, there were many taxi drivers waiting for the people to get off. We decided to walk but it took us a while to find the hotel as Tachi had the wrong address :(

After 1 hour of walking and sweating like hell, we checked in and got some sleep. We woke up for lunch and walked to a restaurant just one block from our place. In the afternoon we went for a walk to find the night market with Corinna, Lara and David 2. The market was nothing more than some stands with fake western clothes. We were looking for somewhere clean to eat and found a restaurant that seemed nice. It was on the second floor and there was a creepy elevator to get up. When we found the restaurant we were welcomed by 4 or 5 waiters, but the place was too fancy and expensive for what we were looking for. They even offered us a private dinner room. We apologized and left the place.

View from the fancy restaurant

We decided to go to the same place where we had lunch before. The place was crowded with people drinking beer and watching television. It seems like in Myanmar is not normal having a TV at home, so it's very common that at some times the restaurants with TV get crowded. 

The next morning Guillermo, an Argentinian we had met in Koh Tao, joined us for breakfast and we headed to the AirAsia shuttle bus to go to the airport. The airport was pretty basic, with no air-con, and the check-in was practically manual. 

Myanmar was a very interesting place, people are so nice and welcoming, especially in little villages. Here are some interesting facts we saw and learned during our stay:

* It's very difficult to find a good wi-fi connection. In some places you could only access the wi-fi between 7 to 10am. In our guesthouse in Nyaung Shwe they shared their mobile data for the guests, and only for 1h.
* The men wear longyi, a wraparound skirt.

* Men and women use a yellow paste called Thanaka. It is made by grinding the bark, wood or roots of a thanaka tree with a small amount of water. Apart from cosmetic beauty, it also gives a cooling sensation and protects the skin from sunburn.

* When you want the waiter's attention, you have to make a kissing sound, almost like calling a cat. :P
* You might see many people with red teeth. Everywhere you find street stalls selling betel nut and green leaves. The betel nut, spices and a pinch of tobacco are folded into the leaves and popped into the mouth and chewed. 
*  People who chew the betel nut spit out all the time. So it's common to find red stains on the ground.

KYEIZU TIN BA DE, MYANMAR!