Bamboo Guest House Chiang Khong

... clearly destroyed our resolve to eat lightly. When some of the best food in all of Asia is placed before you in a jungle while you eat next to a another outdoor fireplace, it’s a little hard to take a bite or two and retire to bed. The dining area was at the complete other end of the camp, so another mile walk we went. I would say we easily walked 6 to 8 miles a day here, and a good 1/3 of that are steps. Between that and the elephant riding, our legs were ...

... Moeglichkeit gehabt, Gibbons anzuhoeren und auch einigen zu erblicken (viel Glueck !). Ihr Lied ist einfach unglaublich (um es anzuhoeren, koennt ihr dieser Adresse folgen: http://www.gibbons.de/main/sound/06pil. html.
Unsere Unterkunft war ganz einfach aber was fuer ein tolles Gefuehl, vor dem Dschungel auf einer Hoehe von 50 Meter zu duschen !!
Diese Erfahrung war ein ...

... ging es dann mit dem slowboat auf dem Mekong river nach Luang Prabang! Die Fahrt dauerte ungefaehr zwei Tage, wobei wir ueber nacht wieder in einem Guesthouse untergekommen sind! Auf dem Weg dort hin wurden wir immer mehr... So stellten wir nach einer Zeit fest, dass Alkohol und Trinkspiele das beste Mittel zur Sozialisierung ist ;)
"The boat that rocked" trifft unser slow boat wohl am Besten :)
Am Abend ...

... and fun part, had to get a speed boat over to the other side of the river and there you have to fill out more forms and then have your passport stamped with a 15day visa for Thailand.

But once again the formalities were fairly simple. and now stamped and visa-ed up i am free to go into Thailand.

No stop tonight for a while as we are heading striaght to Chiang Mai to go and spend the evening there and have a whole day before we are off to bangkok.

... to Thailand. The current cost of a ferry ticket was 40 Baht each and it would be the final time we cross the Mekong, as it disappears into China. We have followed it since Vietnam, 3 months ago.

Once on Thai soil, we were screened for the H1N1 virus and sent to immigration. We were a little worried as while on the Gibbon Experience some British tourists told us that we would only receive 15 days visa entry, even though we obtained our visa ...

... who was wearing a ‘wife-beater’. Dom gave him his Grandparents number and told him to call him if he was ever feeling lonely.

Accommodation was booked and a price was agreed on. Whilst the group sat down to lunch (a particular favorite was Chicken ‘Flue’, Laotian noodle soup), Jamie and Nick ambled off to the local bank to change some of the group’s money into Laos Kip. Upon presenting the front ...

... along the road as if the boat would never leave. I also felt a bit like a western sex tourist having collared some 17-year-old thing for a few days. It was really uncomfortable and I just ducked my head and avoided eye contact with any other Westerners I saw - I was glad to get off the bike 15 minutes later and back to the comfort of the boat!!

By comfort I mean a wooden floor. We should definitely have bought a couple of pillows…8 hours on a wooden ...

... shops - if skipping is your thing - compared to this. It was so hard! Eventually I caught up with the others, they'd stopped by an extremely rudimentary bamboo shelter. I grabbed a log an sat down on it, out of the sun. Perhaps it was actually a bus shelter and the No. 24 to the main road will be serving us within minutes with it's half hourly VIP service - toilet, chilled mini bar, maybe a video or two....am I hallucinating? I better have some more warm ...

... but the guides didn't know.
Although we never saw them again we were fortunate enough to hear their calls. It is unreal - like a synthesiser a series of loud, manic whooping and sirening. When I get a decent connection I'll up load the video I took and you can see/hear for yourselves.
We returned to the tree house for breakfast...sticky rice and something..as usual and then it was decision time. I am not sure what options we REALLY had but ...

... Thai lady, whose knowledge of both Thailand, Laos and local culture enticed us to stay the night and learn more. What a pity we only have this day left of our complementary visa (everyone is quite perplexed as to why the Thai government, along with the effect of a little trouble at their main airport recently, have decided to reduce the length of time for tourists to ...