Boating

We came to Cat Ba Island for a little relaxation after all our arduous travelling (no sympathy for us I know!), and to our slight dismay we found a beach-front reminiscent of Blackpool.. including the rain! It wasn't actually as busy or built up as the hen-night haven, but it did have the typical neon, flashing lights, tacky trinket sellers and an abundance of karaoke bars. So much for lounging around on the sand topping up our fading tans!

As we lunched by the pier a friendly English couple, (Another Andy and Nicola), told us about a boat trip around the island they wanted to go on, and the more people they enrolled the cheaper it would be! Perfect! We had already planned to do a tour of the islands and these two fellow travellers had done all the leg work for us. We met up later to seal the deal with some other keen parties and then went off to celebrate with dinner and a game of 'Extreme Uno'. It turned out that (new) Andy went to Loughborough Uni too, so we had a good old laugh about Echo's, Pulse, Far Pav, FND, The Purple Onion, Nasty, Faraday.. oh, sorry am I boring you? We did the same to Nicola who had no idea what we were talking about.

So, there was ten of us in total setting off on an adventure into the mysterious waterways, and what a wonderful sight! Hundreds of jagged, elongated rocks just randomly positioned, all odd shapes and sizes, almost like they were just perched on top of the water. We spotted a bunny-shaped one, a dog-shaped one, a sausage-shaped one, and even a giant dinasour one... but I was the only one to see that unfortunately! Away from all the tourist ships it was so serene and beautiful, we floated past quiet fishing villages where people have made homes on a few planks of wood. Most had a seafaring mutt to keep them company who would race up and down there limited playground, barking to keep us at bay.

We were allowed to use the kayaks all day and the captain stopped off at several interesting points to explore nearby caves and crevices. The water was relatively clear and shallow in places, rather disconcerting when you go through a dark cave and get stuck to a rock. Floating through these dim tunnels, not knowing when you are going to emerge caused raucous excitement, Andy and I nearly got our heads decapitated on a low lying, clam-encrysted, stalactite, and i'm pretty sure some naughty bats pooped on us!

Once the sunlight streamed through the cave we became aware of the bizarre yellowy-purpley-rocky-roof, space-like with its chinks and formations. We all followed each other through one small hole with a very tight turning curve, which led us into this secluded blue lagoon. As we marvelled at the surrounding landscape with soaring eagles above us we wondered which way the current was flowing, and then imagined being on 999 Rescue as the tide blocked us in this desolate place with birds feasting on us. I don't think they call 999 in Vietnam though! Trying to navigate back round that L-shaped bend in long banana boats as the water was gushing the other way was somewhat...hilarious. If those kayaks could bruise they'd have been scarred black and blue from all the rock collisions. Firstly everyone took it in turns to try, laughing at the attempts and presuming it can't be that hard! As time was ticking we just piled in like bumper cars and staged a survival of the fittest. The last two stuck had us as an audience chuckling and whooping... which didn't help at all. One of the guys couldn't quite grasp the steering and kept frantically paddling right which unfortunately led them into a lefterly direction, and straight into the rock. We decided to just leave them there to keep the eagles at bay! Only joking!

Some of us braved the jelly fish and took a dip in the cool waters, the jellies are huge here, much bigger than Andy's head, and probably containing more brains! ha! (Not really Andrew). We saw one fisherman scoop one up in his net and when we waved at him he put it up to his mouth to motion 'dinner'... eugh... jellyfish soup! They will certaintly eat anything here. Our arms soon turned to jelly aswell after a few hours of paddling, which wasn't helped by getting lost in the similar looking karsts. When we eventually found our boat again the crew tied us to the back and we were thankfully allowed to justle along behind and admire the view without doing a workout.

To round off our exciting and exhausting day we all met up later for a beer, and at 15p per pint of the local tipple were soon searching for a bit of karaoke.

Andrew was still not feeling 100%, but despite his headache he was still up for a bit of water sports action. So we decided upon a kayak trip down to the capital city. As Laos is currently in the dry season the Nam Song river was not at its most menance, but we were promised a bit of boat-rocking in the rapids. With only six in our group we paddled in pairs through the steady current, marvelling at the surrounding jungle engulfed in mist. The waterways would have been perfectly peaceful if it wasn't for the deforestation noises in the distance, or so I thought. Later at lunch we heard the same chainsaw sounds again and realised it wasn't coming from a tree chopping machine, but it was in fact a very loud insect - a whole party of them humming away! We couldn't actually see the creatures but with its strange buzzing screech I wouldn't have been too keen to meet them anyway. Other riverside wildlife joined us for our BBQ lunch, such as hundreds of tiny frogs marching up from the rocks, or the hestitant butterflies attracted to our life jackets. Quite a few annoying flies came close for a nibble but thankfully the chainsaw bug didn't chop off our toes.

Back on board the boats we braced ourselves for the white water, being told to stay straight down the middle and avoid the rocky right and left, perfectly demonstrated by the guide. Andy controlled the steering from the back and I instructed from the front when we launched into the roaring rapids.. "RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, RIGHT RIGHT, AHHHHHHH!"... The rip showed no mercy and we were soon fish food. Flipped out with a splash Andy soon drifted off oarless while I somehow clung on like a clam and floated to his side. Once safetly back on we watched the others tumble on down just as spectacularly. Nothing like a bit of exhilaration to make you feel better!

Our next mission, if we chose to accept it, was to jump off a craggy, 10m rock into the river below, which didn't seem bad until we were faced with the looming height. The so-called brave gathered at the top peering over the edge, umming and arrhhing about whether its worth risking our lives, no one wanting to jump first. Until, a little, timid Japanese girl from the group appeared from knowhere and casually stepped off the side, plop! What had she eaten for lunch I wonder? A slightly camp Aussie guy hilariously whoop whooped his way down next before I took the stand for my final plunge to death. Weeeeeeeee! Easy! I'll post the video up as evidence.

We paddled a few more hours to our waiting minibus and then onto Vientiane - which is actually pronounced Viang Chan, not Venitian as we keep saying. The French are responsible for the modern transliteration and their influence is seen elsewhere such as the prominent Patuxai momument reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe, and the surrounding tree-lined boulevards are also described as the 'Champs Elysee's of the East'. Now, I won't lie to you, these comparisons are a little ambitious, and although the similarities include a stone arch and a few scrubs it's not a patch on gay Paris. However, this booming city does contain some great gems, such as its oldest surviving temple - Wat Si Saket built around 1820. After seeing several wats it can seem rather similar, but this wat in particular have several unique features. It all looked a bit eery when I stepped inside due to the grey thunderstormy clouds brewing, and as I peered around the courtyard 100's of beady eyes were starring at me from the shadows. Buddha statues of varying shapes, sizes and material completely cover these wat walls, small ones in niches and large ones seated on the floor. In total there are 10,000 Buddha's sitting serenly. Not sure how they know which one to pray to though.

I was a bit gutted to be leaving Laos so soon, especially as in a few days it would be Laos New Year where everyone has a massive water fight. But on our way to the airport a lady on the roadside was celebrating early and threw a huge bowl of the wet stuff all over our tuk tuk, drenching us through. Maybe its a good time to leave!

The slow boat is a two day cruise down the Mekong River with an overnight stop. Many of the people we have spoken to about Laos have had conflicting views about this trip so before we booked we walked to the pier to check out the boats and decided to sign up for the VIP seats.

The next morning loaded with our packed lunch we departed from Huay Xai (the Thai - Laos border crossing point) and were very glad to have the good seats as the others were just wooden boards and for 10 hours that would definitely dampen the experience! The views through the first half of the day were good but spoilt somewhat by the smog caused from the Laos peoples desire to slash and burn seemingly endless acres of forest. As the day wore on the Beerlao (Laos only major export) started to flow very freely for some members of the boat which only seemed to make the Americans louder. So with ipods to hand we settled back and watched the scenery pass us by.
Along the banks of the river were several very small settlements, the only way in and out of his area is by river and the captain dropped off several bags of rice to the locals. There was a large number of fishing nets cast into the water along the sides held there by lengths of bamboo. Sadly we didn't see any nets been hauled in. SOme of the locals have made there own very primitive, fast and dangerous speed boats that consisted of a wooden dinghy with a car engine and propeller fitted on the back. These scary boats passed regularly with crsh helmet wearing tourists but we had definitely made the right option with our slow cruise.

We arrived in the evening into a place called Pak Beng which has grown tremendously over several years into a real tourist hub with the locals making good livings off the regular influx of tourists. After a relaxing day we found a quiet curry house and reminisced about the Indian cuisine. Sadly the locals seem to have a disproportionately high number of cockerills that seem to think its dawn all night long and were constantly squawking.
The Laos way of life is very relaxed, apparently they only work if its fun and enjoyable (can't see that sentiment transferring to the UK any time soon!) so when we asked what time the boat departed in the morning we were met with blank stares, in fact no one really new so to make sure we got decent seats we arrived early.
We had a roadside breakfast on the way down, no bacon and eggs here just buffalo skewers and tough sticky rice. To say we got the cheap cuts of buffalo was an understatement!
The second day was more spectacular view wise with the visibility increasing and many more interesting limestone formations to view.

In the evening we arrived into Luang Prang the end of our boat trip which was definitely worth doing. Met some interesting people and some that sadly thought they were but fell well short! Luang Prang was a very pleasant riverside town that has also grown due to tourism but in a much more controlled way so as not to damage its original features.