Vang Vieng

Hey All,

I'm back in Luang Prabang after spending 3 days in Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng was very touristy but still outstandingly beautiful. The first day we went out for a few beers in the evening. We got up early the next day to go tubing (floating down the river in a rubber tube, stopping at bars along the way...) it was a very boozy day but great fun none the less. The weather was great and it was a good party. There were some large rope swings into the river which were great fun. At the end of the day there were no signs telling you when to get off, and we ran into a couple of people later in the evening who had been on their way to Cambodia before they realised they should probably disembark...The following day Robin, Mike and I hired some bikes. We visited some caves which were really interesting; we were the only people there and the surrounding scenery was stunning. The cave itself had huge stalagmites and mushroom like limestone formations. The cave extended deep into the cliff and was considerably bigger than I anticipated. There were little cricket type creatures with large feelers as they couldnt see int he dark. There was a gorgeous pond with crystal clear water outside the cave, filled by water seeping through the limestone above. We then went to the 'blue lagoon' whilst the water was beautiful it was not a lagoon, it was a river. We went to another cave, this time a little boy showed us round. It was not as impressive as the previous cave but we saw an enormous spider. Jen had warned me to watch out for 'cave spiders' and this one the size of my hand was munching on one of the aforementioned cricket type things. I couldn't get a photo unfortunately as the battery on my camera had run out...The following day I decided I wanted to go trekking in Phongsali, but i had to come back to Luang Prabang first to get a connecting bus...I chilled out today in Utopia (again) I bargained hard in a book shop and swapped 8 books for 5, so my bag is slightly lighter again. Anyway off to the bus stop. Love to all, probs won't post a blog for a week or so until I'm in China.

Chang Mai and Laos

Hey All,

I got a night bus to Chang Mai from Bangkok. I met an English guy named Mike and we found a hotel in Chang Mai. We spent the day looking round Chang Mai. I came to the conclusion i wasn't going to stay as it was very touristy and the tours and treks expensive. We booked ourselves onto a slow-boat to Luang Prabang in Laos and left the following morning. We took a bus to the boarder where we stayed overnight and then crossed into Laos the next day. We met two more guys Robin from England and Scott from Australia. We got on the slow boat and travelled for 6 hours stopping for the night in some jungle town along the Mekong. The views were beautiful as the sun set over the Laos architecture of the village. The trip was good fun and I met lots of interesting people. The next day we arrived into Luang Prabang in the evening and I was so amazed by how pretty the city is. it really is an awesome place, the buildings are beautiful and the food is very very good. I think i could stay here indefinitely. We visited the Kungsi waterfall during the second day, but a freak shower soaked us on the way there. It was very nice as you could jump off trees into the fall. We met a load of people in the bar later that night and went to this really cool bar called Utopia overlooking the Mekong. The food and drink in this place are the best i've come across on my trip...We had agreed to go bargain to go Kayaking the following morning at 8.30 which we did with sore heads. We had enough people to make the trip cheap, so we went. The weather was lovely and it was suns out guns out for the afternoon. Tomorrow we are going to head to a cave and then the next day head to Vang Vieng. I want to go trekking at some point but I figured I would relax another day or two; a very Laos sentiment. I'm excited that Jen will soon be out with me and that it's my bday in a few weeks...Feel free to deposit donations into my account. Love to all xxx



The worlds biggest spider!

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Slow Boat

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Thailand

My last day in Delhi was spent chilling out and walking around. I visited the red fort with the intention of having a look round but got turned away as the Indian police were preparing for the Priminister to give a talk there that evening for Indian independence day. I met a really interesting 19yr old lad from Leeds and an Australian girl he was traveling with. They had been in Pakistan when the floods hit and had to be airlifted to safety by the Pakistani army. Got a taxi from my hotel in Paranganj to the airport, on the way we got pulled over by the traffic police, turns out my taxi driver hadn't renewed his license. When he was handed the fine he got a healthy beating of 2 punches to the face and a kick from this fat traffic cop. I thought it unfair...I flew with Indian airways to BK from the new terminal 3. The airport was beautiful and Air India potentially the most comfortable airline i've flown with. The air hostess kept brining me beers and the curry for lunch was really nice. I touched down in BK and got the bus to Khao San road. I didnt stay on Khao San but near by. I was astonished at how much cleaner BK was than Delhi, my single room with fan costing 160 baht was pure luxury in comparison to the hostels in India. In fact I felt that BK had come on along way since my last visit 2 summers ago. I went out that evening with two chaps from Leeds, it was good to have cheap beer to drink again. We had a good night; so much so that i overslept check out and had to pay an 80 baht fine. I got a night bus to Chang Mai. Considering all the hype about Chang Mai it's just a city, i know most the activities are outside the city but i'm pushed for time and Laos sounds so much better so i'm heading to the boarder tomz morning to try and get a slow boat that day. Love to all, xxx

Manali - Mcleod Ganj

Lizard with ridiculous ratio of tail to body
Enormous slug
Just before the cloud overtook me...




Gay Monkey
View from Mcleod Ganj

After the baths and relaxation of the first day, Matt and I got up early after a bit of a late night (on the way home it rained so hard a river was flowing down the road...) to see if the climbing we had booked was on. Thankfully it wasn't due to the wet weather. We went back to bed and surfaced later that afternoon. The majority of the day was spent eating and chilling in the numerous cafe's. The following morning the weather was clear and we went climbing. We were joined by two girls from Derby and a German called Arun. Matt couldn't climb as they didn't have shoes to accomodate his size 14 feet and Ben suffered from sore knees so they just watched whilst I attempted the routes. The first two were quite easy and I was quietly confident of scaling the 3rd. Arun who climbed semi-regularly was the first to attempt the 3rd route (7b on the french scale...) he struggled with the first part of the route at first but then got up and made the rest look relatively easy. Considering he wasn't a small chap, I thought I wouldn't struggle...I couldn't get up the first two metres, after 20 minutes of trying my arms and legs were knackered and I let Raj the instructor demonstrate how it was done. He made it look very easy. I eventually managed to scale the wall but only after Arun, Matt and Ben had hauled me up the first part that I just couldn't do. Matt, Ben and the girls went Zorbing in the afternoon whilst I went back to the hotel to book a flight to Bangkok. My flight is on the 16th and I get in to Bangkok at 19.00 if anyone is around...

The following day Matt and Ben were heading towards Nepal and I was headed to Mcloed Ganj the home of the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan government. I had got the last seat on the night bus named the 'Cabin'; with the driver in his compartment. The driver was a f#$^ing Nazi. The only way to stop myself falling off the tiny seat was to rest my legs on the padded box next to the gear stick (where usually the other driver sits), but everytime i started drifting off he'd start shouting at me for no reason. When I managed to sleep in another position, he seemed to take pleasure out of waking me every time we stopped for a break to encourage me to go spend money...Finally we arrived at 6.00am in Mcleod Ganj. All the hotels were full until checkout so i had to pass out in a cafe whilst I waited for a room to become available. In the afternoon I visited the Tibetan Complex, the home of the Dalai Lama and a museum about the history of the Tibetan people which was fascinating. The following day I had planned to get up early and head up to Triand and then to a glacier. When I woke at 6 the weather was terrible, I could barely see further than 10 yards the rain was so heavy. I spent the day reading, eating and talking to Jen on Skype. The followig morning the weather was superb; blue skies and crystal clear views. I set off later than intended at 8.00 so walked quickly, the scenary on the way up was great but cloud was starting to appear below. I saw lots of monkeys, lizards, goats, cows etc. About 2 km from the top cloud started to rise past me and the views started to dissappear. I pretty much ran the rest of the way up the mountain, but it was to no avail. The cloud was pretty thick by the time i reached the top and all of the scenerary was obscured. I tried to walk to the glacier (Which isn't actually there in the summer, supposedly it melts) but I couldn't find the path and I didnt have a map, so I gave up and decided to walk back down. On the way down the skies opened and the path turned into a river, huge amounts of water just seemed to be streaming down the hill. Everything in my bag was soasked: Money, books, food. Luckily my passport was in a waterproof case and survived unharmed. The descent took about 2 hours and it was pretty cold. I had a bit of a fever that evening, but seem fine today even though I couldnt sleep. My opinion of Mcleod Ganj and Manali is that it isn't really India and Mcleod Ganj isn't really Tibetian either. Both places are just traveler hangouts, but any sense of Indian or Tibetan culture is definitely lost.

I head to Delhi tonight and then to Bangkok the day after. I've been unlucky with this monsoon which is supposedly one of the worst in West India in living memory, and the worst in Pakistan for 80yrs. From BK i'm going to head straight to Chang Mai and then to Laos. I don't have a plan as of yet. I'm hoping to be in China by the 7th/8th of September, spending about 10 days in Sichuan before meeting Jen in Beijing on the 21st. Any ideas on what to do in Laos or northern Thailand are more than welcome. I really want to get off the beaten track and i've heard this is quite easy in Laos so i'm excited!

Love to All

Amritsar and Manali

Golden Temple

Paranganj -Delhi




Otters

Tiger Print





Hey all.
I was lucky when I got to Delhi in the morning i could get a train straight to Amritsar that afternoon. I went for breakfast in Paranganj, I noticed that Delhi really had changed in the 5 weeks since i'd left it. It was not AS much of a building sight. The thing that really struck me was that people weren't pestering me like they were before, I assume now that I don't look as much like a startled tourist unsure of where he is going. Either way I enjoyed a nice breakfast and wasted some hours away reading. The train was delayed by an hour, and as usual guaranteeing I was on the right train proved challenging. The train arrived in Amritsar at 10.30; too late to sleep at the golden temple. I stayed in a hotel where I met Ben and Matt two English guys from Newcastle Uni. They are nice guys. We went round the golden temple together the next day, which was really something. It was actually smaller than I expected but very beautiful none the less. What really amazed me was the dining hall. Where they feed between 60.000-80.000 people a day. It is an incredibly efficient system they have: You sit in long lines and they come down the lines giving you chapati, dahl and sweet rice. Followed by rice pudding. You can eat as much as you like, and even help with the washing if you fancy it. After the temple I went on the internet and discovered that Pakistan was now not an option at all. I formulated a plan that I would head into kashmir and then to Ladakh and trek in Leh. Unfortunately Kashmir was experiencing some violence and it was strongly recommended that tourists avoid it. So i decided to head to Leh by going with Matt and Ben to Manali. We got a overnight bus that took 16 hours. It was horrendously packed and bumpy. I managed the odd hours sleep over the evening but we arrived early and very tierd into Manali. We found a nice hotel and went to a natural hot spring, which although a little grotty was very pleasant. Unfortunately it turns out that whilst we were travelling to Manali, Leh was flooded and over 200 people are suspected dead...So i've decided to head to Bangkok and overland to China through Laos, I haven't booked a ticket yet, but i'm thinking about the 18th of August as the tickets are cheap and it gives me time to go to Dharamsala and back to Amritsar to see the Pakistan - India border ceremony. Enjoy the photos from Bardia and Amritsar, Love to All x