Luang Prabang (Laos)

21/12/2007 to 26/12/2007 Well....I (Janet) is writing this blog for the second time ...after having nearly finished the whole of the write up...for some weird reason...the blog did not save!!!! So here we go again.... We set off for our trip to Laos in the afternoon via a mini-van ride which took six hours in all. Out seats were not very comfortable since we had to share them with some backpacks!! At 18.30 we got to our, prebooked overnight stay... checked in... and had dinner. Our last guest house in Thailand, before setting off to Laos, was very nice....even the food. We decided to book our accomodation for the following day in advance, to avoid any hassle (this turned out to be a good deal). The next morning we set off early, around 8.30. The mini-van took us to immigration to have our passports stamped. Janet did not pay anything while Yakof did....reason being that the immigration officer told Janet she was beautiful. When it was Yakof's turn, being a man, he had to pay...needless to say Yakof was that little bit pissed off :) The cross between Thailand to Laos took only 2 minutes and we arrived in Huoay Xai...again our passports were checked here and we eventually made our way, to the slow boat. The trip was nice, all in all....though not very comfortable, the scenery during the 6-hour trip was great. As soon as we arrived we made our way to the guest house. Though it was relatively a short way it was made difficult by the fact we had to walk up a sandy hill, Yakof had to carry the two backpacks!!! We enjoyed our stay there, apart from the fact that there was no hot water, our toilet was invaded by ants and Janet's dinner was disgusting. We spent chatting with the guest house's owner, Deth, who is a 24-year old guy whose heart was broken by a girl 5-months ago. We even played Connect 4 with him....he proved himself vey good!! ...but not enough :D The next morning we woke up early to catch the slow-boat again. This time the trip was nicer as the boat was much more comfortable. Bigger and with a sort of 'sun roof'. During the trip Janet managed to finish off her book on Buddhism and Yakof chatted with a very nice English lady who travelled round the world and was giving us tips on where to go. As soon as we arrived in Luang Prabang we dashed off the boat to find an accomodation. We found lodging at a hotel which was over our budged (Lm4 a night when our budget is Lm2.50 a night) but the room was very comfortable...and the shower....ahhhhh....the best one we had since we've been in Asia...we felt spic and span. The first night was spent going round the famous handicraft market and eating some very nice street food, whilst looking for a more affordable accomodation. The day after we changed our accomodation as we had found a guesthouse for half the price we were paying. The guest house is, till now, the nicest accomodation we had....no shower in the room but the common showers are very clean. This day was Christmas Eve so we were planning to do something nice in the evening...little did we know how the day was going to turn round. In the morning we went to the National Museum, which Janet liked and Yakof did not really enjoy. Later on we climbed a flight of stairs to see some nice views...we did not go on as we had to pay to see some temple. So we took some photos and left. When we where at the internet Yakof realised that he did not have his mobile...went back to the guesthouse...came back to the internet...the mobile was gone!!! We rushed off to the last place we had seen it...up the steps...but it was dark and not to be found. Yakof was devastated and, needless to say, very angry...so much so he did not want to go out that evening....and it was Christmas Eve!!! After a while things cooled off and we decided to go out and had a really great time!!

We went to this restaurant and just paid US$ 7 for a buffet which included : pork, chicken, steamed fish, bbq fish, pumpkin soup, pizza, mashed potatoes, miniature beef burgers, salads and even fruit!!!! We ate the equivalent of two days....the food was delicious. The only small let down was the wine we ordered...it cost us Lm5 and was corked. But Yakof managed to turn the situation around by turning the corked wine into some very nice Sangria, by just adding some sprite and fruit. We later went back to the guest house (after Yakof went again up the stairs to look for his mobile) with the intention of drinking the rest of the wine...but as soon as Janet touched here pillow she dozed off.... The following morning we went to report the missing mobile...the police were not that helpful. They asked us to go back for the report before leaving Luang Prabang...so we decided to stay another day. Eventually we headed off to a waterfall....it was simply amazing. The walk towards it was very pleasant. We saw protected bears and a tiger and we swam in one of the three swimming areas. The water was ice cold!!! We did not manage to go to Pak Ou Caves though as they were closed by the time we finsihed... In the evening we tried calling our parents ourselves as they were not getting through to us for some reason. Yakof managed to get through while Janet managed only later through her mobile phone. We tried, in vane, to find Le Cinema, a place were supposively you can rent a room and watch a movie. We spent the rest of the night playing cards and drinking our Christmas' Eve sangria. The last day in Luang Prabang is the day we are writing our blog...we have been nearly five hours at the internet cafe...or at least Janet did as Yakof went, once again, to look for his mobile up the steps. Whilst at the internet cafe Janet's mobile rang....and guess who it was....Yakof !!!!! The mobile was found!!!! His tenacity was rewarded!!! This proves that Asian people are honest people....Yakof tipped the women who kept his mobile (at the ticket office) Lm2...which means he was realllllllyyyyyyyyy happy :) Well what else to say at this point....tomorrow morning we are off to Vang Vieng, where we will be spending our New Year....so 2008 will kick off there....Vang Vieng (Laos)....'u il-kbir ghadu gej.... :)'

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Chang Mai (Thailand)

13/12/07 to 20/12/07 Back in Chang Mai... and this time it was so much nicer!

As soon as we got here we went straight to The Rose Guest House, as we did like the place a lot. Since it was already late, we went for dinner (at La Villa Restaurant again), and went to have a chat with Carm and Lee and Peter Paul (since they too, were in Chang Mai) and then off to sleep, determined, to see much more of Chang Mai this time. The following morning we hired a bike (automatic). Driving it's a little bit more difficult here since it's not a small village like Pai, but Yakof managed well. First thing in the morning we booked our very first trek!! 3-days two nights, including sleep over in a tribal villages, elephant riding and bamboo rafting. We set off to Doi Suthep... a beautiful temple and monastery on the highest point of Chang Mai. The long ride was very rewarding as the temple was magnificent. Beautiful buddhas, surroundings, designs...and the view...majestic! Once there, we were blessed by the monks. Janet was blessed by a high ordinance monk and Yakof by their buddha (who is the higher monk). They tied some white threads around our right hand... and performed a blessing, this was meant to bring good luck. After exploring the temple, Yakof came up with the idea of going to chat with a monk. This idea turned out to be very pleasant. We spoke to a 26-year old novice from Burma and he explained to us some of the Buddha's teachings. Yakof, from his side, was explaining his beliefs, which meant there was not much place for Janet to say a word :) So she consoled herself buy buying a book about Buddhism. The rest of the day was spent driving aimlessly in Chang Mai until we arrived at a very nice coffee shop/restaurant on the Ping River's bank (Chang Mai Coffee). The place offered a great view, and was full of cats!! 3 days-2 nights trekking Morning came... time to trekk! The first day was pretty easy. We just rode to a spot where we had lunch, and a 10-minute walk to a waterfall. The waterfall was nice though not impressive. Then we set off to another place and we had an hour and a half walk to the tribal village where we were going to spend the night. During the trek Janet stepped over some buffalo shit (which Yakof had to clean off the shoe later)...yakkk!!! The stay at the village was enjoyable. We had dinner (not so good), had a couple of drinks, a chat with the other people who were trekking with us, and spent some time round the fire, with one of the guides playing the guitar and Yakof singing along.... The following day we woke up early. Did not manage to rest a lot as they place we slept in was a common hut which had no matteresses but just wood!! The toilet was an experience on it's own... a whole in the ground surrounded by ALOT of insects... in fact Janet preferred to pee next to a tree :) We eventually discovered that we were the only two out of the whole group who were doing three day trek !!!! And our second day was just walking :) !!! But to be honest, though we had a seven-hour walk, it was the day we enjoyed most. During the trek we saw two waterfalls, Yakof swam in a river, and we ended our day in a beautfiul village, sleeping in a very nice hut and having the best Thai Massage ever!

We spent the following morning relaxing at the village, playing with a monkey, and talking to the locals. Later we set off for our elephant ride. Janet was really looking forward to ride an elephant but the ride did not turn out as she had thought. It's like being on a roller coaster but in slow motion... and she got quite scared as well, especially when we were going downhill. Yakof had to hold both himself and Janet not to slip off. At a particular point the elephant stopped and we didn't know what to expect. The elephant rider hit the elephant on his head...poor thing. We ended the ride with the elephant washing us along with it. After that we went bamboo rafting, which both of us did not enjoy due to the fact that Janet did not want to get wet (which is quite a difficult thing when you're in the water...ain't it??!!) All in all it was a great experience and at least a starting point for the upcoming (harder) treks! The rest of our days in Chang Mai were spent going round Chang Mai, having lunch at the Ping River's waterside restaurant, shopping at the Central Plaza, watching a movie at the Cinema (Golden Compass) and eating more than we should have. In fact the last couple of days we spent a little bit more than we had budjeted (we ate KFC and Pizza which is a luxury for us here). In the meantime we were getting our Laos visa ready, and on Friday 21st December we set off to our next destination....Laos...

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Pai (Thailand)

09/12/07 - 14/12/07 This morning we set off for Pai. The bus ride took us three hours in all. The scenery was beautiful, though the continuous uphill, downhill, and curving slopes were not that nice on our senses. As soon as we arrived the first person we saw at our stop was Peter Paul...and we say that Malta is small!!! We called Carm to come and meet us, and within a few minutes he was there. He took us to Dang's, a very nice, small restaurant run by its owner, Dang, and her English husband. We left our backpacks there and went to hire an automatic bike. It was Yakof's first time driving one but he soon learned, especially considering that his first experience was driving it, was with Janet at the back and two heavy backpacks, one on Janet's back and the other in front of him! We then met with Luke, a Maltese guy who offered us to share his hut with him. Well share is not the proper terminology to use as he was paying 4000 Baht a month for renting it and he asked us for 3500 Baht for two weeks! So, obviously, we did not take his offer. Instead we found accomodation at Pai's Holiday Huts....soon to discover that Yakof was allergic to the leaves the ceiling was made of... Once settled we went to Carm's and Lee's place for a drink. Their place is small but nice...just comfortable enough for them. After a nice evening spent with them we went back to our hut, discovering for the first time how cold Pai can get when the sun sets!! The following morning Yakof woke up sick...both the weather and the hut was not doing him any good, so we started re-considering whether or not we would stay for two weeks in Pai. But we left that decision for later.

The day was spent going round Pai...we went to see where the elephant riding was and also to the Canyon. When we stopped at the Elephant Park, Yakof realised he had lost the bike's key....yessss it had fallen from the bike. So we went back to look for it, slowy, with the bike and luckily enough managed to find it!

Carm offered us to take us to see some huts which were owned by friends, so we decided to go and have a look. The huts were still under construction and, though they looked nice, they asked us for more that we would have liked to spend. In the meantime Yakof's health was not getting any better. In fact that evening, after spending some time at Carm's place, we decided to call it a night as Yakof was sick, while the others went out for a few drinks. The day after was quite uneventful, apart from the fact that two other Maltese joined in Pai, Alistair and Kathleen, both very nice. Carm and Lee offered us to stay at their place since they were going for a couple of days to Chang Mai and Chang Rai...so we started considering whether to stay at least till they come back. Our decision whether or not to stay in Pai was soon resolved when that night we had a row, Yakof was getting worse, and as soon as we woke up we decided to set off back to Chang Mai that same day. We were taking the 4 o'clock van and Ska was going to stay in Pai. I was glad we were leaving Pai as, in a way, it did not bring us much luck. But we both would like to go back there as the place is beautiful. The last hours in Pai was spent going round the countryside in the bike, enjoying beautiful scenery and breathtaking views.....

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Chang Mai (Thailand)

05/12/07 - 09/12/07 Chang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand after Bangkok, though it does not give you the feel of a city at all. It is relatively quite and the people so friendly. As soon as we got here we found lodging at the "Nice Place 2 Guesthouse"... this was prearranged for us... and since we weren't sure if it was worth it, we only booked for one night.... After having a look around, we decided that it was a fair deal... but alas the rooms had already been taken for the following nights.... so we went on a guest house hunt, and found good (cheaper) lodging at "The Rose Guesthouse" for the following nights, since we decided to spend a week in chang mai, in order to be here for the sunday market which according to our friend Lee offers good deals. The Rose guesthouse had extremely hard beds, good for the back... but not so comfortable... So, what will we remember from chang mai.... the night night bazaar, with its colourful atmosphere, from where Yakof actually bought clothes for the first time :) :P.... taking care of Kaiah (Lee's daughter), who was uncontrollable for the first 10min after leaving her mum, but fun afterwards... seeing and touching our very first elephant in asia... the river boat ride on ping river where we met a monk who had just been ordained... our very first night out for a drink, with some chang beer and a live band, and Yakof arguing with the cashier who had given him the wrong change (Lm 6 difference)... eating at la villa restaurant, very good home made italian food... and last but not least THE MONKEY SHOW, :D one thing which left us with a smile for the rest of the day... Tomorow off to Pai Ps... Janet: chang mai was a nice place to be...i was mostly impressed by the people living here, they are all very nice and helpful. Having said that we did not see much of the place as the only way to visit different parts of the town is to go around with a bike (which hopefully we'll be doing). From my end i will definetely never forget the size of the bugs..they are enormous and disgusting...as well as the elephant and the monkeys' kisses and cuddles...we don't get to see such animals in close distance in Malta :)

Yakof: Well i guess i liked the place.... seems to be a good place to relax from ones travels (not that we needed it), whilst having everything at a close distance... i liked the guest house we stayed at, nice and helpful owner from munich, and loved the beds (cause of my back)... was cool seeing an elephant for the first time and the monkeys were absolutly great... bunch of more stuff to do and see here, maybe we will in the future...

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Bangkok (Thailand)

02/12/07 - 04/12/07 Day 1 To arrive in our first accomodation was quite simple, a friend of ours adviced us on where to go to look for cheap accomomdation. So we caught a bus from the airport to "Khosaun Road"....typically Thai...food stands...asian flavours, and open markets. We found an accomodation immediately at "My Guest House" (the place was clean and cheap... but now on the 2 morning here we realised that the guest house just next to it was even cheaper... hehe). After that we went out, bought some stuff we needed, and took off for an early night...actually we collapsed as we were very tired from our travelling. Day 2 This day was 'shopping day'...spent nearly a whole day in an enormous IT store "Pantip Plaza". To get there we took a tuk tuk... which came for free...but with a small catch... we had to make two stops on the way. Basically we concluded that with every stop the driver gets paid a certain amount of money... Cheapest offers were 50c for the three of us with one stop, or 2 stops and free transport. Quite weird actually...stopped at a jewellery and fashion shop, took a look around, said no to the salespersons there and that was it... :)... At the IT store we bought a camera from there and other stuff a at very good prices. On our way back to the hotel we used a tuk tuk again...but this time it was different....the driver was nuts!!! No kidding....he was so frustrated driving in traffic that he started driving on the other side of the road so we practically had cars driving past us towards the other direction... The day ended with some nice street food and a good night rest for Janet and a sleepless one for Yakof.... Day 3 For our last day in Bangkok we decided to go look for a good water bottle, in khosaun road...which we had no luck in finding...instead we found a hairdresser..:) Janet decided to get her hair braided...not only...but she also did extension. The process took about two hours....and the result was absolutely great...one can judge from the photos... Now off to Pai (North Thaliand) to meet Carmelo, Lee and Kaiah.....12 hours bus....aaarrgggghhhh :) Ps... yakof : I think this is the first city i actually liked, (well compared to the rest around europe)... at least the part where we're lodging in... has quite a nice atmosphere (for a city)... food is good (trying to stick to veg... but it's hard... didn't really manage till now)... basically there is one rule here.... "you found a cheap price... well if you'll keep looking you'll find a cheaper one"... :)... peace

janet : well, here i am again in asia, after my first trip in July 2006. Nothing changed much really....the smell of the food, the way the guest houses are run, the cheap stuff....it's amazing for me how one day you are living in all the comforts a 'normal' life gives you and the day after you are just fine in living in a small room, with only a small sink, toilet and cold shower...and a back pack with your belongings. Travelling was always a part of me and this trip is something i wished for a long time...so my dream has come true and i will live it to the full day by day. I am so lucky to be with the person i love who is sharing everything with me..the only missing thing is my loved ones...my family....my friends...even writing about them brings tears to my eyes...but i know we will see each other soon enough....until then.... :) ... love

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