The Big Trip...

Sabaidee everyone! (that means hello in Laos)

Well, i know i have not updated for my entire time in laso, and this is because its been a really relaxed and chilled out week and there has not been too much to report...so i thought i would condense it into one blog entry.

Luang Prabang (LP) is an absolutely stunning french colonial town set upon the Mekong River. On our first night there a big group of us went out for dinner adn then had an early night as we were exhausted from our previous bad night's sleep in Pak Beng.

On my first full day in LP i just chilled out...sat by the river bank and read my book, had a tradittional lao massage and people watched from the quaint cafe's. At night a group of us went to the food amrket for noodle soup and then had a wander round the textile night market. Textiles is amajor industry in laos so it only seemed right to give back to the community and treat myself to a handwoven silk scarf!

Day 2 in Lp and we all hopped into a tuk tuk to take us to Tat Kuang Si. This is a multi tiered beautiful waterfall about 1 hour outside LP. We spent the best part of the day swimming there and en route back to LP we stopped at a laos village which was really interesting. AT night we all just went out for dinner again and wen to a bar. Everything closes in Laos at 11.30 due to government legislation so there s not too much to do at night (which is fine).

Day 3 in LP and i decided to be active and see the city. I visited the Royal Palace Museam, Wat Xieng Thong (probably the most beautiful temple i have ever seen) and i climed Phu Si (2000 steps..not so easy!). This gives great views over teh city and has some unique temples at the top.

I left LP the follwing morning for Vang Vieng. This was a 5 hour bus journey and was surprising fine (apart from the mountain road that left me almost throwing up!) On arrival into VV i was dissapointed. We had left this beautiful quaint town and arrived in a touristy building site, where every restaurant shows friends on widescreen tvs. I spent the afternoon trying to find a half decent place to stay and then met up with the dutch couple and olga for dinner.
Then me and Olga went to a bar which was full of backpackers and i felt like i was in Australia again..very strange.

I only had one full day in VV and i spent it tubing on the river. The tuk tuk drives u 3 kilometres upstreamand u float all teh way back to teh start. This started really fun and you can go along loads of ziplines over the river, and there are bars and restaurants all the way along so you can stop and just relax for a while. Then the weather changed and it got cloudy and the wind picked up and started to blow us the wrong way!! It was not amusing..there we were..the 4 of us frantically paddling to stopus from going in the wrong direction! Eventually we gave up and got out of the river, grabbed a tuk tuk and headed back home.

That night we sat and watched friends in a restaurant for about 2 hours (you think thats bad..the guy sitting next to me had been there for 11!) and had an early night.

The next morning i caught the bus to Vientiene. This bus journey was not as good as the previous one as it was hot, cramped and took twice as long as it should have...oh well..the joy of public transport in Laos. I arrived late afternoon, checked into my guesthouse and me Olga for dinner. WE had a great meal (the food here is awesome!) and then we wernt to a bar called the Chicago Bar where we put on a movie on the wide screen, sat on compfy sofas watching it and sipped on cocktails..all for less than 1pound!

Today I got up early and checked into a cheaper guesthouse and then set off on a supposadly 6 hour walk arounda ll the cites of the city. It took me 2 and a half hours (i have no idea where tehy got 6 hours from - the city is small). I visited Patuxai (which looks like teh Arc de Triuph in Paris) and climbed up it to get great views of the city. Then i walked throuhg some markets and onto That Dam which is one of VIetiene's oldest Buddist stupas. I then visited a couple more temples and some big foutain in the centre, before going to JoMa's cafe (such a good palce..its a chain here) for lunch and a read of the Laos times (which is in english). Thats about it for Laos so far...I leave for Vietnam on the 29th.

Till next time
Danielle xxx

Hey everyone

So, I have just spent the past 3 days travelling by bus and boat, and although the scenery was amazing..ther novelty wears off after about 1 day of it!

Anyway, here's how the last 3 days panned out...

I was up really early to be picked up by the shuttle bus that would take us to the Thai border. The bus (which was supposed to come at 8am) finally turned up at 10am. It was one of those little minibuses with no aircon and no radio..oh, and it was full to maximum capacity. There we were, 9 of us, crammed in like sardines, absolutely sweltering and stuck on this bus until 6pm. Great. Actually, it was fine because the people were a good laugh and we did a couple of stops at some random markets where the bus driver gets commission if we buy anything. We had a little fight with the driver cause he kept stopping at travel agents trying to get us to buy Laos visas off them for more than the price at the border, because then he gets commission. When we refused, he took a strop and started driving really erratically from then on.

We arrived into Chiang Khong at around 6pm and went straight to the guesthouse which was basic but perfectly fine. Once again we were tried to buy a visa but we were having none of it. We all went to bed early anticipating the boat trip to follow.

We were all up early again to go to the border crossing and this went smoothly and was much cheaper than at any travel agent. Needless to say we were very pleased with ourselves for standing our ground. After being stamped out of Thailand, we got a short boat ride over to Laos where we got stamped in. The we boarded a long boat that would be home for the next 2days. This boat can fit about 150 people sitting, and i reckon there were about 200 people on the boat. The seats are wooden and lined up so that there is pretty much no leg room and they are probably the most uncomfortable woodenbenches you have ever sat on. So, teh 2 days passed relatively slowely as we all tried to find a position that didnt kill our backs.

Halfway through the trip we stopped at a place called Pak Beng for the night. It was adequate (but for 100baht a night you can't really complain!) and a group of us went out for a nice dinner. What wasn;t so great was the electrical storm later on that shut off all power! It was an experience.

Day 2 on the boat was pretty much the same as day 1 and we arrived into Luang Prabang at 6pm. Luang Prabang is such a lovely quaint town and i'm going to spend a few days here to chill out. The main street is lined with lovely antique shops and smart restaurants that only cost about 3 pounds for a meal. The guesthouse that i am staying at only have 4 rooms, so a group of us are all staying there which is nice.

Hope all is good at home

love Danielle xxx

Hey everyone

So, I left bangkok at 6pm and did not arrive into Chiang Mai until 8am the following day. Luckily i had 2 seats to myself on the overnight bus, but the air conditioning was at full blast and some random Thai film was blaring in my ear, so all in all it was not a very pleasant journey!

I went straight to my hotel and was pleased with the quality of the place..so far so good with teh travel agent i booked this leg of my trip with. I didn't do much that first day as I was completely exhausted, so I just took a wander into town where it became apparant that the Thai New Year water festival was already in full swing. After getting completley soaked (and i was unarmed so it was really unfair) i headed back to the hotel and just chilled by the pool for the rest of the day. That night I had been handed a free Kantoke dinner evening by the travel agent because i booked a lot with them, so at 7pm I was picked up and taken to this huge dinner thing. I have never been given so much food ever, but it was all really good, and once everyone had finished their meal, thai dancers came onto the stage and performed some traditional dances. Then we went outside and some performers did some fire dances which were really spectacular.

The next day I went to an all day cookery class which was really worthwhile. They picked me up at 9am and we got taken to the cookery school. This time I was safe in a car with the windows locked, so we did not get wet en route. The drive was so random...thousands and thousands of people had lined the canal that circles the city of Chiang Mai and all had water guns, big buckets of ice cold water, or mere water balloons. It is the most bizzare thing I have ever seen.

At the cooking class we made green curry paste, pad thai, green chicken curry, papaya salad, spring rolls, banana fritters, basi chicken and some more things i cant rememeber. Oh, and we ate everything we made, so I was completley stuffed by the time 5pm came and it was time to go home. I met some really nice people on the course and we all headed out to the Night Bazzar that evening for a little bit of shopping.

The following day I was starting my trekking through the jungle, and this was definately an experience. The people all going on the trek from my hotel didn't speak much english and I thought that I was in for a relaly boring 3 days, but we met up with another van load of poeple and they were all really nice people. On the first day of the trek we drove for 3 hours in an open top car (yup, thats right, we got drenched going through the streets of chiang mai, and teh villages surrounding!) to the elephant park, where we rode on elephants for about 1 hour. This was awesome and a great introduction to the trekking. After some lunch we drove to teh start of the trek and then the hard work began. On that first day we literally climed a mountain for 3 hours and I was completely ready to pass out by the time we got to camp. Once we had relaxed for a bit, our guide took us round the village that we were staying in and explained to us the life of the hill tribes which was really fascinating, and I will tell you all more about that wen i get home. It was early to bed because we were so exhausted. The following day was another full day of hiking up and down mountains (i can;t decide which is better..going uphill or downhill because my knees still hurt!). This day was pretty uneventful. The final day was te best...we only walked for about 2 and a half hours and then we went swimming in the most beautiful waterfall to freshen up. After that we drove to the bamboo rafting and we all got on huge bamboo rafts and got taken down the river for about an hour. This was so so strange because the water festival was still in full stride adn lining the river were thousands of people all throwing water at the poeple on the bamboo rafts. I think we were dry for the forst 30 seconds. All along the river they are having a party, drinking beer and eating chiken, and they were including us the whole way...random Thais were coming up- to our rafts with big glasses of beer and handing them out to us...it was so much fun! Its really hard to describe what it was like and unfortunately i do not have any pictures because my camera would have broken with all the water....its just teh biggest water fight and drinking festival ever known to man.

Once back safely in Chiang Mai we all had hot showers before meeting in teh town for a group dinner which was really nice. We stumbled upon a thai boxing match as well and a lady boy parade (ye, there are loads of lady boys here, its very strange and it is really hard to tell if they are real women or not!).

Yesterday i just had a chilled out day and i spent most of the day by the swimming pool having a well deserved rest from the trekking. I met some really cool people and we just did nothing all day which was luxurious. At night me and Luke took his moped into the town (probably the scariest ride of my entire life..thought we were going to crash and die because the traffic here is manic) and we got some thai massages for like 4 pounds. Bliss. We then met up with some more people from the pool and all went out for dinner and did a bit of shopping in the night bazzar. It was a good day.

Today I am starting a 3 day journey into Laos which I am really looking forward to. Hope everything at home is okay and please keep in touch.

Love Danielle xxxxx

Hey everyone

Well i am safe and sound back in the Northern Hemisphere ( ) after a 25 hour journey from Fiji. After being knocked back when asking for an upgrade (yet again..u gotta ask) i realsied i was in the very back seat of the plane and the seat did not recline! i was not a happy bunny. On the plus side i watched some great movies, saw an amazing sunset through the plane window and got chatting to Rob who was sitting next to me. On arrival into Bangkok, me, Rob and some other random girl with a backpack all got into a taxi to the Khoa San rd (backpackerdom). 800 baht, 2 toll road costs, and 45 mins later we were at the hotel and ready to crash. Hotel was absolutely stunning (i had decided to splash out a bit for my first 2 nights) and slept like a baby.

The next morning me and Rob met a couple of guys whilst trying to barter for some fisherman pants, and we ended up spending the day together. After some shopping and pad thai for lunch (which costs around 40 pence here) we decided to get into some tuk tuks. For those of you who don;'t know what these are, they are a cross between a car and a motorbike. Basicalyl very fast, dangerous vehicles that transport you around the city for very little money. We wanted to go to see the Grand Palace and th Giant Buddha. They took us to these sites but then insisted on taking us to 2 tailer shops (and they were surprised when we didnt want to buy anything?!), and a temple that not only was closed for renovation, but there was a funeral going on at the same time! There we were...4 travellers clad in fisherman pants and singlets, wearing flip flops..and we just walked into a buddist funeral. Great. We couldnt get out of there fast enough! Once back at the khao san rd we spend about 10 mins bartering with the tuk tuk drivers for the price, and we left satisfied having only paid 10baht (there is about 70 baht to the pound) for an hour long tour of the city. Sweet.

We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon..went swimming etc and then headed out at night back to the madness. We bought noodles from a street vendor and then had some beer on the side of the road. Was a good night, but me and rob were so tired still from the journey, that we left the other guys and went back to the hotel.

Today i am just getting ready fro my trip to Chiang Mai. I leave at 6pm tonight and spend 12 hours on a bus up north, arriving just in time for the Thai new year where there are giant water fights on teh streets of the city for 5 days. i am going trekking in the jungle for a few days whilst i am there before heading into Laos.

Hope all is well at home

Danielle xxxx

Bula everyone!! (hello,welcome,goodbye,have a nice day, whats up? etc in Fijian)

So, I am sitting in Sydney airport after a 4 hour flight from Fiji and i have 4 hours to kill before my flight to Thailand, so i decided this would be a good time to update my blog on the past week's events.

I left Auckland first thing in the morning for Fiji, and arrived mid afternoon. The heat hit me as soon as i walked off the plane which was a welcome surprise since NZ was just going into winter. I had my first expereince of 'Fiji Time' in the airport when we were told the courtesy bus would be picking us at at 4pm, and didnt turn up till 5pm. Great. I must be the most punctual person in the world so this was a shock to my system!

I arrived at the hostel (which was absolutely beautiful) and met up with Claire again. After dinner and relaxing we headed to bed because we were going to picke dup at 7am the following morning to start island hopping.

At 7:45 the next morning, we were picked up (again, fiji time - see above) and taken down to the harbour where we boarded the boat to take us up to the Yasawa group of islands. There are 336 islands in Fiji and they are grouped into 15 lots. We were staying on 2 islands only, but visitng many more.

It took 4 hours to reach our island which was called Nayuna Lailai. Basic does not descibe it. Our room was one big dorm and i had a top bunk with a ladder that i was seriosuly scared would come away from teh bed if i climed on top of it. thsi resulted in a 2 man operation of claire hoisting me up on the bed. Great. The toilets were vile, the place was ridden with mozzies and teh food was pure stodge. other than that we were set in paradise, surrounded by palm trees, crystal clear ocean and probably some of the most friendly people i have ever met. We spent 2 nights on this island. The activities on the first night consisted on a crab race - all very exciting stuff..before heading to bed early. Food was served at 7am, 12pm and 7pm, and everyone on the island sits down together to each meal, which is really nice and it means that you get to know people really well. On the next day we went to the Sawailau Caves which involved swimming underwater to reach into teh caves, then resting in air pockets..was really beautiful. That afternoon we hiked for about an hour to reach the Blue Lagoon and we spent around 2 hours snorkelling in amazingly clear waters before heading back to the resort. That night there were no organised activities, so we took it upon ourselves to creat a bar around a box of lifejackets. there we were, 8 of us, one bottle of lethal 60% Bounty Rum and 3 cans of Coke to mix it with - made for a very funny night. lets leave it at that.

The next morning we headed back onto the boat to take us to the Wanna Taki. This is a liveaboard boat around the Naviti area. We had such fun on this boat. Everyone (24 people) all slept in the same room (and it was airconditioned - such a luxury) and you could snorkel, swim, kayak, fish etc straight off the boat. The views were spectacular and every night we sat on the top deck drinking cocktails and sampling some Kava. Kava is a the national drink of Fiji and its made from some pepper tree roots and water. It tastes of filthy water and really has no appeal. Apparantly, if you drink enough of it then it will make your entire body go numb. There is a whole procedure for drinking the kava, and it is offensive to refuse it if someone offers it to you. The fist night i didnt try any of the vile tasting drink becausei had a dive booked for te next morning, and nothing was going to spoil that!

My dive was off Manta Ray island -another tropical paradise island. the dive was miuch better than my dives in Australia and fuelled my desire to do some more! (this is bad because it is not a cheap hobby!) The rest of the timeon the boat was spent sunbathing and snorkelling in different locations. On our second day on the boat, some of our friends from the Kiwi bus joined us which was a lovely reunion.

We left the boat the following afternoon and headed for our final island - South Sea Island. Now, i am not exaggerating when i saw that we could walk around the entire island in less than 5 minutes. The entire island consisted of the rest or we were staying in and thats it! We watched a lovely sunset when we arrived and then me, martin (my new dive buddy from the trip) and the instructor did a night dive straight off the beach. Well, let me tell you...it was so good that i went to bed that night with a smile on my face. Enough said. The next morning i woke up and had managed to convice claire to do an intro dive (she is scared of the water so this was a major feat for me!) so i waved her off, had some breakfast and then got my gear together to do my third and final dive on Fiji. this was a shipreck dive which was awesome and the deepest dive i have done at 23m. the rest of the day was spent sunbathing, swimming around the island (takes 20 mins) and we had a huge BBQ lunch which was fantastic!

We were picked up by the boat at 5;30pm and it was really sad because we had made so many friends and had to say goodbye to all of them, and headed back into Nadi (pronounced Nandi because thy put a 'n' before every 'd'). It was 7:00pm by the time we arrived back at the hostel, and we had a quick dinner with our friend Ben (someone we met in Queenstown) before heading to bed as we had to get up at 5:30am this morning.

All in all, it was a week of complete heaven (apart from the mozzies on the first island) and i recommend everyone to go there to chill out.

My next update will be from Thailand - take care everone

Bula! xxx