Henrys travels!

my first stop was kratie, the town is really dirty and scruffy but there was hardly any tourists and the locals were really nice. a guy who worked in the hotel i was staying at said he would take me too see the dolphins in the mekong river for half the price if i helped him with his other job on the way, he wouldnt tell me what his other job was but i decided to agree and go anyway. he picked me uo at 6am and drove for ages untill we reached a school in the middle of loads of rural villages, he pointed at a door and said

"thats your class, go and teach them english for 2 hours"

so he gave me some work sheets and watched me teach a class of about 30 kids all between the ages of 13 and 16. after i had done that class i had to do another exactly the same but with different class. i really enjoyed it and it was a good experience but it was pretty hard teaching when i dont speak their language. after that we went to see the dolphins, we saw loads but it wasnt very exiting :P after we got back the owner of the guesthouse offered me a job being the western food chef, i explained to him that i couldnt cook anything but he still wanted me to work for him :P i turned him down tho as i didnt fancy being stuck in a kitchen all day everyday while im in cambodia.

i then went to phnom penh and stayed for a few nights, i looked around the city and went to the killing fields and s-21 genocide museum, it was a well depressing day but glad i went cause i didnt know half the stuff about what happened as i do now. i then went to kep and went to rabbit island for the day which was really nice before heading to sinoukville hoping to get to a nicer island for christmas.

im staying a night in sinoukville now and hopefully going to koh russei (bamboo island) tommrow if they have space?

gonna do my blog less detailed as it takes too long :P

so after luang nam tha i went to a place called muang noi which you can only get to by boat from nong keow, its a really quiet relaxed place surrounded by massive mountains and tiny villages which we tried to walk to but went the wrong way so didnt see them. but we did end up getting really drunk with the locals one day at 3pm, they invited us into a room where they had loud music and food, once we sat down with them they kept giving us shots of lao lao whisky and glasses of beer lao, everyone got really drunk and we ended up having a bit of a party. i spent a few days here exploring the place and relaxing.

from muang noi i started to head south for 4000 islands stopping off at luang prapang again and vang vieng,
which was okay. the area is really nice but it didnt feel like lao as it was completly taken over by westeners watching friends and family guy, i went tubing which was really fun but again it wasnt lao at all so left the next day stopping off at vientiane and pakse for a night each, both cities were very boring with not alot to do, i then ran into someone i met in thailand so we went to champasak together to see the temple and village which we biked around.

i then got to don det in the 4000 islands where i stayed, the islands had some nice beaches and some huge waterfalls, i only saw the smaller one but it was still massive. i really liked it there so stayed a few days before going to the cambodia border.

pai

when we got to pai we checked in at a really cool hostel, it was called spicy pai, it was all wooden buildings ad it was like a treehouse but not in a tree haha. the first day about 10 of us from the hostel all went on a motorbike tour around pai, where we went to pai canyon which was really nice, a temple and a waterfall. a few days later we went on our scooters to thailands biggest cave, i dont know the name of it. it took about 1 and a half hours to get there on the most bendiest, steepest crazy roads going up the mountains, 2 people fell off... but they were fine! the cave was good but i enjoyed the driving there and back much more, it was really fun! the day after me and four others went to an elephant camp where we rode them for a bit and then went in the river and played with them, this was loads of fun and the elephant were treated well aswell, they didnt have any sharp sticks this time. i had a moped the whole time i was there so the other days i mainly drove around and explored. from pai i went back to chiang mai for 2 more days and then got the bus to the border.

laos so far

at the border i met a load of people i had met in pai so we all got the slowboat to luang prabang. the boat ride took 2 days and it was very crowded, the first day we had to sit on the floor but the second i had a seat, it was really fun tho and the scenery was well nice. in luang prabang there wasnt a massive amount to do, we went to a cave with a load of buddahs in it and mainly looked around the city. the evenings were pretty fun as we all went out drinkin and played some beach volleyball. at the hostel they supplied free snake whisky, the snake had been in the jar for 3 years and they just kept topping it up, it didnt taste very nice. me and a guy called henri haaa decided to go further up north to luang nam tha near the chinese border to go trekking. on our way there the bus stopped at a restaurant and some lao people offered us sme grasshoppers so we both tried and they werent actually too bad :P when we got to the city we booked a 3 day 2 night trek in the jungle with homestays. the next morning we started.

trekking

there was only me, henri, 2 french guys and 2 tour guides so it was a nice small group. the tour guides were really funny and they still went to school as they only started when they were 17, so they really wanted to learn more english and kept asking for help with new words and they repeated everything we would say for ages to practice, it was really funny. the first day we trekked to the first village we stayed in and it was like stepping back in time as there was no electricity, no running water, they all lived in wooden huts and were generally very poor, but they were very happy and massivly friendly. the kids there were really funny as they would follow you around everywhere staring because they were so interested in us and repeat everything we would say. the second day we went walked to the next village which seemed alot more developed as they had water and a toilet, it also seemed like alot more tourists fo there as the people werent as intersted or exited when we got there. the tour guides decided that night we were going to eat one of the villages duck so we picked one and called it delicious lol...it turned out to taste horrible. they made us a lao delicasy which was all of the ducks insides including stomach, heart, intestines, the lot all mashed up in the ducks blood, it was disgusting! :P they also made duck soup, i was expecting nice duck meat but instead it was duck head, neck, feet and all the bones in a broth..this wasnt very nice either lol we then ate the ducks brain which was the most disgusting tasting part of it all!:P we didnt see any of the good meat at all, they cooked literally everything apart from the breast meat. i wont be eating duck insides again for a long time!! we the went to one of the villagers houses where they were doing a traditional spirity thing, a man stood on a chair shaking bells and shouting words over and over again, they told us he was in a trance as he did this for over 2 hours! they do this when someone is hurt so they are calling for help and trying to get rid of the bad spirits, they also killed a piglet for the spirit and ate all of its insides. they offered us some food we tried some of it and it turned out to be piglet intestines, it was the most disgusting thing i have ever eating ever, i very nearly threw up erghh!! the day after we trekked one last day out of the jungle and then went back to the city. all through the trekking on all 3 days we had massive bowl of sticky rice with cabbage and a bit of buffalo or duck insides for breakfast luch and dinner, i now hate sticky rice! so we all had massive beef burgers when we got back lol overall the 3 days were sooo good i really enjoyed it, the scenery was amazing and it was properly experiencing the real lao and something differnent tommorow im going to a place called nong keow, its ment to be really nice so looking forward to that.

been in chiang mai for the last week and its really nice here. the hostel im staying at is really cool, everyone here is well friendly aswell so been very easy to make friends! as soon as i got here a guy called g gave us a little tour of chiang mai which was cool. a few of us the the next day went on a 1 day trek kinda thing where we saw some elephants, went white water rafting, bamboo rafting and a trek to a waterfall, it was pretty fun day apart from i dont think the elephants where treated very well so i think im gonna go and do a full day of elephant stuff where there treated well, the white water rafting was more like floating down a river slowly with pathetic rapids but it was still fun! the trekking was the best bit, it wasnt very long but it was really nice in the jungle. ive been mainly just wandering around chiang mai looking at markets and exploring the place, we went to a really nice waterfall the other day and then to doi suthep which is a temple on top of a massive jungle mountain. the last 3 days it has been the loy krathong festival, which is which is basically a massive fireworks night with no health and safety or rules so firworks were being let off everywhere by everyone even kids, its pretty mental and dangerous! everyone makes floating things out of bannana leaves and put candles in them and put them in the river for good luck, and everyone lets off sky lanterns which was amazing, there was sooo many of them, there was also a big parade and lots of partys. overall loving chiang mai but heading off to pai tommorow morning to spend a few days there

got here yesterday after a well horrible flight cause i couldnt really sleep! so was well tired all of yesterday. i met soemone just after i went through customs and decided to travel together for a bit so were not lonely which is good. been looking around bangkok the last 2 days and went too a couple of temples and big budhas, went on a tuk tuk which gave us a little tour and showes us some good places but the took us to a suit shop so he could get commision and ended up being forced to try some horrible big hot jacket but it was pretty funny and it only cost me 10 baht with is about 20p for the tour! every thing is soo cheap, i got my room last night for 2 pound! didnt expect it to be quite so hot here, you cant go outside for more than 2 mins before your all sweaty, but it defonatly beats being in cold rainy england. going to chiang mai tonight on a sleeper train so will be there tommorow and hopefuuly stay there for a couple of weeks which im looking forward to as all the thais keep saying how nice it is there!