Laos!

Laos is one of those places where not many people back home have heard of or visited.  Although it's right in the middle of Southeast Asia, it is quite unlike the surrounding countries.  Laos lacks the traffic/noise of Vietnam, the tourism of Thailand, and the epic temples of Cambodia.  It's a quiet, peaceful country that you can easily spend lots of time in, lazing around and admiring the natural beauty.

Our first adventure in Laos was the Gibbon Experience (which John and I had done 2 years ago).  You are taken by truck into the Bokeo Nature Reserve (aka jungle in the middle of nowhere) where you live in a treehouse for 3 days, only accessible by zipline.  The whole experience involves hiking and ziplining high above the trees in the jungle.  The 7 of us (John, Greg, Will, Angela, Brittany, Alex, and I) shared a treehouse with 2 lovely people from Switzerland, Simone and Sasha.  We stayed in treehouse #7 (the best one in my opinion!) again, and had a great time!

Dinner in treehouse #7

At night there were some huge spiders around the roof of the treehouse, so you have to tuck your tent/tarp thing under your mattress when sleeping so nothing gets in!  Food in the treehouse is basic, but tasty.  You get it ziplined in to the treehouse by the guides.  In the morning, you can hear the call of the gibbons which live in the jungle.  They have a weird call that sounds sort of like a car alarm.  We spotted them far away in the treetops, but they moved quite close to our treehouse since we were very quiet in the morning!

John zipping out of our treehouse!

I'm glad we got to do the Gibbon Experience again.  It was mostly the same since the last time we visited.  I highly recommend it to anyone visiting northern Laos!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of our trip in Laos was spent in Luang Prabang, a beautiful town on the Mekong River.  After finishing the Gibbon Experience, we took a horrible night bus ride which was something like 16 hours to get there.  The town has a strong French influence and there is not much traffic (only tuk tuks and some motorbikes).  The streets are lined with gorgeous flowers and lovely shops and cafes.

On the first day in Luang Prabang, we visited the Kuangsi Waterfall.  This place, less than an hour away from Luang Prabang, is like something you'd see out of a fairy tale.  The trees around the waterfall are so green and lush, and there are many unique flowers growing nearby.  The waterfall is multi-tiered and the water is a brilliant blue.  You can go swimming there, and even swing into the water on a rope, Tarzan-style!  It was our second time visiting Kuangsi, but this time was even better since there wasn't any rain and the water was more clear.  There were also a ton of butterflies flying around.  This sounds a bit cheesy, but it was magical!  I'm glad we got to visit it again.

Kuangsi Waterfall

The evening was spent at the night market in town, which is the best I've ever seen.  I bought a bunch of stuff there for not a lot of money.  I wish I could have bought more, but there is no way I could have transported everything back to Vietnam!

Our second day in Luang Prabang was spent hanging out in town.  I woke up early to watch the monks' alms procession.  They walk down the road and receive sticky rice offered to them in their bowls.  It wasn't too exciting, but I'm glad I set the alarm to wake up for it (5:30 am).

Monks in the morning!

We had breakfast on the Mekong River and decided to charter a boat to take us on our own little cruise around.  The scenery was stunning and the ride was very peaceful.  After the boat ride, we made our way to Tamarind, a restaurant that came highly recommended to us from fellow travellers.

Stunning boat ride down the Mekong River

At Tamarind we got to try some delicious Lao food.  Some people ordered water buffalo and said it was amazing.  John got a pumpkin soup and chicken-stuffed lemongrass, and the rest of us tried the "make your own wraps" and a dip platter.  To drink, I had an iced jujube cooler which was very interesting/refreshing.  I also had an iced Lao coffee which was so delicious!  I'll definitely make another visit to Tamarind if I'm ever in Luang Prabang again.

Make your own lettuce wraps at Tamarind Restaurant

After lunch, we climbed up the big hill in the centre of town - Mount Phousi.  There is a spectacular view from the top... if you're ever in LP, you have to go there! 

View of Luang Prabang from Mount Phousi

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The final night bus ride from Luang Prabang to Vientiane wasn't as painful as the first (only 9 hours), and at the small Vientiane airport we saw a familiar face.  When checking in, I looked over to see... Charlie from LOST!  Can you believe it?  We were all so surprised, and we HAD to go talk to him.  Charlie (aka Dominic Monaghan) was also on the Lord of the Rings movie.  Turns out, he was filming some nature documentary in Laos and was headed to Vietnam to continue filming.  He ended up being on our flight (sitting in first class).  I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous thinking about how he was on the flight with us since the whole TV show LOST is about a group of people who are on a plane that crashes and ends up on a mysterious island in the middle of nowhere!

With "Charlie" from LOST!

It was a random ending to the trip, and luckily we landed safely and avoided being LOST.  A fun trip with a great group of people!