Culture of a different kind

It's been a while since I posted, mainly due to laziness and being bogged down (literally) by what I presume was food poisoning. The symptoms began on night one of the two day slow boat journey from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Kong, Thailand. The idea is that you spend 8 hours each day on the slow boat with recycled car seats and one night in a small village half way. I ended up there for two nights and visiting the medecins sans frontiers clinic to check I wasn't dying. Fortunately the check up and medications were free, though I did make a donation. The village is very remote and apparently the hospital there is of very poor quality.

Dosed up on anti-everything medication, I was able to continue the journey to Thailand and spent a couple of days each in Chiang Kong and Chiang Mai...doing not very much at all.

A week into the sickness, when I gave into getting antibiotics, a very kind missionary family from my hometown church took me in for a few days in Chiang Mai to recover. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city, with the old town being walled and surrounded by a moat. There is also a lovely mountain called Doi Suthep where the Royal Family has their summer palace and wonderful views of the national park can be seen.

If you're wondering what caused the food poisoning aside from my own stupidity, well, that would be the cold vegetarian buffet at the night market which had probably been prepared about 4 hours prior. Interestingly there was a perfectly good cafe beside which served a vegan burger but I opted for culture...and ended with cultures of quite a different kind!

Recovered, I headed to Bangkok on a comfortable overnight bus and spent 2 days there. Bangkok is an interesting city, some call the old town the Venice of the East. The river boats which act like buses were very handy to reach the old temples (called Wats) and famous roads. The BTS and MRT 'skytrain' system is a great and cheap way to get around the newer parts, much like the London Underground...but above ground.

And now for some rest and relaxation on a Thai island and a Malaysian island.

Laos: Vientiane & Vang Vieng

Temples, beer lao, sunset over the Mekong river, aerobics class with the locals on the riverfront, all you can eat vegan buffet for £2, night markets, blue lagoon and ...Vang Vieng tubing!

Tubing. I had read so many bad things about people dying and whatnot that I was a bit scared but decided to go along with some people I'd met. I was the only one around wearing a lifejacket.

Apparently between '99 and 2012 there were on average 20 deaths, mostly drownings, drug related accidents and people hitting rocks when jumping in/swinging etc on makeshift ziplines. However since 2012 the police stepped in and cleaned it all up.

The number of bars you pitch up at (by a man throwing you a bottle on a rope, which you are supposed to catch and be pulled in) has been reduced to 4 or so. Of course I miss the rope and end up having to walk from the next bar along to find the crowd again.

Floating down the river in a big rubber ring was very relaxing and the views of the vegetation covered limestone mountains were very beautiful.

I was wondering how people die doing this until the last stretch of river from the last bar which seems never ending and it gradually got darker and darker. A group of English people held onto my tube and we found the finishing point together or one of them. There was a man with a flashlight. Then there was a bit of a walk back in the dark over slippery pebbles.

All topped off with a baguette and relief when all members of the group reunite!

Unfortunately due to the nature of tubing I have no photos.