Bamboo bridge in Luang Prabang

We went out to explore Luang Prabang in the daylight today and just along from our hotel is a house with a very unusual wall. It is made of old fashioned deep television sets! At least I assume that it is a wall, but maybe NASA use it when they launch space shuttles.

We then followed three monks down a little path to a bamboo bridge. 

Our hotel is not in the centre of town, but is on the other side of a river and in the dry season a bridge is built to make a shortcut into town. It only lasts for about six months of each year and then it has to be taken down otherwise it would be washed away in the rainy season. 

It is a bit rickety, but very nice and it costs 50 pence which covers the cost of rebuilding it each year. 

Turn left at the goat

We stayed last night at a village called Pak Beng, which is almost half way along our Mekong River route.

Our hotel was rustic, as was the rest of the village and the water ran out in our hotel first thing this morning. It was a minor inconvenience  and we left very early to walk down to the harbour to pick up our boat. 

Our guide was waiting for us and he pointed in the direction of a goat that was wandering about and told us to turn left behind it, then down onto the sand and onto our boat. 

On the opposite bank of the river two elephants were bathing in the river and trumpeting very loudly. 

We set sail and then stopped at a hill tribe village and our problems with a lack of water paled into total insignificance. The village was built of mainly bamboo huts, with no toilets inside the village, but they have a solar panel that provides some electricity. Most people were barefoot, they hunt daily and our guide says that they eat snakes, monk, dogs and geckoes. 

They were friendly, but the difference between ours lifestyles was unthinkable. 

During the dry season many people spend hours and hours panning for gold, and the sand definitely had bright glimmers in it.

 I tried looking for a nugget near to our boat, but wasn't successful and hadn't realised that Daz had taken a photo. 

We have now finished our journey and are in a city called Luang Prabang. We have been out along the main street and unbelievablely it reminds me of Brighton as it is full of expensive and fancy shops, bars and restaurants. It even charges Brighton prices, yet only 40 miles away are people who do not even use money! 

Slow boat through Laos

This morning we got up early as we had a boat to catch. We also had a new country to visit.

We left Thailand and crossed the Mekong River to the Laos side and picked up our ride. We have splashed out on a luxury boat and there was only us and a Swiss family on a boat designed for 30 people. 

We spent the whole day cruising and enjoying the sights. At the moment it is the dry season and the river has been very low, but there is a dam upstream in China and they have just agreed to let some water out. The river was therefore quite high and we easily negotiated the rapids amidst beautiful scenery. 

There is a speedboat that does our two day journey in six hours, and quite a few boats shot past us in both directions. It was very noisy and bumpy and most people wore crash helmets. Our guide told us that it is dangerous as well as very unpleasant. 

Finally, we saw lots of people panning for gold along the banks and this is a popular thing to do in the dry season. I don't know how many of them get lucky though. 

Blue Temple

Another day, another different coloured temple. This time it is a very nice deep blue. At the entrance was a huge blue lady

and next to her they are building her boyfriend. I often wondered what these huge statues are made of and now I know - it's concrete. 

Once past the huge gate guardians the temple was excellent, with brightly coloured dragons leading up to the entrance. 

I was very impressed with the inside and it had a very calm aura and blue lighting. I felt that I could have spent a long time just quietly contemplating life inside of it,but the only thing spoiling this idea was the big tractor digging up the ground just next door. Never mind. 

Feeling refreshed we walked back to our hotel and then to the bus station where a bus to Chiang Khong was just leaving. We are now right on the border with Laos, and our hotel has a balcony overlooking the Mekong River. 

Cycle to the White Temple

This morning we hired two ancient and rather uncomfortable bicycles and cycled to the White Temple. 

We visited here about five years ago and it was so beautiful that we came back to Chiang Rai to see it again. It is only 20 years old and the site is still being built, and there is a new golden temple nearby that is half finished. Maybe it will be finished next time we pass by. 

The inside of the temple is very modern and it has pictures of superman, spiderman, space rockets and even George Bush. This picture is of the detail on the top of a gate with the temple in the background. 

No idea what this is! 

It was very busy and we were hoping to get a photo of me sitting on a bench, but a lovely group of Chinese people had other ideas! They were really excited to get a photo with us and once the middle lady barged in then they all ran over. Great photo and we all had a good laugh. 

Golden hotel in Chiang Rai

This morning we caught a flight to Chiang Rai which right in the very north of Thailand. It is very near to both Myanmar and Laos in an area called the Golden Triangle.

Our hotel obviously took this as their decorative theme as everything in the hotel is coloured gold, with occasional pink accents.  It is either painted gold, flock wallpapered gold, or very fancy gold tiling. 

Also all of the furniture is enormous. 

Darren in the hotel lobby 

Our bedroom 

Golden thrones in the dining room. 

The whole of the outside, including all of the window frames are painted gold, including the religious little building at the front gate.