The whole thing was pretty scary, i suppose its just natural that you don't want any complications with any kind of flight. We landed in Vientiane where we would have a stop while they refueled and they were hoping that during this hour the weather would clear. Earlier, before the drama in the air, we were a little worried that we didn't have enough cash on us to pay airport tax so whilst in Vientiane i saw the opportunity to go to a cash machine and was walked through a few back doors out onto the street. I think this was the first sign of Laos' famously laid back attitude.
Cela situace s timto letem byla ponekud stresujici, ale kdyz tak o tom premyslim, je to asi v kazdem z nas, ten pocit, kdyz se ledadlo vznese. Pristali jsme ve Vientiane (hlavni mesto Laosu), kde jsme cekali nez letadlo natankuje a pocasi nad Loung Prabangem se snad umoudri. Takze jsme meli prilezitost vysednout z ledadla a v nasem pripade, najit bankomat, protoze jsme behem letu zjistili, ze nemame dostatek penez na viza az dosedneme. Uz v tu chvili vypadalo, ze i kdyz by melo letiste byt zabezpecene pri vystupu a hlavne vstupu zpet, lidem, jak na letisti a tak i vsude kolem bylo sumafuk, ze si Pete prosel ven do ulic a zpet.
Well, we eventually landed in Luang Prabang without any more problems, and checked into our guest house, Spicylaos Backpackers. We really liked Luang Prabang, the scenery is amazing, we spent a really nice couple of days exploring the city and had some lovely food including a memorable Laos barbeque where you order the meat and they turn your table into a kind of barbeque and you do all the cooking. After the BBQ we went to a late night bowling ally with some people we met and had a good old drink. The following day we spent our hangover at a stunning waterfall and before we knew it we were off to our next destination, Vang Vieng.
Potom, co jsme pristali v Luang Prabangu bez jakykoliv dalsich potizi, nechali jsme se odvest od Hostelu SpicyLaos Backpackers. Luang Prabang byl super, obou dvoum se nam libil moc a moc. Priroda je kouzelna. Stravili jsme tam par dni, coz znamenalo i jednu z nezapomenutelnych veceri, coz bylo barbeque, kdy nam prinesli vsechno cerstve a sirove, promenili nas stul, u ktereho jsme sedeli, v male ohniste a pak uz jsme jen varili a opekali. Mnam. Po teto super veceri jsme potkali par lidi a zkoncili s nima u hry bowlingu v nedaleke herne. Dalsi den (a s malou opici na Peteovych zadech) jsme se vydali na vylet k malym kaskadovym vodopadum. Myslim, ze jsem doposud nevidela krasnejsi mini-vodopady nez tyhle. Den pote, jak uz to byva jsme byli pripraveni na cestu a na dalsi dobrodruzstvi ve meste Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng is famous for tubing where you get taken up river with a large tyre inner-tube and you make your way back to town (about 3hrs). On the way there are loads of crazy bars and even crazier people jumping from them into the river on ropes/slides etc. It was really good fun but as the sun sets earlier behind the mountains overlooking the river, it gets pretty cold, and from the last bar its a good hour or two till your back on dry land. As we got out, Veronika shivering uncontrollably, we bumped into some friends from Luang Prabang, had dinner with them and made plans to do some kayaking the following day. This was even better, especially with some extra people to share the madness with. We were taken out to a cave and tubed deep into the mountain, then after a lovely lunch we were taken back to the same river but further up in the rapids and made our way down to the tubing bars. Veronika and I had a couple of steering difficulties at one point causing one of our guide to jump in and stop the kayak from turning. Some of our group weren't so up for the drinking part so we split into two and did some jumps from the bars and one epic slide (the back flop would stay with me for the next 3 days as i had to sleep on my front and would be constantly moaning about my sore back). The journey back wasn't half as cold and we took great pleasure it letting the tubers know there was a long way to go!* We spent another day with Jo and Steve at a blue lagoon but apart from the trips to the tubing river the town itself wasn't the greatest so with a few days to spare before we had to make our way to Thailand we decided to check out Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars.
* both these evenings ended with me in a local Irish pub and each time were finished by local, machine gun armed police closing it down at the midnight curfew.
Vang Vieng je prosluly pro jizdu po rece na dusich z traktoru!(dolu po proudu to trva asi 3 hodiny) Spociva to v tom, ze jsme si pronajali kazdy jednu dusi, tuk tuk nas vyhodil na urcitem bode, kde byli bary, hudba a spousta lidi skakajicich z provazu do reky, klouzajicich se po neskutecne dlouhych klouzackach atd. Takze jak tak plujeme na jedne z tech dusi lide z brehu po nas hazi provazy, aby jsme se mohli pritanout a mohli tak vypit kyblik koktejlu zrovna v onom baru. Bylo to super az do doby, kdy Slunce zaslo za hory a od posledniho baru je to dobra hodina a pul. Jak jsme se doplavili do konce, zmrzli jak rampuchy, narazili jsme na zname, ktere jsme poktkali v Luang Prabangu. Povecereli jsme a na druhy den se vsichni domluvili na spolecny vylet na kajak. Tento den byl mnohem zabavnejsi nez den pred tim. Vylet zacal opet na dusich, ale v jeskyni a po chutnem obede jsme byli vysazeni u kajaku. Bylo to na te same rece, ale o trochu vis po proudu. Meli jsme pred sebou 10km na kajaku. Vsechno slo dobre az na par vykyvu v kormodlovani naseho kajaku, takze se stalo, ze nas pruvodce pro nas musel jednou vyskocit z jeho kajaku, aby se muj a Peteuv kajak neprevratil, bylo to potom, co uz jsme projeli pres par krovi s par skrabanci. Jak jsme se opet dostali dolu k barum a vedeli jsme, ze se nemusime tak hnat, protoze se nemusime macet hodiny ve studene vode, chytla nas slina a tak nas pruvodce rozdelil na skupiny a protoze s nama musi zustat az do konce, tak ja, Pete a nasi znami jsme zustali a nasavali. Udelali jsme zastavku u jednoho baru, ktery mel obrovskou klouzacku do reky. Uz jak si kupujete prvni kyblik, nalakuji vam nehet silne modrou barvou, aby to bylo videt a pak si musite precit poznamku, ze od teto chvile delate vse na vlastni nebezpeci. Kazdy z nas absolvoval jedno sklouznuti, coz stacilo. Pete si stezoval na bolest zad jeste 3 dny pote. Pak jsme se vydali na cestu po rece a mijeli ty zmrzle chudaky ve vode. Byli jsme k nim uprimni a rekli jak dlouha cesta je jeste ceka, kdyz se ptali. Nebyli nadseni! Dalsi den jsme stravili se Stevem a Jo osvezovanim se v modre lagune a jelikoz mesto samo o sobe nebylo to nejlepsi a my meli jeste par dnu predtim nez se musime vydat zpet do Thajska, rozhodli jsme se navstivit mesto Phonsavan a znamou Planinu Dzbanu.
Neither of us were feeling great but it was hard to tell whether we'd over done it on the tubing or something more sinister, when we arrived in Phonsavan it quickly became clear we'd picked up food poisoning. Already booked to go on a trip to the jars, we just about made it to lunch but the night was terrible. hardly any sleep, plenty of sickness and the rest, we had to call off the trip and were bed ridden for about 36hrs. Despite both being very far from 100%, we went to the jars and had really nice time. Its one of the worlds great mysteries that a people who there is no record of put thousands of these giant jars around the land over 2000 years ago and still to this day no-one really knows what they were for. Added to that they are now part of a massive area of UXO from the Vietnam war where the USA were dropping cluster bombs, its pretty much turned the whole of this part of th country into a live mine field. As the day wore on we began to feel stronger and managed to get some soup into us and during the afternoon visited an old Russian abandoned tank and a rice wine making family.
Ani jeden z nas se necitime zrovna nejlepe, nejsme si jisti, jestli jsou to jeste zbytky unavy z "kajaku" anebo neco jineho. Pote, co jsme uz Phonsavan a zaplatili jsme si vylet do Planiny dzbanu na dalsi den, noc predtim vime odkud vane vitr. Bud jsme neco spatneho vypili nebo snedli. A tak celou noc nespime a stridame se na zachode. Vycerpani rano, presouvame vylet na dalsi den. Rano, i kdyz jeste nejsme oba na 100%, vydali jsme se do Planin Dzbanu (je na 3 ruznych mistech). Bylo to fascinuji, videt tolik dzbanu, velkych, tezkych a hlavne starych asi 2000 let. Je to jedna z nejvetsich zahad na svete, jak se tam dostali, na co byli atd., nejsou o nich zadne dochovane poznatky. Kvuli valce s Vietnamem je v teto oblasti mnoho nevybouchnutych bomb a tak musime byt opatrni, aby jsme nevykrocili ze stezek. Na konci vyletu jsme jeste udelali zastavku na obed, podivali se na stary rusky tank v lese a navstivili rodinu, ktera vyrabi ryzove vino.
The following day from Phonsavan we had our third 7hr mini van journey back to Luang Prabang where we could catch the slow boat over to Thailand. The previous 2 had been really pleasant journey's, good driving, up and down mountains, stunning views and lovely to see the villagers going about their daily business. This one however was horrendous! I'm not kidding, but I'm certain this driver had only been driving a day or so either that or his IQ was so low he shouldn't have been out there. Never before have i seen someone approach u bends in 5th gear and try to get round without changing.
Dalsi den nas cekala dalsi 7 hodinova cesta miniautobusem zpet do Luang Prabangu odkud nas ceka 3 denni vylet lodi po rece pres hranice do Thajska. Posledni 2 cesty byli poklidne se zkusenymi ridici, tak, ze se muzeme kochat nadhernou prirodou, zatimco jedeme pred serpentynky nahoru a dolu. Ale tahle cesta - je horor! Vypada, ze jsme meli to stesti, ze nas ridi ridic, ktery bud zrovna dodelal ridicak vcera v noci, anebo mu jeho IQ neumoznuje myslet dopredu, jak bude autobus reagovat pri zarazene rychlosti 5 v zatackach a do kopcu, a jak se v tom pripade vyhnout protijedoucim autum a nakladakum.
After another couple of days we were on the slow boat and on the way to Thailand and our Christmas. Yet again, a wonderful way to cross the border, 2 days on the river with stop offs for dinner and sleep in some funky little towns, and then we were there, another 6 hour mini van from the Thai side to Chiang Mai, and to our base for Czech Christmas (24th Dec) and UK Christmas (25th), for elephants, white water rafting and cooking mouth-watering Thai food ...
Po par dalsich dnech stravenych v Luang Prabang jsme byli pripraveni na cestu lodi do Thajska, kde stravime Vanoce. Je to super zpusob, jak prekrocit hranice, 2 dny pres den na lodi a vecer odpocinek na hotelu a vecere v pristavnim mestecku. Po dalsi 6 hodinove ceste miniautobusem jsme tady v Chiang Mai, kde stravime muj Stedry den (24.12) a Peteuv (25.12), kde ridime slona, projizdime malymi perejemi na raftu a absolvujeme Thajsky slinysbihajici se kurz vareni ...
. . . To be continued.
. . . Pokracovani priste.
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