Tiger Kingdom

Our favorite Chang Mai experience has been at the Tiger Kingdom here. We got to spend some time with some tiger cubs from 2 weeks to 5 weeks in age. While in some ways it is kind of sad to see tigers taken out of the wild and turned into tourist attractions, these places are necessary to raise funds and support breeding programs which help to protect an endangered species. Here are a few of the photos we took at the Tiger Kingdom.

Chiang Mai

We flew from Laung Prabang airport to Chaing Mai in Thailand. We'd never been to Chiang Mai before, even though we'd been to Thailand.

Laung Prabang International Airport.

We have made a few visits to a few of the popular tourist spots which we'll describe below. Our favourite experience was with the tigers which will get a post of its own.

We visited a snake farm. We got there late and were the only people there. They still put on a show for us.

This tree has about one hundred snakes at least on it. There were four varieties.

One of the snakes "got away" and came for Stan.

Nicole was not too keen on this photo.

We also went to a monkey show. They showed us how monkeys were used in villages to help harvest coconuts.

This guy is seems to like Nicole

We did a tour one day. It involved a large variety of activities.

 First we went riding on an elephant.

We then went trekking for an hour to a waterfall. Not nearly as spectacular as the ones in Laos though.

After we went white water rafting. Nicole and a French man in our raft fell over board in some rapids. When the French man got back in he put his oar up and said, "I am going on strike!" 

When we ran out of rapids, we changed to bamboo rafting. This was actually harder than the white water rafting as it kept wanting to tip over.

Stan is getting a suit tailored. While trying to choose a colour for the suit the "helpful" shop assistant said, "go grey to match your hair colour". (For some reason the sun has brought out all his grey hair.) The tailor wanted an extra $40 to sew "Armani" tags into the suit though why anyone would want that is beyond us.

Laung Prabang

Our last couple days in Laos were in Laung Probang. Many people find this the most beautiful part of Laos, but we enjoyed Vang Vieng more. Like Vientiene and Phnom Penh, Laung Prabang is along the Mekong river.

We climbed a hill in the main part of Laung Prabang. You can see the Mekong behind Nicole. Underneath her and in the right part of the photo is the main tourist area.

One of the interesting things to see in Laung Prabang is the Palace of the now deposed king ( deposed 1975), now a museum. The king and his family lived very modestly. When the communists took over in 1975, the king, queen and crown prince were sent to a hard labour camp from which they were never heard of again.

This is the kings palace. It is far more modest than the palaces in neighbouring Thailand and Cambodia. We couldn't take photos inside, but there were a few interesting things to see including the many gifts the royal family had received from various countries around the world.

Another thing to do in Laung Prabang is a Mekong river cruise. This is quite beautiful, but no where near as special as the mountain views we saw kayaking in Vang Vieng.

Hills and jungle along the side of the Mekong.

People fishing in the Mekong

Another fun thing to do in Laung Prabang is to visit the "big waterfall". We paid about $6 each for transport there then spent two hours swimming and exploring.

The waterfall is larger than the one in Vang Vieng. It is taller and wider and has a few more tiers down stream.

Nicole and Stan climbed up the wrong side of the waterfall. In order to save a 25 minute walk back to  the proper side, we crossed the fast flowing river at one of the smaller waterfalls down stream. It took about 20 mins to get across. The photo above was actually the easiest part to cross, we were too busy concentrating at the harder parts.

After getting back on the right side of the river, we went a little down stream and had a swim in a pool under a waterfall. The water was pretty chilly and very fast flowing. 

At the entrance/exit of the waterfall park there is a home for bears which have been rescued from the illegal bear trade. They are sometimes kept in awful conditions as their bile is used in some Chines traditional medicines.

Laung Prabang is a fun visit. We didn't take part in the most popular activity in the area; elephant trekking. We also missed out a few other sight seeing activities. It is a much more laid back town and a good place to relax. We preferred Vang Vieng because of the mountains and the fun we had kayaking.

Vang Vieng #2

Hi all,

We spent a couple more days in Vang Vieng. We had to try the most popular tourist attraction; tubing down the river. While not quite as fun as the kayaking, it was still worthwhile doing.

We started about 4km upstream from Vang Vieng town. Tubing cost 55,000 kip (about $7.00).We were all given one tube and each had to pay a 60,000 kip ($7.50) deposit on it. This would be refunded if we returned the tube by 6pm.

We took a boat across the river to the "official starting bar". You can see a picture of the bar in our last post. Once you get into the bar, the partying begins. As we stepped off the boat we each had whisky poured down our throats. While trying to breath again, we had whisky again shot into our mouths by party goers armed with super soakers. In the picture above you can see a "whisky train". Basically everyone sits in a line while people run up and down pouring whisky into open mouths. Or, as we found when we sat on the train, all over your face and t-shirt.

We were not at all interested in "getting wasted" so we jumped into our tubes and started off down the river 5 minutes after we got to the first bar. (Several people die a year on this river. This is not because the river is dangerous, it is because they are so drugged up, drunk or both and end up drowning. Another reason why some die is that they mix opium with lemon juice which the locals say has been a way for the locals to commit suicide.)

As you travel down the river there are many bars along the side. Boys along the side throw out ropes to people on tubes and drag them to the sides as the current is fairly strong and if you try paddle to a bar, you'll likely end up 100 meters downstream.

It should not be thought that tubing down stream is all about drinking at every bar along the way. Each bar has a lot of other things to do. There are some with water slides, tug of war against water buffaloes, jumping castles, slingshot competitions, volley ball, talking birds, relaxing hammocks, stunning scenery, river surfing, and far far more. It is worth stopping at these bars and seeing what they have to offer.

Here Stan and Nicole had a sling shot competition.

Here is some of the stunning scenery you float past.

This little myna bird could say hello in several languages. 

This sign explains why one or two people a year die along the river. A bucket of whisky is $3.75. A bucket of malibu is $7.50. Look at the item on the bottom of the list, a joint is $2.50. The "more" refers to opium, magic mushrooms, extacy and so on. Drugs are cheaper than alcohol here.

People who drink too much and don't watch where they are going tend to get in trouble along the way. These two washed into a tree and couldn't get out as the current was too strong. We couldn't help them as we went past far too quickly to get to them. We saw a local from a kayaking tour helping them out after we went past.

Just before we got back to Vang Vieng it started raining. It was quite beautiful to watch the mountains get covered in clouds. We would recommend tubing. If you're not silly, you'll have a great day on the river. The kayaking is a lot more worthwhile, but tubing is a little more relaxing.

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The day after tubing we went to visit a waterfall. This was worth doing as we were the only people there. We got to do a bit of jungle trekking and then a bit of swimming under one of the smaller waterfalls. People who enjoy outdoors activities would find a lot to to around Vang Vieng.

The waterfall looks small, but we are several minutes away.

It is a lot more impressive below.

The water comes down too hard to get under the waterfall. Even the spray from standing nearby could hurt.

There are several smaller waterfalls down stream.

Even some nice swimming holes.

On the way home, Stan helped some locals when their car couldn't make it up the hill.

Vang Vieng

We recently arrived in Vang Vieng. This is a lovely spot in Laos that reminds us a bit of Queenstown in New Zealand. Like Queenstown, it is a destination for thrill seekers wanting to try extreme sports and outdoor activities. Also like Queenstown, the town centre is located below some high mountains. These mountains are visible all over town and are absolutely beautiful.

Having lunch in a restaurant.

While you can do all kinds of activities such as caving, ballooning, rock climbing, mountain biking, kayaking, the most common activity nearly every visitor does at least once is tubing down the Nam Song River. The town is built along side the river so visitors are taken several kilometres upstream and they then float back to Vang Vieng as it meanders under the beautiful mountains you can see above. Today we did a kayaking trip with several breaks along the way. We started by diving 17km upstream from Vang Vieng. We put our kayaks in and then started down stream. There were a few rapids which mad it quite exciting. The countryside was so beautiful and peaceful.

The water is very clean, but looks stirred up from the rains.

We canoed downstream about 3km and then pulled to the side and walked about 1.5km to a cave. The cave is actually a flooded cave and you travel up an underground river.

Walking up to the underground river cave.

We got up to the cave and had to wait a while for our groups turn to enter the cave. There are some real tight spots in there, so only a few people go in at a time. While we waited, we did some swimming in the river that comes out of the cave.

This is rather chilly as it all comes out from under the mountain.

Here is where the river (not the one we kayak down) comes out of the mountain. The entrance to the cave is a very tight crack located between the stone directly above Stan's head and the vine hanging down into the water.

We finally geared up with a head lamp, tyre tube, helmets and our life jackets. The current was so strong we had to pull ourselves into the cave with a rope.

After struggling with a tight entrance and a strong current, we got into the cave. Near the entrance we had a green glow as the light from outside filtered through the water from below, but very quickly it became pitch black and we were grateful for the head torches. We were also very grateful for our helmets as we would have banged our heads again and again on the low ceilings or squeezing through tight corners.

You can see the water patterns on the roof.

One of the tight corners. Without the camera flash on, one navigates this with only one's head torch.

With constant flowing water, you don't get the cave formations you see in other caves.

Because it is so dark, Stan lost Nicole for a bit and took a few photos of the girl next to him whom he thought was Nicole. One picture turned out nicely. It was in an open area and one can really see some of the water patterns on the ceiling.

This is us leaving the cave. You get an idea on how tight the entrance is.

We had a delicious lunch in a restaurant next to the cave and then walked back to our kayaks on the main river. On the way we passed another cave, much much smaller. This cave is called the Elephant cave because of a rock formation in the cave that looks a little like an elephant.

Elephant cave.

We then jumped back into our kayak and continued down the river.

Beautiful countryside.

Finally got a photo of both of us by handing the camera to some Spanish girls in our kayaking group.

After about 9km of drifting and paddling down stream, we got to the first of the "tubing bars". This is where people going tubing are taken and encouraged to drink lots before drifting down to Vang Vieng in inner tubes.  The river also gets a bit calmer here and there are no more rapids.

Heaps of tourists drinking before they go tubing down the river. Each bar has huge speakers pumping out trance music. Imagine a huge open air daytime disco and you will get the idea of what some of these places are like.

We stopped for a break at the bar that our tour group runs for their tubing operation. We actually had a lot of fun here. There was mud tug of war and mud volley ball as well as an amply stocked bar.

Our tour group's bar.

Us playing mud volley ball. Note that Nicole is playing and she no longer has an excuse to wuss out of volley ball at Bill and Henny's house.

After volley ball we were filthy.

After volley ball we cleaned up with a hose and then went back to the kayaks to head home. This time we had to steer around the people who were drifting down the river in their tubes. We got back to Vang Vieng where our kayak was collected and then we walked back to our hotel for a nice hot shower. About an hour after we got back, we had a bit of rain. Here is the view of the rain from the door to our room:

This is a wonderful place to visit and we'd encourage any adventurers to come here. We did all the above in only one day for $12 each. There is still a lot more to do.