Lao Lao

We have been having a great time in Vangvieng! It is a really great outdoors place to hang out with the town situated in a valley with a lovely river flowing through the town and steep cliffs bordering one one side.

We met up with a great group of people and spent a few days tubing the Nam Song river (which seems to be what most people who go there do).





For a small fee the locals provide you with a tractor tube each and arrange for you to be dropped a few km's up the road from where you can float back down the river to town for the day. Along the riverbank there are small stalls set up selling beers and food, and some have even been set up with bamboo platforms with ropeswings and flying foxes that you can use. Great fun and theres nothing like a little bit of danger leaping off a 7m high platform drunk whilst in a remote SE Asian town :) Thankfully no accidents for anyone we knen :p



We are back in Vientiane today and have booked a posh lunch in a hotel here for Christmas lunch. I had better now go and feed Ange as she is 'starving to death' as I write this...

Loving Thailand!

Still alive and enjoying Thailand - so much that we're leaving today for Laos (we need to renew our visa so perfect timing!)

Claire Kettle is on her way over here for 2 weeks - arriving on the 27th. Looking forward to having a proper drinking buddy (Ainsley and I have lost our form - if I ever had any - I get boozy on one Chang!) She doesn't know what she's getting into really - have already convinced her to cancel her 1 hour flight to Samui so she can join us on the overnight bus instead - ha ha. Am sure she will have a much better time. So much for her relaxing 2 week holiday!

Am a little bit concerned that Santa won't be able to find me here in Thailand (or Laos as not sure where we will be then - but have lovely woolly socks purchased in Turkey so will try hanging one out on Xmas eve and hopefully will be rewarded with a packet of Oreos!

Hope you are all enjoying your Xmas party season - I am a little jealous but then my life is pretty fantastic right now so not to worry!

Go Deeper

Ange and I finished our PADI scuba course a couple of days ago and have had 4 dives around Koh Tao. Really, really good fun with so much to see. Also really looking forward to trying out scuba back in NZ around Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty.

We are leaving to Laos tomorrow so tried to go out for another days diving today but missed out as we'd forgotton to book yesterday. Instead we got a local guy to take us to a few snorkelling spots around the island for a few hours. Really nice visibility (10-15m) we spotted some big barracuda, lots of coral and anenomies.





Looking forward to Laos but at the same time loathing the 2 or 3 days of travelling we have to do to get up there. A lot of bus riding!

Life on the islands

The islands of Thailand are going great!

We travelled from hot, sweaty Bangkok down to the quiet, honest little town of Krabi in Thailand's south-west coast and spent a night to chill out. In Krabi we found time to relax and cool down after Bangkok and enjoyed great night food markets with the Thai food that we'd been missing all that time in London.



From Krabi we splashed out on a tour (our first ever proper tour I think)


The tour went to Koh Tapu (better known as James Bond island as featerd in the man with the golden gun)


and to go kayaking in mangroves


and later riding elephants. A busy day but really fun!


We headed from there off to Koh Jam, a tiny island on route to Koh Lanta - in the Andaman Sea. The island is so small and non-touristy you have to stop from the ferry and be picked up at sea onto a small longtail boat to make the 15 min trip in to the island. It was truly chilled with mostly fisherfolk and farmers.
Check out how nice the beach is here!


This little bar in the picture below was called "FUBAR". Unrelated to the Queen St DNB club of course but a nice spot for a few beers looking out to sea...


From Koh Jam we headed to Lanta - also chilled and cheap and spent days doing absolutly nothing. Getting a bit lazy with regards to laying about - reading so much - although have been excercising daily so not lazy in that respect.



I almost had a nasty nasty accident and thought I'd broken my leg. Oh my gosh. Luckily it was ok just sore and my ankle sprained. That'll teach me to climb dodgy trees :(

Sadly the diving was not so good as the visibility wasn't so good thanks to the winds and waves etc.

Next we went on to Phi Phi - bit of a shock to be had here. Day tourists aplenty and paradise that once was. Saying the place has changed since the tsunami is an understatement. Thousands of people to battle to see the idyllic island although you can still see its beauty and we visited the outer islands with a day boat trip with lots of snorkelling.







Everybody but us on the boat got sick because the wind was up. Lucky escape. Some nice diving and saw some interesting corals, moray eels, lots of butterfly fish and the usual exotics. No pictures as I lost the underwater camera I bought in about 5 mins from taking it into the water :p 1st prize for dopyness there I guess :o

We shot throught from Phi Phi pretty snappy and over to the other side of Thailand to the Gulf of Thailand to Koh Tao. Here it is perfectly chilled, hardly anyone around, still sunny and the diving is superb straight off the beach or rocks wherever you are.

Today we started a PADI course which is cool, so far so good. Had a nasty run in with a local red curry but back in the game now, luckily. Being much more careful now so definitely no broken legs or sick bellies.

Planning on being here for another 5 days or so before heading up to Laos then back this way to mee the Londoners for NYE...

Hope y'all well!