First weekend to explore around Wellington

Saturday by 2pm had been to Cuba St Carnival, the Greek food festival for lunch and relaxed on the city beach.

In the evening watched the carnival parade, stilt walkers, samba bands and colourful processions.

Sunday - went up the Kapiti coast to explore the beaches there!

Arrived in New Zealand!

Despite the in flight entertainment the journey seemed to take forever ... zzz...

Ians office organised a bbq lunch for us on the deck of their 9th floor office. Scottish flags adorned the office and a castle and piper poster on the door. The tried to set up bag pipe music but it didnt work. We had a lot of laughs and great food! Seems like a really fun place to be. (They also sent us flowers and a food hamper which Karen really appreciated!)

Next seven days we house hunted almost non stop. Its hard to find accomodation here to rent, especially for less than a year. It feels like a boom town here, the restaurants and hotels are always full and its hard to even hire a car!

Ian first few days at work - happy to have a personal office with a view over the harbour, where I can watch sea gulls fly past the window. The office shares a fridge with communal coke, beer, wine and champagne. Within the first three days they have had a party for Ian arriving, the CEO leaving, chocoloate cake for Ians first day, champagne and drinks for it being a 'Friday'. Real work to start soon....

Wed 14 - Valentines in Bangkok

Valentines surprise was we were flying out today and not tomorrow! After a frenzy, met with Eamon and his daughter again and went to get a boat to the Grand Palace. However boat drivers are as bad as tuk-tuk drivers and the boat skidded away as soon as Karen got her foot on board, leaving everyone else behind. After about an hour of wacky races going up and down the river trying to meet, we made it to the magnificant palace full of intricitally decorated buildings capped with Golden roofs.

Went to a shopping centre for lunch primarily because it had air conditioning and everyone was melting. Very happy time was had with meeting Eamon and his daughter but we said goodbye for our 830 flight.

Managed to take off avoiding the cracks in the runway which are threatening to close Bangkok airport. Feeling happy to be on our 10 hour journey which includes air con, a comfy seat, a vehicle that works and a competent driver.

EXCITING HEADLINES IN LOCAL THAI PAPER THAT DAY:
'Chaing Mai Police give a rose to a foreigner to mark St Valentines Day and for cyclists who obey traffic laws and wear helmet' (nice picture of bloke on bike with rose and helmet).
'Vientienne pushes soap off air' (TV soap gets too controversial because it deals with a character having an illigitimate child - its against Laos culture)

Tuesday 13 - Going to Bangkok

Guest house owners and staff waved us good bye as we departed for an 'air con' train to Bangkok. THought I was going to roast arrive as the air con was broken and a monk took our seats next to the fan and no one dared to ask him to move. Once cooked got to our guest house easily enough, met a friend from Ireland called Eamon and his daughter (on their way to Laos). We went out for tea which was fab. Spent the evening navigating the bustling streets of Bangkok.

Sun 11 - tour of Khao Yai park

With three Americans, us and two German bird-spotters in our pick up truck, our guide Mr A was out to impress. He was determined to show us 110% of the park. He had us worn out darting here and there in the jungle in the search for interesting species. But it was well rewarded, we saw
- a white handed gibbon swinging in a fig tree
- lots of Macau monkeys
- a sleeping crocodile
- rear end of an elephant
- barking dear
- lots of coloured birds (our German friends were giddy with excitement!): owl, the great hornbill (1 metre long), ground cukoo
- antelope

We visited the waterfall featured in the Leonardo di Caprio film The Beach.
Tired but happy end to the day

Sat 10 - Khao Yai national park

Lazed by the pool in the morning then hitched to the park. Had an adventure in the jungle. Saw the beautiful rag-tailed drongo bird, a snake which made Karen scream, and a strange bristly squirrel, and scarcely another person. Heard a lot of rustling and other noises, hoping to find out what they are tomorrow on an official tour..

Fri 9 - escape Laos

Having given up on getting to Angkor Wat we decided to head back into Thailand to a national park called 'Khao Yai' (selected via finger-on-the-map method).

We were glad to escape Laos via the 'friendship bridge'. During our journey we met a Belgian named Kurt who managed a hotel in Bangkok and a Fillipino music band. 10.5 hours later we were dropped at a road junction in the middle of nowhere. Happily after some local assistance we were transported to our guest house in about 10 minutes.

Animal noises on our roof scared the pants off us (we had been told that Khao Yai still has wild tigers!... in the morning we found it was a pair of household cats fighting.

Thus 8 - Vientenne - capital of glorious Laos PDR

Alas could not get a flight to Angkor Wat. Went to Laos arts museum - lots of religious artificats but no signs in English to explain anything - a bit typical of Laos. However went to Laos national museum.

A small fee was paid to un-welcoming reception. A cross between a Communist propaganda machine and a genuine attempt to chart some of Laos history and pre-history, the museum has a distinctly amateur feel to it. From paper machet dinosaurs to photos of the peoples' revolution against the French imperialists (again interesting but no English explanations). However, it was cool to see the heroin and meta-amphtemines and illegal weapons seized from the 'un-desirable social elements - and photos of happy workers and children.

Wed 7 - journey out of Luang Prabang

The VIP express bus was when pastel frilly curtain was in. Problem with the bus was not just the engine breaking down and roasting our feet, but the see-saw motion as we twisted round the mountains. Most of the 10 hour journey was focused on looking out small square window to avoid being ill. Although the young Laos people do not travel well and kept throwing up discretely during the whole journey to Vientienne.

1st impressions of Vientienne - not that impressed or as Ian put it 'a dump'.

Tues 6 - waterfall day

Money tight 'hippy Chris' recommnended we hire a couple of bikes and cycle out to the waterfall.

Most sane people took taxis to the waterfalls (tuk-tuks) so as we cycled out of the town we were quite an attraction. People smiled and shouted 'sabidee' (hello) and kids wanted to 'high 5' us as we cycled past. The road outside the town was awful - we choked on dust. Realised that outside the tourist centres, Laos is a very poor nation - mostly villages made out of bamboo huts - despite what the Communists may claim their revolution has not led to a successful economy. We kept seeing projects funded by charities and other countries, the country is heavily reliant on foreign aid.

Ian said this was the hardest cycle he has ever done, 35k through the heat and dust, only four of his gears worked, and it was uphill towards the waterfall. It was ok in the end because the sensation of plunging into the aqua pool in the jungle was the biggest 'ahhhh' ever. Especially since we had it to ourselves. Walked past a number of other pools to reach the big waterfall, where Karen fell asleep on a bench. Saw some rescued bears and a tiger on the way out.

On the way back home we entered into a bike race with some school boys for about 45 minutes and a troop of four little girls blew Ian kisses.

In the end the enticement of a tuk-tuk past the roadworks into town was just too much. Karen had a Laos massage in the evening which was like having your body egg whisked.

Some things we did in Luang Prabang

Took a boat across the Mekong - saw three wats (temples) - one a working wat, antoher a wreck, another up several hundred steps with a fantastic view over Luang Prabang. Pregnant Ozzie lady made it up the steps behind us - she told us that the hazy view over the Mekong was due to the 'slash and burn' agriculture - something that causes haze all over S.E. Asia - bang goes our romantic theory it was due to the tropical atmosphere. Talked to a couple of monks - wearing their bright orange saffron robes - we realised they were only about 13 or 14! They were like ordinary kids who wanted to practice their English.

Ate a few times at the night market in Luang Prabang, fish on a stick, fried veg. and waffles.

Hired rubbish bikes and had fun zipping around the town, which is a peninsula at the head of two rivers. We saw a wat, the royal palace - now a museum because the Communists kicked out the royals in 1975. The king went to Vientiene and died there and the princess set up a swankee hotel, the children are now in France, it was known a 'bloodless coup'. Seems the last king had a bit of an ego - he created a fancy thrown compared to his predecessors. The most interesting part of the museum was a collection of diplomatic gifts received by the king over the years - the USA gave Laos some moon rock!

A trip up the river to see the 'cave of a 1000 buddahs' - the journey along the Mekong was welcome, we liked seeing the lush vegetation along the river's edge. But the cave was over-run by tourists, which was a bit disappointing.

4th February - Laos Peoples Democratic Republic!

We have now been installed in Luang Prabang, Laos for 3 days....it all kinda started one afternoon in Chiang Mai when the pollution had just gone to Ians head and he said "lets go to Laos tomorrow". Well it all pretty simple reserved flight on internet that evening (although strangely you couldnt pay online but that was ok)....or was it?
Next day up early and discovered my Leatherman knife was missing (and also a few other bizarre things like vitamins from the side pocket of my rucksack). We then deduced that they probably went AWOL when my luggage got diverted and had a trip half way round the country. So after feeling pretty miffed - we decided that it wasnt so bad as we had insurance. So it was on the third police station that we managed to track down the english version of the claim form. Then despite the slowest tuk tuk in the world we made the airport in the nick of time...only to find that the person on airline duty wanted twice the fare advertised in cash only - sounds sus...but apparently there is a separate fare for foreigners! Sometimes like it or not you just got to go with it.

As for Luang Prabang - its a beautiful mountain kingdom filled with 32 temples protected by UNESCO at the confluence of the Meekong and "another" river. The best bits are the temples, street markets, french food (Ians croissants), the French colonial buildings, the riverside restaurants and our guesthouse with its veranda and v comfy beds (rare commodity at back packer prices) - ok living it up back packer prices... So all in all are enjoying ourselves.
Its also worth noting that in coming to Luang Prabang you probably havent reached "the undiscovered land" as actually there are loads of tourists here - I guess it feels more concentrated as tourists only go to a few places in Laos.

Love Karen and Ian