Laos: Cruising the Mekong is Possible!!!

Goodbye Thailand, Hello Laos!

Monks getting templed!

-We started out early in the morning by walking to the river/border crossing at Chiang Kong into Northern Laos

-Are plan was to head south on the Mekong River to Luang Prabang via a slowboat which takes about two full days......The front of the boat was full of young travelers like ourselves and the back of the boat was full of beer, so it made for a good time!

CHEERS!

-It was one of the coolest things we've done yet!!!....the scenery was UNREAL!!...we got to see water buffaloes bathing, small local fishing villages, even a wild elephant cruising along the shoreline!

Cruising the Mekong is possible

Picking up some homies along the way

LUANG PRABANG

-We got into Luang Prabang around sunset and checked into spicy laos hostel with our two canadian friends Hanna and Megan....on our way there Brian stopped at a local crepe spot and ordered what was translated to him as 'seafood chocolate' which turned out to be one of the more interesting snacks of the trip!

Look at that spread...DANK!

Sharing is caring

-Our first night consisted of checking in and going to meet up with the slowboat crew at a local watering hole called Utopia.....when we arrived we were extremely suprised to run into some friends from Colorado.....our soon to be homies Kelly Lundeen and Ben Douglas, who had gotten into Luang Prabang a day earlier from over a month in Vietnam, were raging harder than we had seen anybody rage!.....Small World-or-Big Family?!

SERIOUS CHUXXSTERS!

-We spent the next few days going to sweet waterfalls, local discotecas, night markets and super late night bowling alleys with Kelly and Ben

Rad waterfall; Luang Prabang

Its like chilling in mini bathtubs

Lifeguard Sam: Keepin all those babes safe out there

-On the morning of the 28th, Kelly cruised over, woke up Sam and myself and insisted that we join him on a small boat back up the Mekong to a boat in village called Mong Ngoi....We agreed to go with but only after recruiting some other friends of ours: two dutch girls, our australian friend Emma, and our two canadian roommates Hanna and Megan

Takin' in the scenery

Posted up for the long haul 

- What we thought would be a 4hr cruise turned out to be a 10hr cruise to a village called Nong Khiaw which was still 2hrs from Mong Ngoi....none the less our trip back up the Mekong was even cooler than the way down!...It was extremely peaceful and serene...the water level was lower than usual, so at one point we had to get out and push the boat upstream for a couple hundred yards but lucky for us some local kidos came out to help

Goin for a swim

Thanks for the help little guys

-After breaking down and making a few stops along the way, the day had turned into night and was now a little scary and kinda like a scene out of a horror movie...the driver had only a small flashlight and was cruising quite quickly up the river narrowly missing rocks on all sides of the boat....clearly not his first rodeo!....around midnight we finally made it into Nong Khiaw and checked into some rooms for the night

NONG KHIAW and MONG NGOI

-We all got up decently early and after a quick breakfast made our way over to docks and negotiated a 3 dollar per person ride up to Mong Ngoi

Local docks in Nong Khiaw

Lookin'  Good ladies

-Once again we had a private boat for all of us, so we made a pit stop to drink a beer or two and go for a swim in the Mekong

Backflips anyone?

-We arrived in the late afternoon and checked into a guesthouse to chill for the remainder of the day....The village Mong Ngoi is accessible by boat only and has one main dirt road that goes through the center

One road village: Mong Ngoi

-On our first day we went on a hike to check out another smaller village that lied about 2 hours trek away...we chilled in some caves, had some really cool conversations and drank Lao-Lao(a very potent, local, village made moonshine from sticky rice) along the way

Cave Chilling!

Really fun crew

-The village was tiny and a really cool glimpse into the lifestyle and culture of Northern Laos....we ate lunch and drank more lao-lao with a family in their little restaurant, followed by a walking tour from end to end of the village.....there were cute little kids everywhere along with puppies and pigs and tons of chickens!

Cute kids everywhere!

COOKIES!!!

A laotian woman keeping it OG with her bandana

-On our trek back, most of us took a detour through some rice fields and chilled out for a moment to collect our thoughts and wrap our minds around the kind of lifestyle these laotians were living.....It was very, very simple and in the middle of some jungle-y mtns which left us feeling grateful from where we have come from but also envious of the laid-back, beauty of theirs......Meanwhile Sam and Hanna took a different path home and ended getting a little lost along the way but finally made it back after dark!

Loving Life!

-On our second day the ladies all grabbed a water taxi back down to Nong Khiaw, so Ben, Kelly, Sam and I decided to go do the only thing our travel insurance would not cover....Cave Exploring!!

-We did a cool, little hike up to the Phanoy caves which consisted of two caves.....the first of which is smaller and we were able to make it all the way to the back; turned off our headlamps and did an intense, total blackness therapy session until the point at which our eyes started to freak out!.....we then moved onto some sweet low-light photography

Ooooooohhh....pretty lights!

-The 2nd cave was a much different story...a group of spanish backpackers informed us that the cave had two entrances and that we could reach the top entrance through the bottom one....after over an hour of wandering through the large cave we found this to be quite false....all we did was get kinda lost, really sketched out and find a huge series of pits that seemed to go to the depths of the earth

2 explorers, 1 headlamp
Serious spelunkers!

-We eventually found our way out and climbed up the top of the hill to an amazing view of Mong Ngoi and the beautiful river valley and mountains around us....we made it back to the river for a swim and posted up in time to have a beer by sunset.....we chilled out for a while and met these 2 really cool german  chicks who ended up playing/inventing a drinking game with us called "lao-lao or water"....a deceivingly hard game to stay sober playing....needless to say it was a good night!

Top O the Mekong

-On our third morning Brian woke up with probably the worst hangover of his life, he felt absolutely terrible but managed to pull himself together for our 9:15am boat ride back down to Nong Khiaw

-upon arrival in Nong Khiaw, we posted up in a little restaurant to wait for the local bus to come by in the evening headed for Vientiene (the capital of Laos)...it would pass through Vang Vien which would be the next stop on our journey

VANG VIEN

-We were awoken in our seats around 5:30 am and promptly thrown outta the bus at our stop in Vang Vien….the bus had been an extreme adventure in itself! Local busses’ are definitly the craziest way to travel

Maylan's Guesthouse, Highly reccomended!

-We stumbled to a place called Maylan’s guesthouse, which had really cheap rates and a beautiful garden maintained by the owner Joe….we faded for a couple hours and then went for a stroll of the town in the afternoon

Gotta protect yourself from that Laotian sun!

-Our first evening turned out to be really, really lame……We went out in an attempt to scope the scene but before we walked into the first bar, we found ourselves in the middle of an altercation with some locals we had no understanding of…..our friend Megan was slapped in the face and Brian took a punch to the side of the head with no idea of why or who it came from….Super Weak!!!

-Day 2 in Vang Vien turned out to be way cooler…..we rented mountain bikes and cruised out toward some caves and the blue lagoon, it was equipped with rope swings and high branches to dive off of!....played all day and Made it back by 6 to eat BOMB indian food and catch some early evening beverages with our Canadian and Aussie friends

Backflips all day, everyday!

-The 3^rd day consisted of renting motor bikes and cruising back up to the blue lagoon with our new friend Kyle,  we swam some more and explored one of the larger caves on our journey

Deep in the mountain!

Kelly paying his respects to the sleeping buddha

-We returned our bikes early enough to catch a tuk-tuk up to the Nam Song river tubing bars!.....OMG, the rumors are true, this place is dangerously CRAZY!!....we spent the whole time hucking ourselves off of a massive rope/trapeze swing but our night ended quite early when we foolishly took a shot of cobra whiskey and subsequently cannot remember anything afterwards....

BUCKETS!

Cobra whiskey+Trapeze swing=CHUXXX!

-Woke up on our 4th day and decided we absolutely must not leave and SEND IT on the rope swings some more....we cruised back up in the early afternoon and once again proceeded to get too rowdy...our night ended with fire dancing/jumping and late night baguette sandwiches!

Chicken, Bacon, CHEESE!

NOM!

NOM!

NOM!

NOM!

-On the 6th of April, we arose feeling quite awful and decided this was not a day to leave and spend on a bus....Also, it was Kelly's B-day so we had no other option but to return to the trapeze/rope swings to celebrate....and celebrate we did!!!....More hucking and chucking, backflips and bellyflops......we got back to town well after night fall and got ready to go out and continue the celebration but the instant we go to the bars it started torrentially down pouring which forced us to run back to our place in the craziest rain storm we've experience on our trip!!

Happy B-day Kelly!

-The next morning we realized it was time to get the hell outta this place and by 1:30 we were on a bus to Siem Reap

Peace out Laos!

We Love you all and thanks for reading!!!!