First world problems

I keep coming back to this hilarious cartoon whilst travelling.

Life is bliss at the moment, everyday is a mystery and I feel blessed to be meeting the people and experiencing the amazing things we have been doing.

4000 reasons to visit the 4000 Islands

We left Vang Vieng at around 1pm for our trip to the 4000 Islands. We took a small bus, a sleeper bus, another small bus and a boat to get here. We were tired when we pulled up here yesterday at midday but happy to be on this little island paradise, Don Det.

I absolutely love it here on this peaceful island. I can't even begin to explain the beauty that surrounds the island. The clear water, long sunsets, lazy days, bike riding and swimming.

"Tubing" in Vang Vieng after the shutdown

To travel 160km in a mini van in Laos is rather labourious. You see the roads in this country are so bad that a 2 hour journey is around 8 hours. There are plenty of things to see though and the villages you drive through show people enjoying their day to day lives, kids playing and people working.

Cows wandering around on the road on our way to Vang Vieng

In the mini van we met an awesome German couple, Lina and Benny, and hung out with them whilst we were in Vang Vieng.

We stayed in little bungalows across the river in Vang Vieng. At the Banana Bungalows Sonja and I paid 25,000 Kip (of $3.00 Australian) each a night for our private bungalow with our own bathroom and beautiful view of the mountains.

Our accomodation at Banana bungalows

Backpacking in Luang Prabang, Laos

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We flew into Luang Prabang, Laos on the afternoon of the 12th of November. It feels a lot like the town of Hoi An in Vietnam and has a real French feel to it (not that I have been to France yet). Lots of bakeries and cafes. Beautiful streets, many people cycling, beautiful scenery, the river is on both sides of the town and there are little restaurants where you can sit on a mat on the ground and eat dinner.

Street food in the markets

Flight of the Gibbons - Ziplining in Chiang Mai

I had written a post previously about our time Zip-lining but for some reason it has disappeared!

YOLO - Trekking in Chiang Mai

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We have fallen in love with the moat surrounded town of Chiang Mai. This old style town with beautiful architecture, a slower pace of living and slightly cooler temperatures is the perfect place to put your feet up for a day before delving into some adventure tourism.

Josh recommended our fantastic guesthouse, Libra. We paid 250 baht a night for our fan double room with a cold shower and have been paying a further 70 baht a day each for a delectable continental breakfast of fruit, toast and coffee. 

Josh enjoying his breakfast at Libra

Chiang Mai Take One

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After a 17.5 hour train journey to Chiang Mai we were surprisingly relaxed!

Kim on the sleeper train

Bangkok

Leaving the islands to head to Bangkok was a bit of a  mission, but luckily a well organised one. We got a three hour ferry, a one hour bus and a 12 hour sleeper train from Koh Phangan to Bangkok (we paid 1500B or $45 Aus for an airconditioned second class ticket). James made friends with a guy called Josh from California on the bus (something about James attracts guys called Josh?). We ended up having dinner with Josh before we got on the sleeper train at 1am.

It was pretty hard case waiting for the train, there were lots of rats just running around and packs of street dogs.