The tale of the boomerang shoes

One of the big things to do while in Luang Prabang is to go trekking. The hills, rivers and villages that totally surround the town are just beautiful and make for some really rewarding walking. We booked ourselves on to a 3 day trek that took us high into the hills and to some hill tribe villages. For most of the first day all was great. We had a great group of fellow trekkers and the weather was perfect. The route took us through a number of small rivers and streams that just meant that you had to get you feet dirty!! No problem for me, I had my super duper trekking boots that I was ever so proud of (you can see where this is going right?!!)

After a tough first days trek, we arrived at the village where we were to do a home stay. I couldn’t wait to get my shoes off and let my feet dry out, so off they came and I put them to one side next to the hut. It’s safe to say that the next morning when we were to get moving for day 2, the wet socks were still there, but no shoes!

Our guide did a whole search of the village and got the village leader to set up a meeting of all the men in the village. They seemed to think they might have known what happened, but the chief suspect was from another village some way away, and therefore they could follow up the lead there and then. We even discussed a potential bounty for the returned shoes of 200,000kip. This sounds pretty spectacular but was £15!

We needed to move on, so I ended up doing the whole of the second day in Flip Flops, which actually where not too bad. However each step I was thinking of my boots and how someone was striding around in them right at that moment, I was really not happy.

Anyway, to move the story on, while spending days trying to explain to the tour company about needing a report for the insurance claim, we heard the village had chased (literally I guess) the lead they had and one night the boots mysteriously reappeared at the village. They were in perfect condition and had even by dried out!!

I did have to pay the ransom money, but to be honest I was over the moon that they were back. It just shows that we were so right to spend more days in Luang Prabang; otherwise if we had left we would have missed them.

So thankfully new boots are off my shopping list! And despite being £15 lighter, I have my chunky shoes nestled at the bottom of my bag again...

Have you ever wondered why you see so many Chinese tours everywhere around the world?

Maybe you haven’t, but I certainly have! Everywhere you go, you are sure to bump into a group of Chinese tourists, all wearing the same funny coloured baseball cap and all clicking pictures like the world would collapse if they didn’t! I have started to call them goods trains, because if you get stuck behind a group of Chinese tourists, you will be stuck with them for a while! We found out that in order to control the numbers of people who go out of the country (and presumably get a flavour of what the rest of the ‘free’ world is like) the Chinese government make people pay a huge deposit before they can leave the country independently. Therefore the only way to go out and see the world is through one of the billions of organised and maybe mildly censored tours that are in the main organised by the CITS (Chinese International Tourist Service). I found this so interesting as it explained one of the great mysteries of the world!! Why do you only see Chinese tourists in tour groups!

“Head over heels” – Post by Urvi

When one talks about fashion in global sense, Moscow and St. Pete are probably the least likely to be mentioned. They may not be the ultimate trend setters but definitely have true followers. Women in Russia especially in big cities seem to have a very vivid sense of dressing up. This shows dramatically in their choice of shoes – they may all vary in the colours and styles but all are united in the height of their heels and that too at all ages, even more so than any other big cities like London, Paris and New York. It doesn’t matter what the terrain looks like these girls will put their heels on anywhere - Dressing up to go to the supermarket or anywhere else. Does this show a self-belief in own style sense or just relying on outward appearances for lack of self confidence?