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Published: January 11th 2008
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I spent a month in Laos in total, and it still wasn't enough to take everything in. After doing the trek mentioned in the previous blog, I headed for an even smaller town, Muang Sing, which was according to Lonely Planet, the eco trekking centre of Laos and one of the highlights of South East Asia. They must have been having an off day, there was absolutely nothing to do and no one knew of anything to do, apart from going to look at the Chinese border 10km away. The 2 hour journey up through the hills was spectacular, although I was a bit distracted by the old woman sitting across from me leaning out the back of the sangthew (an open sided minubus / van thing) to be sick at regular intervals. As my legs were hanging out the back of the vehicle due to space constrictions, and the sangthew kept lurching round a corner every so often, it brought new meaning to the phrase ádventure travel'.
So from Muang Sing I went back to Luang Nam Tha, and on to Luang Prabang, another 10 hour twisty bus journey. Luang Prabang is the most touristy place in Laos, so
although very nice to spend time looking round the temples and eating in the vegetarian street buffet (only 50c for a meal!) it was a bit congested with groups of French and Thai tourists. I did a 3 day trek from there with Aussie David and Canadian Vi, which featured the pretty horrifying Night of the Rats on night 2. We slept upstairs on mats on the floor in a house which was also the village store. As I was drifting off to sleep. I felt something run along my side, and I could tell by how far apart the feet were that it was not a mouse. Even worse, I had to work out if it was inside or outside the mosquito net. I was sandwiched right up againt the wall, and as the rats came to life, I could hear them running up and down the wall inches from my head, and trying to tuck in to the bamboo shoots in plastic bags hanging from the roof. Vi went out to the 'toilet' (there wasn't one) and reported that it sounded as if there were rats running over the roofs of every house in the village, so sitting
outside the house wasn't even an option. So I sat up all night in what was one of the longest nights of my life, listening to our guides snoring and the rats squeaking all around me.
From Luang Prabang I went to Ponsavan (the magical journey time of 10 hours again) in the east of Laos, completely different scenery and climate with pine trees, bare hills and fog in the mornings. The thing that's meant to be interesting about there is the Plain of Jars, 3 sites with big stone jars about 2000 years old, wich could have been used for burial. The thing that's actually interesting about the area is the extent to which it was bombed by the Americans in the secret war after they retreated from north Vietnam, and how people are still affected by the cluster bombs today. Because there is very little vegetation on the hills, you can still see bomb craters all over the landscape, and there was a really interesting information centre on how they're trying to educate people about what to do when they find the bombs (they look like a fruit that kids collect so they have to be taught
the difference) and how people have to deal with the injuries and deaths that they still inflict. The Plain of Jars is fairly interesting for about an hour or so, but a whole day of looking at stone jars, with the guide not being able to offer much more than 'nobody really knows what they were used for' was maybe a bit much.
Another 10 hour journey took me to Vang Vieng, there was some really spectaular mountain scenery on the way, and the scenery around the town is really beautiful, with dramatic limestone peaks surrounding the river. The town itself is like one big student halls of residence, full of bars playing Friends on loop and 19 year olds lying about complaining about not having enough money. I did a one day rock climbing course while I was there which was really good fun, we only went up to about 10 metres, but one day was enough, i decided not to opt for day 2 (how to lead climb) and day 3 (going up a 90 metre cliff face), or at least my bingo wings decided it for me.
Vientiane, the capital was the next stop, not
Sellers arrive for market
The women who sell crafty things at the night market in Luang Prabang arrive in style a lot to see here, and an unbelieveably quiet and laid back capital city. I then took an overnight bus to Pakse in the south of Laos and went the same morning to Tadlo a couple of hours further on on the Bolaven plateau, the coffee growing area of Laos. I met up with Sev from France and the next day we hired a motorbike and drove round some of the sights, including some really beautiful waterfalls and the villages of the plateau. From Tadlo we went to Champasak where we met up with Olivia from Switzerland and went up tot he very peaceful Wat Phou, an Angkor era temple overlooking the countryside. The three of us then headed to Don Det in the 4000 islands area, where there wasn't much to do apart from hang out on the balcony overlooking the Mekong and drink fruit shakes, with watching sunset being the main activity of the day. I could have happily stayed there longer, but my visa for Laos ran out on the 24th December, so on Christmas Eve I got a flight from Pakse to Siem Reap in Cambodia. I really enjoyed my month in Laos, the people are
so friendly and it's a very laid back place.
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