Life in Laos: Part 2

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With our 15-day visa in Laos quickly coming to an end, we needed to start making choices based on time management. We decided to forgo earlier plans to visit the Plain of Jars, which is Laos’ site of archeological mystery and intrigue, a kind of "Laotion" Stonehenge. As the name reflects, the Jar of Plains is an expanse of fields, filled with variably sized stone jars of unknown origin. The largest one weighs 6 tons and the jars are believed to be around 2000 years old. Research has been challenging due to remnant landmines and other ordenance, which is just recently being cleared. Archeologists from all over have proposed theories to explain the random stone jars but all remain speculation. Local legend, our favorite explanation, claims the jars were made for the fermentation of rice to make a REALLY big batch of rice moonshine after an important victory in battle. Having tried just one burning sip of the home brewed Lao whiskey, I can only imagine the debauchery and subsequent headaches that followed this victory party.

Yet, stronger than the strange allure of witnessing these endless fields of stone jars was the call of the small town of Vang Vieng, famous for its limestone cliffs, spirit filled caverns and the main attraction: leisurely tubing down the river. It sounded like summer camp for adults, and that wasn’t far off the mark. Whoever discovered that travelers are willing to drive for 6 hours on highways sure to make everyone carsick (6 out of 8 in our minibus not including the driver) to indulge in these activities changed the face of this little town, maybe not for the better. Western influence is leaving behind a growing number of television sets in the restaurants and bars in town, a majority of them blaring out old episodes of Friends. Escaping from the main drag of the tourist trap town led us back into the real lives of the Lao people. Most surrounding villages relied directly on substinance farming and fishing and many still lacked electricity.

We realized that almost as mysterious as the Plain of Jars was this random town of Vang Vieng; filled with restaurants blaring televisions that seemed to have dropped from the sky and saturated with bars where burnt-out travelers could order any kind of "weternesque" cocktail or concoction the heart could desire.

Redemption for this leg of the journey was found in the river - we enjoyed tubing the river more than we’d be able to admit. Braving rumors of supposed schistosomiasis and water snakes we floated down twice in three days on patchy lumpy inflated tubes that moved about walking speed. This pace made it much easier to stop along the bank to get a BeerLao and try out various versions of the flying fox...truly extreme adventure travel at its best.

We headed back to the sleepy capital city of Vientiene to arrange a bus to take us south. At just over 100,000 people Vientiane is the biggest and most diverse city in Laos. We were still traveling with a group that had now grown to 8 people and hoped to experience the essence of the city in our short time. We once again chose to forgo our original itinerary and instead headed to the local bowling ally, both to check out the local bowling scene and mix with the urban youth.

From the capital we headed south to an area called Si Phan Don, or “Four Thousand Islands”. In this area the Mekong is at its widest during the wet season (14 km), but in the dry season the river diminishes and leaves behind countless islands, the largest of which are inhabited year round. Most of these island villages are almost totally self suffiecient and every one we visited were literally islands of serene tranquility. Unlike in Vang Vieng, where tourism seemed to dilute the local cultures and traditions, life on the islands seemed to remain intact and largely unscathed by the presence of travelers. We stayed for three days, wandering the islands on foot and bike then set off to make it into Cambodia before our visas expired, missing Laos before we even negotiated/bribed our way across the border.

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