Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2007
Most people I had been travelling with had flown home or gone separate ways by/after Viantiane, so there was only two of us, an English guy called Andy and me, heading for the more remote places in the south. Our first stop was Savannakhet, and it took eight hours in a local bus (with no air con) to get there. The trip wasn't quite as bad as it first looked like: it took about an hour before we even left Viantiane as we were going with snail speed and stopped all the time so the local food people could enter the bus to sell drinks and snacks (and a bit further south also fried insects in sticks!). After a while it all changed to the opposite direction: the bus started to nearly fly with quite a fast speed and as all the windows were open the natural breeze kept us well cooled down. Laotian music was naturally played laud all the time, so listening to ipod is out of question. However, the Asian music makes me sleepy, which isn’t a bad thing if you have lots of hours to kill.
Savannakhet is the sleepiest town you can imagine, with a
few very badly kept French period buildings. The Laotians didn't really appreciate the French and have no intention to renovate the old beautiful buildings in most towns; they just let them fall apart. Funnily enough the new houses often follow the French model... And some French traditions, like baguettes and petanque are still part of the daily life here.
So apart from the old days charm of the Central Plaza there wasn't that much to see or do. By the river front there was a row of food stalls (one of them being kept by a family of the long haired ladies - hairs up to the calves apparently - but we couldn't find them even if I was a bit obsessed by trying to find them) and you could see the most beautiful sunset by the Mekong from there. Even the best restaurants recommended by the Lonely Planet had been already closed. However, after all the touristiness of the north, I really liked the sleepy feeling of the town, just wandering around and trying to imagine it all back in the glory of the1920's.
I hadn't really encountered begging before this place and had absolutely no idea
how to deal with it. I think it says in the guidebooks that you shouldn't give money directly to the beggars as it just encourages them to continue - a good way is to donate through organised charities. But how an earth you explain to the non-English-speaking family on their knees at the internet cafe floor or a bunch of dirty clothed children at the river front that “oh I can see you're poor and hungry, but I shouldn't give you any money directly but don't worry I'm planning to donate some to the landmine victims shortly”. What happened to me, you see, was that I in my uttermost stupidity bought an ice-cream and sat by the river to eat it. I had hardly opened the wrap and licked it once when there were three kids around me staring eagerly at my ice-cream. I panicked and gave them all my small notes, one each (couldn't give the ice-cream as there three of them and only one ice-cream). Already when doing it I knew it was a mistake, and not surprisingly in a second there were many more kids. I panicked even more and run to the other side of the
road, a group of children running after me. I gave the ice-cream and continued running shouting "share it, you'd better share it". I felt so awful.
Painful travelling, a theme in the south, continued after a couple of nights. No matter how hard we tried and what the guidebooks promised, we couldn't find a VIP bus to the next destination, Pakse. From outside the local one looked actually pretty good and according to the ticket we were even insured for the trip, so it was a bit of a disappointment when the bus was equally crap to the previous one and instead of promised four hours the trip took six. This wasn't surprising, as again getting out of the town took about an hour, including a 30 minute gas refuel, and shortly after the drivers lunch break. This time the road was also very bumpy and something was wrong with the suspension of the bus and there were quite a few times when you head was touching the ceiling when the driver didn't slow down enough before a big bump.
Pakse didn't seem to be the favourite of the guidebook authors by I liked it. It was a
Roasting of tea
They need to do this for five hours!The smell was fabulous. bit livelier than Savannakhet, and again with some nice French villas and these were a bit better restored than in the previous place. The hotel I stayed in was one of those 1920's villas with lots of character so I quite enjoyed it. The first day in Pakse went just in taking care of things, such as visiting numerous banks before getting some money out (the right person was always out for lunch), and planning the next leg of the journey. There was one quite impressive hotel on the hill in the town, and just to amuse ourselves we went there to see the prices and the rooms pretending to be potential guests who had just arrived in the town. It was actually quite affordable but also not so grand from inside as it looked like. Later on I further amused myself by using their fitness room. Word amuse here is sarcastic as there wasn't air con in the heat of some 35 degrees and also no treadmill or other modern equipment!
On the last day in Pakse we did a one day organised excursion to the Bolaven Plateau, which is home to numerous waterfalls, coffee and tea plantations
and tribal villages. I was first a bit disappointed as the programme had only an hour or two of walking in it (which was then reduced to none as we were lacking of time) but at least this way we could see loads in just one day. First we visited a plantation where they grow green tea and saw what needs to be done to the leaves to make it final product. We also visited four waterfalls, Tad Fane and Tad Nguing being the most impressive ones. At Tad Nguing you could swim in a very nice setting but we unfortunately lacked time, again. The most upsetting part was visiting a tribal village. People seemed to be quite happy but SO poor and dirty, particularly children who were running around with no clothes or just in very bad ones. Everybody would have been happy to buy something to support them but there was absolutely nothing for sale.
I had left Andy behind at Tad Fane and was terrified about continuing the trip alone after over two weeks of the company. Luckily I met an English girl, Nicky, on the following morning on a boat to Champasak, and she became
my companion for the next three days. That morning was absolutely perfect for a boat trip. In Pakse the Mekong still looks like a river, but after a while it changes the colour and becomes lovely green and starts to resemble the sea. The stones by and in it are mould by the water and really stunning. You could see the fishermen fishing and women bathing or washing clothes. The best thing, however, is a view of laughing children swimming and diving in the water.
As I have been most of the time in towns in Laos it was refreshing to get to Champasak, which is only a very small one. There was just one road, although very long one and the whole place had a more of the countryside than a town feeling to it. You can see cows wandering on the roads just as often as a car pass by.
Further down you'll get in Laos more seldom you meet people who speak English. Here it started to be even a bit of a problem, as I wanted to take a boat to the island opposite Champasak. I had learnt this place was pretty outstanding in
its uniqueness: no tourists, no cars, no roads - and wanted to see it. After quite a bit of trouble in finding the taxi boat I managed to bargain the price down (I think they first tried to sell the whole boat or rent it for a week as they said it would be 100 dollars!) and me and my hired bike were loaded on the very unstable boat. Using hands and drawing on the sand the pick up time of 4.00pm was agreed and I was set for my journey around the island.
It was the best afternoon of my trip I think, all those lovely kids running to you and shouting "sabaydee" as if they had never seen a westerner before. And these children were clean and nicely clothed, unlike the slightly upsetting scene on the previous day in the Bolaven Plateau village. And I think even the adults got bit excited to see a visitor. The buildings were all quite nice too and you couldn't see rubbish anyway. I think I saw at least four or five schools and that's a good sign too for a 2000 inhabitant place. For four hours I cycled around the
sandy paths of the island and really didn't meet another tourist. There is some sort of eco lodge there though but it didn't look like being too much of a use at that particular day.
On the following day I woke up early to see the Khmer period temple ruins, i.e. these are related to the grand Angor ones. It was a 9 kilometre cycle trip at seven in the morning - not quite possible to see the sunrise but as I was there at the opening time on the dot I was at least the first visitor and managed to enjoy the lovely, peaceful atmosphere alone. Wat Phu is a site that has granted the UNESCO World Heritage status.
I had heard that there SHOULD be an afternoon bus from Champasak to Don Khong. There is no bus station, so what you need to do is to take a taxi boat to the opposite shore of the river and continue by tuk tuk that takes you to the big road. Then you stand there and wait for the bus to come. I was doing all this when the guy who was taking me over the river asked
if I'd like to have a motorbike ride to Don Khong instead. I laughed and said no thank you, but somehow he managed to make me believe that it was a good idea to travel 120 km, i.e. 2.5 - 3 hours at the back of a (small) motorbike. The heat that was about 40 degrees must have melted my brain. Before setting to the motorcycle trip, with no helmet, it did cross my mind that this might be the day I die. Despite the fact that I've never had such a numb bum in my life the trip went quite well and we even had quite a few laughs with the driver. Unfortunately he must have taken that in a wrong way, alongside me trying to take good care of him by lending my sunglasses and giving him water and suncream, as at the end of the trip he asked if he could stay with me... I was shocked and in such a hurry to get away from him that didn't even remember to ask my shades back.
Don Khong is the largest island in the Si Phan Don (4000 islands) area. I had decided to go there
rather than more scenic and touristy islands for two reasons: Don Khong was the only island with electricity and nights without a fan didn't sound too appealing and I felt like cycling a bit more and there were the best possibilities for that. Laos's president lives part time on the island so the roads surprise surprise are in a good condition. There are two loops you can cycle around and I did one in the morning and another in the evening - apart from that there was absolutely nothing to do. I had dreamt about relaxing in the hammock and reading a book, but unfortunately there weren’t even any of those. Luckily there was Nicky to keep me company in both evenings; otherwise I would have bored to death.
So after two nights I decided that enough is enough and took a boat to Don Deth, the touristiest of the 4000 islands. And touristy it was! It wasn't quite as bad as Vang Vieng (you can't watch too much television if the electricity is produced by the generators that run only from 6.30 - 10pm) but they had brought tubing there too. As soon as I saw the first
tubes I booked my trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia. Anyway, there was one full day to explore Don Deth and Don Khon, another beautiful and quieter island next to it.
I decided just walk as I had been cycling so much on the previous day and the islands looked quite small on the map. What a bad decision at the heat of the midday... There was literally no shade on the roads. What I planned to do was to walk to the place where you could book a boat to see dolphins - they come all the way upstream from the sea at the time they have youngs. I was by the boats a couple of hours too early, I was told by an old Englishman, as it was possible to see the animals only after 4pm. Instead I could take a shortcut over the rocks to the waterfalls, the other attraction on the island. I liked the idea and set for my walk, in spite of the objections of the local boatman.
Of course the man of the island was right, it was far too hot and tricky for me and a half an hour and
a quick swim later I found myself a bit lost... Luckily he had followed me with the boat and by following his shouts I found my way back to his boat from the forest where I was doing a small detour when the rocks appeared to be too difficult to climb. So I was saved and managed to see the waterfalls and even got back to the dolphin boat harbour by four. Unfortunately, there was no-one else and hiring the whole boat just for myself felt too expensive. Also exhausted by the excitement and the heat, suddenly a Beer Lao with the Italian guys I had met in the morning started feel much more appealing than seeing a few dolphin tails. I've seen those before... So back I went for the most amazing sunset and quite a hilarious last Lao night.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 14; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0618s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
ninnu
non-member comment
terveiset lumikentiltä
heip! Koillismaan hangilta on pitkämatka Laosin lämpöön, mutta sielläkin sai naamaan rusketusta, kun pääsiäisen aurinkoiset kelit ja hohtava 50 cm:n hanki luisti suksien alla. Kiitos viestistä Kampotsasta ;) ja terveisiä Lödeltä.