Land of smiles

So having returned from Shangra la, we stayed in Kunming for 4 days, back in the Hump Hostel. We spoke to loads of Westerners, chilled out, shopped around and just did normal things for once. Kunming is one of those city that you could feel very chilled out. Nothing much to see, but I was feeling very comfortable there, therefore it was time to move on!!!!!!


We jumped into our last taxi in China and headed for the bus station and our International Bus to Laos, and a long 26 hours to go!!!!!!

The journey to the Laos border was smooth, fast and efficient(very Chinese), however we were informed by many people Laos was not as efficient and the roads were bumpy! 12 hours later we wre at the Chinese exit town of Boten. We arrived at 8am and had to wait till 8.30am for the borders to open. At 8.25, the Chinese decided it was time to do their daily march and raise their flag(how patriotic) . Becks was before me in the queue, and she was really interrogated! The man asked her questions like, wherer have you been, who have you been travelling with, do you like China?, then asked her her name and looked at her picture, name and visas in detail!!!! When he had finished(around lunch time), it was my turn, luckily he asked Beck's who she was with, she said me, so I got interrogated alot less. We made our way back to the bus(in no mans land)to find lots of sniffer dogs, Chinese Army with cameras and masks searching the bus. Becks and I are called on, and ordered to un lock our bags, they were searched on video and we were told to lock them up again. What a great leaving presebt that was, lucky Becks and I are law abiding, otherwise I dread to think of the actions they would take! The other westerners on the bus were not called on to be searched with us, we thought this was strange, but they realised later their locks had been broken by the army, at least our locks were unbreakable!

Within 1 km of the Laos, we were stamped in, had our temperature taken and were surrounded by trees and hills, and jungle in the distance, where were the cranes and skyscrappers????? The next few hours were spent travelling up roads, round sharp bends, over hills, through jungle, down bumpy roads and through many small villages. The villages were by the roadside, with wooden houses built on stilts, the houses had power cables and big satelite dishes outside. Every now and then, we would hear the bus horn and see children playing and running down the road, cattle and dogs been walked down the roads and a real feel of enjoyment from the people, with big smiling faces. Their faces are darker than the Chinese and moreWestern shaped eyes.

We saw signs to Luang Prabang(8km), and the bus stopped! They were stopping for dinner outside the' Chinese Friend Hostel', we decided being so near that we(5 westerners) would flag down and catch a tuk tuk to Luang Prabang. One annoyance with the Chinese, they don't bloody mix well with other countries, they always have to eat at Chinese places(as we were to see later round Laos), it was also nice to get off the 'non smoking bus' as the Chinese smoke laying down in bed(on the bus), even when Becks asked one man to stop, he continued anyway!!!!!!

After a refreshing tuk tuk ride, we had reached Luang Prabang(World Heritage Site), and the town was stunning(my favourite in all of Laos). Its basically in the jungle, surrounded by hills, trees and a huge river(Mekong), the buildings look very colonial, and just beautiful. We find a cracking guesthouse near the river, with free bananas, tea, coffee, water and sticky sweet rice with banana and coconut! All this for 50000 kip(3.50 pounds). We meet up with 2 westerners for dinner that , who we met on the bus, George an American and Tenzin a Canadian women. We eat at the riverside and sleep well under our mosi net that night.

Next morning, we meet George and Tenzin at 8am for breakfast, we find huge baguettes stuffed with chicken or tuna, in PROPER BREAD(chinese bread is sweet and fluffy), I thought I was going cry with sheer joy, next to these tasty roll stalls, were fruit shke stalls, so i order a banana shack, mixed with ice, coconut creme, syrup and milk, what a GREAT breakfast, you could imagine my face enjoying the luxuries of Luang Prabang!!!!!! During the rest of the day I have 3 more shkes and several rolls, Becks has only half what I have and although she enjoys the food, is not as in live with it as I was!!! I also tried an Oreo Banana Shake that night - Oh My God - Yummy.

Anyway back to Luang Prabang, yes its bex thought i'd better get over here quick to tell you about some other stuff!!

Well Luang Prabang was the place where we really discovered Wats!! And we saw a ridiculous amount of these today. So these are the places where the monks live and the novices train. We spoke to loads of novices all over Laos and they will actually approach you if they want to practice their English. They start at all different ages and it seems to be encouraged for all boys to spend at least some time training. However not manlky reamin to make old bones as monks. In one place we visited there were 74 novices and only 4 monks. We enjoyed talking to the monks as we could learn more abou their everday live as it is not what we think in the west.

There are lots of different reasons that the boys go to become monks. Most of them are doing it because its tradition and you just wouldn't consider not doing it(even the smallest villages we visited on this trip had Wats) some do it because they want to become a monk, some do it to be with a sibling, some do it to be able to travel, some to improve their education, some to improve their English. Whist they are at the Wat the collect Alms everyday( we saw this very early in the morning), learn to paint and to sculpt, they learn meditation and all about their religion. In Laos they wear very bright neon robes and some have buttons and only use one sleeve. Women are not permitted to sit next to or touch the monks. Some tols us the jobs they really wanted to do and that they were using their time as a novice to learn the skills to allow them to do that, so it is a period of study for thier lives follwing thier time in the wat. The Wats are usually highly decorated , have Naga , the laos snake at the steps to greet you, Giant golden buddhas inside, smell strongly of insence, there are huge amount od hindi paintings in some, offerings of money, rice, eggs ect. There is a huge amount of stained glass, coloured and plain mirrorwork, the use of colour is amazing, fantastically intricate shutters and doors and huge amounts of gold everywhere!!We actually got to see one group finished their scultures of the buddha and they explain how long they took to complete and how long to learn etc. There are also little areas where small peices of paper with laos writing are kept, close by a few small tins contain numbered bamboo sticka nd you kneel down , shake them until one falls out, read the number and then take th corresponding peice of paper which you have translated.

Luang Prabang was one of our favourite places ans we wish we had spent longer their, its a really pretty place in a really surreal location. The markets and streets are entertainmnet in themselves all the smells ans sights of the food!! You can eat every different type of food and at every different typr of eaterie at every budget. We stuck to the food stalls doing 5000kip plates of as much as you can pile on vege fare. There were also lots of stall just doing bbq fish and meats of all types which are skewered with bamboo and smell divine and do looke tempting, but from our small plastic seats being the vege stalls we could see how many people finger the meat and fish as they go by and also the ridiculous amount of flies that swarm over the meat, I was happ just looking!! The place has a great atmospher in the evening, not party, but buzzing with people eating chatting, slurping the best fruit shakes and stopping at the local handicraft market (which is massive and they close the whole mainstreet down). The poeple just don't hassle you at all, they only approach you after you ask the price and don't get in your face or anything, they are just so chilled and stay sitting quietlt behind their wares, which is very refreshing. The people here have got to be the friendliest people we have ever met!! We asked a westerner for dirctions on the first day and he was English and he just had such a typical Staurday night attitude and looked and spoke to us like we were pieces of shit. Asshole. makes you realise what wankers there are around. Anyway the laos people are great!!They say hello to you before you have even seen them!!

Oh my god we went swimming in the most beautiful waterfall, I'd never done that befoe and it was just so great. Its the main one 32km outside Luang Prabang and we had to take a tuk tuk, luckliy it was cheap to enter, even though Dan tried to get the reduced Laos price ( annoying two tier price system for travel and entrance fees again, durge)I can't really explain it, but it had three main swimming areas at diffent level on the mountain and we picked a deserted area to enjoy the fresh and clear blue running stream, There was one area that everyone seem to prefer, but its packed with foreigners drinking and yelling and just not a tropical , wonder waterfall expereince at all. Laos people are very modest in the way they dress and they give out a lot of litterature on suitable dress and behavoiur to help us give the correct impression of ourselves in their country, this includes never wearing a bikik or swim suit in publis, just pop a sarong on,but of course nobody actually did it thier and it was really embarrassing for us. There was also a little bear sanctuary at the same place, but it was a bit dull, although the bears looks really well cared for which is the important thing!!

Whilst we were here we did get invitied to share some food, beer lao and a very energetic game of petang with some local right on the Mekong. We were very tempted and a bit scared by the offer, there were only men playing, there were lots of empties and they were really chucking the boules hard at each other, watching was fine!!

Our next destination was Hong Sa which would would travel to via slow boat (7hrs) up the Mekong.

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