Laos

Our first day in Luang Phabang was drizzley, so we spent it wandering the little streets and tiny alleyways getting a feel for the place, thinking that it would be better to save any "sights" for a sunnier day. The whole city felt a lot like a sleepy French town with wooden shutters on the windows and a sedentary pace of life. We walked to the end of the Old City where the river bends back on itself and the land forms a point. Here we saw lots of young orange-robed monks having their lunch break in a Wat and it was surreal to see them crowded round watching television! For lunch we ate a big bowl of delicious beef noodle soup at a very simple street cafe where the ladies cooked in huge metal pots on open flames on the riverbank. We continued to wander in the afternoon and came across a book exchange raising money for an orphanage so we went for a browse and swapped a couple of books (in spite of the little ferocious dog that guarded the house!) It was drizzling steadily so we ducked into various little craft shops and boutiques, then took cover in a restaurant to sample some Lao coffee. It was horrible (and we're fairly sure it was just triple strength instant Nescafe!), so bad in fact that we had to tip it out of the window and order a Beer Lao - the excellent national drink! From here we went out for a feast of local food at a very swanky looking (but actually quite cheap) restaurant. It was delicious - the most interesting dish was Mekong River Weed covered in sesame seeds with a chilli and dried rotted water buffalo hide jam dip. After dinner we walked down the main street where the scene is very different after dark - one end is closed to traffic and rows of Night Market stalls fill the street. Ladies lay out their wares on sheets on the floor - they sold textiles made by local hill tribes, bags, silverware, jewellery, opium smoking paraphinalea, and lanterns.

We thought that the previous day had been a rainy day - we were wrong, this day we experienced real monsoon rainfall for the first time! We trudged in the rain to the covered market, past ladies huddled under their umbrellas selling fruit from big wicker baskets, and bartered for a couple of brollies for ourselves. They helped a little but we were really a lost cause, saturated from head to toe, wading through the streets that ran like rivers! We waded our way to the Red Cross Herbal Steambath and Massage - a traditional Laos massage place but with the proceeds going to Laos Red Cross working in poverty stricken rural Lao villages. When we arrived, we were whisked off to different areas of the building for our massage - Elly's done by a lady and Phil's by a man. It was a full body massage with lots of herbal oils and was good, if a little painful at times! Afterwards, we went for a traditional herbal steambath - we were given a sarong to change into, then went into the steam rooms, mens and womens respectively. We were the only none-locals in there and after coming out we sat around cooling down while the locals sipped tea on benches and watched TV.

We were being picked up the next morning by a tuk-tuk at 7am to take us to the bus station to catch our Vientiane bus, so we got up extra early at 5:45am to try to witness the giving of alms - at around dawn all of the monks and novice monks walk solomnly through the streets receiving offerings of food from the local people. We watched as all of the monks in their bright orange robes walked in a long line, lots of them very young boys, and were handed mainly rice from ladies who lined the streets with baskets of food. The locals do this to gain 'merit' ie. dilute their sins and gain a better reincarnation. The bus to Vientiane took about 9hrs and went through some beautiful scenery - mountains with their very peaks in cloud, past karst limestone cliffs and through rice paddy fields with villagers all hands on deck toiling. We arrived in Vientiane and caught a tuk-tuk into the centre then, after finding a guesthouse, we went for a walk around the city centre, down to the river and to a restaurant where we treated ourselves to a steak and glass of red wine.

We walked first thing in the bright sunshine to Wat Sisaket. The temple there was set in a cloistered courtyard and the cloisters were lined with hundreds upon hundreds of Buddah images, some big and some tiny, but all smiling serenely. Many of them had rice in their open palm as offerings from the people who worship there. From here we walked up to the "Morning Market" (which goes on all day!). It was bustling and sold everything from gold jewellery to smelly durian fruits and giant church candles to fridge freezers! We went to sort out our bus to Vietnam by popping in to a few travel agents - it was to take 24hours, a daunting prospect! We later wandered along the river, the city seemed to stop very abrubtly - the road getting smaller and much less built up. It started to rain and we went into a rooftop bar overlooking Thailand and the Mekong river as its wide muddy mass surged downstream. The bar was full of a strange mix of people, lots of tourists as well as local, but all rowdy! We were bought a beer by the jovial and very drunk owner, bizarely he seemed to think he recognised us as people who frequented his bar on a regular basis, and for the duration of our stay continuously raised a glass to us from the other side of the room! From there, we walked to the night market with the intention of having a browse and grabbing something to eat from a street stall. However, there wasn't really a market, just a few scattered stalls.

The following morning we walked up to Wat Simuang. On the street outside there were lots of stalls selling things that worshippers use as offerings such as marigolds, bananas, coconuts and incense. Inside, Buddhists flock to worship - they knelt facing the altar of Buddha images either asking a question or favour, or bringing offerings if their wishes were granted, to appease their guardian spirit. It's not a still, silent environment at all, but a frenzy of activity, people arriving with big carrier bags full of offerings! We walked up the Lao eqivalent of the Champs d'Elyse to Patouxai, a big concrete, Arc de Triomphe-ish arch. We then carried on to That Louang which is a Buddhist Stupa that's supposed to be the Lao national symbol, but to us it was a fairly uninspiring golden spire. We caught a tuk-tuk to the morning market then walked via another old supa - That Dam. After packing up our things we waited for a minivan, it arrived soon after 5pm - our bags were piled onto the roof and we headed off to the bus station. It was a busy place and unclear from our tickets which of the 3 buses going to Hanoi we should get on. In the end it didn't seem to matter and we climbed onboard - despite the hurried activity outside the bus, we didn't leave for some time, all the time extending the number of hours we were to spend on the less than luxurious bus! Despite the fact that 24 hours on a bus is pretty horrendous, no one really seemed to moan, there's a definate sense of acceptance - we've chosen to do this and whinging isn't going to make it any better! - even from the two people who were last on and finding there were no more seats left on the bus were handed a small plastic stool to sit on in the aisle for the duration of the journey!

There was a definate low point however, when we pulled into a roadside restaurant at about 2am, and after about 15mins we overheard that the bus wasn't leaving there for another 4 hours! This turned out to be standard practice as the Vietnamese border crossing does not open til 7am! The obvious question we were all asking was, why not set off 4-5 hours later from Vientiane to avoid waiting near the border?! We tried to get some sleep, but with the engine and therefore the air-con turned off it was stickily hot until we were on the move again at around 6am and eventually arrived at the Vietnam border - about halfway there!!

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