Day 79 - 87: Mekong Slow-Boat, Luang Prabang, Nong Khiew & Phonsovan

---

On arrival in Laos we could instantly feel the slow-paced and easy-going way of life that we had heard so much about. We boarded the slow boat with plenty of beers and began our 2 day journey down the great Mekong River. The views were absolutely stunning and teamed with the slow relaxing chug of the boat we arrived at the half way overnight stop village in a positively merry state (Pak Beng).

We continued our merry-making at "the only bar in town" and woke up early to continue our boat journey down to Luang Prabang.

Eight hours later we arrived at Luang Prabang, hurrah! our first taste of Laos. We stayed in a lovely guest house that had nightly music jams in the bar. We rented bicycles and rode round the small city visiting temples and exploring the streets. By night we meandered through the vibrant textiles market almost buying everything but not buying anything. We planned to do a two day jungle trek but heavy rain made it impossible and so we left early and headed to Nong Khiew.

Nong Khiew is a very small village surrounded by densley forested mountains. It is absolutely stunning and almost feels unreal like a stage set of a film. The boys played a game of football with the locals with probably the best backdrop of any football match ever, while the girls explored the backstreets and entertained the shouts of curious local children.

The day following our arrival saw Dave N's 24th birthday. This was celebrated with a short trek to a waterfall in the jungle and a barbeque celebration organised by the guesthouse in the evening.

Oh such joy we were experiencing, blissfully unaware we were of the journey that awaited us the following evening.

The Local Laotian Night Bus Experience.

We were told that the bus would arrive any time between 9pm and 11pm......At around 11 we heard a beeep beeeeep beep beeeeeeeep in the distance all the way until the bus bounced around the corner and stopped to let us on. The doors opened and off jumped three young teenagers who helped us with our bags and who also turned out to be the drivers. The bus was packed and so we found seat where we could which turned out to be a series of unfortunate decisions.

Dave Smith chose a seat next to a lovely lady who at regular intervals would alternate between vomitting out the window, loudly clearing her throat and spitting out of the window, and spitting into a bottle which she thought it appropriate to store between Dave's legs. We attempted sleeping on the bus (fools!), which if not already seemingly impossible, became less likely when all of a sudden some extremley loud Loatian "Tetris style" music blared out of the speakers, we think to keep the drivers awake but no one really knows.

We finally arrived at our destination at 7am where we waited for our next bus to take us to Phonsovan. Thankfully it arrived an hour later and our journey, much more enjoyable than the last, involved picking up more chickens and people than seats.

Phonsovan is a relatively large city, second biggest economically in Loas, and unfortuately home to thousands of UXOs (unexploded ordinances). Phonsovan taught us about the devastating secret war which took place in Laos. We visited a village where the people had built the foundations of their houses out of the remnants of the bombs and also a field of craters which had been created by recently exploded bombs.

Phonsovan is also home to the unique and interesting Plain of Jars. Which is exactly what it says it is, an unexplained plain of jars seemingly carved of rocks. It remains unknown why they are there and what they were for but it has been suggested that they were used to store the remains of bodies 2000 years ago.

---