Vang Vieng and Vientiane - 3 to 5 April 2013

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It was indeed a very long journey from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng as mentioned in the previous blog it was only 240k but with stops it actually took us just under 9 hours. It was not long before the pretty rough mountain road started to twist and turn and this continued hour after hour. We stopped for a ‘happy house’ break in a small hamlet where we were surprised to find a block of western loos facing a block of asian ones in a small lay-by with just a couple of thatched houses. A lady and a couple of small girls came out to collect money for using their facilities - they were better than a lot we had encountered and even had some loo paper on a small reel outside the doors so worth paying for!







We continued on stopping again for lunch in a small village called Phoukoune, flies were everywhere and I just could not get myself to eat anything. There was a choice though for those that did, which was everyone apart from me, of rice with chicken, beef or vegetables or noodles with chicken, beef or vegetables. I spotted a packet of sealed crisps on a shelf and chose them instead - Paul says I am ‘too fussy’ but I just could not cope with all those flies - and you should have seen the kitchen and loos..... Afterwards we strolled down the one main street and visited a small market which was interesting in itself. One lady was eating what looked like white, red or blue tapioca and offered me some with her spoon to try it! Ginger was harvested in abundance here and little pink plastic bags stuffed with the tubers were being sold throughout the market. The area was recently devastated with tropical storms causing mud slides which blocked the remote villages cutting them off from the outside world. In many places it looked like the whole mountain had come down, and sadly many slides took away people’s homes with tragic loss of life. The mountainsides were so steep here and we saw many people actually working the land on these steep slopes, one could hardly stand up let alone work and tend their crops, very tough and hardly people, scrapping a living on the mountainsides.





At the top of a mountain pass we stopped and walked through a small village with a few rattan and thatched homes dotted along the road and into the countryside. People were crowding the coach before we even stopped, hoping to sell some of their goods to us - Paul being the first off got lost amongst the little children. We walked through down the main street and in the centre of the village was a concrete water pump where several mothers and children were washing themselves as well as their clothes as we passed by all smiling and happy. Many homes had their own little garden next to the house and these were elevated so as to keep out the pigs, chickens and buffaloes. One shaded thatched stable housed a couple of cows and many black pot bellied pigs roamed around the village foraging what they could. Little babies were laid out to sleep on carpets just spread out on top of the deep red sandy soil. They did not have a lot but they all seemed happy and contented......At the end of the village you could see the road snaking down, the road we would be travelling on later. Rubbish appeared to be a huge problem here as it is all over this part of the world with piles being left everywhere, the dreaded plastic bag standing out all over the place.........





As we walked back through the village two little girls were playing in the now empty water pump, soaking their clothes and finding us and them to be hugely amusing - they entertained us for ages just splashing us and them before they followed us soaking wet but still laughing and hiding as we walked back to the bus. I passed on a several small gifts of hairbands that our granddaughter, Maisie had given us for the children as well as some colouring books, pencils and even some nail varnish (child friendly which washes off) that she had donated for us to take and they were all delighted with these small gifts. One lady took back to her husband some off the nail varnish I had given her and he was sitting down outside his house with his children putting it on their fingers much to everyone’s delight - little things can bring huge smiles to these friendly people.





These friendly villagers did not have much particularly the basics that we westerners take for granted, electricity and running water, apart from the village pump that is. The traditional political approach on village and irrigation electrification targets has inhibited the delivery of modern energy service to these communities. Consequently nearly two-thirds of rural households lack electricity supplies and where service is available, supply is unreliable and of poor quality, imposing additional costs on households. Subsidised price poses a serious financial burden to both provincial and national government, creating a disincentive to invest in electrification. Most of the population live in wide spread rural areas, in houses centred around village community structures that are far away from the electricity grid. Electricity of Laos plans to reach some isolated districts, but the majority in this area will probably not be connected during the next 20 years.





We continued on our journey down the mountain, passing small hamlets on the hills and in the valleys stopping at Pathang, a village north of Vang Vieng, which had stunning views over the Karst Mountains. We also stopped at a market where we thought our guide said there was a ‘lot of crap’ for sale when in fact he said a ‘lot of crabs’, but not only these, there were also a lot of rats, guinea pigs, squirrels, for sale...........glad we did not get out of the bus.





We finally arrived exhausted in Vang Vieng which lies on the Nam Song River and is Laos' equivalent to Guilin in China. It was also reminiscent of our time at Halong Bay, where the limestone karst form a landscape similar in beauty but with their own unique mystical fog that surrounds the mountain tops. We settled into our room which had a good view of the mountains and river from the balcony and as we watched a huge hot air balloon floating down the river nearly touching the water. We did consider going up in the balloon but decided against it which was just as well as the next day it actually landed in the middle of the road as there was not enough wind!





Although Vang Vieng itself is not a particularly pretty town with a mix of run-down French colonial buildings and wooden houses the riverside and spectacular mountain backdrop made up for. The town grew rapidly when in 2006 huge numbers of backpackers descended on the town eager to join the current party scene. Bar and cafes spread out along the river with adventure parks offering tubing, water-slides, giant swings and zip-lines as more backpackers flocked in. The effect of this started to destroy the town's culture and encouraged crime amongst children, whilst loud music was also affecting the area's tranquility. Following a large number of backpacker deaths from accidents the Lao Authorities recently started to clean up the town’s image dismantled the adventure parks leaving only the bizarre concrete platforms as evidence - the town has become a bit of a ghost town with huge numbers of restaurants empty.





On our first day we ventured out of the town to reach the peaceful Lao countryside. We first visited a spectacular limestone cave called Jang Cave, once used by local people as a hide-out from Chinese invaders as well as to shelter from bombing during the Vietnam War. Half way through the cave there was a look out with great views of the river and surrounding countryside.





Later after crossing the Nam Song River on a rope bridge we passed many strange structures which we soon realised were the concrete platforms for the zip lines, recently dismantled. We continued to Lom Cave which was quite a trek just to get to the entrance, climbing over loose rocks but in some places they had erected very wobbly bamboo scaffolding to hold on to which helped a little although some gave way as you grabbed hold..... We arrived at the entrance where some wobbly metal steps descended into the dark cave. A huge cold draught was blowing out of the cave and it was nice to just sit and get cool for a while. I was first to climb down and there were no artificial lights so it was quite difficult to see where your feet were. I looked up for Paul but could not see him so continued down and finally reached the bottom of the cave. I scrambled over some slippery rocks and walked across a long slab of wood that had been placed over some water where a guide stood with a light, not sure where he was when I was climbing down though!





The floor of the cave was wet, thick with mud and extremely slippery due to all the recent rain. Paul finally joined me having got caught behind others who were struggling with the climb down, which you could only do in single file. It was pitch black so it was lucky that some of us had torches and we could see that the cavern was indeed very huge with some interesting rock and crystal formations, although without artificial lighting you could only see as far as your torch would shine but this did add to its natural charm. The guide said that the cave does go quite deep into the mountain, but most of the group wanted to climb out so we did not venture too far before turning back where we had to again scramble over the rocks and up the wobbly ladder to get out.





It was indeed quite a relief to see daylight again - the cave was not what anyone had expected, it was more like a pot holing expedition than ‘what the brochure said’, ‘a cave with good rock formations and crystals’! Everyone was tired, dirty, covered in mud, hot and sticky but I think we were all pleased that we had made the extra effort well I think we were......





The next morning we left the rich plains of the Mekong and travel south to Vientiane, the capital of Laos and a very different city of villas and boulevards. The name Vientiane translates as 'Sandalwood City' and although it is the largest city in the country, it is still small enough to get to know easily. The capital of Laos it is indeed a charming place to spend a few days. Decrepit French villas and art deco Russian buildings mingled with the golden spires of Buddhist temples shining in the hot sunshine, such a change from Veng Vieng.





It was lunch time so we headed for a soup kitchen, not my choice..... The smell was really bad and the choice was, noodle soup and iced tea.... ‘not my cup of tea’ but nothing else as this was all the restaurant served - oh well dinner’s not too far off. The place was buzzing with locals so much so that it took a while just to get a seat, how can anyone enjoy this but they do...... The waiters came out and put down these huge steaming bowls of soup together with a large bundle of fresh herbs and you just added your own flavour to your bowl.........again not my cup of tea, so I sat and chatted to Rae who was from Australia and it was not her cup of tea either but we did enjoy the ambience!



We visited the Wat Sisaket, the oldest and most beautiful temple in Vientiane featuring a long cloister wall with over 6,000 Buddha statues of various sizes made primarily from bronze whilst some were crafted from other materials such as ceramics, rare woods, gold, silver etc. The styles come from different areas of the world and show many comparisons to the way the Buddha is portrayed in posture. In 1827 the Siamese raised Vientiane and forced many of the people into exile across the Mekong River. All the temples were destroyed apart from Wat Sisaket which continued to function as a monastery despite depopulation of the city. The Sisaket sim is unusual in that it faces South instead of East and that it is not parallel to the course of the river thus not following the Buddhist or Lao traditions for the placement of a sim in a vat.





We continue to the nearby Wat Phra Keo, built in 1565 and which once housed the famous Emerald Buddha which is now in Bangkok. The temple is now a Buddhist Museum and we wandered around the grounds before removing our shoes to go inside where we chatted to several schoolgirls who were studying on the temple floor.





Nearby we walked to the That Luang Stupa, the most revered shrine in Laos and according to the Lao people was originally built as a Hindu temple in the 3rd century. The area is now gated to keep out the traffic so we had to walk across this huge square in the baking heat which was not much fun but worth the effort just to see the golden gilded building, glistening in the hot sunshine and contrasting beautifully against the pure blue sky behind. In front of the building was a huge statue of King Setthathirat who relocated his capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane and ordered the construction of That Luang Stupa in 1566, the building was later restored in the 18th and 19th century following conflicts.





The That Luang Stupa also known as the Golden Stupa has become a national landmark and place of pilgrimage - an amazing sight to see with the entire temple painted in gold. It is construction in the shape of a square but has a three-staged stupa in the middle, said to contain some remnants of Lord Buddha. For this reason it has become the center of a famous Buddhist pilgrimage where Thai as well as Lao worshippers gather in large numbers to pray at a huge festival. The encircling walls are roughly 85 metres long on each side and contain a large number of Lao and Khmer sculptures including one of Jayavarman VII (1181 - 1218) of the Khmer Empire whom would should soon come across at Angkor Wat in Cambodia.





We walked around the outside of the stupa keeping under the cloistered area to try and keep cool but even this was difficult. Just outside the complex were further ornate buildings and as we entered what looked like a hidden garden setting we arrived at this huge golden sleeping Buddha which we probably would not have found without our guide. Walking back through the gardens there were various statues of Buddha and other deities with some animal statues offering prayers to Buddha the life sized statues were all well crafted and robed in orange again standing out in the sunshine. On several of the statues we could see the usual offerings of clumps of sticky rice.





After a lovely lunch in a chic french restaurant we continued to the Patuxai Victory Monument, which resembles the Arc De Triomphe in Paris. The monument was built using American funds and cement intended to build a new airport - The Royal Laotian Government instead built the monument, which earned it the nickname of the ‘vertical runway’!!





It was extremely hot and not many of us decided to climb but we thought we would not get another opportunity so entered the building. Two concrete staircases wind up from inside the main structure, passing through each floor, right up to the top of the monument. After all the exercise and heat we had all day it was no mean feat to get to the top. Viewing galleries on the upper floors looked out over the city with lovely views. The first floor had offices of the management of the monument as well as a shopping mall selling tourist souvenirs and refreshments, although we did not stop. The second floor was a museum displaying statues and pictures of the iconic heroes and heroines of the country. The next level was an open space where four towers were built at the four corners decorated with frescoes of foliage, designed in Laotian style with spires. Each tower had its own stairway and there was another central larger tower above this floor, which also had a spiral staircase which lead at last to the top floor............ The viewing platform here was the best with 360 degree panoramic views of Vientiane from each window. Looking out you could imagine you were in Paris on top of the Arc De Triomphe!









That evening we watched a traditional music and dance performance while enjoying dinner, the lovely Lao dancers were a delight to watch as they slowly moved their hands showing their amazing agility and grace. The meal and entertainment was excellent and was topped off by our guide arriving with a birthday cake for Paul who is now officially an old age pensioner. The band played Happy Birthday ‘Lao’ style and everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday which was great.







We have really enjoyed our travels in Laos and like Vietnam, particularly the friendliness and spirituality of the people. Again we will take with us many memories of our time in the country. In particular we will remember the peace and tranquility of the region which has not always been the case; the saffron robed monks in Luang Prabang leaving their monasteries early in the morning and walking down the streets carrying their alms bowls in front of them, the children gathering around us in the thatched mountain villages of the Lao countryside, particularly the two young girls enjoying themselves with just a water pump, the huge caves set in the Karst limestones mountains where we had climbed down into the dark and where are guide Vieng had told us his mother-in-law had hid from the bombings - food for thought......





Tomorrow we leave Laos and fly to Cambodia, another new country and culture we cannot wait - see you there.

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