How do you like me Laos?!

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We didn't really know what to expect when we got there, but it turns out that we like Laos a lot. There are, however, are a few things you have to get used to:

Firstly, it's small. Well, not actually, but figuratively - there were at least three couples that turned up everywhere that we went. Which is great for the ones that we liked, but less than ideal for one in particular (more of this later)...

Secondly, everyone is really really laid back. Also great in theory, but it takes a bit of getting used to when you're talking about service. Especially as we entered Laos from Thailand, and the staff at our guest house in Chiang Mai were potentially the friendliest and most helpful we have ever met. We've heard the service described as Laos-y, which is a bit harsh, but it is unusually brusque for Southeast Asia.

And finally, travelling into and around Laos is a bit trickier than elsewhere in the region - the main cities/towns seem to be hundreds of kilometres inland, and apart, and nowhere near the borders with their neighbours. Also, to make matters more interesting, it is currently rainy season and northern Laos seems to be covered with endless green mountains....which is stunning, but means road travel is a pretty slow business.

We first arrived in Laos in the north-west of the country and were ultimately heading for Luang Prabang in the centre (Laos is a really weird shape, so technically everywhere we are talking about is in north-west Laos but if you ignore the southern part, Luang Prabang would be in the middle). However, we opted to break the long journey by stopping off in Luang Namtha, which is an 8 hour mini-bus from Chiang Mai. Our other options had included taking the 'slow boat', which is a 3 day trip from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, two of which are spent on the Mekong, or otherwise there was a 36 hour 'VIP' bus...instead we decided to temporarily get off the beaten track.

At the Chiang Kong/Huay Xai border we had to grab our bags off the bus and wade out to a long wooden boat in order to cross over into Laos, as the Mekong river forms the border here. Whilst we were waiting for the other passengers to clamber in, the driver of the boat was bailing water out of the bottom...we tried not to worry about that too much as the crossing only lasted a couple of minutes in total. Soon, we were through the check point (paying our extra $1 "weekend fee" to get through passport control - we made the same mistake two weeks later and left the country on a Saturday) and boarding another mini-bus (which somehow we had to ourselves) to drive the rest of the way. The country side was beautiful and so green. We passed many houses on stilts, and drove through tiny villages where children were playing by the roadside. When we eventually arrived at the out of town coach station it was pitch black and no one was around (no signs of any tuktuks or taxis here). The driver was prepared to leave us there, and with the fear of being stranded for the night, we twisted his arm with an extra 200THB to take us into the town centre.

Luang Namtha is a quiet little town, but an ideal base for booking activities in the Nam Ha National Protected Area. We wish we could say that we saw tigers and monkeys while in this region (which is what we'd naively been hoping for!), but sadly we only saw pigs, goats and dogs at the tribal villages. The town itself had a small night market, selling everything from chicken feet to pork belly, which was the hub of the local social scene. We grabbed a couple of Beerlaos there one evening but weren't brave enough to try any of the food, despite the yummy smells coming from some of the stalls. We did try some local dishes in various restaurants across Laos though (including stuffed lemongrass, filled with minced chicken, Jaew - a delicious chilli-based dip - we chose the aubergine one - and Larb/Laap - a minced meat salad with chilli and green beans) and have really enjoyed them.

After a lie-in to recover from the previous day's journey, we wandered around sleepy Luang Namtha trying to choose a jungle trek or similar. We stopped for breakfast in a local cafe and started talking to a Belgian couple who were booked onto a kayaking trip for the following day. We decided to join them after concluding that a two-day hike through the muddy jungle, camping out in the wild, wasn't really our thing (this was mainly based on the fact that we had met a couple who actually said - and we quote - "that they really felt at one with nature, and felt like they found themselves" on their hike. This is the aforementioned couple that we then saw EVERYWHERE we went. Not cool). We had a quick read of the blurb about how difficult kayaking on the river during the wet season could be (yeah right!) and signed ourselves up.

Our trip overall was great fun. We definitely had our skills pushed to the limit as we managed to lose Mark out of the kayak on only the second rapid. The river was flowing at some speed and a couple of times we lost control which resulted in collisions with various trees. Luckily we had our helmets on and braced ourselves! To break up the paddle, we stopped at a couple of hill tribe villages to walk around and take a look at the many pigs, chickens and goats roaming around the wooden huts. It felt like a mock-up village, as most of the people who lived there were out working in the rice paddies for the day, and we still find it hard to believe that people do actually live there.

The houses tend to provide accommodation for an entire family - from grandparents down to grandchildren, all in one large room - and are fairly gloomy due to the fire that is constantly burning inside (the smoke apparently discourages the mosquitos). Some of the older women were wearing the traditional clothing - e.g. dark blue jackets decorated with silver bells in the Lanten village, black with coloured embroidery in the Khmu village - but this is in marked contrast to the younger people with their satellite TV, western clothing and mopeds. When we returned to our kayak after the first village, we interrupted one family's bath-time in the river...and there was a small naked child sat on the end of our boat very carefully filling it up with extra water!

The weather was awful, but we both agreed that we would rather be soaked in a kayak (especially as Mark had already been in the water) than soaked on a jungle trek. As the rain poured down, the banks of the river became so muddy that getting out of the boat was a case of scrambling in bare feet up out of the water. Lunch was sticky rice served on a banana leaf. It was very tasty, but with only our mud-covered hands to use as cutlery, we had to eat cautiously! A few more rapids down and we were literally sitting in a bath of brown water inside our kayak, with our belongings floating along on top... The best hot shower in Laos followed soon after!

Since the roads in Laos are a little bumpy to say the least, we opted for mini bus travel rather than local buses or coaches, as we've heard these can sometimes get stuck in the mud. On our journey down to Luang Prabang, half of the eight hour ride was along a bumpy, hillside track where the road had been completely washed away leaving huge pot holes, loose gravel and large rocks to navigate between. This didn't go down that well with the little girl sat in front of us, who got decidedly car sick! The scenery was again stunning though, with endless hills covered in jungle and rivers running alongside terraced rice paddies, so we focussed on that. As we passed through the mountain villages, we could see the houses on stilts and could actually smell the wood fires burning from the back of our mini van.

When we arrived in Luang Prabang, we were relieved to stay in a smart boutique guesthouse where we could relax in aircon and eat breakfast on our balcony each morning...this is in stark contrast to the 'second best' guest house in Luang Namtha, where there was a decidedly drain-esque smell wafting from our bathroom sink. Luang Prabang is absolutely lovely and the French influences can be seen everywhere - from the architecture of the buildings to the yummy baguettes on sale at the local stalls. Mark also treated himself to a cream-filled donut on our final night, which wasn't particularly French, but was very tasty! There was a real laid-back feel to the town, with a few people sitting outside the cafes and locals playing boules. If you were dropped here, and had to take a guess, then you would probably think you were in a remote village in southern France. Well, apart from the many temples, monks and the humidity. As you would expect though, there were many restaurants selling Laos food and we found one especially good one (Rosella Fusion Restaurant) which seemed like a family's kitchen that did really good dishes - so good, in fact, that we went back a second night.

We really enjoyed going to the night market (as we always seem to), which in Luang Prabang took over an entire street each evening - it was completely under cover once all the stalls were set up, as there were at least three rows packed in tightly. We had great entertainment bartering for a few items and we had a laugh at Hazel's genuine shocked face when she thought the opening offer for a stuffed elephant was £25 instead of £2.50. The seller was so taken back that she dropped 50p straight away! Although the night market sold mainly t-shirts and handicrafts, and the majority of restaurants and cafes were aimed at tourists too, we didn't feel Luang Prabang was over-touristy. Although we had just come from much more developed Thailand - we met another couple who felt that it wasn't particularly authentic but they had just returned from Myanmar, which they described as 'rugged', so maybe it's all to do with perspective.

The must-do activity in Luang Prabang was getting up at dawn to see the monks receiving alms. We had done this a week earlier in Chiang Mai but thought we ought to also take a look here as the town is so famous for it. We found that it was quite touristy on the main street, with some people following the monks and putting their cameras right up in their faces. Looking for a more authentic experience, we went a street back towards the river and saw locals partaking which was similar to Chiang Mai, and was lovely. We prefer to watch from across the street and try not to get in the way, but the monks seem happy enough if tourists want to join in the ritual.

We negotiated an afternoon trip to the nearby Kuang Si Waterfall where we saw the cleanest flowing water during our Laos trip - the falls were a lovely pale blue/green, even on a cloudy day, and were a welcome change from the muddy brown rivers! While in the Kuang Si Park, we stopped at the Bear Rescue Centre. We weren't sure that we had seen Asiatic Black bears before, which are about half the size of polars bears and have a stripe of white across their chests, and we watched them for a while playing in their enclosures. The sanctuary exists to house bears that have previously been captured from the wild and taken as pets, and also campaigns against poachers who hunt the bears for different Chinese herbals remedies.

Deeper into the park there were a couple of swimming spots and few people nearby having picnics. The pools were full of little fish, which nibbled our feet and had a field day with Marks'... Free pedicure anyone?! There was also a challenging climb up some 'steps' cut into the rocks/mud that led to the top of the waterfall (we know Mark "enjoys a challange" so up we went!). At the top you could paddle in the water before it ran over the edge. We stayed a little way back, as only a couple of branches nailed together made a tenuous "fence" to stop you falling, and it was a pretty long way down!

We had done some research into elephant interactions in Thailand and Laos. While Chiang Mai had a couple of good local sanctuaries, we found the Elephant Village near Luang Prabang also had a good reputation for looking after the animals. Our group was small and there were only a few tourists around the place. The sanctuary's focus, as well as having an on-site hospital, was on buying elephants from the logging industry (it is now illegal to use elephants for logging) and letting them roam fairly freely around the village during the day, and into the forest during the night. Instead of 10-12 hour logging shifts, the elephants give a few short rides to tourists each day, which helps generate the money to keep them. All the elephants were flapping their ears and wagging their tails, which apparently means they are happy and were chomping food almost non-stop! It was great to see the mahouts shouting commands and providing food, instead of beating them with sticks. We spent the morning walking around the sanctuary and watching the elephants feed. We took a ride down to the riverside where our elephant chose to fling water over itself in an effort to cool down, so there was a complimentary shower built in for us too. We then took a short boat up the Mekong to Tad Sae Waterfall, so we could have the chance to cool off too before lunch. Mark tried not to let "Clumsy-Christy" get too near the edge but Hazel, despite her protests against her new nickname, did still manage to fall over moments later...fortunately she landed bum-first in a shallow pool of water!

Onwards to Vang Vieng...

Packed into the back of possibly the slowest, and fumiest, mini-bus ever, with a driver who was scared to hit 40kmph, we crept up and over the mountainous countryside. We were up in the clouds for the majority of the six hour trip and, as our bags were on the roof, our stuff got totally soaked. It didn't make it any better that the bus was really cramped and we were squashed in like sardines. Thank goodness for the praying-mantis at the rest-stop to make the journey a little more interesting!

We arrived in a literal cloud in Vang Vieng and couldn't see the surrounding karsts for the mist. It was throwing it down with rain as well, so we took shelter in our guesthouse and only ventured out in search of food. The town was very touristy, as it seems the only reason people stop here is for the backpacker right-of-passage that is tubing down the Nam Song River. This is a shame actually because, when the scenery re-emerged from the clouds, it was stunning.

Apparently the tubing is only a shadow of its former glory, as many of the riverside bars closed after a government crackdown on the area. This was due to the many accidents caused by intoxicated tourists injuring themselves (generally by jumping off trees into shallow water, not clever), which unfortunately also included a few fatalities. When the weather cleared on our second day, we decided we would give it a go.

It was very quiet, but we were there in wet season with the river in flood and it was certainly a not-so-lazy river experience. The usual time to float from the drop-off point back down into the town is about 3 hours, which was cut down to 1 hour maximum! We got fished out part way down by a riverside bar...They throw you a rope with a weight on the end and you drag yourself in and take a break on one of their seats in the sun. We pretty much had the place to ourselves and had lovely sunny weather too - Mark even managed to sunburn his arms. Despite all the party stories you read on the internet (and maybe because we're getting old), it was nice and quiet without crowds of people and the scenery was amazing. It reminded us of Halong Bay in some respects. Amusingly, it turned out there were plenty of other people doing it that day, including our 'at one with nature' friends, but they were just lying in bed recovering from hang-overs in the morning while we were bobbing along with the river to ourselves!

Our next mini-bus journey to Vientiane continued the trend of being worse than the previous, but fortunately it was only for 3 hours so we could still see the funny side by the time we reached the capital. We left the bus station about an hour late and this time we had a Laos newly wed (which we could tell by the white string around his wrist - from our visit to TAEC, the fascinating Traditional Arts & Ethnology Centre, in Luang Prabang - a lovely museum/cultural centre we would definitely recommend) falling asleep on Hazel's shoulder. While he was doing the "nodding-dog" Mark put his hand against his head to stop him landing in Hazel's lap!

Vientiane was relaxed like the rest of Laos, with more bakeries and cafes lining the streets. We didn't find it as charming as Luang Prabang, nor as exciting as Vang Vieng, but it is still a very nice city to spend some time wandering around. We really only had the COPE Centre on our list of things to do, but after walking about 1km out to it and discovering that it was closed, we detoured to a couple of temples and to climb up Putaxai (aka the "Vertical Runway") for a view of the city. Putaxai was built using concrete donated to Laos by the Americans, who meant for it to be used to build a runway...hence the nickname. Not sure anyone knows why Laos thought they needed an Arc de Triomphe-style memorial though?!

Our second attempt to visit COPE was more successful. COPE is a charity which supports victims who have lost limbs, mainly due to unexploded ordnance (UXO). The USA dropped cluster bombs on Laos during the Vietnam War and since ~30% of the shells inside a bomb generally failed to detonate, there are many UXO littered across the countryside. We found learning about this very interesting, as the main reason people (including young children) end up getting injured is while salvaging scrap metal - the money they can earn from the scrap metal dealers is considered worth the risk! The centre is very well put together, as it focuses on the positive work of the charity, rather than on casting any blame. Much of the charity's focus is on prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation and there are numerous success stories to read about. Best of all, the exhibition was free. We were so impressed, we made a donation using the last of our current supply of Kip and then hit the road in search of a well rated fried-chicken restaurant a little further on...

We wandered a couple of KMs out into the suburbs, in the midday heat, and eventually found the place (wishing we were back in the cool rain of Namtha!). The problem now was that they didn't take credit cards and we had just donated the last of our cash! Karma must have been working for us though, because an Australian lady drove up on a moped and asked us if we were looking for anything. She directed us to a nearby ATM, so shortly afterwards we were munching on southern fried chicken under the breeze of a fan - delicious! The lady who ran the restaurant was so impressed that we'd walked all the way from the centre of town based on her trip advisor ranking that she gave us a free plate of tropical fruit as well - double delicious!

Our time in Laos absolutely flew by and, all too soon, it was time to leave. We took the overnight sleeper train from Vientiane to Bangkok, which was a little bit of an adventure in itself. We were first taken by tuk-tuk to what must be the only train station in Laos. After getting in a passport control queue and stamping out of Laos, we boarded a short train with all the windows down and the doors fixed open. Great air-con! This was only a 15 minute journey, but it randomly involved the train travelling down a road running across a bridge and into Thailand. After getting our passports stamped in on the Thai side, we then boarded our sleeper train, where we set up camp in our second-class booth. The journey was actually pretty good, but our standards were set quite low after Vietnam... We were brought our evening meal to our seats ("blow-your-head-off" chicken stir-fry) and then a guard came around making up the beds for us (with clean sheets and blankets, luxury indeed!). We arrived in Bangkok pretty sleepy but at a very sensible 8am. We even managed to persuade our hotel in Bangkok to let us have breakfast this morning, as we're leaving early for Hua Hin tomorrow...bonus!



Here are a couple of Laos-y videos:

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