Paradise Found: Laos

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Appropriately, our farewell journey in Vietnam was a 23-hour bus trip from Hanoi to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. We crossed the border and shouted with glee as we walked into a new, supposedly much friendlier country, fingers crossed. I never knew before that Laos actually sustained far more bombing than Vietnam during the Vietnam war, and around 25 per cent of all bombs dropped on the country did not explode, still lying around the country.

The change from Vietnam was instant. The people had softer, gentler faces and nobody was trying to rip us off. We entered through green, tree-covered mountains as the sun came up. Even the air smelled sweeter. I knew I was going to like it here.

We arrived in Vientiane around the same time Tam's plane got in and caught up over an amazing meal and just soaked in the relaxed pace of the town. Tam only had about 5 days to travel with us, so we planned our trip to Vang Vieng, checked out the sights and ended up going to a beauty parlour for some much-needed facials, hair fixing and manicures/pedicures. We followed this with another great meal in a French restaurant (roquefort cheese! red wine! I love Laos!). It was everything we needed after our ups and downs in Vietnam.

Vientiane is a Frenchified version of the original Lao name, which is thought to mean the "king's grove of sandalwood" or "City of the Moon", depending on which historian you believe. Standing proudly at the end of the main road is Patuxay (Victory Gate), a monument to the struggle for independence from the French. The monument was built in 1960 using American funds, which were donated for the construction of an airport. The Laos government, no doubt dubious of constructing an easier way to be invaded, took the money and built an Arc-de-Triomphe of their own, with beautiful Laoation paintings on the ceiling and a definite oriental flair. The locals jokingly call it the "vertical runway" just to rub the westerners' noses in it. Ah, they're lovely AND have a wicked sense of humour.

The next stop was quaint and quiet Vang Vieng, about halfway to Louang Prabang, home of amazing tree-covered mountains, the lazy Nam Song river, and a disturbing affinity for the show "Friends"... Virtually every bar, restaurant, cafe, guesthouse, street food vendor has a TV hooked up to a DVD player playing episode after episode of Friends. It's a strange sensation walking through a small Laoatian village with Rachel whining, Joey seducing or Chandler stammering, wave after wave of laugh trax following you as you go. Why Friends? Why everyone? Why why?

Speaking of friends, however, we met a fabulous character on our bus ride up to Vang Vieng -- Felix, a Canadian-born New Yorker on an extended holiday in SE Asia. He had met an Australian family earlier that week in the airport with a daughter who owns a guesthouse in Vang Vieng; he was headed to say hello and invited us along. Their guesthouse was full, but the family was extremely welcoming and we ended up getting to know them all quite well in the week to come. The visiting couple, Rex and Ruth, are holistic healers and lovers of life and had brought their two nephews along with them for the visit, Simon and Ashley. Their daughter Rachel has been in Laos for over 15 years, married a lovely Laoatian man and has two adorable kids. She was sort of our go-to information resource on everything from mini buses to tubing expeditions to cultural questions.

The pace in Laos is slower than slow and it was nice to ease into each day, eating great food and leisurely planning the day's events, which consisted of tubing down the Nam Song, stopping at little riverside shacks to swing into the water, have a beer and meet fellow travellers. It was so relaxing, we did it two days in a row...

I also ran into a friend Marc and I met in Puri, Orissa, India -- Bruno, a lovely French guy who has been travelling India and elsewhere for about 20 years. We convinced him to come tubing with us one of the days -- he even braved the crazy rope swings into the water. I was far too chicken, and here's a 60-year-old French guy giving it a go! Ah, well, maybe I'll be braver next time.

We had by now firmly laid claim to Felix as a fellow travel buddy, so the four of us headed up to Louang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site, to see the gorgeous temples and visit some elephants in the rainforests. The town is small and quaint and filled with long-term expat, European bistrots, textile shops and loads of ornate wats. We checked out the sites, the Royal Museum and had a fancy dinner at the Villa Santi, where we were treated to some traditional Laos dancing as well. Our second day there, we ran into Rex and Ruth and the gang as well. Laos just seems to have something about it where you keep running into people you know...

Tam and Felix left after a couple of days -- Tam was back to the US and Felix headed down to Siem Reap. The Aussies invited us out to XL elephant camp, a rescue centre for elephants that had been used for extensive logging and otherwise would be worked to death or killed. We took a ride on the elephant thru the forest and even got the chance to be a mahoot -- an elephant jockey -- for part of the ride. The surroundings were beautiful and we took a trip to the local waterfall, a series of limestone pools cascading down from the mountain, gushing with crystal-clear spring water. We stayed the night in one of the quaint, colonial rooms and headed back the next day, saying farewell to our Aussie friends and making a plan to head back to Thailand.

We opted for the 2-day slow boat on the Mekong river to the Thai border. It was a slow, leisurely trip, with stops in Pakbeng and Houyxai overnight. These towns showed us a much different Laos than the main stops (i.e. less developed), but we met tons of nice travellers on the boat (everyone seemed to be Austrian!) and I powered through the Harry Potter Tam left me with. Next morning we'd cross the border, back to Thailand for 2 1/2 weeks left in Asia.... Stay tuned!

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