Laos

Asia » Laos
November 13th 2007

Published: December 20th 2007

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Chris Kate

The Mekong River, Luang Prabang

the focus for the traditional way of life here and the main transport route up and down Laos as the roads are unruly and too windy!

Day 321 to Day 331 (03.11.07 - 13.11.07)

Lao People's Democratic Republic

Next, we crossed into Laos, the long awaited 'ahhhhhhhh' country - where everything is so laid back it’s untrue - the people take life extremely easy - it’s hard work trying to get or buy anything as the hotel/ shop owners are often nodding off somewhere rather than dragging you by the arm into their store!

Laos is without a doubt south-east Asia’s most relaxing country with no smoggy metropolis and no aggressive sales sharks. The north rugged terrain of emerald mountains and dramatic limestone peaks is crisscrossed with rivers making travelling incredibly slow; in contrast to that of the south which is flat as a pancake and sprinkled with palm trees. Laos, separated from the economic powerhouse of Thailand by the massive Mekong River is hurrying to catch up with its neighbours economics after the end of 30 years of communism. Laos has reinvented itself as a crossroads state thanks to the new road being built from China through to Thailand and Vietnam, from which locals hope they will gain something from the passing traffic, though for most of the population subsistence village

Luang Prabang street scene

the French colonial architecture in the streets of Luang Prabang are perfect for an afternoon of strolling!

life remains virtually unchanged.

The nation of Laos is a foreign invention, created by French, British and Siamese who drew a line around it, and it was subject to an ever-revolving cycle of war, invasion, prosperity and decay. Preventing Laos from evolving from a developing country is the legacy of the US secret-war, and the UXO’s are another factor in Laos’ slow development, as land is virtually unusable until its cleared which is an expensive and time consuming process. Laos is heavily influenced in its culture by neighbouring Thailand with Thai TV, food and music playing a big part in the lives of the young. The men dominate public life in Laos and to the outside world it looks like they are in charge, but you don’t have to be in the country long to see who is really running the show - hard-headed women who are not afraid to say what they think are the bosses, as we found out in several hotels!

Getting around the Laos way!

Famous for its poor quality roads, Laos is not an easy country to get around in, breakdowns, punctures etc are common and something one has to

Wat Xieng Thong

the most beautiful temple we've seen so far...full of intricate gold paintings and mosaics telling the stories of gods and the people of Laos

grin and bear! This was well known, but we were thinking people may have been blowing the situation out of proportion, we were to find out they were indeed spot on!

We were lucky enough, as luck would have it to experience firsthand typical Laos lifestyles and travelling, where the real laid back Laos attitude was at its fullest. We needed to get from the northern Thai-Laos border to the inland town of Luang Prabang, however with only 20% of all roads being sealed; we knew we were in for no easy ride. Choosing to take the bus rather than the 2 day long boat journey down the Mekong River was one we later regretted, although we have since heard neither option is pain-free.

Things didn’t get off to a good start when we waited more than an hour for the tuk tuk ride to the bus station from our guesthouse, so feeling worried that we would actually miss the bus, the hardheaded relaxed guesthouse lady kept on assuring us “in a minute in a minute, no problem”. The bus itself was far from what we had paid for; an old 60’s style Hyundai school bus, probably a

Buddah statues in an old temple

in a store room collection of Buddahs, brought out for special occasions, there were hundreds of buddah statues in all kinds of different forms

hand-down from Thailand or China, that struggled to start. In the 40-seater bus, only 26 people got a seat, thankfully we were one of these, and even though the other 20 people paid for seats, some were lucky to get a plastic stool, and the rest had to sit on the floor in the aisles on the crammed-to-the-brim bus. It seemed the bus driver and his 4 young useless assistants had entrepreneurial interests all over the country, in which they went off route to deliver grain, rice, sacks of potatoes and on the roof 20 new motor bikes to their eagerly awaiting customers. As paying customers, our journey was a second rated priority to the delivery of these goods which took up more than half of the bus, not forgetting the giant tractor wheel that was loosely fastened to our seat, and after 12 hours of being flung around broke free from its ropes and succeeded in bashing all in its path - all slightly annoying you can imagine. Supposedly this journey should have taken 12 hours, however we knew this was never going to be achieved when there was multiple stops for unnecessary reasons, like the driver wanted to

Birds eye view of the Mekong

stunning views over northern Laos from a mountain top

get a drink, take a loo-break, walk around, speaking to other bus drivers - this was not including the 4 hours in total it took to unload all the deliveries and the hour that we stopped in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere for the drivers nap! The scheduled 12 hour journey was actually a painful 20 hours and as the only falangs (white people/foreigners) on the bus not only did we not have a clue what was going on, we seemed to be the only ones irritated by this seemingly never ending journey. On the up side, we experienced the true Laos culture, passing through hundreds of mountain villages where everyone stared in awe as the heavily loaded bus passed through their tiny straw hut village and the kids and dogs ran after us screaming. We witnessed the patience and laid back people of Laos who accepted the whole catastrophic, painful and frustrating journey without batting an eyelid, it was as though they expected nothing less, much unlike us as we were silently fuming!!

Luang Prabang

Finally after the worst bus journey on this trip, we arrived in Luang Prabang, a

Luang Prabang Night market

a very famous market for its handmade clothes and goods, this market was really special....and made for small people!!

French styled colonial town, hours from any other town in Laos due to the poor quality of roads.

Luang Prabang is the jewel of Indochina, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1995 and is a wonderful place to visit with its mix of gleaming temple roofs, decaying French colonial architecture, beautiful scenery and multiethnic inhabitants. The ancient royal city is surrounded by mountains at the junction of the Mekong and its tributary, the Khan river. Luang Prabang is a city where time seems to stand still. In the centre of the city is Mount Phousi with stunning views of the surrounding temples and hills, from where a sunset climb is particularly rewarding. The most beautiful temple we have seen so far was Wat Xieng Thong - situated on the confluence of the Mekong and Khan rivers is richly decorated with coloured glass and gold. We wandered around the little streets for a few days, taking in the scenery, sunsets and its characteristic charm and its sense of isolation that sets it apart from any other city in the world.

Vang Vieng

Next we headed south on Route 13, the only sealed road in Laos -

The journey of a million bends

...as described by a local man, the roads are in a pretty way and extremely bendy, not for the faint hearted or car sick!!!

for which we were thankful, a journey that we were told would take 5 hours, but with a thousand bends, and mountains to climb up, not forgetting the break down, it took our minibus around 7 hours!

The word-of-mouth-famous Vang Vieng- is truly the most relaxed place on earth, tucked in next to the Nam Song River amid stunning limestone peaks. Here we engaged in the outdoor recreational activities on offer, namely "tubing" which we did several times down the Nam Song river - this is sitting in a giant rubber ring floating down the river for 10 km in the most stunning scenery and mountain ranges while stopping off every 500m or so for another beer Lao or bucket of cocktail or whatever else was going on. The bar tenders throw you a bamboo stick and pull you in to their ramshackle huts where there are many things to get involved in, and with a few drinks behind you, you can swing from the trees 15m high and drop into the river, all very good fun! We spent a few too many days here, it was the perfect place to relax; there just isn’t anywhere else that we

Looming mountains all over Laos

these were the views for the mostpart on all of our bus journeys through Laos, and we had time to appreciate them on the slow and windy bus rides!

have come across like it. After chilling out in the bars on the street watching re-runs of Friends and munching on baguettes, we explored the area by bike and visited some of the cool caves and backstreets that led out into the mountainous countryside.

Vientiane

After another winding journey south we had a day in the capital Vientiane to get our Vietnam visa sorted where we discovered the ‘Scandinavian bakery’ which was quite a surprise but rather nice too! Vientiane is not the most attractive city in south-east Asia, but its location on the bend of the Mekong and the lack of high density traffic, as well as the mix of colonial mansions and concrete inner city structures mean it is changing and opening up to international investment and so in the future maybe it will be a more interesting place to visit, as it stands, a day was enough.

For 10 days in Laos, we really enjoyed the country, and drank a considerable amount of Lao Beer, the best beer in Asia as agreed by all who drink it! Laos was the first country we have visited that did not have any coins

School's out!

as our bus pulled in for a break in the 5 hour journey through the winding mountains, hundreds of kids came running down the hill in this tiny mountain top village in northern Laos!!

in its currency which was different. Due to economic instability, the country often has to revert to the American dollar, considerably raising prices, or so it seems - it is still however the cheapest country in Asia! The raw, undeveloped natural beauty of Laos is extraordinary, and though as it stands currently, most Lao people seem more interested in continuing their traditional way of live in peace, rather than corrupting their villages to the effects of tourism, in a decade or so we expect it to be looking something like Thailand! Our next stop was neighbouring Vietnam, but it would be one heck of a journey to get there of course!

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