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Published: February 14th 2008
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
A young boy rests on a fence is a mountainous country, very similar in terrain to northern Thailand. It has a population of about 6.5 million. The food is somewhat similar to Thai food, although less spicy. As in Thailand, a fork and spoon are sometimes used to eat meals, pushing the food onto the spoon with the fork, but often you are just meant to use your hands. Many Laos foods accompany sticky rice, which you break a small piece off and dip into the other dishes. We have sampled
Laap, Khao Jii paa-te (French style baguette stuffed with Laos pate and other items), Lao Lao (fermented rice wine) and of course Beerlao, the cheap and excellent national beer. France's occupation of the country has affected the cuisine, architecture, and language. France was also responsible for the silent "s" on the end of the country's name. On virtually every menu there are baguettes! Laos also has the sad distinction of being the most bombed nation in history, with several unexploded bombs still littering the rural areas.
Having said all of that, Laos is a beautiful, laid-back country and we've really enjoyed our time here! Laos in our experience was cheaper than Thailand, although the bigger
cities of Luang Prabang and Vientiane had some boutique hotels that were much more expensive (and much nicer). For the hostels we stayed in, and all of the restaurants we ate at, Laos was cheaper than Thailand. The people were very friendly, with children waving to you as you passed by and everyone smiling and saying "One more Beerlao?" or "Sabaidee!" which means hello. Another thing that made us laugh about our tour of this country is how we keep bumping into the same people. It feels like we are all doing the same path of the same four cities and we rendezvous with a nod or a beer as the situation permits! All in all a great country to visit!
Huay Xai
Our first border crossing in Southeast Asia went without a hitch. It wasn't too hard to get clearance from the two guys sitting at a folded table in the middle of the street with a little sign printed out saying "Laos Immigration." They gave us a wave and we were through. Next we had to exchange some money. We exchanged some Thai Baht and ended up with more than 1 million of Laos' currency (about
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
We rented a motorbike to check out the surrounding areas 100 Canadian), called Kip. Haha finally we're millionaires! Most places in Laos accept Kip, Thai Baht, and US dollars, with varying exchange rates!
Our journey started with a 6-hour minibus ride from Chiang Mai, which was alright but pretty bumpy. We spent the night at the border, on the Thai side (Huay Xai), with several other tourists waiting to cross, including the Jacobsens. There was some confusion as the guesthouse was offering to get our passports pre-stamped (for a fee, of course) but she would have to take them for the night, however, this was supposed to save us the long wait at the border the next day. We all decided to do it and everything worked out okay except we don't think it saved us anytime at all! We enjoyed some skip-bo and a couple games of Corporation with the Jacobsens and then went to bed.
It was pouring the next day for our crossing. Nobody checked our passports on the Thai side, then we got on a boat, crossed the Mekong and arrived in Laos. We were told we would have a 7-hour bus ride to Luang Nam Tha, but we were happily surprised to hear
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
Cute girls from one of the villages we stopped at. Like all the kids we've encountered so far, they were so excited to see their photo after we took it. We have a video taken later in the day with these same girls - Travis sticks his hand out for a high five and the girls giggle and scream and run away. It's too funny! the road had just been paved and now only takes 3 hours. Our bus driver was crazy and drove like a maniac on the slick raod. The road was twisty for all 3 hours (had to take some gravols!). Not only that, there were cows, pigs, dogs, chicken, kids and
gaur crossing (or standing in the middle of the road) but our bus driver didn't slow down, he just honked. We were glad when we made it to our destination safely!
Luang Nam Tha
Unfortunately, our stomachs weren't feeling quite right for most of the time we were here, so we just booked a one-day trek to be safe. We're not sure what caused our bad stomachs, could have been some bad food at a roadside stall, some bad water or ice from a milkshake or any number of things. Apparently it affects more than 50%!o(MISSING)f people travelling in SE Asia. After a few days of electrolyte drinks, bananas, and rice (thanks to Susan for the "what's good to eat for a bad stomach?" nutrition tips)! Susan also recommended some good quality yogurt after our stomachs were feeling better, to allow healthy bacteria back onto the scene.
We found some in Luang Prabang and felt better afterwards. If you are fellow travellers reading this and suffering from the same symptoms, we found these tips worked for us. It can be pretty draining to deal with in the middle of a long trip so the shorter the better! We are both feeling much better now.
Back to our travels! Luang Nam Tha is very small and is really only a stopping point to book treks or travel to China (about 1 hour north of Luang Nam Tha). It is little more than a strip of hostels in the middle of a farming community.
Our first afternoon we rented a motorbike and drove around the beautiful countryside that was covered in rice fields, surrounded by green hills and was home to many local villages. We really enjoyed it. We got off the bike in one of the villages and walked around. We met many friendly kids and were invited to a local wedding celebration! It was a great way to see the area around Luang Nam Tha.
On the trek, we hiked for about 6 hours, through the jungle and had lunch at the top of
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
We managed to find the only two helmets in all of Laos. Sida Mountain. After lunch we visited a local village called Ban Sida where they were having a wedding celebration. We suppose it's customary to drink shots of Lao-Lao (homemade rice whisky / moonshine) for the whole day as we had at least 5 thrusted in our faces as soon as we arrived. We both took one, but it was so strong we couldn't take anymore (especially on our recovering stomachs). This proved to be a bit of an issue for local people, at one point Michelle just had to raise a glass to her lips so they would leave us alone! It was a good experience though and Travis danced with the ladies, which the locals found quite amusing!!! Our guide had many shots of Lao-Lao and we didn't think he'd be able to lead us back out of the forest. Luckily he was alright and we made it back with no problems - although he was much chattier after the drinks!
At the bottom of the mountain there was a group of people sitting around, sharing some BeerLao and singing a song from their home country (they were from all over). We were both asked to sing a
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
One day trek - the day started out very misty... song from Canada. We were like "Uh what's a uniquely Canadian song?". We sang
Land of the Silver Birch and Oh Canada! The ringleader of the group was a man from India who had a restaurant in the city, so that's where we had dinner. It was really good Indian food.
Michelle was approached by an old lady over breakfast who didn't speak any English, but made the universal sign of "cigarette to lips" and offered her Opium and Marijuana! Michelle thought it was hilarious since before offering, the old lady looked over each shoulder to make sure no one was around that would get her into trouble! Michelle politely declined, deciding instead to have the bacon and eggs.
Luang Prabang
On February 4th, we took a bus to the Unesco World Heritage town,
Luang Prabang. The drive took about 7 hours, but was one of the most beautiful drives we've ever seen! Again, the road was quite windy and took us through mountains, valleys, through many hilltribe villages, across rivers. The landscape was so green and the sky was so blue! We only had one minor glitch - a flat tire - but it was fixed in no time and we
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
One day trek - We visited a local village called Ban Sida. Travis and some of the kids from the village. were off again. We arrived at about 5:30pm just as the sun was starting to set and the golden light was shining on the beautiful french colonial villas of Luang Prabang. We knew we were going to like this place! We got settled and found a beautiful cafe to eat at on the main street. We went to the night market and then as we were walking back to our hotel bumped into the Jacobsens again!!! (well 3 of them anyway). It was nice to see them again and they told us we were really going to like this place.
It is a great town for walking around, sitting in cafes reading the paper (we really appreciate any news we can get our hands on), visiting temples and taking in the atmosphere. One night we walked to the top of Phousi hill in the middle of town to see the sunset over the Mekong River (with about 100 other people!), but the view was great. I guess because of the French background baguettes and other bread products are in abundance here and are really good. We haven't eaten that much bread over the last 5 months so we are
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
One day trek - we were invited to a wedding feast where we were handed shots of "Lao Lao" - rice whiskey moonshine to celebrate the couple's good luck indulging ourselves here (Michelle is in heaven!!).
The night market in Luang Prabang has maybe the highest quality goods we have seen so far in SE Asia. We bought some pillow shams (custom made in 1 day!) but had to hold off buying anything else - although we wanted to - due to our limited storage in our packs. We considered buying some blankets and sending them home, but decided against it after seeing how much it would cost to send it home. The next day we walked through the town again, enjoying the atmosphere and finished the day with a walk along the Mekong, where we witnessed a beautiful sunset. We actually preferred the view of the sunset from beside the Mekong opposed to the more popular Phousi hill view.
Vang Vieng
Our next stop in Laos was a town called
Vang Vieng. We arrived late after a six hour bus ride and had trouble finding accommodation and eventually had to settle on a terrible room. Adjacent to the shared washroom, mice in the walls, drunk people staggering past to either dramatically argue, or vomit in the adjacent shared bathroom... it was a real winner! On the
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
One day trek - by the end of the day we had gorgeous blue skies! Travis, Ton (at this point a little drunk!), Michelle bright side it was only $4 - the cheapest room we've rented in Asia. In the morning we promptly switched to a much nicer room ($10 - with a balcony view over the river). We've often found that if we don't like a room, we can check a nicer place the next day around check out time and there are almost always vacancies where there were not the previous day.
Vang Vieng is about as different from Luang Prabang as possible. Luang Prabang has a lot of fly-in, fly-out tourists and backpackers, but Vang Vieng is largely a backpacker only, party town. It is as if a group of slackers planned this town! Several bars and restaurants show Friends, 24 hours a day. In fact you can stand in the middle of the road and hear Ross in one ear and Chandler in the other, with different episodes being shown in different establishments across the street from each other. What's funny is the amount of people sitting and watching. Also interesting about this town is on several menus you will find "Happy" shakes. The word Happy in this case means "includes Marijuana". We spoke with a man that thought
Laos - Luang Nam Tha
We popped a flat on the way to Luang Prabang. It was no surprise, the roads are in pretty rough shape! he ordered a pizza with Marijuana on it, but he supposes it was mushrooms instead, as he ended up walking down the street freaking out at the traffic for 24 hours straight. Not a good time.
It might sound like we're painting a bad picture of this town, but we actually really enjoyed ourselves here! Our first day we were walking around and getting the lay of the land when a couple pulled up beside us on a motorbike and said "well hello!". It was Craig and Kerrie from Austalia, whom we had met at the Thai - Laos border crossing. We had a quick chat and decided to meet up for tubing the next day. We went tubing, which is floating down the Nam Song River with a gradual current on an inflated inner tube along with several other people drinking Beerlao. The toughest decision is which of the makeshift bars to stop at and when to get back on the tube! It is so much fun! Several of the people we met actually went more than once since they had such a great time the first time! A lot of the bars have constructed zip lines which
Laos - drive to Luang Prabang
Some of the beautiful scenery we passed. you can use to shoot out into the water. Michelle went off of one of these and we got a great video of it! We kept thinking our friend Adam would love this activity!
We returned to the town and had dinner with Craig and Kerrie which was nice. We found we have a lot in common and it was nice to spend the day with them. We actually have similar schedules for the next few weeks so we might meet up again in Vietnam, who knows!? The next day we explored the bridges crossing the river and hiked up the mountain to a beautiful viewpoint. Vang Vieng also attracts a lot of mountain climbers due to its stunning limestone cliffs.
Vientiane
We didn't expect much from Laos' capital city, as everyone we've talked to said not to bother with it, but we found that
Vientiane is a fantastic city. Like Luang Prabang, you can see the French influence on architecture. The city also seems to be crawling with ex-pats, which we think has added to the variety of restaurants and cuisine available. Our first day here we followed our guidebook's walking tour and saw most of
the sights including Vientiane's version of the Arc de Triomphe (the Patuxai), several Wats, the Presidential Palace, and beautiful
Pha That Luang. After seeing the sunset at Patuxai, we had dinner beside the Mekong and sampled some more local food. We also enjoyed some Beerlao at a bar and listened to some live music, a British singer-songwriter.
Our last day in Vientiane we visited
Xieng Khuan (Buddha Park). It is a strange park full of Buddhist and Hindu sculptures just outside of the city. We hired a Tuk Tuk to take us there and we think it was the world's slowest, home made Tuk Tuk! It took us more than an hour to go 28 Km (although the poor conditions of the roads contributed as well). We had to stop for oil on the way and for water on the way back! Too funny. The park was really neat, very different approaches to some of the ubiquitous divine statues in SE Asia. One of the buildings you can walk through three levels which are supposed to represent Hell, Earth, and Heaven and you emerge on the roof for a nice view of the whole park.
We leave later today on a one-hour flight
to Hanoi, Vietnam. We decided to give ourselves a break from the bus trips, since this one is 24 hours on some very questionable roads! We will spend a few days in Hanoi and Halong Bay at which point our good friends Lianne and Laurie will fly out to meet us. We'll travel all of Vietnam and some of Cambodia with them. They will be the first friends or family we have seen in six months so we can't wait to see them! We hope they still recognize us under the layers of dirt, and in our ragged clothes!
Thanks for reading!
love, Michelle and Travis
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Eric Jacobsen
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We miss playing cards with you guys. How was Tet in Hanoi? We were in Cambodia so it was fine, but we just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City and there are still remnants of the holidays. It is far more cosmopolitan here than our joint Chiang Mai experience. And there is some great history here for a 43 year old American. But it's not as beautiful as Laos. Travis, I am totally jeolous of your Beerlao shirt. I wanted one but didn't realize it until we were in Cambodia. I guess I'll have to go back some day. Keep in touch. We miss bumping into you guys. Eric