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Published: March 17th 2008
6th March 2008 - 16th March 2008
Luang Prabang - Phonsavan - Vang Viang - Vientiane
Our one hour flight from HaNoi to
Luang Prabang was in a small and less than third full aircraft with pschyadaelic seat covers. It was a little bumpy but not too bad and the inflight meal was lovely. The airport at Luang Prabang was equally small and it took less than five minutes and about thirty paces to go through customs and collect our bags from the only luggage carousel. It did have an ATM though which was useful, although both $US and Thai baht is accepted in conjuction with the Laos Kip - which can get confusing!
After checking into our guesthouse the first thing we did was buy an awesome iced ring donut with hundreds and thousands from a vendor at the end of our street. I think it was then that we realised we were going to be happy in Laos! The best thing about Luang Prabang is the abundance of excellent places to eat, in particular Joma Bakery & Cafe. Deciding what to eat there was always a problem as everything was just so damn good!
We
did do some sightseeing too. There are lots of Buddhist temples all in walking distance of our guesthouse which we were intially not that excited about seeing having had a fair dose of temples already. However, they were really very interesting and quite different from ones we had come across before. The Laos people are extremely friendly although quite timid and it has been a refreshing change from the rest of Asia to not experience hassle as a daily occurrence. Often you have to approach the tuk tuk driver or shop keeper, etc for information or to be served! Not everyone is Laos is friendly though. We paid too much for our bus ticket from here to Phonsavan both to the agent who sold it and then the bus conductor who claimed our ticket wasn't valid! It's best just to buy the ticket at the bus station to avoid this little scam (we only got stung for $6 though).
Whilst in Luang Prabang there was a national holiday - Women's Day (8th March). This means (most) women have the day off to dance and drink. It also seemed to us that the men get the day off too but
they sit and drink, which could well be the same as any other day for many!
The bus journey to
Phonsavan was very windy as it took us through the mountains for most of the seven hour journey. Asian people (with the exception of Indian) suffer really badly from travel sickness and Lao people are no different. Sick bags are handed out at the start and it's never long before one is filled - the roads really aren't that bad! Another peculiar trend is the inability for people to hold their bladder for more than an hour or so. The buses frequently stop at the side of the road where almost the entire bus offloads to relieve themselves - men and women.
Another observation as we passed through village after village was the number of wooden houses (huts really) with barely an item of furniture inside but a huge satellite dish parked on the roof! Television in Asia is its' own religion!
We opted to stay at Kong Keo Guesthouse in Phonsavan and were offered a $5 wooden bungalow room with 'medium cool' water or a brick built bungalow with hot water for $8. We went with
the hot water but the other two couples who arrived at the same time were saving their pennies - go on, treat yourselves, it's only 75p each! Those same penny pinchers we later saw consuming cigarettes and alcohol at a rapid rate - our priorities are just different I guess (we really are getting old!).
The reason for visiting Phonsavan is to see the mysterious
'Plain of Jars' - basically fields full of really old big stone jars that no one knows where they came from or what they were used for. We did an excellent tour for $15 each which the owner of our guesthouse organised. It included a full day visiting bomb craters, a 'bomb village', a waterfall and small trek, the jars of course and an amazing buffet meal in the evening including a large BeerLao each! What's even more amazing was how good the food was considering how bad breakfast had been!
The bomb craters were massive! The 'bomb village' was interesting, they call it so as the bomb shells are used for tools, fencing, house supports, etc. The waterfall involved a little trek and was a very sweaty climb out but enjoyable. We
were here to see the jars though and they were saved until the end. We thought they were cool and enjoyed this part of the tour the best.
Laos is the most bombed country in the world,
(warning - information/history section!) which not a lot of people know! The reason people don't know is because the war in Laos was called the 'Secret War' for good reason. The Americans systematically bombed parts of Laos continuously for nine years during the Vietnam War. They feared the so called 'Domino Effect' where communism would quickly spread from one country to another. During those nine years the American government denied any involvement in Laos and have never apologised or made any amends since. What's most terrifying about this was the type of bomb they were deploying - the 'cluster' bomb. Several shells would be dropped by each aircraft and during the shell's descent it would split open and release loads of these small cluster bombs which in turn released hundreds of ball bearings at unimaginable speeds causing widespread devastation. This type of bomb is designed to kill human life and not strategic buildings and the people that were killed were mainly innocent
civilians. These people are still being killed today as many of the bombs never exploded when they hit the ground (especially if they hit water) and are still being discovered. It is estimated about 10-30%!o(MISSING)f all bombs never detonated. They are different to landmines in that they will not necessarily explode if you walk on them, it depends if the 'charge' was effective when it was dropped thirty years ago and it normally takes a firm strike to detonate it. Farmers ploughing their fields are therefore the most at risk and figure amongst the highest casualties. A British team founded an organisation called MAG, to help dispose of the bombs safely and have trained local people to do the same and be more wary of the danger. It is a way of life out here, 'bomb safety' is taught in schools. villages, etc and will continue to be so for generations to come. To emphasize the problem, the organisation has visited one village eighteen times and still more are being found!
We got a free tuk tuk ride to the bus station courtesy of the guesthouse and boarded the 7am public bus to
Vang Viang. Our luggage went
on the roof but there were still sacks of rice in the aisle and people sitting on them! After about four hours there was an almighty bang followed by the smell of burnt rubber. The front left tyre had a blow out and all credit to the driver for keeping the vehicle under control - he's probably had a lot of practice! In retrospect though we were pretty lucky - we had only just left the windy mountain roads and were fortunately on a nice long straight section of road with no oncoming traffic. A quick tyre change and off we go again.
We arrived at Vang Viang about 1pm and checked into Pany's Guesthouse which had a very pleasant room for $7 but the staff were quite indifferent. The room had cable TV but the only English channels we could get were 'God' channels! There were several of these and they all shared the same theme - encouraging viewers to pledge money in exchange for a blessing! Very weird but kind of enjoyable - it's amazing what you'll watch when pressed for choice!
The thing to do in Vang Viang is to go 'tubing' and get drunk
at the same time. Tubing involves going downstream on a big rubber tyre stopping at the many bars for a drink. We had developed a cold by this time and were generally a little run down so we didn't think we could handle the scorching heat and lots of really drunk people, so we gave it a miss. The other thing to do in Vang Viang is watch TV all day in a restaurant, usually to recover from the previous day's tubing. This was more aligned to our current state so we must have watched about a dozen episodes of Friends on our second day!
After a couple of days recuperating we got the 6.30am public bus to
Vientiane, the capital. It was our shortest bus journey in Laos at four hours but it was by far the most tedious as I'm sure it could have been done in almost half the time. We eventually arrived at 10.30am and really struggled to find accommodation as nearly everywhere was full. We stayed at the Orchid Guesthouse by the river front for $17 which again was a good room and had ESPN (sport) and Star Movie channels this time on the
TV - our favourites!
Vientiane does not feel like a capital at all as it has a very laid back attitude and there is relatively little traffic. Like Luang Prabang there were loads of great places to eat including another Joma Bakery - mmmm! There is not that many things to do here but we kept busy for our three days. We visited Laos' answer to the 'Champs Elysees' and the 'Arc de Triomphe', the Ho Phra Keo Museum (save your money - although it's less than a dollar!), and yet another temple (Wat Sisaket) which we enjoyed and found yet more interesting differences to other Buddhist temples we had already visited.
The best thing by far though, and in our opinion a must see, was the
Buddha Park about 27km out of the capital. It was about $16 to hire a tuk tuk (so a bit pricey or maybe our negotiating skills are waning) but less than a dollar entrance fee and it was so much fun. The park only covers a small area but there are so many crazy and unusual concrete statues and structures packed into this area, many which you can climb on or
in and just take silly photos of. It is difficult to describe further so take a look at the pictures. We nearly didn't go, we are so glad we did!
On our last evening as we were headed back to our hotel there was a lot of activity and music coming from across the road so we investigated. A French 1940s style country fete was in town (Laos has a lot of French influence as they ruled here for a while in the early 20th century). There was a band and a singer with some funky dancers, old fashioned games, a bar stall selling French wine, and old black and white movie on a big screen and a couple of those funny pictures you stick your head through to be photographed (like at the seaside). The band was great and afterwards the DJ continued to about 11pm (that's late for Laos) where lots of westerners danced like westerners (including us). Lots of curious locals were surrounding the dance floor a little stunned we think, taking lots of photographs!
The next day was our final day in Laos. Only ten days here but it has been one of our
Bushtucker trial!
Julian eating a local delicacy of rice and pork wrapped in a leaf. That's what it was supposed to be. It was more like lard!favourite places. We had an overnight bus journey to Bangkok ahead of us and from there we fly to Australia. It's been an amazing six months in Asia but we are looking forward even more to the land down under!
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sue kerrison
non-member comment
no buddhas in the jar boy
Hi Travellers, Well this part of your trekking seems great. I'd love to see the jars, really weird. I must ask my daughters friend which part of Vietnam she lived in, shes back over here now to live but she married out there, and said it was more hi-tech than here. Is that true? Still enjoying your stories, although been bust of late and just catching up, but got a prompt today. Thank you received your postcard dated 17th Feb, so went by slow boat from China. Anyway glad you both seem in good health. Ciao x