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'Travelling Back in Time' is how Fern felt about our journey through Laos
(rhymes with 'cow'). I shan't bore you with too much history (for a welcome change!), but Laos and Thailand are similar in some respects, although urban Thailand is much more modern, which I assume is due to a bountiful tourism industry.
Having finished up in Northern Thailand, we crossed into Laos at the nearest border which took us into the town of Huay Xai, from where we would spend the next two weeks journeying south.
Click here for a map of Laos. The Mekong River forms the border between Thailand and Laos here, so a 30p longtail boat trip across the mighty Mekong brought us to immigration on the Laos side where I bought my visa and went on my merry way.
The Laos language is close to the Thai language, although I think the average Thai understands people speaking Laos like the average American understands drunken Glaswegians - the odd word here and there. Fortunately, Fern has a much better grasp of the language as she lived close to the border when she was younger and picked up a lot of it then. Her command of the language would prove to
be very helpful as we tavelled through the country, although it was me that got to show off my lingustic skills first when we visited a temple on the first evening. A lovely quiet temple on a hill with hundreds of small murals, we arrived shortly before a bell started ringing, which was a call for the monks who lived in the grounds to come and attend a service. I'm glad that we hung around because the monks didn't seem too used to visitors and we were greeted very warmly and asked lots of questions. I was keen to know if any of them spoke French--as Laos was a French colony until about fifty years ago--and to my delight, the eldest monk did, although his accent was very strong. We stayed longer to watch the monks file into the temple and then start praying and chanting. It was an edifying experience for me, although I didn't understand a word! Fern told me that they'd be at it for about two or three hours so we slipped off quietly and went to get a hotpot dinner by the river.
The best way to get from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang
is by boat, although it's a two day trip that involves an overnight stop at a small riverside town. On the first day, the journey down the Mekong River was pleasant although the geography didn't vary too much in the eight hours that we spent on the boat. I guess we were fortunate that it was low season and the boat wasn't packed because the hard wooden benches weren't big enough to fit one person on, let alone the two people that they were designed for. There weren't nearly enough cushions to go round, but I'd been a good boy scout and had come prepared with a thick jumper and blow up neck pillows to add a little comfort. I even managed to find a plastic chair at the back of the boat which felt like a ten thousand pound sofa compared to the bench!
The small town where we stopped on the first night was extremely basic and I doubt there were enough guesthouse rooms there to accommodate a full boat load of people. We hopped off of the boat quickly and found a room just before the heavens opened, then we sat on the veranda and drank
a Beer Lao while we watched the nearby mountains flash into view every time the lightning struck. About an hour later the storm had passed so we went out on foot to find a herbal steam room that we'd been told about. It was nice enough, if a little grubby, although the massage that we both had afterwards was just what the doctor ordered. We left with a renewed sense of vigour, but when we got outside we could barely see our hands in front of our faces, it was so dark. The small town runs on generators and everybody had closed their shops and gone to bed at 10pm; there was no streetlighting anywhere and the street itself was mud and rubble, so to say our walk home was slow would be an understatement! We were really hungry too and we held out some hope of finding at least one place that was open on the way back. It wasn't looking too promising until we saw a family watching TV at the front of what looked like a restaurant. Fern asked them if they were open and they said 'no,' but they'd cook us a basic rice and meat
dish quickly. It came very quickly and I'd been given chunks of chewy buffalo meat instead of the beef that I'd ordered, but I was in no position to complain!
It was pouring down for virtually all of the second day of our boat journey which meant that we had to have the canvas flaps down on the sides of the boat. The boat was even more cramped than the boat from the day before, we had no views and the water was leaking through the wooden roof, although I did a good job of plugging the holes near to us with my emergency bog roll. We got to Luang Prabang about an hour before night fell and had a wander around the market area before turning in.
My Lonely Planet book describes Luang Prabang as South East Asia's most enchanting town, although this is obviously a matter of opinion. We liked it there, but perhaps we didn't stay long enough to understand why the book makes such a bold claim.
We kicked off the next day there with a lovely breakfast of coffee, croissants, baguettes, salami, ham, and eggs--a not unusual Laos breakfast as the French
The mrs, the meat, and the hotpot
- Wasn't that a C.S. Lewis novel...?food influence still lingers on--and then, with a spring in our step, we climbed the couple of hundred stairs up nearby Mount Phu Si (pronunciation uncertain). There was a small temple on top and a reclining Buddha, but the views were the most striking features. On one side we could see part of the town and the Mekong river, on the other side was a lush green landscape, distant mountains and a faraway solitary gold temple that sat near to the winding river estuary. Thinking that we'd seen everything, we started to walk down the other side of the hill and stumbled upon two monkeys that were tied to trees (they had enough slack to cover a fair distance so it wasn't quite as cruel as it may sound). They'd been brought there the day before after being taken from their owners that weren't looking after them well, although they didn't seem to be scared of humans in the slightest. Cute little things, we probably spent an hour playing with them and feeding them, although we kept our distance!
We spent the rest of the day wandering around and taking shelter from downpours before we stumbled on a bookshop
Cramped conditions on the journey to Luang Prabang
Notice how nobody can sit straight as the wooden seats are so close together that was owned by a young Frenchman who was living out there. He'd converted the top floor into a small art gallery which had a small bar, food menu, beanbags and a large TV in the room next to it. We watched a film, ate, drank and relaxed, which was a lovely ending to a day spent on our feet.
Some history: Route 13, the road south from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, has seen a fair amount of violence in recent years and there have been groups of armed rebels hijacking buses along it. Lots of tourists and locals had been killed in an ambush in 2001 so Fern and I were understandably cautious about using it. We asked around and checked on the internet before we decided, but we were reassured to learn that there had been no trouble for a long time. With the only other option being flying, we decided to book our tickets and take our chances.
We set off early and the journey was fine, in fact it was mostly a winding road through the mountains with views of some really beautiful landscapes. I had a small scare when I saw a
local man with a rifle standing by the side of the road and I half expected the bus to come to a halt any second as more men jumped out in front of it, but we carried on moving. We were making steady progress until about halfway through our journey when the bus had to stop and wait for a small earth landslide to be cleared from the road. Then, not long after setting off again the bus slowed right down and four local men in dirty clothing jumped on. Two had rifles, one of whom went to sit in the back row of the bus while the other stood in the aisle at the front, about one metre from where Fern and I were sitting. The local passengers seemed on edge and the atmosphere on the bus was tense to say the least. None of the men said anything to anybody and the bus driver carried on driving, although I could see his face in his rearview mirror and it was clear that he was also nervous. All sorts of things were going through my mind and my mood wasn't helped by the fact that the man with the
rifle standing close to us was openly staring a girl up and down in the seat in front of Fern. Were they waiting for the bus to get somewhere more remote and then start shooting us? Would they kill the driver and take us somewhere themselves? Would they stop the bus and drag off women and rape them? What should I do if they tried to take Fern off of the bus?
When they finally got off about an hour later there was an audible exhalation as I guess that everybody had been thinking of similar scenarios and feeling quite helpless in the middle of nowhere. We were later told by Laos men working in Vang Vieng that these guys were the army, but without any uniform or identification I'm not sure if I believe this. It's in these people's interest to keep tourists coming, so they would say that, wouldn't they.
We were amazed at how lovely Vang Vieng was when we arrived. Nobody had told us what to expect, nor had we heard anybody singing the place's praises, so it was a really pleasant surprise. A small town on the river with a backdrop of large
Beautiful
The girlfriend aint bad either limestone karst and a slow relaxed pace, with no big buildings, few motorised vehicles, and plenty of character and things to do is how I'd describe it. We also found a nice room directly opposite a bar that showed the football so I was double happy! After checking in, we booked a kayaking and cave tubing day trip for the following day before sitting in hammocks at an outside bar next to the river and watching the sun start to set.
'Tubing' is when you take a large car tyre innertube and float along the river on it. We saw a few people float past us while we were relaxing in our hammocks and then I had a double take moment as I saw Clare float past. Clare is the girl that I met in Ko Phi Phi and although I knew she had come to Laos, it was a real surprise to see her drifting past us! We managed to chase after her and catch her up, and then later that evening we all met up after dinner.
We were up bright and early for kayaking the next morning and it wasn't long before we were out
His and hers Beer Lao tshirts
I didn't have the heart to ask him to take another one as this was the second photo he'd cocked up! on the river in a two-seater kayak. Fern took to it quickly and it was great fun, made better by the stops on the way. The first stop was at a water cave where Fern and I swam in the cold water close to the entrance while we waited for our tubes. When we got them we were able to sit down and pull ourselves along the rope that took us through the long and twisty cave tunnels. If it wasn't for the torches on some of our group's heads it would have been pitch black and very eerie. We came out about 45mins later, had some lunch and then got back into our kayak and back onto the river. There was 10km left to go, but we stopped about four times at places on the river's banks that had been set up to lure in the people on the river. They were all bars and as a result most of the people that we saw on the river were tipsy! One of the places had a long army style zip-wire over the river that Fern and I both loved. She had everyone laughing on the riverbank when she came
The view from Mount Phu Si, Luang Prabang
The riverbank was crumbling away before our eyes under the strain of the powerful water hurtling down the wire shouting "Bye Chris. It was nice to meet you!" The last leg of the journey involved everybody trying to soak each other with their paddles and Fern and I were the only people to capsize after I misjudged the strength of some rapids and thought that we'd be able to row through them. Whoops!
We indulged in an Indian curry that night and Fern went to bed while I sat in the bar across from our room and waited for the Sunderland v West Ham game to start. The TV signal was fine, but a huge thunderstorm passed overhead about five minutes before kickoff and the signal completely disappeared. I waited until what would have been half time in the hope that the signal would come back, but with no sign of improvement and continuous belting rain I got bored and called it a day. I checked the internet the next morning and learnt that we'd drawn 1-1, with Benayoun getting an equaliser on the break after lots of Sunderland pressure.
We hired tubes the next afternoon after which we were dropped off upstream and left to our own devices. It clouded over and
got cooler within seconds of getting in the river, but it didn't spoil our day and we were back at the riverside bars drinking beer and gladly accepting the free local spirits that were going round. We had more goes on the zip-wire and then we stopped at a different place which had a giant rope swing which people took turns standing on while it was hoisted up and then let go. I was determined to do a somersault as there was plenty of height to get away with it, but my first attempt ended in a poor dive and my second attempt ended in a painful face and belly flop! My failure was all the more difficult to stomach when the American guy that we'd been speaking to at the bar stepped up and did a triple somersault!!! Showoff.
A three hour (eventless) bus ride took us to Vientiane the next day. The capital city of Laos, it was bigger than I had expected and I liked the place, after having been told that it was boring by a lot of people before we came. Fern and I went to a shooting range that afternoon and apart from
Heeding the advice...
...and keeping it at arm's length! it being flea-ridden, it was well worth the visit. We both did well with the rifles, although shooting the pistol was a different kettle of fish as we had to hold it freehand and without the support of a table my eye was seriously out. They make it look so easy in the movies! In a typically relaxed Laos manner, the owner's cats and dogs were running around in the range and we often had to stop shooting while we waited for them to get out of the way of our target!
While we were in Vientiane we walked to the top of the Patuxai monument, which is their attempt to build something similar to L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris. We also spent a long time looking around the Morning Market which is stocked with 99.9% junk in my eyes, but you know how ladies love shopping! For me, the most interesting part of our stay in the capital was a 'Buddha Park,' which is a well kept area that contains lots of old stone sculptures. Fern was able to explain to me a lot about the meanings of some of the sculptures, which was very handy because there
Rain rain rain
This photo doesn't show just how heavily it was raining were no guides or explanations anywhere. After a long day we treated ourselves to a beautiful French meal of rare steak and red wine which we topped of with tiramisu and creme caramele. Yum yum - a lovely change from Asian grub.
We spent our second and last day there zipping around and seeing the sights on a hired motorcycle. After running out of fuel when the gauge read half-full we eventually managed to get back on the road and find a bowling alley. Fern had never bowled before but she wiped the floor with me, scoring over 100 in her first game and then annihilating me 126-77 in the second!
We were quite pushed for time on our travels and we could have left Vientiane and crossed easily into Vietnam but we decided to go out of our way to travel to the far south of Laos first. I'd read about an area where the Mekong River fans out, creating a series of small and medium-sized islands and it sounded like a really nice place. Getting there involved travelling on an uncomfortable overnight bus before transferring onto a small cramped open air 'bus' for the final four
hour stretch the next morning. When we arrived at Don Kong we instantly regretted it because the place was dead and seemed to have no tourist facilities or sights at all. There was a guesthouse where the owner spoke French but we seemed to be the only tourists(/the only people) on the island and we spent a boring day catching up on sleep and biding our time until the small boat could take us to a different island the following morning.
The smaller island of Don Det had a few more people on it, but in that part of the world, low season really does mean low season and we decided that one day there would be enough. The journey to Don Det was described in my book as spectacular, but we found it to be nothing of the sort. The area is called Si Phan Don, which translated means four-thousand islands, but I guess that the water level must be so high in rainy season that the vast majority are submerged because it could have been any old river stretch to me.
We spent our only day on Don Det on hired bicycles and apart from my
chain coming off and jamming twice it was a nice ride. We crossed an old unused rail bridge that the French had built many years before and then we cycled to a waterfall that wasn't high, but was very wide, layered, and extremely powerful. Apparently some tourists had tried to swim and drowned there a while back, but they must have been crazy to go into that water. Nearby was a 'beach' which may have been as good as it gets in Laos as the country has no coastline. It was a mud beach on the river, but we weren't too concerned as we were already wet and dirty. We cycled home after that, although I had to push my bike back the last two kilometres as the chain wouldn't go back on and we just about made it home in time for a cold shower before it got dark.
A long and uncomfortable boat and bus journey took us back up to Central Laos the next morning, and after overnighting in a deserted hotel we were up at 4.30am to get a rattletrap bus to the border with Vietnam. It was an awful journey but the standard of
Enjoying life by the river in Vang Vieng
This photo was taken seconds before Clare floated past us on a tube! transport was to improve once we entered Vietnam.
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Em Droy
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Woo hoo
Hey Christophe...sounds like you are having the best time and you've now got a lady on your arm...things couldn't get any better hey! We're missing you but glad you are living life to the full out there. Take care love The Droy xxx