Journey Through Laos

---

Claire and I are taking the “Journey through Laos” tour with a UK based company called The Imaginative Traveller. This will be a real change for me and I’m looking forward to letting someone else deal with arrangements. We’re due to spend a couple of days in Bangkok, then a day in Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand. Then we cross the Mekong into Laos and spend two days sailing down to the town of Luang Prabang. Christmas will be spent in the “mysterious” Plain of Jars before visiting (to quote the brochure) the “quaint hamlet” of Vang Vieng before we go to the capital Vientiane and return to Bangkok.

Bangkok

So, we had a day to explore this place before meeting the tour group. We visited the National Museum. It gives a very good overview of a country I hardly know even though I’ve been here a couple of weeks already. At the end was some very fawning stuff on the Royal Family. They take their royalty very seriously here. Pictures of the King appear almost everywhere on the streets. This is a young democracy and the King has in recent years skilfully defused some quite dangerous situations.

We found a vegetarian restaurant that sold brown rice which I’ve quite missed since my retreat. Thais usually only eat white rice. Someone once told me that white rice has very little more nutritional value than white sugar and I’ve taken that on board.

Our group leader is a short, feisty Kiwi called Justine. She reminds me a bit of my Kiwi cousin Sarah. There are eight of us in total.

That evening, Claire and I sampled some of the delights of Patpong. This is known as Bangkok’s Red Light district but is actually far more than that. We ended up in a “show” (of which there are loads) involving various tricks using ping-pong balls, strings of flowers, razor blades(!), pea-shooters and candles. There was nothing erotic about it at all: it was more of a freak show. Interestingly, the audience was mainly Thai and mixed gender. It seems this is the kind of place to take your girlfriend on a night out. It seems (and is) rather exploitative but I think the “ping pong” aspect of sex tourism in Thailand is far better than prostitution and the loads of Thai girls you see hanging onto ugly Farang men, gazing out of the bar with forlorn expressions.

One minute after we left, there was a power cut. I would not have wanted to be in there when the lights went out! Especially with all those pea-shooters around...

The next day, I chummed up with Gwen, a French girl on our trip. We went down the river and visited the Royal Palace. Wat Phra Kaeo is the most important temple in Thailand and is amazingly gilded. I was struck by the contrast between this and the simplicity of the International Retreat Centre at Suan Mokkh. The wat contains the famous Emerald Buddha, a tiny Jade Buddha statue overwhelmed by its setting and wearing robes which obscure it even more. Most of the other buildings in the palace were closed, so there wasn’t much more to see or do there.

Some Thai teenagers approached me and asked if they could have their picture taken with me. I was new to Asia and this had never happened to me before. I felt like an England football fan in Japan 2002. However, three more months in Asia would wear off the novelty...

Then we went down the road to Wat Pho. The main attraction here is a giant reclining Buddha figure. It’s massive and housed in a building where you can’t see it full on. I was very impressed with the effect and it was one of my favourite sights in Bangkok.

Chiang Mai

That evening, we caught the night train and woke up in Chiang Mai.

It’s nice having things arranged for you. No having to book hotels or negotiate with taxi drivers. In the morning, Claire and I visited one of the wats in town (contains one of Thailands three Phra Singh Buddha images). Then, I went with Gwen and Sarah (a Canadian girl in our group) to Wat Doi Suthep.

This is a large wat outside of town. I was really impressed with its layout and setting. Everything was golden and the sunny day set off the bright colours. However, I do find the Buddhism that Thai people practice strange. They seem to be worshiping the Buddha like he’s a god. They also have animist practices and believe in spirits. Everywhere you go, you’ll see “Spirit Houses” where the spirit that used to live on a piece of land now built on, can live.

In the afternoon, Claire and I went on a cooking course. It was a slick operation. First, we went to the local market and they showed us the ingredients we were going to cook with. Many of them I had not heard of, but recognised from the dishes I’d been eating in the previous weeks. Then, we departed for the cooking centre in the outskirts of town. We cooked Tom Yum soup, which we ate while letting a Thai curry simmer. Then, we prepared a vegetable stir fry and phad thai. We had proper gas burners and got the wok really hot before putting the ingredients in to produce a big flame. Also on the course was another Imaginative tour group of just two people plus guide. The normal guide was off sick so they had flown the training manager out from the UK to take the tour. Quite impressive!

I love Thai cooking! They have fresh ingredients, chopped coarsely and cooked quickly on a hot wok. It tastes even better in the country (where the ingredients are readily available) than at home.

Chiang Mai is a popular place for tourists to hang out and I can see why. It’s pretty chilled out and there are lots of things to do like Thai Cooking courses.

Mekong

Next day, we got a minibus to take us to the Laos border. Chiang Khong (Thailand) and Huay Xai (Laos) are divided by the Mekong river. Amazingly there is no bridge over this river until Vientiane, 300km to the south (however a long-talked-about bridge is supposedly due to be built in the next couple of years). We checked out of Thailand, crossed the river and checked into Laos. Laos has only really been open to tourists since 1989. It’s opened up a lot in the last few years but most of it is still relatively unvisited.

We stayed the night in Huay Xai at the hotel Arimid, owned by Mr Arimid himself. He’s a bit of a wheeler dealer by all accounts: one of the French educated elite who used to run this country and who has managed to prosper in changed environments.

We went on a trip to the local village of Ban Nam Song, home to members of the Lao Huay (hill tribe) people. They are not allowed to marry outside their villages. Their main sources of income are making paper from bamboo and the occasional visits from visitors like us. They prepared us a meal (which some of us found difficult to eat) and supplied us with lao-lao (distilled rice liquor - the local firewater). The appointed village chief (they have two: one elected and one appointed by the government) practiced his English on us. The main distinguishing feature of the women in the village is that they shave their eyebrows!

For my evening meal, I had laap. This is the national dish and although it varies a bit, is minced chicken or lamb with mint. Quite nice.

The weather is noticeably colder here than in Thailand. Quite chilly in fact!

The next two days were spent going down the Mekong river in a boat carrying our group and a cargo of oranges. The river reminded me a bit of the rainforest in Bolivia. It’s muddy coloured and quite wide. We stopped at various villages on the way. At the first two, they were fairly geared up to tourists. Children sold Pringles (made in USA) and Lay’s (Walker’s) crisps for prices impossibly high for locals at one; and weavings at the other.

Later on, we stopped at a place obviously less visited. There were loads of kids on the bank who were really friendly (and shy). I took some photos of them and showed them on my digital camera. They found it very funny and there was no “10 baht, 10 baht” like in Thailand.

We overnighted in the small village of Pak Beng. Gwen and I went to visit one of the two small wats. As we got there, the monks were just finishing their chanting. We chatted to them a while and they allowed us to look inside. It was much less ornate than the ones I’d seen in Thailand. In Laos, you see more standing Buddha figures than in Thailand; and he has bigger ears, nose and mouth (apparently the real Buddha had a big hooter). I recited one of the Pali chants I’d learned at the retreat and the boys recognised it. They found my Pali pronunciation quite funny.

Back at the hotel, we had a couple of beers. Beerlao, the local brew, is very nice. It’s definitely better than any of the chemical-tasting beers in Thailand. Then we had a meal in an Indian restaurant where the power went out. Nobody other than me (including Justine the tour guide) carried a torch - amateurs!

The next day was also spent on the boat. It was really cold and I had to wrap up. On the way down, we stopped at a cave full of Buddha figures before arriving in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a lovely town. It’s a former capital (the early history of Laos is quite complicated and I’m not going to detail it here). We spent two nights here and were blessed with fine weather.

There are some interesting sights to see in Luang Prabang, but it’s also a pleasant place to sit and watch the world go by. I climbed the viewpoint, and visited the former Royal Palace (now a museum). There were some very interesting diplomatic gifts on display (presented to the former King before he was ousted). From the US president of the time (Richard Nixon) there were no less than two samples of Moon rock (extremely valuable! ...but curiously poorly guarded) and two Laos flags which had been taken into space. Significantly, they were the pre-communist flags. Seemingly Laos and the USA used to have a friendly relationship. There was also a plaque from the US Airborne Division which was displayed upside down so you couldn’t read the inscription. The building also houses the “famous” Pra Bang Buddha image, after which the city is named.

The city is full of wats and they do begin to look kind of the same after a while. It’s a bit like touring southern Europe and finding yourself visiting churches all the time. However, I learn more with each one I visit. In the largest wat of the city: Wat Xieng Thong, I bumped into Claire and Raywen, a New Zealander in our group and we decided to hire a boat to take us over the Mekong to look at three ruined wats over the water.

One of these wats turned out to be in a cave. The door was locked and I had to go back along the track and find someone to let us in. A very young boy was sent back with me and a key and we all went in.

The cave was really big and hot inside. They’ve installed strip lights all the way, thought it was still dark and slippy. We went down several levels and finally, up a level deep inside. The girls didn’t want to go far in, I cautiously went on. The young boy was wearing flip-flops, yet leaping about! When we got outside, I wanted to tip the guide as it had been a tricky route and he’d opened it for us especially. He looked at me blankly. It’s ironic that for all the times I’ve reluctantly tipped for mediocre or even bad service because I have to, that one time I really do want to tip, it’s refused!

Back in Luang Prabang, we sat by the river and drank freshly made fruit and coconut milk drinks for USD0.30 each. From the same place, a Coke would have cost USD0.60. I know what I prefer!

Having a chilled out day, I tried a Lao massage. It’s a bit different from Thai: none of this pulling and pushing limbs into strange positions. It was tiger balm based and more conventional.

By this point, it was 23rd December and there were only tentative signs (trees in some hotel lobbies, Santas in a couple of shop fronts) that Christmas was on the way. I kind of like the idea of being in a Buddhist/Communist country where they don’t really do this kind of thing.

On Christmas Eve, we got up at 5:40 am to watch the monks go for their almsgiving. There were 300 of them and they walked along the pavement in silence while locals and an alarming number of tourists placed food in their begging bowls.

Phonsavan

The rest of the day was spent travelling to Phonsavan, in the east of the country along windy but recently paved roads. This place is known for two things. Firstly, it was very heavily bombed in the “Secret War”. This was the unofficial spill over of the American war in Vietnam (perhaps better to be called the Second Indochina War). Laos is the most heavily bombed nation, per capita, in the history of warfare. It was both a secret war to (wrongly) cut of the Ho Chi Minh trail, stop Laos becoming Communist and somewhere to discard undropped bombs from sorties over Vietnam to allow a safe landing for the bombers. Anyway, there is stacks of unexploded ordinance (UXO) still around and it still claims lives.

The second, more happy thing in Phonsavan is the mysterious Stone Jars. It’s not very clear who built these. They are thought to be 2000 years old and there is conflicting evidence as to what they were used for. They are carved out of sandstone which was transported from 300km away.

That evening, I suddenly felt myself coming down with the cold. There had been one going round our group and it was a nasty one that hung round for days. I went to my bed and slept for an hour, then had an early night after dinner, drinking loads of water. The next morning I woke up fine! I think the massage I’d had the day before had flushed it so my body dealt with it more quickly. Anyway, it was a great Christmas present not to have the cold!

As we weren’t doing Christmas, we went on tour to the Plain of Jars.

There are hundreds of sites, but only a few large ones; and only three of these are open to the public. We visited sites 1 and 3. The sites have been cleared partly due to the work of the Mines Advisory Group (MAG).

Then, we were taken to visit a Hmong village. As we entered, we saw lots of girls dressed in traditional costume. Apparently, it’s the end of the Hmong New Year and lots of girls and boys were throwing balls at each other and chatting. It seems this is the way for Hmong people to meet a spouse.

In the village, we were greeted by a young woman who appeared to have Learning Disabilities. I was reminded of my voluntary work in London. The villagers have made good use of bomb casings left over from the war. In particular, they have become stilts for houses.

That evening, we had Christmas dinner of lots of Lao dishes which we ate banquet-style. I had two bottles of Beerlao and felt quite merry. I went to bed early and contented.

We also had Secret Santa. This is where everyone buys a gift (for USD2) and this will go to someone else in the group at random. I got a bangle from Pete (the only other guy in the group who obviously wasn’t thinking of generic presents that he’d have like to have got himself). Anyway, my sister-in-law is going to be a lucky girl when I get back! Funnily enough, Pete got the present I bought: a pair of slippers.

Vang Vegas

The next day, we had another six hour journey. Our destination this time was Vang Vieng. I’d heard a lot about this place and wanted to see it. Some had told me it was lovely, others a living hell. Maybe it was the rainy weather when we were there, but I just didn’t like the place.

The whole of the centre is for backpackers: you do not see anything Lao. You don’t see much Lao writing; there are restaurants selling overpriced Falang food; most of the restaurants have TVs and half of them show “Friends” at volumes loud enough that you can hear one episode while watching another. Who wants to go to Asia and watch some smug sitcom? Besides, there were loads of Israelis. Seasoned travellers know that the more of them there are in a place, the worse it gets.

The thing to do when you come here is hire an inner tube and float down the river on it. I would have done so if anyone else in my group was up for it, but didn’t fancy going alone. We were due to stay two nights here and only one in Vientiane. If time was not so precious, I may have stayed; but the capital looked so much more interesting than “Vang Vegas” (as it’s known) that Claire, Gwen and I decided to get a bus and go down there a day early. It was an uncomfortable four hours in a cramped minibus but worth it.

Vientiane

I shaved off my beard (I hadn’t shaved since Australia and my face was getting itchy). It was a bit of a struggle, but I got there! Then we went for dinner overlooking the Mekong.

I did like Vientiane. As capital cites go, it’s pretty laid back, though definitely the centre of something. There is a lot of evidence of NGO money and you see 4x4s and English language advertising. You can see some of the French influence in street layouts and in some buildings.

My Auntie Rita, in New Zealand, who is very cool has also been to Vientiane. She was here in 1970 when it was very difficult to cross the border and used to watch the US bombers go back and forth from sorties.

The next day, I visited Wat Si Saket. Even though I’ve seen a few wats now, I was impressed! They had lots of holes in the wall with tiny Buddha statues in.

At another wat, I bought a booklet explaining all the asanas (poses) in which the Buddha appears. There are loads! The most common are the “meditating” and “subduing Mara” poses. But some sound completely made up: “accepting offerings from an elephant and a monkey” !!!???

After meeting up with the rest of the group, I went to Pha That Luang. This is the most important site in the country and is quite stunning to look at. It appears on all Lao bank notes and is likened by the Lonely Planet to a “gilded missile launcher”.

After that, I went to Patuxi. This is Laos’s “Arc de Triomphe”. Supposedly, it was build with money donated by the USA to build an airport and is known as the “Vertical Runway”.

The last sightseeing of the day was to a weird place outside town: Xieng Khuan (misleadingly called the Buddha Park). This was built in 1958 by some eccentric “yogi-priest-shaman”. I liked it a lot! It’s full of giant concrete sculptures. Most are Hindu. There was also this giant pumpkin thing that you had to crawl through a narrow mouth to get into and then go up and down very narrow stairways. It’s supposed to represent heaven, hell and this world. Weird, but good fun!

On my last night, I had a drink with Claire and Pete. Pete is an interesting guy: a bachelor farmer living with three trolley dollies near Gatwick Airport.

The next day, I visited the National Museum: quite interesting, but there was an unmistakable political slant.

Laos is an interesting place politically. For the last 30 years it’s been communist. Before that it was at war and before that, a French colony. Before that it was a Siamese vassal state and before that an empire in its own right but that’s where I’ll stop with the potted history. Now it’s communist in the way Vietnam is: the communist party rules the country but it’s kind-of a market economy.

Notes on Laos

* Locals don’t seem to use milk products but farangs get served “Swiss Milk” (Nestlé Carnation) or Laughing Cow (made in Poland)
* You get excellent French-style bread everywhere you go: a colonial legacy.
* Although inflation has recently been brought under control, bank notes are still very small denomination. Changing 1000 Baht gives you a huge wad of notes. There are no coins in use. Most notes are 5000 Kip (worth about USD0.50). A three-tier currency system is used: Kip for smaller things, Thai Baht for more expensive stuff and USD for more expensive. Dollars can be used directly for most things.
* Everywhere you go in the countryside, there are animals in the road
* Unlike Thailand, you see very few Falang-Lao relationships. Apparently they must be registered with the government.

Back to Thailand

That afternoon, we crossed the “Friendship Bridge” back to Thailand. Straight away, it really did feel that we were in a more advanced country. A chilly night then ensued on the night train with a draught caused by the aircon blowing through the top of the curtains.

Ours was a really good group. We weren’t too many in number and everyone gave each other space while still joining in. Justine is coming to an end of four years on these tours. She’s going to settle permanently in Thailand with her Thai fiancé. It’s quite uncommon for Farang-Thai marriages to have a female Farang and it’s good to see a trend being bucked! I wish them good luck together.

The next day in Bangkok, I didn’t really do much. In the morning, I visited Jim Thomson’s House. He was an eccentric CIA officer and Silk Entrepreneur who disappeared mysteriously. For me it was doubly interesting as there are Jim Thomson theme pubs in London.

We had our last dinner together as a group, and then I departed to watch some Thai boxing. I was especially interested to see this as my friend Lindsay, whom I grew up with, was out here for two years doing this professionally.

---

Photos

Wat Phra Kaeo, Bangkok
Yaksha, demons from the Ramayana, who watch over the Emerald Buddha and ward off evil spirits.

Wat Phra Kaeo, Bangkok
Murals depicting scenes from the Ramayana, an ancient Hindu epic. Most Buddhist temples seem to depict Ramayana scenes somewhere.

Wat Pho, Bangkok
The fantastic Reclining Buddha.

Wat Pho
The fantastic Reclining Buddha.

Wat Pho
These statues were made in China and came to Thailand as ballast from returning rice ships.

Wat
Can't remember where this was. I saw so many. I think it may be Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai.

Wat Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai
On a hilside overlooking Chiang Mai is an amazingly ornate Wat.

Wat Doi Suthep
People walk around the stupa several times to get blessings.

First view of Laos
Looking towards Huay Xai (Laos) accross the Mekong from Chiang Khong.

Ban Nam Sang
Lao village life.

Ban Nam Sang
The meal we were presented with.

Lao money
At the time of visiting USD1 = 1000 kip. Coins are unheard of. The most common note is the 5000 kip.

Friendly novices
At Pak Beng.