A journey along the Mekong

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After an overnight bus journey from Bangkok to Nong Khai, I crossed the Thai Laos Friendship bridge over the Mekong River and into Laos. A short bus ride and I arrived into Vientiane, the capital city. After sleeping for most of the the day I had a look around, there is not much too see apart from the river and a few temples. Life in Laos relative to Thailand is a lot slower, for example there is hardly any traffic on the roads and given that Vientiane is the capital you would expect a little bit at least! So as I was on the roof of my hotel drinking some beers when I met a couple of Candian girls called Jen and Corinna, I ended up travelling with them for the duration of my stay in Laos. The following morning we left for Vang Vien, a traditional backpackers haunt and after blagging our way onto a bus which was an interesting event we finally got on the road. Vang Vien is famous for tubing and pretty mountains, we did and saw both. Tubing is simply floating down a river in a big rubber ring, stopping for beers, swimming and playing with rope swings along the way, great fun. The night before we did that a huge storm hit Vang Vien out of nowhere, I have never seen weather like it, 1 moment it was calm, the next; the roads were like rivers, the electricity blew out and there were continual flashes of lightning, we sat the storm out with 5 other people in a toilet! After the relatively wet conditions in Vang Vien we moved further north to Laos' second city, Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a very nice place and best explored on bicycle, there is a lot to see and experience, some great temples, a museum and exceptional French food. Luang Prabang is the former capital of Laos when the French had control, there is therefore a great deal of French influence in the city in the arhitecture and food for example. We surrendered to another opportunity to go tubing but no beers this time, just floating. There is also a very beautiful waterfall about 1 hour in a tuk tuk outside Luang Prabang, really worth a visit, given that Laos is so hot at the moment, swimming in the cool spring waters of the waterfall was exceptionally refreshing. After Luang Prabang, back to Vientianne then on to 4000 islands in southernmost Laos. Southern Laos is relatievly less developed than the north, travelling was a little bit rougher but still fine. The Mekong enters Laos in the Northwestern tip in the Opium Triangle and then flows through Laos from top to bottom. 4000 Islands is located on the border with Cambodia and is literally 4000 islands in the river. We opted to stay on Don Det and found a very friendly guest house. Activities on Don Det included cycling again, visiting the Tat Somphmit Cascade, the largest in SE Asia and Irawady Dolphin spotting, the rest of the time was spent either escaping the seering heat or reading, a great place to kick back. Laos is a very chilled place, the pace of life is slow which is great, a welcome break from Thailand.

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Photos

Tat Kuang Si Waterfall near Luang Prabang
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Travel Buddy's
From left: Jen, Corinna and Ris at the waterfall

Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang
One of the smaller temples in the complex

Travel Monopoly!
1 million Kip is 55 GBP's!

One of the 4000 islands at 4000 Islands, Southern Laos
The monks are visiting a Shrine on the on an island in the Mekong. This is close to where the Irawaddy Dolphins are to be found, 10 km south of Don Det

Tat Somphmit Cascade
This is the largest cascade in SE Asia and prevents the movement of freight from theand to the ocean along the Mekong

Little frog!
Outside our guest house the morning after the strom, the ground was covered in these tiny frogs!

The mountains from Vang Vien
This was the mornng after the cyclone came through, hence they are still covered in cloud.

Waterfall near Luang Prabang
MIDDLE. Great to swim in, refreshingly cold for 35 degree Laos

Tat Kuang Si Waterfall near Luang Prabang
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