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Published: December 9th 2012
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After crossing the Thai/Laos border we boarded a boat and spent the day cruising down the awesome Mekong river. Laos contrasts quite sharply with Thailand: it's actually one of the 20 poorest countries in the world, so seeing the local life along the river, where the villages are wooden and straw huts built around subsistence farming and fishing was really interesting. The Lao people are so friendly but much more reserved than the Thais, quite shy, but always smiling!
We stayed overnight at Pakbeng on the side of the river then boarded the boat again for another days cruising. Our time was spent alternating between sitting on the front of the boat in the sunshine and playing cards... we played Texas hold'em, but because we had no chips (or money) we used jigsaw pieces instead, pretty hard core stuff....of course, Alex won.
Finally we arrived at Luang Prabang, which is the only town or city apart from Venice, where the whole town has been made a world heritage site. It's a beautiful place, with a really peaceful and friendly feel. That afternoon we went on a bike ride to visit the Wat Xieng Thong temple, after which
we stopped by a small market stall to try a Laos speciality: cobra whisky, literally, whisky infused with cobra. I'd love to tell you it was delicious but it tastes RANK. So after just the one rather large shot, we got back on our bikes and wobbled home. That evening we went to a restaurant where you cook your own barbecue at the table which was a lot of fun, and had Alex beating his chest and shouting MEAT MEAT MEAT at the top of his voice (hooligan).
The next day we got up early at sunrise to join the daily tradition of giving alms to the monks. Every day hundreds of monks from the temple walk into the town and the local people (and us tourists) give them sticky rice to take back for breakfast. This gives good karma to the givers and is in keeping with the monks simple way of life. It was a very special experience. Alex initially had a lot of questions about going to feed the monks, like 'what if they all swoop on me' and 'will they eat it out of my hand' and 'what if one lands on my head', until
I explained that this was quite different to feeding birds, and in fact we would just kneel respectfully and put the rice in their bowls. That didn't stop him softly singing 'feed the monks, tuppence a bag' unfortunately.
Next on the agenda that day was the most amazing experience of riding an elephant. Our elephant was called WunSu, he was 55 years old and by far the biggest elephant there. Being that close to him was amazing, they are so intelligent and very very strong. Sitting on the neck of WunSu you could feel every muscle working and the incredible texture of his 2cm thick skin! Our mahout, or elephant guide, kept telling us that WunSu was a lady boy. Having just been in Thailand we were pretty confused as to how that could be, and were pretty certain we'd seen about a metre's worth of evidence to the contrary, until we realised they meant he was a ladies man, which is quite different! We also visited the beautiful Kuang Si waterfalls that afternoon, and got to swim in the green mineral pools which was so refreshing after the heat. Alex did his best Tarzan impression jumping into
the pools off the rope swing whilst I chilled out in the water, kicking every now and then to avoid the little fish that try to suck your toes!
That evening we visited the night market which was a relaxed yet busy atmosphere, and sampled some local street food including giyozas which are little dumplings with pork or vegetables in the middle-yum yum! We next travelled to Vang Vieg which is a bit of a funny place... Rather than retaining the typical Lao charm of other places we'd visited, this town is a backpacker haven that sprang up around the tubing industry created on the Nam Song river. Unfortunately the combination of river currents, rubber rings, and drinking meant that a lot of people had actually died in the river, and the many bars that lined the river banks have now been removed due to significant international pressure to make this a safer place.
Rather than tubing we did kayaking and caving which was a lot of fun. I provided the muscle power paddling the kayak whilst Alex took in the views. I'm not sure the caving bit would have met any health and safety standards... It
consisted of wading neck deep in water, slipping on rocks in flip flops, sliding down mud chutes on our bums and dodging giant cave spiders, but it was fun if a little crazy!
Next stop was the capital of Laos, Vientiane, and here we visited some key monuments such as the victory arch and that luang, where we released tiny birds from a cage to bring us good karma. But the highlight was visiting the COPE centre which is an NGO that provides prosthetic limbs, particularly to people who have been injured by unexploded cluster bombs dropped by the Americans in the secret war in Laos. Laos became a target due to its proximity to vietnam and use by the north Vietnamese as a passageway to south Vietnam. It is the most heavily bombed country in the world per capita, and over 270 million 'bombies' (small grenade-type bombs) were dropped between 1964 and 1973, about 30% of which failed to explode and remain a problem today. Over 20,000 people have been killed or injured by these bombs in the post war years, of which 40% are children. It was very inspiring to see the work that this charity does
to help people regain confidence and mobility. Many of us made a donation but particularly touching was a guy in our group called Josh who had hurt his leg in a motorbike accident and was on crutches. He gave his crutches to a young boy he met at the centre who had a permanently damaged foot, because he felt it would make such a big difference to him to have good crutches for the rest of his life. Very inspiring stuff and an amazing way to finish an awesome time in lovely Laos.
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