Luang Prabang - Phonsavan - Krabi - Ko Lanta - Bangkok - Tokyo (Kyoto) - Home

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Well being back home is certainly nice, but even with all the extra time it is difficult to find motivation to finish this up. Since I am back home, this will be the last post to wrap up the last few weeks of my trip. Picking up where I left off over a month ago...

My last entry left of with me leaving Luang Prabang after a week there. My next destination was Phonsavan, an 8 hour bus ride southeast through the mountains. The bus was not uncomfortable and we drove over and around some very beautiful mountains on a very winding road with a lunch break at a little village at one of the crossroads. About an hour out of Phonsavan we came down from the mountains and into rolling hills covered with reddish dirt and scrubland. It felt like I had left the tropics and was transported into the American west. The town of Phonsavan itself doesn't have anything going for it, but a few kilometers away is the Plain of Jars, an ancient site with hundreds of huge stone jars, whose origins are still a mystery. Phonsavan is also in one of the most heavily bombed parts of Laos, the most bombed country in history (The "Secret War" during the Vietnam War, an aerial campaign against the communist Pathet Lao).

Since Phonsavan is up in the highlands, the weather is much colder (although still quite warm compared to many places back home) and it was windy, which combined for a very chilly tuktuk ride across town to the hotel strip the evening I arrived. It was chilly and a bit windy the entire time I was there and unfortunately I had nothing warmer than a shirt so I ended up wearing most of my clothes layered up. On my second day I rented a motorbike and spent the day driving around the countryside, visiting various sites and villages, with a couple travelers I had met. We went to the main site of the Plain of Jars, which was interesting, but not as impressive as I had imagined. There is a stretch of land about 100 yards long covered with these huge stone jars, some up to a few meters in height and diameter. Interesting, yes, but not overwhelmingly amazing. From there we went to a town about 20 km farther down the road with a couple of ancient temple sites. On the way back we saw some kind of lunch/party in someone's yard on the side of the road and when we slowed down to check it out, a bunch of the people invited us in, so we stopped there. It was kind of awkward at first, since everyone there were locals from the community, but they were all very friendly and welcoming. They brought us food and beerlao (although since we were planning on driving around for several more hours we couldn't join them for too much beerlao). The food was simple and good - noodles, fish soup, vegetables and sticky rice. One of the men who spoke english sat with us and told us that it was a celebration for one of the villagers since his son had come back from the hospital and was healthy after an accident. After talking a bit with the guy and meeting the family (who was very thankful that we could celebrate with them), we thanked them and took our leave. We went back through town and headed north towards the "bomb village," where supposedly they use pieces of unexploded bombs from the war in their architecture. The village was a bit far and we had passed it without even knowing it. By the time we turned around and got to it, it was not too exciting. There wasn't much that we saw from the road and I don't think any of us felt comfortable going onto the properties to try and search out the unique buildings. There was a waterfall nearby (although farther than we though), so we took our bikes as far as we though we could down a dirt road (we could have taken them much farther though). There were about 6 young boys, probably no older than 11 or 12 who accompanied us down to the falls. They were joking and horsing around the entire time, running ahead and hiding in the bushes to jump out and scare us. The waterfall was nice and the boys were climbing around in it. When we returned to the bikes and mine wouldn't start, they started pushing my bike (and the others) along the road and up the hill until I got it kickstarted and even then they kept pushing. It was pretty funny. We all had a good time. By the time we were back on the road it was dark so we went directly back to town for the night.

The next day I didn't really do much of anything. My bus to Vientiene wasn't until that evening, so I spent some time wandering around part of the town, but again there wasn't much to see. There is a morning market and a couple info centers about UXO (unexploded ordinace from the bombings), but thats pretty much it. I should have taken the morning bus and spent the night in Vientiene. The bus ride was not especially comfortable and frequently stopped because of breakdowns or for other reasons I wasn't clear on. I hardly got any sleep. We arrived in Vientiane sometime in the morning and I dropped off my bags at a hostel were one of my companions from Phonsavan was staying. I booked a bed on the train to Bangkok and spent the morning and afternoon wandering around the city center. Vientiane doesn't have many sights, but it is fairly quiet (compared to other SE Asian cities at least), and what it sights it does have are nice. There are a few old temples, some markets and the Mekong river.

The train was just as comfortable as it was when I went to Chiang Mai a few weeks earlier. Combined with the fact that I hardly slept the night before, I was asleep very quickly. The train arrived in Bangkok early in the morning, but I again was planning on taking an overnight train to Suratthani in the south, so I bought a ticket, dropped my bags at the baggage storage and spent the day wandering around the city. One of my goals was to seek out a tailor shop and see if it was possible to get a cheap winter coat made. Unfortunately the Thai's (and Indians, who run many shops) aren't as cheap as I was expecting, the cheapest option being several times what I was willing to pay (even at the places where I am certain the quality is suspect) and seemingly unable to understand that materials other than cashmere exist for coats. I would definitely recommend having clothes made in Vietnam instead. Since I had nothing else to do but kill time, the day wasn't entirely a waste, even if I was a bit disappointed.

I arrived in Suratthani the next morning, where I had to transfer to a bus (bypassing the tourist bus for a local one at a third the price) that took me to Krabi in about 3 hours. Krabi is mostly a gateway to the beaches and islands. The town itself isn't too bad though. I spent the night there and took a minibus to Ko Lanta the next morning. I stayed for 4 nights in a little bamboo bungalow in a little resort on the beach. Ko Lanta has a small town at the north tip of the island and a main road that goes all the way down the west coast. There are beaches all down the west coast, with mangrove forests on the eastern side. I rented a motorbike for the 4 days I was there and spent most of my time hanging out by the bungalow on the beach or going to the other beaches. The weather was great and warm the entire time, the beaches quiet, beautiful and sandy, the water warm. It was a great place to relax. I was there over Christmas and I celebrated with a couple of the other guests by buying some fish (a couple tuna and a barracuda) and grilling them on the beach.

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