Advertisement
Water Buffalo having a breather
Lao's other expert landmine detectors take a well earned break After suffering a 30 year secret war while the world's eyes were on Vietnam; enduring the most sustained bombing campaign in history (leaving most of the land unusable due to unexploded ordinance); experiencing ongoing skirmishes between Royalist Hmong Rebels and the Pathet Lao Government; and being heavily reliant on foreign aid with no real industry; you'd forgive the Lao people if they occasionally wanted to walk around with a frown on their face. But these are the most outwardly happy and friendly people I've ever met while travelling.
I spent the best part of the last 2 weeks travelling in Lao's Northwest from Luang Prabang, before entering northern Thailand for a few days of partying (so far) in Chiang Mai. By far the experience of the trip so far was the 8 hour slow boat trip from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw along the Nam Ou River. It wasn't the super comfortable wooden benches that 14 of us crammed ourselves and our luggage onto in our 1m x 8m wooden vessel, nor the spectacular limestone mountains looming either side of the river in its upper reaches, but simply the fact that every small village we passed along the way seemed
Boat ride up the Nam Ou River
Yep, thats me, and that same T-shirt. to be populated primarily with kids whose only interest seemed to be swimming in the river and waving and screaming "sabadee" to the falang in the boat.
Lao is in the midst of a sustained population explosion from only 2 million in 1975, to 7 million today, and with the ratio of children to adults seemingly about 10 to 1, things are only looking up! It was an amazing experience to have a swim in the river at sunset in Nong Khiaw while it seemed like the entire town was enjoying bath time, and racing about 50 kids across the river before having to give each one a go at jumping from my shoulders.
Further upstream from Nong Khiaw, and only accessible by boat, Muang Ngoi Neua was my best stop in Lao, the little village boasting many bungalows by the river, restaurants, and, to beat the heat, some nice refreshing WARM beerlao (no electricity). There were heaps of day treks to smaller villages, caves and waterfalls along local paths.
The only reminder that this isn't quite the idyllic life it seems was the sight of teams of people in fields carrying metal detectors, and by the
The 3 best
Beer, mountains and sunsets. The best of Lao. sounds of the 10-15 controlled explosions a day rumbling down the valley, I don't think they were looking for car keys carelessly dropped by sunbathing falang.
So, upon meeting a couple of great fun pommy lads (Phil and Ben, the flower pot men) I decided to curtail my plans to trek amongst the bombs for a few more days, and headed with them toward the border, and northern thailand from Muang Ngoi Neua. This allowed a perfect opportunity to really enjoy the slick public transportation in these parts, which included: standing on the back bumper of a converted 2WD Hilux carrying 20 people for 4 hours to Udomxay; singing along with many way-too-happy Lao ladies on a 15 seat minivan (carrying the standard 32 people) to Luang Nam Tha; and then finishing off with another enjoyable day on the back of a Hilux with 20 others along Lao's section of the Bangkok to Beijing superhighway to the border town of Huay Xay, which was basically a 200km long dusty dirt construction site (with helpful signs every 20km or so saying 'construction area ahead - please enjoy your trip!').
Luang Nam Tha was a fairly boring town made fun
Tour Guides
Helpful tour guides in the caves in Nong Khiaw through copious amounts of alcohol and the hiring of 3 Honda Dream Excess 100CC scooters for the day, and not really all its cracked up to be as the trekking capital of Lao. And Huay Xay, just across the Mekong from Northern Thailand, a mecca for day tripping Thai shoppers, was a sign that you'd better get to Lao soon before the "ripping off falang" bug catches on everywhere.
And so the last few days I've spent in Chiang Mai, Thailands northern capital and cultural heart, where you can get McDonalds and Starbucks if you want, and drink the night away listening to live Thai blues bands (pumping out all the greats, from "Sweet Joan Alabama" to "Hotel Carifornia" .... such a rovery prace!). I wish I could say I'd seen the sights, but I've unfortunately become quite nocturnal while enjoying the last few days of partying with my english mates before heading south to the beaches tomorrow.
So I'll be lazing it up for the next week, but stayed tuned... Next week this Asian extravaganza really heats up as Wazza and Vetty take on China!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.074s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 61; dbt: 0.0491s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb