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Published: June 22nd 2009
Sabadee from Laos!
We have now come to the end of our time in Laos and boy has it been action packed! We managed to stick to our 2 week deadline which meant lots of traveling and short stays in each place, having said that we really enjoyed our time there and feel we got to see lots....so lets get you up to date with our adventure!
After leaving Vietnam we had to cross the Laos border, which once again involved a dispute over Visa costs! This time they were not trying to rip us off but the actual price had risen because of the current state of the economy...this wouldn't have been such a problem if we actually had enough money on us! Yet again our 'in case of emergency' Euros saved the day!
When we finally got through we were expecting to see our bus waiting on the other side to take us to our next destination (Savannakhet) some 5 hours away, but it was nowhere in sight! There was just us two and two other westerners with no idea of where to go to catch the bus or if there was even a bus at all! We
Boy with Duckling
Yes thats a duck in the bag!!didn't have any other choice but to just keep on walking.... Backpacks on..scorching heat...we walked...and walked...about 30 minutes later we came to a bus stop, just randomly, where we recognised the ticket lady from before who casually greeted us as if we should have known about the walk! We were completely taken by surprise as during our walk we were all so sure we had been ripped off and there would be no bus, we were cursing them all the way thinking what a lovely welcome to Laos it was! So we sat waiting for our bus to be loaded.....with trays upon trays of ducklings, Garlic, chili's and the odd cockerel or two we finally got to board the farmyard bus one by one....two by two!
Savannakhet was like a ghost town with nothing to do, only a hub to move on to your chosen destination.... the only thing we did worthy of a mention is our three course meal! Yes that's right we splashed out as we hadn't really eaten over the last couple of days whilst being on the road. We ate in a lovely French place where we felt totally out of place! whilst we tucked into
Rice paddies
On our long bike journey! our lovely food and took every opportunity to visit the bathroom and use the toilet roll and oh so nice smelling handwash! All this for 5 pounds per person!
Next we decided to go to the four thousand islands which is situated in the south of Laos, and a bit out of our way but we decided it would be worth it, so we managed to get a bus without too many problems to a place called Pakse which was about half way there, we then got a tuk tuk to drop us at the bus station.....this is where our adventure really started as we were actually dropped off at a songthew station (open back trucks with benches down either side, which are used by locals as a shared taxi scheme). Here it became apparent how few people spoke English and we spend the next 20 minutes or so trying use sign language to explain where we wanted to go, whilst the packed truck waited patiently ....eventually I was given a mobile phone where I spoke to a Lao who could speak broken English, very unsure as one minute we were told it was going the right way the
Cope
The sculptures are made from scrap metal from bombs that were found. next it was not, we got on as we didn't want to spend the night in Pakse and it was starting to get dark... hours passed on the bumpy roads with not a word of English or any road signs to a lay our fears we were starting to wonder if we had made a blunder! Eventually we stopped on a dusty main road and ushered onto the back of motor bikes who drove us down a pot holed back street which appeared to lead to nowhere, our bike lights didn't work so the drivers had improvised and wore head torches instead! To our surprise we were dropped at a ferry dock and everything was fine....until we reached the other side and realised there was no accommodation for a further 4 miles and not a sign of a taxi or tuk tuk...or person for that matter! So off we walked and booked into the first guesthouse we saw not really knowing if we were on the right island at all, completely shattered!
In the morning when we woke up we realised that we had not only made it to the 4 thousand islands but we were exactly where we wanted
Buddha park
So many buddha's in one park! to be! Amazing!
Dong Kong (one of the islands) was so quiet it was unbelievable, it was like we were the only ones there. We decided to hire bicycles for the day and explore...soon finding out there was an amazing waterfall to see we set off in search of it being told it was 15 k away. We first went over on a ferry then began the long bike ride on our children sized bicycles (not so great for someone of my size!)....the scenery was beautiful, passing rice paddies and water buffalo. Along the way we had to stop at the only ATM on the island, which turned out to be a bank with no ATM, we could have got money out if only we had our passports with us! So yet again we had barely any money, and what we did have we needed for the ferry back...so it was a long, hot ride without any money for refreshments. Turns out that the 15k was actually 25k, so by the time we reached the waterfalls we were both exhausted and couldn't face the thought of going back! Also I forgot to mention in the last blog that I managed
Noodle soup
This is what they call breakfast! to burn my leg on a parked moped's exhaust whilst walking past and by now this burn had blistered beautifully, the liquid held inside was literally boiling with the midday sun! So with all this in mind we decided to hatch a plan as there was no way we could bike all the way back.....our first port of call was a parked tractor so we set about locating the owners who through a bit of sign language (begging symbol) we managed to convince them to let us in the wooden cattle cart at the rear, this got us about 10k, due to the language barrier the owners kicked us out thinking we were going a different way (which we were not) so seeing an opportunity for a bit more free riding we quickly cycled as fast as we could and caught up with the tractor once again, but this time we simply held on the cart and relaxed as it dragged us another 3k before turning off forcing us to cycle on...but not for too long as we yet again saw another tractor, this time full with locals on their way to the farm! So we used all of our
Chilling at the temple
They were so colourful! energy in order to catch up with it and again held on! We didn't get very far on this one as it quickly turned off, not fancying a day on the farm we struggled on for a little while before getting on the back of a songthew with our bikes being put on the roof...unfortunately as soon as we got on, it turned off in the wrong direction which meant we had to get off frustrating the driver so much that when he threw our bikes off the roof ensuring that he took the chains off too!
Very helpful we thought! So chains back on, covered in oil we got back on the right road just in time to find a helpful local.....with a motorbike! Yes you can guess the rest, one either side we clung on for dear life as he pulled us along!
So we made it pretty much back to the ferry without to much effort and along the way gave all the locals who saw us something to laugh about! Lazy Falangs (foreigners)
Not to end it there. The ferry journey itself was somewhat eventful! To cut a long story short the driver of the boat
Monks procession
So many Monks! So little rice! decided to try and rip us off (double the price), great plan by him except we had no money apart from the exact fare, with this we got on and off the boat, Ami even resorted to crocodile tears...but still the price kept rising! Eventually we agreed to his price stating we would have to go to our guest house to get the rest when we reached the other side. He held our bikes at ransom until the rest was paid.....we looked at each other and realised there was little he could do, so took our bikes (a little pulling involved and Ami striking her best Yarko face) we threw the only money we had on the floor at his feet, when he refused to take it as it was not his inflated price! Looking back a Very funny day which was once again saved by those emergency Euros enabling us to eat, drink (we had a lot of catching up to do!) and book our next bus Journey.
After a day and night bus ride we arrived in Vientiane (the capital), where we stayed for a couple of nights and visited Buddha park - very random! We also
Boat trip
What a view! spent the day at an organisation called COPE. We learnt that Laos is the most heavily bombed place in the world, as during the American war, the Vietnamese used the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos to get supplies into the country therefore the Americans completely bombed that area even though Laos was completely neutral. Even today 800 people a year are killed or injured through unexploded bombs and COPE are trying to educate people into the dangers whilst helping those who have lost limbs. Scrap metal is a valuable source of income, therefore people risk their lives everyday in order to survive by collecting the metal and selling it on for cash, this includes small children. It was once again an eye opening experience for us both to realise that wars are never really over...
Next stop was Vang Viang where we went tubing! This involved floating down the Mekong on a giant tractor innertube, passing spectacular scenery...unfortunately the locals have cashed in on this and its now a bit of a down the river bar crawl (Ibiza style) and as we have seen it can get quite messy! Our camera decided to break on us so no photos of this one!
Louang Phabang was next and one of our favorite places in Laos, it had a great atmosphere and we spent three nights here. We bought a new camera and got up at 5.30am to take part in the monks procession which was a pretty amazing sight. There was a great night market which was spoilt a bit by the rainy season! And we visited one of the local temples (this place had 25 of them in total!) From here we took a slow boat up the river Nam Ou (8 hours) to a place called Nong Khiaw- we did this purely as we had read that the boat journey alone was worth it. Nong Khiaw is pretty undeveloped which lead to a quite one night stop in simple huts on the river.
We then made our way to the Thailand boarder staying over at two places (Oudomxai & Houayxai) on the way to break up the long journey, neither of which has anything worth writing about.
So Laos..... Firstly it is home to amazing Fruit shakes and on some days we managed to fit 4 in a day! I also found my favorite beer so far, BeerLao (lucky as it was the only choice!). The Lao people are super laid back and very friendly despite what we may have wrote! On some occasions you almost had to wake people up to get any service so it made a change from the constant hassle that you get in elsewhere in south east Asia.
We loved it here and would definitely recommend that people visit the country and see for themselves.
So as you already know we are now back in Thailand where we will be for the next two weeks.
We are missing everyone lots and hope all is well back home, look forward to reading your comments....so do your best to make some!
Love Ruth and Ami xxxxx
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Monique
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Stumbled across your blog..I'm heading to Laos solo at the end of the year. I have 5 weeks so will travel from Thailand first then Laos and possibly on to Cambodia and Vietnam...It is great to hear your account of Laos.. It has grown my excitement! Safe Travels :) Monique