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Published: December 22nd 2010
We crossed the border into Laos at Chiang Khong. Visas are available on the border for about 35 dollars. The process is a bit chaotic but somehow seems to be reasonably effective. You fill in 2 almost identical forms and then hand over your passport, the forms and money to some random guy who passes the information on to be processed. About 15 minutes later, the visa is ready. We were very indecisive about where we wanted to go in Laos but eventually made up our minds to take the slow boat down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. The slow boat takes 2 days and you stay over night in a small village along the way. They like to pack as many people onto the boats as possible so we ended up on some pretty uncomfortable seats at the back. Luckily we had picked up a couple of cheap cushions before setting sail which helped to avoid getting a serious case of numb bum on the two day trip. We really enjoyed the journey, the scenery along the way is stunning, and it is amazing to see a country that is so sparsely populated after India and Thailand. Both days
passed surprisingly quickly and were filled by reading, listening to music, chatting to fellow travellers, playing cards and admiring the views.
We arrived into Luang Prabang around 5pm on the second day and began our search for a guesthouse. Usually, this search passes without much drama, but on this occasion I was tired, hungry and in an increasingly bad mood. Dima is quite afraid of the rage that comes over me when I get hungry, so I could see the panic in his eyes as we struggled to find affordable accommodation. Luang Prabang has a lot of very expensive hotels with some rooms starting at £100 a night. Eventually we found a cheap place which was clean and only ended up costing us £3 a night. My mood quickly improved when I discovered that most places served wine. So far in Asia, wine has been very hard to come by and I have really missed it. A glass of wine or two later I was feeling much better and we explored the town along with the famous night market. One of the first things you notice about Laos is how laid back everyone is compared with Thailand. You can
stroll through the market without anyone saying a word to you or trying to get you to look at their shop. It is very refreshing.
We have become addicted to the fruit shakes that they have in South East Asia so were very pleased to find stalls selling them everywhere. There are also plenty of stalls selling fresh baguettes with pretty much any filling you like. Laos used to be a French colony so they know how to make good bread. Our favourite filling listed at one of the stalls was ‘fenobutter, yam and nutella.’ We were pleased to discover that this was actually peanut butter, jam and nutella and it was absolutely delicious for breakfast.
The word for hello in Laos is now one of our favourite words….Sabadee!! It is impossible to say it without smiling and sounding really happy. As it is one of only two words we know, we use it all the time and often find ourselves walking along the road saying it over and over again just because it feels good!
Our time in Laos felt like some sort of watery quest, as we sought out rivers, waterfalls and lagoons to swim
in. Our quest was a great success and we found some beautiful places with stunning turquoise blue water. The waterfalls in Luang Prabang were probably my favourite. I’m sure Dima would say that Tubing in Vang Vieng was his favourite because he got to jump off platforms and zip wires into the river whilst under the influence of alcohol!
Vang Vieng was great because we met up with the guys we met in Goa, Chris, Mark and Scott. We knew they were in the area but we hadn’t planned to meet anywhere. It turned out we didn’t need to, because we bumped into them walking along the street! It is amazing how often that sort of thing happens when you are travelling. Vang Vieng is a lovely little place and the infamous tubing has made it into a party town. We persuaded the Goa crew to stay another day and we all went tubing together. I was too much of a wimp to try any of the jumps but Dima was in his element.
From Vang Vieng we travelled to the capital of Laos, Vientiane. There isn’t a great deal to do and it is very small for
a capital city but we needed to get our visas done for Vietnam so we had a couple of days to kill. As with everywhere else in Laos Vientiane is very laid back and the people are really friendly. One night though, we ended up in what must have been some sort of brothel! Laos isn’t as obvious as Thailand when it comes to its sex scene, but we managed to stumble upon one of the few dodgy places. Dima wanted to watch the football and they were showing it so we went in. Inside it was pitch black and stank like pubs used to before the smoking ban in the UK. They were playing The Doors really loud which only added to the slightly odd atmosphere. At first it seemed ok but as the night went on it filled up with some sketchy looking characters, mainly sleazy old white men with young local women. There were also several ladyboys hanging around. For about 5 minutes it was fascinating to watch but it quickly became far too seedy and we made a swift exit.
We quickly exhausted the main sights and it was recommended to us that we visit
a place called the COPE centre. COPE is an organisation which supports the victims of bombs that remained in Laos following the Vietnam War, providing help such as artificial limbs and rehabilitation. The centre houses a small exhibition explaining the work that they do and the history behind the reason they are an essential organisation. We were shocked to learn that Laos is the most bombed country in history. During the Vietnam War, the United States dropped 2.4 million tonnes of bombs on Laos over a nine year campaign, that’s more bombs than the allies dropped on Germany and Japan combined in World War II. Many of the bombs remain unexploded in the Laos countryside and at least 25,000 people have been killed or injured by these bombs in the years following the end of the war. It was so sad to read all the stories and we both felt quite ignorant that we had no idea about any of this. The COPE centre is definitely worth a visit and I was really glad we went.
The next day we had a sleeper bus booked to take us all the way to Hanoi in Vietnam which takes a whole
24 hours. Neither of us were looking forward to the journey, it was never going to be fun, but we had no idea just how bad it was going to be. We arrived at the bus station and found our ‘VIP’ bus, which was anything but ‘VIP’. We got on and it was pretty busy so we looked around for two seats together. No such luck, in fact there weren’t even two seats available on the whole bus. We spoke to the bus crew to find out what was going on and they told us that there was only one seat left and that one of us would have to sleep on the floor. Dima was not impressed and told them that they would have to find us another seat because we had paid good money and would not be sleeping on the floor for 24 hours. This argument went on for at least 20 minutes with both me and Dima getting more and more frustrated. The problem we faced is that people from Laos don’t like confrontation so they were just laughing and making light of the situation which only made matters worse! Eventually, one of the local guys
at the front of the bus moved onto the floor so we had our two seats. So, Dima was at the back of the bus with all the other tourists and I was at the front with the locals who must have hated us for making such a scene. Dima ended up sleeping next to a fat, flatulent French man in a space smaller than a double bed. Space was limited so I think they ended up spooning for most of the night. Dima told me that at one point he woke up and the French guys face was right next to his…cosy!! Meanwhile at the front of the bus I was surrounded by locals who were watching a terrible film which was badly dubbed with the same female voice for every character and was on maximum volume. To make matters worse the air conditioning was freezing cold and I felt like I was trapped in the middle of some sort of snoring competition. I was not amused and needless to say got very little sleep. I’m not sure which of us had it worse! There were many more annoying situations along the way which I won’t go into, don’t
even get me started on the ridiculousness of the border crossing! We were never happier to arrive at a place than when we got to Hanoi.
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Liz
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Flashbacks to a bad bad trip
Hi guys, Great blog!! You are so much more adventurous than we were- I was so afraid of all the market food that I hardly ate any. I can so relate to the dodgy bus journies and funny travelling companions. Arriving in Hanoi makes it all worth while though, I LOVED it there. IF you're still in Vietnam you should look up Fannies (ha ha I know) but they do amazing ice cream sundays. Hope you're still having fun, we can't wait to see you in Sydney. Liz xx