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Published: October 12th 2006
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Not another slow boat!!!
The view from a Vang Vieng sun set bar Laos is a very unspoilt country, this means the scenery is not ruined by high rise buildings (though you have to beware of unexploded bombs from the Americans in the 70's), it also means that the transport system is not anything like we have in the UK....for a start there are no trains!! The easiest and cheapest way to get from Luang Prabang to Vientiane (the capital of Laos) is by bus travelling down route 13, it is possible to stop about two thirds of the way down at Vang Vieng to break the journey up.
Previous to our trip we had read that in 2003 attacks had taken place by armed gangs on buses travelling Route 13, these had injured many passengers and people had been killed (including westeners). The government claimed the attacks were due to bandits, whilst others suspected they were actually politically motivated. We were not overly concerned as the attacks happened a while ago and there appears to have been no recent trouble.
We boarded our bus in Luang Prabang bound for Vang Vieng, we had paid $12 for the VIP bus (this meant we had aircon, a toilet, drinking water and lunch) which
Sunset Over the Mekong, Vientiane
As beautiful as the Laos capital gets (the land you can see is Thailand on the other side of the river) was full of Western backpackers. A few minutes before we due to leave a young Lao guy got on and sat down at the seat in front of us, Matt noticed he looked a bit fidgety and as he reached up to put his bag in the overhead section Matt noticed the huge gun stuffed down his trouser waistband and hidden underneath his jacket. Matt whispered to me to tell me what he had seen and headed off to the front of the bus to report it. Matt was pretty calm and ushered the ticket collector off the bus to avoid letting the man know we had spotted him, I felt pretty sick and stood in the seat behind the man before realising it wasn't the most sensible place to be and following Matt off the bus. The ticket collector got off the bus with us and Matt began to tell him what he had seen, he had hardly got the words out when the collector started to laugh and informed us the man was actually a soldier, they are deployed on all buses to protect passengers in case of ambush. Relieved we got back on the bus until it
Ever get the feeling you are being watched
a Wat in Vientienne containing no fewer than 10,000 individual Buddhas hit us that there must still be a slight threat if we need an armed guard to protect us......especially one who later fell asleep laying on a floral cushion covering his gun. The gun actually looked older than the soldier so we weren't even sure it would work!
We were pleased to get off the bus! Not least because the journey took us through some pretty tight bends on mountainous roads. Once in Vang Vieng we found a guest house called Babylon, it was cheap, clean, had a free pool table and cost us $4.50 a night. Babylon was run by an English guy and, whilst it was never confirmed, we think there was something going on between him and the young camp Lao guy also working there as they appeared to share a room with one double bed and frequently emerged dressed in only their pants.
Vang Vieng is an odd place, its popularity appears to have come from its convenience between Luang Prabang (6 hrs away) and Vientiane (4 hrs away). The place is full of guest houses with restaurants all serving the exact same food, some have an extra page in their menu where they
Matt takes the plunge
a 9m high death swing into the Nam Xong river offer happy shakes and pizzas (with magic mushrooms). All the guest houses promote their selection of DVDs outside (American and English sitcoms) and play them at all times of day to customers sitting in silence (we avoided these places!), the place is pretty lacking in character and it's easy to forget you are in Laos.
The main thing Vang Vieng has going for it is tubing, we tried it on Saturday and loved it. You climb into a tractor inner tube and float down the Nam Xong River stopping at bars along the way. Most of the bars have huge swings and jumps enabling you to fly into the water, and of course Matt went on them all. We spent about 4 hrs here and it enabled us to see some gorgeous scenery (as the river winds round huge limestone karsts - we didn't know what they were either but they are huge rocks).
In the evening we went to the sunset bars, they were pretty quiet but had an Ibiza style vibe so would probably be great in high season. Once again we bumped into the gang from the slow boat who had already been in Vang
Carla takes the plunge
the natural blue lagoon at the foot of the caves in Vang Vieng Vieng a few days. As this day was a festival (Bun Awk Phansa) boat races had taken place during the day and in the evening the locals sailed home made boats down the river complete with lit candles and flowers.
On our final day (Sunday) we hired a tuk tuk and headed 6km to Tham Phu Kham cave. The roads are full of potholes which were full of water (as it had been raining), at one point we had to get out and push the tuk tuk out of one of the holes. To get to the actual cave we had to climb up 200m of natural steps made out of rocks, this was really hard. Coming down was even worse and I sat on my bum most of the way down, we were rewarded at the bottom by a bright blue lagoon which we were able to swim in. There were a few swings over the water and when Matt spotted a local girl climbing 10m up a tree to jump in he had to follow her....I declined!
We booked another bus for Monday to get to Vietiane (again down route 13) but this was a much
Taking the tube
only slightly faster than the slow boat less eventful trip!
Vientiane
The rain was pouring pretty much all day on Monday so we arrived to a fairly depressing Vientiane. The streets were filthy in the aftermath of the weekend's boat race festival, it's a shame we hadn't got here a day earlier as it seemed to be a bigger deal here than in Vang Vieng. The city looks slightly better at night as the lack of streetlights hides the unfinished roads and general mess!
On Tuesday we hired bikes and spent the day visiting a few temples and the Lao History Museum. The Museum was really interesting and helped us to understand the French connection as well as the events leading up to the present Communist rule.
In the evening we had pasta at a small restaurant, a welcome break from the noodles and sticky rice that have become our staple diet. On
the way back we were stopped by an Australian tout for a bar called Boh Pag Nyan, we still had an hour before our hotel's curfew (yes really) so headed over. It didn't take us too long to realise that the bar was some sort of unoffical knocking shop, single
Pha That Luang
Vientianes main sight, this was as close as we could get as it was shut men are pounced on by local girls who laugh at their every word before asking them "how much??". Considering there are laws against foreign men and local girls getting too friendly no-one in the bar seemed to care. I was brave enough to leave Matt unattended for a few minutes while I visited the loo! We didn't stay long. The bar does have great views of the sunset so we did return the following day along with Lars (Swedish, from the slow boat) though the bar is a different place in daylight hours.
Vientiane has not been our favourite place though as a country we really have enjoyed Laos. We are due to fly to Hanoi (Vietnam) next (12th October) and at present this is the only airport in Laos to do it from. We have met people that have already been to Hanoi and the pace is said to be way faster than here so we may be in for a shock!
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Della
non-member comment
HEY!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Carla and Matt, As you know me and computers do not really mix! So god knows if you will even get this message! I only wanted to say hi, and that i miss you! I hope you are both taking care of each other. love ya. xxxx