Sabadi from quiet and peaceful Lao

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Time to leave Vietnam! After the hectic and sometimes stressful time we had, we don't think it is too soon either. We therefore board an early morning bus from Hue to cross the border at Lao Bao - the easiest border crossing from Vietnam to Laos. We have heard many horror stories regarding land crossing between those two countries but this one goes without a glitch. Sure, the bus is old, not AC-ed and a little dear but the sight of the conductor seating in a plastic garden chair carefully balanced in the bus corridor alongside the driver makes up for this inconvenience - precarious but funny.

Arriving to Lao Bao border, and after much confusion regarding the cost of of a 30-day Laos visa, the immigration officer produces a price sheet that appears "official" and shows prices changing according to nationality. 30 day for British M is $42 and for myself, french citizen $38. Something to do with Laos french colonial past? Unfortunately, we do not have enough cash in dollar to pay the full amount so the very obliging immigration officer calculate a mix of dollars and Thai baht and we pay that amount!

On the other side of the border, we drive an extra hour and stop at a road-side restaurant for a break. We Prepare for the usual hawker onslaught after so long spent in Vietnam and Cambodia, but we are mightily surprised by the complete absence of hassle! We had read that Laos was bliss on that front and that it is such a pleasant change after crossing the Vietnam border and it sure is the case! In Laos, the main religion is a specific school of Buddhism called Theravada Buddhism meaning the Teaching of the Elders. A key element of it is levelled emotions and as a result, obvious signs of strong emotions whether being anger, too much affectionate displays, etc.. are frowned upon and seen as signs of spiritual weakness. As a result, people are reserved, respectful and level-headed. Perhaps it partially explains why Laos is such a peaceful and relaxing place to be with no hassle whatsoever. Needless to say, it means that I have to keep tight control of my hand mannerism as they normally seems to take a life of their own when I speak and it could be seen badly...

Back to our first meal in Laos in this roadside restaurant and we notice many glass jars alongside the usual soft drinks; they appears to be containing all king of infusion of small animals: bats and geckos being the most recognisable. We are relieved that our friend Keith from Ko Lanta does not live in this cruel country... Arriving in Savannakhet, the nearest Lao town from Vietnam, the heat is almost unbearable, even at 5pm. About 42°C with bright sunshine, not a breeze of air. Very hot and staying this way well through the night... Despite a population of about 720,000 inhabitants, everything seems so quiet and peaceful here! Such a contrast again after Vietnam. We find a hostel; comfy and airy room, poor bed with a large towels as sheet and A/C! Not the cleanliest but hey, I don't think we can complain too much at $8 a night.. In the evening, we have our first Lao Beer at a young teenager bar with loud music and 10+ teens sitting around tables with one bottle of beer to share, you see the type.. Quite nice though and certainly not rowdy at all. Lao Beer is very much the pride of the nation and is seen at a cultural symbol of the country. It is cheap and fairly nice so we indulge in a large bottle each. Many more will follow over the next two weeks..

The next full day we spend visiting the town between times recovering from the heat in our A/C hostel room. Pleasant wat (temple) with welcoming smiley monks and small food stalls along the river. We find an Internet cafe and M ask the staff something in her best "tourist english" only to be replied to in perfect English - the guy went to uni in Las Vegas! In the evening, we board a night bus, destination Vientiane, the capital city. Our expectations are really not that high considering the quality of buses we have used in Asia so far. Great surprise! The bus is really 5 stars and certainly the best we had so far in our travel. It even beats Argentina and Chile: fully reclinable seats, service on-board, smooth driving, toilets and everybody is quiet all night. We manage to take a 5-hour uninterrupted sleep on the way! Unheard of!

Same lack of hassle when we arrive at Vientiane north bus terminal at 4am. A collective tuk-tuk is waiting at the bus stop to take people to the town centre 12 km away and yes, the driver's wife tries it on a little by asking us 10,000 Kip (about $ 1.2) for the journey but quickly accept the normal rate at 5,000 Kip that the locals are paying! We found ourselves in no time at Khopchaideu square in Vientiane city centre, it is however 5am... Finding an hotel ends up a bit of a trek but fortunately we find a fair amount of cafes with fantastic pastries to break the search and eventually settle on the Riverside hotel. Well, we only end up spending the one night there to quickly upgrade to a more homely all-wood floor Lodge the following day.

Vientiane is great - although a capital city, it is a small town on the Mekong River with Thailand on the other bank. The food here is top notch! Whether be cafés, restaurants or roadside stalls, it is a treat. The French influence is definitely still very much there and we eat some of the best croissants outside France. The coffee, beans from Laos and brewed à la Française, is fantastic too. We treat ourselves to a French restaurant, Provencal cooking and it is delicious, the place being obviously French-owned. As for Laos food, we have a fantastic seafood soup on the waterfront served in a clay pot with a burner underneath keeping it warm. The obligatory dish coming with every meal is sticky rice served in a small basket and eaten with fingers. Another interesting culinary fact is that numerous stalls in Laos sell sandwiches in baguettes, a snack which is widely eaten by locals and tourists alike. May be another hangover from Laos colonial past?

Staying with the French influence, numerous buildings as well as most streets layout shows this influence and sometimes, it feels like you are walking down a Paris suburb avenue, feeling strengthened by all street names which are in French. Vientiane even has its own "Arc de Triomphe", called "Patuxay". It is dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France and although bearing a general resemblance to the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris, it is typically Laotian, decorated with many kinnari figures. Another important Vientiane building that we visit is the Pha That Luang, the golden Stupa, which is as much a symbol of national pride as Lao beer is (although less refreshing).

The countryside is really close to Vientiane so escaping "the city" is pretty easy. On one day, we hire bikes and take a stroll sightseeing the city then onto the countryside outskirt. Another day, we decide to visit a national park which turns out to be a little more difficult - most people go overnight but we try to do it all in one day: after 4 hours trip, we arrive to Ban-na, local village where we hire a guide. The main attraction here are the wild elephants that live around the village. we are soon off to the elephant tower for lunch. Lunch is cooked by a local and gives us another taste of local food. We find it again exquisite although we share it with 2 very moody Australian people who seem to be hating everyone and are certainly not touching the sticky rice as it has been hand-touched by others. Sad. Even sadder for the fact that the local guides are worried they have offended them! They decide to leave to go back to the village before taking the afternoon walk with their guide. Good riddance! The walk obviously does not turn up any elephant and it is a real scorcher. We still enjoy being outside and the company of our 2 guides who are playful and take on a mission of teaching us Lao. No luck there...

After 5 days spent recharging our batteries and eating well in Vientane, it is time to move on and we board a rather old bus destination Vang Vieng for a bit of tubing. VV is two-sided: on the one-hand is a fantastic location surrounded by majestic kartz mountains and on a mountain river bank. On the other hand is a terrible strip of bars attempting to appeal to the backpacker community and playing non-stop uninterrupted episodes of Friends. We avoid the strip as much as we can and settle in a lovely chalet by the river at Riverside resort for KIP 65,000 ($7) a night. We meet there our neighbours from Lake Taho, Barry and Kelly with whom we get to spend sometime over the next few days. The main attraction here is tubing - apparently the most famous place in Asia to give into such an activity. Simple concept really: tuk-tuk drops you off 4 Km upstream from VV with an inner-tube, you launch yourself on it and float back to town. The riverbanks are full of bars where you stop, getting pulled over by ropes operated by bar staff, for ALL kinds of refreshment. Initially, we really dread doing it as we envisage hordes of young backpackers pissed off their heads and half-naked going down the river. (Casualties from drowning are unfortunately very frequent and the last one is 2 weeks before we arrive). We are not wrong, that is what we get but it is still tremendous fun. Each bar offers one or many swing ropes and zip lines dropping you in the water as well as a sunny terrace. It is a shame about 45% of people do not finish the trip because they are either too pissed or run out of time as the whole journey downriver is great great fun. Even more as it is a bank holiday when we do it and therefore, the more down-river bars are filled with locals enjoying a beer in the river and giving a real buzz to the whole thing. Eventually, about half the journey down, we see Barry and Kelly floating towards our bar and we have a few drinks together before finishing in VV town just in the nick of time to hand our inner-tubes over to the rental company without incurring the dreaded late return KIP 20,000 fine. A good afternoon indeed! On a more conventional side, the last day in VV, we visit one of the many local limestone caves found in the area. Large inside rooms and a gorgeous mineral outside pool where to bath complete it. Bliss!

We start the next day with a bit of a stress as it transpires the hotel has basically forgotten to book us on the bus to Luang Prabang (as agreed and paid for). So we end up being issued tickets for the 9am bus at 9.30am! Nonetheless, we are whisked by tuk-tuk to the bus station and are strangely accepted on the 10.30am VIP service to LP. Don't conjure pictures of luxury and opulence, the VIP name is used very generously here and in fact, we have a local bus, no A/C, clearly a family business with the son doing the driving, the mum collecting the money and the younger son hanging about in spare seats. It seems more like a family day out rather than a passenger bus service really as we detour and stop several times for the mum to run her errands, buying tomatoes here, lychees there; boarding a friend for a chat on the way. The 6.5 hours also provide plenty of terrifying moments as the road is basically up and down mountains and the driver seems to love the sound of screeching tyres as he takes turns faster and faster as well as deciding to race a couple of clearly superior buses for long periods of time and attempt overtaking with no visibility (who needs it?) several times. I greatly sympathise with Michelle Yeoh and her effort to make roads safe when I see her a few days later on a BBC world program: as the bus speeds off through highland villages, children playing on the road have barely time to move out of the way and we wonder how there aren't more accidents. Well, looks like there are plenty.. The driving proves to be too much for an old local tribe woman who stays on the bus only 2 hours but manage to fill with sick about 6 plastic bags that she casually chucks out of the window when there are full. Yukk! Apparently, however, it is fairly normal for tribe people to be really sick when they use public transport. This is very rare for them to do so and has something to do with their inner-ear inability to cope. No excuse for chucking it out of the window though..

We finally make it alive to Luang Prabang and we zip to the city centre to check-in a nice guest-house. The room has very much a Swedish sauna feel with wood everywhere but the AC and the quietness as well as the discount we are offered make it a great bargain! Luang Prabang is a very peaceful place, almost sleepy and as an Unesco world heritage, has retained most of its original look. No bright light at night and no 'in your face' shop names make it feel very authentic. The city is also very quiet. The Laotians, as everywhere, are taking life at a quiet pace and there aren't all that many tourist around really.. Our stay there is spent chilling: we sample some more local cuisine, in particular at a side street from the Hmong night market, buy souvenir from say market. One morning, we follow in the footstep of all the visitors to LP and go to Kuang Si waterfalls for a refreshing dip and to swing the rope onto the rock pool. More unusually, we also take the short walk up to above the falls and back down which proves a little tricky since it rained the day before and we are wearing flip-flops.. We enjoy the viewpoint and the exercise though. Leaving the waterfalls, we take a look at the moon bears at the rescue centre. They have been basically rescued from poachers and are called moon bears because of the white moon shape mark they carry on their chest. Cute.

One evening, we venture further afield (well, 10 min walk up the road really) and onto backpacker land. Still a very nice area and we stop for a drink at a cool bar, the waiter whom we get chatting to recommends we try a local dish: Mekong river seaweed with spicy buffalo dry skin. One on my list of things to try. He also tells us that there are only 2 establishments in LP where people are allowed to dance. One of them is the Dao Fa club. We head for a traditional dinner and then onto a tuk-tuk to Dao Fa to see how people let their hair down here. It is quite interesting although the music is absolutely dreadful: bad live band, followed by terrible R&B DJ. The band however performs a song that sends all the dancers performing with their hands only. Kind of hand-synchronise dancing. Strange.. It is relatively quiet as it is a Monday but by 11.30pm, it gets pretty busy and interestingly, it is a very mixed crownd. Mostly Lao people but of all ages. School girls, students, old ladies and business men entertaining their clients are all sharing the room and dancing together. Amazing how music, even crap one, can bring people together. Then again, it is one of only 2 places where people can by law dance... Amusing to notice that it appears to be a "Bring Your Own" venue too.. Although curfew is 11.30pm, by the time we leave at midnight, things are still kicking hard so it seems the curfew restrictions are quite flexible..

On our last day, we get up early at 5.45am to see the main attraction of LP: the monks doing the alms round. LP is the South East Asia capital for Buddhism and there are many temples across the city and therefore, lots of monks requiring food, hence the Alms collection. We nearly miss it despite the early hour but seeing a queue stretching the whole street of monks in bright orange robes receiving rice in their bowl is quite a sight!

Unfortunately, time to go. We chickened out when it came to take the 2-day boat trip to Chiang Mai after reading and getting first-hand horror stories from travellers. So instead, we board Air Asia from the airport.. Back to Thailand.

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Photos

A drink by the Mekong
With Barry and Kelly