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Published: March 19th 2010
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In the last week or so we have been making our way through Northern Laos, which is far touristier than Southern Laos.. but also more mountainous and beautiful. We had planned on spending some time in Tha Kaeck seeing the caves, but upon arriving John was still feeling sort of sick and it was abominably hot there. We walked about a mile in the heat looking for food that John would eat (hamburgers), and after our search proved fruitless he had to settle on some bland noodle soup. Unfortunately the bland noodle soup turned out to be the infamous “Ant Larvae Soup” which is probably not the first choice after suffering a bout of food sickness, but John was a good little camper and ate most of it without complaining.. too much. After the ant larvaes, we couldn’t get very excited about looking at a bunch of caves, so we jumped on a bus to Vientiane to try and find some better food. It turns out- we went to the right place. Vientiane might not be the funnest or most beautiful capitol in South East Asia, but what it lacks in things to do it makes up for in Western food.
The first night we splurged on a fancy french dinner and had Cordon Bleau and Creme Brulee (my all time favorite desert). We spent a few days there blissfully eating nothing with rice or noodles in it and hanging out with other happy travellers and then continued on to Vang Vieng.
What to say about Vang Vieng? All backpackers in Southeast Asia- whether young, old or families know about Vang Vieng though everyone has pretty mixed opinions about the place. While we were there John decided that Vang Vieng is like the opposite of Monte Carlo. Rich glamorous people go to Monte Carlo to party in a ritzy rich way. Poor dishevelled backpackers go to Vang Vieng to party in a crappy dangerous way. I wasn’t very crazy about the place- all the cafes play Friends or Family Guy in a loop for 24 hours and everyone goes to a little island in the river to sit on bamboo platforms and drink “buckets”.. which is exactly what it sounds like- a cocktail in a little kid’s plastic bucket. The big draw to Vang Vieng is to go tubing in the river.. because Vang Vieng actually is really beautiful, all
surrounded by those crazy karst mountains and jungle. John and I didn’t go tubing- because it was insanely expensive to rent the stupid tubes and get a tuk-tuk up there, but we did walk out there because the tubing route is infamous for it’s many bucket bars and slides/swings etc. and we wanted to see the show. We didn’t really make it to where the action was though, we just decided to walk back to town in the river because it was so low and spent the rest of the day climbing up river banks and jumping around in the rocks. The next few days we stayed we just walked around the countryside looking at water buffaloes and karst mountains and eating cheap sandwiches. Then we left to go to Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is supposed to be this really great town.. and I guess it is very beautiful with all it’s temples and french architecture and monks walking around and the mountains and rivers surrounding it... but I found it kind of boring and pretentious. We only spent a day there and kept trekking North to where we are now- Nong Khiaw.
The bus to Nong Khiaw wasn’t
actually a bus, but a truck with a couple of benches in the back that functioned as something of a cross between a public bus, a taxi and a delivery truck. We dropped off people, picked up people, delivered mail, delivered chickens, and finally rattled into Nong Khiaw. Nong Khiaw is a really impressive place, in the middle of a bunch of tall real mountains with a river running through the middle. It’s also not hot here, which is greatly appreciated. Our hotel has a big stash of old Newsweek magazines- so yesterday John and I walked out to some caves, admired the mountains, and spent the rest of the day perched on top of two very large bombs that serve as benches at the hotel reading Newsweek. I kept thinking about the bomb- who made it? Who dropped it? Did they assume that it exploded? Would they ever dream that someday some Texan and Oklahoman would be sitting on the bombs as benches drinking coffee and reading Newsweek in the mountains in North Laos?
There are lots of bombs in Laos. Really! Did you know that Laos is the most bombed country in the history of the world?
The US carpet bombed Laos nonstop for about 10 years. I think about 20 people and 100 cows die every year from stepping on unexploded ordinance. Also they make great benches! (Not really, they’re really hard.)
Our time in Laos is almost done- we have one more stop after this and then it’s on to Thailand! I’m excited about the next place though, Luang Nam Tha. There is a protected rainforest near there that I want to go trekking in before we head south again... More news from the road to come!
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