Week 5-6- Laos

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The thing that first hits you as you arrive in Laos is the calm. Travelling in from Bangkok, a chlosteraphobic, bustling city of crazed tuk tuk drivers, transexual prostitues and men on each street corner asking you over and over if you'd like to buy a suit, the tranquility of the capital, Vientiane, from the people, to the attitudes, to the traffic soothes you as you lounge in streetside cafes, sipping lattes and gazing out at the bicycles leisurely parading the streets.

We arrived to the NongKhai, Thai-Lao border by sleeper train on the morning of January 11th and after a relatively stress-free border crossing (you could probably walk through visa free if you wanted to), we travelled the short journey into the capital, Vientiane and found a great place to stay called 'Orchid guesthouse' with a great view out across the Mekong River. Strolling around the peaceful city, hopping from cafe to restaurant all afternoon, we chatted lazily about our coming travel plans and tried our best to acclimatise to our new and unfamilair currency, Lao Kip. With around 12,500 to the pound and none of us remotely mathematically minded, we had a little trouble.

One of the main delights of travelling from place to place is the diversity of the people that you meet; different ages, different educations, different jobs and altogether different reasons for travelling. the one thing they all share is their openess and willingness to talk and to learn about the people they meet. The more you travel, the more you shift in your ability no only to make conversation with people but also your actual desire to want to learn about them, where they're from and what they're doing. When you travel and routine is diminsished, you remain very open to new things, experiences, people and in terms of conversation you feel more comforable in delving deeper. Nothing is really off-limits, nobody is scared to ask questions and so stranger become friends in a matter of hours. Of course in situations of such diversity you meet the most inspiring people but you also meet the scariest and the downright odd.

Our first full day in Laos and we took the advice of Lonely Planet, followed the example of the other tourists and rented ourselves some bikes. The roads were so quiet, the tuk tuk drivers so slow that we had an incredibly relaxing day, navigating the city, cruising along the river, taking in the sights and generally being massive tourists. In the evening we headed to the night market where they sold everything from vodka cocktails, to jewellery, to bottles of Lao Lao (whisky?!?) with dead snakes and scorpions pickled inside.

We left on a bus for Vang Vieng the following morning and arrived 3 hours later to a small town quite the opposite of what I had expected. If you've heard of Vang Vieng, you will most probably have done so with regard to its most famous activity; Tubing. Since arriving in Thailand, we had heard different rumours from various people about tubing and whether or not it was still running. For anyone unfamiliar with the concept, it consists of floating down the river on big tyre inner tubes, stopping off at bars on either side along the way and jumping back in with zipwires and jumps. Probably around 50% of the people I personally know who have been tubing have returned with at least minor injuries due to the shallow water mixed with a concoction of one too many Beer Lao's and the famous 'happy shakes' served along the way. This is what most of the rumours centred around; too many victims. It sounded like a lot of fun so we decided to go and check out the sitaution anyway and with many of the people we met travelling to Laos for this activity alone, I expected a party town. What we found was the remains of this. Tubing itself was not closed by any means, the bars lining the river however, remained empty and lifeless. Vang Vieng was clearly a town in the declining aftermath of losing its main source of interest and income.

On our first evening we headed to 'Gary's Irish Bar' and it was there that we met Filth (Dan), Ronnie, Monagh, Brandon (renamed Ace for his uncanny Jim Carrey impressions) and Mike Hunt (not kidding). We all decided that the plan of action for the following day would be to fill our bags with beer and head over the check out what the tubing hype was all about. We had a great afternoon, 'canning on' as the Aussies called it. It was quiet and relaxing but to be honest, I'm pretty sure that the original lure of luring relied on acheiving the opposite effect completely. Had I known that it would become extinct, I would have definitely made a point of heading to Vang Vieng on my last visit to Asia as at the peak of its popularity it sounded amazing.

Our next stop was Luang Prabang, 6 hours north, and Ace joined us on our minibus journey. I'm not a great fan of bus journeys but we all agreed that this one, taking us through the small mountain villages, relatively untouched by Westernisation was hugely interesting. We passed villages of clear poverty, homes were shacks on the dusty roadside, children swarmed past on their walk back from school. It was humbling. In so many popular backpacker destinations the authenticity and original culture has been overridden to make it more homely to Western travellers. Its not even a criticism but sometimes you get a glimpse behind the scenes and the charm of a culture without the gimmicks shines through. It makes you smile to watch a community just being, functioning without the sense that they are putting on a tourist performance for you.

Luang Prabang was our favourite place in Laos. With time constraints of only a week and a half, we decided to stay in the North so that we could head straight into Hanoi ready to make our way down to the South again. For a fairly large province, it echoes the laidback attitude of Laos in its docile quietness, yet has a wide range of things to fill your time. Whether you feel like heading out to visit a waterfall, sitting in cafes overlooking the river, visiting temples or heading out in the evening to one of the many street bars, there's a great mix with something for everyone.

On our first evening we headed to what became on of our favourite bars, 'Utopia'. Their slogan "Zen by day, groovy by night" couldn't be more truthful, with afternoon yoga session on the decking and cushions laid out for you to lounge with a drink looking over the river, you couldn't find a more chilled location to unwind after a long journey. To complete our day with a spot of retail therapy, we scoured the vibrant array of local wares in the night market, put our haggling skills to thorough use and left laden with everything from T-shirts to jewellery to Laos offee and carrot cake.

You may laugh at this next statement but travelling from place to place so quickly wears you down a little so it's nice every so often to find somewhere that you can settle into for afew days without immediately having to think about your next destination, and Luang Prabang was just that. As we found in Vientiane, hiring bicycles is one of the best ways to see the larger places with attractions located an unwalkable distance. Its nice to be able to find your own way around, map in hand at your own pace without relying on tuk tuk drivers or planning your days in advance. On our first day we did just that, cycling along the river, visiting the old palace and indulging in what we thought would be a truly relaxing Lao massage. Not the case however. It seems that the only thing in Laos that is harsh are the back breaking, neck cracking massages. If you thought your Thai massage was harsh I would not recommend this at all. Either that or we quite possibly just found a really dodgy place (it was ludicrously cheap and I'm pretty sure they weren't opposed to offering out happy endings).

On Thursday morning, after a revitalising banana and coffee shake at Utopia (AMAZING!!!), Sarah mounted the back of Ace's scooter, me and Jessy jumped in a tuk tuk and we all headed out of town to visit Kuangsi waterfall an hours drive away. After walking through a bear sanctuary, we arrived at the beautiful tiered waterfall and while Ace showed off on the rope swing we took a dip into the freezing water. As it was Ace's last night before flying back home to Vancouver, we all went out for a dinner of deep fried buffalo (again AMAZING!!!) then headed to try one of Luang prabang's late night attractions- drunk bowling. Its exactly as it sounds (ten pin bowling accompanied with Lao brewed spirits) and just as fun.

Over our next few days, we had visa and travel formalities to sort out. After a fairly nerve wracking visit to the Vietnam embassy, we asked around and got the news we had been dreading; the bus journey over to Hanoi would take us 24 hours (in Lao time that means 30- 40). The thought alone filled us with dread and we did the only thing you can do in a crisis; cracked out the credit card and booked a flight. In hindsight, following a leisurely one hour flight with free food and free beer, it was worth absolutely every penny....we will just eat rice for a week.

On Sunday afternoon (a little hungover/ poisoned from what we suspect to be basement brewed vodka) we visited Pak Ou Buddha Caves. We crossed the river in a rickety old boat and explored the eerie cliffside caves filled with hundreds of Buddha ornaments, statues and pictures. Jessy was first off the boat as we returned to the opposite side of the river and as she stepped onto the bank her entire body started sinking into the leech infested mud. Her cries for help were drowned out by mine and Sarah's hystrical laughter (good friends) which did not subside even slightly as she took a bath in the dirty water so that she would be allowed back on the tuk tuk.

That evening we found an amazing little place called 'L'etranger books and tea' which has a film screening every evening at 7pm in the cosy little attic room upstairs. It's free to watch, the only thing they ask of you is that you buy a pot of one of the many teas on offer to see you through. The film of the evening was "Zero Dark Thirty", all about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. For three girls who really know very little about this, it was very informative and we wandered home, brains full.

Over a glass of wine the next evening, following a day climbing 'Phousi Mountain' some unanswered questions arose from the evening before. "What I really don't understand is why they were so desperate to find Bin Laden....surely they should have been looking for that main guy called Al Qaeda???" Sarah queried with a genuinely puzzled tone. Stunned silence. An exchange of worried glances. Unable to shake our concern and amusement, we suggested that in the future she perhaps spends a little less time reading Jordan's autobiographies and a little more time on Wikipedia.

It was the perfect end to our time in Laos and on Tuesday afternoon we boarded the plane ready for Vietnam adventures.



I'd like to dedicate this blog to Sarah Coppard (who kindly provided material and gave me permission to write this)...and her new friend, Big Al.

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