What's the story Morning Glory?

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After the excitement of the Gibbon Experience, we had a very different couple of days, involving the Slow Boat. Which is exactly what it was, taking 2 days from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang, via an overnight stop in a random little town; lit only by candlelight and with the funniest menus due to the number of spelling mistakes, that only small children should find amusing...but well...that's the level of my humour.
Arriving in Luang Prabang was a pleasant surprise as it was very French, with quaint guesthouses and a night market that dominated the narrow street on embroided carpets, softly lit by suspended light-bulbs.
We spent time at some historic temples, one with a beautiful sunset, though it really was through rose-tinted glasses that I say this, as I was happily snapping away, raving to Sarah how stunning it was, when she didn't seem that enthused. She kindly pointed out I still had my sunnies on and indeed when I removed them, the sunset was a major disappointment. This was also the town, where I finally plucked up the courage to ask what the "Morning Glory"was on the menu, so Sarah could try it (it's been a recurring feature on most menus)...it turned out to be not far from cooked pond weed that looked like it really could have been fished out of the river we were overlooking. (A cross between spinach and water-cress/lamb's leaves if you like...mmmm...Sarah's not ordered it again).
Onwards and upwards we went to Nong Khiow, a picturesque limestone landscape, disected by the ever present Mekong River. The bus ride was epic to say the least, as it was rammed in true Laos style beyond capacity. Out came the plastic seats for the aisle, the chicken was tied up under a seat, a small boy was wedged between a man's legs. We had the Ultimate Lady Hockker champion. The Asian nation seem to think out is definitely better than in and are keen to share it. To be fair, her aim was super accurate, requiring only the narrowest window gap.
We spent only a day here, to explore the caves where in the 1960's Laos villagers took their community and hid from the American bombing. Apparently shops and a hospital were all working and present which you can believe as the cave network is so extensive. You can only explore so far though as the rest may involve shimmying up and down the original bamboo ladders, which looked safe enough only for a tomato plant to hold onto.
So, with a reverse bus journey that was just as good as the first, we had a monster journey back to Luang Prabang and made it to the bus station with about 1 minute to spare before the only bus to Vang Vieng left. This journey has been earmarked, simply because you know you've been away too long when you think it's acceptable to still eat the bug-infested bun that you had to grab from a stall. On the plus side, I thought the bright orange filling was going to be chili flavoured, but no, just orange substance?! mmm...proteinacous?
Vang Vieng has quite rightly been defined and I quote "as bizarre as Las Veags in the Nevada Desert". Being surrounded by tiny unpowered villages, through the endless bumpy roads, comes a mecca of bright neon lights, t.v bars and tourists. Although not what we ususally aim for, it was quite a pleasant change to experience a place that is still lit after 7pm and see other travellers, even if most of them seem engrossed by the re-runs of ''Friends'' and ''the Simpsons'' that play in the restaurants all day. This actually became a life-saver as it poured all day for one day. When it did stop we donned our best rain coats to walk to more caves. It was all good apart from a mega steep 200 metre ascent to get upto the entrance, but if the lady carrying the poodle can do it, then so can we! The cave was really big and full of prime examples of stalactities and stalagmites, I had little flashbacks to numerous classes and lectures that made me want to see these things...finally hey after about 7 years?! Even deep into the cave we kept following signs pointing "to the cave", further we went, darker it got and colder and damper and more narrow and perhaps a bit creepy...then pitch black, when Sarah chooses to tell me about a film she's seen where people go into a cave and get slaughtered, or never come back out again...nice one....but poised with my keyring spotlight (Thanks Nan) I had no fear.
On the way back Sarah spotted a snake swimming through the water, which we've since identified as having a potentially fatal bite. It was dark brown with a reddy/orange head and tail should you ever see one! The best I could do on the other hand was abduct a small child that suddenly appeared holding my hand. This was fine for a while, until I realised if I didn't stop, he'd be coming home with us. I hadn't a clue how to tell him as he rambled on in Laos and seemed slightly disorientated about where he was or even what day of the week it was, so I abandoned him trying to usher him back.....I hope he's not still there...I felt bad...
Moving on we oganised an activity day and although it was supposed to be predominantly kayaking, this didn't feature until past 2.30pm. Up until then, we had to join the "trekkers"which apparenelty we should have considered as a bonus, as it meant we got to visit yet more caves. To be fair, the caves were impressive, though we'd been planning to see them anyway. The humorously historic Elephant cave boasted an ancient rock naturally shaped like an elephant...? (recently carved methinks). The best cave though, we had to tube into. Tubing is what Vang Vieng has become famous for, involving sitting in a rubber tyre floating down the river and stopping off at numerous make-shift bars along the way. As this didn't really appeal, since the river's low and slow and weather's not great, we tubed into a cave. This had a really narrow opening and was so dark we had to wear head-lamps! We followed a rope through the cave, bobbing about bouncing off the rocky walls, until we grounded inside the cave to explore the rest on hands and knees, or more like crawling army-stylee. We got completely covered in mud, it was like a body mask and had we not had such an amusing guide, it would have been a bit uncomfortable, as there I was crawling through small dark, wet spaces, getting covered in mud, into bat zone and having to pay for it? What was I thinking? It was the nearest to caving I've ever experienced and it was mighty good fun!
From Vang Vieng, we continued upon the well trodden backpacker route to Vientiane....one word...bah!! Were we here only to get our Cambodian visa, then we could have left the next day, but unfortunately there was a meditation session at one of the Temples that I really wanted to go to (yep-my fault), which happened to be a couple of days away. In any other Capital city, this normally wouldn't have been such a problem, but there is NOTHING to do there and what's worse is the main road is being dug up for miles and subsquently has created a road of mud. Made worse by the frequent downpours that graced us. Again, not so bad if you have somewhere nice to stay, but our digs was a hole. Unless yopu're prepared to spend a week's budget for one night in a room, then holes are the only option. So having whiled away hours in various places, (we got good at making drinks last), the meditation day arrived. Could we find the wretched holy place?! It was pissing with rain, walking in the mud and the starting time came and went. Hopes failed and disappointment overtook me. So we'd spent unnecessary time in a city we hated, for no reason at all. Luckily we're easily pleased and were saved only by a big bag of banana chips, that I seemed to have taken a liking to! (never in a month of Sundays did I see THAT coming).
So we hopped on the classic Pimped-up VIP night bus to take us to Champasak. Thank Buddah for the banana chips as the free dinner was blobs of unidentifiable meat on a bed of nails...er rice....? By 8am the next morning, we'd already been whisked away on a sawngthaw (two benched taxi/truck) to get a wooden raft across the river, to the one street of Champasak. Having been (in)conveniently dropped off at a Guesthouse that the driver gets commission on, though only if you can afford the price to stay, we had to traipse 4km in the pouring rain to find somewhere we could afford to stay. With no map, we chose to go right with a 50/50 chance we'd reach "town". Typically we chose the wrong direction and had to go all the way back and beyond, until finally, so sodden, had absolutely cream crackered we stumbled upon the friendliest guy with the cutest little bungalow huts. Having treated ourselves to breakfast of cold raw pancake with extra flies and ants and Sarah's stale-still frozen bread and runny omelette..mmm.. can it get much better than this??!!
Yes, of course it can, we're optiomists, every cloud has a silver lining, it could always be worse, so we picked ourselves up and (after a bit of coaxing to Sarah) hired out classic Happy Shopper bicycles for the day. Man, they beat mountain bikes hands down, and with the handle bars so high up and close together, your posture soon gets sorted out. We pedalled and sang our Sound of Music way across 8km to the famous Champasak Temple (that apparently has earnt a T-shirt). The Temple itself has really collapsed and weathered, but it's the setting that's so impressive as it sits high on a terrace, with stunning views around the Mekong river. I know it was worth it, though not sure how convinced Sarah was-we've not hired out bikes since! Maybe it was the John Wayne walk she adopted that ruined it! Joking-she loved it, she's the next Maria.
So as we'd exhausted Champasak in a day, the very next we got going to the 4000 islands, down south. The journey again, was by far an adventure, as by 6 am, we'd been squished into the back of a sawngthaw with all the locals down to the "port" which was a hub of activity. So many ladies wearing those funny conical lamp-shade hats (Vietnamese hats I think) selling grasshoppers on kebabs and lumps of meat being waved around like flags. The raft over was laden with the trucks nose to tail, spewing out the worst diesel fumes ever, mixed in with people spitting, it certainly pushed breakfast far from our thoughts. To top it all, we had to sit face to face watching with intrigue as a crazy lady on the sawngthaw produced various curiosities from her handbag and stuffed them in her mouth, these consisted of some kind of dried herb/tobacco, a slice of dried up lime, some berries and a leaf that she unrolled and spread a white paste onto. Yep, all in at the same time that she chewed over, making a rather unattractive red-stained dye around her lips and teeth so she looked like she'd been seriously mauled by Ronald MacDonald.
Eventually we got to Don Khon, the biggest of the islands so we thought it would be quite a busy place. Rocked up to a one lane street of half a dozen guesthouses, with no one in them. Tranquil yes, but with no particular feature, attraction or life at all, we could see this being yet another overnight stop. Explored the village which has more bison than people and were deluded by the term beaches, as being mud banks along the river.
Next morning therefore had us on the early boat to Don Det, the supposed backpacker island. The little boat chugged and rocked side to side for a couple of hours in the pouring rain, surrounded by cloud. How I remained quite dry was quite an achievement, especially for me as I ususally end up with a raw deal, but dry we were ....until our boat hit the bank and a whole load of water that had collected up on the tarpaulin roof found a gap directly above my head and poured like a power shower, soaking me to my very undergarments....nice.
We were taken in by the friendliest yet scariest of ladies known as Mama, at the Rasta Cafe and Guesthouse. She was so smiley, but unfortunately had the same reddish tinge to her lips and weedlike projections from her teeth as crazy lady. Still, Don Det lived beyond expectations as it really was a place to chill out, we had hammocks on our balcony overlooking faithful old Mekong the river. The sun shone and rain came intermittently. We walked around the island of rice paddies and to such an awesome waterfall. It really was the most impressive we've seen on our trip. However the Buddhist Monks seemed more impressed by Sarah and myself as they very blatently came and stood in front of us to take our picture. One actually had the politeness to ask, but Sarah said no as she was having problems with her sore feet from her sandals, but he snapped away anyway. I felt like one of the Buddha statues that I so often take photos of, now I know how they feel (yes I know they're not real, but still). I kept an eye open for the very rare (near extinct) Irrawaddy dolphin, but no luck there. However, we did spot some people from The Gibbon Experience which was nice and tried to convince them to come Kayaking with us, but we were considering the Lao canoe, that was a slip of a wooden boat, already a foot of water in it, complete with free fish swimming about in the bottom...I kid you not! Needless to say they weren't that tempted, so we opted for the safer plastic version instead!
One restaurant there has a very humourous menu that can make any dish or drink "Happy". It also offers hair-cuts, though we hope these are not of the Happy variety and a Happy wedding with Happy Wedding and Birthday cakes. You can specify just how "happy" you want them to be!!!! I merely indulged in a Happy Hot Chocolate that to be honest resembled river water there was so much weed in it.
Well, that pretty much gets us to our last destination before crossing over to Cambodia. Laos was really nice, not what I expected as I think I was a bit apprehensive, but it was easy to get around, much more laid back, friendly and beautiful. It seems that the National phrase "Same, Same....but different" can really be attributed to most things; temples, caves, menus, shops and towns, so I'm excited now to see what Cambodia has in store............................
(Photos hopefully coming soon??!!-sorry!)

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