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Published: December 6th 2006
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Kids in the Kmu Village
Even though they must see visitors everyday they were still so excited to have their photo taken 11 weeks of solid company brings up this as a conversational highlight.
Luckily we have been in Laos for the couple of weeks and so have had plenty to us other than each others company - mainly stunning countryside, friendly people and some great markets. We flew from Hanoi to Vientiane at some crazily early hour and went straight from the airport to met our friend Emily and then to the bus station to try and catch a bus to Vang Vieng. After seeing our options, the 20,000 kip local bus complete with rock hard seat and air con provided by an open window, we decided to splash out on the VIP bus with proper seats and nice working air conditioning. We were told the journey would take 3 hours, 5 hours later we arrived in Vang Vieng. However the journey was through some stunning scenery, mountains covered in trees, small villages with kids playing and hundreds of chickens running about and some gorgeous rivers.
We hadnt really considered where to stay, apart from a brief look at the Lonely Planet but after trying a couple of places that were either too expensive or full, we ended up in
the guesthouse Emily had stayed in the year before. She warned us that it was basic but after a full days travelling we were grateful for anywhere. However, basic it indeed was, a triple room with shared bathroom, that i dont think was cleaned the whole time we were there, and a toilet flushed with a bucket. Something thats common over here but not something i will ever get used to. Tom and I decided to move a few days later to some of the wooden bungalows across the river which although had a pretty gorgeous view had outdoor toilets and shower. As you may be able to tell the bathroom arrangements bother me slightly. And i had my first close encounter with a cockroach, on my finger, in my bed, under my mosquito net.
Vang Vieng has become built up to cater for travellers, the town is full of bars and restaurants, most showing films or repeats of frieds, family guy or the simpsons. Sitting in these and tubing was how we spent most of our 7 days in Vang Vieng. Tubing basically consists of sitting in an inflated inner tube of a tyre and floating down the
Nam Song River. On the way there are quite a few bars with men out front with giant poles to haul you in. Tubing is quite hard to do in anyway approaching a delicate fashion, especially after a few Lao Beers but it is a lot of fun and the scenery is stunning. Unfortunately we left it a bit late and ended up floating the last part after the sun had gone down so it got a bit cold. Towards the end there are lots of cold, shivering kids waiting in the river to push you into the town, although they tended to disappear when it was mentionned that they wouldnt be getting any money. It was so much fun though that we did it again.
Somehow we managed to spend a week in Vang Vieng, spending the rest of the time not doing a lot, sitting, reading, eating pancakes. But eventually we tore ourselves away and have come to Loung Prabang. A pretty town with a great night market but one that is very centred on the tourist trade. We've been to Tat Kuang Si, a waterfall about 30km out of town which was stunning. The Waterfall cascaded
The waterfall
The reward at the end of our trek down one huge cliff and then broke off to other little waterfalls with gorgeous turquoise swimming pools underneath. Tom braved the freezing water to have a swim but i just sat and took photos. We also took a boat trip out to Pak Ou cave which contains thousands of Buddha statues, although the slow boat there is the real reason to go i thought as some of the scenery is again, pretty stuning.
Tom wanted to do another trek after his one in Sapa and this time i thought id join him. We chose a varied one though that had a morning of mountain biking, trekking and an elephant ride. The mountain bike was a pretty hard 15kms (the guide said 10 but it wasnt, i thought maybe nearer 30km) along gravel traks and up and down hills to the elephant camp. I dont think i have ever been so exhausted, having spend most of my time trying to keep the fairly knackered bike under control, worrying about not falling off down the hill or into the hundreds of cobwebs that lined the bank on the other side. And trying to appreciate the view. After a couple of hours
rest we trekked to the Kmu village where we spent the night. We had been warned by the travel agent that it might be basic ("there'll be Laos food and no electricity you know!") but were pleasantly suprised by our own hut and seating area and a large village with some quite large, smart houses. We were allowed to go for a walk around the village and met all the kids playing in the square. They all rushed to have their photo taken and seemed to love to see it back on the camera, amazing since they must have people taking their picture almost every day. The rest of the evening was spent eating a dinner and then drinking Lao Lao, a home brewed Laos whiskey, with our guide who wasnt quite as used to it as we thought he'd be! Somehow he managed to get up again in the morning though and led us back to the elephant camp where we met our elephant Smerham (not sure on the spelling of that) to took us back to the waterfall. We had a seat and were quite enjoying the suprisingly comfortable ride until the mahout jumped off and went behind
Our bungalow in Vang Vieng
Not a bad view to start the day with us to collect stones. We couldnt quite work out why, until he put them in his catapault and started shooting Smerham. She harrumphed quite a lot about this but did speed up considerably. Apparently she was a bit of a lazy elephant who didnt really want to be carrying a couple of heavy tourists. Luckily after the initial shot the threat of the catapault was enough to keep her going to the waterfall, although there were several more hurrumphs along the way.
We've spent the day recovering today but have to pack up tonight to get ready for the 2 day slow boat down to the Thai border to start our month in Thailand.
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