Chasing Hot Chicks in Laos

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On March 10th we got a flight from Siem Reap to Luang Prabang, Laos, which was a quick 2 hour flight. Flying in was really beautiful as the scenery here is very different from anywhere we've been. After paying our dues to enter the country (and we had to pay an "exit" fee out of Cambodia), we got our visas and walked out of the airport to find a whole bunch of bored taxi and tuk tuk driver waiting for gullible customers. First I should mention that we read in our guide book that the only ATM in Laos was in Vientiene (the capital), so when we saw the ATM at the airport, we took out the max the machine would allow, which was equal to about $77. This proved later to be a smart move. Anyway, so we asked how much for a taxi to town and the answer was $5, when we went to ask another driver, the first one jumped in and talked to him first and of course, he told us $5 as well. Our guide book said it should be $1 so we held out and started walking. About 10 feet out of the airport parking lot, one of the tuk tuks came over and said $4, to which we said $2, and he said $3, and we agreed because it was really freakin hot and the prospect of walking several km really didn't sound so great.

Once in town, we started searching for a guesthouse and discovered that regardless of price, the beds were all as hard as rocks. There are tons of options here but not many cheap options so we chose the cheapest we could find and ended up with the best matress we could find, about like laying on packed clay. For $6.50, not so bad.
After settling in, we explored the town for a bit and found it to be very touristy - tons of market stalls selling souvenirs and endless restaurants sporting western food, lots of internet places and travel agencies, but strangely only two ATMs, one of which has been locked up the entire time we've been here, and the other one (which had a line qued up when we found it) didn't even work. We talked to a few tour providers offering various adventure tours in the area and settled on a two day, one night mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, and village stay package. We went with White Elephant Adventures even though they were the more expensive option because they had a good review in lonely planet, and having been warned about some ofthe safety records of several adventure tour outfits, we thought that being owned by a Canadian perhaps they would also follow some of the western safety practices. This is how it sounded anyway....but we were misled!

The following morning we met at the tour office expecting to have breakfast provided while we got to know our fellow travelers. But we arrived to find that a tour group who was supposed to return the previous evening had not returned and they had not heard anything from them, meaning they had to run around finding(and renting) bikes for us all to use. That's got to make you feel safe, eh? Yeah, so we left pretty late becuase they had to do several last minute repairs on some of the bikes and figure out how to make them all fit the customers (which they didn't ). We finally set out and got loaded up in the truck. Pretty hungry at this point, we asked about breakfast, which thankfully the guide pulled out and served us while we sat in the back of the pickup.

We drove an hour and a half into the hills, an hour of which was on bumpy dirt roads, to one of the many villages along the road where started biking. This is where things were not quite what we expected. First, about 5 minutes into it, Trevor got a flat tire (from a toothpick!). We figured this would be a quick patch job and we'd be on our way but our guide had no bike tools with him so he had to bike back and get the truck (who was following us throughout the day) to come get Trevor and his bike and bring them to the next village for repair. He was not too happy about this but he did miss out on a steep hill which was not very fun to bike up. They were still fixing the flat by the time the rest of us got to the village and we had to wait around a bit more.

We headed out and eventually had lunch at another village, where we also lounged for a bit and had fun showing our camera to some of the local kids. They really enjoyed seeing pictures and video of themselves and thought it was very funny. Most of the kids were content just watching us or checking out our bikes the whole time we were there but they were a little shy.

We visited villages of a couple different tribes, mainly either Khmu or Hmong. The Hmong are originally Chinese from Mongolia but have settled in various tribes here in the mountains of Laos. Our guide, named Lao, is Hmong and was raised in the countryside before leaving home at 12 to work on his own. He’s now 22 and studying English at a local college. We got to see a lot of the weaving looms set up in each village where they were working on skirts or various projects to send to town to sell. It’s a pretty amazing process actually and crazy how much work goes into each one. We also saw women peeling bark from a certain kind of tree that would then be bailed up and sold to factories for use in making jeans.

The biking was really exhausting being that we were doing it during the hottest part of the day, and we were on a dirt road the whole time, so no shade at all, not to mention that our bike seats were long overdue for replacement (read: SORE BUTTS!). After several hours of biking we were drenched in sweat, covered in dust, feeling like we had a 2X4 nailed to our butts, we were VERY happy to stop when we reached our final destination, a small village called Ban Sop Chaek. We wasted no time heading to the river for a much needed refreshing swim/bath in the river. Next we walked around the village, observing village life and letting our presence be known to the locals. This village was also home to a school of over 1000 students from surrounding villages, both primary and secondary grades. As we were walking around, we came to the school grounds and found a party happening. Turns out they were celebrating Women’s Day! It consisted of a bunch of teenage students drinking the very potent Lao Lao (Whiskey) and listening to loud American music as their teachers encouraged them to dance and drink more. We were invited to join them and wanting to be polite, we had a few sips of Lao Lao. They had been drinking for several hours at this point so some were in pretty bad shape. One of the teachers who spoke a little English talked with us for a bit and explained what was going on. Apparently it’s pretty common for them to start drinking at 12 or 13 years old. Eventually we decided it was in our own best interest to head back to the main part of the village. We got settled in our little bunkhouse and then had a lovely dinner hosted by one of the locals. By 8:30 we were all exhausted and ready for bed.

The next day we started with a yummy breakfast and had a formal tour of the village given by our guide. As soon as the truck showed up with our kayaks we got geared up and set out on the river. That morning the truth about our upcoming river trip had come out…Lao said that about 60 or so people had fallen in (later he said, oh, everyone falls in!). After the very limited safety briefing, which also served as a “how to kayak” session for the other couple in our group, it was obvious that our guide was not an experienced kayaker, in fact, he’d been kayaking for 4 months, as long as he’s worked for the company. We were a little nervous, and on the first rapids, Patrick & Susan tipped over, but we made it through…until the next one, then we had our turn in the river. The rapids were a mixture of class II and III rapids, but luckily the water was warm so falling in wasn’t so bad, as long as you avoided the big rocks. Lao kept talking about the “big one” down the river and finally we came to it…we almost made it through the whole thing until an unseen rock flipped us right at the end of it. It was right at our lunch spot though so it worked out well as we got to dry out in the sun as we ate.

In the end, we had a really good time whitewater kayaking. It was a nice way to spend a hot day and with beautiful scenery. Afterwards we headed back to town and found a new place to stay. We were happy to find what seems to be the softest bed in Laos and were able to bargain to get a great price. Then we met up with Susan and Patrick for a BBQ dinner at a nice restaurant using vouchers provided by the tour company. We enjoyed an evening of sharing stories and drinking Beer Lao and Rice Wine (another local specialty).

The next day we spent the day walking around and seeing Luang Prabang. There weren't a ton of sights to see but we saw a pretty cool Wat that had really pretty tile work on it that was very unique. We also shopped around for another Whitewater kayaking trip for the following day since we'd had so much fun on the kayaking portion of our first tour. We settled on a day trip on the Nam Ou (different river) with a company called Phone Travel (also a general travel agency).

The next morning we checked in for our tour and met the couple who would be kayaking with us as well as our guide and his friend (who was in training). After a half hour of bring driven around as they ran errands we finally picked up the boats and headed out. This river was definitely bigger than the one we'd been on two days earlier. More water, bigger rocks so a little more intimidating but I think probably would be rated similarly to the rapids on the Xiang. Trevor and I started out in a "Tri-yak" which is a sit on top 3 person boat, but just with the two of us. Mark and Muhara (I may totally have her name wrong) were in a double and the guide and his friend each in singles. Trevor and I made it through all the major rapids without wiping out! But the other couple didn't fare so well as I think they capsized in most of them. They hit one particularly hard and after that their boat kept taking on water. We stopped and discovered a huge hole in the bottom of their boat. This was a convenient time to have lunch. After working with the villagers across the river to try to come up with a way to patch the boat, it was finally decided that the guide's friend would head back to town with the boat and one of us would take a single while the tri-yak would carry three. This wasn't as much fun but was really lucky to have worked out since it would have cut the tour short for them. We all took turns in the single which was fun.

Oh, I will also throw in here that we passed another group on the river (as we approached a rather large rapid) who was out doing all this without helmets. We were very thankful that we had the appropriate (although old and worn) safety gear. Just a tip for any future travelers who do adventure trips, you should check on what safety gear is provided before you leave town (we didn't actually see ours till we got to the river).

When we reached our pullout point, the kids of the village there were thrilled to use our boats as platforms for jumping into the river. They were so cute and full of energy! At one point there were about 10 kids crowded on (and jumping off) one kayak. They were like little ants they way they would scramble out of the water so fast and get up on the boat to jump again.

Once back in town and after cleaning up, we headed to the ballet. Yes, the ballet! Not your typcial ballet though. This is traditional dance that tells a story and the dancers are all in costumes playing different characters. There were dances performed by the three most prevalent tribes in the region. Though the dances were interesting, the narrator didn't give much background on the narratives they were acting out and what he did tell us, we couldn't really understand. So, at one point to us, it looked like a bunch of power rangers (with monkey masks) jumping around on stage. Entertaining at the very least! The show was a bit disappointing since we paid $10 to get in and we've been to free shows that were better. Plus there were a lot of very disrespectful "falang" (means foreigners in Lao) who were talking through much of the performance. We actually told one of them to shush because it was so distracting.

We're going to bed early tonight as tomorrow morning we plan to head to Phonsovon in the northeastern part of Laos.

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Photos

The "hot Lao chicks"
Trevor was chasing the chicks around the village trying to get a good picture.

Village kids waving hello
Actually a lot of them would yell "bye bye!" as we went or "Sabaidee", which is Lao for hello.

Drinking with the local kids
The girl next to me was 13 and her 21 year old teacher was just out of the picture, encouraging them to drink more and passing out the Lao Lao (Rice Whiskey). Oh yeah, and we were on school grounds.

Breakfast with the group and local mutts
Our group consisted of Lao (guide), Patrick (French), Susan (German), both currently living in Singapore, and us. The dogs belonged to the kitchen lady that prepared our food each day.

Inside one of the school dorms.
These were the "free dorms" which are built by families of the kids attending the school. They can also pay to have the kids stay in dorms that are in concrete buildings and look quite a bit nicer, but most of the kids lived in these. Each one was shared by 3-4 students.