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Published: April 3rd 2009
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Jen again: Where were we? Oh yeah...heading from Chiang Mai to Chiang rai in thailand. Chiang Rai is mainly a one night stop or a base for other trips, and its geared up for wealthy travellers so all the restaurants on the main street are a huge rip off...anyway its got everything we needed to refresh and get ready for the next country; Laos. There is a pretty good night bazaar though, and one of the temples has a large green buddha; a replica of the one in bangkok which originated in chiang rai.
It wasnt far from Chiang Rai to the Chaeng Saen where we got our first sight of the mighty Mekong river, and the next day was a great days cycling the long way around to the border town, alongside the river nearly all the way on incredibly quiet roads withe great views of the mekong. At the border town we soon had out depature cards stamped, crossed the mekong river in a rickety boat, and bought our visas for Laos on the other side. From Houay Xai is one of the famous tourist must dos; catching the slow boat down the mekong two days to Louang
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no mans land...or water! Prabang. Well, 2 whole days on a boat sounded a bit much so we decided to get the boat for one day to Pakbeng and then cycle to Louang Prabang, providing us with the oportunity to see a bit more of Laos. The slow boat is pretty good, with great views of the river, but after 6 or 7 hours with the backpacker set complete with i pods, laptops and beerlaos vests it was good to break out on our own.
Frow pakbeng there was the option of a southern or northern detour. we plumped for the northern as the southern involved 2 uncertain river crossings, few towns to stop and untold hills! Setting off on the road north was very peaceful on quiet roads passing many villages of wooden or bamboo huts on stilts. Its like another century with only one or 2 water taps per village; people washing at the side of the road and kids carrying water. One thing that struck us about laos in the incredible number of kids! and how friendly they are. i think the first thing kide are taught over here is how to wave and shout sabaydee! (or bye bye which
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the sun is always red because of the haze is favoured over hello!)
It took one day up the winding valley road to Muang Hong where we experienced some of the best accomodation Laos had to offer...not. Although the room was clean enough if basic the bathroom was fun with a squat toilet, and a bucket of water to wash in! This is one of the downsides to Laos, that and the lack of roadside cafes to get cheap rice lunches. It was a national holiday so there was a fair on the market ground which had the main attractions of bingo and a wall of balloons that you had to burst by throwing darts. The prizes were things like cans of coke and bottles of M150 which is sort of like red bull. Rock and roll..
The next night seemed like luxury at the trucking town of Oudomxai where we had, gasp, a functioning shower! and the ride of 50 miles or so to Pak Mong afforded amazing views winding up a pass amongst jungle covered hills, with karst peaks hovering above us. There were still the ubiquitous wooden huts, animals and kids who love to high five you as you ride past. At pak Mong,
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mekong stop off at pakbeng which is basically just a junction town, ian did a first; he turned down a guest house! I think the dead cat put him off a bit.... Anyway we did a 5 mile detour to the next town to find somewhere a bit better to stay.
The 75 mile ride to Louang prabang was a real slog and took all day. louang Prabang is shock to the system after all the poor villages. Its a very attractive town on the peninsula between the Mekong and Pac Ou rivers, with lots of mpressive wats and the french colonnial influence still visible. For this reason its also full of tourists. We spent a really good few days here, relaxing and taking the atmosphere in, visiting the old royal palace and wats, enjoying the night market, kayaking, and visiting waterfalls and caves.
Kwang si waterfall is 30km from Louang prabang and its easy and cheap to get there by tuc tuc. even in the dry season as it is now its still a lovely really impressive waterfall with lots of different levels, and pools that you can swim in. this was fantastic as its constantly hot and incredibly humid. There is
also a bear sanctuary where you can see "moon" bears (black asiatic bears) so called as they have a white half moon shape on their chests. The bears are rescued from all over south east asia where they are kept so their bile can be extracted. Apparently it has some kind of medical use.
The kayaking was also a great day out. I'd never been kayaking before so it was a great introduction as the currents are very gentle so it was easy to get to grips with, and lots of the time we just spent floating along or having water fights. On the way we visited the nam Ou caves where there are thousands of buddha images which started being left there in the 14th century according to our guide, Bee. He spoke really good english and told us loads of stuff about the caves and buddhism and the river serpent, the Nga. There is a legend that the nga lives in the mekong, and is a huge serpent that eats people. when a body was found they knew the serpent had killed it by the fact that the teeth were sucked out and the top knot (how
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typical laos houses by the side of the road the men wore their hair in those times) was bitten off.
Another highlight of louang Prabang is War Xieng Thong, which is incredibly beautiful. It has a huge roof reaching near to the ground in typical Laos style and the walls are decorated with mirror mosaic.
After louang prabang we had to retrace our steps to Oudomxai and from here we will head one day North to the China border...cue 2 weeks of having no idea what any signs mean!
Met quite a few cycle tourists here in laos, the roads are pretty devoid of traffic if not devoid of livestock, kid squads and the odd bus, the condition of these "main roads" is sometimes a little ermm inconsistent but i guess it will be a good warm up to southern china.
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sabaydee!
hey guys! the kayaking and waterfalls look really good fun! I like the sound of the french influene town as well! whay did the french settle there? weather picked up slightly in england..had first bbq yesterday!! went inside at seven though cos it went cold. learning lots about buddhism then eh? you been converted yet? xx