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I think night buses in Vietnam must have put us off as by no means we wanted to get on a night bus in Laos, even though it meant a waste of time. In this case we took a morning 9 am bus to
Luang Prabang knowing that it might take the whole day;-( It was quite costly to get there but at least we did not have to break the journey in Laos's
'sin city' of VanVieng (taxi-bus-taxi 340,000kip/40$ for two) hahah Maybe we missed some great views (which we saw on the way) and parties but we knew for sure that the view of drunk and/or stoned teenagers pissing into the river (or as we heard their own drink) is not why we came to Laos;-) Luang Prabang on the other hand was what we were looking forward to;-)
Shared taxi driver took us to a hotel offered by a tout at the bus station but of course they did not have the advertised 60,000kip room but only 120,000 kip one. To their surprise we politely refused and walked away to look for something else. It is funny how we don't get even slightly annoyed by this any
more, almost as if we became immune to this kind of behaviour. At least the hotel was located just by the centre so we had no troubles finding another one. We actually found amazing room that looked like from a boutique hotel (whatever this term means hahah) in traditional wooden Lao style house for 70,000kip/9$. I could say it was the nicest room we got in SE Asia so far;-) It was already late in the evening but we decided to stretch our legs and walk to the night market. It is a lively place with Hmong Tribe people selling their handicrafts. I must say they have lovely stuff there for sale but the day was to exhausting to shop. We had some dinner, beer, checked breakfast options and came back to our lovely room.
Next day we decided to stay in town and just check what is this place about and why it is so much loved by travellers. We visited the Royal Palace and few pagodas and walked around old town peninsula, occasionally breaking for a beer or fruit shake by the river. Architecture of old Laos houses was so lovely, streets were quiet and filled with
cyclists and river filled with children escaping from the heat. Of course there is a party element of this town with modern bars and restaurant and they all seem like a lot fun but I don’t think people come to LP to party;-) More for a culture feel and waterfalls of course. There is even a code of conduct in Lunag Prabang which is just great. The ones we liked the most went like that:
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Don’t forget this is Lao P.D.R. - Please Don’t Rush – no one else is •
Do observe colourful monk procession •
Don’t buy drugs – they give you death •
Do visit 2 or 3 waterfalls •
Don’t spend too much time worrying about malaria and dengue •
Do think more and wear more (bikini top at least haha) •
Don’t stay less than 3 night in Luang Prabang ;-) As we did not have a group of people to share a tuk-tuk with we took our hotel's offer and visited waterfalls by minivan (50,000kip each). We were thinking if we should go there at all but honestly if we had missed this place we would have had a lot of regrets. The whole park is
a truly stunning place with multilevelled waterfalls and small educational bear protection area for animal lovers;-) They were the only waterfalls we have ever seen that had such turquoise water in pools. Water was cold but even that could not stop me from walking in;-) We climbed all the levels of the waterfalls but sadly there is not a great view from the top. Then we decided to take a dip in all the swimming areas just to try them. We bought lunch back in LP so we had our sandwiches sitting by the blue lagoon – fabulous day. Tomek even tried jumping to water from a hanging rope as it seemed there was some kind of competition between people. It is apparently much more difficult that it seems ;-) Some landed on their heads, some on their bellies (must have hurt) and some, especially children did some amazing jumps.
From LP we took another very very slow bus through the mountains to
Nong Khiaw (4h) where we wanted to see some village life between limestone hills. We traded scenic border crossing to Thailand by boat for this place so we hoped it would have been worth it. And
it was 100%!a(MISSING) good decision as Nong Khiaw is one of those places that only few people travel to so we felt great over there. Found nice bungalow for 40,000 kip/5$, met a very cool American girl - Shanon and enjoyed slow pace of Laos for the last time. Did nothing but drink Lao-Lao, exchanged travel stories (as we were headed in opposite direction) and did some walking around. We could witness some of the grass burning and TNT blow ups that take mountain apart piece by piece. That makes the landscape less and less spectacular year on year. It seemed like a perfect closure of this part of our journey. We knew that once we reach Thailand we would no longer be in an undeveloped country at such, where interaction with locals would seem somehow unique. We would not take slow and crumbling buses any more and probably would not see towns where there are no proper roads or internet access....
So how do we feel after 6 months on the road? First of all it doesn’t feel it has been 6 months but maybe few weeks. This whole time went so quickly that we are
truly afraid that 18 months would be gone in no time. Surprisingly time goes quicker than at home and our days are always filled with plenty of thinkgs to do. We have read so many books on the way that we would have needed years to do the same with the high paced life we left behind.
We feel very blessed we can do it and we feel that this trip is changing us gradually. For sure we have higher appreciation for simple things we used to take for granted such as private space (no such thing in Asia), comfort of your own house and bed where you can escape if you need to be alone (paper walls and thin mattress in guesthouses don't really give you that feeling), hot shower or a bath (not that we need hot water in 40C bur still), food you like that is always in your fridge and most importantly freedom and possibility to leave the country and travel. We have and see things at home that thousands of people in Asia dream of having or seeing and yet we are free to go where ever we want to around the world if
that is not enough. Tomek found new hobbies (learnt to meditate and play harmonica) and also lost whooping 13kg/28lb. As for myself....well I did not loose as much weight as I would wish for (only 4kg/9lb) but that maybe has something to do with enjoying food;-) We also found out how little you actually need to be happy. How suddenly my 50 pairs of shoes (for instance) are not essential and 35l backpacks are like magic box with all we need. Of course we miss our home, family and friends, our lovely dog (that by the way has the best extended holidays ever with my parents) but we know that that will wait for us when we come back one day.
Of course there are things we find difficult such as sticking to our budget, I am sure everybody does;-) We are doing pretty good job with it bus it is hard sometimes to know that you cannot afford some things. Especially when we go to very modern and touristy places i.e. Hong Kong and we simply don't have access to some of the 'luxurious' stuff that we normally could have at home;-) On one hand travelling with a
lot of money would have been much easier (mental aspect) but I am sure we would have missed on some of the best experiences on the way as well. It is something one can definitely get used to (or go home earlier which we don't want to do). Hunger is another issue and don't get us wrong here as we are not running around hungry, but what I mean is constant cravings for things you really like. That would be red wine or cider and goat cheese in my case and some home cooked meals for Tomek. Noodles and rice are ok but how much you can really have before you get tired of them?
What seemed like a very difficult and brave thing to do last year now seems like a piece of cake. Giving up jobs we really enjoyed, trading our house and stable adult life in a middle of an economical crisis for this 'jobless and homeless' person status seemed like an insane idea to many we know. However, if anybody reading this is thinking of doing or planning to do the same – we can assure you that all the stress and worries you have
now will not exist once you are on the road. It was indeed the best decision we made. We did not have to wait 6 months to discover it. We already knew it when we boarded the Trans-mongolian train that we believe was the highlight of this trip. Maybe when we finish we can do the 'Highs and Lows' list as it is already too difficult to choose any;-) For anybody interested in budget planning - within 6 months we spent 46$ a day on average (53$ when including the expensive trans-mongolian train). We try to include our avg. spending per country in the short summary always in the last blog from a particular country (like the one below).
Additional Note - Summary of Laos: • 22 days, 8 towns and villages
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our favourite place:Kong Lor and Lunag Prabang second
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our favourite food: Chicken Tortillas in Don Det (seriously, we did not find anything special in Lao cuisine), also Tomek loves papaya salad and sticky rice but it can be found in other countries as well
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our favourite landscape:waterfalls and hills of Bolaven Plateau
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our favourite activities:boat ride through dark 7,5 km long Kong Lo
Cave
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our favourite hotel/guest-house:one in Luang Prabang but name just escaped us sorry (located just opposite Wat Aham)
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least favourite thing about Laos:no such thing ;-)
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our cost per day incl. visa and transport: 26£/41$ per day for both of us
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GRACIELA
non-member comment
lovely
I have been there. I missed the waterfalls. Lovely place.