Advertisement
Published: February 28th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Ok, you'll understand in a minute what the dangers in Laos are. I am control freak enough to write about things in a chronological order. Last days in Vietnam first.
Those 3 days in Ha Long Bay were a relief from what we had seen so far in Vietnam. In other places in Vietnam, the "beaten track" has been transformed into a series of hotspots, where westerners are almost forced to take tours that are tailored for the average drunk Brit. That says a lot about what Vietnamese people think about all westerners. They apparently believe that all of us just come to drink as much as possible, have the music as loud as possible and just behave like spoiled teenagers. In most places that are in the Vietnam bible, the real Vietnamese life has been hidden away from tourists by replacing the real Vietnam with westerner-style commercialized indulgences. This trick is a little harder to realize on Ha Long Bay. Rather difficult and useless to turn the natural surroundings into a theme park or a lane of discotheques. The cliffs are what makes Ha Long Bay into a tourist attraction, and nothing else.
The junk was waiting for
us at 11AM, in the middle of possibly over one hundred other junks. They were "parked" against each other so that people had to crawl over several other junks before reaching the one they were supposed to be on. We were lucky, we could get on our junk without having to do a lot of climbing. While we were waiting for other boats to leave and allow us to move out, a woman fell in the water while trying to get from one boat to another. It's an attraction by itself to just see the whole scene of that many junks pressing against each other and even bumping into each other as if they were bumper cars, and the herds of tourists and backpacks being dragged up and down them. Some time later, all the junks started sailing out of the harbor and spread out on the waters to serve lunch to the passengers.
The food has been amazing. Allright, that first lunch left us a little hungry, but all the other meals were a display of abundance. Mostly seafood, as fresh as seafood can get. Tofu and eggs for the vegetarians. We got to check into our cabins
after lunch. The clouds hadn't given way to the sun yet, and these junks do not have real heating on board, so most of us were feeling chilly. But the sight of unspoilt nature sedated the discomfort partly. In the late afternoon, we visited a huge cave inside one of those big rocks. I think we'd better just shut up about our pathetic "caves of Han" in Belgium. This place is 10 times the size. Made me think it would be a good location for a Star Trek episode. Large enough to house a few hundred refugees in times of war, these rooms have only been discovered in 1994 or so... so the guide says.
Anyway, to shorten the story, the activities of the next 2 days included a mountain bike ride through a rural area on Cat Ba island, kayaking, getting to know the other tourists on the boat and just enjoying the scenery while sailing. Only a hand full of local fisher families live in Ha Long Bay in houses built on rafts. They actually live on the water day in day out, with their children and their dogs. Near the coast of Cat Ba Island, there
is even a quite large area, almost a small village on rafts.
The only downturn on the Ha Long Bay tour was the weather. The sun managed to push away the clouds just as we stepped off the boat again in the harbor. Murphy. I would have liked to have seen Sapa (all the way north of Vietnam, in the mountains), but it was still much too cold over there.
So Francis and I flew to Vientiane (=capital of Laos) the next morning. I never thought it to be possible, but I now know somebody who has a harder time getting up in the morning than I do, and agrees with me that being awake before noon on a non working day is useless. Having slept only a few hours, and not having slept enough on the Ha Long Bay tour, the sight of people on the market in Hanoi at 5AM was surrealistic. All the customs checks went incredibly smoothly and the flight was a breeze. Getting out of the airport, only 3 taxi drivers asked us (in a polite way) if we needed a ride, and there was *not one* rickshaw driver. Most importantly, the temperatures were
above 26C again.
We walked away from the airport to avoid the overcharging taxi's, and asked a tuktuk to drive us to the backpackers area. This is usually the centre of the city and thus the busiest area. But here, there is hardly any traffic! After India and Vietnam, can we *really* get used to not hearing *any* horns at all? As this is the *capital*, we could hardly believe how quiet this place is. We decided to stay in Vientiane for a few days to sleep in and take a break from travelling around. There are plenty of good restaurants here, and some are owned by westerners. One restaurant had a French cook and served a very good red house wine and good food. However, Francis had a serious case of upset stomach and bowels for two days after our second dinner at that place. We had ordered Steak Tartare, after talking to the French cook and being assured that it was safe meat. I guess it wasn't. Francis was too sick to move, so he stayed in bed for 2 days, and I rented a bicycle and saw some of the sights. The people are genuinly friendly
and I haven't caugth any of them trying to cheat or be dishonest in any way. I sat and talked with a 20 year old Buddhist munk next to the golden stupa. He's been in the monastery for 10 years and was planning to stay at least another 5 years. Yet, he tried to tell me how lovely I am and how he could provide for me if I would marry him! One to add to the list of memorable wedding requests.
Once Francis was finally feeling better and digesting food again, we took the bus to Vang Vieng (Tuesday). The backpackers street is a little ridiculous. As litterally mentioned in the Lonely Planet, there are places here where westerners go lounge night after night and watch endless reruns of "Friends". Two televisions, and about 20 tables with seats only on one side of the table, all facing the televisions. All seats occupied. Some places actually specify that Friends is *not* an option in the list of DVD's.
For the first time, I also saw 2 westerners holding hands with 14 year old local girls. Weird. They're just walking around with those girls as if it's the normalest thing
to do.
Laos is a place where Opium is sold everywhere, as are mushrooms and marihuana. Many restaurants have subtle menu items to maky you understand that you can buy a night of happiness. "Any special shake available", "Smile Pancakes", "Happy Cocktails". Yesterday we had dinner in a restaurant, where the waiter subtly put a small "addendum" to the regular menu on the table, upside down (see picture). And some people around us looked rather "happy" indeed.
We found a quiet bungalow a few 100m away from tourist street but moved to another guest house with an even better view just next to the river. An amazing place, surrounded by mountains with caves, rice fields and jungle. We had a really nice walk through the rice fields and bushes yesterday, and I finally gave in to sharing some BeerLao with Francis.
So now I do understand the warning in the "Dangers" section in the South-East Asia guidebook that Francis has. The biggest danger is *forgetting to leave the country*. I could stay here for some more weeks.... but now I have made the decision to return by April, and I still want to go see Ankor What
in Cambodia, and have my teeth done in Bangkok... decisions decisions.
More in a week or so... *if I don't forget*
Hugs
Advertisement
Tot: 0.112s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 15; qc: 55; dbt: 0.079s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
gaelle
non-member comment
lovely
Aah Sabrina it so nice to see how relaxed you are in you writings. You really seem to have an great time now and those who have followed your adventure know it has not always been easy. Keep up the good moods, you look good on the pictures too! Big hug and dont forget to choose what is right for you. (You only have to be back end of May, else Rutger might just have three small problems ;-)))