Viva La-Laos!

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Please disregard all spelling and grammer mistakes....I'm not teaching english yet! : )

We love Laos, no doubt about it.

Easy to travel, easy people, really, encompasses our favorite term - "chill-axin" - a combination of chilling and relaxing at the same time. Can only really truly be done properly while traveling, difficult to obtain chillaxin status on the weekend.

We left the island and beach life for another night in Bangkok to make our travels up north and across the Thailand Laos border. Back in the day these countries didn't really like each other very much. Now, slowly but surely, they're becoming better pals each and every year. The Friendship Bridge is what we crossed over into Laos and signifies an agreement between the two countries to work together and help one another prosper. Laos, for a long time, was not easily accessible and goods and services were not easy to get into or out of the country. The Friendship Bridge, happy happy joy joy, and the highway which came with it became a major artery for goods, services, and tourism. The bridge itself is not spectacul to behold but, hey a little history lesson for you can't hurt. Another history lesson is that in the 19th century, Laos was incorporated into the 'Protectorate' of French Indochina, therefore the country, and the bigger cities are very influenced by the French culture.....hellloooo baguettes!

Laos is a beautiful country and the thickly forested landscape consists mostly of rugged mountains with some plains and plateaus. The Mekong River is a big wide muddied river which runs throughout the country and helps form a natural border with Thailand. We took a night train from Bangkok into Nhan Kai and then immediately bought another ticket for a smaller train and 30 minute ride into Thanga Lang where we took care of our Visas. We learned of this little maneuver from a traveler in Koh Tao and would recommend it to any making there way into Laos. Once the visa was squared away, it only took about 20 minutes, we teamed up with others there for a full minivan ride into Vientiane, definitely a more cost affordable scenario.

We spent one night in Vientiane and that was enough for us - it really is more of a stop over for those looking to charge north to Vangvienne and LuangPrabang - which is exactly what we did. A highlight from Vientiane was a fantastic little restaurant spot found in all the guidebooks call Sticky Fingers, or Sticky's. Awsome food, actual proper table service and worth the stop for the few extra thousand Kip. Lip smackin, finger lickin' good. Vientiane, for us, was a sleepy town which beat us up with the holy crap it's hot and humid stick. After lumbering around in circles for a bit we settled down in the afternoon at table near a large fan in a riverside restaurant for some beers and some cards. It should be noted that Quiddler is our card game of choice on our travels. It is a word game with each card assigned a letter and a point value. Each game consists of 8 rounds with the players arranging their cards into words for the most points possible, the winner crowned at the conclusion of the 8th round. It is mentioned in travel books that it is important to bring a calculator to assist in converting currencies and discussing prices in the markets. Forget the calculator, I'm in the market for a good English Dictionary - the words these girls are making up surely cannot be real, and of course, me against the world in fighting whether a word should count or not....but, I've slipped in a couple as well so I'm sure we can call it even....or at least 51% me 49% them.

The evening of Vientiane thankfully brought with it a cooler temperature. We read about "dinner boats" cruising up and down the river and set out to find one ourselves. The boat we found looked to be a steamboat right off the Mississippi. We clamored over the high dirt banks of the river and down a path to the gangway and onto the boat. Expecting this nightime dinner escapade on the river to be a popular attraction we were pleased to get a great table along the rail and with a fan. What we didn't get that evening was a captain to take the boat out onto the river. We simply had dinner on a docked boat...... but it was a docked boat WITH KAROKE! So at least we had that going for us. Holli and Anna broke wine glasses with their rendition of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" and I made sure the door hit one exiting couple on the rear with a dance packed version of Wham and George Michael's "Wake Me Up before you Go" - so, with that couple gone we were pretty much the only ones left. Oddly enough, our dinner docked boat experience was not for many others, whereas the landscaped dirt river bank was littered with tupperware backyard tables and chairs, xmas lights, and lots of customers - we'll take the surf and they can have the turf I suppose.....

The next morning we loaded into a bus for the 7 hour drive north to the tubing capital of the world - Vang Vienne. The bus ride was similar to riding a horse at a trot, or a bruise inducing wooden rollercoaster, perhaps sitting on a jack hammer; however the picture that went past our window was amazing. As with many roads in SE Asia what we would consider a one way lane is easily a 2 way, if not 3 lane road. This road wound it's way up through the mountainous passageway north into Laos and past many small towns built along its dusty shoulder. Immense landscape views of jagged mountains covered with forest laid out before our eyes as we climbed higher and higher to the top of the mountain pass, it was quite a beautiful, although treacherous ride.

Upon finally arriving in Luang Prabang we scored immediately with accomodation at the Manalay Guesthouse. The bus literally dropped us off in their parking lot so it wasn't the most difficult decision, but hey, comfy beds, friendly staff, decent prices will get our business any day and any where. We tooled around Luang Prabang for a bit, scouting out a few food joints, adventure planning agencies, shopping stores and who knew that at EVERY, and I'm not kidding, EVERY restaurant in Luang Prabang they play the sitcom Friends , "I'll be there for youuuuuuu" - Rachel, Ross, Joey, Chandler, Monica, and Febe echo from every restaurant. Needless to say, and yes, you guessed it, we plopped ourselves down at one of those places and got 5-6 episodes in. It was like we were "stuck in second gear" and pillows and soft mats made it quite easy to waste away a few hours and keep out of the 90 degree weather. Okay, okay, okay, so not EVERY restaurant played back to back episodes of Friends, there were 2 that didn't....and they played back to back, season after season of the crass and rude and, in my opinion, pretty darn funny, cartoon "Family Guy" - The workers at these places seemed to loathe the first customers of the day - "Well, damn't Hoi Chao Chin, the white people are here, gotta put on Friends for the next 12 hours. " It really must drive them mad, especially Family guy, as funny as it is the voices of the characters can be quite obnoxious and to listen to that all day long will really shake the rice out of you.

Anyways, the main event in Vang Vienne is Tubing down the Nam Song river. This sort of tubing isn't the type you do behind a speedboat or one you do in your pool. The concept is quite simple - you rent a tube, sit in it, float on it, and return it. Simple enough. But now add in massive rope swings, zip lines, bars on both banks of the river, 10 of them to be exact, mud volleyball, tug-of-war, and the local favorite, whiskey buckets and you've got Daytona Spring Break every day! The rope swings were really fun. We all took our turn leaping from a tree-top wooden platform, don't worry parents they were re-inforced with steel beams, concrete foundations and inspected routinely by, er, the local authorities......anyways, they were massive rope swings and tons of fun to swing one way out over the river, holding on as you swing back towards the platform and back out over the deeper part of the river, letting go and splashing down. The first day after a couple tries and close encounters with massive belly flops I nailed the proper technique for a pretty good looking flip. Trapeze artists eat your hearts out.

We went two days - apparently, 11:30 in the morning is not the popular time of day to hit the river so we had it all pretty much to ourselves. We met another couple from England and hung out with them for the duration of the float. The second time we went was after a morning rock climbing adventure which I'll dedicate a few lines to. A 10 minute tuk-tuk ride out into the country, followed by a 15 minute trek up the mountain led us up and to our outcrop of rock. Anna, besides our tour guide, was our leader on the rock, our little spider-woman taking to the mountain with the greatest of ease, a little bit of sweat, but a lot of no problemo. Rock climbing is not for everyone, but for Anna it is an adreniline rush right to the nugget. For Holli, well, it's intense, (camping is intense) and a great challenge, but I feel safe in saying she likes the challenge of a good shopping excursion over a wedgie'd harnass, toe crushing climbing shoes and figuring out just where in the hell do your hands and feet go on the rock. I liked it tremendously and look forward to next go around - belay on!

So, back to our tubing adventure, the second day was definitely Spring Break Tubing Daytona Beach style......but damn, did we feel old...er. True to form with a lot of the travelers we've come across this trip is that we tip the age scales with me being the patriarch at the round number of 30. Yes, I know, 30. It looks terrible on paper and in blogs. 30. Anyhoo, the second day of tubing was us and a lot of kids getting hammered. Us in our wise old ages, took to more of the people watching route rather than the I'm going to puke my face off route which everyone else seemed to be tubing down. Where the bars were empty two days previous at Noon they were now jam packed, music pumping, and people partying watering holes at 4:00. Non-stop rope swing action, zip lines and the "Mud Bar" had tug of war, mud volleyball teams and crowds to root them on, it was madness, and this was "low season"! I couldn't imagine this place during the busy season - as you looked down the river you saw bars overflowing with people, tubes stacked up along the river banks and kids splashing down from rope swings everywhere.....it was awesome!!!! We had our fun but for the most part just set up shop and watched the young'ins, it was good people watching for sure. Case in point was the belly flop of the century. The rope swings, as fun as they are, can be a bit hazardous. One kid came off the swing looking like a crazed monkey hopped up on mountain dew. Arms were flailing, legs were kicking and he landed in the water in proper belly flop fashion. The numerous on-lookers, as this was right off a bar, all groaned, moaned, oohhed and ouched as the smacking noise seemed to shake the bananas right out of the trees. The kid came up definitely dazed, his lip was actually bleeding, and wounded doggie paddled his way to the bank where he stayed for a solid 20 minutes. Kids.

You're suppose to return the tubes by 6:00 to get your deposit back. However, a massive storm was rolling in just as we made it to the last bar high up on the river bank around 5:30 or so. Forget cats and dogs, it was raining elephants and hippos! The tin roof of the bar only amplified the rain and we literally were shouting in order to hear one another. I got one rope swing in as the rain came pouring down and the thunder boomed. We had a good sing along with pool sticks as our microphones to UB40's Red Red Wine. It was all good fun, however, it was getting dark. We saw some other tubers coming down the river and disregarded the local bartenders forecast that it would stop raining in 30 minutes to join them. I'm not going to lie, it was a little nerve wracking to realize that we were going to be floating down a river on the continent of Asia in a country called Laos in the darkness. Our float-illa however was security in numbers and we enjoyed the last hour float, in the dark, in the waning storm with lightning around us - definitely a moment we won't be forgetting. Elephants and hippos I tell you!

I think Anna may have gotten a good swig of the Nam Song River or something else crept up on her as later in the evening and the next day had her a little sick. The local pharmacy, Laos Rite-Aid or CVS etc, didn't understand english nor my charades gestures of throwing up and nausea so I got to walk to the Vangvienne hospital! That was an experience. Hospitals, wherever they may be located, are not fun or awesome to visit. The reception area had many locals waiting for God knows what. I just wanted a recommendation of what to get at the pharmacy and ended up waiting in a short line to speak with the only english speaking doctor there. The doctor I spoke with was a very tall black man I believe from Africa. His english wasn't the best but fortunately he understood my charades act and I was able to get the right anti-nausea medicine and hydration tablets. I came up short on the hospital bill, but they let me go anyways, those friendly folks in Laos.

The day and evening had us lounging in our room, chillaxing to HBO movies and ready to move on out of Vang Vienne. We did so the next day and got on a bus for another, beautiful and treacherous ride to Luang Prubang.....

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