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Published: July 29th 2009
Huay Xai, LPDR
The view from ThailandHaving crossed the Mekong River from Chiang Khong I set foot in Indochina at Huay Xai. The first thing to get your head around was changing currency from Thai Baht to Lao Kip, which involved carrying large bundles of notes to do anything.
At the time of writing 10,000 Kip is about $1USD or 50 pence, and buys you a large bottle of Beer Lao!
Huay Xai was a nondescript border town. Everything was shut down by about 22:00, which coincided with the curfew at our guesthouse. With a 2 day slowboat journey to Luang Prabang ahead of us the early night made sense.
The first leg of the slow boat journey was Huay Xai to Pak Beng. When buying the tickets we were told to be ready to leave by 8:30am to guarantee good seats on the slow boat. However the guesthouse organising boat tickets was farcical, the old Lao lady running the show was more concerned with counting money than anything else.... we arrived at the boat at 10:00am, just an hour before departure.
The boat was packed full of backpackers and the bench seats were cramped and very uncomfortable. We'd been told there would be no more
than 60-70 passengers for the journey, but by the time we left at 11:30 it there were around 140!
The scenery on the banks Mekong River was beautiful, but tainted slightly by the overcast sky and the fact that conditions on the slowboat were very uncomfortable. We didn't arrive in Pak Beng until 18:00 and it took another hour to disembark, by which time it was dark. After the chaos of trying to find your pack and get to the front of the boat you were faced with the precarious task of crossing a thin wooden plank about 5 feet above the water. Most backpackers on the river bank were standing around bewildered by the days experience, so we took advantage and pushed on into the small town to find accommodation. We hadn't eaten since breakfast, so starving headed promptly to a restaurant and devoured two different dishes.... food never tasted so good!
Pak Beng was a strange place composed solely of guesthouses and restaurants.... clearly as the half way point between Huay Xai and Luang Prabang it existed largely for tourism. It was a charming town set on the hillside above the banks of the Mekong. Electricity only
Slow Boat to Luang Prabang via Pak Beng
Many an uncomfortable hour was spent here in overcrowded conditions sitting on a wooden bench... existed courtesy of generators and the town plunged into darkness at 22:00 when they were shutdown. After a few Beer Lao, shattered from the long day travelling it was time for bed.
The next morning the electricity was still off. After packing in darkness, I collected sandwiches I'd ordered from the nice old Lao lady who ran the guesthouse and headed back to the river bank. The slowboat was different to the previous day's and at 8:00am we managed to procure the last two padded seats. Day 2 was supposed to be a 6 hour journey leaving Pak Beng at 9:00am. Mirroring events of the previous day the boat didn't depart until 10:15am and it would be gone 18:00 before it arrived in Luang Prabang. It had rained all morning and for the first time in SE Asia I was really cold.... the boat was dangerously overcrowded and as on Day 1 many travellers continued to buy Beer Lao until we were surrounded by drunks (we'd chosen not to drink on the boat). The scenery along the Mekong was largely the same as Day 1 and conditions on board meant it was hard to appreciate.... I just wanted to get
to Luang Prabang.
It was dark when we arrived in Luang Prabang and most of the guesthouses were full. To find a bed the daily budget was out the window and for 150,000 Kip ($15USD) we found a place to stay. It was such a relief to be off the slowboat, and following dinner and a few Beer Lao I was able to relax and take in the night market.
The following day changed digs to more downmarket accomodation, costing just $5USD a night and run by a friendly frail looking old man.
Luang Prabang was a nice place to relax for a few days. Visited the Royal Palace, which is now a museum. The King and his wife were exiled from Luang Prabang in 1977 to NE Laos. Imprisoned in a cave, by 1981 they had both died from lack of adequate food and medical attention.
One afternoon we found a beautiful spot overlooking the Nam Khan river and a rickety bamboo bridge. The Chang Cafe was the perfect place to take in the vista over an ice cold Beer Lao. The same day for sunset we climbed up Phu Si, a 100m high hill offering excellent
Laotians on the river bank
Lao people seems their preferred title. views of Luang Prabang, Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. There was a Buddhist shrine at the summit and an old Russian anti-aircraft cannon. In the evenings there was a good night market to browse and plenty of good restaurant bars. Most places closed around 11:30 and on our last night 10:30, which is supposedly the LPDR curfew.
From Luang Prabang went on a half day trip elephant riding. It was an incredible experience, with 1 hour riding the elephant and a motorboat down river for lunch at the Tat Sae waterfall (not as impressive as photos we'd seen, given it was dry season).
All the elephants were female, as apparently they are easier to train than males. Our elephant Mae San had been rescued from the logging industry where she had been badly maltreated. Appart from the scars from the chains used to pull massive loads of timber, Mae San had been blinded in one eye when these chains broke and gauged her eye on a branch as she lunged forward.
Mae San was a character and the most mischevous of the elephants in our group. Her mahout (handler), Mr Ban was constantly having to shout at her. On
Mighty Mekong
The river runs through it and most of SE Asia! numerous occassions Mae San would leave the path and plunge straight through the surrounding forest in a bid to race to the front of the group.... she also had a penchant for stopping to snack on the vegetation, much to the annoyance of Mr Ban. Some of the handling and the fact the elephants were chained up when we got to the elephant camp worried me, but we were assured by our guide the elephants had a much better quality of life here than they did in the logging industry (from when Mae San was scarred having been stabbed with a knife!).
Having recovered from the madness of the slowboats, caught the VIP bus South to Vang Vien. This place was backpacker heaven, full of bars and cafes catering for Western tastes, and cheaper than Luang Prabang. Most bars continually aired TV series or movies and we particularly enjoyed an early evening drink in the bar showing Family Guy, better still later seasons I hadn't seen. In the bars in Vang Vien you take your sandals off and sit on raised platforms covered in cushions with a low table.... very cool. When the bars in town close you head
Elephants pulling timber, Pak Beng
Not a nice way to treat such a beautiful animal over the river bridge to the island bars in the middle of the Nam Song. The best of these bars was Smile Bar, where everyone sits round an open bonfire for a chat and to keep warm.
On the first day in Vang Vien we hired bicycles to explore the surrounding countryside and visit Tham (cave) Phu Kham. The bikes were very basic with no gears and the unpaved road was very hard going in the heat of the day. After a dusty 6km ride to the cave it was a steep 200m climb up rocks to the cave entrace. Inside was a reclining Buddha shrine, and with just my mini maglite we ventured deeper into the cave. The rock formations were very impressive, but not be illuminated this was a real caving experience and we had to be careful to avoid some deep holes. After messing around trying to take photos in complete darkness we became disorientated and it took much longer to find our way out of the cave than it had on the way in. Exhausted from the cycle ride back to Vang Vieng we went out for a few ales, ending up at Jaidee's Bar.
This bar was full of intoxicated travellers, not just from drink! Vang Vieng is a strange place where bars openly advertise "Happy" Shakes (laced with marijuana), joints and opium on their menus. Allegedly police are paid off so they don't raid the bars as drug use is illegal (officially speaking) in LPDR.
We had come to Vang Vieng for the river tubing we'd been told about when we did the Inca Trail in Peru (Thanks to "Pancho" Joe Harper for the recommendation). Basically you hire a giant innertube a catch a tuk-tuk a few kms out of town to the starting point on the Nam Song river. You then float downstream back to town stopping at the numerous makeshift bamboo bars that frequent the river bank. When we went tubing the water was cold and the river was low as it was dry season. Pulled ashore courtesy of bar staff with a long bamboo cane at the first stop we drank ice cold Beer Lao on a platform above the water, while a stereo repeatedly played Boney M tracks. The next bar was much more elaborate with plenty of platforms for lazing in the sun and a high trapeze
Luang Prabang
Grounds of former Royal Palace over the river, where the only way off was to plunge into the cold water below.... great fun! Thereafter with still a few kms to go we started to get cold as the sky greyed over and by the time we reached the finishing point we were frozen and exhausted from having to paddle most of the way to beat the sun setting behind the mountains (having heard horror stories about how cold it would get then).
On the last night in Vang Vieng we inevitably ended up at Smile Bar, which was having a full moon party complete with an Irish? DJ (Why?).... Vang Vieng was a mad experience.
Vientiane, the capital, was a souless city with very little to do during the day. The first night out was an equally dull affair, but the next evening after we said goodbye to Josh (Canadian we'd met in Fiji and subsequently in Luang Prabang and Vang Vien) we got catching to a guy called Dave from Dublin and a couple of North London girls, Annie and Alex. We all headed out for drinks, first stopping at very dark club playing Lao music which seemed very formal not a Westerner
in sight. It was a real struggle to find what we call bars, so we ended up in Samlo Pub, where we had watched football the previous night. The place was a bit of a pick up joint for Western losers looking for prostitutes, but the bar was livelier than the previous night and being in a group we had more fun.
The next day we visited the Patuxai monument, a nearby Wat, and the Talat Sao market. In the evening we met up with Dave and the girls again for an even more bizarre night out. Starting at Vientianes only Mexican restaurant we headed back to Samlo Pub where I beat one of the locals at pool. As it got towards closing we'd been chatting to a Canadian called Devon who was friends with a Lao guy called Bouma. Bouma wanted us all to follow him and carry on the evening. Myself and Gary we're out of Kip, so Annie and Alex very kindly financed the rest of the evening. First we went to Don Chan Palace (the most luxurious hotel in town) where Bouma's brother was security, which gave us free entry and the chance of another drink
Luang Prabang
Slowboat moorings before closing. Then Bouma took us bowling and before we knew it, it was 4am.... by far our latest night out in LPDR.
On the last day in Lao visited the statue of Chao Fa Ngum, a warlord who became king in 1353 aka "The Conqueror". Later on Fa Ngum was exiled by his ministers due to ruthless behaviour. Later that afternoon it was time to catch a propellered Vietnam Airlines plane to Hanoi. LPDR had exceeded all of my expectations and I wondered if Viet Nam could do the same.
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