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Published: October 7th 2005
And that statement is true, we have been very active since we've been here and had lots of new experiences. We started our journey by crossing the border at the Chiang Kong / Huay Xai border crossing which involved crossing the border on a small long boat taxi. Once we had our passports stamped, we changed some money which made us feel like we had robbed a bank - remember the Lira in pre euro Italy and you can imagine what the money's like in Laos- its all in thousands! I've never felt so rich! In the end we opted to take the two day boat ride down to Luang Prabang - this involved drifting lazily down the mekong river, taking in the beautiful scenery of Laos and retaining your ear drums (the fast boat is very loud). However on the slow boat it did involve uncomfortable hard wooden seats and stopping occasionally to pick up local people with what appeared to be large loads of laundry. It also involved everyone on the boat having the word slow (boat) on a sticker on their chest which was rather amusing! We stopped for the night at a place called Pak Beng and
We've robbed a bank!!!!!!!
No not really but it feels like it as this is about 30 pounds worth of Lao currencystayed in a very nice guest house and tried sampling some local Lao cuisine called lub - it was very nice but no where near as spicy as some thai dishes we have tried.
The weather was very good on the second day and it became very apparent just how beautiful Laos is - miles upon miles of emerald green mountain's line the Mekong river, a stark contrast to the murky brown of the Mekong. Apparently Laos recieves world aid, it seems so bizarre that in such a lush green land, the people are reliant on world aid - this is following the economic depression of south east asia in the 90's. Laos is probably the size of England maybe larger and has a population of approximately 6 million people.
We arrived safely in Luang Prabang and stayed there for a few days. During this time we visited the Kuang Si fall's which apart from seeing and swimming in a beautiful waterfall also involved seeing a tiger, some bears, climbing a mountain by accident, seeing a snake, looking like the girl from the timote advert and Ele getting stung by a caterpillar! Okay so the bears and the
tiger were in cages (apparently rescued from poachers) and the snake shot across the path, scared of us but still! The accidental mountain climb was due to us following the instructions in the guide book incorrectly so we ended up at the top of the waterfall instead of to the second tier where there was a nice swimming hole. We also took a path to the third tier which had a well constructed but ever so slightly scary path which parts of the waterfall were running over- it was well worth it but it was too dangerous to swim in the plunge pool.
Clara and I had visited a cave across the river from the main town and were shown around by two local boys - it was quite scary as it was a bit slippy but good fun. We also had a Lao massage which was incredibly painful at times! We felt relaxed afterwards but later discovered a few bruises! I am assuming not all Lao massage is like that and if I have another one I will stop being so british and say if its painful!
We also visited Phou Si mountian which has a wat (temple) on
top and several other temples below. It includes a Buddha foot print about a metre and a half long and a shrine for the "doctor buddha" which people come and pray to when they are ill - both of these were in cave's in the mountain. On walking down the mountain we discovered we were in a monastry and Tom and Ele joined in playing with some of the children! We then met a monk called Khao who speaks english very well who showed us round the monastry and told us about how he teaches in the buddhist high school. He is building a library slowly of Lao, English and Thai books (preferably those about buddhism/ those which teach english) and he teaches students of 13 upwards english every evening. In fact he invited us to come back one evening to help teach english which we did! It was great fun and the students ranged from aged 13 to 23. Some had not been learning very long but others had been learning for two or three years. They were learning from an american workbook though which had the word laundromat in which we changed to the english spelling. They had
The Doctor Buddha Shrine
Its housed in a very dark cave and people come and pray here when they are ill, bringing offerings some difficulty with our names and Clara's name sounded like Colin the first time they all said it! However they speak English far better than I speak Lao so I'm in no place to criticise!Just incase anyone who reads this gets the urge to send money or books to help Khao increase his library, here is the address:
Ven. Khaonoy Thammavong,
Wat Siphoutthabat Thipparam,
Ban Xiengmouane,
Luangprabang district,
Luangprabang Province,
Lao P. D. R.
We then moved on to Vang Vieng which is a small town. The journey to Vang vieng was by bus and took about 8 hours - this was definately the most dangerous part of our trip for several reasons;
1) it took us down the infamous route 13 which has been subject to a few bombings/ambushes of buses by terrorists (back in 2003) although these were usually targetted at government run buses and we took the tourist bus so should have been safe. However we did have about 3 "guards" on the bus who were all carrying what the boys identified as AK 47's - the barrel of which was pointed at Clara's foot for most of the journey as it casually rested on the
owners lap!
2) Lovely mountain scenery, nice hairpin bends and brakes that kept on sticking so we had to stop a few times to fix them - needless to say our driver was a lot more cautious than some of the buses that passed us on the way!
3) Landslides! We saw several landslides on the way and had to stop for about an hour and a half whilst waiting for a JCB to come and clear it -even the 4WD's were getting stuck in it! We all got out and let our bus go over without passengers having seen one bus topple precariously!
However we arrived safely and enjoyed the beautiful sceneryon the way to Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is surrounded by limestone karsts and is famous for its numerous caves and the tourist sport of tubing. If you love the tv series F.R.I.E.N.D.S. this is the town for you - there were several cafes which played friends episodes non stop and other cafes offered various movies and sport and music as well as the occasional friends episode! We had a lovely relaxing time in Vang Vieng and did a one day caving and trekking tour which took
us into four caves and at one point you could describe us as free climbing as we clambered up and down the rocks, with only a slightly dodgy headlight and a guide to find our way! It was very exciting and slightly scary at times and included bats, tubing in a cave and a bit of wading through an underground stream! Let me explain about tubing, it basically consists of sitting in a large rubber tube (I think they are lorry tyre inner tubes) on water - you can just about use your arms to steer and your feet to propell you but its not easy. In the cave there were ropes set up to pull ourselves along and we were using our feet to push us along the cave wall at times aswell. It was quite fun and exciting. On the river it was good fun too, at one point we stopped at a place where you can do a zip wire and drop into the river - they stick out a large rod for you to hold onto and pull yourself into the bank and you could only do the zip wire if you brought a beer or
Lao BBQ
So delicious and they give you all the ingredients to make it yourselves! a soft drink - lots of people were doing fancy dives (someone went upside down) and a few people didn't let go at the right time and fell unceremoniously into the river! Ele and Tom had a go at the zip wire and did very well- Tom has video footage to prove it!There were lots of places to stop and do jumps into the river and bars with people waiting to pull you in. A further adventure we had was that Clara was scratched/ bitten by a very crazy cat so we were abit worried about rabies and toured two hospitals, the national vets association and a rabies clinic in vientaine the next day!
We moved onto Vientaine a few days ago and have visited the Buddha park which also includes the creator of the parks vision of hell contained within a dome shaped building which you could walk to the top of - we did go inside and make it to the top - it was interesting but slightly disturbing. The Buddha park is a mixture of Buhhdist and Hindu figures set in a lovely riverside meadow and there was hardly anyone there as it was close to
closing time so was very peaceful. We've also been to the top of the replica Arc du Triumphe which is a tribute/ war memorial to those who died in Laos, it was started in 1962 but never finished due to the countries turbulant history. The views were amazing from the top - a really nice feature of Vientaine is that it is not high rise like so many other cities in asia and cities/ towns in Laos are very green in general.
We discovered a new game in Laos - basically you have a an open cupboard (no doors) divided into many sections each the right size to fit a small balloon, the aim of the game is to burst three balloons by throwing darts and you win a drink of your choice. If you burst two you get a sweet but apparently they tamper with the flights of some of the darts so that players can't always win. Its a fun game which we feel should be introduced to fairs in England (you heard it here first!).
Laos is lovely, it is so relaxed and you feel quite safe here. The people are friendly and enjoy a
good haggle for bargains. Laos is a very water based country e.g. transport, lagoons, mountain streams and full of beautiful butterflies. I could happily return here one day and would recommend visiting it 😊
Sorry about the long entry but so much has happened! On we go to Hanoi in vietnam now, Tom has gone on ahead as we have a slight visa problem to sort out but we are looking forward to visiting Halong Bay and should be in vietnam 2-3 weeks
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Carole and Mike King
non-member comment
Amazing trip!
Sarah, your Mum and Dad have been to stay and showed us your wonderful travelblog. We are most impressed - you seem to be having a fantastic time. Keep up the good work on the diary. We're surprised you have the energy to keep such a detailed one after all your adventures! We're looking forward to the next episode. Love Carole and Mike