Slowly south

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So towards the end of our week in LP I finally began to feel like I could do more than hide in the shade trying not to scratch my 80-odd bites. We had a night at the theatre to watch a show of traditional dance which was very impressive and then, on our last day there, had a day out. This started at a nearby elephant project where they have 7 fully grown elephants, rescued from logging work, and one 3 year old who is so cute. The old name for Laos, Lane Xang, means kingdom of a million elephants so it is very sad to realise that there are less than 100 left in the wild. However, there are quite a lot more than that still used by the logging industry and the camp are hoping to give some of them a better home and maybe breed from the animals they have.

We spent a while playing with the baby and watching him feed before climbing up onto the back of one of the bigger elephants for a walk through the forest and back along the river. You get a wonderful view from up there and it was beautifully peaceful. As we walked back through the river, swallows with orange flashes on their backs flew past at eye level - it was all rather lovely. Back at the camp we fed bananas to both elephants - we were amazed by the dexterity of their trunks and their huge mouths - I could've stayed all day to watch these fascinating creatures.

The afternoon was spent trekking to a nearby Khmu village. The Khmu are the largest ethnic group in Laos but still many of them are very poor and the village is mainly made up of straw and mud huts surrounded by chickens and pigs with grubby barefoot children running around. However, the trekking projects set up includes donations to the local communities which have had a significant effect, including the building of a primary school in the village we went to that had only been open for a year. It is really good to see tourism money being put to such good use.

From the village we walked to some waterfalls which are probably quite impressive in the wet season but now are just a series of small ponds with water trickling between them. However, there were elephants from another camp having a play in the largest pool and we watched them rolling around and playing with each other for a while. When we got back to the river the boat to take us back was not there and the guide had to phone and remind them that we were there.....he said occasionally they wait an hour for a boat but we managed to hitch a ride on somebody else's passing boat in about 10 minutes so it wasn't so bad.

I've just remembered that we were also up early on our last morning to see the daily alms collection by the monks. At daybreak hundreds of orange-clad monks (shivering at this time of year) come out of their wats and form a procession through the main streets collecting rice and other food from local people. It has become a big tourist attraction so is spoiled somewhat, particularly by those who do not show a reasonable amount of respect or know how to behave around monks, but it is still an important part of their daily ritual and rather lovely to watch.

The following day we had to finally pack up our bags to leave LP and headed for the bus station. A large yellow bus claiming to be the 'King of Buses' - in silver writing across the front - was the so-called VIP bus service to Vang Vieng. Sadly the bus seemed to be designed with comfort for the luggage more in mind than the traveller with huge space on the bottom of the bus for bags but the seated area very high up meaning that the roof of the bus was not far above our heads (particularly Hugh's!). More of a problem was the leg room, or lack of it and Hugh spent the entire journey with his knees wedged against the seat in front. In addition, the seats seemed to be in a permanently reclined setting, so gave little support and mine gradually reclined further if I leaned against it so I spent the entire trip pulling it back up again. As a special treat there is also a toilet which I can only describe as an experience, particularly on the mountain roads! For some reason VIP also means that you get frilly curtains and spotted patterns on the window which very sadly spoil the spectacular views of endless mountains as the bus wends its way south.

The journey to Vang Vieng was supposed to be 5 hours covering a distance of around 250km but it soon became clear that this was an underestimate as the windy roads and steep hills meant that the bus was barely averaging 40km an hour. We reckoned we had about an hour to go when the bus finally stopped for what turned out to be a free lunch included in our ticket. We would rather have just got on with it but the bus driver is king in these situations and you just have to wait it out, keeping an eye on him all the time in case he suddenly decides to leave.

We finally made it into Vang Vieng about an hour and a half late and got a tuk-tuk to the hotel we had booked. When we had made a bit of a fuss we got put into a lovely large room with balcony overlooking the Nam Khan river and beyond to spectacular limestone peaks stretching into the distance - a place where we had decided to really have a holiday. The town itself has a reputation for being a backpacker hangout and has lots of 'wacky' activities like tubing....sitting in a rubber tire floating down the river and various places for jumping from great heights into the river. There are also lots of cafes showing reruns of Friends but we were actually surprised by how quiet it was, bearing in mind it's peak season, and it was very easy to get away from the town.

We spent our time there going on walks, one very long one out through small villages between the karst peaks and off on some empty side paths to caves and streams. The scenery is stunning and much of the time we were surrounded by multi-coloured butterflies and the only sound was the birds.

We also hired bikes one day for me to have another go. I'm sure the locals were bemused by the ginger-haired farang going round and round in circles on a bike on the disused airfield followed by a very tall man on an undersized bike shouting instructions. Still, I felt a little more confident by the time we took the bikes back at the end of the day.

So, a lovely time was had in Vang Vieng except for one minor crisis right at the end. We'd left clothes to be washed at a nearby shop the day before we did the long walk and popped back to pick it up when we got back from the walk to find the shop well and truly closed. We managed to explain the problem to people having a meal on the street next door using sign language and they told us the lady was out at a party (we believe it was something called Pathet Lao day) and the shop would not open until 9am the following day. We were leaving at 9.30am for a bus so we just had to cross our fingers but had various plans in place for if we couldn't get our stuff in time. The next morning we were there well before 9 but still no sign of the shop owner - of course, every other shop and laundry place in town was open at that time! One of the ladies from next door appeared and suggested it would be 10am before the shop opened and we explained that we had a bus to catch. Next we knew she had disappeared on a motorbike and was back a couple of minutes later saying that the lady would be there in 10 minutes - how lovely was that?! In fact it was 5 minutes and we had masses of time before our bus, much to our great relief!

In fact, we had more time that we'd expected......we thought the bus left at 10am and we were being picked up at 9.30am. By 10am there was still no sign of our lift and it was long gone 10am by the time we got to the bus. However, it was still there and only had a few people on it. We got the front seat, with loads of leg room, and everybody was happy when it eventually set off around half an hour late......

As ever, the 3 hour journey took nearer 4, including a stop, but we made it to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, feeling much less stressed than after the last bus journey. And there I will leave you until the next time.

Hope you're not suffering the January blues too much and that being back at work is not too trying. Look forward to hearing your New Year resolutions (mine is to check every room for bed bugs!)...

Lots of love

Sarah + Hugh

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Comments

[jonathan]

hi guys
Really enjoying reading the blog. You always put so much detail in that's it really easy to imagine it all. And of course the photos help. Staying in touch like this almost makes it feel like you haven't gone away (although I'm fairly sure you don't feel the same way!). In fact I think we may have more contact now than we did when you were just in Leeds - unless we had a technical question for each other of course... My NY resolution is not to buy any new clothes or accessories... in January (come on, I couldn't last longer than that). So I bought a couple of guide books today to cheer myself up. They're for Milan though so it somewhat keeps the shopping theme going. Anyway, great to hear from you as always and it looks like your weather is nicer than ours. I had to walk back from the helpline last night through thunder, lightening and hail! J x