Vive la Vientiane!

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Hello World!

Hope everyone is OK back in the now apparently sunny UK. Glad to hear the weather is better now (short of our 35c though 😊) and that things are ticking over OK. Congrats to Clare on her MA, we will have a drink for you later and when we return! Ceeeeeeelebration woo!

This will be a monster blog so again get comfy, seek refreshments and settle in for a bumpy ride! Also this blog marks some shocking news....

WE ARE HALFWAY THROUGH OUR TRAVELS!

It has come around unbelivebly quickly! We had decided to come home on sept 1st but due to all the flights being full we will now offcially be returning on the 12th of September. Here are some amusing statistics as I love them;

Days away from home so far: 134
Days left before we come home: 118
Number of photos taken: 4,603 (Barmy! To Kit thats over 20Gb)
Countries we have vistited: 6
Countries left to visit: 5

So anyway.... The last blog was left before our gruelling coach journey to Vientiane from Luang Prabang (sorry for squeezing in two more Luang pics but it was that pretty!). Predictably we were slightly shafted on buying our VIP uber deluxe ticket through our hotel a) the price turned out not to include a shuttle up there and b) the VIP bus wasnt so VIP! Basically the same as any other local bus we have taken, ahwell! And there was a sicky sick girl throwing up before and during the journey! The journey was about 11hrs in total which wasn't so friendly on my back, the seats did recline to near horizontal levels and the air con wasn't working but it wasn't hot so neh bother. The scenery out of Luang Prabang was pretty good as the bus wound up (and down) hairpin after hairpin. Vang Vieng was exeptionally pretty but we decided to give it amis as its a bit touristy and druggy for our liking. Several more hours of monsoonal rain and we arrived into Vientiane, the capital of Loas in the evening, hoorah!

We stayed at Sayosouly guesthouse in a dated but nice, cheap room with kids cartoon bed spreads and an old retro american fridge (the 5am cockeral wasnt such a welcome addition though!) Vientiane was again suprisingly modern, with its main square being particularly developed, but in a nice way. The French influence was again not hard to miss. The Nam Phu main square has a big twee southern French style fountain with benches surrounding it and many of the signs were in French as opposed to English. In a homage to its european rulers there was an imitation of the Arc D'Triomphe, complete with their version of the Champs D'Elysee (spelling?). We also saw the main symbol of buddism in Laos at the big gold Pha That Luang which is the main 'sight'. Aside from our sight seeing day we took it pretty easy (read: very!) and generally soaked up the ambience and decided to further this by going for a nice romantic French meal at one of the amazing restaurants in town. We headed to the slapper ah hem I mean Le Silapa (try and not mis-pronounce it!) which was run by a typically over the top French guy in a typically Frenchy restaurant. The food was amazingly yummy. Sar had duck breast over mangoed lentils and I opted for a bonless leg of lamb with a mushroom sauce. Both were nice and pink and washed down with a nice bottle of Chilean (French was too dear) wine. Sar also tried Grand Marnier for the first time and is now hooked, oh the wallet! With Vientianes 11.30m curfew looming we headed to the bar opposite our hotel so that we could leg it in at 1 minute to 11.30. To be frank that never happened as due to lack of drinking we were pretty drunk just after ten due to the tasty but potent cocktails!

I woke up at about 5am vomitting! Yay! Sar sleeping away oblivious to my suffering. I proceeded to spend the next part of the next two days in bed or the bathroom. Was it the lamb? Was it the dodgy prawns the day before? Was it the eggy smelling water from the taps? These are questions that will never be answered. Suffice to say getting trollied wasnt enough to kill the bugs!

During our few days of sorting out what to do next we went bowling at Vientianes amusingly retro bowling alley, complete with ancient bowling computers that constantly messed up and a dubious wall decoration (see pic) at least the beer was cold, as I lost both games!

After a lot of umming and arring we decided to do the next leg of our journey from Vientiane to Tha Keck as a 4 day kayaking and trekking package with Green Discovery.

To cut a long story short the main hang up during booking was what we were meant to do with our backpacks, they told us it would be sorted and a guy would take them to the end point. WRONG we ended up taking them with us the whole time (including on the kayaks) which was a near continious pain!

The first day we got up at 5am and met our first guide Luan who took us out to the bus station and hopped on a 6 hour local bus to Ban Na Hin, the starting point in the Khammouane mountains. The bus ride was quite amusing as it was chucking it down and there was a hole in the roof above me so I got soaked. The homemade jumbo cheesy sarnie (made from one loaf and one block of cheese rammed together!) was our first proper bit of cheese since 2007! We also tried some Lao sweetcorn from the roadside shacks en-route and it was lush!

In the Lao Loum village of Ban Na Hin we hooked up with our guide for the next 4 days, Noy. Unfortunately he had just done a different trek and was doing ours back to back so he was a bit tired but jovial none the less. First off we set off on an afternoon trek to the Nasanam waterfalls just out of the village in the surrounding mountains. The trek started out on the flat and we saw absolutely loads of colourful butterflies in huge swarms, the flies weren't quite so nice though. However it soon became quite rocky and was very slippery in parts due to the mornings rain. Still we pressed on and after about an hour and a half of clambering and skidding we came to the extremely pretty double drop waterfalls. The bottom falls were lovely and cool to sit by (see cheese pic!) and the top falls made a stunning backdrop (again see more pics!). The return journey seemed much easier and we passed 2 western guys foolishly doing the trip on their own, they looked lost and Noy remarked that they would probably soon find out how the snakes including cobras come out at night! Muppets! (Don't worry Clare we didnt see any snakes so no pics to be afraid of:-) Also on exiting the forest we passed a couple of locals heading into the forest with bows and arrows off to get some unsuspecting dinner!

The guesthouse was a gem and the family who ran it were so friendly to us, this only got better at dinner time when we sampled some of their cooking which was great. We ate 'feu' noodle soup and beef and chicken dishes in the evening that were all sublime... accompanied by more sticky rice of course! Sar also had a chance to give away the first of the educational books we had brought from a charity in Luang Prabang for the trek.

The next morning we were off bright and early to begin the real reason we had come on this trip, kayaking! We loaded up the van with the huge amount of gear and supplies and our rucksacks wrapped in binliners. Unfortunately while we were waiting for the off 2 huge lorries carrying several hundred dogs bound for Vietnam pulled up in front of us which understandably upset Sar quite a bit. It's very hard seeing the dogs like that as although we dont object to it in theory when you see them in the open cages and they all look and sit like a pet dog would it's very hard to understand as a westerner.

The river was super low as the dam had not released any water that morning, this combined with the heavily loaded (with our backpacks) 2 seater kayak made for hard going and occasional walks pulling the canoe. Note to susan yes they were the inflatable 'hot dog' kayaks as in south of France! We joined the Nam Hin Bun river after several hours paddling, we were starting to look a bit pink all ready so we hastily applied sun block (too late!). After a lunch stop we paddled on into the Hin Nam No national protected area and the scenery really started to get spectacular. The river was flanked by huge limestone mountains and water buffalo cooling off in the shallows. Along the way children were playing and waving on the banks yelling sabadee (hello) at the top of their voices which was nice. Sar even managed to initiate a cross river waving/excercise class with her doing star jumps and the like and the group of children opposite mimicking her actions instantly and in perfect union. Quite funny to watch!

That afternoon we paddled into the riverside village of Ban Kean to a welcome of every child in the village perched on the banks watching us slipping and sliding in the mud unloading all our bags. Was one of those 'wow I really am out n the middle of nowhere' type moments as according to Noy less than 30 people have done this trip over the last 3-4 years and so it still had quite an adventurous feel to it. After some huffing and puffing we unloaded and got all the gear up to the homestay house in the village. We were warmly welcomed by what members of the family who were not out working. The setting of the house we were to stay at was simply amazing. Behind the house after a clearing was about a half a kilometer of dense forest which then suddenly turned into mountains which seemed to completly surround the village on all sides. The village itself was a very low key affair with the children still wide eyed watching us. We had a wander around the 50 or so traditional stilted wooden / bamboo thatch houses, complete with baby pigs, goats and cows running rampant. The goats were the most amusing but the baby pot bellied pigs definately won Sarahs cute contest! It also gave us a chance to give the children one of the educational books we had brought from Luang Prabang. The children crowded around Sar as she turned the pages, their faces were so surprised and they said "wow" at every page being turned! When we came back to the house we decided to grab some stuff out of our bags so that we could go and have a wash (in the river!) lo and behold our backpacks were completely sodden!!!! 😞

Due to the boats being low in the water the bags in their sacks had sat in a bit of water and during the day it had worked its way in and soaked every single possesion we had with us (bar the few things we had in our daybag. Noy didnt really understand what a disaster it was and proceeded to catch up on some sleep so as it was early afternoon and nice and sunny I had to set about drying everything in the sun. When I say everything I mean soggy clothes, sodden toiletries and worst of all our bulging document wallet was probably the wettest thing of all. So embarrasingly we had to dry a couple of hundred dollars, several thousand dollars in travellers cheques, our passports, visas and endless other paperwork on an old pipeline in the middle of the village. Considering that these people had nothing it did seem to us like it would be cringeworthy-but nobody really seemed to bat an eyelid except one hunter who returning from the forest who found it quite hilarious.

Anyway thankfully before sunset we manged to get pretty much everything dry, luckily Susans homemade rucksack liners had saved the electrical gadgetry in my bag (thank god!) and we were able to settle down for the evening with it all quite sorted. Sitting cross legged on the timber floor we ate with the family with our hands (been the norm lately!) on a little side table. Our guy Noy rustled up the best laap moo we've had so far (a dry fried minced meat with lemon grass, mint leaves affair) and ginger vegetable broth accompanied by the usual bucket of sticky rice. It was delicious! We chatted with the family when they returned from planting rice all day which gave us a good insight into Lao village life. Sar developed a particular rapore with the older woman (mother or grandmother not sure!) as she kept grabbing sar and talking to her in Lao which was really nice, we replied with some Germolene for a cyst on her leg! We had another book so she tried to teach Sar every word in the book in Lao, though Im not sure how much use the Lao word for cut grass will be! After our first and second try of lao-lao (local rice whiskey) I must say that its probably to be avoided, it smelled and tasted like paraffin! All of this was by candle light as there was no electricty at all in the village, which only added to the experience.

We bedded down for the night on the landing at the front of the house where we had eaten. We were on mattresses on the floor under mossie nets, with Noy nearby and the family in the what seemed like one and only main room. The darkness and silence combined with a long days paddling/drying meant that we drifted off quite easily. We were woken up abrubtly at what I would guess was about 3am by the deafening wailing of voices and banging of drums and gongs! Over the next 20 minutes it got louder and closer and what sounded like a mob passed under our house banging at the walls and stilts with sticks, wailing and yelling loudly into the pitch black. Clueless to what had happened we went back to sleep. The next morning Noy told us that a child had died of dysentry and the noise was the men of the village driving out the evil spirits that they belive may have caused it. Dont know about the spirits but it certainly scared us! Oh another night time wakeup came at around 4am when the temples huge 2m drum sounded for the women to get up and start making sticky rice for the day ahead. I dont think I can see Sar setting and alarm for 4am to make me lasagne at home!!

We left the village early the next morning with heavy hearts as it had been truly amazing (competiter for the best thing we have done since leaving home). The lady had also invited us to stay at her rice farm out of the village which we nearly abandoned our trip to do, but then thought better not! The mornings paddle was easily the most scenic of the four days. The limestone cliffs were the steepest and most dramatic, struggled to get any good pictures as I couldnt keep the big camera out, but the ones attatched go some way to show what it was like. The main obstacle was to somehow avoid getting even more sunburnt, as even with factor 50 on we were struggling to avoid sunstroke! Still we hopped from tree shade to tree shade and managed it without keeling over. We arrived into the second village, Ban Nakok, at lunch time as this day was to be split 50/50 with some walking. The homestay here wasnt quite as good as the first as it was closer to civilization in that it had road access of sorts (the first was completely isolated). The family were very welcoming though and the children an amusingly cheeky bunch, who once again poured over their book with great interest. The building was a similar style to the first but even higher off the ground, probably about 15 feet! We settled down to our lunch of an egg filled baguette and also tried some of the familys lunch. I have to say it was the single most revolting thing we've ever tried. Not only was it insanely hot and nearly wholly forest mushrooms but it was cooked in the local fish sauce. To give you some idea of what the local Lao fish sauce is, it resembles a bucker of compost and water with fish offal in it which is left to fester for ages until your left with a black/brown pungent gunge! Yuck! Give us lapp and rice any day!

The afternoon trek was meant to be cross country to a cave, through the cave for 1km and then onward through the forest to an abandoned temple. Noy informed us that due to the rain the leeches would be rampant and as we were wearing sandals and Sar hates them so we decided that combined with our impending sun stroke we would curtail the trek to finish at the cave mouth and its lagoon. First off we had to cross the river by 'boat'. The boat in question was a fishermans canoe about a foot wide and hilariously unstable. Us two, Noy and two women from the village piled in and wobbled nervously accross the Nam Hin Boun as I clutched our rucksack containing the camera and newly dried documents! Safely on the other side we walked for just under an hour through stunning grassland and forest at the base of the cliffs until we reached the shady lagoon at the mouth of the cave. The lagoon was crystal clear and deep enough for swimming and washing. The locals and Noy left us to swim too which a) allowed us to wear swimwear and b) made us feel as though we were just swimming in a pool in the jungle, great! Before heading back we also had a look at the cave, to our suprise the trek through the cave would have been not only in darkness but also in neck deep water, so probably for the best we gave it a miss!

That afternoon we took a long nap under the house with the pigs, chickens, Noy and the mother of the household as the temperature soared. They were also greatly amused by some Bob Marley and Jack Johnson off my gadget to listen to. A truly bizzare experience, but combined with drinking a few litres of water made us feel much better. That evening Noy again rustled up a feast for us, this time a differnt 5 vegetable soup accompanied by a weird dish of scrambled eggs mixed with cucumber, odd but tasty! Again accompanied by a wicker basket of sticky rice! That nights sleep was much less eventfull and we slept straight through.

The final half day was to be a longtail boat trip down the Nam Hin Boun river to where it meets the Route 13 main road which would carry us on south to Tha Keck. Despite having to shade ourselves with a towel under the searing sun (at 9am!) the boat trip was very scenic and we left the mountains and came out into the Lao lowlands of central Laos. We passed several quaint villages and under some shaky local bridges (see video). After about 2 hours we were starting to get a bit uncomfortable on our boat which resembled pocahontas' canoe with a car engine on the back, at which time it spluttered to an abrupt halt mid river. After several failed re-starts my man senses went for no petrol, I asked "have we run out of petrol?" Noy replied "yes" no problem I thought we will just have to wobbly float for a while as he pours in the reserve tank "we do have more petrol dont we" to which Noy amsuingly replied "of course not" with a what-a-stupid-question face. We paddled the boat to the bank around the next corner and the young boat man set off into the woods with a petrol container, about half an hour later he returned with some petrol and poured it into the tank and off we went. An hour later we arrived at our destination, not a moment too soon as by then we looked like a right pair of sweaty lobsters! After grabbing some feu (noodle soup) at the roadside Noy bundled us onto a passing bus for Tha Keck and we went our seperate ways. It had been an amazingly eventful few days we will never forget. For anyone interested in doing something similar visit www.greendiscoverylaos.com, ours was the Nam Hin Boun river expedition. We would still recommend them but as the bag scenario shows you do have to be happy in yourself that everything is organised well enough.

On arriving in Tha Keck we checked into the Tha Keck travel lodge's best room (6 quid), to a nice long shower for the first time in four days and collapsed on the crisp white bed. It was nice to be back in civilization. (No more eggs and no more baguettes for a while!!!) We took it easy the next day and stayed in the shade to clear up the sunburn and got our laundry done, we also wrote the bulk of this monster blog there. From Tha Keck we took a rather un eventfull but scorching hot local bus for 6 hours down to Pakse in southern Laos which is where we are now. Its quite a nice place with nothing really to do apart from write blogs and eat tasty meals at the panoramic restaurant ontop of the Pakse Hotel (the food and service was sublime for a tenner combined!).

From here we are planning to head off the beaten track towards Tat Lo waterfall and the Boleaven Plateau. Should take a few days before we return here and then head to the deep south along the Mekong to the cambodian border in a week or two.

Starting to get seriously hot and sweaty so we will both say bye byee for now and hope that you are all enjoying the warmer weather and long blogs to read in the garden!

Lots of love,

Dean & Sar.

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