Lost in Laos

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Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands)

I arrived in the appropriately named four Thousand islands on the 25th March and immediately went into slow mode as Don Det where I was based was as chilled as you can get and there weren't that many tourists either. A typical day involved getting out of the scratcher at around 9 for some breakfast followed by falling into a hammock for some light reading followed by lunch than an hour or so on the internet by which time, exhausted, it was time to grab a tractor tube and a bottle of beer and float a mile or so down the Mekong. I finally managed to drag myself away from there and head to the island of Don Khon for a night and than I caught up with the couple of German friends that I'd gone trekking with in Ban Lung in Cambodia when I went to the island of Don Daeng for a homestay.

Pakse and around

The three of us than travelled by Songthaew (a type of pickup truck with seats down the side and a roof overhead) up to Pakse and immediately hired a couple of motorbikes for a tour of the Bolaven Plateau. Yet again, that was a great trip and as well as passing through many villages we saw plenty of fine waterfalls. The bikes held up well despite travelling over plenty of rugged terrain and three days later we were back in Pakse where the Germans caught a bus to Thailand and I went to the small village of Tat Lo.

Tat Lo

A Frenchman once said that "the Vietnamese plant the rice, the Cambodians watch it grow while the Laos listen to it grow". After TatLo I understood why he said that as the pace of life in the village was so slow that I struggled to find the energy to organise the bus out of there.

Tha Khaek

I was slowly making my way Northwards and in Tha Khaek I met a couple of English girls and we spent 2 days trekking in the nearby National park. There were plenty of caves and swimming areas, the most spectacular being the Blue Lagoon and that night we slept in a village where the villagers came out to give us a blessing. This consisted of one of us foreigners putting one hand up to our ear and on the other one having a candy bar, a boiled egg, a banana and a glass of Lao Lao (the local lethal whiskey). The village elder gave each of us a blessing and tied a string around our hand and when he did this we had to than skull the Lao Lao. This was done to each of us twice but what we didn't realise was that we also had to give a blessing to some of the individual villagers gathered around. This went along something of the lines of "may you have a long and healthy life, may you have plenty of Grandchildren and may your village be prosperous and may you grow plenty of rice". We weren't suppossed to stop speaking until we'd tied the string around the persons hand so we often ended up saying the same thing twice.

Tham Kong Lo

From Tha Khaek I than went to Tham Kong Lo which is the location of a river that flows through a 7km cave. I met a few other people as we travelled the seemingly never ending trip by Songthaew and we hired a couple of boats to take us along the river and through the cave. It was another great river trip in this part of the world although as the water levels are currently low we had to get out of the boats a couple of times and push. The cave was amazing with plenty of Stalagties and Stalagmites en route but it was also quite eerie especially when the engines were cut as the place was pitch dark.

Ventiane

I finally made it to the capital, Ventiane, on the 11th April but I wasn't going to stay long as I had to go back there anyway to get a Laos visa extension plus my visa for Thailand. Government buildings were all closed as Laos New Year was approaching, (They share the same date with Thailand), but I went to the Laos immigration office to check the date that it would reopen. I arrived there at 4pm but although the office was open there was no one there and a guy approached from a building next door and asked me what I wanted. Once I got the info. that I needed he then invited me for a beer to celebrate the New Year with his workmates and being a warm Sunday afternooon there was no way I could possibly refuse! It turns out that the staff were not in the office because they were swigging beers in the hostelry next door as they only had to be on call and when I asked would there not be trouble if they were needed the reply was that everything was OK as they would only be needed if there was a serious issue involving a foreigner. I made a mental note not to get into trouble that night. Later on a police officer friend of theirs from traffic control turned up, had a few beers and than went back on duty. I had a great night with them but the following morning I had to be up at 6.30am to catch a bus to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is the destination of choice for many people, both Laos and foreign, when celebrating the New Year. This was my third New Year celebration in 2009 - my own, the Vietnamese/Chinese in February and now Laos/Thailand and so nursing a sore head after way too much Beerlao in Ventiane I went on the 12 hour bus journey. Water features predominately during the New Year and my first experience of this was when our air conditioned bus (the windows were open) was bombarded with water bombs at every village we passed. It was one way of keeping you awake but nothing prepared me for the madness of Luang Prabang.


For a week or more and officially between the hours of 1 and 6, everyone with a bucket and a hose comes out on the streets to douse everyone that passes with water. Groups of people assemble at various locations throughout the city and no one is immune. Others board pick up trucks and rove around in gangs passing those groups by the side of the street. The result is carnage and no one is immune - monks, policemen, old women, and of course foreign tourists. Sometimes said victims turn out to be the culprits as well but its all great fun and there was never an ounce of trouble while I was there. Before the real water fight starts there's usually a parade each day that signifies something significant in the Budhist/Laos tradition. Even the parade is not immune as the participants are soaked through and/or covered with flour by the time the reach their destination. Of course, as it's the place to go at that time of year I met people that I had already encountered in Cambodia and Laos, which was great. It was easily the best parade/festival I've ever experienced and I thoroughly enjoyed the 3 days that I spent there.

Ventiane again

I went back to Ventiane the long way taking the off beaten track through the towns of Sainyabulli and Pak Lai. From Pak Lai I than took a slow boat back to Ventiane and this was a truly Laotian experience as the small long tailed boat was crammed full of locals including the by now compulsory group of monks and only a couple of other tourists. Another very memorable trip. I got up pretty early the following day as I wanted to get my Laos extension and submit my application for the Thai visa on the same day so I first went to the Laos immigration office and tried to find any of the people I'd met the previous week. Of course I couldn't recognise anyone as they were all in their police uniforms but eventually I saw Sayopan (the guy who had offered me a beer the previous week). I wasn't sure whether it was a good or a bad thing that he looked to be much more senior than the rest. My bible and almost everybody else's on these trips is the lonely planet and it had informed me that an extension would take one hour but my Sayopan told me that immigration had been seriously annoyed by this as it in fact takes a full day and that they had contacted lonely planet about this. However, when I told him that I had hoped to get my Thai visa that day he asked for my Passport and told me to come back in a couple of hours. Result! Of course, I offered to thank him and what better eway than to go to the same establishment next door where we were the previous week once he and a few of his pals knocked off (early) at 4.30pm. I spent the following 2 to 3 nights in that place and had a ball although I'm not sure about all these police officers getting completely plastered and than jumping into their cars etc. to drive home.


Vang Vieng

I eventually managed to escape from the police and Ventienne (sounds very sinister) and make my way to Vang Vieng which is a curious mix of a tourist town surrounded by amazing karst scenery and one of the most popular destinations in South East Asia because of its tubing. This essentially involves hiring a tractor tube and floating downriver to nine different bars where you're expected to have a beer and/or shot in each one while partaking in an assorted mix of jumps, zip wires and trapeze wires over the river. Me, being the mature sensible one as well as being terrified of heights (remember the bungee jump in Oz lads) decided not to do any of the jumps as there were a few too many people hobbling around in crutches in town because of jumps that went wrong and so I just floated from bar to bar. The craic was great though and while it all sounds a bit 18-30ish it was great for the couple of days that I spent there.

Luang Namtha
It was time to take to the hills again and so I went to Luang Namtha in the North of Laos for a 2 day trek to an Akha village. It was probably the most authentic tribal village that I visited in the whole of my travels as there was nobody trying to flog souvenirs etc and the Government has kept the integrity of the place by limiting the number of people who can visit at any one time. The women wore traditional black clothing with beaded headscarves and many of them went topless (not as pretty as it might sound I can assure you!). When they smiled their teeth and mouths were covered in a sort of black tar (think eating blackjacks) that they got from chewing a form of tobacco mixed with herbs and bark from a tree. I would have loved to have taken a few pictures of them but they wouldn't pose in front of a camera and given that I didn't want to intrude I didn't try very hard. That night, my 2 travelling companions from Singapore and myself met the chief of the village who also happened to be the local teacher for a chat after dinner. Our guide did the translating. The following morning, we headed back to Luang Namtha for a couple of well deserved beer Lao's and the following morning I caught the bus for the 3 hour trip to the Thai border.

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Photos

Cambodian Laos border immigration hut
Those are my clothes hanging out to dry

Four Thousand Islands - Don Det
Another hard day at the office

Pakse - The Southern Loop
Waterfall near Pakse

Tatlo
Fisherman on top of waterfall

Tatlo
Kids hanging out on an elephant

Tatlo - the old and the new
Satelite dishes are to be foung outside traditional houses all over SE Asia

Tahkek
Traditional ceremony at village