Advertisement
Slow Boats on the Mekong
This was the view as we headed down to the "pier".Greetings from Cambodia; I know it has been a while since my last entry and that is due to the fact that internet in Laos is relatively new in many of the villages that we stopped in (some only having it for the past 2 years or less). So this will be a review of the entire country (I promise to try and make this semi-short).
Chiang Mai, Thailand to Luang Prabng via Huay Xai and Pak Beng, Laos
After the many adventures in Thailand we decided it was time for another country, so we headed North to the border and over the river to Huay Xai in Laos. This was the easiest and friendliest border crossing. The guards were playing Baci ball, smoking the green stuff and encouraging us to do the same while we waited to get our Visa’s. Once we were approved we were in search of accommodations, Jaime is the Queen at this and we had a room for $1.50 a person.
The next morning we were on our way to Luang Prabang via “slow boat”. Now, when you think of a “slowboat,” you might be thinking of a slow cruise liner. Think again.
It's a single-story, open air, wood-planked long boat with a lawn mower for an engine and 70 of your closest friends sitting on either a rickety wood bench, some cushy seats removed from a Nissan minivan (the “good” seats), or the hardwood floor. Add to that that the majority of people are getting absolutely wasted the whole ride (4 people sharing a large bottle of Johnnie Walker for breakfast, for example), as well as a drunken a capella group, and you get a sense of our surroundings.
We made an overnight pit stop a small village along the Mekong River called Pak Beng. It was nothing especially nice except for the fact that every person in the village was either trying to get you to stay at their guest house, carry your bags or offer you pot or opium (their local export). It was a first having a dealer sit with you at dinner and whisper “pot”, “opium” along with do you want mineral water or Fanta.
The scenery along the two day ride was amazing, breathtaking actually. We were in the “good seats” on the second leg of the trip so with our new found Brit Ben we
played hours of Hearts (Ben was a very quit study).
Luang Prabang
We finally made it to this charming little colorful city. We were immediately taken with the French Colonial look and the while walking to our unknown guest house we came across one of our favorite food items a fresh lime icy from the local day market.
Our first dinner was a do it yourself Laos BBQ (again Shack you would have been in heaven). So good. The next night we stumbled on to “Utopia” an open restaurant/lounge overlooking the river. When I say open I mean open, no walls, no windows, no railings, just you on a cushion on the floor a good 3 stories above the forest floor below. Tim, Ben and I engaged in a friendly game of pick-up volleyball which was quickly dubbed the USA against the world, we lost and you would have thought it was the final of the World Cup for the Irish on the opposing team, apparently they don’t win that often.
The next day we headed up the hundred or so steps to the top of the cities Temple which gave us a stunning panoramic view.
We saved some coins that evening by eating at the local night market where you can eat a plate full of veggies for around $2 Jaime was in heaven. We are getting use to the local cuisine as the full pigs head, fish-on-sticks and full skinned chickens don’t even get a second look from us now.
The following morning we headed to the waterfalls about an hour outside of the city. After climbing in the forest for what seemed like forever we reached our oasis. We had our own watering hole were we could see the enormous waterfall below. Heading down Ben was on a search for another pool for us to swim in and he found it. We bypassed the “danger” sign and found another crystal blue pond with our names on it. I was lucky enough to get up close and personal with the local wildlife, a leech decided I was lunch. All my wits went out the window when I could shake him off my foot, not remembering to torch the sucker (literally).
Vientiane
We headed out the next day to the Laos capital of Vientiane. Tim was recovering from a bad case of
Utopia
This was the coolest place to just sit and do nothing. Why don't we have these in the states? food poisoning as we got on a 10-hour bus ride to travel just 250 miles. The first 3 hours were brutal and nauseating. The only saving grace was that the road was so curvy that the bus could only go 25 miles/hour. The scenery was absolutely stunning, which also compensated for the difficult ride.
Vientiane was a pleasant surprise. It was mellow, beautiful, and very understated for a capital. We toured the city's sights, including the national monument (a big gold stupa with surrounding buildings) and Laos' version of the Arc di'Triomphe, both of which were beautiful. We spent part of our day looking for a post office and lugging around a bag of the many items that I needed to ditch and send home, this was after Jaime got her hands on my backpack which at the time weighed more than her.
We spent our last morning in Vientiane doing yoga at a studio that Jaime found in the area (and yes, even Tim went). After yoga, we ate lunch, and then treated ourselves to 1.5 hour foot, head, and shoulder massages - less than $10 per person! Amazing.
That night, we took a sleeper bus
Arc di'Triomphe Laos Style
in the capital of Vientiane, so beautiful. from Vientiane to Pakse in Southern Laos. We should know by now that every bus, train, or boat is going to present a unique twist. As we stood outside the bus terminal I began counting the number of passengers that were waiting. After counting the number of beds I made the joke “what if the beds are for two people?” Tim quickly reassured Jaime that I was joking…. HA! 20 beds 40+ passengers you do the math. So as we boarded the bus we found our respective beds and within minutes there was a Laotian man eyeing my bed, you have GOT to be kidding me. He looked as puzzled and dazed as I did but up he came. The beds around ours including Jaime and Tim were having a good old laugh with this one; I was in tears and busting a gut. He quickly realized that he was in the wrong bunk, whew crisis avoided. Think again. A younger but again not so happy Laotian man checked his ticket, looked at me, checked it again, looked at me and sighed, yep buddy it’s me and you tonight. Again the three of us were dying with laugher. He quickly
found solace by immediately forcing himself to sleep at 8PM.
Pakse
Pakse was our next stop, we were there for a couple of days and took in a few more waterfalls that were just brilliant. We also went to a small tribal area were we saw a music man that was playing all of these very cool instruments that he had made out of bamboo (got something for ya dad, Happy Early Father’s Day). We saw tribal woman that had huge gauges in their ears, they were kind enough to take a photo with the GIANT. Along our journey we stopped at tea farm then a coffee plantation. For all you coffee lovers be envious because I have officially had the best ice coffee in the world, if we could have stayed and just drank that all day we would have.
4,000 Islands (Don Khong)
From there we headed to our last stop in Laos, the 4,000 islands, which is exactly that 4,000 small ( a few tigs), medium (a tree), large (one or two very large trees) or livable size islands. We stayed here for 2 days. Jaime I explored the island on our first
day finding the most magnificent waterfall yet, a spirit catcher to the locals. We were escorted b y “Maxie” a funky cool local dog that walked the two or so miles with us. We came across water buffalo just feet in front of us who could care less until Maxie started playing with the baby, bad move but I think he knew this was not a fight he wanted so on we went.
Tim and I set off later that day to bike the other side of the island. And this would have been great if we had a bike that worked. My chain kept falling off and after the 4th or 5th time in 6 minutes I once again became my father’s daughter and noticed that the chains were very rusty and weren’t catching so I pulled out my sun block which was in an aerosol can and sprayed away….perfection well at least for the next 15 or so minutes, but it did work (thanks Dad). Then the rain came. Now normally I am all for playing in the rain, but we were riding in a freaking jungle on rocky roads, in the mud on crappy bikes with Buffalo, large cartoonish size pigs and God knows what else, but on we went. We got to the end, literally were we came across the most dazzling rainbow.
We headed back and again the crappy bike now had a flat! We were at least 2 miles from the hotel and in the middle of nowhere my first thought was “what happens if it gets dark?”, “what is all the barbwire fencing holding in or out?” “are their snakes, tigers, crazy monkeys or all of the above”. Clearly as I write this we made it back, vowing never to do that again without first checking the damn bikes and bringing a torch.
We were back on the road the next day to head into Cambodia. Another 6 hour bus ride, but this bus was comfy and we all slept, read or listened to podcasts or audio books, finally a peaceful ride with no crazy stories. Although the border patrol “sheriffs” make out like bandits charging a $1 for everything.
So we are now in Phnom Penh for a few days before heading to Siem Reap to tour Angkor Wat. We toured the Killing Fields today, it was a day of silence.
More to come on Cambodia when I get to Bali next week to meet up with Leigh who will be vacationing with me for a couple of weeks in our own version of Eat, Pray, Love.
Ciao for now
Nic
Advertisement
Tot: 0.073s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0468s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Becky Leskovec
non-member comment
Love the updates!!!
Your blog is so interesting and funny. Sometimes I laugh so much I have tears in my eyes! Your blog could be a travel book someday, it's so good! Love the pics too! You're so lucky you get to travel and truly experience the world! Have fun, be safe, and keep sending us blog updates! Love ya, Beck