Advertisement
Published: July 17th 2006
Edit Blog Post
On top of Luang Prabang
You can't see how much i'm sweating in this pic **Lots of Pics on today's blog!**
We had a great time in Laos. Going into the country we were not sure what to expect. We knew that the country has great scenery (a positive), but wondered whether it might be similar to Myanmar (a negative) given how undeveloped it is. Overall, we found Laos much more comfortable to visit than Myanmar.
Luang Prabang
We flew into Luang Prabang which is a UNESCO world heritage town. As it was Laura's birthday, we splurged for some great accommodation at the Maison Souvannaphoun. It was a really nice place. Comfortable bed, nice bathroom, cable TV, and a balcony with a great view. The staff there was great. Checking in, we mentioned that we were on our honeymoon. That evening, the staff had put a small cake in our room with a card that all of them had signed. So, that was quite a nice gesture.
We did quite a bit of walking around the town while we were there, including a climb up to the top of a hill in the middle of town that had a wat at the top. Given the insane amount of humidity, it is not surprising
that we were both drenched at the top!
On our second day in LP, we took a trip out to the waterfall that was 25km from town. Transportation to and from was a total of $7.50 for both of us. The waterfall was great to visit. After seeing so many towns and temples, we wanted to see a bit more nature and do something active. The waterfall had some trails you could walk along and an area for swimming. The swimming area was cool as there was a rope swing into the water and a small cliff you could jump off (about 8 or 9 feet high) into the water. Both of these were two of Mike's "things I want to do in life". So, that was a lot of fun. Naturally, we watched a few others go first to make sure everyone was coming to the surface in one piece prior to trying it for ourselves!
Laura was able to get some extra relaxation on her birthday as her parent's gave her a birthday present of a spa package at the hotel. For dinner we had a nice meal and bottle of wine at the hotel restaurant.
Monk walk
There are lots of buddhist monk novices living in Luang Prabang After a relaxing few days in Luang Prabang, we headed for Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng
Our bus ride from LP to VV was about 5.5 hours and covered a lot of mountainous areas of the country. The scenery was spectacular on the ride. The best I had seen since being in New Zealand. This was what we had been waiting to see in this area of the world. Mountains jutting up from the ground and lush vegetation. Unfortunately, the constant curves of the road and swinging from side to side on the bus left Laura feeling a bit queasy.
One of the more interesting aspects of the trip concerned a fellow passenger. It was during a brief rest-stop that we noticed one of the guys on the bus had a full-fledged machine gun! It looked like some kind of cousin of an AK-47. Little did I realize that this road has had problems with bandits/rebels who have attacked vehicles. We don't know how big of a problem it is now, but it was still at least some kind of issue in 2003 when our Lonely Planet was written (I didn't read that section until after seeing our
Sweeettt!
Mike's first rope swing into a small pool below the waterfall friend with the machine gun). That being said, the guy with the machine gun made us actually feel rather comfortable.
We arrived in Vang Vieng and got a hotel on the river. After getting a bite to eat, we went tubing down the river. The tubing was a relaxing ride. On the side of the river there are places that help pull you in if you like as they sell beer and snacks. A few of the places have trapeze style swings you can swing on and jump into the river. I tried this a couple of times after watching a few other people do it unscathed. As an American, it is pretty crazy to see this as there is no way you would see this in the US given the potential liability. As for safety equipment it consisted of holding onto the bar quite tightly! But it was a lot of fun.
We decided that for the following day we would take a kayaking trip from VV to Vientiane (the capital of Laos).
Vang Vieng to Vientiane Kayaking
Our trip was part kayaking, part bus ride. In theory it was supposed to be 60%!k(MISSING)ayaking, 40%!(NOVERB)
5 Star Luxury
Ahhh...3 nights of luxury at this hotel in LP. The staff there was amazing - and provided cakes for not only our honeymoon but also my bday. bus. In reality, it was maybe 30% kayaking. But whatever. There were 5 of us with our guides : us, a canadian girl and two people from New Zealand who were really cool. Kayaking down the river was enjoyable, albeit rather frustrating as we did not seem to be doing it as smoothly as the others (not that I'm competitive or anything...). Still, it was cool.
We stopped on the side of the river for lunch. Our guides cooked up a surprisingly decent meal, especially given they were cooking on rocks with some charcoal. There was another group that had breaked for lunch in the same general area. We saw them jumping off a rock about 6 feet high into the water. Looked kind of fun. Then we saw their guide lead them up higher on the rocks to a ledge that was 9 meters high (30 feet). The guide and two of the travelers jumped off the ledge into the river. Our groups reaction was along the lines of "that's insane." At the same time, I kept thinking "but that does look pretty cool!"
Tim (the Kiwi) and I took a number of jumps off the shorter
Kuang Si Waterfall
30km south of Luang Prabang rock. But I couldn't stop thinking about the high ledge. I casually asked our guide whether he had ever jumped off the ledge. He said yes and asked whether I wanted to. After climbing up the rocks, the 3 of us found ourselves at the ledge. It was high. Over 3 times as high as anything I had ever jumped off before. Looking straight out wasn't too bad, but looking down and knowing you were going to jump off was rather terrifying. Tim went first and then the guide. After taking a minute of looking down and contemplating that I was effectively jumping off the roof of a 3 story building into a river, I took the jump. What a rush! It was awesome.
We then kayaked for another half hour before leaving the river for a "bus" (pick-up with a roof in the back and benches) to Vientiane.
Vientiane
Not much to say about Vientiane as it has been a short and uneventful couple of days. The city is both smaller and nicer than we had envisioned. I was expecting to see a lot of abject poverty, people begging all over and an overall dirty city with
Daredevil #2
Now Mike masters jumping off from the waterfall... few eating options. In effect, I thought it would be like Yangon. Granted, my expectations were pretty dismal, so it is no surprise Vientiane vastly exceeded them. While not anything special, the city is fine. We got a nice hotel room for $15 a night and there are a number of nice eating options. On the first night we got together with the Kiwis from the kayaking trip for dinner and some Beer Lao.
On the downside of Vientiane, keep your wits about you with your belongings. We saw a girl who had just gotten her bag snatched by a guy on a motor scooter. Second tip, be smart about packing. This girl had her wallet, money, passport, traveler's checks, credit cards, camera and iPod all in her bag and lost it all! While we felt bad at some level you are like "come on!" She had been traveling through Thailand prior to coming here, so one would think you would know to be careful with your stuff and not carry everything together in an easy to steal bag. Anyway, fortunately for her she was traveling with friends. I have no idea what one would do in that situation
Our security guard
Notice the automatic weapon hanging down his arm if you were alone. Added to the problem is there is no British embassy for her in Vientiane!
Now it is onto Hanoi, Vietnam. I keep thinking how unappealing the prospect of going to Hanoi would have been for a 20-something American 35 years ago!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.324s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 13; qc: 60; dbt: 0.2284s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Matt
non-member comment
One of my best random finds ever
Howdy to you both. I found your journal randomly by looking for Thailand blogs and noticed your blog right away because of the reference to go blue. My wife and I are both Michigan grads and also wanted an adventure honeymoon. When we got married in 2003 we decided to go to Thailand. We only had 11 days and were only able to go to just that one country, but what an amazing trip. We could not have had a more amazing time and still talk about those 11 days almost every single day, nearly three years later. Your blog and pictures are amazing and bring back a flood of memories. Thanks for posting all of this and we hope you have a great rest of your trip! Matt and Patty