Lovely Laos

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I'll admit it, I'm a cheat. The thought of spending in excess of a day travelling by bus from Hanoi to northern Laos was just to much for me. So, me and my latest travel buddy, Rachel, hopped on an airplane and 2hrs later we were in Luang Prabang. Walking from the air terminal I had prepared myself for the usual barrage of taxi drivers, each trying to coerce me into taking their particular vehicle at a "very good price". To my complete delight, not one single person pounced on either me or my bags. It was at this point, that I knew I was going to love this country.

Luang Prabang is a stunning town. An incredible collection of Buddhist and French colonial architecture has lead to it being listed as a UNESCO heritage site. Its situation on the edge of the Mekong river means it is a popular tourist destination. But, it remains unspoiled by the influx of foreign visitors. You can walk the streets and the stunning night market and not be harassed. An extremely rare thing in SE Asia, in fact, I'd go as far as saying a totally unique.

After the bedlam of Hanoi, we ended up stopping in the peaceful idyll of Luang Prabang for a week. The surrounding area is just full of stunning mountain ranges and of course, the expanse of the Mekong and the Nam Ou rivers. We took a chilled day out kayaking down the Nam Ou and then into the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Ou; a slightly hair raising experience. The meeting of 2 seemingly peaceful, if somewhat huge rivers, causes one hell of a lot of turbulence. On many occasions our kayak was spun around and shot off in completely unpredictable directions. But, we survived to tell the tale and even managed to navigate enough to visit the Buddha caves of Pak Ou. The caves, in the side of one of the karst on the edge of the river, are just packed with Buddha images that pilgrims have placed there over the years. A beautiful place to stop and catch your breath.

With only 30 days in Laos we forced ourselves to move on, next destination Phonsavan. There is really only one reason to visit Phonsavan and that's to visit the Plain of Jars. A large area around the town where huge stone jars of unknown origin and purpose are scattered. There appears to be absolutely no logic to the random scattering of these jars. They vary significantly in size, weighing between 600kg and 6 tonnes and can be found in groups of just a few, or the largest grouping of 250. It is a wonderful experience walking around the sites, trying to imagine what purpose they served. Unfortunately, this part of Laos was heavily bombed during the Vietnam war and so, not only are the number of areas you can visit restricted because of UXO, but many of the jars have been destroyed.

I was really surprised to learn during my time in Phonsavan that Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world and as a result has a serious problem with UXO. Between 1964 and 1973 the US air force dropped on average of 2 million tons of bombs a day on Laos. Either in actual bombing missions on the supply routes of the Ho Chi Minh trail or by just dropping unused ordnance when returning to their bases in Thailand. A visit to the Mines Advisory Group office in Phonsavan is an eye opening, chilling and distressing experience.

Next destination on our whistle stop tour of Laos was Vang Vieng. I have just realized, I really am a traveller, what normal person thinks 30 days is a whistle stop tour!

Vang Vieng is the total opposite of Luang Prabang. It is a town that has evolved purely to be a backpacker mecca. Travellers come here to party all night long and to go tubing. I'm guessing the average age of tourists there is 20. So, totally not acting my age, I set about partying, maybe not all night but I gave it a damn good try, and of course I gave tubing a go. Tubing involves sitting in a tractor inner tube and floating majestically down the river. Well, that's the concept. The reality is floating down the river, stopping every 20m or so to visit a bar, drinking beer and risking life and limb on monkey swings over the river. Depending on how committed a drinker you are, the 4km trip can take a whole day to do. After a few days and having convinced myself I was still young at heart, Rachel an I set about a sedate cycle around Vang Vieng. Now, expert navigator I am, some how I managed to get us lost. Having dragged Rachel down a number of paths that can't even be described as dirt tracks, more like rutted gullies, and after getting some very peculiar looks from the locals, we finally made it home some 5 hours later. I did think that maybe this time I had finally killed the poor girl with one of my mad cap excursions.

So, once again we're on the road. This time heading north and back to Luang Prabang. Where finally, we managed to get our lazy butts out of bed in time to see the 6am monks alms giving. One of the must see events of the town. For about an hour the streets are awash with bright orange of monks robes, unfortunately, they are also awash with the tourists, many of whom seem to have no respect for the occasion. Umm, there has been many a person I have wanted to strangle because of their complete lack of cultural sensitivity!

After our brief sojourn in Luang Prabang, we took a bus and a boat ride further north to the little riverside village of Muang Ngoi. The village is only accessible by boat and during the high dry season, only with great difficulty. But, it has to be the most beautifully laid back place I have been. The village is how I imagine the rest of SE Asia was before tourists. Rachel and I, plus 3 other Brits we met on the way up river, bagged ourselves a riverside guesthouse and set about seriously relaxing in hammocks on the balcony. Ok, the lack of electricity meant that at beer o'clock the first beer was warm, but once the generator kicked in, all came good and the cheap cool beer went down a treat as the sun set. Our time in Muang Ngoi was filled with boat trips up river, kayaking down river, visiting local villages and just walking into the surrounding hills. In such an unspoiled and beautiful location what amazing experiences.

After such a delightfully chilled time Muang Ngoi, the 5 of us decided to head off together to our next destination, Luang Nam Tha, in North West Laos. Ah the memories of travel in Africa that this journey brought back. A boat ride with a wee walk in the middle, because the river was so low, a bus thats brakes were failing and eventually left us sitting on the side of the road for a couple of hours, a running interchange to our next bus, which quite miraculously had waited for us, and finally a pick-up truck that dumped us in the middle of town. So, after 11 hrs and having traveled only 150 km, we arrive in the pretty nondescript town of Luang Nam Tha. Needless to say, we were absolutely gagging for a beer; please note, beer Laos is a pretty awesome brew, I may even go as far as to say the best beer in SE Asia!

Having eschewed hill tribe trekking in Thailand, basically because the experience was purported to be like being part of a circus, we had all come to Luang Nam Tha to get out and trek in the local area, with local tribes people. We were not to be disappointed. A local eco tourism office lined us up with a village guide and sent us off into the leech infested rain forest. Oh boy, and were there plenty of leeches, I had some serious flash backs to being mauled by the critters in Vietnam. The day was amazing, stunning scenery, rugged terrain and an amazing welcome in our host village. We had lunch squatting on the floor of the village chiefs house, whilst one of his sons practiced his karaoke and everybody came to stare at the weird white people who walked for miles, for no apparent reason.

Though the the town of Luang Nam Tha doesn't have much going for it, the surrounding area is beautiful. Lush paddy fields surrounded by dark brooding mountains. One day out on bicycles had us quickly into the countryside, surrounded by small villages and thousands of dragonflies, the sight of which was really something to behold. We could have easily been spent more time in the Luang Nam Tha province, but Rachel and I were on an agenda and had to head off South to the town of Huay Xai, where we were going to join the Gibbon Experience.

The Gibbon Experience is one of those things that is not written about in guide books, but all travellers who have been there just rave about it and spread the word. So, we had signed up for 3 days of living in tree houses and traveling around the canopy of the Bokeo rainforest on zip lines. The experience verges on being indescribable. Living high up in the canopy, showering in a cubicle where, if you look through the floor slats you can see the water plummeting to the ground 60m below, sleeping on an open platform surrounded by the sounds of the wild and if your unlucky having a few visitors! zipping through the canopy on a wild mystery tour and just hoping you can work out how to get back to your home for the night, these are just a few of the awesome times we had.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and our time in Laos was up. After one night back in Huay Xai, Rachel and I took the ferry across the Mekong and were back into Thailand. For me the next stop is the elephant sanctuary near Chiang Mai and my much awaited 2 weeks of voluntary work.

Laos is an amazing country and it truly is lovely. So newly opened to outsiders, tourism is in its infancy and it remains unspoiled. It is a must see country and I will be back.

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