Sabaidee

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18 April

Almost dying carrying my bag across the border, I got in the bus on the other side and promptly went back to sleep, trying to block out the hairpins and horrible sick feeling. We arrived at some point after dark in Pak Xan where I collapsed into bed.


19 April

I woke up feeling worse than the day before. Good thing we only had a 4-hour bus ride! We arrived in the morning in Vientiane, the Lao capital, where I slept through most of the day. I watched a bit of CNN between sleeps. In the evening we went for a lovely dinner and I had a delicious tofu wrap. Then I went back to bed.


20 April

After seeing all of the sights of the capital city (my hotel room, the restaurant we had dinner at), we were primed to head on to Vang Vieng. I stayed awake to see a bit of the bus ride up through the mountains around woven houses with thatched roofs. After catching lunch in Vang Vieng (not literally...) we headed out on the river for a boozey tubing trip. With stuffed ears and loads of congestion, this may not have been a good idea. In April, the Nam Song river is very low. At certain points whilst tubing, we would get stuck on rocks, have to stand up, walk a few steps and climb back in the tube, only to repeat the process another few meters downstream.


21 April

On the mend. Spent the morning catching up on thing sin the online world, including making my big life changing decision to accept my admission offer at Ann Arbor! Wooo! Two years in Michigan once I get back stateside!

And then we got back on the bus for SIX more hours. A lot more beautiful mountainy/villagey scenery. I should mention that all of this beautiful scenery and untouched landscape persists despite Lao being the most bombed country in history. Beginning in 1964, over two million tons of bombs were dropped by the U.S. on Lao. It's hard to believe that all of them were dropped solely to eliminate the Ho Chi Minh Trail running through the countryside. The Secret War is just one more grim event that took place in the years of U.S. invasion of Southeast Asia. Amazingly, the Lao people are very friendly, laid back and love all people.

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the evening.


22 April

In the morning, Theresa, Sin and I took a tuk-tuk into town to get on board our slowboat for our morning tour up the Mekong. We stopped off first at Ban Xang Hai village, a town known for its whisky production. Whisky here often is bottled with a scorpion or snake inside. After a few minutes walk around, we got back in the boat and headed to Pak Ou, the Buddha Caves! Painted white steps lead from the river up to the Lower Cave, which is stuffed full of all sorts of Buddha statues and images. The royal family used to make annual trips to the caves to worship the Buddhas here. White painted steps lead up to the Upper Cave. These steps are decptive, as they wrap around the karst, making it impossible to see your progress in relation to the end goal. Luckily, caves are cool and very rewarding after a drenching hike up in the heat. Along the way children try to sell you birds in tiny woven cages. Never having been offered a bird before (wall maps, handkerchiefs, motorbike parts, insects, yes, birds, no), I had no idea why a tourist would ever want to buy one. I know now that it's supposed to bring good luck to release the birds. If I bought one (I don't support children working, so I didn't), I would've only done so to release it anyway.

In the afternoon, back in Luang Prabang, we visited the monastery at Wat Xieng Thong. This is apparently one of the most impressive wats in Lao. It's very fancy. And very full of monks. In Lao, almost all boys are monks at some point, some for only a week, a month or a couple years, others for a lifetime.


23 April

Anna and I started the morning sluggish, watching "Twister" on Star Movies then bolting down to catch the last few minutes of breakfast. We then took a songthaew with Mandy and Annika to Kuang Si waterfall. I had delicious veggie noodles for lunch outside of the park. We visited a bear rescue center. The bile trade in Lao is active, with bear bile farms shipping the harvested secretion to China for medicinal use. The Asiatic Black Bears (sun bears) here are beautiful, endangered animals and should be saved.

We then walked up to the pools at the base of the waterfall, swam around, wandered up to the waterfall, went back to swim more, then headed back to the city for dinner and a long trip to the Night Market.


24 April

We were up at the crack of dawn to watch the monks of Luang Prabang collecting alms. Home to a huge number of wats and temples, Luang Prabang is also home to a huge number of monks. Every morning at sunrise, the locals line the streets with baskets full of sticky rice. The monks carry pots and collect the rice from the locals. This brings good tidings to the locals and feeds the monks.

Around 8 we boarded our home for the next two days: a big boat. All day we motored up the Mekong past fishermen, karsts, trees, buffalo and children at play. We arrived in Pak Beng in the evening for Indian food!


25 April

Same same. All day on the boat. We arrived at the Loa/Thai border in the late afternoon. On the Lao side of the river, we passed through immigration before taking a fishing boat across the river to Chiang Khong to go through Thai immigration.

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