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Published: April 14th 2005
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Laos - dont know much about it?? I'm not surprised - this land locked country is the forgotten country of S.E Asia; nestling in between it's exotic and dangerous sounding neighbours: Thailand, Vietnam, China, Burma, and Cambodia. Lacking the economic dynamism of the rest of the region, it sits, quite happily, in a bit of a timewarp (the hammer and sickle still flies proudly from all public buildings) - and it's all the better for it - an utterly charming place. With the faded french colonial buildings, traditional temples and a sprinkling of communist era buildings, it's a real eclectic mix. The people are kind, helpful, and dont really have the energy or desire to try and rip off tourists, so it's an absolute pleasure to visit.
Lao's only really claim to fame is the title of "most bombed country in history". Apparently the American B-52's did a pretty good job of re-shaping the Lao countryside throughout the 70s, in the course of looking for North Vietnamese bases, but showing the American's traditional customary precision in their aiming of high powered ordanance. Following the war, the Communists took charge here, and though nowadays it's not quite as despotic a regime
as back then, it's still a very Socialist society, and it's actually pretty nice to be away from the relentless consumerism that we've seen in the rest of Asia. Oh, and in case you were wondering about the title of this piece; it's Laos' ancient title - "Land of a Million Elephants".
We entered Laos from Thailand, up near the border to no-go Myanmar (Burma). Once across the mighty Maekong river, we then settled into a marathon 2 day boat trip that took us, ever so slowly, to the city of Luang Prabang. This included a stop at a VERY basic village halfway, where we got a guesthouse room for less than a pound, and were greeted off the boat by scores of 10 year old drug dealers! As we watched the primitive villages slowly go by, read books, and generally did nothing for 2 days, this brought us nicely into "Lao time". Yes, life is slow here, and all the more pleasant for it - especially when you are staying as somewhere as nice as Luang Prabang.
Without doubt the most enchanting city in Asia, Luang Prabang is a charming mix of french and buddhist architecture sat
on a meandering bend on the Maekong - with some stunning waterfalls only 30 minutes away, and with a tranquil night market full, not of the usual Asian fare of fake watches and Diesel jeans, but of hand made textiles and crafts, oh, and some fantastic food as well - you can see why we ended up staying here for 4 days. This would have been longer - as we were leaving, the celebrations for the Lao new year were warming up, and Luang Prabang, as the ancient capital of the country, is the epicentre of them. These celebrations mainly consist parties, drinking, and of small children throwing water at tourists; it's a lot of fun.
But onward we must travel, and our next stop was the dusty town on Vang Vieng. Set amongst some amazing limestone peaks, it is a pretty location rather than a pretty town, and is a only really a backpacker stopover due to it's location half way between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, the capital. Having said this, it is a lively enough place - helped no end by it's reputation as one of the main drug tourist spots in Asia - the dirt cheap
opium and grass keep some travellers here a lot longer than they bargained for. Having said that, that side is pretty well hidden - and to the eye there are loads of colourfull traveller cafes, all selling fantastic fruit milkshakes for next to nothing, and showing the latest Hollywood releases on pirated DVDs. Once cafe was showing episodes of "Friends" on a continual 18 hour loop - a fate worse than death, in my opinion - with that kind of entertainment on offer, it's no wonder some people turn to opium here!
Aside from this, there were lots of Lao new year activities, including a fair, and a junior boxing tournament, where young boys, weighing less than their headguards, wildly swung arms at each other whilst their drunk fathers shouted incoherent abuse at each other.. great fun!
The other attraction of the town - and the only one for a Friends hating/non opium smoking athlete like me, is the nearby river that offers all kinds of activities - most famously "tubing". This is where you sit on a river for several hours in a rubber tube, as the current takes you back into the town, and where obliging
locals will sell you cheap (and excellent) Beer Lao from the riverside, and where you can occassionally do some showing off on the many tarzan swings and death slides.
Still, thats the plan. At the height of summer (as we are) - the river is so low that there isnt a lot of current to speak of, and we ended up walking quite a bit of the way, or wading through ankle deep "rapids". Still, it was a lovely day, and the scenery made it worthwhile.
From Vang Vieng, we took another scenic route to get to Vientiane - deciding on a day of kayaking on a larger and much deeper river half way there, and a bus the rest of the way.
Well, this would have been a fine plan were it not for the violent food poisoning I got the night before - after making the mistake of asking for a "really hot" curry at the indian in town I think they took this oppurtunity to have the large number of chillies disguise the taste of their tainted meat! Anyway, whatever the reasons, my kayaking was a seriously horrible day. We capsized on the one decent sized
rapid - causing me to, er.. foul myself. And later on, whilst sat on the back of our kayak, I managed the apparently physically impossible task of ejecting stuff at both ends. Absolutely lovely for Rachael, sat only 2 foot in front of me, stuck with having to do all the paddling while I sat at the back and prayed for an early death.
Once the kayaking torture had finished, I then had the misery of not getting a seat on the bus to Vientiane, and so having to stand on the tailgate of a pickup truck for 3 hours in the rain. I was not a happy bunny when we eventually arrived - and decided to upgrade to a decent hotel for a change.
Over the next couple of days, I recovered, and we saw the rather uninspiring sights of Vientiene. A hideous concrete copy of the Arc de'Triumphe, and plenty of decent cafes gave signs of the French heritage, and a load of very ugly concrete buildings bedecked with the hammer and sickle showed up Russia's contribution here. (they had russian tv here as well, but unfortunately not the topless weather bulletins that I've heard so
much about!).
With me recovered, and having enjoyed cable tv for a change, we then made the call that with cash running a bit short, we needed to save $100, and not fly to Hanoi. So we were off to have an adventure on Lao and Vietnamese rural bus services.. it could be a while before you hear from me again!!
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kate
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Great photos!!!!