Asian Invasion Part V - Laos


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Asia » Laos
January 14th 2013
Published: January 14th 2013
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Torrential rain coupled with a vicious electrical storm made our flight fromHanoito Luang Prabang one of terror! The aeroplane was a small propeller craft with reassuring signs telling passengers to use bottom seat covers ‘for flotation’. Once aboard the pilot announced the weather was too bad for take off so we waited while the plane swayed in the wind and rain beat down on metal. Eventually we were given the all clear to fly and lurched skywards for an hour of sweaty-palmed handle gripping. After making it in one piece toLaos, the peace and tranquillity of Luang Prabang was exactly what we needed. We had met three lovely girls in our hostel in Hanoi- Nat, Kat and Sarah- who were travelling in our direction so we clubbed together for a taxi into town. We found two reasonably priced rooms for the night at the Sackarinh Hotel. Getting my head around the kip wasn’t easy; 13,000 equated to around £1- much trickier than the baht or the dollar! We thought it would be rude not to go and sample a Lao beer at one of the numerous garden lantern adorned bars along our street. At roughly 70p for a litre of beer, I was already warming toLaosand the chilled vibes of Luang Prabang.



The leisurely pace continued as we explored the charming streets of the small city the next morning. We poked around in the jewellery and clothes stores before treating ourselves to an afternoon drink by theMekongRiver. The evening’s activity was a little more taxing, with a sweaty 100m climb to visit Wat Tham Phu Si. We were rewarded with a stunning view of the city, surrounding verdure and a prime spot to watch the sunset. Having arrived early at around 4.30pm, we could secure the best seats in the house and settled in for the hour and a half’s wait. Beams of evening sunlight warmed our skins and our souls whilst the mountains and river made for a picture perfect setting as the golden orb dropped. I decided this sunset outshone all the others we’d seen aroundAsiaso far. I even managed to capture a beautiful photo with the silhouette of a dragonfly in the foreground.



That night we selected a pretty garden restaurant for dinner decorated with lanterns and fairy lights in keeping with the local style. We feasted on a delicious meal of Lao curry and of course, Lao beer! Bellies satisfied, we strolled to the famous night market to see what bargains we could find. Covered stalls were awash with colour, fabrics and smiling, non aggressive hawkers- the Lao sellers appeared much more genteel than those elsewhere inAsia. Amy and I got lost in the delights of a scarf stand and ended up buying almost ten between us! The other girls picked up some lovely finds too- some intricate art prints and a beautiful elephant-design bed throw. Our merry band of travellers grew by 3 that night when we bumped into Andy, a guy who Amy and I met inMelbourneand his two friends.



The next day we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the waterfall Tat Kuang Si. For a group of 9 of us we agreed a price of 15,000 (around £1.25) each, to cover the return. The tumbling multi-tiered cascades turned out to be well worth the hour’s journey. Refreshing aquamarine pools at the bottom of each fall were the perfect place for washing away the day’s heat; you could even make a splash with a rope swing, or jump off the edge of a fall if you were feeling especially brave. Once we’d soaked up enough fun for one day we headed back. Unfortunately there was some discrepancy with the price of the tuk-tuk. Now that we were stranded 32km away from where we wanted to be, the price had magically gone up to 50,000 kip each! To make matters worse the driver demanded we pay him there and then when the usual custom is to pay at the end of the journey. Some of us were more willing to admit defeat and pay the fair, but the more tenacious among us managed to barter him down slightly to 35,000 each. I found the experience a little upsetting, especially as the people of Lao had been really hospitable so far. That evening, Kat, Tina and I went for a relaxing Lao massage. The massage itself was amazing and like most beauty treatments inAsia, very cheap. Half way through I started to feel very strange and as the night wore on I realised I was definitely coming down with something. That something turned out to be a horrible case of stomach flu which had me confined to bed for the next 2 days!



Whilst recovering I missed out on a trip to the caves of Pak Ou, an afternoon’s elephant experience and a couple of mad nights at the local bowling alley- where everyone goes to carry on the party after the local 11pm curfew. Nat, Kat, Sarah and Tina even went ahead to Vang Vieng a day before us as they were keen to move on. After a couple of days resting and avoiding food I started to feel better, but it took a good few weeks for my constitution to completely return to normal.



The journey to Vang Vieng was rather enjoyable as bus journeys go. Despite the steep windy roads, the lush green foliage and makeshift road side villages were postcard picturesque- I spent most of the journey with my camera stuck out of the window. The girls had pre-organised our accommodation in Vang Vieng so on arrival all we had to do was check in and get showered before heading out to one of the local Aussie bars. The bar did tasty pies and even imported cider which they had sadly run out of. I wasn’t planning on drinking at all but of course, when inRome….Needless to say, my tummy didn’t thank me for it and I called it an early night.



Vang Vieng’s biggest attraction is tubing, involving floating down theMekongon a hired inner tube and stopping off at river side bars en route to drink your bodyweight in alcohol and maybe zip-line from one of the platforms into the water. Unfortunately over the years the fun has got so out of hand that numerous travellers have been injured or killed. Shortly before we made it toLaos, someone decided enough was enough and shut down all the bars, (rumour has it the Aussie government stepped in after 2 Aussies died in a week). Either way, we knew it was going to be a tamer experience than it used to be. That didn’t stop us from going shopping for tubing vests that morning so we looked the part. We hired our tubes and descended on the river with beers in hand (the closing of the bars meant it was now a BYOB job). In the end there was a group of around 25 of us who all linked together to float down the river. It turned out to be quite a relaxing experience and was still social as the drinking games ensued. There was even a lady with a cooler box who waved us over to the bank to top up our supply of beers. 2-3 hours later we reached the end of the route and groups of Lao children swarmed towards us to try and pull us into their family bars/restaurants. Luckily one of our party had ‘tubed’ before so he knew the correct place for everyone to exit the river! That night we continued the party back at the Aussie bar including a few games of Jenga. After the bar closed people milled around outside for awhile and some went down to the river to carry on the night.



After brunch (these days we were never up early enough to call it breakfast), we caught the bus to Vientiane. It turned out that most of us were on the same bus even though we were heading in different directions. We only had to say a proper goodbye to Brett who we’d met on our first night in the Aussie bar and who had met Andy on a coach journey from Thailandto Laos. Nat, Kat and Sarah were travelling all the way to Pakse in Southern Laos so we said a sad goodbye to them in Vientiane. There’s not much to say about Vientianeitself as all we saw was a restaurant, a hotel and the airport, but it seemed nice enough even if there wasn’t a whole lot to do. Late the next morning we travelled to the airport to catch our Thai Airways flight to Bangkok. This would be our 3rd visit toBangkok and we were no less excited to go back than the first time we touched down inThailand!

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