Laos

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Arrival in Laos and a new bus is boarded, our driver is of the non-smiling concentrate on the road type - which is fine by me because the roads are littered with obstacles. Other than the motorbikes and cyclists that enjoy using the entire width of the road until a friendly toot moves them back to their side, they are laden with all sorts… pigs, chickens, huge boxes and one even had a wardrobe balanced on the steering wheel!

As we drive along there are tens of thousands of butterflies fluttering by - all pale yellow and quite beautiful. Not so beautiful are the signs outside cafes advertising the sale of dog… it’s an expensive meat here and only eaten on special occasions. Stock is transported over the Vietnam border and we were lucky not to have seen a truckload awaiting when we walked through no-man’s land.

Although I am not even slightly tempted to chow down on Fido, my snack pack is rubbish and all I have is Milna Rusks (just like Farley’s), Haribo World Mix and some vegetable crackers donated by Anna. I distract myself from my rumbling tummy by watching the amazing landscape of Laos as it passes by.

The Hmong people, displaced by the relatively recent closure of the opium fields they had worked for centuries have settled in small villages on the hillsides. Now they live as timber merchants - cultivating, felling and distributing teak, grown in the area. The larger settlements near the river, from where they also draw running water, (unlike those on the hillsides) make the most of the fish stocks - we pass rows and rows of bagged fresh whole fish hanging from rails at the roadside. I’ll stick to my veggie crackers…

We arrive in Pak Xan and stop 30mins before the hotel at a small roadside café. Not trusting the quality of the meat or fish we all have vegetable fried rice - I am passed being hungry and just pick at it. We finally arrive at the hotel at about 9pm - I head straight to bed and am asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.

It’s another early start and I am up and showered by 6.30am. Breakfast is a bread roll, cold fried egg and tea - I skip this in lieu of a cup of tea, sadly this arrives in a glass that is too hot to pick up - yes I’m a bit grumpy and tired and out of sorts.

We are extra sad because next to the restaurant is a cage where an Asian Black Bear has been kept for years and he is very depressed. I wish we hadn’t stopped… for an extra 4 hours drive we could have gone straight on to Vientiane and skipped paying money to the hotel which, if they knew we were boycotting it might force them to re-home the bear. I later discovered that Save the Bear is trying to encourage the owners to give him up, but while they keep getting business from tour groups they think its ok.

The drive to Vientiane passes slowly - again the scenery and village life helps. Despite being the capital, it’s a small place, yet the most striking aspect is the paved streets and obvious planning that had been absent all throughout Vietnam. It has a suburban feel to it and its proximity to the river makes it feel seaside-like.

We went for lunch in a bakery called Jo-Ma - I had quiche salad and a drink called a lemon-mint freeze. Really good food and afterwards I really started to feel better. After lunch we head towards the river, which is now a dry bed until the rainy season next month. Its very hot and we sit in raised wooden pagodas drinking fruit shakes all afternoon.

Sadly the tummy trouble returned as I was getting ready for dinner and although I did go along - all I had was cheese on toast, which didn’t sit at all well. I am now officially sick of being sick.

In the morning our driver takes us 5 hours to Vang Vieng, which is a small place on the Mekong River. Our hotel is really quaint and the bungalow style rooms are really nice - not exactly bug-free, but hey can’t have it all! I tried a little bit of lunch because at 1pm we set out to go tubing.

Tubing is basically floating down river in a giant rubber ring, stopping at numerous bars where alcohol and other stimulants can be purchased. Zip lines and water slides adorn the bamboo structured bars and its ‘the’ thing to do in Vang Vieng.

Armed with tubes and dry bags containing a change of clothes and some cash we are loaded into tuk tuks to drive the 3k upstream to our entry point into the river. In wet season the journey down-stream takes about an hour (excluding bar stops)… in dry season this slows to a much more leisurely 3 hours. Although I try and look elegant getting in my tube - the only technique that works is jumping into it, not lady-like but hey ho.

We float for less than 10 mins and stop at one of the bars - I opt for a Sprite (go party girl!) and sit in the sun and watch the boys show off on the zip wire.

Soon we are tubing again and enjoying the sights of the awesome limestone cliffs that the river cuts through. The river is very shallow in parts and we have to lay almost flat to avoid getting beached on the rocks below. Large rocks are easily avoided at the slow pace we are setting although when the river is in full flow I can imagine it must get quite hairy. The disadvantage we have is that it is so slow in parts that we end up paddling most of the way, which got very tiring. That, along with the odd rock hitting bottom moments made for a few aching muscles and bruised bums.

The last bar we stopped at was really quiet and we were the only ones there. The zip wire taunted me and Gussie - especially as Anna and Katie had both had a go. My first attempt was halted abruptly when, after climbing up the bamboo tower, nerves got the better of me and I climbed back down again. Gussie did the same and despite really wanting to push herself - she also climbed back down. A little while later we were talking about our nerves and about how we wanted to prove we could do it - for ourselves.

I took a deep breath, grabbed Gussie’s hand and together we walked over to the tower, up the steps and across the platform. Everyone was watching us from below, but for me and Gussie - it was just us and our own fear that we had to entertain.

I stepped up first and determined to go through with it - as much for Gussie as for myself, I held onto the black rubber handle and launched myself off. I remember seeing the water rushing towards me very quickly and then I was hitting the water. The pain was searing - my left side took the brunt of the impact and as I smiled up at Gussie and called fro her to ‘go for it!’ I was hurting… oh was I hurting. I looked up through the pain and over to the bar and everyone was cheering and clapping… I’d done it! I faced my fear and won. Yay!!!!

As I swam to shore I called up one last time to Gussie and then I watched as she pushed herself off and splashed into the water. She too was in pain, but we were so proud of ourselves it didn’t really matter.

The final float down river was very long and it was dark by the time we found the shore and returned our tubes.

After a shower and change at the hotel we walked along the main street for dinner. We were in a nice place and I opted for another relatively plain meal - Spaghetti Carbonara… wow it was good. After dinner we went to a bar where hammocks and raised wooden platforms had been erected around campfires and a DJ rolled out the tunes from a little booth and a laptop. Although I wasn’t drinking, I did have a bit of a boogie before leaving to go to bed.

The next day we weren’t due to leave until midday, but I was up relatively early and by 9am I was settled on a table overlooking the river drinking tea. It was lovely and peaceful - I watched as a tuk tuk driver drove into the shallows of the river and proceeded to wash it inside and out. A buffalo herd and wild horses used the river to drink from and children played and splashed happily. The river is a great resource to those close by and it is fully utilized as tourist attraction; trade route; playground; waterhole and car wash!

It was a long bus ride to Luang Prabang - 7 hours and we arrive just in time for dinner. I decide to kill or cure my tummy bug and order a water buffalo burger. It was nice, but mind over matter failed and I just couldn’t eat much of it. I gave quarters away to Anna, Alex and Rory and was still stuffed. After dinner we strolled to the night market, which was really nice. It was full of stalls selling handmade silks, embroidered fabric, arts, crafts and lovely artwork. I bought myself a couple of ink drawings of Buddha and resisted everything else.

We got a tuk tuk back to the hotel and I slept well. The next day, some of the group visit the nearby caves but the majority of us go to do an elephant ride. Being my third time on a hefalump, I thought it would be the same as before. I was surprised to find that this time, although shorter, was much more ‘off-road’ and at times when we were going down very steep parts, I was worried that I would slide out of the handmade wooden seat and down his trunk!

At the end of the trek we arrived at a waterfall. We had a swim and the elephants had a well earned drink themselves and tucked in to huge bunches of bananas and leaves. The pool was very cold but refreshing… years of swimming in Wales’ sea have taught me that if you want to warm up you have to stay under - this was lost on my friends and they stood up to their knees and shivered.

We dried off and headed down the river to the long boats that would take us back to our minibus. I had a nasty shock half way there because a large spider decided to crawl right next to my wooden seat. I was not impressed - especially when he crawled under my seat. It was like that film ‘Snakes on a Plane’ - I could jump out and I was too scared to stay put. Eventually I moved myself further up front, but not before giving everyone the biggest laugh of the day.

We arrived back in time for lunch but I wasn’t feeling great (what a shocker!) - this time I think it was too much sun, I’d forgotten to put my hat on (sorry Gran). I ate some really dodgy tomato soup and went back to the hotel to sleep it off (the sunstroke, not the soup).

I struggled to get up for dinner, but not having eaten properly for what seemed like forever I had to eat something. I’d got it in my head that a steak and baked potato would be the thing for me and I was in luck. Laos, along with Vietnam, had been colonized by the French, and therefore a lot of their cooking style remained so finding somewhere that served steak was easy. I ended up with steak and boiled potatoes but I ate every last bit - it was delicious. Was I cured? I really hoped so.

Some of the group had a very early start in the morning - they had opted to do a 3 hour hike to a waterfall. I, on the other hand had selected to have a lay-in and get a tuk tuk there. Much more sensible.

I arrived for breakast ay 9.58… and with just 2mins of service to go, I ate a very leisurely boiled egg and tea until it was time to leave at 11.30am. The journey took 45mins and soon we were at the top of the waterfall where the others had just arrived, looking very hot and sweaty. They all had lunch, but as I’d only just had breakfast, I just had a lemon juice.

We walked up a short slope and visited the Asian Black Bear rescue centre. There were about 8 bears there at the time, all in the process of being rehabilitated to be either released back into the wild, or re-housed in a good facility. Those we saw today all looked very happy and had loads of room to do what bears do.

We walked up a little further and found the turquoise pool of the waterfall. It was cold, but we spent some time floating around and relaxing. It was a beautiful place and we stayed for a couple of hours.

Later, after dinner we went out to see some Lao line dancing. It was exactly what you’d expect… 50 or so local men and women of all ages moving around the floor in time. Chris and I had a go at a waltz-like dance that they were doing and Anna and Alexa tried the line dancing but to be honest we were all rubbish. We left the experts to it and headed off to do some ten-pin bowling. I did surprisingly well and got the highest score on the first game - 95. We played a second game but I didn’t do so well and with 83, I don’t think I made the top 5.

It was my latest night in ages and I really enjoyed it. We tuk tucked it back to the hotel at about 1am and went to bed.

The next day was the start of our 2-day boat ride up the Mekong river to Thailand, but before I left, I got up early and headed into town to watch the Buddhist monks walk through the town collecting rice donated by the local people as alms. It was quite a sight, the bright orange robes parading through the the silent town at the crack of dawn. They do this every day and on return to their wat (temple) put it all together towards their meals for the day.

After some breakfast we head to the riverside where we find our long boat for the next part of our journey. It was a well-designed boat with plenty of room for us to relax and chill. The riverside was busy with fishermen, water buffalo and children swimming. It wasn’t the most exciting of journeys and other than drinking a lot of tea - which I thoroughly enjoyed there isn’t much to tell you.

We stopped at Pak Ban, which is a small place about half-way to our Chiang Kong, in very basic accommodation. It was probably the most bug-ridden place I’ve stayed in and I was keen to get my mosquito net up before the lights went out. Oh yes… they only had electricity up until 10pm. I was rather put out to find that my so far unused torch didn’t work so literally was in the dark. That was inconvenient, but what really made it uncomfortable was the lack of air - no electric - no fan. Not surprisingly, I didn’t sleep. I spent the night sweltering under my mosquito net listening to a rather loud gekko singing outside my door (well at least he was outside!).

We set out early the next day and I try and catch up on some sleep. Its another 9 hour boat ride to the Thai border town of Chiang Kong and we are all rather subdued. I catch up on my journal and drink more tea.

We arrive by 5pm and complete the paperwork for our entry visas to Thailand. Nearing the end of the trip now, just 2 more days and all I want to do is go home.

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Photos

Road to Laos
Hmong Village

Vang Vien
Working at the car-wash...

Vang Vien
View of Mekong River from the hotel

Luang Prabang
Asian Black Bear

Luang Prabang
Buddhist monks collecting daily rice from locals

Mekong River
How many water buffalo can you see?

Mekong River
Thousands of butterflies on the shore

Mekong River
Sunset

Mekong River
Fisherman bringing in his catch