WELCOME TO LAOS

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ATD

We arrived in Laos upon a small Air Laos plane from Bangkok, having being forced to take the more expensive aerial route due to a train strike and our expiring Thai visas. Our plane was decorated brighter than a grade three classroom.

We were efficiently ushered through customs at the small airport in Vientiane. The airport was notable for its lack of hawkers - a big change from what we have grown accustomed to in Asia. We found a cab driver who took us to our digs for the night. Villa Sisavad turned out to be a little disappointing and overpriced. The pool we had been looking forward to swimming in was little more than a stagnate pond.
Refreshed, the next day we ventured out into the capital city of Laos. The city is full of beautifully designed French colonial buildings, set on the banks of the mighty Mekong which separates Laos from Thailand. The main thing which strikes a person about Laos in the middle of June is the stifling humidity. A tuk-tuk took us through the wide streets and sauna-like conditions to the main touristy area where we hoped to find a nicer place for a couple of nights. After a couple of misses we found the perfect spot at the Mali Namphu Guest House. A 1950’s French colonial architecture mansion, it is situated right in the heart of the city, and our room looked onto a beautiful garden courtyard.

That night I discovered my new favourite dish. ‘Laap’ is finely minced meat (I had chicken), blended with herbs, dried chili flakes, spinach and roasted ground sticky rice which I had with ‘khao niaw’ - the trade mark Lao sticky rice. This I washed down with ‘Beerlao’, a tasty brew which is the national drink and dominates the domestic beer market to the staggering tune of 99%. In a country with very few foreign exports, the constant approval of their Brewery is a source of great pride to the people of Laos.
The following day we had a better look around town, stopping our hired scooter first at the national monument which is called ‘Phat That Luang’ - or ‘World-Precious Sacred Stupa’. The large golden stupa is a symbol of the Theravada Buddhism (to which 60% of Laotians are devoted, animism comes in second), and to national sovereignty. It is an ancient monument thought to have been built by the Khmers as a part of a monastery in the 11th century. Over the centuries it has been damaged a repaired many times, most recently re-guilded by the socialist Lao government in 1995 to celebrate 20 years of the modern Lao state.
It was simply too hot to hang around for long. We grabbed snippets of shade where we could, but ended up hopping back on the scooter and heading back to the air-conditioned comfort of our room. On the way we stopped off at Patuxai, a huge arch inspired by the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It is an impressive size and has some beautiful Buddhist artwork on the inner ceiling.

The inflation in Laos is comically high. The local currency is called the ‘kip’. Australian readers will find that amusing in a country where most people seem to be either waking up or dozing off. The kip exchanges at the rate of 8,500 for one US dollar. On the morning of our departure for the north I made my way to a bank as I had read that ATMs are only to be found in the capital. After trying unsuccessfully at a few banks eventually found success at the TMB (Thai Military Bank). They agreed to give me the amount I needed, which would be enough to get us through the next couple of weeks. When the money came out it was in two bundled piles of 20,000 kip notes - like the ones you see in the movies where they fill the suitcases with cash.

The 10:00am bus to Vang Vieng turned out to be the 11:30, after we had toured the city several times picking up passengers as we went but in no particular order. The bus ride took us through dense jungle along a fairly well surfaced road. What we first noticed in Vang Vieng was the huge runway sitting mysteriously in the middle of the sleepy town. Turns out the US forces used this as a runway during the Vietnam War in the 70’s. Further research has led us to the startling fact that Laos is the most bombed country in the history of the world. Forget Vietnam, the Blitz, Afghanistan - Laos is it. This run way and another one at the nearby ‘secret CIA city’ of Long Chen were key to these monumental carpet bombing runs. Apart from the runway other remnants of the war lie scattered all over the country in the form of unexploded cluster bombs and land mines.

Without much trouble we found a very comfortable and well-priced room at the Thavisouk resort. From our room we have a magnificent view of the majestic limestone formations rising steeply out of the Mekong. The clouds passing through and over the formations give them a constantly changing appearance. The formations give the town of Vang Vieng a surreal feeling of being surrounded by the unknown and mysterious.


June 2nd 2009 - ABD

We left Vang Vieng, the party town famous for it’s tubing, rock climbing, kayaking and other forms of adventure tourism in exchange for a much more subtle Luang Prabang. Our minibus ride was supposed to take about five hours but on that particular rainy day things didn’t quite go to plan. As warned by the Lonely Planet (yes, we are still using them despite all the complaining on our behalf) the road from Vang Vieng was particularly winding, so Andy and I sat up front with the driver. The first hour of the trip was pretty uneventful, our co-passengers, two Israeli guys, one of which was particularly religious and a French girl providing most of the entertainment. It was raining non stop and I was grateful for our cautious driver.

Suddenly, there was a long queue of cars and minibuses parked in the middle of the street. Our driver overtook them all and when we finally arrived to the front of the queue we were faced with a massive landslide. Many locals where trying to clear the road of the big rocks and mud and a number of tourists all stood around in their colorful raincoats overlooking the situation. Never ones to be left out of an exciting situation, Andy and I donned our condomesque green and yellow plastic raincoats and went to check things out. The whole thing didn’t take longer than half an hour, with a truck lifting the bigger rocks with it’s crane hook.

Back in the minibus, our religious Jewish co-traveller was in a praying frenzy, rocking back and forth and citing words from his holy books. We drove for a little while longer and then we saw a car in a ditch that was upside down. The driver stopped and Andy, the two Israeli’s and the driver got out and went to check if everything was ok. There was no sign of the passengers and hardly any damage to the vehicle, so off we went again. Our final stop was for lunch, where we first saw an Australian family of four, the father reminding both Andy and myself very much of Adam Brown, our brother in law. We had some fried rice and got to chat a bit more to Sophie, our French co-traveller.

We arrived in Luang Prabang at around 4 pm, seven hours after leaving Vang Vieng! We ended up sharing a tuk tuk with Sophie and the Australian family to the town centre. The family’s two girls (around 8 and 10 years old) where extremely bright and sweet little girls and I enjoyed chatting to them. The father, mentioned to Andy that they where from Melbourne and that he himself was an aid worker in Under developed countries. He told us that his youngest daughter was a Vietnam baby and the older one, a Mali baby! We talked for a while and he encouraged us to keep travelling with the kids, it’s very do-able and not to let anyone tell us otherwise! Andy and I winked at each other, that is exactly what we intend to do. We dropped them off at their hotel and made our way with Sophie to a guest house recommended by the LP. When we arrived there we where told that it was full and so kept walking to find another one. Soon enough, we did. At 12 dollars a night, this place looks like something out of a 5 star hotel in the west. The whole place is wood and the bed is a dream.
That night we made our way to the night market. A great selection of handicrafts, paintings, bed covers, lamp shades, traditional weaving products, baby things, jewelry and other bits and bobs are on offer. We strolled around for ages and even did a spot of shopping for some of the babies in our family and friend circles that are about to be born late this year and early next year. An unbelievably beautiful town, Luang Prabang, a former French colony is a mix of renovated colonial style buildings, edgy art galleries, trendy boutiques, lush gardens and Buddhist Wats. Fresh fruit juices are available in abundance and each restaurant is more beautiful that the other.

We ended the night at the French run ‘Laofa’ restaurant, which reminded me so much of Athens. It’s white washed walls and wooden blue painted shutters, with a chalk board hanging at the entrance door listing today’s menu and small flasks filled with olive oil on each table, are a real Mediterranean trade. I miss the Med and can’t wait for Andy to see it! Travelling is fabulous and we have certainly enjoyed it so much over the last seven months but there comes a time when one is unable to take anything in anymore, where one is just keen to lay that backpack under the bed for a while and chill out with family and friends. I think we are ready for that now, ready for a bit of routine again.

And Lao is a perfect place to spend the last few weeks before that. Because it just commands one to RELAX.

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Photos

on our way to Luang Prabang
Locals checking on the progress with the landslide that was blocking the road

Luang Prabang Food stalls
We lived of baguettes for lunch! Yummy and oh so cheap