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Published: March 13th 2007
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Laos....I spent a week there once.
"I cant believe I'm in a country that I didnt even know existed until a year ago"....Josh Cameron
Maybe a few of you dont know about a little country in S.East Asia named Laos. Its most notoriously known for being one of the most bombed countries in the world. After allowing the N.Vietnamese to smuggle arms through their borders and into South Vietnam during the Vietnam War and the Americans finding out, they were none too happy. And we all know when the Yankees get upset, they bomb the hell out of a place...well, Laos was no exception. They dropped thousands of bombs and fortunately only 1 out of every 3 that landed actually exploded. This is terribly unfortunate for many today who must be careful where they walk or they will become like many others and will lose a leg, an arm or even their life.
Laos recently made international news as well for officially having bird flu. A lady who lived in a village contracted it as she had direct contact with an infected chicken. Fortunately I read this on yahoo.com AFTER I had left Laos. UNFORTUNATELY, she probably made me
a chicken sandwich when I was there. I wonder how long before you find out if you contracted it, because thats probably the only needle that I didnt get before I left.**
In Laos, (and most s.east asian countries) nobody ever washes their hands when they make you food. At first I was appalled at the fact and kept fighting the urge to give the ladies some of my hand sanitizer to use before they prepared my baguette....but now, I feel that I'm immune to it.....besides....I'm a firm believer in the, "IT could never happen to me"... school of thought.
Laos is an absolutely beautiful country. We crossed the border from Thailand and began our journey down the lovely Mekong river. There was the option of taking the slow boat down the river (2 days about 15 hours on the water) or a speed boat down the river (1 day). The speed boat seems logical, but you have to wear a helmet and the unofficial statistics report atleast one death per month on the river....we opted for the slow boat. This was an interesting option as we were introduced to Laos time. This means that everything is delayed by
ATLEAST 1 hour. If the bus is "scheduled" to leave at 8....it will leave no earlier than 9. In Laos, every time we got on board a new mode of transportation for a decent sized journey...the events that would take place during that journey would leave me saying...this is going in the blog"....(I know I must sound like a real clown, anytime I mention my blog in the real world) because it seemed that it would be impossible for one trip to outdo the one that preceeded it...but somehow it did!!
Laos has this fantastic beer called BEERLAO (not just a clever name) which is 640mL of liquid gold in a bottle all for 8,000 kip (the Laos Currency). 10,000 kip is the equivalent of one U.S dollar. Anytime the beer is cheaper than the water, you know what the backpackers will be buying. I'm pretty sure whoever invented this beer is by far the richest man (or woman!) in Laos.
Speaking of money. In Laos there is 1 ATM in the entire country. Its located in the capital city of Vientienne which is right in the middle of the country. One guy I met got turned away
at the Chinese border because he didnt have enough $$$ for his Visa. So he had to make a 30 hour bus ride back down Vientienne to get $$ out from the ATM. We had our money exchanged at the border prior to entry, I ended up with a wad of Kips in my wallet. It was the first (but hopefully not last) time I could say that I was a millionaire.
In Chaing Mai, we had an incredibly annoying English lady who came on our jungle trek with us. While she complained the entire trip, we were fortunate enough to get to know a couple other English blokes as well. They kept telling us that she was not a reflection of England and that they were embarassed to be from the same country as her. We thought this was pretty funny and after finding out we'd be heading in the same direction as them, decided to head thru Laos together. Tim and Justin are their names and Justin is obsessed with Football (the round the world name for Soccer) and always feels compelled to give me updates on how all the Canadian players are doing in the English
Cuties
how cute are these girls? Premier League....I always say....I wish you werent a liar! Canadians dont play soccer. Anyways the guys are jokers and they'll be in heaps of the pics that I post.
The highlight of Laos (besides making it out alive) was our day spent on innertubes floating down the river. Its essentially a lazy boy river (for adults), where you go down the river and people pass you bamboo sticks and pull you towards shore. Once upon shore you buy a LaoBeer and then climb up a ladder (about 30 feet) to an awaiting zip line. You grab on tightly and Tarzan it into the middle of the river. This series of events would repeat itself going down the river and the whole day took about 6 hours. It was so much fun we heavily contemplated staying an extra day in Vian Ving just to do it again.
In Luang Prabang, we went out one evening and on our way home were asked if we wanted to go bowling. In a country where you come across modern operating infrastructure as often as you meet someone who isnt trying to sell you something, we just assumed that bowling was a key
word for something else, like a "karaoke" show or something to that extent so we politely declined. Fortunately, there were a couple of other guys who said that the bowling was legitimate and so we took their word for it and hopped in a tuk-tuk. The bowling alley was the size of a pool hall and had 5 lanes, but was absolutely packed. We ended up playing for a few hours and Cameron had a few good slips and after finishing dead last every game, kept saying "bowling isnt a real sport...lets see what you guys can do on the ice"
Laos has some incredible scenery and is a very laid back country. I highly recommend it to anybody travelling to S.East Asia. While the growth in tourism is beginning to improve living conditions and the economy here, it remains a very very poor country. People live in dirty conditions without clean water and hospitals and medical services are home made first aid kits. When the only time that people back home hear about it a hidden gem like this is because of an isolated Avian Bird Flu incident, it is likely that it is doomed to remain in
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Thought this was interesting. such a state for an extended period of time. The reality is, when word spreads on incidents like this, the effects have a domino effect and are detremental on the entire country. This is the case on a far larger scale than the SARS scare that hit Toronto did. (the economy in all of S.East Asia is still recovering from the tourists who cancelled their trips here after the Tsunami) While I joke about everyone attempting to sell things to me here, and while it can be incredibly annoying at times, I try to remind myself that they are mothers, fathers and often children whose families rely on the sale of a few packs of Frito Lays and Coca-colas each day. They dont want to be working 16 hour days walking around trying to sell potato chips and postcards to tourists (who possibly would?), but they do it. They do it because thats the best opportunity that they see fit to provide for their family. Today we were approached by a young boy who was 12 years old and had voluntarily joined in on our game of Hacky Sack on the beach. He spoke strong english (and a little french)
Transportation
its about as safe as it looks whipping around thousand metre cliff drops at night with no guardrails and ended up telling us that he worked on the beach everyday from noon until the sun went down. When we asked him about school he told him that his mother home schooled him. We ended up buying a pineapple off him.
** I know that there is no needle for bird flu, I was being facetious.
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I'm Learning.
Reading your blog is like a history lesson wrapped in an adventure wrapped in a prostitute wrapped in a beer. Keep posting.