Laos

We left Luang Prabang the morning of the 13th en route to the small city of Vang Vieng, about 6 hours south of LP. We had planned in advance to meet up with Moniek and Sven, our Dutch friends from Turtle Islands National Park in Borneo, to celebrate our one year anniversary on October 14th by doing what one does in VV... floating down the river in an innertube, with intervals of drinking and rope swinging, of course.

We had read in our guidebook that the stretch of highway between Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng was actually considered to be quite dangerous until recently due to Hmong rebel activity. We had heard stories of travellers riding buses accompanied by Lao guards armed with semi-automatic weapons on bus rides to fend off unfriendly fire. We encountered nothing of this sort- our bus ride was windy, uneventful and quicker than scheduled. The bus station is actually located on an out-of-use gravel airstrip, used during the Vietnam war by American planes. The entire thing is pretty surreal looking.

Vang Vieng is a study in bizarre contrasts. The town itself sits nestled amongst beautiful, soaring karst cliffs, their sheer, vertical faces plunging into the gurgling Nam Song River... and from afar appears to be quite tranquil. The town itself, though, has in recent years become a "must" on the SE Asia backpacker circuit for tubing, getting "happy," and watching hours and hours of "Friends" episodes over tainted pizza and fruit shakes. We weren't really into the happy scene (I saw that movie "Brokedown Palace,") but the tubing on the Nam Song sounded alright. We met up with Moniek and Sven at the guesthouse that night, had a few delicious chicken baguettes and charted out the next morning.

Tubing on the Nam Song is usually a pretty quick affair, as most backpackers opt for the short 4km circuit at the end. This section of the river is almost completely bordered by family-run, ramshackle bar-type affairs, selling cold BeerLaos, liquor drinks, and snacks. Being on the riverfront, many of the bars will try to entice- or even kidnap- tubers by hooking their tubs with long bamboo sticks, or throwing out a long rope. To visit these establishments, you simply dock your tube, climb up a (usually) rickety bamboo ladder, and you're at the bar. In addition to the drinks on offer, there are spots for jumping into the river, either from a bridge, dubiously constructed rope-swing, or ladder-type thing. Wikipedia warns (as do the guidebooks,) that it pays to exercise caution on the 10 meter high swing, as it's common to "perforate your eardrum and do permanent damage to your hearing if you land the wrong way." There are typically several backpacker deaths on the Nam Song River each year, due to drunken swinging, etc.

Moniek and Sven had already tubed once, and were true veterans. They bargained out a deal where we got to tube not 4, but 17 kilometers- the first 13 being completely rural, surrounded by cliffs. The whole thing cost us 80,000 kip per person- or about 8 bucks- for transportation, the tube and a lifevest. Not bad! It was relatively safe, too- we'd hit the ocassional rapid, snake, or rock in the bum, but for the most part we were alright. Not a shabby way to celebrate one year of marriage!

One year anniversary!!

soaking up some sun on the river

keens should endorse our trip for this...

Catt and Sven

Catt and Meg floating down the river with the dramatic cliffs of Vang Vieng in the background

Moniek

Megan going it skeleton-style

Moniek riding calm

snakes on a tube... in attack mode

Moniek and Sven on the river

Catt dreaming about tubes... on his tube

sometimes there were rapids

Our tubing took up almost the entire day, and by evening we were tired. We went to dinner at an empty (but atmospheric) Lao restaurant on the riverside, and dined by candlelight. Thanks, Moniek and Sven, for helping us celebrate! Many of the pictures above from our time on the river are from their website, too.

After a few days in Vang Vieng, we said farewell to our friends, and started the last leg of our Lao journey on towards the capital, Vientiane. Vientiane is really more of a gigantic village than a capital city- with only 200,000 residents, it is by far the smallest Asian capital city. The pronunciation of Vientiane, is "Vyen Chen." Here is a little bit of background on its evolution, both in meaning and spelling:

The name of the city is derived from Pāli, the literary language of Theravada Buddhism, and its original meaning was "The king's grove of sandalwood", this tree being prized for its fragrance in classical India. It is also believed that the original name of Vientiane (Viangchan) means "City of the Moon" in the native Lao language. Modern Lao pronunciation and orthography do not clearly reflect the Pali etymology. The romanized spelling "Vientiane" is of French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the hard "ch" syllable of the Lao word; a common English-based spelling is "Viangchan", or occasionally "Wiangchan".

We had heard that the French food there would be delicious, and we were not disappointed- it was absolutely amazing value. We decided to celebrate our anniversary with our tastebuds, and had two amazing dinners- the most outstanding being the meal we had at French Bistro, La Cave des Chateaux. Perhaps most unforgettable was the smoked pear and camembert cheese appetizer. I still have dreams about it. They also had a fairly decent selection of French wines, at very good prices.

We only had a few days, but we took in some sights, especially the famous Wat Si Saket temple, built in 1818 and home to over 2,000 silver and ceramic Buddha images. Here are some pictures of Wat Si Saket, and our time in Vientiane:

I love Laos!!

Wat Si Saket... check out the hundreds of tiny Buddhas sitting in the wall

Broken Buddhas

Vientiane tuktuks

Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end... and we had a pre-booked flight from Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam on October 17th. As if you couldn't already tell from our entries, Laos has definitely been our favorite country so far. Every experience we had there was positive- from the locals, the food, the beer, the accomodation, the scenery, the culture, even the fellow travellers we met on the road. It is an amazing destination for those willing to get off the beaten track a little bit. We are hopeful that the tourism industry there will continue to develop on the right path and it won't go the way of, say, southern Thailand. It's one place where genuine interactions with locals and culture can still quite easily take place. Go now!

That night we took our flight to Vietnam. A whole new set of adventures were just around the corner...

Luang Prabang, Laos is a very special place. Special, as we anticipated, because the entire place is a UNESCO World Heritage sight, and home to some of the most spectacular, atmospheric, and well-preserved Buddhist temples in the whole of Southeast Asia. Also special, as we would learn, because it is randomly the gathering place for cool travellers from the Americas. For the first time, we were surrounded entirely by new friends from the States, Canada, Mexico, and South America. A little taste of home in the middle of Asia. And a little taste of France, too. God, the food here is incredible.

Our LP odyssey began at the bus station in Luang Nam Tha with Laura, our Irish friend of trekking and leeching fame. The bus ride was about nine hours, remarkably uncrowded, with hair-raising sharp turns on mountain roads, incredible views, and friendly children and villagers in tiny hill towns. It seemed as if we were in a race with every other public Lao bus making the journey. Luckily we are completey immune to terrifying driving experiences- enough time on mountain roads in Asia and Latin America will do that to you. We would have slept well, except at every turn we'd slide off the bus seat, and practically onto the floor- there were no seatbelts (or "bus leashes," as we referred to them... it's been a while since we've seen one, and the terminology got scrambled.)

We arrived in Luang Prabang at night time and set about finding a guesthouse. We settled on a small place, which at $10 per night was actually pretty fancy. Most of our friends were in $2 per night dorm beds. Our place was at the end of a quiet lane practically smack-bang in the center if a small Buddhist monastary. The grounds were incredibly peaceful, and orange-robed young monks could be seen at all hours shuffling across the courtyard and studying English in the afternoons. We spent our first day wandering the alleyways of Luang Prabang and taking in some of the wats. Here is a quick blurb on LP, thanks to our trusty pal, wikipedia:

Luang Prabang, or Louangphrabang, is a city located in north central Laos, on the Mekong River about 425 km north of Vientiane, and the capital of Louangphrabang Province. The current population of the city is about 22,000.
The city was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name. Until the communist takeover in 1975, it was the royal capital and seat of government of the Kingdom of Laos. The city is also notable as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

...and some pictures from our temple sight-seeing...


child safety seat

Megan helping young monks with their English

monk studying

paintings inside a wat in Luang Prabang, Laos

English lessons

careful! Dogs in Luang Prabang snap!

wat detail

monks receiving morning alms in front of our guesthouse each morning at 5:00 AM

reclining Buddha

Tree of Life painting

practicing English with the monks

Mekong River

Luang Prabang night market... the best in SE Asia...

tasty 50 cent baguette sandwiches

LP fruit market

fruit smoothies in a bag... an SE Asia classic...

a Lao lady

Luang Prabang, like most cities in Laos, has incredible, affordable Lao and Western food, $4 per hour full-body massages, and enough atmosphere to calm the most frazzled of travelers. We met up with Gabi, again (our friend that we first met in Chiang Mai,) and indulged in some fruit shake therapy and massages after a difficult day of wat-seeing, and great conversation. We miss you, Gabs!! That night a huge slew of us went out for drinks and bowling (for some) at a really flash looking bar, by Lao standards. On the walk home through darkened, silent streets, Catt and I were propositioned for drugs not once, twice, but thrice. Luang Prabang is the most innocent Asian city we've visited, so this was a little strange (and a lot funny.) A motorbike would come zooming from the darkness, and would slow next to us. A faceless driver would say at lowest volume some variation of "maree-wana, maree-wana, maree-wana??"or "you wan somseeng, you wan somseeng, you wan somseeng?" When we kindly declined, he'd zoom away again into the night. He was almost like Batman or something. Apparently, everyone, we look like junkies to the Lao. Guess it is time to launder my wrinkled backpacker rags...

Our third day we made the decision to go on a white-water rafting trip on a river a two hour drive north of Luang Prabang, through beautiful countryside. Before we put in at the start of the rapids we had the chance to play with some of the village children and their turkeys. We all agreed that Lao children are the most beautiful in the world. They are so cute!! The village is on an unsealed road far from any tourist center, so we were a real novelty with our strange, inflated red rafts, helmets and bikinis. Hopefully no one was offended by Catt's bikini. Kidding. Anyway, we ended up using Green Discovery Laos, the same company we used for our trek in Luang Nam Tha for our rafting trip. We highly recommend them if you are headed to Laos to do adventure/outdoorsy activites: www.greendiscoverylaos.com

On the river we met two great American couples- Bobby and Diana from Cali, and Mike Murphy (and later his wonderful wife, Nadia,) from DC. We were so pumped to meet some fellow Washingtonians... our first in three months! Murph and Nadia live in Tenleytown, a quick two metro stops from our haunts back in Dupont. We need to meet up again when we're all home from our respective adventures.

the raft

on the river

rocking the geeky helmet

beautiful northern Laos

That night Bobby and Diana and Mike and Nadia met up with us, Laura and Gabi, again, and we headed out to the only disco club (we think) in Luang Prabang for dancing from 10:00- 11:00 PM (yes, those are the dancing hours. Before that, it's a weird cover band and creative karaoke.) We grabbed a tuk-tuk to the outskirts of town, and set out for what ended up being an incredible night. All these guys we'd met on the river earlier that day turned up, and at one point it felt like we knew every booleh (Westerner) in the place. Which isn't actually saying that much- I think this is usually a strictly locals-only haunt. The decor was fun-house-cum-hotel conference room space- a vast wooden dance floor encircled by high tables and folding chairs, with black-light childish looking cartoons on the curtains, a disco ball, and flashing neon pink lights. At the far end of the dance floor was a DJ box above the floor with the tiniest Lao woman inside (with the loudest voice, ever.) Once the dance hour started, she would interrupt every song at top volume to let out a "YESSS, everyone, sexy, sexy noooow!!!" or something along those lines. She was dancing like crazy with her little headphones on, completely absorbed in the music (and sort of resembling a Charlie Brown Peanuts character with repetitive motions, etc,) and the rest of us were slam-dancing/interpretative dancing like crazy to weird, old remixed-to-techno-rap hits (think Mystikal, or worse, Petey Pablo). It was definitely an experience. Here are some amazing pictures:

en la discoteca

with Laura and Gabi

Catt and Mike Murphy

Megan, Gabi, Nadia

our raft, partying Lao style

After all that fun, six of us hailed down our tuktuk guy (who had just been waiting out in the parking lot the whole time) for our ride back to town. Technically there is a "strictly enforced" midnight curfew for all foreigners in Laos. This is rarely enforced (and when it is, the friendly cops just escort you back to your guesthouse,) but the streets are silent. Half-way through the ride, though (with Gabi hanging off the back of the tuktuk,) the thing almost shot off the road when we heard an ear-popping explosion. We had blown a tire! Luckily another driver took pity on us and we were able to pile into his tuktuk. Pics:

busted tuktuk tire

"this is NOT what we paid for..."

Megan and Diana... what the*#&%#%??

big moneeey

kippionnaires... Bob and Catt

Gabs hanging off the back of the new tuktuk

The next day we bid farewell to Gabi and Laura who were moving on to Vientiane, and prepared for Bobby's birthday dinner. Mike and Nadia organized a dinner for a bunch of us at Tamarind, a very nice Luang Prabang restaurant. The meal was set, and delicious... we had an incredible appetizer of dried and salted buffalo skin with eggplant, a watermelon liquer apperitif, and tender fish, prepared jungle-style for the main. Desert was an array of tropical fruit (star fruit, pommelo, tamarinds, mangosteens, melons, etc.) Happy birthday, Bobby!

Appetizers at Tamarind... buffalo hide with sesame seeds and eggplant puree

Group at Tamarind in Luang Prabang

fish in palm leaves at Tamarind

Catt loves peace

We tucked in early to prepare for our journey to Vang Vieng to celebrate our one year anniversary, and reunion with Moniek and Sven from Borneo the next morning, but were sad to leave Luang Prabang and our new friends, too.
All in all, Luang Prabang was one of our favorite cities in all of Asia (and I can say that now, because even though we're terribly behind on our travel blog, we're writing this from Australia and our Asia chapter is in "real time," finished.)

Perhaps the most wonderful aspect of our days in Luang Prabang was the community we shared with all of the friends we met there... it seemed as though every day we had a coffee, dinner, or late night date with a different group of people. The vibe there really epitomizes all that we love about travelling in general- the willingness to be open-hearted with strangers, trust your gut, and let go of preconceived notions or anxiety when meeting new people. Relationships made "on the trail," I am convinced, mature at about 10 times the rate of those made at home because you're already work from such a common baseline of understanding and values. It's a beautiful thing. Another wonderful thing about Luang Prabang was the relaxed atmosphere. There was never the pressure and hustle that characterizes so many Asian cities. Things were slow-paced. The night market was so peaceful that you could hear the crickets chirping, and many sellers worked by dim light, or even candlelight. The food was exquisite, too. We definitely recommend it for all!

Laos. What did we expect? What could we expect? It is a small country, rural, and one of the least developed in the world. It has a low life-expectancy, three or four ATMs in the entire country, and more unsealed roads than you can shake a stick at. It has no border with the ocean, and the geography of the north is plagued with steep mountain cliffs and dense jungle, making urban development- and farming- quite difficult. We were braced for a difficult, frustrating, but ultimately awesome travel adventure. We came away from this small country filled with happiness and peace, colorful memories of gracious locals, and a lifetime of experiences to treasure. It truly is one of the most incredible places we have ever been.

We arrived in Laos at the very beginning of October, overland from Chiang Mai, Thailand. We travelled by local bus with Gabi, our Brazilian pal, Gosha, a Polish girl also staying at Julie's in CM, and Aussie Paul, an Australian guy we met up with on the bus. The journey to the Thai-Lao border on the Thai side was rather uneventful. Upon arrival, we walked through immigration, and boarded small, wooden boats to make the journey across the Mekong to Laos.

Crossing through Lao customs was a piece of cake (although Gosha had to pull out a map of Europe to show the officials that Poland, in fact, did exist.) The border town of Huay Xai was dusty, quiet and uneventful. We made home for the night in a small guesthouse at a whopping $3 per night for a double room.

There are many posters in Laos warning visitors against the cultural taboos they may violate during their visit. We wished more than anything that we could have gotten a copy of one of these gems. Here are some of the pictures outlining the "don'ts" of Laos:

do not touch anyone's head in Laos

do not smoke weed out of large bamboo stalks in Laos

do not make out in front of locals in Laos

Armed with all the cultural knowledge we needed and Gosha, Gabi, and Paul, we bought some BeerLao and set out for a night on the town. BeerLao, as it turns out, is pretty much the greatest national beer we've ever had. We plan to create an official fan club when we get back to the USA.

mmmmm...

The Club

enjoying some classic Lao grassy looking snacks. The perfect accompaniment to a BeerLao... or a dinner of bark?

The guesthouse we stayed at had very little bathroom doorways. We called them hobbit bathrooms:

watch your head!

The next day we made the decision along with Gabi to travel to Luang Nam Tha, a small town in far northern Laos close to the Nam Ha protected area. Laos is working with the government of New Zealand to put in place mechanisms for sustainable ecotourism, and has made great efforts to limit the impact of tourism on their natural areas. We decided this would be the perfect place to do a hill trek, so the next morning we set out for the bus station.

We were told that the bus to Luang Nam Tha left at 9:30 AM in the morning. Unfortunately, in Laos, the bus only leaves when there are enough people to fill it. If there aren't enough people, no problem! One bus just travels to ALL the cities. This meant a very long ride for Gosha, who was heading on to Luang Prabang, 16 hours from Huay Xai after dropping us off in Luang Nam Tha.

We played cards in the rain and watched the bus hit a telephone pole at the bus station until about 3:00 PM. Finally, there were enough of us for the rickety bus, and we departed.

the broken telephone pole is in the background

after seven hours of suspense, we're leaving!!

Lao water bottle. It's so true.

The journey to Luang Nam Tha took only four hours. Apparently before they sealed the road, the journey took 12 hours. Thank God for asphalt. The scenery was pretty incredible- soaring mountain peaks, and completely uninhabited tracks of wildlife and forest. The Lao locals on our bus were very friendly. The bus will pretty much stop for anyone, and pile on as many people as possible. Some friends told accounts of bus rides where chickens were running up and down the aisle, and they held people's babies on their laps.

Our first Laos bus adventure was a crash-course in features of Lao cultural travel. There are no public toilets in Laos, you simply tap the bus driver's shoulder and he'll pull off the road. Everyone runs out of the bus and assumes squatting positions in the surrounding fields. You have to take care not to wander too far, though, because being the most heavily bombed country in the history of warfare, there is still a lot of unexploded ordinance (land mines) about.

When we arrived in Luang Nam Tha it was already past dark. We made our way to our guesthouse (a squeaky-clean haven at only $5 per night) and set about booking a trek for the next two days. We wanted to take a trek and do a homestay in one of the ethnic minority tribal villages in the hills of the Nam Ha PA. Once the tour was booked we were off to bed and then on to the next great adventure.

That morning we were greeted with a steady, grey rain, and picked up by pick-up truck to travel with our guide and porters to the trailhead. Enter Laura, the fourth member of our little expedition. Laura is from Ireland, and absolutely hilarious.

The trek we chose was challenging. It covered 35 km in two days and involved about 7-9 hours of walking per day. The leeches that were constantly trying to wriggle into our socks, pants, shirts and everything else were an added bonus to the rain and general discomfort of the beginning hours. We actually found leeches on our faces, and in our underwear, which was alarming (not to mention confounding... how did they get in there??)... new thresholds, new thresholds. The scenery that unfolded was simply breath-taking, though, and our guides kept the spirit light.

We stopped for meal breaks in the jungle or in simply wooden huts. The food we ate was all from the jungle, and absolutely delicious. A staple in all Lao cuisine is sticky rice, which you lump together and use as a spoon to dip sauces and meats. You have to watch out for killer-fiery chillies, though, which are typically buried like landmines in otherwise mild dishes.

The path was extremely deserted and remote. During the entire trek we only saw one or two other people in the woods. What a wonderful solace!

our trekking group: Megan, Gabi, Laura, Catt and our guide

That night we arrived at an Akha village, where we slept. The Akha are a tribe that live in northern Laos. The women can be identified most easily by the black caps they wear, which are very plain at birth and are decorated with elaborate silver coins and other ornamental pieces as they become older and pass different life milestones. The Akha villages can be identified by their "spirit gates" which sit high on the hill, usually overlooking the village. It is believed that through the gate exists the spirit world, and the other side of the gate is the human realm. The village they live in itself was unreal- limited to no electricity, 7 hours' walk from the closest road, mud-floored huts. We built a fire for cooking, light, and heat in our hut, and washed in the river (there is no running water; they boil river water for drinking). Washing in the mud with leeches added an interesting, new dimension to our experience, to say the least. We sat down to a delicious jungle meal (by candlelight) and Lao-Lao, firey Lao whiskey. We also had a chance to meet with villagers in their homes, and hang out with some girls from the village, who offered us dried bean seeds as presents. I had brought crayons as a present for the children, and they in turn presented us with a large squash (vegetable). Another interesting point you may notice in the pictures are the reddish gums and teeth of many of the villagers. They chew bettle-nut, which turns their saliva and teeth a dark red colors. Anyway, here are some pictures from our visit to the village, and our trek in the Nam Ha Protected Area:

Megan and Laura getting some light from a headlamp

dinner is served

Akha girls from the village

the Akha village from a distane

Akha grandmother and granddaughter. You can see the difference between their hats

A typical Akha villager's home

The tiny houses on stilts are Akha "love shacks." Each hut with a son has one. It's for the boy to use for... well, love shacking. They're really about the size of a coffin, only. Pretty cozy

This village's spirit gate

A waterfall we passed on our trek

Megan and Gabi during the trek

Megan with the waterfall

hut where we ate lunch. Normally this structure is used for storing rice

Lunch for the locals... crabs from the river!

Jungle lunch served on a giant leaf

Home-made chopsticks for lunch... our guide literally whittled these from bamboo right before the meal...

Our lunch hut for Day 2

a view from the trail...

Our trusty and knowledgeable guide...

The home stretch... crossing rice fields after 15 hours of walking

The next day after the trek we bid farewell to Gabi, and Laura joined us for a motorcycle ride in the countryside surrounding Luang Nam Tha. This was our first time riding a motorbike, and we loved it! You feel like you're flying. Apart from a little spill in the mud at the end of the day, all went well.

Pictures:

More to come on Laos!