The Lovely Laos (14th Jan - 13th February)

We finally arrived in Vientiane (capital city of Laos) on the overnight bus after spending hours at the border waiting for customs to open for the day. We were excited to meet up with Claire and Anna who were recovering from 2 weeks in Burma.

The city was a surprise after Thailand - where were the people? The population of the country is ~6 million but the capital is about half the size of Christchurch. Most people live off the land in small villages.

We exhausted the sites of the city by lunchtime - a huge momument (Patuxai) with steps to a viewing point, and a golden temple. The city itself was not overly attractive; the French influence only apparent by the French cafe's everywhere, and no high rises to speak of. But we did manage to find Buddha Park, an hour out by Tuk Tuk - a park containing over 200 Hindu and Buddha statues. This was where I met the crocodile...

 

It was roadside DIY claypot for dinner - claypot full of boiling hot stock teetering on a wire tripod over hot coals, and on the side some raw chicken, vegies, and flavourings (chilli, peanut sauce, sugar, limes). Nervy, but delicious.

Claypot dinner (thanks for the photo Anna)

We took a pick up truck to Vang Vieng. Such a sweet place. A river, beautiful limestone carst cliffs, caves, restaurants playing only Friends and Family guy re-runs, and of course, tubing!

Claire, JJ, Annette and Anna after a tough climb (note the fluoro) - it was worth it for the panoramic view of Vang Vieng.

Me on top of the rock - shame I didn't think to climb to the top of that one behind me

The river in Vang Vieng at sunset from our hotel

River in Vang Vieng a bit later

Tubing was super fun, but not at all what I expected - I only ended up tubing for about 30 seconds before someone stole my tube at the first bar. Luckily I was able to steal someone else's later.

For those of you not familiar with tubing, it is where hundreds of young people climb into rubber tubes and float down a river, stopping at the numerous bars along the way. At each bar someone throws a rope out to you and tows you in. They have slides and rope swings at the bars for extra entertainment but only the real crazies do that - too many people (mostly Aussies) have been killed on these.


Next stop was Luang Prabang a few hours north of Vang Vieng. We had heard rave reviews of the place as it was a very cute little French town along a river with fairy lights and alley ways and an excellent night market. And heaps of tourists to go with it.

Bridge in Luang Prabang

Waterfall near Luang Prabang

UXO (Unexploded Ordinance) casings at a museum that were found in farms in Laos after the Vietnam war - there are still some 80 million UXO dotted around Laos and these are still killing and maiming innocent people all the time. Some people just accept the risk and farm the land since they can't afford not to. So sad.

Last night together in Luang Prabang

And then all of a sudden, I was alone. Anna and Claire flew to Malaysia and Claire and JJ flew to Viet Nam. It was weird for all of about 4 hours, but when I caught my bus to Huay Xai that night I met 3 Swedes so I was no longer alone. I sat beside a young monk on the bus and with his very limited English and my non-existent Laos we had a conversation. I thought I wasn't even allowed to talk to monks, but after a couple of hours he was sleeping on my shoulder quite comfortably (me less comfortably).


An 18 hour bus ride later and I was at the Gibbon Experience office trying to see if I could in fact get a spot on the Experience the following day (most people book months in advance!). I waited anxiously for the lady to shuffle through some papers and then she said "yes, one spot left". This was lucky as there was literally nothing else to do in this town and I would have had to jump on the next 18 hour bus back to Luang Prabang.


For 3 days a group of us lived in a forest canopy amongst real life gibbons (I saw one, heard plenty - they are loud!). We ziplined from tree to tree during the day, and slept in a tree house hundreds of metres above the ground at night. Our meals were all ziplined in to us by the guide. Seriously awesome trip.

Our treehouse - we had 10 people staying in here

The shower with forest canopy views (note the wasp nest on the tree branch to the left)

View from one of the ziplines

Zipline action

We had a rather big celebration when we got back, helped by the locals who were feeding us up on Beer Lao to celebrate Chinese New Year. I met this cute little girl who was fascinated by Sean's camera.

Our Gibbon group: 3 Swedes, 5 Aussies, 1 Canadian and me. We got to know each other pretty well since the guides left us at about 3pm each day; it's a long time till sunset in a treehouse with no entertainment other than a pack of cards and some chewing tabacco and some people wouldn't let conversation stay too long out of the gutter.

We slow-boated back to Luang Prabang to avoid the bus. It was a beautiful 2day meander along the Mekong river. We had to stay the night in Pak Beng - I would say the accommodation was one of the dirtiest of my entire trip but it only cost ~3.5 NZD so I wasn't really complaining.

Canoe on the Mekong

Sunset in Pak Beng

The bathroom in Pak Beng guesthouse - photo doesn't really do the disgustingness justice!

View from the slow boat

Another beautiful sunset on the Mekong back in Luang Prabang

The boat was late back and I wanted to get on the bus that night so I quickly got a taxi (this is never actually quick by the time you bargain them down to half their original price) to the bus station and yep, luckily enough the bus was leaving at 6pm, which was about half an hour away. Every bus that came in I would rush up to the counter and ask if that was my bus. The lovely man behind the counter promised that he would let me know when my bus to Sam Nuea arrived. So I relaxed a bit and got out my book to pass the time.

At 8:30pm he walked past me and I noticed a guilty look pass over his face and he said "where were you going again??" 

"Sam Nuea"

"Oh. That bus left ages ago. There are no more buses till tomorrow morning"

Yeah, that was annoying. I had to stay a night at the bus station. But the fulla must have felt bad cause he took me out for fried rice dinner and a beer when he finished his shift and even treated me to his favourite music on the way - "Baby" by Justin Beiber.

The bus in the morning was more of a van, and it appeared that no one spoke English, and there were no other tourists. The girl beside me played some delightful Laos music from her phone until it ran out of battery and there were lots of people hoiking and spitting out the window for the 14 or so hours of the trip. 

We picked up 2 Canadian's (much to my relief) about half way to Sam Nuea, who were also on their way to Vieng Xai to see the war caves. So it made sense to stick together.  

Vieng Xai is a tiny little place but during the war the limestone karst caves in the area housed hundreds of families who were avoiding the bombings by the US planes. They had to do all their farming at night so they weren't seen and live in the caves during the day. They even had a hospital and a school in there. This went on for 6 years! The caves they showed us were mostly for the important people so actually had rooms and beds and proper concrete floors. It was very impressive.

I had my birthday here and Jamie and Brian took me out to the only restaurant in town - run by an Indian man who makes everything from scratch (meals literally take hours). It was nice.

We ended up hitch-hiking back to Sam Nuea since the man was trying to charge us $10 each. This doesn't seem like a lot now but at the time it seemed logical to try to walk to 30 km back instead of paying that. Luckily we stopped a truck who took us part of the way, and another who took us the rest of the way. By far a more comfortable way to travel than the actual bus.

Cave tour

The theatre cave used for concerts and parties during the Vietnam war. 

Avoiding a $10 bus ride in style on the back of a pick up truck

Hitch-hiking truck number 2

 We bused to Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars. Kind of a weird tourist attraction - a bunch of old concrete jars scattered in clusters around some hills (~400 jars dating from between 500 BC and 200 AD). The weird part is that no one knows why they are there. Some people have made guesses but that's it.

Me and a jar

It was interesting though, and the jars are in very pretty locations with views of surrounding farmland and we took scooters out there along some dirt roads so that was fun.

The most exciting and eye-opening part of the day was when we saw them exolode a UXO from across the valley. We had seen the faint red markers telling you to keep on the path, but hadn't probably taken it that seriously until we heard and saw it happen. I was proud to see that the clean-up effort of UXO's around the jar site is funded by the NZ government.

The explosion cloud

Goods on offer at the local market in Phonsavan - rodents, roosters, some other weird stuff

 

We took a dust filled (and by the end, spew filled) bus to Tha Kaek to start the loop. It was a very off-road experience, there weren't even bridges so the bus just drove through the rivers.

Putting a scooter on the roof of the bus

Who needs bridges??

 In search of "The Real Laos", our newly formed group - 3 Canadian's, 1 Belgium, 1 Swede and 1 Kiwi (me) - set off on rented moto bikes (aka scooters) to do a 4 day circuit around Central Laos. The loop leaves from Tha Khaek which is just over the Mekong River from Thailand and is a self guided trip, with only a handwritten map to follow. 

Actually - the setting off part happened to be rather difficult. By the time we got organised there were no bikes left so we decided to drink Beer Lao over a friendly game of Circle of Death instead, and leave the following day. 

After a late night on the Smile Barge Bar on the Mekong (we were the only tourists there so naturally we got on the stage with the band and showed the locals our fairly impressive dance moves) and a restful sleep with 4 of us in a double bed (all in the name of saving ~$2), we set off bright and early in search of bikes, slightly more jaded than the day before. 

DJ-ing at Smile Barge Bar on the Mekong with Jamie from Calgary

It turned out the bikes we had 'booked' were mysteriously no longer available and it was 3pm before we finally got 6 bikes together. But then, we were off!

Getting out on the open road, with the sun on my face, the wind in my helmet?, and only a small pack on my back made the wait worth while. It soon got dark so we stopped for dinner at a small roadside restaurant offering grilled rat and noodle soup.

The grilled rat looked a little dry so I went with noodle soup

 We carried on and after an hour of battling away in the dark with insects that kept squashing themselves against my forehead, I was happy to arrive in the nothing town that was.....actually I can't remember the name of the town! But it had a decent guest house and a kalaoke bar (r's don't really exist here) where we spent the evening playing cards and drinking Beer Lao on ice. The microphone hog at the Karaoke bar, who's favourite band must have been Boyzone, was so bad one of his friends actually held his hands over his ears to block the sound.

We slept well on our rock hard beds and in the morning made our way to the main site on the loop - Kong Lo Cave. It wasn't a long way to the cave, but the ride was incredible - probably the most scenic part of the Loop. There were also some windy parts to make things interesting and on the straights I got to try out the limits of my bike - 105 km/hr, wahoo! Passing through the villages was fun; the children get so excited and run along beside you waving and yelling out 'Sabaidee!'. I'm still trying to suss out how I can fit one of them in my pack to take home....So cute! And to make sure we were still awake there were water buffalo, chickens, pigs, snakes, dogs, cows and goats to avoid along the way.

First attempt at photography while biking

Jamie and Brian (Calgary), Sofie (Belgium), Sean (Toronto), Ragnar (Sweden) and me

Kong Lo Cave is one of Laos' natural wonders - the cave is in a limestone mountain and is 7km long, up to 100m wide in some places and almost as high, with a river running through it. We took a motorised canoe to the other end, getting out every now and then when the canoe hit stones, and once to have a look at the impressive stalagmites and stalactites.

Kong Lo Cave entrance

Jamie and Sofie

Our boat sunk at one point, then started smoking. But no worries, the guides just tipped the water out and we carried on our way.

Frolicking Water Buffalo at the other end of the cave

 We stayed in one of the villages at the other end of the cave. Our homestay host was a bit of an entrepreneur - he grew tabacco, owned and served at a little snack shop where the cave boats docked, ran a homestay and had a family to look after to top it off. There were also a few water buffalo and chickens sifting around the place so I guess he looked after them as well. 

The homestay

Sorting out tabacco leaves on the floor in the homestay

We dined on fresh duck stew and sticky rice. I say fresh because we had seen the cook walk past carrying the living version an hour or two earlier. 

Duck stew and sticky rice at the homestay

 We were taken to a festival at the nearby village that night. We never quite figured out what the festival was for, but it reminded me a bit of Riverton Carnival without the rides. There were food stalls, a band, tacky decorations and lots of excited children. Probably not a lot of children at Riverton Carnival snack on chicken feet though....

We made a friend we named 'Smiles', for obvious reasons, who didn't speak any English except 'sing a song'. He was pretty good at taking our beer, or in Sofie's case cigarettes, and handing them around to all of his friends. When we failed to impress him with our singing, he tried to drag us onto the empty dance floor. The festival was in a big square patch of grass, with the band in one corner and a huge awkward circle in the centre for dancing. When some of the locals finally got up there to dance it was so pathetic that we had to go up and help out. It was pretty much a line of men facing a line of women, the two lines at least a metre apart, all doing this tiny little side step shuffle thing, looking bored.

Our ride to the festival at the nearby village. Bumpiest ride of my life.

Dancing - awesome old lady in blue shirt, Sean, Sofie, Brian, Jamie and Ragnar

Ragnar and Smiles

Apart from the roosters that have not quite figured out what time dawn is, we all got a decent sleep on the homestay floor. After a tasty breakfast of sticky rice, egg, and spicy papaya salad we took the canoe back through the cave, had a dip in the lagoon at the other side, and then got back on our bikes. The ride was long and windy. 

Petrol pit stop - the petrol was poured in the tank from recycled water bottles

Selfy shot on moving bike

Sean came off his bike around one of the corners. He had scrapes on his leg and arm and a bruise on his hip but was OK. I guess that should have been a wake-up call but unfortunately not. 

As I was overtaking a truck on the road out of town, the truck driver started to pull out in front of me (apparently swerving a big pothole). I was too close to him by that stage to do much about it - the three options were to swerve into the gravel, smash into the back of him, or break suddenly. I chose option 3 and CRASH! The bike toppled to the ground and I skidded along with it for a few metres.

Within minutes I swear an entire village of children were peering down at me. One of the villagers, an army dude, drove me to the hospital. On the way there I went into a little bit of shock; it must have looked pretty creepy, Sofie said I was kind of seizuring with my eyes open and not responding to her. Anyway....

The one eyed doctor stitched up my arm and cleaned the gravel out of my wounds, and charged me 20,000 Kip (~3.50 NZD) for the service and 105,000 Kip (~17 NZD) for the materials. Not bad! My bike was fixed in a couple of hours the next morning for 60,000 Kip.

My elbow stitches and some sweet gravel rash.

Left knee a bit swollen

The whole situation was a bit of an inconvenience since it meant we had to stay a night in the fairly uninteresting town of Lak Sao. The restaurant was called the 'Only One' because it was literally the only one in town. 

The other part of the inconvenience was that I couldn't shower in case of infection, I couldn't move in bed or even rest my arm on the mattress, I couldn't bend my leg so could barely sit on a toilet seat (let alone use a squat toilet!) or climb the 2 flights of stairs to our motel room. I know it could have been much worse but it was just a wee bit frustrating. Clearly I don't get injured very often (read, ever).

But really, I was just excited to have my very first scar, or Thai tattoo (Laos tattoo in this case I guess). 

I am also so grateful for our little group - they were awesome, cleaning my wounds and not complaining when we had to add an extra day to the trip, or when the boys had to get up early to get my bike fixed etc etc.

From Lak Sao we had the most difficult part of the journey - a few hundred kilometers of dusty, sandy, stoney, bumpy, potholey unpaved road. It was actually kinda fun.

  

Note the dust tan

Flooded forest

The coolest thing I saw that day was a mini tornado/twister thing coming down the road. I saw a cloud of dust first, then realised it was a tornado going straight for Jamie! She survived just fine though, even stopped her bike in time to get her dust scarf over her face.

We arrived at the Sabaidee Guesthouse with plenty of daylight to spare. The night was spent around a campfire and playing Petang (Petanque). After probably a bit too much Lao Lao (rice whisky), Ragnar showed off his fire poi skills - and we all found out why he had so many burn marks on his arms! I had to stick to the waters because apparently antibiotics aren't effective if you drink alcohol on them. And here I was thinking they just turned you into a cheap drunk.

An English guy doing fire poi

Ragnar

A few sunrise shots from Sabaidee Guesthouse

We stopped at a few caves and water holes the next day, Brian went for a little tumble in the gravel (he was OK, a bit scratched up though), and then before we knew it we were back in Tha Khaek.

As I was pulling into the moto bike rental shop park I had some kind of weird mind blank and forgot how to use the brake - I just kept on driving into the side of the bike rental shop, then through to the shop beside it, toppling over the moto bike rental sign, the awning of the shop and even a mattress for sale in the shop before finally falling over with the bike! Who does that???? 

The owner saw the whole thing. I managed to scratch the front and break both of the wing mirrors in the process and of course then he noticed the broken plastic from the other crash, that we had tried so hard to disguise. I could not believe it. But after careful inspection by the friendly mechanic next door, I was only ordered to pay ~17 NZD for it. Phewf!!

So even though 3 out of 6 of us crashed our bikes (some of us twice...), I still count the Loop as one of the highlights of my trip so far. I was surprised that we hardly saw another tourist along the way, so I guess in a way we actually were close to seeing a bit of the real Laos.

From Lak Sao we headed down in a crowded pick-up to 4000 Islands. It was the kind of bus that only leaves when you couldn't possibly fit even another shoe on board. So everytime we thought we had reached capacity and we could finally leave, some motorbike would skid up to the truck and we'd add them and pretty much half a shop worth of stuff onto the truck.

Break time on the way to 4000 Islands

We arrived at 4000 Islands late, and caught a boat to Don Det. The boat ride was an experience in itself - we had to wade out with our packs to get in the boat, and along the way we often got stuck on the bottom of the river so that the skipper would have to get out and push.

4000 Islands (Si Phan Don) is part of the Mekong that has literally thousands of islands in the summertime. The most occupied are Don Det and Don Khon.

When we arrived there was no accommodation left whatsoever (a discovery we made after walking around pretty much the entire island with our packs on), and ended up at Happy bar where an extremely chilled out rustafarian looking dude said we could sleep in the TV room once the people in there finished their movie. No worries!

Hmm how to get past a waterbuffalo blocking the path? Luckily the water buffalo were as laid back as the people and he let us go.

Sunset on Don Det from our little bamboo bungalo

 We did a kayaking trip to some waterfalls and saw some Irrawaddy dolphins splashing about. I also did a good job of making sure my knee and elbow got nicely infected with the dirty Mekong on this trip!

Standing on a rock by one of the waterfalls

So that was Laos! I feel like I've written mostly about how I got to each place and very little about the places...But I really loved Laos.  It's a beautiful country with lots of culture and a very un-touristed and relaxed feel (apart from Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang), plus super friendly locals and awesome travel buddies.

Next stop - Cambodia! Thanks for reading, Em xoxo