Laos

This is a view of some of the crowd enjoying a boat race on the Mekong river.

Laos, beautiful Laos. We left Bangkok for Laos on Saturday the 7th of October. We took an overnight train to Nong Khai in the northeast of Thailand, and then took a tuk tuk directly to the Friendship Bridge which links Thailand with Laos. We paid $36 for our visas (Irish people pay $35 instead of the usual $30 and a $1 overtime fee because it was a Sunday). We then, after some hassle, arranged a tuk tuk to the capital Vientaine which is around 25 kilometres from the border.

The guesthouse we had intended on going to was full so the driver took us elsewhere, where the charge was 600 baht/night. It turned out to be full of mosquitos but would do for one night. That day we got lunch in said guesthouse. We all chose the chicken burger with chips and pepsi combo which seemed quite cheap and it turned out to be about 9 or 10 chips with a pretty measly amount of meat on the burger. Needless to say we didn't eat there again. At the time there was a boat racing festival going on so we were both lucky to see it and unlucky because a lot of the guesthouses were fully booked. We ended up booking somewhere for the following night in "the Author's choice" in the lonely planet. It's called the Vayakorn guesthouse and was very nice indeed. A double room cost $18.

There was a great atmosphere in the town that night, we walked down to the river and got to see a couple of races. There were hundereds of people along the banks of the Mekong and I guess a lot of them were culchies, or the Laos equivalent because the were having a great time staring at us. We just stared right back and then took a stroll around through the amusements that were set up. There were lots of fairground style games, throwing tennis balls into holes to win a prize and bursting balloons with darts etc., and also a couple of live music performances. I also had my first taste of Beer Lao and it was very tasty.

This is Pha That Luang, the most holy Buddist site in Laos

I forget the name of this stupa but the tuk tuk driver obscured my view of it, but I like the picture anyway

The following morning when we got up to change guesthouse we discovered that it was raining very heavily. We were going to get a tuk tuk but decided to walk seen as we were already soaked by the time we found any drivers, and he was also asking for too much money. When we got to the street which our guesthouse was on we discovered that the road was flooded, impressively so. we waded through up to our ankles and continued on to the guesthouse. I was wearing my runners and the didn't dry our properly so I didn't wear them for the next three weeks or so when I finally got them cleaned in Hue. They smelled pretty bad of mold.

The following day, the 10th of October we decided to do the walking tour Lonely Planet set out for Vientaine. Only we decided to do it on bikes! We rented bikes for 10,000 Kip ($1) and set off, first making our way to the Patuxay. It's basically a rip off version of L'Arc du Triomphe in Paris but is quite cool nontheless. There is a plaque on the wall which is quite hilarious. The text reads: "At the northeastern end of the LaneXang Ave. arises a huge structure resembling the Arc de Triomphe. It is the Patuxay or victory gate of Vientaine, built in 1962 (Buddist Era 2505), but never complete due to the country's turbulent history. From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete. Nowadays this placeis used as leisure ground for the people of Vientaine and the seventh floor on top of the building serves as excellent view point over the city".

After Pataxuy we cycled to Talat Sao market and had a wander around. They were selling everything from Chinese violins to massive speakers, and from chopsticks to mobile phones. Me and Sheena went halves on a dodgy converter that doesn't work properly so that we could charge more than one thing at a time.

We didn't adhere to strictly to the walking tour itinery after that, we followed the route but didn't necessarily stop at each of the sites along the way. It was a good way to get a taste of the city though and we all enjoyed it. It's easy to cycle around because it is closer to Athlone Town in scale than to the sprawling metropolis of Bangkok for example.

The Monster of Concrete, Patuxay

Rockin' the free world on our bikes!

The next day we went to see Pha That Luang. We cycled up there too, which included a hill. That was tough going in the midday heat, let me tell you. Sheena's chain decided to fall off halfway across a junction, going uphill which was an exciting moment, but she made it through thankfully. Pha That Luang was cool, it was nice and quiet. When we arrived it was closed for the midday siesta, but there are monastry's surrounding it, so we had a look around them. We also enjoyed a nice refreshing drink under a nice lady's umbrella there. As we were cycling away from the grounds we noticed another stupa to our right. We cycled towards it and I began to realise that it was a military installation of some discription. Donna was taking a picture of the large flag which was flying, and I was just saying that she probably shouldn't take any pictures, when an armed man sped up on a motorbike and said "That way please!" We scurried away with our tails between our legs.

The next day we went to the national museum in Vientaine. It was excellent, with the downstairs exhibits dealing with the stone age and dinosaurs, the bronze age etc. while upstairs there were exhibits relating to the tribal minorities populating Laos and also a lot of detail on the French and American occupations and subsequent revolution. That day we also booked our bus tickets to Vang Vieng for the next day.

Vang Vieng

Our bus dropped us at Thavisouk guesthouse (as buses tend to do. I guess it keeps the fares cheap for us given that some guesthouses are willing to pay commision) which was actually quite nice, so we booked into the more expensive riverside rooms, at $12 a piece. We should have gotten the cheaper $10 rooms which were about forty feet further back from the water, because we never actually sat back and appreciated the view. Instead we sat back and appreciated the view from the restauant attachted to the guesthouse and got drunk.

Next morning, nursing a slight hangover, we made our way to find a different guesthouse, eventually settling on the Babylon Bar ($4.50 between two of us). We spent the rest of the day chilling out quite a bit, watching "The Killing Fields" in the downstairs restaurant of the Babylon Bar.

This is the view from our guesthouse's restaurant

Vang Vieng is famous for its caves (apparently) so we took a day trip to some popular ones not far from the two of Vang Vieng itself. We began by wrangling a tuk tuk for the day at 100,000 Kip ($10) between the four of us. Our driver had a negotiator (i.e. friend who spoke better English than he) sitting in the back of the vehicle with him and another friend, so I countered his first offer of $20 with an offer of $5 with a big smile on my face. That wouldn't do at all, they said so we settled on $10 (the going rate). Then the negotiator tried to pressure us into getting back to Vang Vieng earlier (so that his friend would be able to procur more business, I guess) by asking how long we would be spending in the caves. "Two weeks" I said. How we laughed. Ten dollars is the going rate for hire for a full day, so we just speculated about maybe taking around four hours with no intention of keeping an eye on time and then headed off.

Fisherman style (from the Thavisouk guesthouse)

The first cave we went to is called Elephant cave and is, basically, a load of crap. It cost 3000 Kip (0.25 Euros) to get in and there's pretty much nothing to see. It's only a few metres deep and all that's in there is a statue of Buddah and some rocks carved into the shapes of animals such as elephant and snakes. We were a little disappointed and left after a couple of minutes. 3000 Kip seems like a lot more when you're in Laos and when I wrote down the 0.25 euros just now it made me realise how little the entrance fee actually was. Still, I wouldn't recommend Elephant cave to anyone as you could just peer in from the entrance and see all there was to see in there.

Sheena with her 3000 Kip ticket

We started to follow the sign posts for the next set of caves and a Laos man was following us carrying a torch. We knew we'd have to end up forking out a guide fee so we tried to get rid of him in the most polite way possible. I still felt rude though because of the way he reacted. Still, if you don't want to pay for a guide you just have to tell them up front because they don't mention any sort of fee until you're finished with their services.

After we got rid of him we were followed by three other kids (two of whom had been the ticket sellers for the Elephant cave). For some reason which I now regret we didn't get rid of them and they followed us all the way to the next cave. The next cave was quite cool, after waiting around for about twenty minutes we got into our swimming gear and hopped onto the inner tube from a tractor tire and then floated along the river into the cave where there was a rope we could pull ourselves along on. We spent about ten minutes floating through the cave which was quite cold. One of the kids who had followed us came inside as our guide so I understood we they followed us then. Afterwards we saw the man who we had given our entrance fee of 10,000 Kip to give the kid some money. We hung around outside the cave for a while splashing around in the pool outside and then rying off in the sun, and I also took some pictures. The kids kept whistling at us, and gesturing for us to leave. We pretty much ignored them, because we had decided that we'd seen enough caves for that day.

We told the kids to skidaddle but they wouldn't and started following us as we made our way back to where our driver was waiting. I guess they got impatient for their tip because they started making demands for money. I was walking last with the three kids behind me and they started tapping me on the shoulder and making loud fake throat-clearing noises. We were getting pretty pissed off but eventually gave them 10,000 Kip. I didn't mind giving it, it just bothered me the way they expected the money even though we didn't ask for their services and tried to make it clear that we didn't want any guides. at least the little kid who came into the tubing cave with us actually did something for his "guide fee".

After that frustrating episode we made our way back to a restaurant by the river which we crossed to see the caves. We got a drink and relaxed for a few moments in the picturesque settings. It was very beautiful, despite the table being covered in ants.

This is a view of the restaurant where we relaxed after our hectic day of wandering around looking at caves

We then got our ferryman to drop us back across the river and paid him our fee (10,000 kip each for a return crossing. Our driver crossed with us but he didn't have to pay), and then hopped into the tuk tuk. Our driver ran over a chicken on the way home.

This is a view of the mountains surrounding Vang Vieng

The day after the caves we high tailed it out of Vang Vieng on a six hour bus journey to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang

Here are some suckers flying into Luang Prabang. I bet they were jealous when they realised they could have been stuck on a bus with me for six hours.

We arrived in Luang Prabang at around 5 o'clock and , after taking a tuk tuk into town, we began searching for a guesthouse. We eventually settled on a aplce called the Sackarinh which was clean and seemed freidnly, although the rooms smelled of damp a little. They had a TV and bottled water provided every day so they weren't too bad. At $12 between two there can't be much to complain about anyway.

That evening Steven was feeling a little under the weather from our long journey and Myself, Sheena and Donna went to a travel agency to try and sort out flights to Vietnam. We booked some for the 24th of October from Vientaine to Hanoi.

The following day (the 17th of October) we rented bikes for the day and cycled our way around the town. We started out following the recommended Lonely Planet Walking tour but ended up just doing our own thing. At one stage, as we were stopped to gather our bearings a man driving a pick up truck carrying some sheets of corrugated iron took a corner a little fast, and off fell his entire load. Three of us helped him load back up his trucks and he seemed very grateful. We went back through the centre of the town and headed for a wooden bridge which got a mention in the Lonely Planet. It was quite picturesque and a bit of fun cycling across it, feeling like a Laotian commuter. We then cycled out a road leading to the airport where there was a bus station with a market outside and there we took the oppurtunity to stock up on more water. All this cycling was thirsty work. We then made our way back towards our guesthouse and enjoyed a slap up meal at a nearby restaurant. Afterwards we booked a trip to the Pak Ou caves the next day, which also included a boat trip along the Mekong and stops at a couple of villages along the way.

Boatman on the Mekong in Luang Prabang

Next day we were up pretty early for our boat trip and got a take away breakfast of a baguette with chicken or tuna as a filling. The boat trip was quite cool, although it took ages and the novelty wore off after a while.

This is a view of the Mekong as we made our way to Pak Ou Caves

Eventually we reached the Pak Ou caves and had to climb across another tourist-laden boat to make our up to them. There was a stone staircase up to one caves on the right first, which had several small staues of the Buddha and some larger ones also. There was also a nice view across the Mekong from the entrance. Then you could make your way up several more steps (which resulted in much perspiring) to another caves which was in near-total darkness. This was also filled with Buddha relics.

Big pile of Buddha statues in Pak Ou caves (first cave).

After this we head back to the boat and made our way back to Luang Prabang, stopping off at two vilages along the way. The first was a paper making village and the second made textiles. It was quite interesting seeing parts of the two industries in action, but the stops were more so that we'd buy stuff than so we could see actual demonstartions of the processes involved. The villages still made nice scenic stops along the way.

We had booked a trip to a waterfall for that afternoon but we arranged with our tours agency to transfer to the following day, because we were tired and hungry and had nothing arranged for the following day anyway.

That evening we went to see a traditional dance show in a building on the grounds of the museum in Luang Prabang. It was interesting to see, the traditional dance is very similar to that of Cambodia and Thailand, and was based on episodes from the Ramayana which is an epic tale relating to Hinduism somehow. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana

After the show we ate in the Luang Prabang bakery which had lovely food but we all ended up ordering too much.

Our trip to the waterfall was booked for the afternoon so me and Sheena got up early and went to the museum in Luang Prabang. It was quite an excellent although small museum and we enjoyed looking through it.

Krung Si waterfall

In the afternoon we went by minibus to the waterfall which was named Krung Si. It took about an hour to drive there and when we arrived we changed into our swimming gear and hopped into the very cold water for a quick dip. Before long a big group of young buddhist monks came along and were doing acrobatic flips off the waterfall into the plunge pool where we were swimming about 8 feet below. There was also a high branch reaching over the water which had a series of steps to help people climb up so they could dive (or bellyflop) into the pool.

R. Kelly eat your heart out

The water was nice and refreshing but before long I hopped out and decided to explore further upstream. There were many more waterfalls and plungepools further up the river, and some great photo opportunities. It was very scenic.

That evening Sheena felt quite ill and was very sick with vomitting diarrhea so we were unable to travel the next day. We were supposed to be going back to Vang Vieng. We had booked our tickets in advance (and paid) so I wasn't sure if we'd be able to change days or get our money back but the tour agent was very nice about it and it was no problem to change to the following day. I didn't even have to give an explanation that Sheena was sick he just said "sure".

Next morning Sheena was still feeling lousy but was more up to travelling so off we went. The bug she had must have been passed around as Donna vomitted on the bus and I felt a little nauseous also. It wasn't a particularly fun journey. I also felt nauseous that night and the next morning I vomitted too and felt terrible all day. We had intended going tubing in Vang Vieng (tubing is where you hop into a tractor tire inner tube and float down the river) but we didn't have time due to everyone (except for lucky Steven) being under the weather.

I was feeling much improved by the next morning and we got a minibus back to Vientaine. It was our last night in Laos and we celebrated by taking our Lariam tablets and eating in a lovely resteraunt called La Terrasse.

Next morning we made our way to the very small Vientaine International Airport and said goodbye to Laos. It was the 24th of October and we were going to Hanoi.