By Matt
The end of the first school semester in early October arrived faster than we had ever imagined. And the best part is it allowed us a full 3 weeks to go wherever we want and do whatever we wanted. We set out first to the Thai-Laos border by a 12 hour overnight bus. After clearing customs, we rode the short bus (literally) 20km into Vientiane, Laos’ capital. While the city itself isn’t much to look at, it’s a welcome pace for a capital city. Our first meal confirmed that we were definitely in a different country because things like croissants, chai tea lattes, fresh baguettes, were abound….very unlike Thailand indeed. I don’t typically give the French credit for much, but the menu choices in Laos were certainly welcome.
After getting our bearings and securing a $14/night private hotel room with A/C and a balcony overlooking the nearby temple, we set off to do some exploring by the waterfront (Vientiane lines up next to the Mekong river and on the other side lies Thailand) and pick up a few souvenirs. It was pretty surprising to see the variety of newly built restaurants and hotels in such an unlikely place. Vientiane (and Laos as a whole) is clearly generating some serious money with tourism dollars. For any history buffs, you might recall that Laos didn’t open its borders to outsiders until the late 1980’s and by the looks of things, people are flocking in to check out the country.
Day two in Vientiane was spent checking out the two ‘must sees’ in our opinion. We rented bikes for $1 and rode about 3km outside of town to the very gold and very missile-silo-esque temple of Pha That Luang (the national symbol of Laos).
After snapping a few photos, we headed back towards the center of Vientiane and made a pit stop at Patuxai, the victory gate that more than slightly resembles the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Two things that amuse me about this thing 1) the concrete used to construct Patuxai was donated by the US government to build a new airport/runway and 2) this monument is slightly taller than the Arc de Triomphe, allegedly to spite the French. Awesome.
Vang Vieng is wildly popular on the backpacker circuit and the town has lost any semblance of its former self. Not exactly the place you want to come to experience Lao “culture”, but we were told (and agreed) the scenery was well worth a stop. The main attraction in town is to go tubing and stop along one of the many riverside watering holes to drink yourself silly and, naturally, launch yourself of a poorly constructed slide into the river below. Each year a few travelers manage to drown or maim themselves (the trick is to let someone else go down the slide first).
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| This is the scene at any bar on the Nam Som (Som River) |
We decided to skip the tubing and joined up with a kayak/caving tour. We lucked out with a great travel group with representatives from 4 different continents. Everyone hopped in the shared truck taxi (cram 12 adults into the back of a covered pick-up truck) and we set off for a 45 minute drive north out of town. Some pics of the local area before we started our work out:
We spent the late morning pulling ourselves on an inner tube through a deep cave using headlamps and a rope to guide the way. The rope was fixed for about 400 meters and it was nice to cool off inside before going back outside in the heat and a 22km kayak back down to Vang Vieng.
We also lucked out with an almost perfect day to be on the river and enjoyed the 4 hours spent in the kayak. Around 3pm, the bass became louder and louder and we knew we were getting close to the start of the river tubing. Our adventure company pulled us up to a deserted riverside bars where we all grabbed a beer or two (and maaaaybe checked out that slide) before finishing up our day around 5.
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| One of our guides, Nee, making sure the woman from Stuttgart was having a good time. She later told him his name, in German, translates to "river" and he couldn't stop laughing. |
Our reward that evening was to splurge on some "nice" food and wine at one of the town's many restaurants. The crazy thing about 99% of the restaurants: they either show the TV series Friends or Family Guy on a continuous loop in order to cater to the tourist crowd. Each restaurant also carries a nearly identical 25-30 page menu filled with Western, Thai, Indian, or Lao food, none of which is done well. Not to preach, but I will anyway. I speak for both of us when I say it’s sad to see what Western tourists do to a place and the local people’s attitude. The average Thai or Lao native never shows or speaks negative emotion….but in more touristy locations,the service folk have a far less gracious attitude and treat foreigners just as poorly as the foreigners treat them (worst offenders are unfortunately Americans and some Europeans). We've cringed more than a few times seeing how foreigners act in a culture that isn’t theirs and blatantly disrespect the simplest of courtesies in a place that puts heavy emphasis on them. mkay. off soap box.
Due to a bout of food illness (unfortunately not the only one to be encountered in Laos), we stayed just under 4 full days in Vang Vieng. On the last night, we discovered a great restaurant owned by an English expat that was away from the party scene and didn’t have a TV on. The menu included such things as weiner schnitzel, a stuffed chicken breast, dijon potatoes, and the like. If only we had found it sooner.
Our next, and final, stop in Laos was the UNESCO World Heritage site, Luang Prabang, which I’ll refer to as LP to save time. LP is about 8 hours north of Vang Vieng on the same god-awful road that leads north from Vientiane. Our bus was delayed by two hours so we waited on the side of a dirt road with a helpful Lao dude that hailed any bus heading north, incorrectly stopping 7 or 8 buses until ours arrived. Two seats were open on the entire bus that was filled with Lao travelers, and now, two farang (foreigners). In the pitch black, we climbed over large suitcases, trash bags of belongings, and unattended babies. (Note: I had convinced Shelly to pay the extra 10,000 kip (~$1.25) to take the “Super VIP” overnight bus. So either we got on the wrong bus or the “Regular VIP” bus is a garbage truck). After sitting down, I looked at Shelly. Shelly looked at me. I immediately started hyperventilating because I have now discovered that I am claustrophobic. After switching seats to the aisle and a few words of encouragement from Shel, I started to breathe again. Very, very little sleep was had and we arrived 4km shy of LP at the bus station at a cool 4:30am. I couldn’t have been happier to be at a deserted bus station.
Luang Prabang has some serious French influence due to the fact Laos was colonized, kinda, by France for awhile. I’ll let the pictures of this ridiculously good looking place do most of the talking:
During our 7 days in LP, we did a lot at times and very, very little at other times. We did a nice job of taking in the surrounding area by renting mountain bikes and doing a 28km loop that included a stop at the Tad Sae waterfall at the halfway point.
OOOO:
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| Great name for a great bike |
AHHH:
We also took a short day trip to check out a locally based silk growing and manufacturing center (about 15-20 rural Laos women come to the center to learn how to process and weave silk into various textiles. the women then return to their villages and teach others how to perform the skill. one silk scarf can take 3-4 days to weave, a table runner or something more intricate can take up to a month.
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| Those aren't t-shirts drying...they're reams of silk. |
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| Dying station to demonstrate the different flowers, plants, chemicals used to dye to a specific color. Turns out indigo is the hardest color to dye. |
Our nights were spent enjoying some of the great food and drinks LP has to offer. LP caters to an older crowd and the hotel/restaurant prices are starting to reflect that. Still, by Western standards, this place is a bargain. A decent hotel room can still be had for $15, but the nicer ones start to get in the $25-30 range. Food is around $4-5 a plate on average (we found out later that almost all food is imported from Thailand. Reasons we received for this included a) not much agriculture or viable soil/land and b) Lao people are lazy), which is OK, but a far cry from the $.85-$1 we pay in Thailand.
One evening we splurged at the Belgian Beer House. Shelly ordered the beef stew and a few drinks. I had the “local sausage” and a few drinks. I should know from experience that whenever I try the local “delicacy”, I’m making a huge mistake. My old roommate Joyanne can attest to this from our trip to Peru when I decided to eat a plate full of “cuy”, Spanish for guinea pig. I’ll save you the graphic images, but Shelly and I were both up sick the entire night. Shel was on the mend by the 24 hour mark, but it took me slightly more than 3 days to recover enough to even consider jumping on a 2 day boat cruise back to the Thailand border. And that’s how this story has to end. I get better, and we take a 2 full day slow boat cruise along the mighty Mekong river (pics below of course) and arrive in Chiang Khong, Thailand to finish off our vacation.
