Vang Viang and Luang Prabang (the most beautiful places we've seen so far...you have to visit this country!)
Ok folks - need to broadcast a warning to all you avid fans: this update will NOT be in any way, shape or form funny or even moderately entertaining....I anticipate that the content will be a gushing appreciation of the Lao landscape, culture and market stalls! If you’re still interested, here goes....
17/10/06
Having spent a few rather dull days in Vientiane (the capital of Laos), we booked ourselves onto the earliest bus out of there (nothing exciting to report for once – despite the fact that we were traveling on the infamous route 13 – renowned for staging regular bandit attacks on tourist buses!) and arrived 160 km away in Vang Viang. This tiny little town is very touristy in comparison to the rest of Laos, but this is because (a) it is located in one of the most stunning places on Earth: craggy karst limstone mountains covered in jungle conceal gigantic caves, crystal clear pools and gushing waterfalls.... (b) it offers fantastic out-door activities: caving, kayaking, tubing (will explain later) etc....and (c) despite the fact that the use of, and dealing in drugs is dealt with extremely seriously in Laos (one guy told us that his friends came here a few years ago, got caught smoking weed and were held at gun point by the cops until they coughed up $500 each!) Vang Viang openly advertises weed, mushrooms and opium on their food menus (see photograph!) Happy pizzas, happy shakes and happy coffee are all popular local cuisine?!? Evidently the night life in Vang Viang is excellent – despite the fact that there are only really two main places to go. Bizarrely pirated ‘Friends’ videos have taken over the town - most restaurants play ‘Friends’ on multiple TV screens and offer comfortable seating areas where you can lie down and watch.
18/10/06
Took advantage of the outdoor activities on offer and along with 6 other people were led through the surrounding countryside to fabulous caves and local villages. One particular cave was engulfed in water, so we actually had to swim into the pitch black hole, with ‘waterproof torches’ (powered by what looked (and felt) like a moped battery hung around our necks. No—one got electrocuted despite the fact that copper was exposed? After lunch we jumped onto the inner-tube of a tractor tyre and floated down the Nam Xong River, stopping every now and again at riverside bars (you had to pull yourself in by grabbing hold of a bamboo pole!) These bars were a bit ‘18- to 30s’ but were wicked – they had flying-fox swings, which were a bit like zip-lines, but you had to grab hold of a bar and jump off a ‘lampost and a half’ high platform (not the most stable of constructions), and swing over the river until you built up the courage to let go. Fortunately (?!?) for me, I didn’t have to build up the courage on my second go. I simply leapt off this enormous platform and fell straight in (after shouting to the girl behind – moments before - that ‘there is no way I’m going to be able to hold onto this thing’!!!) After what seemed like an eternity I emerged to the surface and was greeted by wails of concern: ‘are you ok???” I could only just manage to swim (after severely winding myself) and could not muster up enough breath to shout ‘just about’! Needless to say I did NOT attempt it again! We all got a bit to engrossed in the swing, and ended up leaving the last bar too late. This meant that we were floating down the river on what are, in reality, gigantic rubber rings, in the pitch black with NO lights. Fortunately our tour guides were in kayaks and tried to speed up our progression by pushing us along. The people in our group were all lovely and definitely ‘made’ the day. We went out for dinner and drinks that night with Roger and Izabel (sorry if I’ve spelt that wrong!) whom we’ve been meeting up with frequently ever since! Roger repels silence and always has a story or joke to tell, so we are never short on conversation!!!!
19/10/06
In the hope of exploring the region independently we hired a motorbike. Unfortunately, a quarter of a mile down the road from the hire shop it broke down because the owner didn’t feel the need to supply petrol! ‘Slightly’ p***ed off, we wheeled the bike back to the shop and were given another bike – this time with fuel. The owner of the shop wasn’t even apologetic....these people are far too chilled out (probably due to the local cuisine!!)
We somehow navigated our way onto an ‘off road’ track, full of boulders and massive stones – not the best place to drive a bike....evidently I spent half the journey hopping on and off the back so that Wayne could maneuver the bike! Should have just walked and saved our dwindling supply of cash! Anyway, the scenery was, yet again, stunning and we managed to find the bluest natural lagoon you can imagine. It was gorgeous! The water was so clear that you could see thousands of fish swimming around you. After a little dip we decided to explore the nearby cave (Poukham Cave)...an hour and a half later we emerged from the mountainside in disbelief. It was the most enormous cave we have ever seen: pitch black with treacherous 50ft drops, beautiful stalagmite and stalactite formations and natural vase-like structures. Following the advice of some people we met on the climb up to the cave, we hired the ‘resident’ tour guide, who I can only describe as a living day ‘caveman’! He navigated this cave in barefoot, on surfaces that were both jagged in places and unbelievably slippery in others. If anyone is ever in Laos they HAVE to visit this cave, it is amazing! In fact, if anyone is ever intending on visiting SE Asia, visit Laos – it’s definitely the most beautiful country we have visited so far.
20/10/06
Although we could have stayed a lot longer in Vang Viang, we had to stick to an itinerary in Laos (due to a pre—booked flight to Thailand), and therefore boarded a bus to Luang Prabang early Friday morning. This bus journey was anything but dull...Lao was definitely rising into the premier league of ‘countries not to be missed‘. The scenery, which had got progressively better the further we drifted from Vientiane enroute to Vang Viang, was simply stunning (I’m running out of adjectives now!) The route took us up windy mountain roads surrounded by lush, green jungle and the occasional rural village (which weren’t ALL selling Pringles and Coca Cola – a sure sign that we really HAD gone rural.) I read in the rough guide that the Americans dropped the equivalent of a plane load of bombs into Laos, every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for a total of nine years!! With this in mind nature has done incredibly well to restore its beauty, because we could see very little evidence of this atrocity.
The only quibble I had with this journey: toilets. Lao people are renowned for being laid back and always appear to be very chilled out (as I said before – I attribute this to the ‘Happy Menus’ – although I am aware that most locals don’t touch the stuff!) They simply can’t be bothered to carry out trivial tasks and this attitude has created a big problem for western women! Here the concept of a toilet, which has been simplified to a ‘hole in the ground’ in Vietnam and much of Asia, has been taken one step further by the people of Laos. If you need to go to the toilet enroute to Luang Prabang you get to pick your own place to pee! Why bother with a fancy ceramic surround?!? (To be fair to Laos, we did witness 3 Cambodian girls pulling down their pants and sh*tting in the grounds of the Angkor Wat – a toilet break in-between sales jobs!!)
Luang Prabang is another UNESCO World Heritage site and, as expected, is a gorgeous colonial town, littered with temples, bakeries and cafes. My favourite feature is the ‘night market' - which offers a fabulous array of handicrafts: carvings, paintings, silk fabrics and bags – SHOPPING HEAVEN!
We are staying in a 5$/night guesthouse, facing the River Mekong. We have spent hours just wondering the streets, sitting in cafes and soaking in the atmosphere – I love this place! So much so that I am fed up of sitting at this computer, having spent over an hour on typing up this account, and am off now to explore some more.... I will finish this write up in a few hours time...
