Laos in brief...its amazing

A row of slowboats waiting to leave...

Leaving Thailand behind meant a six o’clock rise, difficult especially after quite a late night meeting our fellow slow boat companions.  The border crossing into Laos was very interesting, we took a tuk tuk and a small rowing boat across the Mekong to get us there in the blistering heat.  We had to queue in the most bizarre queuing system for around an hour to get the stamp and hand over our dollars. We then got on another tuk tuk which took us further up the river to meet our slowboat.  Around 9am we started our 2 day journey along the Mighty Mekong.

The journey itself was spectacular, either side of the river we were surrounded by jungle, huge mountains and the odd villager having a wash. The scenery is just fantastic. We had made the right choice. We met even more people on the boat from all nationalities some younger than others getting stuck into their crate of Beer Lao while we ended up being more sensible playing mind games along with the ones which probably over did it the night before.

Q:  Name 12 countries that have only 4 letters in the name.

Around 4pm we rocked up in Pak Beng, which was very very small but looked like a small ski resort in the Alps.  For those that don’t know Laos is a former French Colony so much so it even sells ham and cheese baguettes and crepe’s which was refreshing after thai morning, noon and night. Quite    a few of us had a guesthouse booked as part of the trip so when    we arrived our transport was waiting. All 15 of us and luggage    piled in the back of a truck looking like sheep going to market.

   We strolled around the town that evening and had some Laos      Laap (minced meat with chilies, coriander, mint and              lemon) with some sticky rice and Laos curry which was 

 very different to the Thai and even had some spuds in it.

We were definitely falling in love with Lao which was only meant to be a few days transit to Vietnam.  This is when our original plans started to change.  After an early night we finished our journey along the Mekong to arrive in Luang Prabang or so we thought.  But yet again, people trying to make money out of tourists. Our boat tipped us out at the trading docks meaning tuk tuks for all.  Granted 20,000Kip each is not alot (£1.40) but as I always say it’s the principle.  (And our guesthouses where only costing us 40,000KIP per night.)  Along with some more stubborn travellers our walk away tactic worked again and we got them down to 10,000! Result. 

 

After a quick wander around we found a lovely little guest house over looking the river a short walk from the night markets and the most amazing ‘all you can put on your plate’ street buffets.  The chicken on a stick was amazing followed by a nutella and banana crepe, it was fab.  The next day we were pretty shattered so we roamed around the town visiting more temples and climbed over 400 steps up a hill to a see a temple, but even more impressive was the view from the top. You could see the whole of Luang Prabang, the Mekong and the other river (whose name we cannot remember).  We bumped into lots of our fellow slow boaters as we wandered the streets. 

That evening we decided upon visiting the Tad Sae Water fall for the next day, but sitting in busses and boats the last few days we decided to blow out the cobwebs and hire bikes to cycle it.  “Its only 22km – it will be fine”.  We forgot that the sun and humidity, never mind the hills would make it seem like a lot more.  But we did it and we had a great day swimming, jumping of the ropes into the waterfall and watching the elephants bathe too.  However we did a bit of drama when we arrived back to where we locked our bikes. Lee’s bike had a conveniently flat tyre.  Surprise surprise the ‘local’ guy had spare inner tubes and a pneumatic pump!  20,000Kip later and a bit of a rant we were climbing the hills (pushing the bikes up them!)  Eventually we reached the top and then it was a fantastic, scenic downhill ride the rest of the way. We even had time to stop in a local village for a well deserved BeerLao. On that evening we bumped into Our French friends Yannick and Carole (apologies for the spelling!) who gave us some good advice just before they left for 4000 islands far in the south. As we mentioned before, our plans have changed somewhat so we are now getting to see most of Laos and heading south in the same direction to Cambodia.

Our next stop was a 6 hour mental minivan journey to Vang Vieng (or Vera Wang as Susi calls it?) for some tubing action. Vang Vieng is a nice little town famous for its tubing, parties and bars that constantly show episodes of friends! More recently though its calmed down and there are only three bars along the river. It is still a fantastic experience though. 

The Starting point...

We got up early the next day and headed for the place you rent the tubes from. On the way bumping into various people we met on the slowboat. (get the feeling this is going to happen a lot more too) Armed with our dry bag, camera and a lot of money we got dropped off 4km upstream and began our journey down the river. Low and behold the first bar is only 100m down and you get dragged in by the locals...We sat in the first bar for a little bit, not surprisingly we bumped into some more slowboaters as well as some new people. Its was going to be another fun packed day. After an hour or so we moved on. 

Drifting down the river...

The scenery is fantastic. Just sitting back and floating down the river. Lee couldn't control his tube and got stuck in the trees and side pools a few times! Eventually we reached the next bar where we got off for a few more drinks. This was the best bar by far. It had volleyball, basketball, dancing and beer pong. We wasted a few more hours at this bar before we moved onto the last one. Eventually left in the dark and sailed back in the dark with around 10 other tubers.  It took longer than expected and about an hour in the water we started to get concerned we had missed the stop and would soon end up in the Mekong!  We had such a fun day reliving our youth and met some great people and found out about more places we need to visit on our travels - who needs the lonely planet!! Happy days.

Susi having fun

The random shooting gallery...

Next stop with an overnight bus was to Tha Khaek, where we were meant to visit some caves. Unfortunately there was only the 2 of us along with a Dutch girl which meant it was going to be too expensive so we just wandered around the town full of scabby dogs which wasn't really the nicest. Although Lee won a tiny bear at the random shooting gallery in the local market.  So instead of hanging around and knowing we'll get to see plenty of caves as we travel around we decided to head to 4000 Islands earlier than planned. It also meant we could celebrate Lee's birthday with Yannick and Carole. It was another overnight bus we took with the locals, chicken feed and roof tiles for yet another unforgettable journey........ :-)