LAOS = Love At First Sight.
Our last night in Chiang Mai was spent in typical Thailand fashion. The Spicy Thai crew invited us back to the hostel even though we were staying at a guesthouse in town so that we could join them on an expedition to a local Thai BBQ. After dinner a group of us decided to go disco bowling - what else? We ascended the elevators of what appeared to be a deserted shopping centre and emerged on the top floor to find a local disco bowl pumping out awful classic love ballads badly mixed with up to date hip hop... interesting. Some how I found myself on a team with 4 other boys and therefore got well and truly trolloped. Still it was an awesome night enjoying the cheap Thai beer and a good way to say goodbye to our friends.
The next morning we woke with excitement - we were heading over to Laos - or Lao as I had repeatedly been told to pronounce it! We had time to exchange some money and have a good fry up for brekkie before being picked up by a minivan at midday. It was a 6 hour journey to the north-east of Thailand where we stopped at a rural border town called Chiang Khong. Looking out the window as we drove along kept me amused for hours. The landscape was lush and green with rice paddies dotted with picture postcard villages and limestone hills rising dramatically in the background. Already we had headed off the beaten track as the only tourists to head this far north where those using the increasingly popular land crossing between Thailand and Lao. We had booked a package through a tour agent in Chiang Mai which included accommodation the first night in a basic hotel in Chiang Khong and then a 2 day boat trip down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang in northern Lao. It was a quiet night in Chiang Khong as we found a bar playing movies and we relaxed with an ovaltine to watch 'Blades of Glory' before retiring to bed to have a girly chat and write our journals. A friend of ours from Chiang Mai - Steve - was also heading for Lao so we caught up with him and he decided to jump on our trip with us for the next week or so.
Our first day in Lao was everything I had imagined and more... We set our alarms early and Christina jumped i our cold shower. The screaming that ensued scared Lou and I as we freaked out about the prospect of a cold shower in the distinctly chilly morning. Just as Christina emerged from the shower she finally found the hot water switch and grumbled as Lou and I enjoyed a piping hot stream! After brekie we were herded out of Thai immigration and into a longtail by our guesthouse lady. It was our first sight of the mighty Mekong as we powered across the river. What a way to cross a border! We were met at the other side by a young Lao male guide who wished us a 'Happy Valentines Day'and said he was a lucky man to have 7 beautiful angels landing on his doorstep. Thankfully he taught us Lao for hello, thankyou and toilet which is always useful although Christina found out later that the way she was saying toilet actually meant 'pussy water!' He clearly recieved a commission for people upgrading to the speedboat trip down the river as he attempted to dissuade us from taking the slow boat by regaling us with horror stories about the overcrowded slow boat. Still for the sake of a few dollars we decided to stick with the slow boat. Thank god we did as we heard a story a few days later about a speedboat leaving that day hitting a rock and flipping whilst all the baggage on board floated downstream.
We picked up our visas - another pretty stamp and a bit of a giggle as the Poms had to play $5 extra to enter the country for no apparent reason other than that they're Poms. A final stock up on some snacks and our guide returned to flatter us all by telling us again we were beautiful as we handed over our passports. At this point we started to have nightmares as we watched our guide with passports in hand drive in the opposite direction from our tuk tuk heading for the pier. Images of the conversation we would have with our parents flashed through our heads "but he said I was beautiful Mum so I trusted him with my passport!" Thankfully he was at the pier waiting or us. Pier or lack of I should say as we walked to the top of the sandbank and gazed down at the boat which was connected to land simply by a narrow plank.
It was easier than it looked and we jumped on scoring some pink plastic bucket seats which was a distinctly better alternative than the hard wooden benches with the directly upright back. Eventually only 2 hours after scheduled departure the engine started and we headed off to a round of applause. We were off down the Mekong! It is a very impressive river even at the northern end where it was never wider than 300m. It had a powerful flow that grabbed the boat in its whirls and eddies. It was a murky brown that didnt appear to stain the riverbanks as white patches of sand formed beaches between jagged rock formations and thick jungle vegetation lined the surrounding banks. We motored past many other boats plying the river varying in size from larger boats like us to small Lao canoes paddled by locals upstream. Bamboo poles poked out from the rocks usually straining at the weight of white fishing nets dangling in the river to catch the local fish. At times we passed small traditional villages where children were playing at the riverside whilst their mothers washed in the water. Sometimes the children were chasing the animals which varied from pigs and buffaloes to the occasional elephant. Sound picture perfect? It was. Still it was a good thing the scenery was so mesmerising as it was impossible to sleep on the crappy chairs and when not staring out the window we amused ourselves by snacking, playing cards and reading.
We arrived at our halfway point Pakbeng just as dark fell. There was a steep slope up to the lights of the village and no lights down at the dock so we were relying purely on night vision to retrieve our bags. Our bags had initially been stored in the bowels of the boat so three of us stood around the hole in the floor expecting our bags to emerge while we sent Christina ashore with our smaller bags to do a reconnaisance mission. A plaintative cry was heard from ashore "they're here, they're here - I've got them!" We jumped ashore to find Christina sprawling across our bags in the dark in an attempt to stop the scrum of small Lao children who upon sighting a bag proceeded to load it on their tiny backs and march up the hill with it, usually with a franti backpacker following behind pleading with them to put it down because they couldn't afford to give them 50c for the service. I must admit though there was was a moment of disbelief as we donned our backpacks in the rough sand and looked up the HUGE hill to where the guesthouses were. I was literally on my hands and knees scrambling up an almost sheer rock face in the dark behind Lou. Upon reaching the top we turned around to notice we had lost Christina and Steve in the dark. "Steeeeevvvvveee, Chrrrrriiiiiissssttiinnaaa" we yelled out into the darkness until our little friends emerged from the pack of backpackers rising up over the hill and we headed off to our prebooked guesthouse.
We arrived and settled ourselves in before heading down to the guesthouse restaurants for some dinner. The restaurant was staffed by very smiley Lao people who offered advice on traditional Lao food. All of our dishes arrived piping hot and fresh but in no particular order and Christina's didnt arrive at all! She asked the waiter about three times but he just replied with a happy little giggle every time. This kept us amused for hours until Steve went to the kitchen to request the meal properly and order a follow-up round of pancakes. It was then that we realised the problem when the waiter kept telling Steve that he should have the 'happy pancakes'. Clearly the whole wait staff were stoned! We asked a few times what time the boat left in the morning and were assured it was 9:30 so we planned an early breakfast followed by a timed boarding of the boat in order to get a seat on the floor at the front once the normal seats had been filled as we figured we could stretch out a bit more this way.
We were snacked up, packs on and headed off down the road at 9:10 the next morning with what we assumed was plenty of time to spare. On the way down I wondered out loud "why are there so few people about considering there were over a 100 backpackers on the boat last night.' Famous last words as we rounded the corner from where we could first see the pier and I was the first again to remark "oh look a big slow boat full of backpackers looks like its pulling out into the river - HOLY CRAP - we've missed the bloody boat!!" We all reacted differently on this news. I started chattering and walking forwards in sheer panic. Lauren and Steve stood still at the top of the hill and stared at the unfolding scene and Christina refused to accept the obvious and began running down the hill thinking we could make it. Fortunately an official looking man standing at the top of the hill guessed our plight, scanned our tickets and began gesturing wildly at the man standing on the top of the boat pushing it out into the river whilst yelling at us 'go go he come back!'So the boat pushed in between two other private boats as its original place had closed us and the official man gestured at us to jump onto a boat joined to the shore by a plank and then jump from that boat onto our slow boat. Christina was first to run across the plank and made it across just as the movement of the boats caused the plank to slide slowly inch by inch towards the edge of the Mekong just as I went to put my foot on it. "No way - I can't do it!" I yelled. The nice man then jumped on and held out his hand and closing my eyes I ran across. From there we were told to run forward to the front of the boat. Orders I willingly obeyed as I headed off first. The end of the boat appeared to be a bedroom as a sleeping Lao lady opened one eye to see me opening a window and preparing to jump out onto the boat next door. The backpackers on our boat insisted on taking my bags as they feared I would fall into the Mekong on the jump but I was running on adrenalin by this point so I point blank refused and jumped grasping at the window edge and falling forwards onto our boat. Lou, Steve and Christina did the sensible thing and handed their bags over and jumped over behind me. As I stood up I was so relieved to be on the boat that I didnt care in the slightest that over 100 backpackers were staring at us with bemused smiles thinking there's always someone isn't there!""
Clearly our plan to get the good seats at the front had failed and we shuffled up the back to the engine room where the unmuffled engine was at its loudest. By the end of the day though we realised this room was a blessing in disguise as it was the warmest room on the boat as the rest of the boat had open windows. Christina nursing a migraine curled up on the pile of bags with Lou and I alternating between naps on the floor and the hard wooden benches. People from the front of the boat were gasping in horror and taking photos of us as we were crammed in like cattle but we were so thankful just to be on the boat we didnt mind.
We arrived in Luang Prabang after a long day on the boat at around 5:30. It was relatively easy to find a guesthouse and we headed out to grab something to eat. Luang Prabang was FREEZING and it was all layers on for the night. We finally found a cozy Indian restaurant where we shared a gorgeous meal and celebrated finally being ashore. It was too cold to walk too much so we spent the remainder of the night playing cards before falling asleep under a mix of extra towels, blankets and pashminas in order to keep the heat in. The next day was still chilly but the city was beautiful in the misty sun and after a little sleep in we set off to explore the town. The French influence is very strong in Lao and most noticeable in the architecture and the food. Hence breakfast was a hot chocolate and a crispy baguette. After breakfast we walked up the main street towards Mount Phousi - a large hill in the centre of town. 328 steps later and we were at the summit. Adorning the to of the hill is a large shrine and the view was incredible. Lunag Prabang lies at the junction of the Nam Khan and the Mekong river and has a huge number of temples. On the way down I was waylied by a cheeky small child who I couldn't resist from whom I bought a sandalwood bead bracelet. The families and children here are obviously poor but they keep smiling and exude a wonderful friendliness.
After our morning walk we did a tour of the Royal Palace Museum which was interesting and managed to book tickets for the Lao Royal ballet held in a theatre in the grounds of the palace that night. Contemplating the evening ahead we dined on a banana and honey crepe (french influence again) and a fruit shake for lunch before heading to the Red Cross for a soothing massage. Ahhhh I was in heaven guilt free indulgence which actually contributes to charity. By now it was almost time to hit the ballet so we filled in an hour watching the street life on a bench outside a monastery eating street sellers lemon cakes and sharing fruit - life is surreal sometimes. The theatre was beautifully decked out as a Lao usher showed us to our seats. All the announcements were bilingual in French and English and after a Lao women individually blessed us all by tying white bands around our wrists we were treated to 7 dances describing a Lao legend centering around a monkey. After the theatre we wandered outside for two bonus performances. A Hmong tribal dance which was really rather boring and then a Phongsali tribal dance which we thought would be rather the same until 2 TINY men and an even tinier woman each lifted a 20kg pot of water with their teeth! Glad we hung around for that one!
By this time we were all hungry again (it must be the cold weather) so we found a fabulous vegetarian buffet where we filled up a plate of food for a little under a $1 and ate it on the street. Good budgeting! It was then onto the night market which was set up beautifully down a side street under hanging lanterns. Lou and I bought slingshots for $1 which are intended to provide hours on hostel amusement and we shopped for artefacts and other such things. On the way home to our guesthouse we decided to seek dessert (why stop now?!) and were drawn in to a very stylish wine bar with three beautiful desserts on the menu. Completely blowing our good work on the budget earlier we wiled away 2 hours sharing three desserts AND a beautiful bottle of French Merlot - so much for backpacking. After all that we stopped at a beautiful art shop on the way home producing stunning glass jewellery and against advice from the owner to purchase the whole shop I walked away with 6 pendants and 2 rings before retiring to bed a satsified shopper.
The next day was another travel day - this time to Vang Vieng a supposed 5 hour drive south by mini bus. We were picked up from our guesthouse at 8:30 in the morning and riven out to a minibus station a few km out of town. Here we were distributed into other buses to be sent on our way. The four of us assumed we had been extremely lucky when it appeared that unlike the usual cramped conditions there were only four of us to board the bus. BUT no we watched as the three other fuller buses headed off to Vang Vieng and minute after minute after hour passed as we sat in the station waiting for more passengers. Eventually one other person arrived and th driver got fed up so nearly 2 hours later we set off down the road. We had only travelled a few hundred metres however before the driver picked up two local girls at the petrol station and then a few km on he stopped at a local village to pick up two Lao men - one of whom was carrying a chicken. The chicken came in and settled on the back seat next to him and by the end of the trip we had completely settled in to the fact that it wasnt unusual in Lao to be sharing your bus with a chicken. The bus trip itself was hellish as it was incredibly windy due to the mountainous terrain but the view out of the window was nothing short of National Geographic. Steve and Christina were travel sick however so Lou and I tried to keep their minds off it by singing a variety of tunes from cabaret, Disney songs, 80's ballads and yes Spice Girls (it was a long journey.) A few good games of Magnetic Hangman later and we were dropped at our requested destination. We had decided to stay at an organic farm 3.5kms from VangVieng a small town in central Lao. We were shown a big hut called the fruit hut with two big beds for the four of us and huge mosquito nets. It was very hippy like. At first we had a nap and then grabbed our diaries and headed to the riverfront to do some journal writing. The farm was directly on the Namsong river which was simply gorgeous and not long after we had settled at a bench some small Lao children came over to play. They talked incessently at us in a mixture of Lao and English and began braiding my hair. It was all too much of a laugh when after putting flowers in my hair and telling me I was beautiful one little girl put a flower behind Steve's ear and then did the classic gay flip of the hand at him and said "You gay!" Absolutely hilarious! I pulled out my photo album from home and Lou pulled out her coloured pencils and we all amused ourselves for the next hours drawing pictures for each other. At one point Lou thought she would impress the local children by folding them a paper aeroplane - that is until all of the children produced complicated origami swans as presents for us. Unfortunately it got dark so we had to wave goodbye to our new friends and we went into the restaurant for dinner. The organic farm specialised in mulberry leaves so we had a very satisfying vegetarian dinner complete with an entree of deep fried mulberry leaves dipped in honey. Interesting and surprisingly tasty. After dinner we crowded under one of the mosquito nets to play cards before falling asleep.
The reason we had stopped in Vang Vieng was to experience the tubing that was becoming a big part of the Lao backpacer circuit. We were all unsure of what to expect - obviously there was a tube involved but as to prices, guides and organisation we had no idea. We caught a tuk tuk into town which dropped us at the local bus station. The bus station looked to be in the middle of absolutely nowhere and no amount of hand gesturing and repeated statements of 'town centre' seemed to get us any closer. Thankfully we saw some fellow backpackers who pointed us in the right direction of both the town and the tubing place. When we arrived at the tubing shop we were given a big tractor tyre tube, a lifejacket and a dry bag before being ordered back into a tuk tuk and driven out to the organice farm which was apparently the first stop on the tubing circuit. Here it all became clear! There was nothing to organise and NO health and safety concerns you simply jumped in your tyre and floated off down river. At the farm the small girl with whom I had made friends with the night before jumped on my tyre and floated with me for a few hundred metres down stream before saying "Beer Lao my Anna, Beer Lao." Well - how am I expected to refuse a gorgeous 10yo Lao girl never mind the fact that it had just passed 12oclock which makes drinking beer officially a sane activity. So we pulled in to a makeshift bar on stilts and grabbed a beer and perched ourselves on the end of the pontoon listening to the loud music and watching other tubers while the little Lao girl braided my hair again. After one beer it was time to move back on down the river so we jumped in our tubes and made it a further 500m before we saw a sign proclaiming Free LAO LAO WHISKY SHOTS - well thats an even harder prospect. Honestly we are backpackers and anything thats free is a god given gift. And so the day went on and on... we spent an inordinate amount of time at one particular bar starting up a beach volleyball tournament and downing redbull and Lao Lao buckets before realising it was 3:30 and we had only travelled 1km down the river and we still had over half to go and a deadline of 6pm. On the way out a cute boy saw us as we marvelled at the drunken idiots throwing themselves off a huge tower extended out over the Mekong on a flying fox contraption before letting go and hitting the water with a smash. Cute boy then says to Anna "why dont you have a go - its easy" and Anna melts and says (after chronic alcohol consumption) "why not!" Once I got to the top of the tower I decided I needed support and convinced the fearless skydiving and whitewater rafting Lou to join me. Fortunately it was easier than it seemed and we dropped successfully into the Mekong after one and a half swings - losing only half a bikini top in the process (I did manage to fix it before I got out of the water tho!) Steve on the other hand woke up with a black eye from trying to dive headfirst into the river from the swing - honestly some people! Back on the river we made it to one more bar for some nourishment before paddling furiously down the river with our flip flops to make the deadline. At one point we passed under a bridge where a huge sign stated that if we got out now a tuk tuk could take us back to the finish. Thats just unsportsmanlike so regardless of the fact that we had no idea how much further we had to go and fifteen minutes of daylight left we continued on to the finish. Just after the bridge a group of Spanish men heading upriver in a longtail were laughing at us trying to paddle with our flip flops and getting wet and cold in the process until their driver got distracted and hit a rock at which point the longtail capsized. All the men looked shocked until they stood up and the water only came up to their knees. The bigger problem was the state of their form of transport and the wooden seats which were by now floating off downstream! "Who wishes they had a tube now?!" we laughed at them! Due to the fact that it was dark we missed the finish by about 500m and we had to get out with our tyres and walk back upstream to the final bar. Some nice Americans who we had been tubing in company with then let us use their guesthouse shower to warm up and get changed before we headed out to a pub which advertised a 'real British Roast.' It was very real and very good complete with baked potatos and Yorkshire puddings. Unfortunately Christina fell ill at this point so Lou and her went home to the Organic Farm while Steve and I stayed out to party.
The next morning Christina was still really sick with food poisoning - we assume from the yellow noodle soup she ate in a shack over the Mekong the day before - so we hung around the organic farm for an extra night relaxing and catching up on journal entries for her to recover. The next morning we set off as planned to catch the scheduled VIP bus at 10am. We had not yet booked ticket which turned out to be a problem when we arrived at the bus station to hear "Bus Full, Full, Full." Ohoh - we were then told we could hire a minivan for $60 (uh not an option) or wait until there were enough people to catch a minivan together. The wait didnt seem to be too long so we had decided on that when another man beckoned us over to his counter and indicated that we could catch a local bus for only $3. BARGAIN. I booked tickets for the three of us on the bus which was leaving in ten minutes. Successful at last I turned around to Lou and Christina and informed them of the good news. "Great - where's the bus?" they asked. "Forgot to ask - back in a minute." Ohoh my stomach sank as the bus ticket man pointed me towards a big tuk tuk. Turns out our local bus is actually a pickup which is really just an inflated version of our usual airy mode of transport. Oh well we are backpackers after all so we jumped on with a grin, scored some bench space and gritted our teeth for the 4hour trip. Apart from not being able to stretch our legs (there were 17 people on board at one point!) the trip wasn't too bad and we arrived in Vientiane, the Lao Capital, just after one oclock.
We had been warned about the difficulty of finding a guesthouse in Vientiane so prior to even thinking about food (usually our first priority) we trundled off down the street to find a room. We were very lucky scoring the last room in Joe's Guesthouse on the riverfront. We put our bags down and headed out for lunch at one of the makeshift stall/restaurants lining the Mekong. It was an admin afternoon of organising visas and interasia flights between Hanoi and Bangkok for the end of March. That night we watched an amazing sunset over the river at the same place we had lunch before we found a nice sophisticated restaurant where we ordered an antipasto platter with all our faves from home like dips, bread and cheese before retiring for an early night.
The next morning we rose earlyish in order to pack in as much Vientiane sightseeing before our night bus to south Lao that evening. We went for brekkie, picked up our visas and then walked through central Vientiane admiring the French architecture and browsing the morning market with a purchase of a handmade Lao silk scarf for all. At the end of this street was the unmissable huge concrete monstrosity that is the half finished Arc de Triomphe replica made from American donated concrete in 1962. Still the steps through the cavernous interior to the top lent us a nice view out over the city. From here it was onto a big golden Stupa known as That Luong which is the most important Buddhist monument in Laos. Luckily Lauren and I stumbled upon a ceremony in one of the surrounding temples which gave us a chance to see monks in action.
That night we jumped on a night bus to Pakse which was as uncomfortable as always but a convenient mode of transport. We were transferred to another bus at 6am the next morning for a three hour ride to a small riverside village where a group of us piled onto a longtail to be transported out to Don Det in the 4 thousand islands - Si Phan Don. This area in the very south of Laos is where the Mekong splits into a huge delta and there are literally four thousand islands (if you count a single tree sticking up as an island.) There are three islands you can stay on and Don Det is the most basic and therefore the most lively and affordable.
The longtail dropped us off on a small beach where a few backpackers where swimming next to a contented buffalo. Bungalows on stilts lined the main road and we walked along this strip until we found our little place of paradise in Mr Mo's Guesthouse. At $4 a night (split between 3 of us) we had a room on stilts out over the river and a big double bed to share complete with our own hammock on the balcony. I must admit things were pretty basic but that after all was what we were there to experience. That afternoon we enjoyed the view and generally relaxed before heading out for a big walk along the riverfront on dusk. We had a quiet night in one of the restaurants and headed back to our bungalow before the lights went out at 11 (the island is generator powered.)
We had one full day on the islands so determined to get out and see as much as possible we hired a bike each and set out on a little tour. We hired bright red 1920's style bikes which we nicknamed Rod, Rudolph and Bobby. It took a little over an hour to cycle across a bridge which joined two of the islands and reach a beautiful waterfall. We all split up at this point and sat in different spots to absorb the view and the sounds. I got playing with a little Lao kid throwing rocks at other rocks to knock rocks off the rock?!? Then a monk who was obviously on a monk tour came over and started chatting to me. THis was most unusual as monks arent generally allowed to approach women. He asked my name and said it was a beautiful name and then asked if he could have a photo taken with me! Naturally I said yes but only if his monk friends could take one with my camera as well. He left soon after with a parting repeat of the 'your name is beautiful comment' and I was left distinctly confused and a little bit guilty for I think I may have tempted a monk... oops.
After the waterfall we followed the signs on the track to the beach which led to a beautiful swimming hole in the Mekong. I was fully prepared for this and had brought along my shampoo and conditioner! So all of us three girls washed our hair in the river which was a welcome relief compared to our basic basic facilities back on the island. True backpacker style!! The afternoon was disappearing so we gingerly hopped back on our bikes (the bumpy road had started to show on our bottoms) and pedalled back for the bungalow. WHat a way to spend the day! That night we shared dinner at an Indian restaurant with a Pom and and Irish couple before heading down to the beach to stare into a campfire for a few hours with the other travellers - guitar music and all in the background!
The next day we headed over to Cambodia - the topic of my next blog no doubt. Lao has left a lasting impression on all of us and for all its trials it provided us with so many pleasures and such wonderful memories. Love at first sight...
