There was a bit of a con going on with the bus to the Laos border, in the fact that we were told we would arrive at a reasonable hour in the morning. Instead they dropped us off at a guesthouse at 3 in the morning. We were too tight to pay so we got our sleeping bags out and slept on the chairs in the restaurant area outside the guesthouse. Cheeky buggers!!!
Finally crossed the border (The Mekong river) and got on a boat journey that lasted for what seemed like ages. The fact that we didn't have much kip didn't help matters, but it was nasty. Didn't have a seat so had to sit on the floor at the back of the boat. Met some good people though, apart from one cheeky bitch who kept skaving our food and drink. Cheeky caw!
Spent the first night of the 2 day boat trip in Pak Beng. It is a Laos town, but is really a village. Just ne street and a few houses down small alleys off the main street. That's one of the good things about Laos! Found a decent Indian restaurant so I was happy!
The 2nd day was more tolerable. Having a decent kip helped, but the boat to Luang Prabang was even smaller than that used the previous day and because we were one of the last people to board, we had to sit by he engine so was very hot and we had to contend with the fumes too.
However, the scenery was nice and we arrived in Luang Prabang (LP)at a respectable hour. LP is Laos 2nd city and it's way, way smaller than Brum;-) Approx. It is more like a large town. Very quaint and you can defienitely see the French influence. Stayed here for 5 or 6 days. You can easily get caught up in the slow pace of life. Nice, but there's not much to do. There is one club and a bowling alley that stays open late. This is due to the curfew imposed on the whole of the country so everything, apart from the places that pay off the police shuts at 11. The club shuts at 12 and the bowling alley shuts at 3, but now I hate bowling. If we stayedup and talked back at the guesthouse we would be told off by the old dear staying above us. I felt like a naughty little boy.
We did a few trips t a couple fo water falls. The first was impressive as the final tier cascaded at a right angle into a large river, when we were expecting abit of a walk to see the water fall. walking up he path next the final tier took you up to a few more cascades. Not very hgh, but pretty wide and was good swimming around in there and enjoying the scenery and the funnykids to and from the waterfalls.
The second water fall was the most impressive I hae seen to date. Fair enough it was no Niagra/Victoria/Angel or Iguazu falls, but was very pretty indeed. The Rhine falls in Switzerland were more voluminous, but this was prettier. There were smaller wtaer falls leading up to it where you can swing on a ropeswing from a tree into the water. I burned myslef on the rope a litle on my first attempt and on my second landed on my arse so didn't do it again. Could have been worse though. Gary swang from the tree and then on the arc back hit the tree and hen let go bning his hands a little and also hitting every knot on the rope swing with his balls. Ouch!!! was quite funny though ;-)
On our final 2 day in LP we went round the temples and bought fire works and set them off by the rier, much to the delight of the local children. If only fireworks were this chepa back home. Actually that would be a bad thing as you'd have more kids blowing off fingers.
Phou Si which is a fairly large temple complex on a hill offering vistas across LP. The temple complex itself wasn't very impressive, but was worth it for the views. Unfortunately, it was a little hazy so would be even more impressive.
Wat Xieng Thong is LP most impressive temple. built in 1560. It's not the largest or most ornate temple I've seen, but it is one of the nicest. They have a highly decorated boat stored there which they use for festivals. Pics to come at some point.
Arrived in Vang Vieng in the middle of the night and took up residence in a guesthouse opposite the airstrip. Vang Vieng is fun. At first it remided me of the drug traffiking place from the film 'Air America', due to the air strip. Most people come here to go tubing and that;'s why I cam here. It's liek being alittle kid again. Sitting in a lorry or tractor inner tube, floating down the river stopping of at bars with rope wings jumps and zip wires.
In fact, it was so much fun we did it twice. The only thing I didn't do twice was the last jump as once again I landed arse first on the water. It was tantamount to receiving all the spanks my mum gave me on my bum with her slipper as a naughty child, but in one big spank. In other words,it hurt big style!
It was prety scary coming in after tubing in the dark. Tahnkfully local boatmen know how silly the forigners can e so they were often at hand to help. One word of advice, be careful of your belongings and if you can do not take any. We left a dry bag our rings and life vests at the bottom of the final bar and after the arse spanking jump they were gone.
Upon returning in someone else tubes, we saw a couple of guys with our tubes and a dry bag which had everything in there, but Kate's money had been taken. We almost got into a fight over it as we were pretty sure thay had taken the money, but as there was no definite evidence we couldn't do anything. Plus common sense prevailed in the end.....as did a Local guy who helped prevent a full scale fight. So save yourself the hassle and just take your money in your pocket and nothing else. Or keep an eagle eye onyour belongings!!
It was the end of buddhist lent during my tenure in Vang Vieng so we bought some fireworks which were on sale at ridiculously low prices and some floats in which to place incense and candles and followed the Buddhist custom of floating lit candles down the river. It was a beautiful sight. Apparently, the best place fopr it is Luang Prabang and I believe Thailand is also a good place to view this type of activity. unfortunately, we missed the boat races.
We kayaked (it was in canoes really) from Vang Vieng to Ventianne. Well got a sawngteaw 1/4 of the way, then kayaked a quater, and then were driven the rest of the way. It was a brilliant way of getting there. We had so much fun with grade I and II rapids. Quite fun, but not as much fun as white water rafting and I didn't feel secure. We stooped half way for lunch with the oppurtunity to jump off a 10m cliff into the river below. After the near arse breaking experience in Vang Vieng I turned down the oppurtunity......and I'm glad i did as the Qazi butt now rivals J-Lo's rear.
The guide who was in my canoe was a cheeky bugger. He kept splashing te other guys and even turned their canoes over. For this reason I was the only one out of Gary, Brian, Steve who didn't fall in. Kate was left alone, I'm presuming because she is a girl.
Arrived in Ventianne to a state of chaos. The celebrations to mark the end of Buddhist lent were taking place and half of the city was drunk or on its way. We didn't actually witness the boat races or fireworks as we were caught in the furuore trying to find a guesthouse (which we did after about 2 hours searching), but we did see a few people carrying their boats after the race.
Ventianne is nothing special. It's the capital, but only has a population of 600,000 (10% of the country). It's more westernised than the rest of the counrty, but there is still very little western presence. No McDonalds or starbucks and only 2 or 3 internationally known hotels.
We went to the market, had a fun night being silly in a karaoke room, saw the Laos version of Le Arc d'triopmh and went to the Buddha Park.
The Buddha park is pretty good. We haggled a tuk tuk driver to take us there and wish we hadn't. With 4 of us in the back of the tuk tuk, it struggled badly and the journey took ages. It's located about 27km out of Ventianne on the Mekong River, which forms the border between Laos and Thailand.
It was built by a monk who tried to unify Buddhism and Hinduism about 30 - 40 years ago. It is peaceful there and some of the sculptures are amazing. There's one cave like structure that he built which is quite scary.
Highly recomend Laos. It's like going back in time with the lack of commercialism, but sadly this will probably change. the one thing Laos doesn't have is beaches and this may save it from becoming over visited. Silly pics to come on facebook!
