We arrived in the capital, Vientiane, and started to wonder if we were still in Laos or if we’d been transported to France. The streets were lined with biblioteque, boulangeries,
patisseries etc,
There was even an Arc de Triumph to confuse us further.
So we settled down to a pain au chocolat to ease our confused minds, but thankfully the tuk tuk drivers offering us ‘some weed?’ at every turn reminded us that we could
only be in Asia.
I became a happy little vegemite when we found an expats supermarket stocking foreign imports, making both of us run around salivating over cheeses, biscuits, cereals, cold
meats, wines and even the frozen food section, shouting ‘look what I’ve found!’, but we resisted the urge to purchase the items we hadn’t seen for 6 months, except for one jar of vegemite!
The food on offer in Le Capital made us skip local food for meals we hadn’t tasted for a while, indulging in lunch everyday at the JoMa cafe that did great salads and quiche.
The National Monument of Laos, the Pha That Luang, is the focus of many national holidays and matches the understated charm that runs throughout
the country, although to us it looked like it could do with a good clean but the modern monks seemed happy enough to have their picture taken next to it.
A more interesting attraction was found 25km outside of the city. Buddha Park is a field of weird and eccentric Buddhist and Hindu related statues, which was bizarre but a
great change from the usual statues and monuments we are now used to seeing in SE Asia. We were definitely entertained, the guide book did say it was a great place to take kids!
With the wet season really starting to take hold we bypassed a few temples the capital had to offer, but the weather didn't spoil the fun and
of course the obligatory Beer Lao t-shirt reminded us where to head to escape the rain.
Savannakhet
After a 10 hour bus ride, we thought Savannakhet was not a town to write home about, especially after we traipsed around looking for decent accommodation, seeing many dodgy
rooms that made us both burst out laughing to think anyone would even consider sleeping in them, but we eventually found somewhere passable for the night. However, strolling around, the town developed a charm of it’s own with
plenty of examples of old French architecture and a riverside promenade full of family life and a great place for having a BeerLao while watching the sunset over Thailand.
But with little else to offer we set off the next day to...
Pakse
When we told the receptionist at our guesthouse that it took us 6 hours by bus to get to Pakse, he couldn’t believe it and said it should have taken 3 hours at the most.
However, our bus driver that day wanted to set the world record for the number of passengers he could pick up, the bus was crammed and we didn’t seem to travel more than 5 minutes before we stopped to pick someone else up.
Because the bus was so full it took ages to find and arrange seating for the new passengers, which was usually a plastic stall perched on top of a bag of rice. To be fair he wasn’t helped by the locals who would at times stand 20 metres apart on the side of the road. The bus would set down, spend 10 minutes loading a passenger and rather than moving to the bus the other waiting passenger would
stay where they were to wait to be picked up......only in Laos. It was a day for shaking our heads in disbelief, especially when trying to save time, the ticket attendant climbed out of the window up onto the roof 'Dukes of
Hazzard' style to pull the cover over the luggage when it started raining , while the bus was going 60km/hr!
Pakse was another town without much personality, or you could say a town heavily influenced by it’s close proximity to Thailand, so much so that it didn’t feel like Laos
anymore. Maybe we spent too much time in Thailand but the towns by the Mekong in Southern Laos all have a very Thai feel to them. We weren’t expecting much from Pakse though as we only planned to use it as a stepping stone
to...
TadLo
a small village sitting in the Bolaven Plateau, an area 1000m above sea level that is rich in agriculture, coffee and waterfalls, just 2 hours by bus from Pakse. Tadlo is
the name of a waterfall next to the village, one of three along the river that runs through the area. The waterfalls were impressive, the kind you can hear loud and clear before you can see them, so worth visiting.
On the river sits an exclusive Lodge, too expensive for our budget, but they have two elephants they rescued from logging, which people can arrange to take rides on. One
of the two elephants was ill and ‘out of action’ for the day, but the second elephant, that I will imaginatively call ‘Nellie’, was taking it easy by the river, so we got the chance to meet her, feed her bananas, and
spend as much time as we liked with her. She was slightly intimidating as she was very big and strong up close and felt a bit ‘prickly’ and liked to hit me on the head by flapping her ears about, but she was lovely. We had finally got to do the obligatory Asian elephant ‘thing’ all for free instead of the extortionate fees they charge at special elephant parks.
We saw a sign in the village asking people to visit the local temple to assist monks in teaching English. In Luang Prabang we had visited Big Brother Mouse www.bigbrothermouse.com, a charity that creates books for local children. The idea behind Big Brother Mouse is to write
books in both Lao and English that tourists can buy and hand out to those less fortunate and in remote villages to help Lao children with their education. We thought that handing them out here would help more people than handing
them out individually. Unfortunately, none of the children were there to learn as it’s the time of year they work in the fields to help their parents harvest their crops, but the monks were really pleased with them and said
they couldn’t wait to share them when the children come back, whilst also enjoying reading the books themselves.
We had some bad luck in TadLo when the lens on our SLR camera decided it had had enough of travelling and didn’t want to take any more pictures. So despite being under warranty
which is of no use to us on the road we are back to the regular digital until we can get a replacement sorted out.
After a hearty, or a near heart attack inducing, breakfast of the worlds biggest banana pancake complete with UXO (shaped) bananas
We headed back to Pakse to get transport to Si Phan Don.
Don Khong
Si Phan Don means 4000 islands and is so named as during the dry season there are some 4000 islands nestled in the Mekong at it’s widest part right at the southern tip of
Laos, although many are under water now during the wet season. The first island we visited was the biggest, Don Khong. There are a handful of guesthouses and restaurants for tourists but the rest of the island has only a few
villages and plenty of quiet local life, which we explored by bike. Not just any bike though, the Turbo Fairy bikes
got us around the whole island in 3 hours, covering about 30km and setting the Don Khong cycling speed record, so we rewarded ourselves with a huge Lao sandwich
Don Khon & Don Det
After a couple of days on Don Khong, we caught a longtail boat down the Mekong to the two most popular islands, Don Det & Don Khon (without a G), which are linked to each
other by a bridge. After many rewarding but bum numbing journeys around Northern Laos this was to be our relaxing reward. Don Det has a ‘party’ reputation so we once again got out our pipes and slippers and headed to the ‘retirement’
village on Don Khon.
With 4 days left on our visas and a pile of books to read we set about relaxing and exploring the islands. Exploring involved a Turbo Fairy bike tour, doing our best not
to run into water buffalo and not get stuck in mud quagmire, before settling down to enjoy our last days in Laos (and BeerLao of course!).
Highlights
Favourite Place - Muang Ngoi (Jo), Luang Prabang (Ryan)
Favourite Attraction - Cycling Don Khong (Jo) , Muang Ngoi Trek (Ryan)
Food - Ping Gai (Jo) , Laap (Ryan)
Beer - BeerLao (Both)
LowLights
Getting stuck in Vieng Xai (Both)
Realising there is only one more BeerLao day left (Both)
For those of you thinking of possibly travelling to the region: Costs in USD
Accommodation - $4-10
Main meal - $1-3
620ml Beer - $0.80-1.00
285ml Soft Drink - 30c
Bottle of water - 30c
Transport - Bus $1-$2 per hour
Next we are off to Cambodia so stay tuned...
Jo & Ryan
Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dojo77/collections/72157620848132640/
