Vang Vieng and Vientiane - Laos Part 3

Vang Vieng and Vietiane

April 20^th

On the morning of the 20^th, we caught a bus to Vang Vieng – a city/town/traveller’s destination about 185 km south of Luang Prabang. If you look this distance up on google, it will tell you it only takes 2.5 hours to drive this distance. This is a lie. What they fail to take into account is that about 90% of this trip is through the mountains of Northern Laos. The roads are twisty, steep and slightly terrifying. You just need to not look down when looking out the window. Anyway, I think it took about 7 hours to reach our destination. Fortunately, our bus had a bathroom... with a hobbit sized door. It was kind of funny. The ride through the mountains itself was stunning. We drove through several very rural towns as well. They consisted of the typical bamboo houses with thatched roofs. Laos in general is a lot less developed than Thailand – there are FAR fewer big cities/urban centres, and much of the country is very rural. Which is part of why it’s so beautiful there.

Anyway we arrived in Vang Vieng in that late afternoon. For many years, the main attraction to this area was going tubing down the river. Now this was no ordinary tubing – much drugs and alcohol could be purchased along the river at the various bars and whatnot. However, after several deaths, many of these bars were shut down and the river tuning was made much tamer/safer. Unfortunately, this has caused many people to bypass Vang Vieng. I’m not even kidding. Which is a huge shame because it’s gorgeous. It was also sad because all the nice hotels that have been built not too long ago are practically empty. So we were able to stay in a really nice hotel for quite cheap. A couple of our friends paid the extra money, and got a room with a view – facing the river and the mountains. It was lovely at sunset.

That night, we went for pizza, and then visited a nearby bar. Like all of the country, things shut down around 11, so we had a fairly early night.

April 21^st

This was the day we decided to go tubing on the river – which is still a major to-do in Vang Vieng. Despite the lack of drugs. Darn. (... I’m being sarcastic. Please don’t arrest me.) We didn’t head out especially early but we still made it out. First, we went to the tubing centre to pick up our tubes and then caught  ride in a sawng-tao to the start of the tubing. When we arrived at the start, we had lunch at the non-profit restaurant/farm there. The foods was delicious. Laotian food is kind of like a mix between Thai and Vietnamese food. So, delicious. Mmmmmmmm!

Basically, tubing consists of floating on your tube for a couple hours. There are still some bars and whatnot you can stop at on the way for beer and homemade whiskey stuff. Which is VILE. Ick! At a couple of these bars, there are caves etc you can walk to. But we just wanted to float and relax. 

We got back to town around 6, returned our tubes, then went for dinner. A night a lot like the one before. Wooooot.

April 22nd

That afternoon, we had a bus/mini-van booked to take up to Vientiane, the capitol. We still had all day, so we decided to visit a local spring and cave to pass the time. We caught a sawng –tao there. On the way, we passed a heard of cattle on the road and several small farming villages.  It was very scenic.

Once we arrived, we walked by the spring/pool. It was amazingly beautiful. There were also some monk novices swimming in the pool. I wondered if they were “allowed” to do so haha. We decided to explore the cave first. This we did without a guide – with only some headlamps we rented from the people at the entrance. It was really neat to explore. You just needed to try not the think about the large hole you could have easily fallen into, or the fact that you didn’t really know the way out. But we made it eventually. After, we went for a well deserved swim in the pool. There was a huge tree with branches you could climb and jump off. One was QUITE high but I decided to jump off it. First, you had to climb a rickety bamboo ladder. Then you had to inch your way out on the wt branch – there was a bamboo railing at least. It was slightly terrifying. But the jump was quite exhilarating. I’m glad I did it! 

In the afternoon, we caught our van. Our driver was ON A MISSION and drove at top speed the entire way there. So the ride only took a couple of hours. Once we arrived in Vietiane, we found a hostel and checked in. That night, we had dinner in a local outdoor restaurant, and visited one of the nearby bars for drinks. When you looked around this bar, you quickly realised it was full of white mean with very attractive Laotian women... *ahem*. It was slightly upsetting but also interesting to watch. 

April 23^rd

In the morning, I went with a friend to the Thai embassy to sort out her new Thai visa. On the way back, we walked by the “Arch de Triomphe”, also known as Patuxai. It is modelled after the Arch in Paris. It was quite spectacular. In the afternoon, we decided to go to the public pool. There, we relaxed and swam. We also had a splashing contest/fight with some Laotian girls. And we passed the night pretty much the same way as the previous day.

April 24^th

That morning, we had breakfast at the Joma Cafe we found in Vientiane. I ordered chili again and garlic bread. I thought they would give me a couple pieces – they gave me a WHOLE LOAF. It was fantastic. A large part of the group was catching a bus to Vietnam that afternoon, so we saw them off. There were 5 of us left. Myself and another friend decided to go to the museum – it basically gave a history of Laos from the dinosaurs to present. It was quite interesting. One of the more interesting displays were some gold Buddha figures locked in a metal cage – they had been stolen in the past. It seems that artefact theft is a large problem in the country. After the museum, I wandered around Vientiane by myself for a little while and visited a couple of the local temples. 

In the evening, we decided to sit by the river for a while. One trend that developed along our travels in Laos was “Songkraning”, inspired by Songkran.  To “Songkran” someone successfully, you throw some water on the person and yell “Songkraned!” or “Songkraning!”. This had been going on for our entire time in Laos pretty much. So by the river, we had a big “Songkraning” fight. Haha. We then went back to the outdoor restaurant from the other night. Had delicious red curry. Mmmmm. And Beer Lao. The other trend we developed was peeling the label of the beer bottles (they come off quite easily and remain sticky). Then, you slap the label on someone and yell “Beer Lao’ed!”. Hehe. We’re mature. 

After dinner, we went back to that same bar. When it closed (at 11) we went back to our hotel, and sat outside on the patio. Had a nice night – we were all parting ways the next morning. And so ended my group travels in Laos – one of the highlights of my travels in SE Asia so far!

Luang Prabang - Laos part 2

Luang Prabang

Part 2! I AM going to get caught up on this blog. Even if it kills me.

We arrived in Luang Prabang the night of the 17^th, as I previously mentioned. One thing that was great about Laos was you could normally get a NICE hotel room for quite cheap – as in $5 per person for a double room. Most places in Thailand and Vietnam, when you pay that kind of price, your room is... not the best. I.e. gross and not especially comfortable. But these hotels in Laos were lovely – comfortable beds, nice wooden floors and just generally nice places to stay.

Luang Prabang is a really beautiful city. It’s set on the shore of the Mekong, surrounded by the mountains of Northern Laos. It feels like the city itself has developed a lot in the fairly recent past, which I think, is the same for much of the country. There are many new hotels, and restaurants, as well as the classic temples on every corner. My descriptions really don’t do it justice. Please refer to the pictures later.

After we checked into our hotel, we wandered over to the Night Market in the centre of town. There, you can find all sorts of food, fruit shakes, clothing, and souvenirs. That first night, we found a vegetarian buffet for about $1.50 for a plate. And Beer Lao for just over $1. Beer Lao is not only delicious, but quite cheap in most places. 

After dinner, we decided to head to the local bowling alley. This may seem like an odd choice but you need to remember that most places in Laos close at 11pm. From what I’ve heard, the purpose of the curfew is to battle the alcohol, drugs, and prostitution problems in the country. But anyway, the bowling alley is one of the few places in town that is open past 11 – most likely because they bribed the right people. So we found a tuk-tuk and made our way there. The bowling alley was the usual bowling alley, except it became super crowded and most people were there to drink, rather than bowl. We did managed to get a couple of lanes for ourselves, and bowled a couple games. After a few beers, “serious” bowling turned into “trick” bowling. For your first shot, you imitated the person’s trick who went before you, then you made up your own. My favourite trick of mine was doing a cartwheel, then pushing the ball down the lane. We’re cool.

18

Needless to say, after a late night of bowling, we didn’t get moving until pretty late on the 18^th. We discovered the most amazing cafe near our hotel, called Joma cafe. It was expensive (for SE Asia) but delicious. I had a bagel, egg and cheese sandwhich – first bagel since I left Canada!

In the late morning/early afternoon, we decided to go check out the Krung Sri waterfall nearby. To get there, we caught a tuk-tuk outside Joma cafe. The ride took about half an hour, and we went through the local small towns and farms. 

The waterfall was amazing. There were several pools before the actually main falls. In the largest pool, you could swim, as well as use the rope swing, and jump off a small water fall. The rope swing was fantastic. To get to the swing, you had to climb up a tree (wet from the all the water), then walk out on this (thick branch). There, you used a bamboo stick to “catch” the rope and pull it towards yourself. Then, you would thrust the stick to the person behind you, get a good grip on the rope (so you wouldn’t slip and fall), and throw yourself off the tree. It was awesome.

Closer to the falls, there were some smaller pools that were the greatest colour of turquoise. The falls themselves were spectacular – very tall and beautiful. There was a path you could take to the top, so we decided to go on a hike. In our bathing suits. The hike was more of a vertical climb. I was having fun because I enjoy this sort of adventuring, but I think some of the others weren’t so excited. At the top, you had a pretty nice view  but you couldn’t see the actual falls at all. Still a fun experience.

That night was similar to the night before – we had dinner in the Night Market. I had a bacon, avocado, and chicken sandwich with a fruit shake. It was SO GOOD. Laos, like Vietnam, has great bread. Mmmmmm. After dinner, we went to a bar called “Utopia” – open until 11:30. It was in a beautiful spot on the river. Much of the decor in the bar was based on bombs – a reference to the thousands of UXOs still scattered throughout the country. It was a neat place. After that, it was bowling time!

19

Again another late start, and again breakfast at Joma Cafe. I ordered chili, which I also hadn’t had since I left Canada. Mmmm. That afternoon, we decided to rent bicycles and explore the city a little more. We rode all around – on the river, through downtown... It was great. We eventually stopped in a fairly nice restaurant for late lunch. After that, Millie and I rode our bikes down to the most famous temple in Luang Prabang, Wat Hao Xiang. First, we watched the monks erecting a temporary building. There were several perched high up on the beams, without any safety equipment. After we explored the temple – it is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen in all my travels. The buildings were covered with these glass mosaic type decorations, depicting scenes and stories from Buddhism. Again, my descriptions don’t come close...

Before dinner, we climbed up to the top of the mountain in the centre of town – where they have a neat view point. You could see the entire city and surrounding area. After that, it was another night of the Night Market, followed by Utopia.

Laos aka Best Place Ever part 1

Laos

I’m back baby! Yes, it’s been a while I know. Things have been pretty insane here. Remember that post while back when I wrote about how happy I was? Well, basically the last month has been the opposite of that. About 90% of the friends I made last semester have gone home... And I am still here. Also, a lot of the things that were going really well before have gone down the toilet – to put it politely. Everything went wrong all at once in a supremely epic way. So I was feeling pretty down in the dumps for a good few weeks. It feels like it was someone else’s life. But, things are looking up. I hope. The one good thing that came from my misery is I realised the one thing that was keeping me going really was teaching and how even when I was feeling at my worst, I still had teaching to look forward to. I realised that if I love teaching so much, maybe I should keep doing it.  So, I’ve decided that I want to be a teacher “in real life”. I think I’ve known this for a long time, but now I have made the conscious decision to pursue this career. I’ve started looking into teacher’s college in Canada, and what I need to do. I won’t be able to start until September 2014, and it’s if I even get in. But whatever happens, I have a general plan for the next almost 2 years of my life – which is strange after a few years of not really knowing and trying many different things. BUT ANYWAY...

April 16

The planning for our trip to Laos was of the super-slacking quality. Both Laura and I had been travelling for quite some time, and we both weren’t into making elaborate plans. Fortunately, a group of teachers Laura knew were also planning on going, so we were able to latch on to their plans. So we met up with them on the morning of the 16^th – the plan was to take a bus to just past the border near the Thai province of Nan.

We met at our friends’ hostel pretty early that morning, I think around 8am. From there, we piled into a mini-bus chartered to take us to our destination. The group consisted of the following: 6 teachers from Chonburi (John, Jon, Krysten, Millie, Kayla and Matthew), and 3 friends of “The Johns” who were visiting from the States. The ride was beautiful – through the country side of north-north-eastern Thailand. The scenery was quite mountainous with many trees and fields.  Naturally, because of the mountains (or large hills), the road was very windy. The person sitting next to me (who I had met basically that morning) was asleep... which meant with every turn he practically fell into the aisle or into my lap. It was quite entertaining. However, after a few hours in a hot and sweaty van and on windy roads made most of us feel pretty lousy.

We arrived at the border in the late afternoon. We had to walk from the Thai immigration point to the Laotian immigrant point. It was a nice walk, but also hot and sweaty. This particular border crossing was right in the middle of nowhere. After getting our visas, we were picked up by another van and taken to our hotel for the evening. The hotel was also in the middle of nowhere, which was fantastic. There were a couple other small hotels down the road – but we couldn’t really see them. Also, Laos has a general curfew of 11pm, so everything shuts down at that time. 

For dinner, we had delicious fried chicken and rice. And Beer Lao, which is quite delicious. Afterwads, we relaxed and enjoyed the quiet. And the stars. And the super cute pupies.

April 17

The morning of the 17^th, we had breakfast and then we were picked up by a van, which took us to the river. A common way to get to Luang Prabang from the border is to take a boat along the Mekong River. It’s supposed to be much better than driving – the scenery is nicer, and I’ve heard the roads are pretty terrible. The slow boat is supposed to be relaxing and relatively safe – as it should be for a 9-hour trip. There is also the option of taking the “fast boat”... which is also surrounded by stories about crashes and general unpleasantness. 

The boat ride was beautiful as much of the riverbank is undeveloped. Most of our views were of nature or small, rural villages. It was quite lovely. However after a few hours I did get a bit tired of sitting on a boat. There wasn’t much to do other than look at the view. We played some games for a while, I read my book, listened to music, and napped. 

We arrived... near Luang Prabang around sunset. The boat was SUPPOSED to drop us off directly in the city... but apparently that port was “closed”. So we were forced to get off the boat, and take a 30 minute tuk-tuk ride – which we had to pay for. We were not pleased – one thing that is a bit tiring about travelling in South East Asia is that as a foreigner, most people will try and take advantage of you as much as possible. It’s especially annoying when I’m NOT a rich traveller. Oh well. Here are some more pictures.

Anyway we eventually arrived in Luang Prabang, which is a gorgeous place. We find a nice hotel for cheap near the town centre and settled in.  I’m going to save Luang Prabang for my next post, so stay tuned!