Off the Beaten Path

Hi Everybody!

It's been a while since my last posting - the internet here in Laos has been iffy at best.  All is well - we're getting ready to cross the border into Cambodia where hopefully it will be a bit better (keeping my fingers crossed!).  I promise to catch you all up on our adventures soon!

Much love,

Beth & Daron

Champasek, Laos

Daron on the bus

The sleeping bus dropped us off in Pakse, the commercial and transportation hub of southern Laos.  We spent two days there before heading to Champasek, where we planned to see the ruins of Wat Phu.  Champasek is only 35 or so miles from Pakse, so we thought we would be adventurous and take the public bus.  We got a ride from our hotel to the bus station where we were semi-accosted by people wanting us to get on their bus.  They were pulling on our luggage before we could even pay for our ride over there!  I think the busses are basically private people with various- sized vehicles - I don’t think the busses are run by the government.  We went over (or were pulled over!) to the big bus that was heading to Champasek at 10am (it was 9:30 at the time).  We got on and noticed a few other farangs (foreigners) on the bus, as well as several Lao people.  Around 10am the bus driver got on the bus and started it up – I couldn’t believe that we were actually going to leave on time, unheard of in Laos!  But alas, false alarm, he let the motor run for about 30 seconds before cutting the engine and hopping out.  Meanwhile we chit-chatted with the other foreigners on our bus:  two women from the Netherlands, a couple from France, and a single guy from France.  Pretty soon it hit 11:00 and we still hadn’t moved.  Daron got off the bus and started looking for a tuk tuk driver that would take all of us – he was just about to close the deal when the bus driver very conveniently got on and started up the bus.  Oh well, we were all happy to finally be on our way!



Our bus driver (in blue) & his wife - tile shopping!



It wasn’t very far to our first stop, still in the town of Pakse – a tile shop of all places.  A woman on the bus got off, as well as our bus driver.  They spent a little time looking at tile samples together.  I figured the woman must be his wife.  Thankfully, they were quick and the bus was back in motion - that is until our next stop, which happened to be another tile place!  They got off again and looked at more tiles.  We were laughing about it on the bus, about how this could only happen in Laos, etc, just in a good mood that we were headed to our destination.  They got back on the bus and drove us to our next stop, which turned out to be the bus station from which we had just left!  We had just spent the last half hour driving in a circle!  At this point, all of us farangs are pissed off – it is noon now and some of us have been waiting over three hours!  Daron hopped up and told the driver to stop the bus, as we were all getting off.  All us foreigners are standing up at this point and I think he realized he was going to lose all of our fares so he kept driving.  Finally!  This time we really were on our way.  The locals on the bus were staring at us (no surprise there, it was quite the drama), although I like to think that they were secretly glad that we got the bus to move (I had seen quite a few of them looking at their watches).  It took a little less than an hour to get to Champasek, which is a small dusty town on the Mekong River. 

Entering the Wat Phu site

The young French couple had a recommendation for a guesthouse in Champasek so we followed them there, where we got our cheapest room in Laos so far, only $6.25.  Unfortunately, you get what you pay for.  At first glance it looked fine, but we discovered later it had major flaws.  Part of the bathroom floor didn’t drain (the entire bathroom is the shower) so there was a constant dirty puddle in the room (dirt that was already there, not from us).  Upon closer look I don’t think they ever cleaned the bathroom, which made me think they probably didn’t wash the sheets in our room either – ugh!  The rickety ceiling fan had only one speed – 100 miles an hour!  I spent the entire night waiting for it to fly off and around the room, cutting us into pieces.  If I had turned it off the room would have become our own personal sauna. Taking the chance of being sliced into bits seemed the lesser of two evils at the time. We shared the room with about five geckos, which thankfully stayed on the ceiling, eating whatever bugs they could find up there.  Needless to say, we moved to a much nicer guesthouse the next day, for a whopping $8.75 per night. It was spotless and gecko-free, although when I first stepped into the room a snake slithered by my foot!  By the time the owner and his assistant came to take care of the snake, it was coiled up on the bedside table, with his head held high, just looking around.  They chased it around the room and eventually killed it.  I have no idea what kind of snake it was (it was small and skinny), although the Lao folks seemed nervous enough around it.

The main temple at Wat Phu

In the midst of all the excitement with rooms and local wildlife, we managed to fit in a visit to Wat Phu, our main reason for coming to this area.  We rode bicycles the three miles from Champasek to the site, along the hot and dusty road.   Wat Phu did not disappoint.  The various ruins at the site date from the sixth to the twelfth centuries and are thought to have been built by the ancient Khmer, the same folks that built Angkor Wat in Cambodia, when their empire included this area of Laos.  Many of the sandstone carvings indicate that the ruins were once a Hindu place of worship, although it is currently associated with Theravada Buddhism, with lots of Buddha statues placed inside the main temple.  The site itself is quite scenic, as it is situated on a hill – we walked up several sets of steep stairways before reaching the main temple.  Blooming frangipani trees (which is Lao’s national flower) bordered both sides of the stairway.  The main temple had fabulous views of the surrounding area.  We spent some time wandering around the site, enjoying the view and the shade, before riding our bikes in the hot sun back to our reptile room. 

Champasek was by far the hottest place we’ve been to so far.  I’m not sure if it was the area itself or the fact that we’re getting into the “hot and dry” season.  We were absolutely melting the entire time in this area, although the locals told us it will get even hotter (if that’s possible!) next month.  Even so, the beautiful ruins made the hardships of this little excursion worthwhile.      

Vientiane, Laos

Have no idea who or what, just thought the billboard was interesting!

While in Vang Vieng we booked a minivan to take us south to Vientiane, the capital of Laos.  We were surprised (although we shouldn't have been) when a rickety old minibus arrived to pick us all up.  It was gutless, but made the trip nonetheless.  The trip took about four hours.  Luckily we weren't in the mountains anymore so there weren't any curvy roads to make people sick! 

Vientiane lies on the Mekong River, with Thailand on the other side.  The “Friendship Bridge” is nearby, spanning the Mekong and connecting Laos with Thailand – it is a popular border crossing area.  Built in 1994, it has helped stimulate trade between the two countries.  Historically, Vientiane has been invaded by the Burmese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Siamese (Thai).  In 1828 Siamese forces invaded the city and razed it to the ground, destroying every building except one wat.  The entire population was marched back to Thailand where they were resettled.  Vientiane was abandoned to the jungle, and was still in ruins when the French arrived four decades later.  Currently Vientiane’s population is over 200,000 – it is the largest city in Laos.   

Arc de Triomphe wannabe

We mostly kicked back while in the capital city.  We ran into lots of other travelers we had met earlier in Laos, some even from Thailand!  Everyone seems to be on the same route through the country, just going a different speed.  It was good to catch up with all of them.  Most of them told us there wasn’t much to do in the capital city, and after having spent four days there, we agree.  But we weren’t looking to “do” much, and really enjoyed hanging out at nice coffeeshops, eating pizza, and just taking it easy.  We saw a few sights: one wat, a cement arc (similar to the Arc de Triomphe in France), and the mall.  The mall was nothing special, although it did have an escalator.  We saw one rural Lao couple at the bottom of the escalator just marveling at it and watching people get on and off.  Eventually they got up the guts to ride it themselves, smiling the entire time.  It was very cute.  

We had a traditional Lao meal one evening when we tried their most famous dishes:  papaya salad and laap.  The papaya salad is made of shredded green papaya, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce, tomatoes, palm sugar, and chillis.  I could actually handle the fish sauce in this dish (I’ve since learned that there are various strengths of fish sauce; it’s the strong one that makes me want to gag every time I smell it!).  Laap is traditionally made with raw meat, but for us farangs (foreigners), they cook it.  It can be made from practically any meat, including fish, cut up into really small pieces.  It also contains small shallots, mint leaves, fish sauce, lime juice, roasted ground rice, and lots of chilies.  We ordered the dishes not so spicy so I could eat them; usually they are pretty darn hot.  Last but not least, we had sticky rice with our meal.  It comes out in a little bamboo container and you eat it with your hands, balling up a handful and dipping it in the various sauces of your meal.  I originally thought they did something to normal rice to make it sticky, but it’s actually a different type of rice.  I love sticky rice – the texture, taste, all of it!  It’s my new favorite.  Our entire meal was fabulous that night. 

Us on the groovy sleeper bus!

We decided we would head south from Vientiane to the town of Pakse, as there wasn’t much in between the two cities that we wanted to see.  The trip would take from 10-12 hours on a bus – yeesh!  Our only option was a sleeper bus that left at 8:30pm.  We’d never heard of a sleeper bus before, imagining that it must be like a regular bus but perhaps the seats reclined further.  Were we surprised!  It’s a double-decker bus with actual little beds in it, no seats at all.  And it comes with pillows and blankets!  The beds aren’t made for tall westerners – Daron wasn’t able to completely stretch out, although I could – and they’re cozy.  It would be fine for a couple or two friends who were close, but for two strangers it would be too close for comfort.  One girl on our bus had been put next to a male and was looking to change her bed to be with a female.  She ended up in the very back of the bus where there was a big bed for four people and slept next to the window, with a married couple next to her (the wife was on her side), and then a single man on the other end.  We actually slept really well, and enjoyed waking up early and watching the sights go by while we were all cozy under our blankets.  Not a bad way to travel!

Vang Vieng, Laos

From Luang Prabang we decided to take the VIP bus to Vang Vieng, which was quite the experience!  The VIP bus itself was nice enough - it was traveling the curvy mountainous roads that left something to be desired.  They handed out small plastic bags at the beginning of the trip, which we originally thought was for trash, but it turned out they were for getting carsick.  An older gentleman behind us got sick right away, while a gal in front of us made it an hour or two before getting sick.  Nothing like the sound of people throwing up around you to set the mood for a trip!  The ride was about six hours total, with all of us happy to get off the bus! 

Vang Vieng is an interesting place.  It sits on a river, the Nam Song, and is famous for tubing.  The tubing scene is not your average tubing scene, that’s for sure.  The tubing operators drop you off a mile or so upriver, where you can float on your innertube back to town.  This takes anywhere from two to three hours.  Upriver, at the beginning, are tons of bars – in fact, many people don’t make it beyond this point!  As you go by on your innertube, the various bars throw ropes out to you to “rope you in” and offer you a free shot of Lao Lao whiskey (yuck!).  They all sell “happy shakes” loaded with various forms of happy drugs, marijuana, mushrooms, and as rumor has it, opium.  The bars also have crazy slides that dump into the river as well as swings and a trapeze where you can drop into the water.  Just the thing you want to try after having a happy shake!  Our guidebook warned us that many people drown each year from the combination of booze/drugs and the river.  There are also plainclothes policemen who will bust people for drugs, taking bribes as a second income. 

Swings and slides for tubers to enjoy!

Daron and I tubed the river early, before all the mayhem, and enjoyed the fabulous scenery the whole way back to town.  In the evening we saw the aftermath of the partygoers once they got back to town.  Lots of drunk barefoot people in their swimsuits, yelling, or fighting, or doing silly things like sitting in the middle of the road!  The Lao would step out of their businesses to watch too.  Lao people are very conservative – there were signs all over town to please “cover up” and not walk around town in your swimsuit, which all the tourists seemed to ignore.  I’m sure that the town, which runs the tubing business as a cooperative, puts up with it all in order to keep the money coming in. 

We rented mountain bikes one day and biked to a couple of caves outside of town.  The scenery was so beautiful!  The caves were amazing – the first one had a river running out of it, so we explored it via innertube.  A guide goes with you (everyone has their own headlamp), and there is an elevated rope that you use to pull yourself through the cave.  Our guide had a beautiful voice and sang Lao songs which echoed off the walls while we slowly traveled through the cave.  It was a magical experience. 

Tubers floating the river

After that cave, we asked our guide about other caves in the area.  He escorted us to another one a short distance away where we paid the entrance fee, donned our headlamps, and followed him inside.  We were surprised when he continued to lead us (thought we’d be on our own), and even more surprised when the cave just kept going and going.  After about an hour, we reached water.  Our guide said if we swam about ten minutes further into the cave we would come to a waterfall – and he wasn’t going with us!  It was a little too creepy for me (I like to be able to see what else is in the water with me), but Daron was up for it.  He was gone what seemed like a long time - when he returned he said it felt like an “X Files” moment, swimming alone in the cave.  I was just happy that nothing grabbed him in the water, and that he made it back! 

Mad cow!  (We crossed the canal to the other side)

After that highlight, we walked back through the cave and back towards our bikes.  We thanked our guide and said we wanted to tip him.  At that point he told us that the guided tour cost 300,000 kip (about $40).   Yikes!  We were never told this when we paid the entrance fee.  It was an uncomfortable moment, made more so because this was all happening in a deserted part of the trail with no other people around, except us and he brought his friend with him (just for this purpose, we wondered?), both of them in their mid 20s.  We didn’t have 300,000 kip on us, and would never have entered the cave for that amount – and honestly, it’s an exorbitant amount for anything here in Laos.  We offered him a smaller amount and he wasn’t happy so we added a little more.  He ended up getting 120,000 kip which was still a ridiculous amount.  I had a little moment where I was worried for our safety, but thankfully it worked out in the end.  It put a sour note on a good day, and we discussed it during the entire ride back, wondering what would have been the best way to handle it. 

Zoning out on "Family Guy"

One of the strangest parts of Vang Vieng is all the restaurants in town play endless loops of the TV shows “Friends” and “Family Guy.”  At least they do when the town has electricity!  Our first two days there the electricity went off at 8am and came back on in the evening.  Over the weekend it was on 24 hours, although one night it kept going out, maybe it was overloaded!  Anyhow, it was nice to get a little dose of Western culture, no matter how old or crazy it is (I’d never seen “Family Guy” before and it is a crazy show!).  For the price of a beer you could hang out all day and watch episode after episode.  I wondered how those two shows were picked to play and how long they’ve been doing this – never did find out the answer.  Lots of other travelers hated that American TV shows were playing in this foreign country, but for us being away so long, it felt like a little taste of home in this faraway land.  

Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi, Laos

Traveling up the Nam Ou

We decided to do a little excursion upriver from Luang Prabang, traveling up one of the Mekong’s tributaries, the Nam Ou.  We wanted to visit the villages of Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi, both said to be good for experiencing local life as well as being good places to relax.  The boat ride was supposed to take six hours to reach the village of Nong Khiaw, with seven of us in the boat, all tourists.  We loaded up in the morning and took off up the Mekong, turning onto the Nam Ou about an hour upriver.  The Nam Ou was smaller than the Mekong and in some parts very shallow.  At one point our driver and his companion stopped the motor, took off their pants, and hopped into the water in their underwear in order to push the boat upstream over a very shallow area.  We felt silly sitting in the boat so about five of us got out and helped push – the water was barely over my knees, not deep at all.  I don’t think I was much help – the current was so strong I could barely walk forward in it, much less push a boat!  I’m sure it helped just to get some of the weight out of the boat (it makes me feel better to think I contributed in some small way!).  Our driver really knew the river well – we passed so many areas with large boulders just below the surface that were hard to see.  Other areas had big, rocky rapids.  He did a great job of picking his path through all the obstacles.

Pushing the boat upriver!

The scenery was similar to what we had seen on the Mekong, only the river was smaller and looked less polluted.  We saw lots of water buffalo lounging in the water, pigs on the shore, riverside villages, children swimming, and men fishing.  We enjoyed being on the river and never got tired of it, even though we had been on the slow boat only a few days earlier.  Our driver stopped partway for a break where we all got out and sat on a sandy bank, near a riverside village.  A bunch of kids were playing there and greeted our boat.  Daron took a couple of pictures of them and they enjoyed seeing themselves in the digital screen of our camera.  This led to us letting them take pictures of us and each other with our camera, with lots of giggling going on in between.  Somehow a flat soccer ball showed up and the game began, with all of us kicking the ball around and chasing it on the sandy bank.  That was all fun until the ball was accidentally kicked into the water, which prompted all the kiddos to lose their clothes and go for a swim!  We left shortly thereafter and waved to them as we went by. 

Water buffalo

We got to Nong Khiaw eight hours after we had started – it was a longer journey than we expected!  We walked up the stairs from the river to the town and were surprised when no one was there to greet us.   No kids to take our bags, no tuk tuk drivers, nothing!  It was nice to be ignored for once.  We wandered through town and across the bridge where we saw some bungalows with great river views.  Daron went in to look at one while I waited by the bags, our usual strategy.  He thought it looked great, so we paid for one night.  The bungalow was nice but the bathroom left something to be desired (and leave it to a guy not to notice!).  It consisted of a squat toilet, the usual showerhead coming out of the wall, and a faucet for the bucket of water used to “flush” the squat toilet.  No sink, no mirror.  We had to brush our teeth over the squat toilet – ugh.  The balcony with a hammock and the fabulous view was a good consolation.  We had a good dinner in town and enjoyed sleeping under a mosquito net (they feel a bit romantic to me).

Kiddos taking pictures of themselves (our boat in back)!

We woke up to a cool, crisp morning and lots of fog over the river.  As the morning went on, the fog rose and we could see incredibly steep mountains all around us.  Such a beautiful place!  We had a good breakfast in town and looked at the other guesthouses in the area.  We ended up moving to a cheaper place, with a great view and a western toilet, sink, and mirror.  All for 60,000 kip, which is only $7.50!  We didn’t know it at the time, but the instant hot water contraption in the shower was broken, so we had to take cold showers – brrr!  Other than that, it was a nice place. 

Our one day in town was spent riding bikes.  We rode through the small town a couple of times, including all the roads in and out of town until they got too hilly.  We stopped at a little café and had not one, but two banana splits (they were SO good) AND a waffle!  We went back the next day for breakfast where we had yet another waffle and a pancake!  After such hearty fare we caught the daily boat headed upstream to the town of Muang Ngoi.  This time the boat had no seats, just planks of wood along the sides to sit on, and it was packed!  Not the most comfortable ride, but luckily the trip only took an hour.  Muang Ngoi only has one main street, so we shuffled down it, looking at bungalows along the way until we found one we liked.

The cave we explored

Muang Ngoi is only accessible by river, so there aren’t any vehicles in town, which is nice. The electricity is only on three hours a day, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm.  The villagers do an amazing job of cooking food over a fire (they have this clay pot contraption).  Ice is brought in by boat to keep important things (like beer J) cold.

One day we explored one of the caves just outside of town.  We went quite a ways into it, but turned around because we only had one headlamp with us and it was too hard for both of us to see where we were going.  Next time we’ll remember to bring two!  The limestone mountains in this part of Laos are full of caves— they played an important part during what is called the Secret War (during the Vietnam War).  From what I’ve learned, Laos was declared a neutral nation after the first Indochina War, and as such neither Vietnam nor the U.S. could cross its borders.  Eventually both countries did, while pretending not to, which is why it is called the Secret War.  Lao territory was a crucial part of the North Vietnamese war effort.  The Viet Minh were funneling massive amounts of war munitions down the Ho Chi Minh Trail (in Laos), so in response the U.S. non-stop carpetbombed eastern and northeastern Laos where it borders Vietnam.  Many Lao people hid out in the caves.  Thousands of them lived in hundreds of caves, sleeping by day and working at night in the fields outside.  Laos is the most bombed country per capita in the history of warfare, with a total of 580,000 bombing missions conducted over Laos during the conflict.  That’s one bombing mission every eight minutes around the clock for almost ten years (1964-1973)!  Thirty percent of those bombs failed to explode, leaving tons of UXO (unexploded ordinance) in the country.  Our guidebook warned to stay on trails and not go bushwacking, as it could be fatal.  Disposal teams have been working on the UXOs since the 1980s, but still have a long way to go.  It is estimated that 300 people a year are maimed or die from the UXOs, many of them while farming the land or gathering forest products.  About a third are children.  I can’t even imagine having that kind of danger in the forest – it makes bears and snakes seem tame in comparison!

Locals putting together the mystery houses

During our time in Muang Ngoi the locals were putting together two elaborate little bamboo houses (about three feet high each).  They decorated them with flowers and money, spending all day working on them.  At night they would sing and carry on, all night long.  This went on for the two days we were there, and who knows when it started and when it will end!  It was difficult to find out what the occasion was, but from what we could gather, two villagers had recently died and this was part of the funeral.  It was so very interesting, but frustrating too because we couldn’t get any information about what was going on (no good English speakers around). 

Inside our little bungalow on the river!

After two relaxing days in Muang Ngoi, we made our way back to Luang Prabang.  We traveled by boat back to Nong Khiaw and then decided to take the bus back from there.  By the time we got to the bus station the first bus was full, so we paid for a ticket on the next vehicle out, which happened to be a minivan.  A bunch of us tourists got tickets and loaded up into the van, all ready to go.  There were a bunch of locals hanging out together at the bus station, one of which was our driver.  He didn’t seem to be in any hurry to leave, so after sitting in the minivan for 20 minutes or so, we all got out.  Daron and I went next door and ordered lunch, which we got about halfway through when we heard the call that we were leaving!  We gobbled down what we could and hopped in the van, on our way. 

Village hut in Nong Khiaw

The roads in Laos are so different than in Thailand.  For one, there are hardly any cars!  There are lots of scooters and in the villages we passed, lots of people riding bikes.  The schoolkids ride bikes while holding umbrellas to protect them from the sun.  Our driver was very cautious and took his time, which I appreciated.  Daron and I were sitting in the front with him, and at one point he pulled over onto the side of the road, said something to me (not sure what), and got out of the minivan to take a pee in a nearby field.  We all piled out of the van, everyone asking me if we were stopping for a break or if the minivan broke down.  Beats the heck out of me!  It turned out to be just a break, although the van did need to be pushed a ways in order to get it started up.

Our little excursion to the sleepy villages of Nong Khiaw and Muang Ngoi were fun.  It seems that everything we do here, not matter how small (like the van ride), is an adventure! 

Luang Prabang, Laos

Street in old part of Luang Prabang

Our time in Luang Prabang gave us a good taste of the Lao culture.  Our first night after getting off the slow boat we wandered around town and were surprised at the strong French influence (Laos was a colony of France from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s).  The Old City area where we stayed had cobblestone streets, buildings with shutters, and lots of sidewalk cafes.  Even better were all the bakeries and semi-modern restaurants serving Western food!  Fresh baguettes were sold everywhere, from the restaurants to the street vendors.  We had a drink before dinner that first night and the bar we chose gave us a free shot of Lao whiskey, along with warm Spanish peanuts.  The peanuts were fabulous, and addicting; the whiskey, not so much.  Big yuck!  I’m not a whiskey fan, so it could have been great whiskey, who knows?  The peanuts more than made up for it.  For dinner we chose a smart little pizza “café” with an outdoor patio– we had been deprived of cheese and bread for so long in Thailand that I think it was the best pizza I’ve ever had!  Maybe not, but a slice of heaven just the same.  Our pizza café happened to also be a bakery, go figure, so we had yummy apple pie for dessert.  It was late by the time we headed back to our guesthouse; the streets were eerily quiet.  We barely saw any other people out and about, which seemed strange.  The mystery was solved when we noticed the “rules” posted in our guesthouse room:  Laos has a curfew of midnight - it is illegal to be out past that time.  Other illegal items included foreigners having relations with Lao people (unless they are married), as well as the usual drugs, gambling, prostitution, etc.  Guess we’re not in Kansas anymore! 

The next morning we took advantage of the bakeries and got our bread’s worth.  Nothing better than a warm baguette with butter and jam - yum!   Everything we’d eaten so far in town had been fabulous, so Daron thought he’d give the Lao coffee a try.  Let’s just say that ended our yummy streak.  When it came out it was interesting looking, with dark strong coffee on top and what we figured was cream at the bottom (there was a definite stripe, white on the bottom, brown on top).  When Daron put his spoon in and scooped up the bottom, it came up with this thick sugary goop.  The spoon could have stood up straight in it, it was so thick!  When mixed together it made Daron’s teeth clench, such strong coffee with icky sweetness.  Not a good combination, although the Lao love it.  We also tried Lao tea, which is served with twigs and leaves floating in it.  If you can avoid choking on them, it is actually really good.   For lunch we had sandwiches on those great baguettes.  I love a good sandwich!  For 10,000 kip ($1.25) I got an amazing cheese baguette with fresh cucumber, tomato, onion, lettuce, mayo, and sweet chili sauce.  So good!  Needless to say, I had more than one during our stay in town!

Sunset over the Mekong

Luang Prabang was not at all how we pictured poor, rural Laos.  There were lots of cute shops, tons of cafes, and so many riverside restaurants and bars.  It had a very relaxed kickback vibe to it. Even the tuk tuk drivers weren’t very pushy and would actually take no for an answer.  In fact, half the time we saw them asleep in their vehicles!  Definitely everything is slower here.  We spent one day riding bikes around town, which was a fun way to check out the area.  We watched the sunset from the hill in town with 100 of our tourist friends (it’s a popular thing to do).  We also went to a private pool/bar to try to cool off one hot afternoon.  We met a few other well-traveled people there and picked up some tips on future destinations.   We also visited the night market where we saw amazing Lao handicrafts, along with regular made-in-China merchandise.

Early morning alms-giving ceremony

One morning we woke up before dawn so we could see the daily alms-giving ceremony, where kneeled locals offer rice and other food to the monks as they proceed down the street.  The monks remove the lids from their bowls as they pass by the locals, who have a container of rice in front of them and put a small ball of it into each monk’s bowl as they pass by them.  It was quite beautiful to witness, the long stream of orange robed monks proceeding down the street in complete silence.  Quite the flow of rice, from the bare hands to the bowls – it made us wonder about the sanitary-ness of it all.  The only distraction was a few tourists trying to get the perfect shot, getting too up close and personal (we thought) with the monks and the locals.  It gave the somber procession a bit of a circus feel. 

Impromptu meal with our guesthouse family!

The night before we left Luang Prabang we were walking through our guesthouse “lobby,” which is also the living space of the family that owns the place, which is also part of the store they run downstairs. They were having dinner with a friend and invited us to join them.  There was the matriarch of the guesthouse, her friend, and a young girl, who was the matriarch’s niece.  They were all sitting on low stools in a circle around a couple of low tables; all very informal.  Dinner was all of the ingredients for Vietnamese spring rolls spread out on the tables so each person could put them together themselves.  The friend, who brought the meal over, happily showed us how to make our own spring rolls, then proceeded to make one after another of them for us.  I must have had five of them and I think Daron had ten!  The ingredients looked like they were just pulled from the garden, lots of fresh herbs, garlic, lettuces, and other greens I didn’t recognize.  They were so good and tasted so fresh!  The niece knew some English and was our interpreter during the impromptu meal.  It was a nice moment and showed us just how hospitable the Lao people can be.

Night market next to the Royal Palace

Regarding the money here, it’s called the kip.  One U.S. dollar is worth about 8,000 kip. There are no coins in Laos, only paper money.  The largest denomination we’ve seen has been the 50,000 bill, and the smallest is 100.  We exchanged our Thai baht for kip and felt rich for about an hour – I think we got 1,300,000 kip in our first exchange (we’re millionaires!).  Unfortunately, it goes fast!  The kip is only used in Laos and is such a weak currency that it is worthless in any other country. Things are so much cheaper in Laos than in Thailand, at least so far.  Rooms are a bit more rustic, but still nice. Our guesthouse in Luang Prabang cost us $20 per night.  Restaurant dishes have been between $2.50 and $5.00. 

This town was an unexpected surprise for us – we didn’t expect such modern facilities and food in what felt like a remote area.  It was nice to get a dose of Western fare (pizza!) before heading on to other parts of Laos. 

Slow Boat to Laos

Slow boat on the Mekong

During our time in Thailand we learned about the slow boat to Laos – it starts in northern Thailand and travels for two days on the Mekong River, ending in Laos.  For people in a hurry, the same trip can be done in half a day by speedboat, but the boat is super loud, you have to wear a helmet, and chances are good you will wreck if the boat hits a floating log or other obstacle (many do die each year, mostly locals who can't swim).  The slow boat sounded like the choice for us, and a chance to slow down a bit.  We booked the trip as a package in Chiang Mai and were pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it went.  We traveled by minivan from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, on the Mekong River, where we spent the night in a quaint guesthouse.  Chiang Khong is a border town in Thailand and not touristy at all, which was nice.  We wandered along the Mekong in the evening and could see Laos just across the shore. 

Crowd at the visa office

The next morning we were taken to the boat dock, where we were ferried across the river to the Laos side.  We made our way to the visa office where we joined a rather large crowd surrounding it.  There was no semblance of organization going on, whatsoever.  No orderly lines, just a large massive crowd pushing against the two service windows.  While hanging out in the crowd,  we eventually discovered that our passports had to be given to the office for processing; when they were ready they would call your name and that’s when you paid the fee to enter the country.  Most of the crowd was just waiting for their name to be called, which explains why no one had moved much.  I thought we might be there all day, but a funny thing happened.  A sense of camaraderie ensued and passports were being passed along from the back to the front, so they could get up to the office for processing.  When a passport was ready a person at the front would call out the name and that person would pass up the money due, then their passport would get passed along back to them.  When our names were called, it was like winning the lottery!  I liked that even with the lack of organization, everyone pitched in and made it work – and it was even kind of fun! 



Departure celebration!

 After receiving our official visa and passport stamp, we made our way to the slow boat.  It was half full with the best seats already taken.  A group of us that had stayed at the same guesthouse in Chiang Khong (and had bonded during the experience so far) found a group of seats in front.  After us, more waves of people boarded the boat.  Pretty soon, it was packed.  A little after noon the boat started its motor and we were headed down the Mekong!  Everyone was in the mood to celebrate, having successfully jumped all the hurdles to get to this point, so rounds of Beer Lao were purchased one after another.  Fun!

The boat itself held probably 100 people, all tourists.  Towards the back of the boat was a bar where they sold drinks and some food items.  There was a bathroom in back, with a western toilet even, although it probably just flushed into the river below.  The engine was in the back and was very loud so it was better to sit towards the front if possible.  There was a small back area where some people hung out, although I don’t know how they could possibly hear each other.  There were some communal spots in the front of the boat too, where people sat on the floor and read, or just hung out.  Lots of moving around going on, so you didn’t feel stuck in one spot the entire time. 

Riverside village

For the first part of the trip Thailand was on one side of the river and Laos was on the other.  Pretty soon the Mekong goes right into Laos and everything we saw was just the country of Laos.  It felt like we were transported back in time – we saw lots of riverside villages made of thatched huts, tons of water buffalo lounging in and around the water, naked children laughing and playing in the water, fishermen on their simple boats with their nets, and even working elephants!  The Mekong is very rocky and our boat captain knew the river well, maneuvering our boat around and between tall rocky outcrops.  

Traveling down the Mekong it becomes obvious that it is the lifeblood of the Lao people – it provides water for crops (we saw tons of farming plots along the riverbanks), fish for eating, water for bathing, as well as a means of transport.  The Mekong River is the 7^th longest river in Asia and the 10^th longest in the world.  It begins in the Tibetan plateau and runs through China, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  The Mekong is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world – only the Amazon River has a higher level of biodiversity.  In China there are three dams on the Mekong, with plans for twelve more.  The dams will be devastating for people living downriver who are dependent upon the Mekong for food and water for crops, such as Laos and Cambodia.  A slowboat last February doing the same route we did had to turn around and go back because the river was too low.  Since the building of the first dam, two species have become endangered:  the Mekong dolphin and dugong.

Lao women selling textiles to people on our boat

It took us about six hours to reach our destination for the night, Pakbeng in Laos.  We booked a place ahead of time and they told us someone would greet us at the dock to help us with our bags – they didn’t tell us it would be small children!  Besides all the kids at the dock, we were greeted by someone from our guesthouse, a young lady, who definitely wasn’t going to be carrying our bags.  We schlepped them up the steep hill ourselves, needing a little exercise after all that sitting and drinking. 

Dinner in Pakbeng gave us our first taste of how crafty the Lao people can be.  We chose what looked like a nice local place to eat and placed our order with the young waitress, probably the daughter of the family run establishment.  Neither of us got anything we ordered, although it was close.  We got a rice dish, a noodle dish, and a soup dish, but all of the details were wrong (vegetable, meat, etc).  No biggie, we were hungry and it was all good.  When it came time to pay the bill, our waitress came over with a calculator and presented us with a much higher figure than what our dinner cost.  We told her politely that the figure didn’t seem right to us, and she giggled and apologized and tapped out a new lower figure, but one that was still higher than the total we came up with.  We relented, and paid the new figure anyway (it wasn’t that much in US dollars).  As soon as we gave her the money she told us she didn’t have any change. Erg!  We told her to keep it (what else could we do) and left.  She got her extra money anyhow!

Lao children playing in the Mekong

The next day there were two different slowboats at the dock for the second half of the journey.  We got there early and were able to get good seats this time around, although little did we know we got on the sloooooow slowboat!  We were warned about Lao time, how everything is much slower in this country, and this day was a great example.  Our boat made multiple stops along the way.  We picked up all kinds of locals from villages along the river shore, as well as one guy who was just standing on a rock waving his jacket!  We dropped them off too, at different villages.  Sometimes the stops were long enough that we could get off the boat and hang out on the shore for a spell.  We arrived at our destination, the town of Luang Prabang, shortly before dark, and had just enough time to find a decent place to stay.  It was such a nice introduction to the country of Laos – I would highly recommend the slowboat experience.    

Locals traveling the river

Here are a few interesting facts about Laos:

--One of the world’s last official communist nations with a one-party dictatorship, although it has been softened a bit to allow for private enterprise and foreign investment.

--Southeast Asia’s only landlocked country. 

--One of the world’s poorest countries and heavily reliant on aid.

--Life expectancy here is only 57 years.  Its population is just under seven million – the average age here is young, only 19.5 years.

--Predominately a Buddhist country, although around thirty percent of the population, particularly those in the highlands, follow animist beliefs (this is a belief that natural objects - such as hills, trees, large rocks, or plots of land – are inhabited by spiritual entities or possess supernatural powers).

I’m including this interesting tidbit below because it’s just plain crazy:

My favorite picture from the trip

--In May 2009 a British woman was sentenced to death by firing squad for trafficking heroin in Laos.  Her sentence was commuted to life when she succeeded in impregnating herself with sperm from a male prisoner (a pregnant woman cannot be executed under Lao law).  Just goes to show sometimes life is stranger than fiction!

We’re looking forward to exploring this country and learning more about it!