Unfortunately we didn't spend as much time in Laos as we initially intended because we extended our tour in Viet Nam. So we decided to concentrate on just two places and these two towns we visited, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang, were awesome!
On the flight from Hanoi to Vientiane Jill and I made an executive decision to only spend a week in Laos so we could spend a week in northern Thailand before jumping on another plane to India on February 22nd. Once we arrived in Vientiane, we grabbed a cab to the bus station so we could catch the bus up to Vang Vieng. It cost us more for our three minute cab ride (53 000 kip) than it did for our five hour bus ride up to Vang Vieng (50 000 kip, $1 CDN = 8 000 kip). It wasn't because of our poor haggling ability, the prices for cabs from the airport were set. We have actually become very good 'bargainers' as many merchants along our path can attest to!
The bus ride up to Vang Vieng was beautiful. Mountains and rolling hills, lush vegetation and many unique sites were viewed from our 'local bus'. Honestly, everybody and their belongings were on this tour... there were three or four pallets (skids) in the aisles with things on them that we had to climb over to get to our seats. The last four rows of seats were piled high with all of our bags. Not to mention that the roof was fully strewn with stuff already. We didn't know what we were in for.
The bus got us there safe and sound and dropped us off along the highway with five other backpackers from England and Iceland. Between all of us we had no idea where we were going to stay nor which way to walk... it seemed we were in the middle of nowhere. A woman, Connie, who owns a local guesthouse approached us and from there we were all set. She ran (while being pregnant) back to get her van so we could all pile in. We drove along the highway for not even a minute and voila, there's the town filled with many restaurants, stores and guesthouses. We couldn't believe it.
We decided to stay for two nights and sign up for a full day trek the following morning, which entailed treking into two villages, seeing three caves (one by inner tube floating on water) and then floating down the river back to town on inner tubes while watching the sunset. We were pumped because the mountains that surrounded the town had a feel like Krabi in southern Thailand - a nature lovers paradise!
Once we had all that organized we decided where to eat by which movie was being shown. The local entertainment in the evenings for backpackers was heading out to a local restaurant, which showed 'pirated' DVDs while you ate dinner on elevated platforms, sitting on pillows! We decided on the one showing 'How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days', which came highly recommended by Jill and her sister, Amy, to quote both "A must see!". As far as romantic comedies go, I must admit it was pretty good. And the garlic bread was scrumptious, and the fruit shakes were to die for!!
The trek... we were in a group with four others and our guide, Ping. He had fairly good English and he knew a lot about the local area, not to mention that supposedly he had very 'funny stories' to tell us, as stated on the sign to lure us into booking the trip. It didn't take him long to show his sense of humour. He started cracking jokes pretty much the instant we got on our tuk tuk for our 16 km drive outside the town where we would begin our trek. He also shared his 'sticky rice' cakes which were quite greasy but very tasty! But as you all know, anything draped in grease has to taste good ;). We began our walk along a nice little stream with mountains in the back ground and rice fields on one side of the path. Many photo opts!
The first cave was quite big. It contained huge stalagmite and stalagtite formations as well as hidden 'rooms'. We spent about an hour in the first cave and this is where we began to hear the 'funny stories' that were promised. We sat for about five to 10 minutes with our flashlights turned off in total darkness while Ping told stories of past travellers and past events. Not quite as 'funny' as advertised but Jill and I still had some good chuckles between us anyways. We sat there until finally one of us said 'well, should we move on?', and I honestly think we may still be sitting there today if it wasn't mentioned.
The second cave we went to was definitely our highlight. We had to get on inner tubes and float into the mountain, which went on for at least 500 meters. We ate our picnic lunch of fried rice, cucumber and bananas beside the cave. The brave tried to eat the 'hot chili sauce' and the local rice wine, aagggh!
After lunch we visited a village and then saw the final cave. It was known as the 'elephant cave' because near the entrance the stalagmites and stalagtites had connected and it actually looked like an elephant. Each of the caves had at least one Buddha, which sometimes we wondered how they could have gotten them in there with their tight entrance ways.
We spent the rest of our afternoon floating down the river in town, past the beautiful limestone cliffs that the town is famous for. Inner tubing is probably the top thing to do in Vang Vieng because of the beautiful scenery, its so relaxing, and there are bars lining the river bank as you float into town, which were great spots to watch the sunset. It was very similar to what we did with Paul and Becky out in Penticton, BC. That night we chose a different restaurant showing the preferred movie of choice for us, and again the food was excellent.
Luang Prabang was our next destination and when we arrived we weren't disappointed. On our tuk tuk drive into the town we witnessed our first accident in south east asia, and believe me after being here for almost five weeks that's quite an accomplishment if you see the way they drive. No one was hurt - a motorcycle was cut off by a tuk tuk and he hit the ditch and was thrown from his bike.
Our guesthouse, Pathoumphone, was very quiet and cozy along the Nam Khan river, just before it joins the Mekong river. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants that overlooked the Mekong river to watch the sunset. The sunset was beautiful and the papaya salad with red sticky rice was incredible! Then we stumbled across the night market that ran for about four city blocks filled with linens and souvenirs of all kinds... two hours later we left and the wallet wasn't hit too hard but it was a lot of fun bargaining with them. The night 'food' market was very interesting. I got some stellar shots of the local cuisine that I didn't have the heart to stomach (pig heads), which I will get on the site soon!
Our second day we spent riding bicycles all over town visiting many of the local wats (temples). Luang Prabang was once the capital of a great Buddhist kingdom so there are temples absolutely everywhere across town. Now, where there are wats there are monks, and I must admit it was monk haven. They were everywhere! Any corner you walk around there were safron robes and shaved heads. Jill loved seeing them! Actually she was obsessed with them. Anytime we saw one she had to take a picture - it was almost getting out of hand. There were even some monks that had non-monk tendencies, whether it was smoking or surfing the Internet, we found it amusing to see them in a different light. They were absolutely everywhere we looked - on the back of tuk tuks, motorcycles, boats on the Mekong, everywhere!
While visiting one of the oldest wats in the city we met a man who offered to take us by boat up river to the Pak Ou caves and then back down river to the Khouang Sy waterfall. The trip also included a stop in three of the local craft villages, which were known for making 'Lao Whisky', paper making, weaving and pottery. We negotiated a price and then made arrangements for the next day.
For sunset that night, we climbed up to Mount Phousi, which is a leisurely climb up 329 steps, not too high. It's nestled in the middle of the town and we pretty much shared it with the rest of the tourists in town. Jill met a fellow Ottawan, Regis, and they had quite a long chat while I was snapping way too many shots of another sunset that I really shouldn't have (but it's a digital, so I can erase them right...). The funniest part of their discussion was when Regis found out that Jill and I were heading to India in a week or so. He described his experience of being in India like "being on an acid trip, it's nothing you can imagine, you just have to experience it for yourself". Jill couldn't contain her chuckles. Personally I don't know what to think about going to India, because everyone you talk to says something different... we'll soon see how we do and we'll try best to describe our time.
We woke up quite early to meet our guide for our 'all-day boat tour'. On our way to eat breakfast we happened to come upon a huge long line of monks carrying their food pots for the local women to put their daily rice into. These women were sitting along the streets dishing out rice for the monks to eat with their fish. It was unbelievable to see this line of safron as far as the eye could see, even the pictures really don't do it justice.
Our trip to the caves was interesting but not very exciting. It was basically a lower and upper cave which were holes in the side of the mountain containing Buddha shrines... not really worth the two hour boat ride up stream. The two villages we visited were worth it but they were pretty much a river side market that awaited boat loads of tourists, but still interesting. The waterfall on the other hand... WOW! It was the most beautiful waterfall both of us had ever seen. It was tiered in 10 different levels and we just kept walking through lush bush and little bridges seeing numerous pools of crystal clear water. Once we got to the biggest fall it was breathtaking, but you have to really experience it first hand to capture it's true beauty! We then went back to one of the pools and swam in the very cool water where I swung off a vine over the blue lagoon sytle pool of water. We couldn't believe that we had the entire pool to ourselves.
We had an unexpected highlight at the waterfall that we didn't know about. We were enjoying the beauty and peacefulness of the walk up to the waterfall when all of a sudden Jilly stopped dead in her tracks. I asked her 'wassup' when she pointed and I followed her transfixed stare to a tiger! I kid you not, we both were kind of awestruck and scared out of our wits until we realized that it was in a cage, whew! We laughed but here was this beautiful tiger staring at us and on the other side of the path was a cage that contained black bears. We can now include tigers and bears to the list of wildlife we have seen on this journey, and wait til you see the pics!
Once we returned back to town we ate dinner at the same place we ate the first night because the food was so tasty and so inexpensive. Then we decided to try a Lao massage and we didn't regret our choice. It was well worth the $3 each we spent! Afterwards we returned to the local market to see if we could spend the last of the kip on items that we thought we might want to add to our collection. We weren't disappointed with our last minute purchases and I was even surprised that Jill hadn't spent the wad of kip I had handed to her! Though I think I out spent Jilly this evening! Another box will be sent home once we enter Thailand again.... let's leave it at that!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I'll sign off now and try and find a computer with a CD rom so I can upload the pics of northern Viet Nam and Laos for you. But it may not be for another week because once we entered our guest house here in Chiang Mai we have already planned our next week... A Thai cooking class all day tomorrow, a three day trek that includes treking into villages, bamboo rafting, elephant riding, and caving after that and then a trip up to Pai for a couple of days that came highly recommended by Collie and echoed by the woman working here at our guest house. We can't wait!
Til next time...
Bow.