Laos

I love Laos. For those of you that can't be bothered to read the blog, that's it summarised in three words!

Beautiful scenery, friendly people, and awesome local beer - what more could you want?

We crossed in from Cambodia at a place called Si Phan Don. Si Phan Don is home to a place called The Four Thousand Islands, and, as the name suggests, the place was pretty special. We were staying on a small island called Don Khon, and the word "basic" doesn't even begin to describe it! We stayed in small bungalows on the Mekong river, complete with a cold water shower, and a toilet with a scoop flush. Electricity consisted of one small light bulb and a table fan, so going to the toilet at night was an exercise in seeing in the dark! To put it simply, if anyone wants to get away from civilisation for a few days - Don Khon is the place to do it.

I can see those thoughts whizzing around in your heads already - what did you do for two days, how did you cope without city comforts, etc, etc. This was actually a refreshing change from the big cities of Cambodia and Vietnam. We spent a morning cycling the 7km circumference of the island, in the blazing heat, and in the afternoon, we agreed to go out to see some waterfalls with the proprietor of our guesthouse - a man known only as "Papa". Now this was where the fun started!

Papa is a small man of indeterminable age, who speaks little/no English. He took us out on his boat, clutching only a small bag for his fish, and a small bottle of water. Only, it turned out that what we thought was water was actually homebrewed whisky, and during the course of our excursion, he must have consumed about half a litre of the stuff. Anyway, the heavens opened for our little trip, and we were confined to a random shack in the middle of some rice fields on an unnamed island. The rain finally abated after about an hour and we were soaked through! I think that this was the first time I had felt cold in about a month! In the meantime, the level of Papa's bottle of Lao Lao (homebrewed whisky - aka paintstripper) continued to fall, and when he finally did take us to the waterfall, he was pretty intoxicated. We crossed over some precarious looking bridges and structures, and to our surprise, Papa skipped over them with ease! We clearly underestimated the old man! We arrived back in one piece (just), but this wasn't our last encounter with Lao Lao...

From Si Phan Don, our next stop was in Vang Viene. Now everyone I had spoken to so far had spent time in Vang Viene, and I was getting a marmite vibe about the place - you either love or hate it. The reason for this is that Vang Viene is a beautiful place with fantastic scenery, however, the town itself has developed into somewhat of a hedonist's paradise. Many years ago, someone must have had the idea of riding down the local river on large rubber tubes; this developed into a backpacker's rite of passage, and hey-presto, your very own tourist trap is born. Unfortunately (depending on which way you look at it), this brought with it the accompanying drink, drugs, rowdy tourists, and noisy clubs and bars.

During our two days in Vang Viene, we experienced both sides of the town, and I have to say we enjoyed it a lot. On the first day, we took a trip to the surrounding caves. Its a strange feeling to experience total darkness and quiet, but in these caves, we were able to do so. This trip was rounded off with a visit to the water caves, whereby we rode on a tube into the caves, armed only with a head torch to guide us away from the low ceilings. It was pretty amazing.

The following day, we went tubing on the Nam Tho river. As I mentioned previously, the concept of tubing is floating down the river on the rubber tube, observing the beautiful scenery and soaking up some sun. The reality is very different with 6/7 different bars along the way, blasting loud music, and offering rope swings, mud pools, zip wires, and cheap buckets of alcohol. Despite the Magaluf-like feel of the activity, it was pretty fun!

From here, we went to Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang was fantastic, but before all this, I have to describe Lao Lao experience number 2. We hired a minibus from Vang Viene to Luang Prabang, and to our surprise, we got the same bus and driver that we got from Vientiene to Vang Viene. Anyway, we were driving along, having a few drinks (we had picked up some cocktail buckets for the road), and somewhat strangely, the driver stopped about 5 or 6 times in the space of a couple of hours, in order to take a leak. We thought nothing of it, and carried on driving. Anyway, about an hour later, the driver stopped the car, and decided to sleep for 20 minutes; seeing as it was a night time drive, we thought this acceptable, albeit strange, so just ignored it. Finally, about an hour later, the driver got out of the car and started to throw up!! We were all worried that he was really ill, until he got back into the car, and said "Lao Lao Lao Lao Lao". It was only after this that we noticed how erratically he was driving! What made it even worse was that we had been driving over windy mountain roads. We made it there in one piece in the end, but the lax Laos attitude was very worrying; it also made me think that Laos men were all degenerate alcoholics!

So Luang Prabang... Three words (or possibly two) - "Bo Pa Nyang". This phrase means "no problem" in English and is a favourite phrase of the Laos people (and consequently a favourite phrase of myself and Apu). Luang Prabang was a beautiful town, surrounded by especially stunning scenery. Particularly impressive was the Kuang Si waterfall, in which we were allowed swim, and which I felt was the best sight that I had seen on my trip so far. We liked this waterfall so much that we went back a second time, hiring a motorbike to get there.

Another day, we took a four hour trek in the searing heat, followed by two hours kayaking in torrential rainstorms - typical of the tropical weather in Luang Prabang. Another highlight of our time here was swimming with the elephants - this is a once in a lifetime experience, and we were able to ride the elephants into the water, and to hold on for dear life as these elephants misbehaved; definitely one not to be missed!

Luang Prabang should also be noted for its market, which is the favourite market that I've visited in Asia. Instead of the local tourist crap (fake Polo shirts, Armani Jeans and Mont Blanc pens), it was refreshing to see local handicrafts, art work, lanterns and the like. Needless to say, I spent a fair bit of money, and made my bag about 2 kilos heavier!

We also found a chess set in our guesthouse, and myself and Apu spent several hours by the river, pitting our minds against each other in games of chess. I'm sorry to say that I will never be the next chess grandmaster, and I'm currently on a large losing streak. I bought a chess set though, and aim to overturn my deficit against Apu when I return to the UK.

We got a little too caught up in the "Bo Pa Nyang" spirit, forgetting what the date was, and Apu could have missed his return flight to the UK. Luckily, I checked my watch the day before he was supposed to fly, and we managed to book the bus to Vientiene, and he got home alright in the end. The "no problem" spirit is very contagious!

I'm currently in the Thai metropolis of Bangkok - will post more about this later.


I'm aware that this blog is very disjointed, and not up to the quality of my earlier blogs, and this is because its been written in about four different sessions. So I apologise in advance (actually it isn't in advance, seeing as you'll have already read this blog).