We are in LAOS !!

In contrast to the Chinese border post the Laos one is a collection of shack-like buildings. The Visa on arrival guy was not yet at work (time zone change meant we were in Laos just before 8h30) but one of his associates provided us some forms to start filling in (well V fills in all the forms). The 30 day visa was a simple matter: 2 forms, 1 photo and around £28. On completing the immigration procedures were ushered into a full, but not packed, minibus for the ~2 hour (20 000 Kip) ride to Louang Nam Tha. I think the road was very good and the scenery was thick forest but can’t say for sure because I nodded off immediately and woke up as we pulled into our destination.

The driver conveniently dropped us outside the one guest house we were interested in (Thoulasith Guest house). What a win ! Double room with en suite, western toilet, wifi and all the trimmings for £2 each ! We like it here already. Not wanting to waste any time we booked a 2 day trek in the jungle starting tomorrow and after a shower we headed into ‘town’ (a few hundred meters up and down the street) to find a bank and food. The bank gave us a better rate on our remaining Yuan without the funny business and we we able to draw a fist full of cash at the ATM. It’s going to take a while to get used to a new currency.

The town, for some reason, feels like it should be on the Natal coast and it’s hard to spot the French influence. Quiet and laid back with palms trees and fine sand collecting in dents on the pavements. Hot, humid and sunny with buildings that vary from definitely Asian to decidedly Durban – odd, but that is how it feels to us. Lunch was absolutely brilliant – I had a fried rice dish the way fried rice is supposed to be done and we both enjoyed our first Lao Beer. We’re not sure if it was the slightly stronger beer or the anti-malarials but we got very tipsy and had no choice but to head back across the street for an afternoon nap.

In the evening we strolled around town. It’s low season at the moment so the place is almost deserted. The only visitors to the provincial courthouse were a few chickens loitering on the front steps. Unfortunately the lack of tourists meant that nobody else has signed up for the jungle trek so the price is a little high but we are still going.

So after just a few hours here we can say that we love it. Here’s hoping he leeches (yes, really) and mozzies don’t eat us alive in the jungle. We’ll be back in town the day after to tomorrow.

[Pictures: V with our Lao beers. Hangover to follow !]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi

A great breakfast to start the day and we were ready for our trip out to the jungle. No other travelers had signed on – but that didn’t bother us. Our Minibus driver was still having breakfast (Laos is so chilled out it’s great) so the manager in the tour office went through the plan. We started to feel concerned about the amount of time we were to spend with local families and in villages.

First stop was the local town market so that our guide (Alack) could buy a trail lunch for us. The manager in the office had said that if we wanted to ‘help’ we could buy books/pens for the village schools which V didn’t mind doing (next to backpacks it’s her next favorite shopping experience). The market was impressive and clean with wonderful smells. Fresh fruit, veg, spices, herbs etc. Nothing like a Chinese market. There were a few pots of live frogs, huge bull-frogs, frogs on sticks, deep-fried frogs, eels and roasted crickets – but in all it was a place I would not have minded shopping. A 30 minute hop in the minibus and we stopped to collect a local guide (we ended up with two) and headed into the jungle.

V and I have both been in the Amazon so we had some idea of what to expect. Travelers expecting to see animals or have a pleasant stroll in the woods will be disappointed. Jungles are about watching your feet, bearing the humidity and fighting off bugs. Any animals not hidden by thick bush will be scared off by the noise of traipsing tourists. That being said, there is nothing like bushwhacking your way through thick jungle – we had an absolute ball. Within 15 minutes our guide had hacked us a couple of sturdy bamboo walking poles (if we had know how useful they were to become we would have happily paid a fortune for them). The ‘trail’, more of a suggestion really, weaved it’s way along and up the river for the first few hours following our local guides. We gave up trying to stay clean and dry as often the easiest approach was to wade upstream. Lunch was great. Our guides gathered some banana leaves and laid out piles of food from the market. This along with sticky rice constituted a finger licking feast – when not chasing bugs off the leaves.

Our two ‘local guides, having carried water and food all morning, were to leave us at this point and return home. On packing up the food one of them tossed a piece of plastic into the bush. Alack immediately retrieved it and handed back to the guides to be carried out. We were very impressed and surprised, especially after China. After lunch we were guided past some huge trees, a tiny waterfall and up, way up, into a bamboo forest just as the rain started to pour down. The trail, already wet, muddy and slippery from yesterday’s rain, got even worse. We continued on using umbrellas (more suited to the urban jungle than the real jungle) where possible but in the thick growth it was often easier to just forge ahead. V managed to become the first leech victim. Aleck removed it quickly without a problem before any serious damage was done. For the rest of the afternoon the rains came and went in waves making sure we were thoroughly soaked, muddy and sweaty as we climbed and descended the hills eventually reaching the farm of Mr Phong :gps:(GPS)::20.918423::101.468117:gps:. Along the way Aleck had been instructing us, in his limited but reasonable English, about various fruits, nuts, plants and some of their medicinal properties. This seems to be a common thing to tell tourists while walking in a jungle and only mildly interesting. We tasted and tried a variety of things – not much took our fancy but we did enjoy chewing on some of Mr Phong’s sugar cane – haven’t done that for a very long time.

We arrived at Mr Phong’s home in the rain and were greeted warmly by the family as they went about their business. The farmhouses consist of a few traditional wooden buildings on stilts surrounded by hills and rolling fields of sticky rice (like normal rice but grows in regular soil to about shoulder height and is sticky – duh – when cooked). Alack was right at home with the family, immediately getting to work helping around the place and making sure we were sorted. He took us down to the river to have a quick bath where we noticed a small turbine behind a 1m high dam generating enough power for a TV and a few lights – we thought that was very cool. On our return we found that a couple of mats had been laid out for us in what we guessed was the ‘common’ building (TV room, lounge and dining area to you). The original idea was that we would cook dinner with the family outside, but the rain put an end to that plan. Alack insisted we take a little nap while he busied himself with preparing dinner (very fresh duck). We were not planning on it, but the sound of the rain on the palm leaf roof and the muted sounds of chickens, ducks, dogs and people outside had us both snoozing happily – besides it was nice to feel dry, warm and horizontal after 6 hours of reasonably difficult hiking in the rain and mud.

Dinner was brilliant and not just the food. We sat down in the common area around a small table with the family and Mr Phong pulled out his bottle of Lao-Lao (a strong rice wine/whiskey). Two neighbors promptly arrived to join in the meal. Before starting to eat we were the subjects of a small ritual involving eating broken hard boiled eggs and rice and having twine tied around our wrists by each member of the group while mumbling a kind of blessing (our guide explained it as something to do with good luck – must look it up some time). It was not at all posed or uncomfortable, and that is saying something for us. It felt like we were just guests at a friends dinner table – brilliant. The food consisted of the ever present (and yummy) sticky rice with bowls of pumpkin and a couple duck dishes, one of which was too deep in colour to be anything but duck blood, chili and spring onions (It tasted spicy but the thought what it could be had us avoiding that plate). As dinner wore on we chatted to our hosts via Alack as the bamboo shot glass of Lao-Lao made it rounds lubricating the proceedings. Hearing about Mr Phong’s life story was very interesting. He was a monk before military conflict left him homeless, then worked in an airport and lived in the city before selling up and moving to the country with his wife, daughter and her husband (and now a baby too).

Alack was on a mission to get the group singing – he succeeded partially. Mr Phong with his guitar sang for us followed by his wife and one of his friends – all were excellent. V and I can’t sing (or remember the words to any songs for that matter) and managed to wiggle out of embarrassing ourselves. Alack had mentioned earlier in the day that a lot of Aussies visit – I pondered how many times the family must have heard a slurred rendition of Waltzing Matilda. Keeping quite was the least we could do to thank our hosts for such a wonderful evening.

The table was moved, the guests departed with smiles and sleeping mats in a cozy corner appeared behind us. Laos is impressing!

[Pictures: In the Jungle and Lunch on a leaf ]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi

The problem with farms… Roosters ! One of them was very confused waking us at 3am. We crawled out from under our mozzie net around 7 and after a quick breakfast (more sticky rice) said our goodbyes to the family (BTW. They are of the Thai Dam people).

Mr Phong was to be our local guide for the day and he led us 20 minutes to the closest village (Ban Nam Khon). The village was what you may expect with a population of 150. Less pristine than the farm (which had an immaculate loo) but still relatively unspoilt. The most impressive thing was that we were able to walk through without causing interruption to the lives of the locals. We were greeted politely and politely ignored (nobody begging or trying to sell us trinkets). At the primary school we were to hand over the books and pens. V and I did not really like the idea – we would have preferred to have remained anonymous but Alack insisted and I ended up in front of the class feeling decidedly uncomfortable – V cleverly hid outside 🙂

Then it was back into the jungle. Thicker and wetter than yesterday with persistent rain we climbed up down more hills. Without the benefit of rivers to wade through we ended up with a few kgs of clay under and around our strops. Wet clay should be used as an industrial lubricant – I ended up on my back in the mud a number of times as V managed to skate elegantly by in a state of partially controlled chaos. After climbing a large hill we arrived at the top to find Mr Phong laying out lunch for us. The plan was to forage for fruits and insects and cook a lunch on an open fire but again the rain meant we had a pack lunch prepared by Mr P’s wife and carried by this 50 something year old all morning (at least we would not have to try crickets and millipedes – phew !).

As we squatted eating lunch under our umbrellas we noticed the area was infested with leeches. Lunch was short. We said goodbye to Mr Phong and headed off. The trail got very steep and far more slippery making it slow going. We had to use our bamboo poles to control every step and that was only half the fun. The leeches were having an absolute feast on us. We felt like big buffet lunches for the parasites. Stopping every few minutes to pull off the latest guests of varying sizes was at first a novelty but soon became a pest. When they bite (which you can normally feel) they inject an anti-coagulant so the blood flows when you pull them off making it look much worse than it is. V ended up with one on her stomach somehow and I had a monster trying to drain me through my ankle in addition to the dozens on our feet over the afternoon. We did get skilled at removing them though. Forget squashing them, it’s like trying to squash a rubber band. Fun 🙂 And they are fast ! Fick one off and it seems to sprint back towards you at impressive speed.

It was a strenuous hike made harder by the wet. Six hours after starting off we arrived at a river which we crossed (and used to take a quick bath) before walking out to the road and a waiting minibus. The guest house with its hot water and shower never looked so good.

It was an incredible experience for us and we highly recommend it. What struck us most was the way we were received by the local people. We didn’t feel like we were the first westerners ever to visit the place but at the same time were not treated as an annoyance or a potential customer. It was the most perfectly executed example of ‘sustainable’ tourism we have seen. I think a lot of work has gone into setting these tours up and convincing the locals to play along – they are definitely worth the cost. The company we used was Luang Namtha Travel (www.luangnamthatravel.com) but Luang Namtha is lined with companies that offer similar packages.

Thank you LN Travel, Alack and the Phong Family for a truly unforgettable two days.

[Pictures: Leech !!! And the view as we left the jungle]

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Technically traveling is hard work and today was our first chance to sleep in as late as we wanted and generally do nothing except let our blisters and leech bites heal. It really felt like a holiday. It was fantastic 🙂

So not much to report. Hot and sunny. Played at an Internet cafe and managed to get a virus onto our camera’s sd card ! Ate more amazingly good food – it’s just so much better than Chinese – for a change we are eagerly anticipating the next meal instead of dreading it. Managed to download a pile of podcasts thanks to the guest house WiFi. Got our muddy washing done…. FOR US 🙂 and made arrangements to move on tomorrow to Huay Xai. Life is good. Very good.

[Pictures: Another chilled out empty restaurant – Namtha in low season !]

[Gallery Update: Tibet photos tagged and sorted. Enjoy the Everest overload. Pics from Laos should be later today.]

[Update: Ok so I didn’t get to uploading more photos today. Will do tomorrow. But have updated the ‘Count de Monet’ page with figures to our exit from China. And yes I’m 3 days behind on posts. Today felt like a holiday for the first time in months. Back to ‘work’ tomorrow 🙂 ]

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We left Luang Namtha after a bit of confusion over our minibus booking. I really need to keep reminding myself that Laos is laid
back otherwise I’ll be getting stressed and annoyed for no reason. To his credit our driver left dead on time and even though there were only 3 of us in his luxurious Hyundai people carrier he didn’t spend ages trawling for more passengers. The roads were excellent but soon turned windy. Trying to type a post I started feeling sick and it wasn’t long before V got it too. Three motion sickness pills and hours later she was feeling better. We pulled into a taxi stop just outside Huay Xai after four hours and hopped a short tak-tak to town.

The town was deserted and our first stop was the understated Gibbon Experience office – it was closed for lunch so we did the same, but once open we were able to secure a spot on tomorrow’s expedition (We realized later how lucky we were to get on one without a booking). To pay for the trip we needed to go to the bank – a novelty to draw 4 million of something 🙂 This will be our ‘spoiling’ for Laos.

Our hotel is good stock standard (the Sabaai-dii) but no one in town seems to have WiFi. Odd. We had an excellent dinner overlooking the Mekong as the sunset lit the clouds over Thailand on the opposite river bank. So close, but at least a month away for us. Laos is incredibly easy for travel. English everywhere, tours conveniently geared to western travelers and cheap(ish). Maybe too easy. Hope we don’t get bored !

[Pictures: V in the Tak-tak. Sunset over Thailand and the Mekong]

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We met the rest of our group (10 in all) at The Gibbon Experience office at 8:30 ish for a brief video about the project and where the money goes. It’s a forest and gibbon conservation project funded by silly tourists on zip lines – so we have made a hefty donation to the Bokeo national protected area and I can now print as much as I like without the guilt 🙂 We were then all bundled (along with some guides and staff) into a converted double cab land cruiser for the 1.5 hour drive to a small shop on the side of the road incredibly well stocked with chocolate and munchies. A short walk over a rickety suspension bridge with broken boards and through some farmland and we were waiting for our next ride. If there is rain you stand a good chance of having to hike 6-9 hours to get to the zip lines but we had good weather and before long a mud splattered Toyota pulled up and we assumed our positions again. V and I joined the group on the back (4 other tourists and three guides hanging off the back). The road was a ball. Wet, thick and sticky red clay had us fish-tailing all over the place spewing mud as the driver battled to navigate the hacked-up roads. Steep hills proved interesting and twice we had to get out and push a little but thankfully we made it to the small village at the start of the trail after two hours of excellent off-road. It has to be said that the driver was brilliant.

From the village it was a 1 hour muddy (very) walk up to the Gibbon Exp’s HQ in the jungle. The terrain was far easier than our trek in Luang Namtha but the trail was in bad condition – no one cared – the zip lines weren’t far off ! The guides issued us our harnesses and divided the group (8 to one tree-house and the birthday couple to their own one) before leading us off again onto the muddy trails. A short climb uphill and we reached the first zip line. I could not resist being first – 300 odd meters of serious fun. The speed you get on a stretched steel cable is awesome (pretty high on the hotdog scale). The entire operation was setup by a French company in 2005(ish). The area was surveyed and zip paths planned before the steel cables were hauled into the jungle. The longest line is 500m and some look like they are over 100m off the deck at the highest point spanning huge valleys.

We took another 5 zip lines to get to our tree-house stopping en-route at a smaller tree-house to take in the impressive views. Jungle in all directions as far as we could see. One thing we did not expect were the long, sometimes steep, muddy and slippery walks between zip lines – but we admit they were worth it (Think more Indiana Jones, Less Medicine Man). We eventually zipped into our tree-house around 4. What a spot ! Around 35m up in a monster tree it had two floors (the top one just big enough for V and I), comfy sleeping mats, ‘kitchen area’, running water and a bathroom with an open shower (spectacular views across the jungle and straight down through the slatted floor). I have to admit the loo was cool – no plumbing, just a straight drop into the jungle 🙂 As we were dumping our gear we heard the unmistakable sound of a zip line as our cook (a very sweet middle-aged Lao lady) came flying through a side entrance carrying our dinner. Again just very cool – we felt like spoilt kids.

A small group of us decided to keep zipping and we managed a couple of loops on the four lines around the tree-house before heading back for a shower. Dinner was good if a little bland (rice and various veg dishes with tiny little bit of chewy meat). Done with dinner we were left with nothing to do but get to know our group. A great bunch of people and with the social glue of Nick (the Belgian) we enjoyed a great evening of games and laughter.

To introduce the group:
– Nick (Richard Dawkins) from Belgium
– Arna (Batman) from USA
– Gerlinde (The Queen of England) from Austria
– Liz (The Pope) from the UK
– Jonny (Homer Simpson) from the UK
– Jacob (Arnold Schwarzenegger) from Australia
– V (Bugs Bunny)
– Me (Hitler)
In the other tree-house (couple hours away)
– Jessica and Christian from Canada

The odd names above were from our first game of ‘guess the name stuck to your forehead’ which took ages without any alcohol. Gerlinde won. Nick did incredibly well to get the difficult one I gave him. V and I were both shocking. I think we lack a mis-spent youth ! In spite of the large and plentiful spiders on the roof (looked like rain spiders) we had a great time.

[Pictures: V on the bridge. V dropping out of our treehouse]

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One of our guides (22) zipped in at 6:30 just as V and I were waking up. We opted for some pre-breakfast zipping while Arna and Gerlinde chose to go on a walk in search of animals – the rest slept in. It took some coaxing to get the second guide out of bed and onto the trails but before long we were zipping through the early morning mist – brilliant. The dew ensured that being the first on a line meant a free shower. We didn’t go too far but got a chance to ride the longest (and I think highest) line in park a couple of times before heading back. The noise of the lines and people shouting “okay” to indicate that the line is clear is enough to scare away any animals. Arna and Gerlinde had more luck. They spotted a baby cobra munching a frog (to their guide’s surprise) and some gibbons (unfortunately a little obscured by mist).

Breakfast was to usher in an unwelcome trend. More rice and veg with a little egg on the side. In the end every meal consisted of the same set of ingredients presented in the same bland fashion. It was a little disappointing. Jessica and Christian joined us looking sweaty and muddy from their early morning hike and our guides explained the plan for the day. Zip and hike to a distant tree-house where we would stop for lunch before heading back. Anything with more zips sounded good to me.

Dropping off of our tree-house (#5) was probably the scariest one. Most of he others start on a platform and the ground gradually falls away before you pop out of the trees into open air but from the tree-house you are stepping straight off a ledge. The hiking between zips was tedious and our guides tried to entertain us by identifying plants and insects with a fair amount of horseplay in between. At least there were hardly any leeches but apparently there have been sightings of tigers and bears in the park (very rare).

Lunch at tree-house #7 was less of the same but the venue was good. Definitely the snazziest tree-house complete with bar-fridge. As we sat eating with ever longer teeth a bank of clouds rolled in and it started to pour down – wet roads could mean a very long hike out tomorrow. We met an American girl who was working in the park as an English teacher for the guides. She had hiked 9 hours to get in the week before. Thankfully the rain subsided and the sun came out to add some humidity to the mix as we backtracked to our tree-house. Arna, Gerlinde, Nick, Jacob and I stopped at the long zip line to loop around it a few (okay maybe 5) times. We had a ball on the two lines, one at least 20m above the other. I managed to stop in the middle of the higher line to take some photos and watch the others zip past underneath me at crazy speeds. Hanging in the open it doesn’t take long before you start to question the security of your position. It got ‘uncomfortable’ and I started to hand-over-hand my way to the far end. Back at base Gerlinde and I decided to do one of the shorter loops around the tree-house to finish off the day and burn some time while the others had a shower. A fantastic day of zipping through the jungle !

Dinner – oh dear – more of the same but without coffee and tea as Gerlinde’s shouts across the valley went unanswered. More great conversation, fun and distribution of the munchies we had been hoarding. Unfortunately one man down – Jonny was feeling terrible. It was a really early night for all. Its a great group of people. Mostly atheist, or non-religious, all with interesting stories and some with hillarious bug phobias. Another wonderful day in the jungle.

[Pictures: zipping in the mist. Breakfast delivery. Nick out on a wire]

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Last day on the lines today 🙁 and luckily it was not raining. Jonny was looking terrible – we all felt sorry for him as we attempted to eat breakfast. There was a definite pain when re-attaching to the lines – I miss my comfy harness. We left around 8:30 and enjoyed a few new lines (Jacob and I snuck in a quick loop while waiting for everyone to catch up) in between the now well known trails before sadly unclipping from the last one. All of us have improved our technique – getting your body parallel to the cable increases speed (and hence distance) dramatically. A short hike got us back to HQ followed by another hot and muddy hour down to the village where we cooled off in the stream before discovering that cold drinks (containing Sugar!!) were waiting just 50m away. Jacob has an impressive talent – managing to keep his sandles clean and dry while the rest of us were ankle deep in thick mud. I suspect it has something to do with the size of his feet – like having snow shoes 🙂

The dirt road ride back had it’s fair share of dramatic slipping and sliding but the road overall was in a better condition than when we arrived. Lunch at the well stocked cafe/restaurant was tasty (I thought) but having to eat more rice put most people off. Again we can’t get over the toilets here. A tin shack at a roadside cafe and the loo was pristine! In China it would have been a disgusting trough. The ride back to town and hot showers was subdued – everyone was pretty knackered.

In the evening we all met up for dinner at the restaurant attached to the Gibbon Exp office. It was almost difficult to recognize everyone looking so respectable. Rice was not on the books – most (including us) gorged themselves on excellent oven baked pizza. Life is once again (and as usual) very good 🙂

Tips for the Gibbon Experience (or some hints if the owners ever see this blog)
– Keep your pack small (we had a 10l daypack for the both of us). Zipping with a big one is a pain (or one with stuff hanging off). 1 clean set of clothes, one ‘dirty’ set and enough clean undies to get you through should be fine.
– Sandles worked fine for us but most were happy with old trainers.
– The gloves are not really necessary but will save your hands if you accidentally grab a cable.
– Don’t take anything that can start a fire. Tree house #1 burned down not long ago because some idiots left a candle burning.
– Soap, toilet paper, toothbrush and paste, mozzie repellent and a torch are essential. Towels are provided.
– iPod – maybe your group will suck (but you will need to carry it around all day)
– Camera (and charged batteries) with a backup cord to attach to your harness.
– Sunglasses could be useful. You may drop them.
– A little cash to buy stuff at the villages.
– Water for the walk in.
– Some found the bedding smelly – maybe a sleeping bag liner.
– The food was VERY dull. If you want to be popular/make some cash take;
– Salt, pepper, chillies and any other condiments you like.
– Loads of munchies. Chocolate, Chips, nuts, raisins etc
– Some kind of powdered cold drink. The free water gets very boring after 3 days.
– I would not recommend booze – drunk people 35m above the deck is a recipe for disaster.
– Remember you have to carry it all in.

Some More Notes for the Owners
– Medical kits ? Emergency radio ?
– Waste basket for loo paper rather than having to drop it into the forest.
– Mini map for your guests.
– Our guides were good, if a little lazy, but we think the whole enterprise could use a little sprucing up. Possibly a better manager on site to crack a whip.

Just our 2 cents. It was amazing but we felt a little overpriced and that feeling could have been addressed with only minor changes.

[Pictures: Sim about to drop off the house for the last time 🙁 ]

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Today was the first leg of our slow boat trip from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang (stopping overnight in Pakbeng). We got tickets through BAP hostel (cost 50 000 Kip each more than buying at the ticket office) and on advice from the Canadians stocked up on munchies and cushions for the 6 hour trip. The hostel got us to the boat early and we sat waiting for hours for it to fill up. A hastily converted cargo vessel it had uncomfortably hard wooden benches arranged like an airline but it did have a clean loo.

By the time we left the boat was packed with young (and some annoying) western tourists. They probably call themselves ‘backpackers’, we call them ‘more honkies in one place than we have seen in months’. Most had crossed from Thailand that morning – we are now on the well known SE Asia loop trail. Good thing we had a few from our gibbon group to keep us company – it’s great to travel with people sometimes.

The trip was slow, hot, boring, uncomfortable and excruciatingly painful for our butts. The immense forests and odd gold temple lining the Mekong did nothing to offset the very noisy Argentineans that plonked themselves down next to us. Some people just don’t get it. Posters all over Laos provide useful information on social etiquette and yet one of the girls in the Argentine delegation was reading ‘A Short Introduction to Buddhism’… wearing a string bikini. She obviously hadn’t gotten to that chapter 🙂

We arrived an hour early at Pakbeng and as we walked up the road into town were overwhelmed with a wiff of the impossible… Boerewors ?!! Yip… it looked and smelled like it. We vowed to return to the braai after securing accommodation. The rest of our posse went looking for better lodging since our standard is pretty low. In retrospect we didn’t get real value for money. Two young Canadian Rastafarians also passed on our guest-house (The Phonethip). They wanted aircon and more comfort. We thought that was hilarious. Pakbeng is described as a bit of a dive. It survives just to service the daily slow boats and now during low season is very quiet.

The wors was expensive with a little too much ginger and garlic but it was excellent – some small tweaks and SA will have one less unique delicacy. We followed that with a perfectly acceptable dinner with our friends at an Indian restaurant. Tomorrow we have another hellish day. 9 hours or so on a boat. Not looking forward to it.

[Pictures: Boat-load of honkies]

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Day 2 on the boat ! A good sleep and breakfast at our little dive before heading to the boat via the wors roll stand. We were very early in the hope of getting a comfy chair but to our delight we found a different boat. Wide wooden chairs and tables guaranteed a better day on the fast flowing water. The Argentineans once again sat close to our group but they were mostly quiet until 11 – no doubt nursing hangovers (they were up late in the room next to our friends). Later they reverted to their noisy selves lubricated with a bottle of vodka. We entertained ourselves reading, writing posts, chatting and playing battleship (well Arna and I did). The river was at times turbulent causing our long boat to creek and the sun was occasionally interrupted by waves of rain. Nearing Luang Prabang the landscape grew to include high kharst cliffs – quite beautiful.

Arriving in LP our posse split as we went in search of accommodation. The town seems compact and colourful. Full of travelers wandering about and touts desperate for low season business. It didn’t take long to find something acceptable. We ended up with Arna at the SokDee Guest-house and spent the early evening relaxing in our room enjoying the free wifi. We followed the relaxation with a quick dinner on the main street – no shortage of options – before heading home for an early night.

[Pictures: Land Ahoy – stunning views as we approach LP]

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Not much to report today. Our main mission was to get our visa for Vietnam arranged. Our guest-house obligingly pointed out the consulate on the map and instead of paying the $5 commission we decided to take a walk (tak-tak was recommended – but we like to walk).

Luang Prabang is a wonderful little spot. You can walk around the entire town in two hours (and it’s the second largest city in Laos !). Full of western coffee shops, restaurants, galleries, curio shops, guest-houses and wats it is an easy, quiet and inviting place. Another thing is the 23h30 city curfew which, strictly enforced, guarantees a good nights sleep.

We stopped at a little coffee shop (Saffron) on the Mekong river bank for a quick breakfast and fantastic local coffee before heading around the back of the town’s koppie in search of the consulate. $45 each for the visa (3 day processing time) meant that the price has gone up and that we would be here until Monday. On the way back we explored a couple of wats, perused some ‘for sale’ buildings and skimmed the restaurants.

We returned to the main side of town via the wat on top of the koppie. Seems walking at altitude in Tibet hasn’t improved our stair climbing abilities 🙂 The wat encompasses outdoor shrines and stupas with lots of gold (mostly paint) along with a grotto containing ‘The footprint of Buddha’. Depending on where his other extremities are he may be good at twister ! We particularly liked the ‘snagon’ (snake like dragon) handrails.

You can’t go long here before bumping into someone you know and by lunch we had arranged a 1/2 day MTB, 1/2 day kayak trip with Arna and Nick. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing around town and our guest-house. The plan was to waddle through the night market on the way to dinner but just as we arrived the clouds opened sending all the tourists (and a lot of the stall owners) running. It was not a successful outing – V managed to get a really tasty smoothie, but that was it ! We squelched to a halt at a randomly chosen restaurant and enjoyed yet another acceptably good dinner with Arna (who was in a lot of pain – recovering from a 2 hour massage marathon). Tomorrow should be more our speed – bikes, waterfalls and kayaks !

[Pictures: Saffron – love their logo & coffee. One of the Wats – there are so many !]

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We met the rest of our posse at the Green Discovery offices in preparation for our day of fun out in the jungle and on the river. Green Discovery is one of the well know operators all over Laos and were recommended to us by some of the guys on the Gibbon Experience and they did look and feel more professional than the other companies (or maybe that was just because they are more expensive). Our guide was very good. Perfect English and knowledgeable but arriving at the mountain bike depot was a bit of a let down. We found only 21″ frames for all – nobody needing more than 19″. Uncomfortable helmets, bad breaks and worn out shocks were part of the package. As it turned out we didn’t really need mountain bikes. There was nothing technical about the route save for some muddy patches. Our group completed the 2 hour bike ride along good dirt roads in around an hour – even with me getting a flat and V doing some hilarious muddy acrobatics over her handlebars.

It was then onto the kayaks for a 15 minute paddle to the Tat Sae waterfall :gps:(GPS)::19.843489::102.220426:gps:. We had requested a single kayak each but were not given enough so V and I ended up on a double. Hehe. Just like being on a tandem bike 🙂 The waterfall was stunning. Milky water running ferociously over dozens of pools and limestone formations. When we arrived the place was empty and we took full advantage of the slightly cool pools, swings and jumps before the place flooded with tak-tak delivered day-trippers. Arna is definitely a water person. She could not resist going back for more and more. Lunch at the pools was filling but probably the least appetizing meal so far in Laos – sticky rice with an assortment of dishes. I tried to pin our guide down on the price of local bus tickets but his answers seemed unlikely. Everyone here seems to try and keep tourists on the well trodden path (in this case, minibus rides). The waterfall park also had, for a fee, a set of zip lines (nothing compared with our experience) and some sad looking little nellies to ride – not our thing.

As we got back onto the river the sun came out in full force making the landscape ever more beautiful. It was a long paddle passing villages, fisherman and water buffalo. We paused occasionally to rest letting the current take us. As we floated we had chance to chat with our friends and enjoy ourselves. Suddenly our guides lept to their feet (on their kayak) and started gesticulating wildly. They had spotted a King Cobra crossing the 50m wide river. We watched it go at an impressive pace, climb out on the far bank and disappear into the bush. The thought of falling out or going for a swim in the muddy water became instantly less appealing !

Rapids ahead meant one thing – a little fun for me 🙂 V and I didn’t fall out by I managed to get into a fair amount of trouble by steering us into a half submerged bush part way through a rough section. V was not impressed. So no more tandem bikes for us – and now no more tandem kayaks either ! A little further down river Nick had to swat at another crossing cobra as it approached his kayak. This one had it’s head raised. A shot at the right scale and it would have looked like Nessy. Scary – the thought of one of those sharing your kayak.

It was a great day out but we arrived back in LP burnt and totally spent. At six V woke me to a pool of drool on my pillow. We needed to go out to meet up with Nick at the Belgian (in Lao you spell ‘Belgian’ as ‘Expensive’) restaurant for a farewell drink. We arrived to find Nick fast becoming best mates with the proprietor. A glass of Leffe and a big grin on Nick’s face said it all. Cheers Nick – it was great to meet and travel with you ! Maybe we’ll catch up with you again sometime.

[Pictures: V – oops. Landed in the mud on a FLAT road LOL. Beautiful waterfalls. Nick in his Kayak]

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Started the day with breakfast at the Scandinavian bakery again. We like this little spot on the main drag and the croissants are good. Plus we can get free WiFi from the restaurant across the road. Weird homeless looking guy was also doing his rounds again wandering up and down the road just staring at people or into space.

Next stop was the Royal palace museum. As palaces go it was a really small one, more like jist a really big house built in the early 1900s. Love that we had to take our shoes off to go inside. Was great to wander around with barefeet on polished hardwood floors. We really liked this museum. It wasn’t very big and the descriptions weren’t very detailed but the displays were nicely varied. The kings reception room was painted bright red and the walls and ceilings were covered in depictions of traditional Lao life all made out of little bits of coloured mirror. Lots of goldy bits too as befits a palace. Towards the end we came upon a little treat for a space buff like Simon. Amongst the display cases of gifts given by other countries (including an ugly plate from the Canadians) was a plaque from Richard Nixon with the then Lao flag on it and a tiny bit of moon rock. The flag went to the moon and back apparently on Apollo 11. There was also a little model of the lunar module too. It was just a cool little spacey bit in a most unexpected place.

The royal garage was less interesting. A couple of old fords and a clapped out old Citroën. The palace grounds were pretty run down but they are doing some serious renovation on the wat in the front garden. Fresh coats of paint and a helluva lot of gold leafing going on.

We left the palace and carried on up the road that runs alongside the Mekong eventually coming to Wat Xieng Thong which all the guidebooks describe as ‘Luang Prabangs most magnificent temple’. To be honest we weren’t that enthralled with it apart from the pictures on some of the structures that were made out of colored mirrors just like we had seen at the palace.

We tried walking around the old quarter looking for the french architechture but couldn’t really identify anything strikingly French. It was getting quite hot and Simon was battling with the heat (think he might be coming down with something) so we headed back to our guesthouse for an afternoon siesta.

We joined up with Sarah, Jacob and Arna at Utopia for a lovely dinner. It is likely to be our last meal with Arna who is moving on tomorrow. We are sad to see her go. Happy travels Arna hope to see you again some day. Utopia was a really nice place to have a meal and we will likely go back for another meal just to see it in the daylight – probably the coolest resturant/bar we have ever seen.

[Pictures: Some shots of the main wat at the palace – major restoration work]

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So our last full day in LP has arrived. On advice from Sarah and Jacob we decided to catch the second (and larger) waterfall in the area – the Kuang Si. After another good breakfast at the Scandinavian (we are regulars now) we negotiated a tak-tak ride out to the falls for 11:30. Our driver arrived on time with 4 other people in the back. Manouk (from our Tibet tour) was one of them ! It was great to see her again but unfortunately the group was split into different vehicles – we ended up alone in the back of the original one trolling the streets for more passengers. We even resorted to joining our driver shouting ‘waterfaaaalll’ at all the strolling honkies. No luck ! We were not willing to accept the fare for just the two of us and resigned ourselves to spending the day chilling put around town. A half hour later a tak-tak with 3 passengers on board swung past us on the streets – we hopped in after checking that this one would not be splitting or stopping and were on our way.

The falls and associated park were far bigger than the one from the other day were complete with Asian bear enclosure and Idylic picnic areas. The falls were even more stunning than we had expected and hiking the very steep trail to the top yielded some interesting views. Swimming areas were limited and a little busy so we found a picnic bench and table ankle deep in the river where we could relax and watch the world go by. It was good to see that, being a Sunday, the park was full of local families having braais and picnics – just enjoying the setting. Another striking thing was a tour group from Thailand. We always think of Thailand as a tour destination but when you see their citizens out in the world you know the country is doing well – really cool to see.

Our fantastically considerate driver got us back to LP around 17h – so just enough time to relax before meeting Manouk and our other friends for a last supper down on the Mekong river.

We’ll truly miss having such cool and diverse people to travel with. Was great to meet you Sarah and Jacob. All the best for the rest of your trip – and for the special delivery that’s on it’s way 🙂 Manouk, we’ll hopefully catch you again in Vietnam – keep an eye out for half-full tak-taks with us on the back! Off to Vang Vieng tomorrow – with a bit of luck Nick, Arna, Jessica and Christian will still be there.

[Pictures: Waterfall – duh]

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I was woken at 6 by V clambering around and cursing in the dark. She had decided to get up early (always a bad way to start for us) and check out the alms ritual in the streets. Every morning at sunrise the monks make their way around town in a colourful and peaceful procession. Originally they would have been given food by the locals (the only food they got) but the the event has become a tourist draw. It has also had it’s fair share of controversy. Yesterday Arna had food forced into her hands by some pushy locals so that she could give it to the monks and be part of the ritual. Once she had handed it over they demanded payment ! This is normally food left over from the previous night and would just have gone to waste. Reminds me of buying food to feed the birds. I don’t have much respect for monks but they are human beings! Treating them as tourist attracting animals is disgusting. Some time ago there were a few cases of the monks getting sick from bad food and they wanted to stop the alms procession. The government would not allow it – they did not want to lose the tourism. Anyway V stood behind the hostel fence and didn’t even take any photos. If you want to be involved in this thing – rather go buy them a bag of rice.

Okay.. Off my box again… After collecting our passports at the Vietnamese consulate we headed for Utopia to have a brunch and take some photos. It really is a cool spot and we lounged around until our minibus was ready. The minibuses in Laos have been brilliant. Super comfortable and they just about all look brand new. Our driver took us out to the LP bus station and we transferred to a bigger van (also very comfy) before heading off on time and to our surprise (Arna had a miserable time the previous day).

The trip to Vang Vieng took five a half hours on incredibly windy roads. V was really battling to keep her brunch down even after using up the last of her motion sickness pills. The landscape was unbelievable. Karst mountains and endless deep valleys plastered with thick green jungle. The larger views could have come straight out of ‘Lord of the Rings’ – Laos has some serious tourism potential ! Unfortunately we battled to take photos as our van swung violently around endless chicanes.

After the minibus a short tak-tak ride got us into town. Already dark we started a search for accommodation. A spot we had seen on line and in our LP guide (LP now means ‘Lonely Planet’ again and not ‘Luang Prabang’) was on the far side of a 4000 Kip (30p) toll bridge. We turned around at the bridge and found something closer to town (Le Jardine Organique Guesthouse). Snazzy name, brand spanking new room, furniture and fittings – perfectly acceptable. We ditched our gear and headed down the main street to arrange a caving tour for the morning. Luckily we spotted a group of our friends from the Gibbon – 7 out of 10 monkeys – not too bad… and great fun 🙂

On another note. We are getting worried about the time we have left. Looks like we will run over if we don’t start skipping and rushing things. To be honest we are having such a great time we just don’t want it to stop. Oh well. We’ll worry about that tomorrow.

[Pictures: A small corner of Utopia – promise we’ll try get better at taking iPhone shots !]

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Vang Vieng is known by all as just a party town and honestly it doesn’t have much else going for it besides a few outdoor activities and some extreme pancake vendors (think Banana Chocolate pancake with Milo, coconut and condensed milk) on the streets. They work until the wee hours for retiring revelers, but unfortunately not for breakfast when we needed them. After fighting with ATMs and finding a sandwich to replace the missing pancakes we headed out on our morning tour of some caves in the area. I was hoping for some serious spelunking, V not so much 🙂

Our guide was very good (Green Discovery again) and led us around a grotto/temple (Elephant Cave) and two other caves in the vicinity – about 100m and 400m deep. We saw beautiful sparkling stalactites in the large caverns. The caves were good but I was really, hoping for a little more ‘adventure’. The last cave on the morning long tour was the ‘Water cave’ that required floating inside on a tube through a tiny gap and up an underground river. Ditching the tubes we leopard crawled through narrow gaps and waded up to our waists while dodging overhanging formations. The cave did not run very far – maybe 100m – but it was a lot of muddy fun. Even V enjoyed it after overcoming her initial fears. We could really have done the caves ourselves if we had the time to find them but it would have probably resulted in me going too far and getting into trouble!

Back in town our friends were waiting for us to go tubing down the river. This is what Vang Vieng is about and what we came to gawk at. It’s a simple recipe (for disaster). You rent a tube in town, catch a tak-tak for 3km upriver and jump in. Along the river are dozens of bars well stocked with free buckets of booze and an alarming variety of drugs (all illegal). Each bar also has some kind of swing, zipline or slide to launch you back into the river. Most seem to just copy one swing style – if V and I worked here they would have far more interesting designs. Obviously the aim is to get as drunk as possible while tubing from one bar with it’s blaring music and assorted activities to the next. The combination of water, booze and big swings is a good enough reason for the waiver we had to sign before taking a tube and explains why idiots die here every year (apparently). Think of it as a functional ‘Gene Pool Control System’.

Our friends had run the gauntlet a couple of times already so it was easy for us to find the cool swings and slides. We immediately skipped the first couple of bars – they were packed with drunk kids and only offered dismal slides as attractions. The next stop had an impressive swing. I was like a kid in a candy store. Releasing at the highpoint gave you an estimated 8m drop to the rushing water. It was brilliant fun. Nick and I kept going back for more. The rickety platform that you swing from is possibly more dangerous than the swing itself – it felt like it could collapse at any moment. Christian (nursing a radio-active sunburn) and Jessica abstained having done it before and no amount of heckling could get V on a swing. As the drunken hoard started piling into our spot we opted to stay ahead of the wave.

As you go down the river the swings get bigger but we were continuously being caught by progressively more intoxicated crowds, so after Nick had his chest spray painted with an obscene slogan we decided to skip on down to one of the last bars. This one had a huge slide, zipline and the biggest swing yet – maybe over 10m to the water if you release at the highpoint. After a fruit shake with our friends I had a go at the zipline, swing and slide. The swing was awesome, the zipline dull and my technique on the slide left a lot to be desired – barely plopping of the end. Jessica and Christian perfected the slide, launching well into the river with all the style of Canadians on ice. All just too much fun. With the weather turning overcast we headed downstream and back to town. Around 30 minutes of floating through peaceful and stunning karst topography got us to a good exit point that Jessica and Christian had discovered (they had been hassled by locals on a previous excursion). A hectic and fantastic day, but not quite over !

We all met up for dinner at a quaint little grill spot. Vang Vieng has no shortage of western style restaurants and the one we chose wasn’t bad. Braaied kebabs – can’t really go wrong with that. Our next stop was one of the many bars. Nick got accosted into accepting a ‘Beer Bong’ – free if he could finish it in one go. He wasn’t at all phased by the proposition and set a about preparing the bong while explaining his intricate technique – it was almost a science lesson – hilarious 🙂 It was down his gullet in less than 4 seconds. All were impressed. Seems they have a lot of spare time in Belgium. Being the last night in VV, Nick decided to enjoy it. Even with more beer in him than the rest of us combined he stated “I can still do calculus. Come on… Give me something” – and I have no doubt he still could ! We left him to live it up while the rest of us headed for our pillows.

[Pictures: Busy day. Red bull required. It’s imported from Thailand and manufactured by a pharmaceutical company ! Not silly enough to take my phone on the water so you’ll have to wait for the photo uploads]

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We said our final farewells to our new found Canadian friends this morning over breakfast. Jessica and Christian we hope to see you again someday. It has been wonderfull meeting you and we have thoroughly enjoyed your company – as soon as we have a home, you will be most welcome 🙂

Managed to find some motion sickness pills (aptly named Vomina) before our 6 hour minibus trip to Phonsovan. They worked extremely well and knocked me out for most of the journey for which I was extremely grateful. The road to Phonsovan was very windy and only straightenend out about an hour from our destination. Seems Laos has less than 10km of straight road in the entire country ! The views were stunning though. More gigantic kharst monoliths and never-ending jungle.

Simon still has a cold and now a sore ankle from all those swings yesterday (sim: and neck and back)

Phonsovan looks just like Shemula in Northern Natal. The people and the houses are a little different but the vegetation and sandy soil looks so similar. The place is full of ‘Un-exploded Ordinance’ signs on tour agencies and support centres. Shops and hotels all have shells and other munitions as decorations in their lobbies. This part of Laos was one of the most heavily bombed areas during the Vietnam war – it is on the Ho-Chi-Min trail.

We are staying at ‘Nice Hotel’ which seems ok, and we have already organized our onward bus tickets to Vietnam for Friday and a tour of the sights for tomorrow. The tour tomorrow has cost us a fair whack for what it is but all the places in town are doing it for the same price so we did not have much of a choice. So tomorrow we are off to see some stone jars, a rusted russian tank and a bombed out old city.

[Pictures: Huge pile of bombs, mortars, external fuel tanks and other goodies]

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Okay so the ‘Nice’ guesthouse is nice enough. The staff were great, actually brilliant. Rooms clean (if aging) and quiet but our mattress felt like sleeping on a bag full of scrap metal ! We had a quick bite and met up with our guide and driver for the day. We had tried to get an older kiwi that traveled with us from VV on the tour to bring the price down but we couldn’t find him last night. Probably a good thing – anyone who thinks Fox News is the best place for information is in a different league.

First stop for the day was the old city of Phonsavan :gps:(GPS)::19.332628::103.367123:gps: which experienced heavy bombing and fighting during the Vietnam war (reminder to self: watch the documentary ‘The Secret War’ sometime). The original monastery was destroyed leaving ‘miraculously’ the Buddha statue and some columns complete with bullet holes. The city’s main stupa (15m high) was also damaged but more so by looters. It’s very ‘Tomb Raider’ with cracked brick and mortar and plants growing all over it. Very cool to explore.

We took a quick stroll through a quiet traditional village and were wondering why we had not seen or heard many birds. They are a popular food source. Bird traps dot the countryside especially around lakes. They consist of bamboo poles covered in glue with swallows as their primary target.

After a simple lunch we took a walk out to the site 3 of the ‘Plain of Jars’. The paths and boundaries are marked with ‘MAG’ flagstones indicating which areas have been cleared of unexploded ordinance. The clearing is ongoing – both the army and private companies are very busy but it’s an immense challenge. There are a few thousand jars at 50 odd sites around the area but only 3 are tourist attractions. Their origins (2000-3000 years old) are a bit of a mystery as little other evidence their creators exists. The jars are carved from chunks of solid rock quarried about 10km away – impressive – and it seems that they were used for burials.

Jar site 2, the chassis of a cannibalized T-72 Russian tank and a demonstration of the production of Lao-Lao whiskey (fermented rice) occupied us for the next few hours. Our final stop was site 1 :gps:(GPS)::19.430478::103.152052:gps:. Although the jars are generally smaller and more damaged than at the other sites, it is the most impressive covering a large area. Huge bomb craters, trench lines and bullet scars bear witness to the fact that the area was the home (and still is) of a major military base. Two of the jars here are unusual. One is huge (around 6 tonnes) and was probably for a ‘king’ while another has a carving of a person on it. A cave guarded by a massive bee hive and a cobra was the last thing to check out in the area before heading back to town.

The tour was in all very interesting and our guide was good but it was expensive for what it was. If we had more time in Phonsavan it would have made sense to rent a scooter and to have done it ourselves. Tomorrow we are off to Vietnam !

[Pictures: The surviving Buddha statue and the King’s jar, or just a really fat dude]

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150 days on the road today ! Maybe we should stop counting 🙂

We were up late last night even though we needed to be up at 5:30. V was reading horror stories about Vietnam bus travel and border crossings in our guide. We always get apprehensive when we have a border crossing – the stories were not helping ! Seems corruption and theft (by drugging with drink) is an issue along with bus drivers stopping in the middle of nowhere and demanding higher fares especially on the less traveled routes like the one we had chosen. At 7 our guesthouse flagged down the correct bus (a half hour late) and we were on our way with a 12 hour journey ahead.

The bus was almost empty and once again we were the only westerners around. We really miss our friends from the Gibbon group. Such a great bunch. It will definitely take a bit of time to get used to eating ‘alone’ again. Arna, Jessica, Christian, Nick, Sarah and Jacob – you better all stay in touch ! V and I slept the morning away as the bus wound through and up some more spectacular valleys in the heavy rain. The bus and driver were from Laos which, for no valid reason, made me feel far more comfortable. Apart from the loud Lao pop music being played over a video of an American concert it was a comfortable trip to the border.

Laos has been fantastic and it’s a pity we had to rush it a little. Feels like we hardly explored the country at all. During our travels there have been many places that we would like to re-visit but Laos is now at the top of the list. A small population of respectful, polite and friendly people with amazing food, immaculate toilets, good (if windy) roads, totally relaxed attitudes and enough honky comforts at good prices (okay, a little more expensive than expected). We are concerned that the locals will become sick of tourists like much of South East Asia – I really hope not.

[Pictures: Was way to early for that !]

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