Laos

Laus is unbelievably beautiful, and the people are too. I’d love to go back.

We went Huay Xai → Pak Beng → Luang Prabang → Vientiane (passing through).

I toured SE Asia, from Indonesia and Singapore thru Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Guess what!? laos was my favorite! Its so much more ‘real’ and low-key with less tourists (still plenty and you can get around) Its really a very special place if you appreciate culture, nature, and adventure. FYI the food is nothing special, but everything else is spectacular

Lao is beautiful country and I have brought home some very fond memories of my time there – can’t wait to go back and see more. The people are friendly, the food is excellent and the scenery just has to be seen to be believed. Be sure to take a slow boat rather than the fast boat – in my opinion the slow boat is possibly the best way to take in the vast beauty of the countryside. Make sure to bring a jacket in winter, it can get quite chilly, even in Vientiane!

Oh, how we loved it! What a wonderful place. What nice people and relaxed feeling. I can’t wait to return someday.

Friends who’ve been there talk of how wonderful a place it is, and how they’d like to retire there one day. I’m going this November, 2007, to see for myself.

My old French teacher is getting married here next Feb (2008) Her husband to be is Laoation and we have been invited to the wedding. I would love to go. It would be wonderful to celebrate such a happy occassion and also to see this beautiful country.

We went to the Golden Triangle for the day and had the option of a boat trip across to Laos where we could go round a market and not have to go through customs. Biggest difference here was the things they sell, from Thailand where things are all pretty normal there were suddenly bottles of moonshine whisky with snakes and scorpions inside as well as a variety of other oddities. We also saw a strange bear like animal and a lively monkey. Then it poured down and we had to wait out the rain before going back.

I am stuck on Laos. It’s quite possibly one of the nicest countries I’ve ever been to. The people are friendly and hospitable. The scenery is untouched and unspoiled. The never-ending range of activities will keep you occupied for weeks. We’re both itching to go back to this captivating country.

We have been told by several travelers on every trip we’ve embarked on over the past two years that Vang Vieng is a MUST if you are traveling to Laos. Naturally, I was captivated by the idea of spending my time in this small riverside village, where, I was told, there would be a barrage of daily eco-friendly tours and activities all waiting for me.

And it was everything we thought it would be. We went caving and hiking. We rented motorbikes and hunted for fresh water pools to swim in. We indulged in mouth-watering dishes and sucked back giant bottles of BeerLao, but the absolute best part of Vang Vieng, and I’m sure any traveler will agree, is the river tubing.

Seven dollars can take you a long way for the day in Laos. We rented our inner tubes in town and were taken to the mouth of a swift moving river several kilometers outside of town. The fast moving currents swept us downstream and once we rounded our first bend, we were in heaven.

It took us six hours to make our way down river. We couldn’t help stopping at all the mini-bars set up on the riverbanks. Each bar had zip-lines, trapeze bars and swings that released far out over the river. We stopped at each one. We swam, had a dunk and washed it all away with beers. By the time we arrived back in town, we were tired, but deliriously happy. So happy in fact, we did the same thing three days in a row.

Traveling is what you make it. We spent six weeks on the road in Asia. Some of that time was really harsh and some of it was a blast. I think every traveler needs a mix of good and bad experiences to really make a journey worthwhile. Cambodia was completely off the rails. Vietnam was an intriguing mix of old and new worlds colliding. Loas was relaxed, upbeat and completely out of this world. Asia is a diverse, wonderfully challenging and completely captivating experience. Don’t miss it.

15 Aug 2006

Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep – Day 361 – Is this the sleepiest capital in the world?!
Our first impressions of Vientiane? Mud everywhere! There is construction going on in every street – be that digging up roads to put in drains, laying cables, erecting new buildings, installing roundabouts, or tarmacing roads. We definitely had to watch our step as we could have completely disappeared down some holes. Despite all this construction, we didn’t actually see many people at work – lots of evidence that they had been there and cones everywhere – but no one actually doing anything!

We hired a tuk tuk to take us out to the huge Patuxai Monument – erected in 1969 to commemorate the Lao who died in pre revolutionary wars. Built with cement donated by the USA for the construction of a new airport, it has to be the ugliest one in the world. It’s kind of cube shaped with fancy bits on top and arches underneath. It seems to resemble a cubic Arc de Triomphe at the bottom and an Asian ornate palace at the top. It also looks unfinished, almost like they had run out of money to pay for the tiles or the sculptor died on the job…. Not sure – but having seen a number of monuments in all different parts of the world – the Laos monument wins hands down the prize for being the worst!

But generally, Vientiane is a sleepy capital with not that much either happening or to see once we had seen the temples, cultural centre and the river. So we spent the rest of the time in the internet café working on a new programme pack for LOB – keep your eyes out for it!

Last night we ended up going to eat at a night market. We found a family who had table and chairs and she cooked up the food in front of us – perfect! It was like we were sitting in someone’s front room as the family all rustled around getting us cutlery, opening a Beerlao, glasses, napkins, etc.! And the cost? Just 40p each for a meal we could hardly finish. Yummy!
Today, we thought we would go back to same lady since the food has been so great but sadly today – she was closed!
Oh the agony of Night food markets – pots and pans full of food, sitting on the stall, you are not sure which one to pick and how long it had been off the heat – its somewhat a bit of a Laos Roulette! We preferred eating in somebody’s house but many houses open onto the street (as we said before) and we were not sure who was open for selling food & who was eating as a family outside!

In the end we decided to go for a pot that was on the fire and bubbling away, it looked delicious. But there was a long queue in front of us with locals doing the same and when it came to us, it had all gone. We were invited to take one of the other pots – but it didn’t look appetising! Finally we chose some fried rice – we have had it cool before and it’s been fine. So the rice was placed into small plastic bags – well we thought they were small til we got to eat them and it seemed like it was a huge portion! We also found some meat that was being cooked to order on skewers on hot coals. There was a big crowd of people around the BBQ – which is always a good sign. The pork ribs (we did some flapping of our arms and oink noises to determine the meat!) were not actually skewered but placed between split bamboo sticks (like giant chop sticks still stuck together) and then bamboo thread holding it all together at the top. Tasty! Once it was all cooked the kebabs were wrapped in the A4 minutes of some meeting held in Laos (in English) in 1997 and placed in a plastic bag.
The only trouble? We now had these bags of hot food and nowhere to sit and eat them apart from our room – where food was not allowed. So we had to smuggle it all into our room. Sharon distracted the front desk whilst I ran up the back stairs to our room. We there feasted on our meal which cost 80p in total!
Bargain Asian Take-Away I say!
Tomorrow we head to Ho Chi Minh City via Phnom Penh.

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13 Aug 2006

Vientiane, Lao Peoples Dem Rep – Day 360 – Enjoying the Laos countryside
The bus journey from Luang Prabang was awesome, scary, painful, and long (possibly not in that order). The mountains were amazing, jutting out of the ground, forming strange upright un-uniformed shapes. In-between all the mountains were thousands of pristine paddy fields, dotted with workers wearing wide triangular hats to keep the sun off. The bus rattled along the windy road, breaking (just) at bends when oncoming vehicles were in the middle of the road. We slowly passed over the occasional land slide, which threatened to close the road.

Our seats were not that comfy (although worlds away from that bench we had the other day – feelings slowly returning to our derrières!) and because we were bouncing from one hip to the other they both got sore. Plus it was plastic covers so we were very hot and sweaty – hmmm nice!
Thankfully the passing views made up for the discomfort and we smiled, waved and enjoyed the momentary glimpses of hundreds of Laos’ family lives.

What we did notice is the quality of the wooden homes was (in the main) very good, and well constructed. People also tend to live outside, with the family dining table set just beside the front door, and the playroom basically being in the street. So if the bus stopped for any reason, we could be looking eye to eye with a woman sat down with her family eating lunch. One such example, she looked up and gave us such a huge smile. It was lovely! I think that it is something we are possibly going to find very strange when we return. Much of the western population now lives behind closed doors in their own private world – with their only window on the planet being the television. Our experience has been that the rest of the world lives alongside their neighbours and open to the street. The extended family plays a much greater part and people tend to live in one room. That’s not to say TV doesn’t play a big part – it does! Generally TV’s here are huge. But they sit on a wooden cabinet and blare out TV programmes whilst the family are sprawled out around it on the floor or in chairs. The difference is, you can see what channel your neighbour is tuned into!

We do love Monks. They seem to enjoy interacting with falangies and despite their outward best behaviour; the younger ones have a maverick streak in their eyes! Like the Masaai in Kenya and Tanzania, we are still tickled pink when we see Monks on the internet. Who are the MSNing? And are they listening to Britney Spears on their headphones?! One thing that does puzzle us, if the monks have no possessions – how come they have a) handbags, b) mobile phones, c) money to pay for internet access and d) afford to get a tuk tuk? The biggest mobile phone network here is Tango (wonder if the drink with the same name knows that? And we think that Orange should sponsor Monks’ mobiles and issue them with free ones – think of the publicity!

We did find the most wonderful coffee in a French coffee shop in the capital city – and it was only 30p a cup. It was like drinking nectar of the gods … delicious! Although we have a theory that the French have all come to Laos so they can still smoke in French Café’s! There’s quite a few expats here, and loads of jobs going at various well known NGO’s

Other observations around Laos (although this is typical of Asia too) People really don’t wear crash helmets, and we’ve seen kids balancing on mopeds like they’ve been doing since they were 2 months old. In fact I bet they learn about their own centre of gravity and balance on a motorbike before they even need to think about walking The other thing we have spotted is people riding mopeds whilst holding umbrellas and chatting on a mobile phone – now that’s multi-tasking!

For more information visit http://www.KSrtw.com

I helped build and send off a floating Library to serve about 62 villages along the HUGE RIVER