Laos - the laidback lifestyle
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2008
1
4
26
Trip End
Nov 21, 2008
Vientiane,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Day 1:
We caught a package transport deal that was a bus (mini-van) and 2 days on a boat to get from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos. It turned out to be a great option, because we saw some amazing villages, and had two days, crusing down the Mekong River.
Fri 22/Aug
The first day was great
street shot in Laos
. The boat had a few uncomfortable wooden benches, but for the most part, had plastic chairs that people just moved to occupy the space they'd like to fill for the 6 hour boat ride. Immediately I broke out the guitar, put in the iPod earphones, and went to town learning new tunes. Lauren ended up lounging against the side, chatting with an American girl and a few Irish friends we made along the way. I eventually scored a seat on the bow of the boat, where I jammed some more guitar, entertaining fellow backpackers, and sang cliche Bob Dylan tunes about the 60's and CCR "Rolling Down the River", had to do it. The first night, we stayed in Pak Beng, this place was straight out of a Western movie, but in a South-East Asian context, so I guess nothing like a Western movie, geez I'm an idiot. One road, just bars and restaurants, a few vendors set-up outside, and a mini-market at the end of the street which ran right along the Mekong. We scored a nice hostel with a balcony view of the river, and nice sized room, total price was 40,000 kip, or about 4.75 US Dollars. Not bad.
Sat 23/Aug
We realized how lucky our first day was once the 2nd was underway. The boat was super-crowded, I think Lauren was wedged between rice bags the whole time
Waterfalls nearby Luang Prabang
. And there was no guitars or sitting on the bow, watching the whirlpools. This was just fight for shoulder room, and wait.That said, the scenery was still unbelievable. On each side of the Mekong, the jungle-covered hills rise at a steep slope out of the water, and seem to cascade back forever. The river winds back and forth, the scenery reminds me of those old Vietnam movies. Every now and then a fisherman with his coned hat will zoom by in his long-tail motorboat, we were back in time for a few days.
Luang Prabang is a great, charming little city. The vibe is mellow, super friendly, no one seems to be in a rush. In fact, we ran at one point to catch our bus, and it felt super out-of-place.
Every morning around 6am, the Buddhist monks have a procession through the streets, collecting rice for their one meal of the day, and head to the dozens of temples centered throughout the city. It's quite a site, so I heard, Lauren woke up, I slept in.
Sun 24/Aug (chilling in Luang Prabang)
This was a fun one, we decided to stay another day in Luang Prabang, because it was so peaceful
Ahhh, Barrell!!!
. We took a tuk-tuk to a nearby waterfall, I got in some backflips off the trees and the falls themselves, Lauren got more mosquito bites. The waterfalls were actually pretty impressive, we hadn't heard much of them, but they are a series of maybe 7 or 8, all in one main fall, and have 5 or 6 along the side, a pretty beautiful site. Not as magnificient as we've seen, but a great day trip nonetheless.We browsed the night market, and bargained for some treats. Grubbed some street-side meals, and called it a night.
Mon 25/Aug (Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng)
We woke up and had to make a decision. Either take our time throughout Laos, or speed our way through Vietnam. We made the call, and bought tickets to Vietnam. Flight leaving in 3 days.
We spend the morning seeing the temples of the LP, and got an hour massage. The Laos massage was WAY better than the Thai ones we had in Chiang Mai, we were both JELLO.
We caught a bus to Vang Vieng, the backpacker party capital of Laos. We arrived at night to streets full of young kids, mostly English it seemed like, carrying beers down the streets, and hitting on each other at every opportunity. Not much culture, but this place was fun. After a quick bar dinner, we ended the night swaying in hammocks with our new found friends from Belgium, covering all the basic topics and sipping on Beer Lao. The more you looked around, the more you realized that this was just a giant party, the kids we met were mostly early 20's, and mostly single
Temple in Luang Prabang
. It was like this unexpected international party right on the river. I thought about my friends from home, and how much fun they would be having here. Lauren and I had a blast.Tues 26/Aug:
We woke up and bought a bus ticket to Vientiane, which we had to catch because our flight to Vietnam was early the next day. I still wanted to go tubing, so we made it happen.
Tubing in Vang Vieng is amazing. It's a pretty swift moving river that curves around an insane backdrop, and makes you feel like you're lost in nature somewhere. The mountains along the river really reminded me of the windward side of Oahu, Hawaii, around Waimanalo area, right along the banks. On each side of the river, all along the way, there were bars with huge loudspeakers and giant platforms blaring Bob Marley and Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and all serving ice cold Beer Lao. The currents of the river would naturally take you to each one (they were very well-strategically placed), and they would toss you either a half-full water bottle with a rope tied to it or an inner-tube, you'd grab it, and they'd pull you right into the riverside bar. Once you got up, there'd be people all around you partying, they'd grab you a few free shots of rice whiskey (the local drink that they all boast about, that tastes, and smells like some sort of God awful moonshine or everclear - I swear it was paint thinner and rubbing alcohol), and then usher you up to these platforms that were around 40 feet in the air, which looked like they were about to collapse EVERY time you climbed up another rung. The local "lifeguard", or 13 year-old kid, would hand you a handle with a rope attached to about an 80 ft crane (4 or 5 long pieces of bamboo wedged into the ground and tied against a tree trunk), that would allow you to swing swiftly and completely unsafely across the rapids of the river, and let go
Buddhist monk collecting his day´s portion
. Needless to say, I was in heaven. Lauren was having a heart attack. That was what it looked like, but I figured if every one else was doing it, it HAD to be legit, right? "You wouldn't understand, it's science." This kept us busy for a while, I eventually lost the life vest, it just got in the way, and was pulling off backflips off the highest swing at the last bar. This place was trouble, we kept saying how it must be illegal in every other country to have setups like this, it was just too fun.The biggest bummer, was that Lauren and I went really early, because we had to catch a bus by 2pm, and I'd heard that the day before there was mud volleyball, and a huge waterslide at one bar that was shut down the day we were doing it, because it was too early. I guess you can't have it all. This place, Vang Vieng was totally unexpected, but a great stop for 24 hours, we whisked onto the bus and about 5 hours later were in Vientiane.
This is the capital of Laos, a pretty sizeable, yet shockingly friendly place, and had a whole bunch of french-influenced architecture, and really good food. In fact, the best we'd had in Laos.
The next morning, we took off early, and flew in a rickety-old propeller plane to Vietnam
Daily morning processions
. We dodged a few storms, and had a shaky landing, but all in all it was cool, and just like that our week in Laos was done. You know, I had never even heard of Laos I don't think, until we started planning for our SouthEast Asia trip. It sounds ridiculous, but I just hadn't. Once we got to north Thailand, every other person was talking about how it's amazing, and so we decided to cruise through. This was a great decision. Laos had amazing food, really laidback people, and hidden gems around every turn (such as Vang Vieng). Over 75% of the country is unaltered wilderness, and cruising down the Mekong River, you got that impression firsthand. Sure, the travel from spot to spot is impossibly slow, and the immediacy of things in general isn't quite taken so serious, but that's exactly why I liked it. It sort of strikes me as the type of place Hawaii probably was in like the 40's or 50's, as far as the whole vibe and ease of the lifestyle. It was also very cheap, I kept saying how amazingly cheap it was, but the general consensus among our friends was that it was still about equal to Thailand. It's just the remote places that we saw that were so impressive as far as how far your money went.
Check back if there aren't pics up yet, I'll be posting them very soon. The internet is just too slow here...
Comments
scott
you just made me cry...but it was only like two or three tears.