Lazy Days in Laos

Hey there friends and family (and everyone else out there responsible for giving our site over 1200 hits since March 1 even though we haven't posted anything in weeks!) - sorry we've dropped the ball and managed to get two full months behind on stories of our adventures. We'll see what we can do to get caught up before we forget everything we've done. First up - our three weeks in Laos.

01 - On the Way to Si Phan Don (4,000 Islands)

We didn't start off so well. First, both the Cambodian and Lao border guards demanded bribes (albeit small ones) as we moved from one country to the next. Then the Lao border guard attempted to hustle us into his overpriced "taxi" to get us to our first destination in the country. We wanted to go to Si Phan Don ("4,000 Islands"), a chain of small islands in the Mekong River, not far from the border - but first we had to get to a small village where we could catch boats to the islands. When we refused to use the border guard's special taxi service, we discovered our few other transportation options had similarly ridiculous prices. In a fit of obstinance over the last few dollars, we decided we would walk (or hitchhike) the 18 kilometers rather than pay the sharks. We lucked out, though, and within 10 minutes we were rescued by the postman and given an inexpensive ride to the village. But our bad start continued when we discovered the boat operators in the village had formed a cartel and tripled the price for the short trip to the islands (okay, it was still really cheap by our home country standards, but annoying nonetheless). Because we had shown up at the same time as about eight other backpackers, the whole group of us tried to find somebody else with a boat who was willing to undercut the cartel. We found somebody, but after one of the cartel's thugs followed us and threatened our potential boat driver's family, the deal fell through. In the end, we all paid the cartel's inflated price and headed to Don Det, one of the larger and more visited of the 4,000 Islands.

02 - Sunset from Don Det

Don Det is a nice sleepy place to spend a few days (or, like many, a few weeks). There are no roads - just a wide path around the perimeter of the island for walkers, bikers and a few motorbikes. There is only electricity a few hours every night (or not at all, depending on where you stay). Accomodation is limited to simple huts containing a bed and a mosquito net. Bathrooms are shared. But prices are incredibly low and the scenery is spectacular. Our main concern became finding a bungalow that had not one, but two, hammocks hanging from its porch. But, unfortunately, after moving from one bungalow operation that had no hammocks (where we stayed the first night) to another operation that had two per porch, we discovered we had lost our wallet, probably leaving it at the first bungalow. We returned to get it within 45 minutes, but it wasn't there. The family who ran the place communicated in their limited English that they hadn't found anything, but we felt like they were being a little shifty. So, altogether, we weren't really happy about our start in Laos. But, a few days spent in those hammocks, followed by a "Laojito" at sunset (basically, a mojito with Lao rice whiskey ("lao lao") instead of rum), allowed us to decompress and move on from our initial frustration. And, can you imagine our surpise this very morning (meaning March 22) when we completely emptied our backpacks, every last pocket, and found the lost wallet??

03 - Another Don Det Sunset

From Don Det we spent about a week moving north to the capital of Vientienne, hitting several small towns along the way. First stop was Pakse, where we spent a nice afternoon walking through a traditional residential area along the Mekong River. Houses are all on stilts, there are lots of pigs and chickens running around and people gave us a warm "Sabaidee!" (hello) throughout our walk. We ended up running into a married couple who were originally from Laos but had emigrated to Australia in the 80s. They were visiting their remaining family members and had us stay with them to chat about the differences between their lives and their families' and sip on a coconut for awhile before continuing our walk. From Pakse, we traveled east to the coffee-growing center of Paksong. Laos is supposed to grow some of the best coffee in the world (who knew?), and we appreciated it there in the local market Laos-style (basically, three parts strong coffee, one part sweetened condensed milk). After a night in Paksong we continued our move up the Mekong River to Savannahket, a pretty little city with lots of fading French colonial architecture. Similarly to Pakse and Paksong, we spent most of our time just walking around and observing the sleepy pace of Laos life. We particularly appreciated the town's great baguettes (another mark of the French), especially those sold by a lady who would stuff them with scrambled eggs and a salad of green papaya (not sweet), lemongrass, chili peppers and cilantro. After a few days in Savannakhet we continued further north to the town of Tha Kek. We really only went there to break up the remaining distance to Vientienne, but we ended up being really glad we decided to stop. Around sunset the first night, we were walking through a small neighborhood when we saw some younger Lao guys playing patenque in their yard (basically the same as bocci ball - brought by the French and now practically Laos' nationally pastime). We walked over to watch them, and the owner of the house came out to say hi. He was very excited by any opportunity to speak English, and before we knew it, we were seated with a big group of enthusiastic patenque players and several cases of Beer Lao were brought out. Soon enough, we were out playing patenque with the crazy group. We were pretty pitiful compared to our new friends, who really could have been professionals for all we knew. But both of us were given a Lao teammate so we could play against each other. The pressure was on when we realized all of the other Lao guys watching were betting on each of our "teams." The "Ok, Allison, try again!!" and "Almost, Jeff, almost!!" didn't ease the pressure much.

04 - Sunrise Isn't Bad Either

After Tha Kek, we finally made it to the capital, Vientienne. An interesting place... The center of town is sort of bizarre - all of the bars, restaurants and upscale grocery stores clearly show the presence of expats and NGOs. It's almost as if the place is still colonized. But, at the same time, the city has all of the best of Laos culture - the most important Buddhist temples in the country, food vendors along the river at sunset and great baguettes in little hole-in-the-wall Lao restaurants. And Lao sauna and massage - we spent much of the afternoon on the grounds of a Buddhist monastery enjoying an herbal steam room followed by a traditional Lao massage (kind of like a Thai massage - pressure points and stretches more than an oil rubdown), all for about $4. This wasn't the first or last place we did this in Laos, but the capital had one of the best.

05 - Cute Kids in Coffee Country

After four nights in Vientienne, we moved north to one of Laos's biggest tourist destinations, the quaint ancient capital of Luang Prabang. Another sort of funny place. On one hand, it is beautifully situated along two rivers, contains practically the only remaining "old" temples in the country (older temples in other parts of the country were destroyed during one war or another from the mid-1800s onward) and has lots of interesting little alleys to explore. The town is also in great shape, with expensive-looking brick sidewalks and perfect roads. But those nice sidewalks and the related chic tourist restaurants make it seem somehow un-Laos. The character of the people is still there, but the setting seems wrong (well, at least right in the central part of the city - we didn't have to go far to find the equally charming, but more authentic, unpaved roads with kids playing and chickens running around). A combination of Luang Prabang's charms and our own laziness, though, resulted in our spending almost all of our remaining time in Laos there (about 5 or 6 days). One highlight was attending a party honoring the birth of a baby in the family of the people running our guesthouse. It was similar to the baptism we attended in Peru in how much it reminded us of a wedding reception. There was a live band and special dances for the parents and both sets of grandparents of the baby. Lots of food (in the form of Lao noodle soup) and, despite the pre-noon starting time, even more lao lao whiskey was served (we realized lao lao tastes like tequila). Guests brought gifts and money for the family. We left relatively early, but soon realized the lao lao had killed what remained of the day.

06 - BBQ Chicken and Sticky Rice, Anyone?

We enjoyed our time in Luang Prabang, but soon enough we realized we had only a few days before we needed to be in northern Thailand to meet up with Jeff's parents. We opted to take a fairly popular two-day trip in a "slow boat" that would take us to Thailand via the Mekong River. The boat is more or less for transporting supplies, but somebody figured out that tourists would pay decent money to ride along and take in the scenery. It was a relaxing few days, despite the hard wooden benches. It helped that we were going in the direction less travelled, so the boat wasn't very crowded either. We got a lot of reading done. And it got us to Thailand.

07 - Young Monks in Luang Prabang

08 - Allison at Breakfast in Pak Beng

09 - Young Beggars in Pak Beng