3 weeks and it's over.
Trip Start
Jan 06, 2005
1
7
20
Trip End
Apr 13, 2005
Vientiane,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Thursday, February 3, 2005
we also took a boat across the mekong river to the other side to visit a bunch of old (established circa 1880s) abandoned wats and caves. you pay your money at the entrance and a group of kids will take you to them (although afterwards, they hold out their hands while saying "hello, money! temple boy! money!"). just like all abandoned or 'lost' things (cities, buildings, whatever), i found them really fascinating and wondered when and why they were abandonned (the kids barely spoke english and we barely speak lao so it didn't make for a very informative tour). overgrown weeds and shrubs grew in between the steps and various other places. inside 2 of the temples, there still sits gold-gilded buddhas, and you can still see some of the art work on the walls, though faded. the 2nd group of kids (a bunch of boys that jessica wowed with her magic card tricks) took us to this spooky, old cave that was used in the past as a temple - there were parts of buddha statues scattered about inside.
the day after our visit to the 'lost wats', we took a songthaew about 32 km out of town to visit the kuang si waterfalls which was pretty nice.. there were at least 5 levels of falls cascading into blur pools that you could swim in. i was stupid and didn't bring my swimsuit but jess did so while i sat and roasted in the sun (i have some crazy zebra-like sandal tan lines from that day now), she splashed about in the falls. i did meet a group of thai and lao people who stopped me while i was wandering around the area to see my tattoo (an object of constant insecurity for me here since women just don't get tattoos here so people stare at it a lot). as it turned out, some of them spoke vietnamese so we got to have a real conversation. they gave me a bunch of oranges and went on their way.
after luang prabang, we headed to the town vang vieng. what a strange town - too much like bangkok's khao san road for us! there is a huge 'backpacker scene' there and that is all you see on this one street. the street is all guesthouses, bars and restaurants blasting bad movies and 'friends' on their TV sets for the people reclining inside on cushions and sipping their beer lao and their 'happy shakes' (possibly stronger than those in amsterdam..). i wonder what the locals think of all this, seeing as they can't usually afford the food on offer at these places (though many also rely on this industry for jobs). one of the big draws to vang vieng is the beautiful scenery - limestone karsts everywhere along the river. on the river, you can go kayaking or tubing. tubing basically consist of floating lazily down the river in a big tractor tire innertube. it took us about 3 hours to finish the journey.. i imagine it is much faster in the rainy season when the water level is much higher and the rapids are much faster (it was usually sooo slow - i got bored towards the end!). along the way, you can stop off at various wooden 'stations' to buy a drink or popularly, a beer lao.. or to jump off various homemade diving and jumping contraptions into the water (which i didn't do since i have a deep water phobia - i.e. i'm too chicken). floating on the river was relaxing (and my sandal tan deepened) but the whole scene was too 'fratty' for me (much like the vang vieng backpackers in general). as one couple we met on the way to vang vieng, and later while tubing mentioned, it felt a lot like 'spring break' (i.e. at a resort or something). needless to say, the locals don't go tubing but you do pass them on the river and see them fishing, snorkelling, playing, washing their clothes, boating, etc. they are also, of course, the vendors of the beer lao. you could very easily visit vang vieng without making any real sort of interaction with locals if you stick to the backpacker trail which is a very strange and unfortunate thing.
we fled to vientiane after spending 2 days in vang vieng. vientiane is the capitol city of laos and also its biggest city.. compared to the big cities in neighbouring countries, however, it is very quiet and relaxing here. we've not done much here - mostly just a lot of wandering around the talat sao (the morning market that actually goes on until late afternoon) and this other nearby market. and eating. and drinking fruit shakes. as we head further south, it gets hotter and hotter (and this is still considered northern lao!) and we get more and more mosquito-bitten. last night, some horrible little critter (or its friends and family too) attacked me no less than 6 times while i slept. thanks, guys!
there seem to be a lot of vietnamese-speaking people in vientiane. i even bargained with one woman in the market in vietnamese. she thought i was japanese at first (surprise, surprise). we will be heading to vietnam for real tonight (or tomorrow, rather), so ending our 3 weeks in lao. our journey begins at 4am and doen't end until friday evening when we finally arrive in vinh. a relative's friend helped us buy train tickets since we were told it is impossible to travel around vietnam without advance tickets around tet (the lunar new year) since everyone is travelling to see family. we will probably crash for a night there and then head to hanoi in the morning (or watever it says on our train tickets).
by the way, conception of time while travelling is weird. things we did only last week seem a really long time ago, and it feels like we have been on our journey for longer than it has been!
oh, and there doesn't appear to be any USB plug thingies on this computer so the final photos from lao will have to wait until later. i know you're all peeing your pants in anticipation right now but i'm sorry, you will just have to wait. au revoir!
