Beer Lao
Trip Start
Aug 12, 2006
1
9
12
Trip End
Ongoing
Luang Nam Tha,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Getting to Laos was like walking into a room full of opium fulled yogis - it was seriously chilled. Not only that, but the people were genuinely friendly and kind. After our pretty negative experiences with the people in Vietnam this was an enormous relief and we spent the first day just kicking back in Veng Vien and letting the stress and tension leave us.
Veng Vien is a total tourist mecca but we welcomed it at the time and relished in the opportunity to meet new people, soak up the Lao energy and just take it easy. Selina, Kate, Candy and I got a couple of bamboo bungalows right next to a river which were surrounded by mountains on all sides
A drunken dance with a goat
. The small town has a disprportionate number of bars and restaurants and the first night we met up with some other people we had also met on the hideous bus journey and got stuck into the whiskey, coke and redbull buckets. Needless to say we all got pretty sloshed (and energised) and when we tired of that bar we headed to the full moon party in another bar right on the river. The party was pretty uneventful with the highlight of the evening being the discovery of a black and white goat. The poor thing tried to make a speedy goat getaway when we started singing Michael Jackson's "Black and White" to it.
The following day we headed out with hoards of other tourists to partake in the Veng Vien ritual of 'tubing' on the river. This basically involves hiring an inner tube tyre for the day, floating down the river and stopping at any of the numerous bars along the way. The owner of the bar would haul you to shore using a bamboo pole and the bar itself could be anything from a crate of beer at the edge of the river to a pumping party with music, volley ball and the highlight...enormous swings that drop you in the water. When i say enormous, they are probably about 10 - 12 metres off the ground, but when you have clambered up a rickerty bamboo ladder to climb onto a dodgy looking platform and are looking at the water below it is really daunting. You basically just hold on to the swing with your two hands, jump and then let go whenever you want over the water
Candy joins the circus
. You had to be careful how you landed because if you were like Candy you could wind yourself and have trouble making it back to shore as a result. Or if you were like me you could get a boob smacking so hard you end up with broken blood vessels and hickey type things on your breasts as a result...nice...So Veng Vien was a whole lot of fun but after that we headed to Luang Prabang which is a nice city on the Mekong. From there we did a two day mountain bike/trekking/elephant riding and kayaking trip. We spent the night in this taditional village sleeping in bamboo huts. It was good that despite the fact that tourists come to the village regularly on these sorts of tours, the village had managed to remain as they had previously been and didnt seem too affected by it all. Just about everyone just went about their lives as if we were not there. Everyone that is except the kids who loved having their photos taken and who were enthralled by Candys juggling.
From there we headed further up the Mekong to a place called Nong Kiaw which is a tiny little place with a cave to visit and not much else to do. We spent a couple of nights there then went even further to an 'isolated' place called Muang Ngoi Neua which only has electricity for three hours at night, has no vehicles and is reached by boat. So it is isolated in many respects but since its inclusion in Lonely PLanet it must have changed a lot as the town itself is filled with guesthouses and restuarants for tourists
Candy, the bike and the bitches...
. But we did a really nice walk to some villages further away where we checked out some caves along the way. It was good to relax, which we did in the bamboo bungalow we took overlooking the river. And now we have moved on and we are here in Luang Nam Tha which is a pretty shitty town. I hired a mountain bike today though and went to a waterfall and the surrounding countryside is actually very pretty.
Tomorrow we head toward the Laos/Thai border before crossing over. We have about a week to make our way down to Bangkok to meet Naz and Mel who (joy joy joy) are coming to spend new years with us. So exciting times ahead, stay tuned for that trashy new years installment!
