Never Never Laos

After two weeks in Laos we had only seen two places, namely Vientiane and Vang Vieng. Like I mentioned in the last post these two places had two very different vibes to them. As we traveled further south in Laos and stopped for a couple of nights in the town of Pakse, it became increasingly obvious that the rest of Laos had more in common with Vientiane than Vang Vieng. At first we found this a little disappointing, as the lack of atmosphere in Vientiane wasn't something we were fans of. Pakse, though much smaller, was the same as Vientiane in that it was a busy town during the day and then a ghost town at night.

On our first night there we found our selves enjoying a Beer Lao and watching the never ending stream of locals driving past on their motorbikes and we pondered, where the hell were they all going? Cause for the life of us we couldn't see anywhere to actually go. So we were determined that night to find something, simply anything to do! We ended up at first drinking more Beer Lao outside, by the banks of the Mekong, where the locals drink. But still there really wasn't craic of any sort to be had. On our way back from here after curfew, we stumbled upon a boat near the ferry port with loud music playing. We thought we had found a club or something similar, but to our surprise it was just a restaurant full of really drunk locals and a karaoke machine! We were welcomed with cheers and drinks on the house so we stayed late enough, only to return to our guest house and find we had been locked out! Thankfully they don't build gates in Laos with 6'4'' drunk Irish men in mind.

Richie enjoying a Beer Lao on the house in Pakse

Having come to terms with the fact that there was nothing to do in Pakse and that all the people on the motorbikes were actually driving nowhere, but rather just driving around. We went further south to Campasak and into the countryside. Finally the popularity of the laid back attitude of Laos became strikingly clear to us. Get off the beaten track and more importantly out of towns and the laid back vibe is a way of life, embraced 24/7, rather than the weird daily contradiction of life in more built up areas. I guess when we were in places which during the day showed such signs of life and then just stopped dead at night we didn't really know what to make of it. But once we found ourselves on a little wooden long tail boat crossing the Mekong to sleepy Campasak, we finally understood what all our friends who've been to Laos before were talking about.

Crossing the Mekong to Campasak

Once we got settled in our guest house in Campasak, I dug deep into the bottom of my backpack and got out the hammock that a friend from home (nice one Squeak!) had been nice enough to give me as a going away present. I had yet to use this bad boy and had almost forgot that I had it! Lying in my hammock reading my book would prove to be the pass time of choice over the next couple of weeks. Campasak consisted mainly of one street, which similar to the rest of Laos was still dotted with old french architecture. But unlike the other places we had seen in Laos, the buildings were not kept to any standard and surrounded by lush country side they had a unique rustic charm to them. The rest of our time was spent sampling the surprisingly amazing food, getting massages in the local spa and hiring bicycles to visit the ancient temple of Wat Phou.

Tammy chilling in Squeaks hammock, Campasak

Hired bikes, Campasak

Old French architecture, Campasak

Wat Phou is a unique temple site by Laos standards. The temple dates as far back as the sixth century and was more likely built by the ancient Khmers of Cambodia. Roads were thought to have connected Wat Phou with the ancient temple city of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap in Cambodia, which was the capital of the ancient Khmer civilization and the first of its kind in South East Asia.

The ancient Khmer worshiped all the Hindu deities and not just Buddha like the people of South East Asia do today. With this in mind it seems that the site of Wat Phou was chosen due to the fact that one of the peaks of the Lingaparvata mountains that raise up from behind is a natural phallus shape. And since Shiva, one of the three main Hindu Gods is often symbolized by a phallus, this theory makes sense. History aside, Wat Phou is an interesting place to visit as unlike most of the ancient Siamese and Khmer temples in Thailand and Cambodia, Wat Phou has never been over enthusiastically restored and so has a more natural ancient ruin feel when you walk around the rumble.

Wat Phou, Campasak

Having spent only a couple of days in Campasak and having seen it all, we had another seriously early start and caught a boat, followed by a typically over crowded mini-bus (I had the serious displeasure of having to sit pretty much on top of the gear stick and having to avoid getting nutted every time the driver changed gears!), and then another boat to Don Khong, the largest island in Si Phan Don, or more commonly known as the Four Thousand Islands.

As the Mekong reaches Laos' deep south, along the border with Cambodia, it changes into a 14km wide web of rivulets, creating a landlocked archipelago. To say that there's "4000" islands is an extreme exaggeration, but there certainly are a lot of them and some of the smaller ones are only accessible during the height of the dry season, when the level of the Mekong is at its lowest. Those islands big enough to support inhabitants generally consist of small ports and villages around the edge, leaving the center of the island free for rice fields and other agriculture.

Life in the fields, Si Phan Don

We stayed in a really cheap but absolutely deadly guest house called Villa Khan Khong during our three days on Don Khong. A beautifully preserved wooden French colonial house, with a large communal area out front where we spent the evenings relaxing and conversing with some of the most interesting people we've met on our travels yet. From a Belgian woman traveling after spending 8 years as a humanitarian aid worker in the Congo, to an elderly Australian guy who traveled third world countries working with communities to encourage and teach eco friendly sustainable living.

One downside to Don Khong was that on our first night there was a festival to mark the end of the rainy reason. Huge rigs were set up with massive PA systems blasting out, what was at first interesting, but soon grew very monotonous, traditional Lao music. This continued to our surprise till maybe 5am, all I'll say is god bless Valium! But to our horror, it would seem that the organisers left the PA system behind and over the next two days the locals couldn't help themselves. The first day the local youth marching band used it to practice (badly) the simplest of drum beats from maybe 8am till about 6pm, over and over and over and over! The next day, they had a proper party at maybe 8pm till midnight, but the band plugged into the PA on full volume and treated the entire town to sound of them sound checking, tuning up and practicing (badly) for the entire day from maybe 8am onward!

Don Khong seemed like a beautiful island, but really only left us with a mutual headache. So gladly we caught another boat, which navigated its way through tiny uninhabited islands to Don Det and back to the peaceful paradise we had experienced in Campasak. Don Det was much smaller that Don Khong, so small in fact it didn't even have electricity. For a euro a night you got a simple hut with a bed and two hammocks on your porch. We opted to stay on the side of the island were the sun sets rather than be baked alive every morning on the sun rise side of the island (no electricity means no fan remember).

Guesthouses along the sunset side, Don Det

Locals doing laundry in the Mekong, Don Det

Young girls hiding from the scary falang (foreigner), Don Det

Early signs of electricity, Don Det

Most guest houses on Don Det consisted of only maybe 4 or 5 huts, so the first few we checked out were full. Until we were outside one called Tena Guesthouse. Outside we met a German ex-pat who was in Laos for so long he had a Lao name and considered the people who ran Tena Guesthouse he real family. His name was Phet and he encouraged us to book into Tena. It seemed the same as all the rest so we thought why not, but it turned out to have a couple of unique aspects in comparison to the others.

Firstly there was Phet himself, who could be found at the start of everyday already drunk as you were sitting down to breakfast. He was a harmless person, who I imagine has led a very different life to most. He was 55, definitely an alcoholic, an ex heroin addict, and to our surprise an aging lady boy! But though some people would judge a person like Phet negatively or even humorously, when we took the time to listen to and talk to him he was a wealth of stories and one of the most interesting people I've met traveling and in my entire life for that matter.

The other unique aspect of Tena Guesthouse was the moth infestation it succumbed to on a nightly basis. When the sun went down in Don Det, homes and businesses fired up their generators to supply power from between the hours of 6 and 11pm. Moths as we all know are stupid creatures that flock to a light bulb thinking it to be the moon. But Tena was unlike its neighboring guesthouses, which used small colored light bulbs in their restaurants and maybe one large fluorescent white light, slightly away from the restaurant, to attract the unbelievable amount of moths that swept into Don Det from the Mekong like a blanket of snow. Tena on the other hand had a couple of colored bulbs, but actually more bright white lights than anything else. The plague like volume of moths was a spectacle to behold (as was the owners entertaining attempt to solve the problem with fire!), but got old after maybe two nights and I reckon resulted in a serious loss of business for the restaurant in Tena. I mean you had to keep your hand over you beer just to stop it getting full of the horrible little bastards.

Moth Swarm in Tena Guesthouse, Don Det

The mass murder of moths, Don Det

We met tonnes of like minded heads in Don Det and had a really great time there. It was no Vang Vieng, but at the same time it was so different you can't really compare the two. When we weren't lazying about in our hammocks we rented more bicycles and explored the middle of Don Det and crossed the old French rail way bridge that connects Don Det to Don Khon (thats Don Khon not Don Khong, something which causes a lot of confusion when trying to talk with locals), where we visited Lhi Phi falls. A popular tourist attraction on the islands, the falls aren't high by any standards but are incredibly wide and considered by the locals to be full of trapped souls, so obviously its forbidden to swim in. Though the water looked so dangerous you'd want to be nuts to consider diving in to be honest.

Tammys makes way for a truck full of monks, Don Det

Old French railway bridge connecting Don Det and Don Khon

Lhi Phi Falls, Don Khon

Richie after paying 10,000 kip (about 80 cent) to travel between Don Det and Don Khon

Being so close to the border with Cambodia, we figured that our border crossing experience would be a care free experience, oh god how we were so wrong! First off we had booked our ticket with a local tour company who without going into serious detail, cause believe me I could rant and rant (I'm aware that this whole blog could be considered a rant, but it differs greatly from an angry rant, trust me). Basically we spent the entire morning being lied to for no good reason. Asian people go about social interactions around the concept of keeping face. This is a very interesting cultural thing to get used to and usually is perfectly fine and quite enjoyable, but at times it can be difficult. This was one of the more difficult times, as this particular man rather than just being straight with us, lied behind a smile consistently so as not to lose face. Another Asian person, with a full understanding of how face works would maybe deal with this much better than tired and impatient Irish people.

Apart from a brief interlude at a local early morning fish market the day ahead consisted mainly of stress. Not to mention the border crossing where each official who you have to deal with tries to scam you out of a dollar. Myself and some other backpackers present paid the first one at the Laos border. But inspired by Tammy's unwillingness to be scammed I refused on the next two occasions. I know you might all think, come on man its only 1 dollar, but with dozens of people crossing the border everyday its a whole lot more than one dollar and a scam is a scam, so screw that. But Tammy dealt with the irate officials perfectly, she stayed calmed and smiled and simply refused. A couple coming across from Cambodia at the opposite window to us were shouting and swearing at the official, which in Laos results in a loss of face and only meant that the couple were causing themselves more trouble than they needed to.

Morning fish market after leaving Don Det

Tammy refusing to pay 1 dollar at the Laos border

In conclusion though I'd have to say, that to visit Laos is to visit a place like I've never known. For me, taking into consideration my limited experience in life, it has a unique atmosphere in that its a place where the land is wild and endless and feels as if it has tamed its people. Unlike so many other places in the world, including Ireland, where the vice versa is the accepted norm of human society.

But yet to call the lao people tame is not to say that they are without a wont of vitality in their lives. On the contrary, their external calm, politness and warmth are virtues that they have perfected over countless generations, during which they have endured so much. Including Foreign occupation, communism, civil and foreign war. Being the most bombed country in the world, America alone having dropped over two million tonnes of explosives in the years before and during the Viet Nam war. All this history can easily make one feel sorry for the lao, but better to have a sincere respect for them, and for the warmth of their smile, and more importantly the quality of their beer, even though it can leave you seriously gasey!

Beer Lao!

The future of Laos...

Cross the border into Laos...

Annnnnnndddd its gone! No more Thailand, well at least not for another few months. Tammy and I will head back there eventually to hook up with Nicola again and do some more stuff we never got around to like scuba diving, meditation courses and maybe go back to Ko Phangnan for a Full Moon Party.

We left Nicola in Phuket and met back up with Kev in Bangkok to hop on a sleeper train to take us to the Thai/Laos border at Nong Khai, polishing off our time in Thailand with large bottle of 100 pipers whiskey, almost as a tribute, or at least that was our excuse. Suffice to say we had our sore heads on when we eventually reached the border, so the first few hours in Laos were a little hazy.

Sorting out our visa's at the Thai/Laos Border

We made our way into the capital of Laos, Vientiane, which was vastly different in comparison to any city we had experienced in Thailand. Not different really in how it looks and feels, but different in very subtle, not immediately obvious ways. The first difference became clear to us at 11pm on our first night, when the bar we were in shut up shop, so we strolled around to find another one, only to find, to our horror, that everything was closed. They say some cities never sleep, well Vientiane it would seem treated every night like it was a school night.

Street Vendor pushing her stall to the Market down by the Mekong

The other differences became clear the next day as we strolled through the streets and every local we walked past wasn't trying to sell us something. Hell, we even walked past some tuk tuk drivers who let us go without a hussle. Also the heavy French influence on Laos society is ever present and odd signs were everywhere we looked.

French street signs & the amusing no (French) horns sign in the background

Kev and I chose to ignore this one....

All in all we realised Laos was a much more relaxed place than Thailand. I understand how this can be very appealing to people, but we had Kev with us and the man was desperate. Desperate not to spend his last few days in South East Asia sampling good coffee and going to bed early. So without hesitation we were on the bus north to Vang Vieng the very next morning.

Vang Vieng is only about a 4 hour bus journey from Vientiane and yet again its like another world. Where in Vientiane rules are everything, in Vang Vieng it would seem there are no rules. Primarily a town for crazy western foreigners to go nuts and aging hippy ex-pats to find refuge. The main two things in Vang Vieng to do are to fill your nights with making friends with like minded people and fill your days with going TUBING!!!

Vang Vieng is set along the banks of the Nam Xong river, and the locals have set up about a dozen bars along its shores. Some of the bars are themed, such as the Mud Bar and the Slide Bar, others are not. Some of the bars are close to the town while others are about 10km up river. The idea is that you leave you shoes in your room and brave the hot tarmac all the way down to the tubing station. When you get there they supply you with a tube, which is basically the inflated inner tube from a tractor tyre. Next they squeeze you into a tuk tuk and take you, and your tubes, up river to where the bars start. Leaving it up to you to make it back down river again in your tube.

Kev going down river in his tube

As you float down the river, locals throw you lines and pull you into each bar. Each bar has swings and zip lines to launch people into the river, just like in a water park. Like I mentioned earlier, some of the bars are themed. Like the mud bar, which I'm sure you've guessed by now is basically a big muddy mess, where people attempt to play volley ball but end up just rolling around in the mud instead. The other main attraction is the Slide bar, where if you buy a whiskey bucket (Not as strong as you might think), they paint your nail, which gives you the right to use the huge slide, that again simply launches people into the river. Simple, yet incredible effective, its a great way to spend your day. The only downside being the unavoidable bumps, bruises, cuts and in more unique circumstances sore tail bones (ask Tammy), that you pick up during your time on the river. Its a great buzz, buts it rough!

Tammy at the Mud Bar

Vang Vieng seriously is the most fun place we've been to so far and I would go back there in a heart beat. There was only three of us this time, I can only imagine the fun we'd have if about 12 of our friends were with us. But this is by no means necessary to have an amazing time. We met so many good people while we were there, people we'll make the effort to meet again. To mention a few there was the two Scottish boys Rab and Decks, the crew of heads from Pans Guest House Dave, Rich, John and the others (sorry I can't remember all the names), Sean from Finglas, Chris from Blanchardstown, Moli and Adam from Birmingham, Dale from Blackpool, Jen from Scotland and last but most definitely not least Mark from Belfast. All great people, who alone made our time in Vang Vieng worthwhile.

Tammy, Richie, Jen, Kev, Dale

Mark and a very patient bull by the river

One of the most amazing things about Vang Vieng was the fact that the town is set in a valley surrounded by breath taking lime stone karsts. These majestic formations dominate the skyline and make tubing more that just a mere float down the river.

View that greeted us at the front our guest house each morning

About half way through our visit to Vang Vieng, Kev and I decided to take a day off and rent some motorbikes and do the so called loop of Vang Vieng. Which would take us off the beaten track down rough dirt roads, through local villages, over rickety bamboo bridges and past holy caves and blue lagoons.

Our crappy 110cc bikes at the bridge leading out of town

Near the beginning of the trek, good Samaritan and all around trusting guy Kev Conway picked up a hitchhiker, supposedly looking for a ride back to his village. Though after we stopped about three times while he looked for his friend, it became obvious that we had picked up a con man, looking to be our guide and make some cash out of us. We told him we'd rather continue on our own and as a last gasp he assured us that he was a christian and that he could be trusted. This meant nothing to us of course and we drove away. We would see him maybe another 5 times in Vang Vieng hanging out at the bars trying his hand at other cons and pretending like he had never met the two guys who were wise to him.

An unamused Kev Conway and the christian Laos conman

Once on our own, we tried to find our way to the holy Pou Kham Cave with its famous blue lagoon. Our map was proving to be more than useless, when we stumbled across an old flatbed truck acting as a sign post and found ourselves on the right road. We had forgotten to take our swimming trunks so unfortuantely couldn't go for a dip in the lagoon, but we dismounted our bikes and climbed up the side of the mountain to the caves mouth. Worn out after the climb, I was looking forward to a nice cold cave to cool down in. This I would soon find out showed my complete lack of knowledge of how caves work. Inside the cave was like a dark, slimey, oven. The walls heated up from the sun outside and there was no wind inside to cool you off. We found ourselves sweating more than we had during the trek in Chang Mai. Due to the serious discomfort, we didn't hang around in the cave for long, but it was still a worth while diversion from the main trek.

Old school truck let us know we were on the right road

Kev checking the map just to be sure

Kev making the ascent to the mouth of the cave

Inside Phou Kham Cave

Prayers next to the shrine inside the cave

Sunlight leaks in from outside

Back outside we hit the road again and were determined to reach the end of the loop and back. The end was the secluded village of Nampue. To get there we had to cross through many other villages, through a quarry and funniest of all past big schools of little kids, who I guess see a lot less of people like me and Kev than the people who live in the towns. Everytime we drove past a school, dozens of kids would run over, all of them screaming "sabai di!!", which means hello in Laos. You try to wave back to all of them, but the roads were so dodgey, we were more concerned with not crashing than waving to each and every one.

We also had to cross over many rivers and each one had a nice, hair raising, rickety bamboo bridge in order to do that. Bridge's which the locals have wisely turned into toll bridges, charging 10,000 Kip for each motorbike to cross. When you're thinking in Kip and you cross half a dozen bridges it can seem like its all adding up. But really 10,000 Kip is about 80 cent, so you get over it when you think of the people you're giving the money to and how much it means to them.

Kev crossing a bamboo bridge

Kev in Nampue, the end of the road....

Richie just taking a moment....

As much fun as Vang Vieng was, it can get pretty tough to keep it up. We lasted 12 days before we had to pack it in. Having been some of the loudest voices to be heard during the regular day to day chanting of "ONE MORE DAY! ONE MORE DAY!", we eventually had to ignore the call and leave. Apart from us needing to relax for a while, we were also finally losing Mr. Conway. He had to head back to Thailand, back to Betsy. She needed to be drove to Malaysia and put on a boat home. And then Kev needs to continue on to Singapore and get his ass on a flight to Austrailia. Where he's all set up to work on a farm for three months and put some new life into his travelling fund, before it drys up completely.

Tammy and I returned to Vientiane. Having left it because we found it boring, isn't ironic that we return there in need of this same trait. We shacked up in a nice mid range guest house, with no bed bugs, unlike the place we had in Vang Vieng, and lay back and watched "The Wire" for a few days. Spent our nights in search of good food and eventually our days in search of just interesting stuff to do.

After a few days we caught the local bus, number 14 out to Xiang Khouan (Buddha Park). A field along the banks of the Mekong, about 24km outside Vientiane, full of comtemporary buddhist and hindu sculpture. The brain child of a very eccentric, self styled holy man named Luang Phu Bunleua Sulilat. The park was built in the 1950's after Sulilat returned to Laos from Viet Nam after spending years as the desciple of a cave dwelling Hindu Rishi (Sage). He fled to Thailand during the during the 1975 Communist revolution in Laos.

Various pieces of sculpture in Xieng Khuan

Boys who followed us around the park for no apparent reason

Big Reclining Buddha and Ong on the right

We also met Ong on our visit to Xieng Khuan, a local Lao guy who happened to not only have lived in Vang Vieng for 6 months last year. But worked in the guest house we stayed in and knew all the people we had met. You can't simply look past weird coinsidences like this, so we had to invite the guy out for a drink in Vientiane, and so ended our Vang Vieng recovery period!

As a result of meeting up with Ong, the next day in Vientianne was another right off. Tams had a sore on her foot that wouldn't go away so she stayed in bed for the day and I went about exploring the temple district for a nice chilled out day with the monks. I managed to find most of the more important temples even if the local sign posts were a little misleading at times. I ended the day with climbing up the "Patuxai" (Laos Victory Gate), another French inspired piece of the city. Reminiscent of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, except for obvious asian symbols. The thing is though, they never finished the dam thing! They started it in the 1960s and then stopped after the communist revolution and for some reason have never bothered to finish it. So from a distance it can look fairly impressive, but up close its horrible. A sign on the monument actually reads "From a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete", talk about brutal honesty.

Wat Mixay, Vientiane

Useless Sign Posting in the Temple District, Vientiane

Wat Inpeng, Vientiane

Wat Chanthabuli, Vientiane

The Patuxai (The Monster of Concrete), Vientiane

So now me and Tammy are going to head further south in Laos to a place called Pakse, and then further on to the 4 thousand islands where the Mekong meets Cambodia.The next few weeks should be very relaxing, which is the whole idea of Laos I guess. This in a way is the start of a new leg of our travels, as in we're now two and not three. I'd like to say good luck to Kev and to Betsy (Kevs van for those of you who have forgot) and we hope to see them both again soon. We'll see Kev again in Austrailia and hopefully Betsy again in the near future when we eventually get back to Ireland. Kev hopes to fix her up and turn her into the official party wagon. I look forward to hitting some festivals around Europe in her. Take it easy Mr. Conway!!!

Richie and Kev on the roof of the Dragon Lodge, Vientiane

Kev......