The journey to Laos was interesting to say the least, 20 hours in a mini van with the Thai Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. Lets just say it was an experience! Luckily we were getting off at the first stop Vientiane.
Vientiane is the capital of Laos and is only separated from Thailand by the river Mekong. We booked four nights here mainly to sort out our Vietnam visa. The visa turned out to be a piece of cake involving filling out one form and collecting it the next day, at a price of $65 each however.
At this point Nat was still unwell so we decided to find a doctor for him. The Australian embassy in Vientiane have an in-house doctors surgery which is available for British nationals to use also. We rang up and got an appointment for 20 minutes time! After a consultation and a blood test it transpired Nat had Dengue Fever. Lots of rest and sleep were the doctors orders.
It's clear to see the French influence on Laos, there are many cafes all serving croissants and baguettes, as well as pretty decent coffee! Something that was almost impossible to find in Thailand.
After a couple days rest, a large quantity of baguettes and some interesting nights wondering a vibrant night market we hopped on a VIP bus to Vang Vieng. Don't let the companies fool you, it was a fairly run down bus with some suspicious smells.
After a very scenic journey through countryside villages and mountainous passes we made it to Vang Vieng. We arrived during the height of Songkran, a water festival celebrating the New Year in most of the south east Asian countries. It starts when the sun transits the constellation Aries and marked the start of the year 2556 in Laos. We have been to the future!
After we got off the bus, it was a short tuk tuk ride to the hostel. Even though the ride took approximately 3 minutes we still got soaked form head to toe by locals enjoying the festivities.
We spent the next day trying to manoeuvre around the town without getting a drenching. The locals take no prisoners, if you are riding a moped down the street they will stand in the road, forcing you to stop, subsequently chucking a bucket of water down your neck!
One day we decided to bite the bullet and rent a moped to see the caves and lagoons in the mountains. The bike was geared so it took Nat a while to get used to it, we drove up the road on the left hand side before we remembered they drive on the right, whoops!
We started off at a tourist hotspot called the 'Blue Lagoon', but found it was really busy and dirty. After making a quick exit, we met Kathy, Anja and Rawad, two Germans and a Canadian. We then decided to team up and explore the rest of Vang Vieng's incredible surroundings.
Our first stop was a secluded lagoon which was peaceful and succeeded in giving us a relaxing rest bite from the dirt track roads. As we were leaving we came across a deaf and dumb Laos man who was pointing ecstatically for us to follow him up the side of a mountain. Dubiously we followed him, which turned out to be the best decision of our visit to Vang Vieng. We followed him until we came across a cave about a hundred metres up a rocky path. Slowly we made our way into the dark abyss. It was incredible, full of stalagmites, glittering rock formations and the odd creepy crawly. This led to a few screams from the women!
The final part of our Vang Vieng experience was a bit of tubing down the Mekong. As the water was low and the tubing scene has some what evaporated after the deaths of drunk tourists last year, we ended up paddling at a leisurely pace down the river. It was pretty relaxing, but if we were to do it again we would hire a kayak. The trip is longer and there's no bobbing around.
The next and final stop on our journey through central to northern Laos was Luang Prabang. We decided to jump on another VIP bus and arrived about 7 hours later in the world heritage city. First impressions mean a lot and Luang Probang offers bundles of beauty, although this comes at a bit of a price. It was the most expensive place we've been in so far during our whole trip, but our favourite in Laos. We spent our first day chilling around a pool with a submerged pool bar and went out for a nice meal in town that night.
On our second day we met up with Simon and made our way to Kuang Si Falls with our German friends on a 32 km tuk tuk ride. After some great bartering, knocking off a whole dollar $8 (8000 kip) from the total trip we made it to the waterfall. The water was an amazing shade of blue and very refreshing to swim in. There was a rope swing and a mini waterfall that you could jump off. We made it to the top waterfall after what seemed like a mini trek, especially with flip flops on!
That night we all went out for a traditional Laos meal, followed by a game of pool and some drinks. Because of the 11.30 curfew the Laos government impose, all bars close early apart from one place... Luang Prabangs one and only bowling alley. Situated in what seems like a warehouse, slightly outside of the town, sits a state of the art bowling alley. Full of Westerners, it was great fun, if not slightly surreal!
The next day it was time to leave Luang Probang to journey to our third country, one month into our trip. Many thanks to Simon for letting us chill out at his hotel pool and use his room to get ready for a gruelling 24 hour bus journey to Hanoi, Vietnam.
Sabaidee Pimai, Happy Laos New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment