Vientiane - Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Our next stop was Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We were going to fly from here to Cambodia, so we said we may as well stay a day to see what it was like.

A really, really boring town. It was about the size of Limerick with none of the charm (;-)). We couldn't wait to get out of this place. We would eventually fly from the international airport there to Siem Reap. The airport was tiny - only 2 gates. Amazing for a capital. Anyway, don't bother with Vientiane.

Mountains and Caves

About a 20min walk out of Vang Vieng is the huge Red Cliff. We strolled out here one morning to do a bit of climbing and caving. I didn't climb the Red Cliff but I climbed the smaller one in front of it. Views from it were amazing. Half way up I remembered I didn't like heights - which wasn't fun ;-)

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

Then we headed down to one of the caves for a while, guided by the park ranger. Got to touch the stalagtites and stalagmites in the cave, which was cool - they wouldn't let you do that at home!

From Laos Photos

Vang Vieng

What a cool little town. We arrived here not knowing what to expect and then loved it wanting to stay longer. The river through the town has lots of little bamboo bridges over it and loads of bars and restaurants with hammocks and ly down couches. The big thing to do in this town is "Tubing" where you sit into a rubber tube and float down the river, visiting the bars and restaurants along the way. We were even too lazy for this and just swayed in hammocks for the afternoons we were here.

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

Again this place felt very French in some ways - Loads of baguettes and cafes everywhere.

"Route 13"

I was looking forward to travelling on a big straight road again after the two days on the Mekong. According to the map "Route 13" sliced the country in two, and was the main route through the country. How disappointed we were. We spent 5 hours driving the equivilant distance from Limerick to Portlaoise on the narrowest, windiest road ever, though huge mountains. The views were pretty spectacular but we were quite dizzy afterwards - but it was worth the reward of getting to Vang Vieng.

From Laos Photos

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang was the end of the line for the slow boat. For the first time in Laos the French influence in the country was becoming noticeable. Kids would play bowles at the side of the street, baguettes with laughing cow cheese were on sale everywhere, dual signage was in French and Lao and cafès lined parts of the main street. Making it stranger was that all this was mixed up in a very asian town.

From Laos Photos

I really liked Luang Prabang. The night market here was fantastic, lots of temples and the people were really nice. "Sabadee :-)" (Hello) everybody would say to eachother - much more so than Thailand - felt a little like home in that repect.

From Laos Photos

In the center of town was a temple up high on a hill that we climbed. Sure, the temple was nice, but even more interesting was that there was an old Russian anti-aircraft gun on the top of the hill - a hangback from the days of communism.

From Laos Photos

Pak Bang

Pak Bang is a tiny town by the Mekong where we stopped for the night. The towns only economy is the boat stopping and it's really strange to come across a place like this, packed with hotels and guesthouses in the middle of the jungle.

From Laos Photos

We got off the boat and looked for our guesthouse. Hundreds of touts were trying to pawn off guesthouses on the bank of the river ... and other things - "Weed, opium?" we were asked more than once. Incidentally, we heard a funny story the next morning - I had heard that this town was a bit of a cartel, since tourists have no choice but to pay the prices they're told for everything. I got talking to this guy the next morning who had bought weed the night before. He said, within minutes of sparking up the police had barged into his room threatening to arrest him if he didn't buy them off ... coincidence?

The town also had no electricity after 10 at night and not again until 6am. Things were definitely starting to look different in Laos. Not just the creature comforts, but the tourists were different too - everyone looked a lot more backpackery.

In the morning before we left we got a daylight view of where we were. Some stunning scenery from the bank of the river before we got back on the boat.

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

The Slow Boat and Handbrake Turns on the Mekhong

The slow boat from huai Xai to Luang Prabang would take 2 days with one overnight stop in Pak Beng for the night. It was pretty cool, with some lovely views. The Mekong itelf is quite a large river, even in the dry season, which we were in the middle of. In many places its banks are lined with huge cliff faces and rock. The water level was quite low because of the dry season and we had to experience whitewater in many parts. This was a pretty scary experience, considering we were in a 50ft long metal boat. The driver would pull crazy handbrake turns in the middle of the river to skid around large rockfaces ... slowing down didn't seem to be an option, although I could kind of see his point - I didn't fancy navigating this at night.

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

The boat held about 150 people and only sold Beer Lao at the back on one of the day. I was also the only phrase that the girl selling it understood - Some of the English guys starting saying "It's beer Lao O'Clock" to everyone after efforts to get the time of day from her.

From Laos Photos

From Laos Photos

The wooden benches on the boat were very uncomfortable. We were smart enough to have bought cushions before going on though. A long time to be sitting on a bench like this though! 7 and 9 hours on each day! Really nice trip and I'd recommend to everyone to do it once (aside from the fact that there is really no other means to get to Luang Prabang from this direction).

From Laos Photos

I was a Millionaire and all I've got to show for it is this lousy t-shirt

1 Euro gets you a whopping 12,000 kip. I wasted little time becoming a millionaire. It also felt powerful carrying a stack of notes 1 1/2 inches thick. I reckon something must have gone very wrong for Laos inflation-wise in the past 10 years. The Lonely Planet I was using was from 1997. All the prices quoted in the book are roughly 1/40 of what they are now.

Welcome to Laos

When we stepped off the boat I joked, "Wow it feels so different," little did I know that it actually would be. We stayed overnight in Huai Xai, across the river from Chang Khong in Thailand, on the first night. The town was definitely the smalled town I'd been in yet and immediately felt quite different to anywhere I'd stayed in Thailand so far. The place was very laid back and moved at a far slower pace ... wait 20 minutes for them to make a banana milkshake when you're the only customer, for example - but why not? It just makes everything seem better and even more relaxed. At the same time, a lot of the buildings, even in this tiny town, felt very practical, basic, almost how you'd imagine communist buildings in a Russian spy movie.

From Laos Photos

We were reliably informed by our tour operator that you do pronounce the 's' in Laos and that a person from Laos is called a Lao. The currency is the Kip and don't expect electricity everywhere you go. Welcome to Laos - I'm looking forward to this already.