Laos
Facts:-
Day 338 - Monday 12th June 2006 - arriving in Laos
Having crossed the fast-flowing and very brown and muddy Mekong River, we arrived at Laos immigration where we finally got to use one of the passport photos that we had been carrying around the world for our Laos visa application. As we hadn't arranged these visas in advance we only received a 15-day tourist visa, but this was sorted very quickly and efficiently and we soon proceeded into the town of Huay Xai (having not much idea how to pronounce the town name!)
We wandered up from the river in order to look for a guesthouse and bumped into Tamsin & Katie again (the British girls who we had directed to Kristi House in Chiang Mai) just round the corner. We took a room at the BAP Guesthouse and then walked around town looking for the bank to change some travellers cheques. We eventially found the bank but it was closed (it was after 3pm!) so, we rushed back to the dock hoping the exchange booth there was still open. It was, and a few minutes later we came out with a wad of Lao kip 2 inches thick - we felt very rich!
We were thinking of doing a 2-day boat trip up to Luang Nam Tha, but this required chartering a boat and so we needed to find some friends to share the cost. Tamsin & Katie seemed reasonably interested, especially once Ian had bartered the price down by 1000 Baht and so we all signed up for the trip leaving the following morning.
It was about time for a Beerlao. The LP had hyped up Beerlao as being one the best in SE Asia and so we had high expectations. It was certainly better than Thai beer and went down well on such a hot day. We chatted to Tamsin & Katie over a couple of beers and then found the Nutpop Restaurant for some decent grub. Nikki's was on the spicy side again but much more tasty than last night.
Day 339 - Tuesday 13th June 2006 - Boat trip up the Nam Tha (River) - Day 1
We had a nice breakfast in the guesthouse and ordered some baguettes to take with us for lunch. We stocked up on water and then headed down to the river with Tamsin & Katie. We were surprised to see that our longtail boat had no roof (meaning we'd be exposed to the sun all day long) and also how many people were on it - we had expected just us 4 plus the boatman but there were about a dozen onboard. Still, we loaded our backpacks, made ourselves comfortable on the straw mats and we soon started heading down the Mekong River.
Not far downstream we pulled in for a quick passport check and, shortly afterwards, pulled in for a longer stop on the opposite bank (i.e. Thailand). There the boatman and his wife did lots of shopping, including buying a few bags of cement - not sure what they were going to be used for! It was very hot out in the sun and we sweated alot while we sat there waiting in the boat. In the end, we even got our umbrellas out to shield ourselves from the strong sun.
Finally, all the shopping was done and we were back on our way downstream, the breeze made the heat much more bearable although Tamsin & Katie continued with their umbrellas up. We turned a corner and weren't sure if we were still on the Mekong River until Ian cleverly noted that we were still going downstream and so we must be! After about 20km, we definitely turned upstream into the Nam Tha ('Nam' means River in Lao). Travelling upriver we soon came to some rapids which required full power from the boat and caused water to splash and spray over the sides, drenching Ian down one side - at this point we realised that the trip might be a little more adventurous than we had anticipated!
As we continued up the Nam Tha we were treated to beautiful views of jungle and a few hills. There were frequent small rapids and a number of villages scattered along the banks where a few fisherman were fishing with out with nets or bamboo rods. Mostly, we stayed dry but not always and Tamsin and Katie made good use of their umbrellas. The boatmen made a couple of delivery / purchase stops en-route amd at the 2nd stop Nikki decided to look for a toilet. She climbed up the bank to the military checkpoint (assuming someone there might speak English). She asked where the toilet was but the guys just looked at her completely blankly and she realised that she had no idea what the Lao word for toilet was. Eventually the guys guessed what she wanted and pointed round the corner where, luckily, there was a toilet, even if a little basic!
We were feeling a bit peckish by now after our early breakfast and so tucked into our baguette lunch which unfortunately were rather bland and chewy. We then relaxed in the sun on the boat and were soon dozing off. 2 hours later the boat pulled in at a village of just a few huts, where the boat crew and other passengers had lunch. Ian had bought a huge pineapple in the morning so we demolished almost half of it between us, giving some to the local kids. We had to leave the rest behind for the villagers though as it was far too big.
We continued upstream, avoiding lots of sharp rocks emerging out of the river, and cruising between the steep jungle banks, noting that some large areas had been de-forested. Then we went through a gorge section with some interesting caves on one side. We pulled in by a few teenagers on the bank who seemed to have a large monitor lizard on a leash. The boatman and his wife got out for a closer look and we hoped they weren't considering it for our dinner - if they were, it was rejected - phew!
At about 6pm we pulled up at a village and we naturally assumed that this was where we would be sleeping. However, we were not quite there yet and we just had to get out of the boat and walk for a bit as the boat would not have been able to get up the steep cascade there with us all onboard. As soon as we stepped onshore, lots of locals came up to say 'sa-baa-dii' (hello) and, for some reason, were very keen to take all of our empty plastic water bottles.
We continued for another hour or so, passing lots of villages and dropping off 2 of the passengers. It seemed it was bathtime for everyone as all the villagers seemed to be bathing in the river as we passed - lots of the kids shouted and waved at us, some with heads full of soap / shampoo! We finally pulled up at the Ban Khone Kham village of a Tai Lue tribe. It was almost dark by now and so we were thinking the river would be too cold to bathe in but when we stepped out of the boat it was lovely and warm! We followed the boatman's wife and daughter up the hill to our house for the night. It was more sturdy than those on our trek, being built (at least partly) of concrete, but all four of us were to sleep in one very small room with no room for our backpacks.
We decieded to head straight back down to the river for a bath before it got completely dark. Nikki had noticed that the local women had bathed in a sarong and so decided to do the same - it worked pretty well. On return to the house, dinner was soon ready and we tucked into our spicy noodle soup, bamboo shoots and sticky rice. Not long after dinner we were 'encouraged' to go to bed and so, thinking the family wanted to sleep, we put up our mosquito nets and tried to sleep. However it was very noisy and there seemed to be people wandering about the almost constantly...
Day 340 - Wednesday 14th June 2006 - Boat trip up the Nam Tha (River) - Day 2
None of us had slept well, being kept awake by all sorts of noises in the night and being a little concerened that our bags were outside the room and someone might get into them (even though we had the door open). We had been told last night that the boat was leaving at 7 this morning but we failed to establish if and when we might get some breakfast. Breakfast turned out to be served at 6.30am, a few minutes after we had got up and therefore we weren't quite ready for it. Breakfast consisted of more sticky rice with some stir-fried/stewed kale plus some pineapple.
Back in the boat there was much less stuff than the previous day and also less people so we were able to spread out a bit more. Once again there was pretty scenery to look at and we soon relaxed, nodding off a few times after the sleepless night. A little way upriver the boatman and his wife left the boat and another guy took over the driving. No explanation was given and we still weren't sure how far up the river we were able to go before it got too shallow.
At just after 9am we arrived at the town of Na Lae and we weren't really that surprised to hear that this was as far as we could go by boat. We hiked up the bank into the town to find our 'taxi' to take us the rest of the way to Luang Nam Tha. The taxi was obviously a small saengthaew designed to hold about 8-10 people at most. When we got to it there was a pile of big rice bags down the centre so we wouldn't be able to stretch our legs out. We obviously weren't happy about this for a 4 hour journey and eventually, after much persuasion, the driver moved them under the seats.
The four of us got in, our backpacks on the roof, and we set off....to the hospital! Not a private taxi then! A very sick woman with a drip got in the truck together with her husband, children and a kettle with recently boiled water (presumably to help keep her hydrated) which kept spilling over Nikki's toes. Lots more people also piled in before we finally left Na Lae on a very bumpy road with about 15 passengers. The road was atrocious and very steep and muddy in places, by far the worst road of our entire RTW trip! We also stopped at other villages to pick up more passengers (and chickens) and at one point we counted 23 people in the truck! We couldn't believe it when we were full to bursting and the driver stopped for a family of 4 with 2 very large sacks - surely there was nowhere at all for them to go? In the end the driver admitted defeat and we left the family behind - they would have to wait for the next truck (i.e. tomorrow).
It was an extremely uncomfortable journey - even worse than the one from Uyuni in Bolivia, which we thought would take some beating. Perhaps the minibus ride in Huaraz, Peru was more uncomfortable but that was only an hour long. Nikki had the 'luxury' of having some local music coming out of the speaker right next to her ear, but the truck was making so much noise that she was the only one to hear it!
4 hours later we turned off the dirt track onto a proper sealed road and we all heaved a sigh of relief. This stretch was unfortunately short-lived but we were only a few minutes away from the town of Luang Nam Tha and soon at the bus station. We crawled out of the sawngthaew, laughing at the tuk-tuk drivers offering us a lift into town - as if we'd want to climb in another small bumpy vehicle straight away?! We walked into town, unfortunately a long way round (due to the rubbish LP map) and checked into the Many Chan Guesthouse. It was a pretty nice room and an even nicer price - we couldn't believe our luck when she said it was only US$3!
We had quick showers and then a very late lunch (it was well after 3pm) - Ian didn't get what he ordered but it was very tasty so he didn't mind at all. We wandered down the main road to investigate some tour options and then went to an internet café to check our e-mail. We relaxed for a bit in our room and decided to do a 2-day trek to Ban Nam Lai with Green Discovery. Since lunch had been so good. We decided to have dinner in the guesthouse too - Nikki ordered what Ian had eaten for lunch and Ian had the same but with beef - a very tasty dish! We chatted a bit to Tamsin and Katie and then headed for bed to get some much needed sleep before our trek.
Day 341 - Thursday 15th June 2006 - Trek to Ban Nam Lai, Day 1
Unfortunately, breakfast options at the Many Chan Guesthouse were a bit limited this morning (Nikki had been looking forward to her pancake) but we found something to eat and headed to the Green Discovery office. Ian popped over the road to change some travellers cheques as the bank had been shut yesterday. Meanwhile Nikki was introduced to our guide Thanonxay (or Xay for short). They were all amazed (and concerned) at the size of Ian's backpack - we were carrying sleeping bags just in case it was cold and didn't have a smaller bag anyway.
We took a (private) sawngthaew to the start of the trek, which seemed to be a random roadside track, and began walking along an easy wide path past lots of paddyfields, some with farmers busily ploughing or planting rice as it was the start of the season. We chatted to Xay and discovered that his English was very good - he was normally a secondary school English teacher and just a trek guide on weekends but the school were on holiday for 3 months so he was doing more guiding.
The clouds were looking ominously dark as we reached the edge of the forest and we could hear the thunder getting nearer to us. Before too long, the rain had also reached us and so we sheltered under a tree, donning our waterproofs. Luckily it was a fairly brief downpour and after about 10 minutes the rain had eased enough for us to continue walking through the forest. However, the rain had been heavy enough to make the path quite muddy and to bring out the leeches, which seemed to favour attaching themselves to Nikki's legs and Xay's feet but ignoring Ian altogether. This was Nikki's first encounter with leeches and she quickly decided that she wasn't a fan of theirs! Luckily most were pulled off before they really got stuck in.
After a few hours we reached a small clearing and decided it was time for lunch. Xay found some large flat stones and covered them with banana leaves for our seats, he even used more banana leaves as a table cloth. We sat down and tucked into some very tasty pork & bamboo shoots and some spring onion omelette fritters (Xay had collected these before leaving town). After lunch Xay attempted to 'leech-proof' our boots with some formula his mother had given him.
We then continued through the forest - it was very dense and 'jungle-like' and after a while we came across a snake on the path in front of us. Xay looked very worried/scared and wasn't sure what to do, other than veer off the path into the undergrowthto get round it and we weren't too keen on that plan. The snake wasn't moving but that was never any guarantee that it was dead. once we realised Xay wasn't willing to do anything with the snake, Nikki poked at it with her walking stick (a bit of bamboo cane that Xay had cut to size fro her earlier). After a few prods the snake was still motionless so we thought it was probably dead but when Nikki tried to lift it off the path with her stick it suddenly sprang to life and slithered away into the leaf litter. We hurried past it and continued along the path.
We continued walking, following a stream and crossing from one side to the other many times> Nikki picked up a couple more leeches on the way (they didn't crawl up her boots though, so we don't know if the formula worked or not!). After a bit we arrived at a waterfall - it was very pretty and about 10 metres high. Ian went in for a shower and washed his very sweaty shirt, Nikki stayed out, wary of more leeches. From the waterfall it was a short steep uphill climb and then down into Ban Nam Lai village belonging to an Akha tribe.
We stopped at a meeting point with a view over the village to take a couple of photos and Xay told us a bit about the Akha tribe. They originated from southern China and moved into this area about 150 years ago. They have some traditional head gear which the women wear - a black headscarf, decorated with lots of silver pendants. Amongst other things, they used to believe that if a woman gave birth to twins, it was a very bad omen. So much so that the rest of the villagers used to kill the newborn twins and banish the rest of the family to the forest for 3 years. Luckily, they have recently been persuaded to stop this custom but Xay said he can remember reports of it still going on when he was young. They also have an interesting custom for the young men when they 'come of age' - they build themselves a 'love house' which is a small house on stilts, just big enough for 2 people to lie down inside and a little space for the couple to sit outside. The men have to lure their girlfriend up to the balcony where they are seen to chat for a number of days. Once they actually sleep together in the love house, everyone in the village knows and they then get married!
We then proceeded down to our 'guesthouse' (a traditional style one-room house build of wood and bamboo) where we dumped our bags. Xay then led us on a tour around the village. There were mostly only kids about (plus dogs and pigs etc.) as all the adults were busy working in the surrounding fields and forest, but they were extremely friendly and all came running up to us shouting sabadee (hello in Lao) and wanting to shake our hands. We watched a few of them playing a game of throwing flip-flops and then proceeded to the small village school. This consisted of just one classroom - apparently the younger kids sat facing one way while the older kids faced the other end but there was only one teacher who had to keep running from end to end - it sounded like a lot of hard work! Nikki played at being teacher and taught the kids how to count to 10 in English and also how to sing 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes' (after some encouragement from Xay). In return the kids taught Nikki ho to count to 10 in Akha but of course she immediately forgot - not that she'd have any use for it elsewhere.
On the walk back up through the village we were invited to sit with some locals who were soon offering us some rice 'vodka' and cigarettes. We tried the vodka (reluctantly as the cup it was served in was far from clean). It was truly horrible. We were also practically forced to hold a lit cigarette - we weren't very happy about this and obviously had no intention of smoking it but apparently it was impolite in their tribe to refuse anything that was offered to you.
Eventually we managed to get away and back to the guesthouse and went down to the well to try and have a wash. It was already dark and the water was pretty muddy though so we only bothered to wash our legs and arms (it was only a 2-day trek after all). We then tried to rest a bit in the guesthouse but the local villagers were too curious and especially our Laos guidebook - they looked at it for ages, mostly the pictures. Ian tried to explain to them where England was, by pointing at the world map in the book, but they didn't really have any concept of where even there own country was so it was very difficult!
One of the villagers cooked us dinner and ate with us while his friends watched and chatted. We had a soup with chicken (bones and all), rattan (the same plant that isused to make "bamboo" furniture) and jungle greens with some rice. It was pretty good. After dinner we were very sleepy but everyone else was keen to chat, sing, play some local musical instruments and drink more rice vodka. We really wanted to go to bed but we couldn't yet because our entertainment was not over. We were still due for a traditional Akha massage which was given by two local girls. They were very giggly and were even more amused by Nikki's small toes but we both enjoyed the massage, especially after a long day's trekking.
After this, we still had a full house and we entertained the guys by taking photos of them with our digital cameras and then showing them their picture on the screen - they thought this was great and had obviously not seen this technology much before. However, finally we managed to convince them that we needed to get some sleep and managed to get to bed around 11.30pm. From what we could hear, the drinking and singing continued elsewhere in the village.
Day 342 - Friday 16th June 2006 - Trek to Ban Nam Lai, Day 2
Despite a man coming into our hut at about 3.30am to light the fire and later waking up to find some kids sitting at the end of our beds staring at us through the mosquito net, we did actually manage to sleep well. We got up around 7.30am and somehow managed to get dressed with the kids still staring. Breakfast consisted of eggs and rice but the keen rice vodka man was soon there, drinking away and trying to encourage us to have some with our breakfast. At the risk of offending him, we declined! Before we left the village we were also given a hand-made embroidered bag each as a present from the tribe. This was another nice touch from a very generous village. We knew we had probably paid for all the extras like this and the massage in our tour price but it was a refreshing change not to have to hand any money over to the villagers themselves. In return, we did our bit by leaving a couple of spare toothbrushes for the villagers - I'm sure they were more effective than the bark we saw some of the women chewing and Xay assured us they did know how to use toothbrushes.
We left the village, together with the local 'bird caller', and walked down to the valley and followed a stream. The bird caller appeared to imitate some of the irds quite well but none of them came close to us. However, we did see some wildlife - at one rest stop we saw a mantis, lots of butterflies and a large spider and later we saw a crab in the stream with lots of baby crabs clinging onto it. We continued through the forest and then past some rice store houses, it was certainly very hot going today, especially when we were in the direct sunlight.
After a couple of hours, we met up with another villager who had walked ahead to cook our lunch for us. We had banana flowers, ferns, rattan, garlic and shallots (complete with skins!) in soup plus some very charred chicken (bones and all again). It was all cooked in bamboo in a fire but, when it was served, hundreds of flies were attracted to us, which managed to put Nikki off. Ian, however, tucked in.
After lunch, we left the villagers there and continued with our trek. This began with a very steep climb up the hill for about 40 minutes but at least we were getting away from the stream and therefore the leeches (hooray!). So far, Xay had been underestimating the times for the various sections of the trek all the way but he seemed to get worse on this last afternoon with 10 minutes becoming 30 more than once. Also, it was quite tough walking as the forest was very dense with lots of low overhanging branches (the trail was presumably only cleared for people of a lcals build). It especially difficult for Ian and his backpack and he managed to rip another couple of holes in his t-shirt. This was also the first trek / tramp / hike we had done when we ended up walking much further than we had expected (12km on day 1 and 15km on day 2) and we were both very tired. The last '12' minutes (which took about 40!) involved taking our boots off to cross a stream (Ian slipped and almost eneded up sitting in the river) and walking between lots more rice paddy fields. Eventually we got back to our waiting sawngthaew which took us back to Luang Nam Tha.
Back at the Green Discovery office, we put our photos on their computer - apparently they have occasoinal meetings with villagers and afterwards, show them a slideshow of some photos tourists had taken. We then checked back into the Many Chan Guesthouse, this time securing a room complete with insect screens for the same bargain price :-). We had a much needed shower and then went downstairs for some Beerlao, dinner (Ian was very hungry and so ended up having two dinners) and World Cup football on TV. Argentina thrashed Serbia and Montenegro, so we actually saw some goals this time!
Day 343 - Saturday 17th June 2006 - On to Luang Prabang
We had been unable to pre-book our bus to Luang Prabang so we were at the bus terminal before 8am. We loaded our bags on top of the bus, grabbed a couple of rolls / muffins from a bakery across the road and sat on the bus waiting for it to leave. We had been given seat numbers but since they weren't next to each other we chose our own seats i.e. the ones with most legroom, almost right at the back. the bus eventually left at 8.45 but obviously had to go via the petrol station and then pick up another 10 or so passengers before we actually left town. By now the top of the bus was full with luggage, boxes and bags of all sorts of things and so the aisles were soon also filling up too with other passengers' bags (and a few chickens!).
Ian snoozed a lot on the journey, even when the road condition deteriorated and the bus struggled up the hills (the engine under obvious strain). We reached Udomxai bus station in time for lunch and grabbed ourselves some noodle soup for lunch at the closest restaurant to the bus. We weren't sure how long we would be stopped here, but since the driver and bus crew and most of the passengers were lunching all around us we thought we should be fine.
Back on the bus, we continued towards Luang Prabang. The road was much better on this section and the scenery was attractive with lots of hills and mountain villages. We both snoozed a bit more and eventually arrived in Luang Prabang after about 10 hours (we had been told it would be 8). We avoided the 'tourist price' for a tuk-tuk into the town centre by asking the guy at the ticket counter what the real price should be and were soon somewhere in the centre of Luang Prabang. After a few minutes orientating ourselves (and discovering we had in fact been dropped a few blocks away from where the driver told us we were) and checking out a few accommodation options, we ended up checking into the Nam Sok Guesthouse (which wasn't in the LP). It was quite an expensive room by recent standards at US$8 but it was very pleasant being wood pannelled. It even came complete with cable TV for watching late night World Cup football games!
We went out for dinner at the (very) nearby Nisha Restaurant and had some tasty vegetarian Indian food (for a change). We then returned to the room to watch a bit of football. We had wanted to stay up to watch the late Czech Republic game but we were both too sleepy.
Day 344 - Sunday 18th June 2006 - Lazy day in Luang Prabang
We planned a relaxing day today as we both seemed to be so tired even though we had slept well in our nice room. We had breakfast at the Scandinavian Bakery - some nice croissants and a big 3-egg omelette for Ian. We then spent the rest of the morning on the internet. Nikki wasn't feeling too well so relaxed in the room for a bit while Ian went out to find the bank which turned out to be shut (it was Sunday, so we wern't surprised, but one of our LPs had said otherwise) and to pick up some lunch, also from the Scandinavian Bakery.
We spent the afternoon relaxing, reading and watching TV before heading out in search of some dinner. We went for a walk looking for a particular restaurant but we didn't find it and ended up at the Pak Huay Mixai restaurant just across the road. However, it was a pretty disappointing meal and possibly the worst Thai red curry Nikki had ever had. At least there was a big thunderstorm to entertain her. We returned to our room and watched a bit more football before going to bed.
Day 345 - Monday 19th June 2006 - Walking Tour of Luang Prabang
We had another good breakfast, this time at the JoMa bakery, before heading to the Royal Palace Museum. The building was nothing special from the outside but was very impressive inside with elaborate decorations. We saw various reception rooms and the throne room whose walls were covered with bright and colourful mosaics, lots of Buddha statues and some ceremonial swords. We also saw the former bedrooms of the Royal family and various traditional dance costumes and masks. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside the museum.
We then began the walking tour in the LP. The first stop was meant to be visiting the market which had since been moved out of town so we headed on to a couple of ornate wats (Wat Wisunarat which is one of the oldest wats in Laos and Wat Aham). We continued on and climbed up the hill to visit Wat Buddabhat - a temple containing Buddha's footprint. From the hillside we also had a nice view back to the Khan River.
We then interrupted our walking tour with a bit of internet and booked our flights home (we had decided on flihgts from Singapore on the 5th September). We picked up a couple of streetside baguettes and took them back to our guesthouse to eat on the balcony outside our room. We rested for an hour or so and then continued with our walking tour after the heat of the middle of the day. We walked along to the end of the peninsula, passing 3 more wats, until we reached Wat Xieng Thong. Here we saw some young monks sounding some drums in the temple complex - they looked like they were having a good time! We spent a while looking round the various buildings before continuing on with the walking tour and eventually climbing Phu Si Hill for a great view of the city and the Mekong River.
Having completed the walking tour, we headed to a riverside bar for a couple of cocktails while watching the sunset.
Thanks very much to Joan Lockhart for "sponsoring" this part of our trip!
We ended up staying there for dinner as well (since it wasn't raining) and, despite some difficulty ordering, the food was ok.Day 346 - Tuesday 20th June 2006 - Pak Ou Caves
We grabbed some breakfast to go from the Scandinavian Bakery and were soon on our way down to the dock for our slow boat along the Mekong River to the Pak Ou Caves. This boat was significantly bigger than the one we took up the Nam Tha - there were about 10 passengers and this time we had a roof and seats. After about an hour we stopped at the 'Whiskey Village' (Ban Xang Hai). Apparently this village used to make earthenware pots but now makes most of its money by selling rice wine / liqueur. There were a few villagers there with stalls set up to sell their products to us tourists. One stall even allowed tastings (a somewhat dubious business decision given than most of the drinks weren't very good!). The black sticky rice wine was particularly horrible but Ian decided that, at only 1000 Kip ($1), the slightly sweet rice wine was nice enough to buy a small bottle for drinking while watching England's game later that night. But, after our experiences of the rice vodka in Ban Nam La, We weren't brave enough to try any of the 45% proof stuff!
As we left the whiskey village it began to rain and we were glad of the roof on our boat. A little further upriver, we arrived at the Pak Ou Caves. We visited the lower cave first, Tham Ting, which was filled with hundreds of buddha statues, mostly small but also a few bigger ones. Then we walked up the stairs to the upper cave. This was unlit and so we had to use our head torches to explore. Here we saw more Buddhas and statues. Actually it wasn't really very exciting at all.
We headed back to the boat and began our journey back downriver. It had stopped raining and the sun came out after a bit which brightened up the scenery significantly. It was a nice relaxing trip. Just before we got back to Luang Prabang, we made another stop at a paper-making village and we saw how they made paper from bamboo pulp. We bought a decorative card as a souvenir.
Back in Luang Prabang, we dumped our stuff in our room and decided to walk out to the southern end of town for some lunch at Nang Sang Dao restaurant which reputedly served some very good khao sawy. It was very nice but a little different to the Thai equivalent. We also had a couple of Beerlaos before setting off to investigate the times of buses to Vang Vieng. However, almost as soon as we left the restaurant, the skies opened and it bucketed down on us. We tried sheltering under a tree for a while but even with an umberella, we were still getting wet and it didn't look like clearing quickly so we ran back to the restaurant and ordered another Beerlao! Eventually it stopped raining but we abandoned our plan to go to the bus station and instead returned to the city centre and spent some time editing photos in the internet cafe.
For dinner we headed out to the Tom Tom Cheng Kitchen - a little more posh than our usual eating establishments and we had some very good food. However, At first, however, Ian didn't think his dinner was spicy enough, so when he found 2 chillis hidden away he crushed them into his food - needless to say the rest of his meal was so hot that it nearly blew his head off!
After dinner we popped into the Lao Lao Garden bar which we had walked past yesterday and ordered some '2 for 1' cocktails. However they were made with local spirits and so really not very good. For our second drink we went for the safe option and just had a beer! This was all while watching Germany comfortably beating Ecuador 3-0.
Back in our room we tried to stay awake for the England v. Sweden game at 2am but we both fell asleep. Ian woke up at half-time (about 3am) and watched the 2nd half but Nikki happily slept on. Ian then found it difficult to get to sleep afterwards as some other guests were chatting loudly outside our room (presumably having just come back from a long night in the pub).
Day 347 - Wednesday 21st June 2006 - Kouang Si Waterfall
We had a bit of a lie-in this morning after the late-night football. We had breakfast down by the river but the service was very slow. Ian had to wait ages for his enormous banana pancake and had to send back his chocolate milk twice because it was hot and he had asked for a cold one! We then decided to check out the prices of a tuk-tuk to the Kouang Si Waterfall. We knew that $3 each would get us on a tour at 1.30pm but we thought it would be nicer to go a bit earlier before the place became overrun with tourists.
We were quoted lots of inflated 'tourist prices' but then one driver offered us a return trip for $5 if we waited until 11.30 (only ½hr). So we killed some time on the internet and then picked up another couple of streetside baguettes for lunch - we had decided to get them from the same lady on the corner but she was snoozing at her stall and it took Nikki a few minutes to wake her up! She didn't mind though - obviously happy for some business. We returned to where we had left the tuk-tuk driver but he was nowhere to be seen. We hung around until 12, during which time our driver whizzed past us several times, waving to us - he was obviously looking for more tourists to make up the cost of his journey. We realised this option now looked unlikely to materialyise and so wandered round the centre of town, finally agreeing a price of $9 with another driver - although it was more, the tuk-tuk was bigger and better and we left straight away.
It was a bumpy 1 hour ride along a mostly unsealed road, climbing uphill most of the way. We passed a few small villages and finally arrived at an area full of tuk-tuks and food / souvenir stalls. We paid our entry and walked along a short forest trail towards the waterfalls. We soon came to an enclosure containing about 10 Asiatic Bears - they had been confiscated from poachers and were being looked after here. It was better than them ending up dead but we both though the enclosure was pretty cramped and they didn't look very happy. So we didn't take any photos.
Nearby there was another enclosure containing an Indochinese Tiger - we couldn't see it in the jungle area but eventually found it being fed by a tourist in the warden's (cagged!) enclosure. 2 tiger cubs were brought in when their mother was killed by poachers but one of them did not survive. This remaining tiger looked surprisingly fit and healthy.
We walked on and soon arrived at a beautiful turquoise pool between the trees with a small cascade of glistening water running into it. We were the only people there and it looked very inviting but we walked a bit further upstream to a 2nd pool which was even nicer. Ian soon jumped in to cool off - Nikki was about to join him but a dog came along looking hungry and so she had to guard our lunch. In the end we decided to eat our lunch first and once again the baguettes were very tasty (much to the disappointment of the dog who was hoping for leftovers). We spent some time swimming in the pool and taking some photos. We then walked further up to the big waterfall and had another dip in a pool nearby (although we weren't allowed in the pool directly under the big waterfall.
Ian decided to hike up the side of the big waterfall while Nikki sunbathed - he took the path to the left which took him all the way up to the top - he assumed the path on the right led to the halfway pool we had read about in the LP. On his return we had one last dip in the first pool we had swum in although, but it was much busier now the tour groups had arrived. We then returned to our tuk-tuk driver who drove us back to Luang Prabang, via the bus station so we could buy our onward tickets to Vang Vieng for tomorrow morning.
To continue our relaxing theme, we went to the Red Cross for a massage. A Lao massage seemed to be quite different to a Thai massage - more relaxing for one - but we both enjoyed them. We walked back to our guesthouse through the evening handicraft market and bought ourselves some more souvenirs. Here we bumped into Tamsin & Katie again and we had a quick chat with them about their trip to the Gibbon Experience.
Later we returned to the riverside for dinner at the Boungnasouk restaurant which was good. We then spent the rest of the evening packing, internetting and / or watching football before bed.
Day 348 - Thursday 22nd June 2006 - On to Vang Vieng
We got up early and found ourselves a tuk-tuk to the bus station, stopping off at our usual baguette seller for some breakfast - she recognised us by now! We arrived at the bus station in time to eat our baguettes before boarding the air-conditioned bus (unusual for us). We bumped and swang along the windy mountain roads for many hours. Lots of people were making use of the complimentary sick bags but we must be hardened to bus travel by now. Occasionally there was some stunning karst scenery but mostly we were in forest. We stopped off at a roadside restaurant in the town of Kasi. Some British girls on the bus were not too happy as they had paid for a VIP bus and had obviously got on the wrong one - they wondered where their complimentary lunch was and weren't impressed that the air-con seemed to have broken. Meanwhile Ian tucked into some veg & rice for lunch and Nikki snacked on some fresh pineapple from a nearby stall.
It was only another hour on the bus before we pulled up in Vang Vieng's bus terminal and airstrip in one - luckily no planes were landing and, to be honest, it didn't look like any had landed for some time! As we walked the short distance into town, we were very impressed by the limestone scenery around us and decided to look for a room with a view. The first place we tried was too expensive (at 10,000 Kip or about $10) but we found a simpler room nearby with a similar view for only 5,000 Kip so we took that one.
We went in search of a bank as we needed to change some more travellers cheques but only found one which charged 3% commission on top of a not very good exchange rate. We went for lunch instead. After lunch we wandered round some tour companies and after talking to a few useless agents, finally booked ourselves on a full day tour of caving and tubing for the following day.
Meanwhile, the bank had closed, so we ended up changing some traveller cheques at a shop money changer for a marginally better rate (plus 3% commision) and then Ian went to get his hair cut and had a good chat about football and the World Cup with his barber! He came back to the guesthouse armed with a couple of cold beers and we sat on the balcony outside our room admiring the view of the river and mountains in front of us while playing Scrabble.
Later we headed out for dinner but all the restaurants seemed to have very similar menus. We chose a busy-looking one hoping that meant it was good - we had some very tasty spicy chicken but a really quite rubbish thai green curry. We then relocated over the road to a bar showing the football - Italy v. Czech Republic. We had a couple of beers and cheered on the Czechs but Krtek obviously didn't cheer loud enough as they lost :-( We consoled ourselves with a couple of streetside banana rotis on the way home and then finished our game of Scrabble which Nikki won.
Day 349 - Friday 23rd June 2006 - Caving & Tubing in Vang Vieng
We had breakfast at the Organic Farm Café who had some mulberry specials. We both had mulberry shakes and Ian had a mulberry pancake. Unfortunately Nikki's baguette was stale so she had to ask for another one and that made us a bit late leaving. STill, we thought we had enough time to pop to the bus station to check out bus times for getting to Vientiane tomorrow.
As we were a little late, our guide, Lo, actually turned up at our room in the guesthouse to pick us up! We climbed into the small tuk-tuk which was loaded with big inner tubes and 3 other tourists - Julie, Jo & Kate, all from the UK and who had all been on yesterday's bus from Luang Prabang. We were taken north of town for about half an hour and then took the shortest ferry ever (about 20 seconds!) across the river from where we walked to the caves.
The first cave was Tham Song, otherwise known as the Elephant Cave. Inside were a few small Buddha statues and a large stalagmite which looked a bit like an elephant (see photo) although we suspected it may have received some 'enhancement'. There was also a Buddha footprint in the cave.
From here it was a short walk (about 1km) to the second cave, Tham Hoi. There, we had to wait a while for some headtorches to be available (we had foolishly forgotten to bring our own but the others didn't have an anyway). We weren't sure what to expect from this cave but found a large Buddha at the entrance and as we entered it soon got very dark and we needed the torches. The cave was quite muddy and slippy in places but had some interesting stalagmite & stalactite formations dotted along the way. The other girls weren't really prepared for conditions and they struggled along, occasionally slipping and crying out, and so our progress was very slow. They had to take their shoes off for one very wet section and weren't really enjoying themselves but we were fine in our Teva sandals (and shared light). Deeper in to the cave, we came to a deeper wet section and waded through knee-deep water while ducking under the low rocks overhead - this was quite fun but luckily only short - Ian especially had to duck down quite far! Apparently the cave continued for 3km and led to a lake but, as it was wet season, there was too much water and so, after about 30 minutes, we turned back.
We had a short rest outside the cave and then proceeded to the 3rd cave - Tham Loup. The 3 girls decided that they'd had enough caving and so waited outside while we went in with Lo. There was a short climb up and then down into the cave, the down section being extremely slippy and we had to squeeze through a very narrow gap at the bottom. However, once inside the cave opened out into a large cavern with some quite impressive limestone formations including large 'curtains'. We spent a while looking around and taking a few photos but there wasn't far to walk. We ducked under a tunnel to get out of the cave and back into the hot sunshine. But still in the dark, we swapped our lights for candles - which immediately blew out - with another group just entering the cave (the lights really were in short supply!)
It was then another short walk to Tham Nam, the Water Cave. We sat and chatted with the 3 girls while Lo cooked up some very tasty kebabs on a barbecue / fire. After lunch we got into some inner tubes and used a rope to pull ourselves along the water into the cave. There wasn't a lot to see here (except a few spiders) but it was fun floating along in the semi-dark.
We then walked on further to a village where our tuk-tuk met us and drove us down to the tubing put-in. We all got in our tubes and Lo followed behind in a kayak. Only a few minutes down the river, the girls stopped to use a rope swing but we floated on. We stopped at the 2nd or 3rd bar along which was full of tourists, all on a tubing trip. One of the bar guys was there ready with a long pole to fish us in - there was a bit of a current just by the landing area and the tubes weren't exactly fitted with any steering mechanism! We enjoyed a beer at the bar overlooking the river and the girls soon caught up with us. We also watched various tourists use a very high rope swing, which was quite amusing, especially when some of them didn't let go at the right time! - some people just ended up swinging back and forth, scarred to let go. Later, we picked up another 'take-away' beer from a riverside stall and continued floating down the river, passing our 'beer baton' between us. It was very relaxing.
We continued floating on and after a bit stopped at another bar for more beers. Watched some more people on a rope swing - this one looked quite dangerous, as it was quite shallow if you didn't jump off at the right point. Still, everyone was having fun and the barman came round with compulsory rum shots! We floated further in the gentle current and Ian got caught in a particularly slow stream so got left behind. We chatted to some other tubers and chuckled at Lo who was just lying on top of his kayak and floating too rather than paddling!
Finally the town of Vang Vieng came into sight and luckily Lo signalled to us where to pull in - this was actually the fastest flowing stretch of river we'd been on and it was quite hard work to get to the bank - Ian nearly didn't make it, banking an extra 10-15 metres downstream!
Thanks very much to Joan Robertson for "sponsoring" this part of our trip!
We had showers and then walked across the road to the Nokeo restaurant for a tasty dinner (although perhaps Nikki wasn't meant to eat quite all the ginger in her meal!). We then returned to the guesthouse and pretty much went straight to bed, too tired for any football watching today.
Day 350 - Saturday 24th June 2006 - Bus to Vientiane
We got up early and walked to the bus station in time for the 7am bus to Vientiane. We were lucky to get the last 2 seats together but then Ian nearly got left behind as he was buying a baguette for our breakfast. It rained on and off for most of the journey and we stopped countless times to pick up more passengers - after a while there were people sitting on stools in the aisle and 9 people on the back seats!
4 hours later we arrived at the local bus station in Vientiane. We had expected to be dropped at the northern bus terminal out of town but were pleased to be at the local one as it meant we could walk to the city centre - much to the disappointment of the eagerly waiting tuk-tuk drivers. We checked out about 6 accommodation options before deciding on the almost brand new Riverside Hotel after we bargained them down from $15 to $10. This was still quite expensive but we did get air-con, a TV, fridge and even a shower curtain in the bathroom - quite a novelty lately!
We went to the bank to change more travellers cheques (unfortunately we were charged 3% commission again) and then had a tasty lunch at Addy's noodle restaurant which was just 100 yards from our hotel. We rested for a bit and then went to an internet cafe, again less than 100 yds from our hotel.
Later we decided to walk along the river to the Sala Sunset Khounta Bar to watch the sunset. This ended up being further than we thought and we had walked past many similar bars along the way but this one was recommended in the LP so we thought we should try it out. The bar was really quite rickety and the sun actually set around the corner of the river but we had a good view of storm clouds over Thailand on the other side of the Mekong River. We had a couple of beers and some spring rolls and watched the bats swooping over the river as it began to get dark.
We walked back to our hotel on a mainly unlit path and then had a quick shower before heading out for dinner at Ban Vilaylac Restaurant. We had some excellent food which was pretty spicy, especially Ian's - he was sweating profusely through the whole meal while gulping down over a litre of water and a few beers! We then returned to our room to watch Germany v Sweden but Ian didn't settle down to watch it until 20 minutes in, by which time it was 2-0 and there were no further goals.
Day 351 - Sunday 25th June 2006 - Beerlao Brewery and traditional Lao massage, Vientiane
We had a bit of a lie-in and then had a reasonable breakfast at the Nok Noy restaurant (next to Addy's but even nearer to our hotel). We then picked up a couple of rental bikes for the day - they were quite new but only had one gear - we hoped it would be mostly flat. We cycled out to Pha That Luang - the most important national monument in Laos. We had a look round but it was much more impressive from the outside than in the temple itself.
We then decided to cycle out of town to the 'thatched beer garden' adjacent to the Beerlao Brewery and sample some very fresh beer on tap. Our map was very simplistic and, after uncertainly turning left at a junction, we were pleased when the brewery itself came into sight after about 12km (easily identifiable from a distance by the huge pile of bright yellow Beerlao crates). We found a large beer garden area under a large thatched roof but it was completely deserted and we were unable to communicate with the security guards to confirm whether it was the right place or when it might be open. However, it was a Sunday so we weren't entirely surprised that it wasn't open.
Meanwhile, thunder and lightning had been intensifying during our journey and the storm was now very close. As we were deliberating what to do it began to rain and so we followed a sign along a side track to the nearby Dodo Pub and sheltered from the increasingly heavy rain. We found the place filled with locals (all men) excitedly watching some Thai boxing on TV. Ian managed to order some Beerlao although it was surprisingly difficult - surprising because they were unloading about a dozen crates of the stuff into the fridge at the time! Ian picked up a menu for lunch but it was printed on both sides in entirely Lao script - hmmm. He managed to order 2 khao pats (while not being really sure what it was). We were relieved when our plates arrived with fried rice and prawn and tucked into our food and beer while the locals continued shouting at the Thai Boxing and betting amongst themselves on the outcome.
The rain eventually eased and so we started cycling back although we still got quite wet. We made our way to Wat Sok Pha Luang which was reputedly a great place for a traditional sauna and massage. We found it was little more than a 2-storey wooden shack but we were given a friendly welcome and presented with 2 sarongs to change into for the herbal sauna. We opened the door to the sauna - we couldn't see a thing inside but it looked pretty full so we decided to wait a while. Once 2 people had come out together we decided there must be room and ventured in. The room was quite small, only room for 6, and with a hole in the floor for the steam to come through. It was actually more like a steam room than a sauna and before long we could hardly see each other even though we were sitting directly opposite. We lasted about 15 minutes before emerging to cool down and drink some complimentary green tea. Then it was time for our massage - Ian had a male masseur which made a change. We bot hhad very firm massages, buit they were, mostly, relaxing. We both felt and heard lots of bones cracking back into place and at the end had our spines re-aligned but we felt really good and relaxed and were reluctant to cycle home.
Back at the hotel we had showers and a quick e-mail check down the road before heading out for dinner from one of the many food vendors along the riverbank. We enjoyd our beer and spring rolls but then had a long wait before the waitress returned saying she had forgotten our main course orders. Even then, Ian still didn't get what he ordered but it was similar and the food was ok and we enjoyed the candle-lit atmosphere.
On the way home, we picked up a couple of streetside crepes (we couldn't resist them!) and took them back to our room to eat while watching England v. Ecuador. Somehow we managed to stay awake through this less than thrilling encounter.
Day 352 - Monday 26th June 2006 - Walking tour of Vientiane
We got up a bit earlier today, dropped off some laundry and then picked up a baguette (kha jii pateh) for breakfast from the LP recommended PVO Café. We then walked to the Immigration Office as we had to extend our visa by one day. This done, we began our walking tour of Vientiane. The first stop was Patuxai - a 4-way arch monument a bit like (and inspired by) the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. We settled down in the adjacent park to enjoy our breakfast baguette but a thunderstorm soon moved in and so we had to shelter under the arch itself. When the rain cleared, we climbed up inside the arch for views of the city - they weren't very impressive. On the way down Ian bought himself a Beerlao t-shirt from one of the many souvenir stalls.
We collected our newly stamped passports from Immigration and then had a wander through the Salat Tao market. Ian got his t-shirt repaired (again), we bought some postcards, watched some goldsmiths in action and tried to ignore the other 10,000 t-shirts on sale, including the worst fake England football shirt ever - the team name said 'Enging' and there were only 2½ lions!
We then walked past That Dam, a black stupa which allegedly used to be covered in gold. Legend has it that here is a dragon hiding underneath but, not surprisingly, we didn't see it. We then visited a couple of wats - Wat Si Saket and Wat Haw Pha Kaew. Wat Si Saket was very pretty and is nost noted for having over 10,000 (actually 10,138) of Buddha statues, most of which were small silver figurines standing in pairs in numerous alcoves in every wall. Wat Pha Kaew opposite was closing in 10 minutes time but we had a quick look round.
We then found a riverside café for some lunch although we weren't sure whether it was actually the Riverside Café we had been looking for. Still, we enjoyed our lunch and then returned to the hotel for a bit of a snooze. Later we finished off the walking tour by walking through Wat Mixai and having a look at Wat Hai Sok (with a multi-levelled roof) and Wat Ong Teu with its impressive stucco friezes around the outside.
We spent a bit more time using the internet and then went to a bar which we had seen earlier advertising draft beer. We had a couple of jugs and were able to confirm that Beerlao was even nicer on tap. We sat by the Mekong River (again) and watched the sunset (again) - well you can't have too much of a good thing! We headed out for dinner and, as we passed the Full Moon Café, we decided that their set meal special looked like a good deal and so went inside. We sat in the quiet upstairs area and had some pretty good food, although Ian's cashew nuts turned out to be peanuts and so he sent it back for them to try again. We had bought a couple of Beerlaos to drink in front of Italy v. Australia but we both fell asleep, waking up in time to see the disappointing finish.
Day 353 - Tuesday 27th June 2006 - back to Thailand
We ate breakfast at Addy's again, packed up and walked the couple of kilometres or so to the bus station. We hoped that the times in the LP for the infrequent international bus were correct. They were, so we were soon on our way in a posh air-conditioned bus.
It took about 30-minutes to reach Laos immigration, which was busy and we managed to be last dealt with. Back on the bus, we headed over the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge and crossed the Mekong for the last time back into Thailand...
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