Jac’s Journey

What can I say about Laos? Let me borrow from a French Official during the period of French colonial rule.

“The Vietnamese plant rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Lao listen to it grow.”

I haven’t seen Cambodia yet to judge, but the Vietnamese certainly have commercial energy about them. The Lao have the view that other things are more important – I think they might be right.

Lao people are friendly, fun, gentle, welcoming and curious. Their natural reserve makes them a little detached in the first instance, but as you begin to understand that and see past the reserve, you get to the gentleness and fun-loving aspect of their nature. My experience was that the people were more gregarious as I travelled north to south, but this might just be that I was learning how to connect with them better. There’s no hard bargaining in Laos. At the night market in Luang Prabang, probably the biggest tourist oriented market in the country, negotiations went like this…

“How much is this please?”
“X kip (already a decent price)”
“Do you have a discount?”
“Yes, Y kip (a decent amount less)”
“Ok, I’ll take it, thanks.”

After three months of hard bargaining in China, I’ve now completely forgotten how to do it, and might be going a bit soft, thanks to Laos!

I loved watching the happy children run around barefoot, playing with whatever toys could be created from what was lying around, and being cuddled and adored by every member of their extended family. The women never seem to stop working. Men are commonly seen drinking beer and playing draughts with Beer Laos crown caps (player 1 face up, player 2 face down), but the woman always have something in their hands. While trekking in Bolaven, Robert asked our guide about this. “Oh yes!” He said. “Lao women work much harder than Lao men. They do all that work in the house, cooking, looking after the children, and then they go out into the fields as well, bring in the harvest and often do extra things like weaving too.” Interesting when compared to the western view of the value of running a home…

You already know how much I love Laos public transport. I’ll never forget travelling on buses with live chickens and huge bags of vegetables, being asked to take my backpack inside the (already crowded) bus because the luggage holds underneath were being used for freighting tonnes of vegetables, having half a bum cheek on the seat beside people spewing into plastic bags… How I have enjoyed it all!

It’s very much a developing country. People are generally very poor. $25 US per month is a common wage. $100 US per month can be considered middle class. Over 50% of the population have malaria, access to education is expensive for families, who often cannot afford to send all their childen to school, or for very long.

Laos is a ‘communist’ country. China is investing heavily in roads and infrastructure. It’s greedily buying up land and planting rubber and sugar cane, at the expense of primary forest. The country can’t afford to turn away such investment, and it remains to be seen how much China will help shape and form Laos’ development over the coming years. Thankfully, there is a strong focus on the development of eco-tourism, and that seems to be spreading the tourist dollar fairly widely and helping preserve certain areas through a system of national parks.

There is a still a strong reliance on international aid, and the clearing of UXO from the land remains a huge task.

I feel so priviledged to have visited Laos at this time. It’s been one of the highlights of my trip so far, and I’ve met so many interesting people. Just thinking about the country leaves a smile on my face. And a thirst for that fabulous beer…

Four Thousand Islands. Nestled at the southernmost corner of Laos, in the widest spread of the mighty Mekong, as it makes it’s way from Tibet to South Vietnam. Islands bathed in sunshine, blessed by perfect sunsets, rare freshwater dolphins and far too many tourists and mosquitos. Yes, it was all sounding too good, eh?

Don Det is the main party island. And it is very beautiful. I hired a bicycle and cycled round it – like a mad dog/englishman – in the midday sun. Hot work.

Don Det was everything I’d hoped and feared. Here in paradise was another version of Vang Vieng. In VV it was quite entertaining. Here, it made me a bit sad. I was staying on Don Khon, another island, linked by a bridge, just to the south. Outside my riverside hut, I could swing in my hammock around teatime and watch families come down to the river with their little plastic buckets filled with soap and shampoo and bathe in the Mekong before their evening meal.

Don Khon and Don Det were both beautiful, but neither of them had the right rhythm for me. I wasn’t up for joining the hordes of off-their-face backpackers on Don Det, who steal your flip-flops when you’re not looking and gorge on magic mushrooms and happy shakes. Nor was I ready to settle into the middle-aged pace of Don Khon – my energy was still too high. The other 3998 islands involved backtracking along the road I’d already travelled.

I decided I’d appreciated the beauty, seen the sunsets and my favourite bits of Laos were further north. I’ve had an incredible time here. Laos has been one of my favourite places to visit so far on this trip. But I think the islands came at the wrong time for me – I was out of step. I was starting to get very excited about my next adventure, and not in the mood for swinging in a hammock. It was back on the bus…no rest for the wicked!

Siphandon

Crammed onto a packed Sawngthaew (pick up truck with two benches along each side) on my way to Champasak, I got chatting to a woman on board.

She asked me (in English, with an American accent) if I wanted to share watermelon. I said ‘thank you’, which was taken for ‘no, thank you’ and I gazed longingly at the juicy watermelon, which wasn’t passed to me. Taking a swig of water to cure my watermelon envy, I asked her if she’d lived in America. This started an amazing conversation, ending up with an invite to her (large) house in Champasak, use of her boat to Don Deng and loads of tips for the best things to do around Champasak. Sadly, no watermelon. God, I love public transport!

Visiting Wat Phu Champasak, an ancient temple ruin from the early Angkor period (around 11th century) was a taster for what I’ll experience at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. It was a beautiful temple ruin – wandering around in the sun was a joy – I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking…

Champasak

The energy of Champasak was relaxed. I rested, read books, ate lovely food and watched life flow past on the Mekong. Two days later, the ferry back to the other side of the Mekong was a hoot – did you know that two canoes and a raft make a car ferry? See the photo for the contraption I was travelling on, that drove onto the contraption of a car ferry!

A lovely few days that have whetted my appetite for the joys of Angkor Wat…

Pakse itself doesn’t have a whole lot going on for tourists, so getting off the bus at 6am left me with a long day and not much to do. I could have headed straight to the Bolaven Plateau, but had arranged to meet Martin, a friend from Guilin (remember that cold, cold place?) that evening. What else to do but go to the gym (again) and have a massage?

Martin and I missed each other earlier in the evening, but thanks to the power of the internet and our dedication to catching up over a Beer Laos, he eventually found me in my dorm at 10.30. Fast asleep. The hostel owner brought him in, put the lights on and said, ‘Ok, which one’s Jackie?’ I rose from my slumber, just in time to escape the rolled-up socks being fired in my general direction by two sleeping dorm mates. It was brilliant to catch up with Martin and ended up being a late night. One too many Beer Laos made it tough to get up next morning, but I was off early for two days trekking in the Bolaven Plateau.

The Bolaven Plateau rises high above Pakse, taking you into a different climate and landscape. Waterfalls tumble off the edge of the Plateau, the fertile soil produces high quality coffee, and the minorities who live there, the Laven people, seem to lead hard-working yet idyllic lives. This is testament to the power of UXO clearing, as the Bolaven Plateau was heavily bombed during the Vietnam/Secret Laos Wars. We trekked around the top of beautiful Tat Fan, two waterfalls tumbling around 100 metres to join a tributary of the Mekong at the bottom of a sheer cliff. A sun-warmed swim in an upstream pool was the perfect end to our clamberings around Tat Fan. The end of the afternoon brought a smaller (but more beautiful) waterfall, Tat Yuang, and a dreamy sunset from the top of its steep cliff.

The most luxurious homestay so far was waiting for us (I had a real shower!) with great food, conversation and Beer Laos. Three of the other people on the trek were French/French Canadian, so I was able to practice my French again. The only other guy on the trek was a complete oddball. But he kept himself to himself most of the time, which suited the rest of us fine. Next day we walked through coffee plantations, across old lava fields from an extinct volcano, a very desolate and raw landscape, towards another waterfall, and a final refreshing swim.

After my tumble off the side of a rice terrace in Banaue and how challenging I’d found the trek-up-a-mountain-through-the-clouds in Muang Sing, I was expecting to struggle a little on this trek, but didn’t. It’s ended up being a real confidence booster and I enjoyed it the way I used to enjoy trekking before my fall in the Philippines. With the boost to my trekking confidence, and three new friends, it’s been a delightful couple of days in a beautiful part of Laos.

Bolaven Plateau

The most chilled out capital city in Asia? Just maybe.

Most travellers only stay a day or so, as there’s not a huge amount to see and do here. However, I stayed 5 days, and had a fabulous time.

I meet loads of people while I’m travelling, but every now and then I pick up a brilliant travel buddy (you know who you are!). Lukas is one of them. We wandered around the usual sights and then got up to some different things I probably wouldn’t have done unless he’d suggested them. (I’ll say it for you… ooh-err)

The first was going to the gym. Three times. It’s been months since I was last in a gym, and I was tickled to remember the last programme I’d had before going off travelling. I got a real exercise high and just kept going back again. Even better, for the daily fee of 3 pounds, you get a one hour Lao Massage thrown in.

The second thing was going to the shooting range. I fired .22 and .38 calibre pistols. If I do say so myself, I was great! Another great travel buddy had told me to take photos on an exhale breath because your body is steadiest then. So I did that shooting the pistol, and got really close to the centre of the target. I even beat Lukas! Not that I’m competitive, heh.

The third thing was going along with Lukas while he went out on the pull. He’d met some Lao girls earlier that day and we both went out to meet them. What an amazing night. Beer Laos, live music, eating insects (yes, I ate a fried insect! Picking legs and wings out of my teeth was not fun.), dancing our socks off, an after-hours club, a party back at the girls’ house, crashing out on the floor, breakfast of iced beetroot juice (yum) and arrangements to meet again the next night. Truly wonderful. Even if I was too hungover to manage it all again the next night…

Other than the gym, firing guns, getting drunk and having lots of laughs (oh, and buying a new camera), I’ve found Vientiane to be a charming place. It’s slow-paced for a capital city, but then, this is Laos. Wat Phat Luang is stunning, it’s gilded exterior blinding in the sun. My favourite thing though is the ‘Vertical Runway’. In the early 60s, Laos bought concrete from the US to build an airport. However, they decided to use it to build a Victory Arch instead. Pretending to be a poor relation of the Arc de Triomphe, it’s a bit of a concrete monstrosity, but the story behind it delights me – the concrete that just didn’t want to be useful…

It was a sad farewell to Vientiane and a brilliant travel buddy. We took the VIP bus to Pakse (the public bus is 16 hours and just too painful compared to 10 hours on the VIP bus, with a bunk to sleep in). Lukas headed further south and I’ve stopped in Pakse for the Bolaven Plateau, waterfalls, villages, coffee plantations and cooler weather.

Vientiane

I didn’t know what to expect from this place.

On one hand, it’s blessed with breathtaking scenery and the Nam Song river with all its adventure activities. On the other hand, it has developed in response to perceived backpacker tastes, and you can lie on an arrow cushion in a bar all day watching endless Friends or Simpsons DVDs. While watching Bart, Rachel, Monica, et al you can quench your thirst with a ‘Happy Shake’ or munch on a ‘Happy Pizza’, which is laced with your dope of choice.

It creates a bizarre atmosphere, as you can imagine.

Never someone to turn my nose up at a cheesy place, I went there with practically no expectations.

Yes, there were crazy people in the street giggling at the moon. Yes, it made the springs pop out of my brain to be walking along a street in South East Asia while Homer said ‘Doh!’ in my left ear and Ross shouted ‘ We were on a break!’ in my right.

But there were a ton of things I thoroughly enjoyed. Kayaking down the Nam Song with five Polish people was a real highlight. We kayaked all day, stopping only to trek up mountains to caves and then crawl through them holding up candles and picking melted wax off our fingers. At a certain point on the river, the Tubing starts. This was a bizarre turn of events. We went from idyllic scenery, peace and beauty, to riverside bars, huge sound systems, rope swings and zip lines for crazy drunk people to jump off if they felt like a dip.

Joining in the spirit of it all, we stopped at one of the riverside bars, had a beer and some Lao-Lao, and demonstrated Polish, Scottish and Lao country dancing. I nearly spun one of the Polish guys off the edge of the bamboo bar into the river when he was helping me demonstrate the Gay Gordons (I got to be the bloke!). Although, in hindsight, it would have been more fun to teach them all Strip the Willow…

I had planned to go Tubing the next day (floating down the river in the inflated inner tube of a tractor tyre), but having taken part in all the festivities the day before from my kayak, I decided to head to the Smile Bar and lounge in a hammock instead, watching tubers float past, while trying to avoid the farmer and his herd of water-buffalo crossing the river.

Nighttimes were fun, with good company, Beer Laos, movies, and some great bars with decent music.

A really fun place, and no, of course, I didn’t have a Happy Pizza…

Vang Vieng

Luang Prabang. It’s a romantic name for a romantic city; somewhere that has captured the imagination of many travellers – to the extent that it’s already been shown on BBC travel programmes. Previously the royal capital of Laos, a UNESCO World Heritage site, hosting 32 Wats (temples) and a stunning setting on the banks of the Mekong.

Tourism is big business here, but it doesn’t detract from the charm. Luang Prabang isn’t just about catering to tourists – it’s about tourists catching the rhythm of the city, and adjusting themselves to Luang Prabang.

On the way down the river, at the point where the Nam Ou and the Mekong rivers meet, we stopped off to visit the Pak Ou caves – both filled with Luang Prabang standing buddhas. Arriving into Luang Prabang, I hunted for some cheap accommodation with a friend. Next morning, after being wakened by 20 people queuing outside my door (only one shared bathroom for 20 people), I went hunting for somewhere a little better and found the most amazing apartment – bathroom, dressing room, bedroom, sitting room, beautiful dark wood, polished wooden floors, private balcony, view of the Mekong – it was so perfect I’d have paid twice what I’m paying (the princely sum of 13 pounds).

With the perfect home in the most romantic city in Asia, I quickly caught the rhythm of Luang Prabang. Which is slo-o-ow. A wander to orientate myself was punctuated with several coffee stops. Luang Prabang has some gorgeous French Colonial architecture, which often houses cafes and restaurants, and with the French influence, fabulous coffee, bread and cakes. This city is not good for my figure, but oh, so good for the soul.

Temples, shopping, chilling, massages, eating, drinking: that’s Luang Prabang. When you get templed-out you stop for coffee, when it gets too hot, you stop for coffee, after you’ve been round the museum, you stop for coffee. Yes, there’s a theme… And Lao coffee is thick enough to stand your spoon in – seriously strong stuff. Thankfully the teas are also excellent.

A highlight was dragging myself out of bed at 6am to watch the monks procession. Every day, they walk around the main streets of Luang Prabang for alms. The people give them sticky rice – whatever they collect that morning is their main food for the day. It’s a beautiful sight to see monks in single file, a long line of their burnt-orange robes making their way past crumbling French colonial architecture.

The lowlight of the city was my camera breaking – again. In one of the most beautiful cities in Asia, my camera went on strike. Typical. So there are loads of photos in my head I can’t show you! Sorry!

I met some great people in Luang Prabang and had a really nice time. But I had to leave to shake my self out of the sleepy bliss that comes over you in this city. A truly delightful place.

Luang Prabang

For this journey, I had the choice of the VIP air-con tourist minibus (5 hours), the ‘just plain tourist minibus’ (5 hours) or the public bus (7 hours). Based on my previous experience of Laos transportation, I went for the…….

…public bus!

Am I nuts, I hear you ask?

Probably.

But, first things first. The day did not start well. I overslept a little, so was behind myself from the start. I rushed to the post office to send a parcel home. After an hour with Laos bureacracy, they sent me away for another hour because they were closing for lunch. Another 45 minutes after the lunch break, I eventually got my parcel in the post and headed to the bus station (is this a record for how long it takes to send a parcel?).

So I’d missed my bus. It was a two hour wait for the next one. Now, the thing about getting to the bus station early is that you get first dibs on a decent seat. This can be a problem because you become quite precious about your decent seat, and it doesn’t always remain so for the duration of the journey.

The journey started so well. I was quite impressed with myself, cos I’d just held a conversation in French for around 25 minutes – I’d been cracking jokes, the lot. So, I spread my chuffed-with-myselfness out across two (decent) seats. As the bus filled up at later stops, I got a man and his son beside me. Three people on a seat made for two. As you can imagine, I was miffed about my decent seat now being rubbish cos it was the only seat on the bus with three bums on it.

Next, the man and his son got travel sick.

Generally, Laotians don’t travel well. On any given bus, there are at least a few puking into plastic bags. And this was a big bus. With a lot of plastic bags. Someone just behind us spewed, the smell wafted over the bus, curses were muttered, windows were opened and the other weak tums caved – an orchestral chorus of spewing began.

So, there’s me, squashed up against the window, now feeling sorry for the man and his son, and over my decent-seat-trauma. Despite the language barrier, we became quite a team. He or his son (or both) would chuck into a plastic bag. (They were obviously well-practiced as they sealed the bag on their faces so well, I got no waft.) The man would make eye contact with me, I’d open the window and he’d send a sick-bomb flying out the bus window. (All Laotians do this – I’d have been taken for a nutter if I’d tried to stop him.) As he was too sick to care where it landed, I was alone in being amused to see where it ended up – especially when he sick-bombed while we were passing through a village.

I don’t think I’ve ever travelled on buses with so much character – in their structure/materials (often brown tape and string holds them together), in their erratic and unpredictable timings, in their amusing assortment of cargo (from bags of fruit and vegetables to live chickens) and these incredible passengers, who puke every time they get on a bus, but still do it, who can fall asleep on the edge of a coin, and who always seem to connect with random foreigners – even when they’re in a huff cos their decent seat turned rubbish.

Nong Khiaw had been a real surprise. I had planned to pass through on my way to Muang Ngoi, but stayed two nights and loved it. So, my hopes were high for Muang Ngoi – which was a relative disappointment.

The tiny village on the river has become a magnet for backpackers. Every second building is a guesthouse. It seems like you can get laundry done in every house in town. Tour offices are dotted around the place. And the village only has a couple of streets, all of which seem to be strewn with litter.

A wander around revealed this disappointment quickly, but I had put my laundry in at the guesthouse, couldn’t get it back until the next afternoon, and there’s only one boat a day – in the morning. So I settled in with my book for some chilling by the river, appreciating the spectacular views, eating, thinking and Beer Laos. The guesthouse, and the family who ran it, were just lovely. The food was great, they really looked after me. My hut had a balcony, which overlooked a green lawn, with a sculpture made from UXO, towards the stunning green of the Nam Ou river.

The highlight of Muang Ngoi was leaving. I took a six hour boat ride from Muang Ngoi to Luang Prabang – this was the replacement boat trip for the one I missed getting to Luang Nam Tha – and it was worth the wait.

The landscape was stunning – craggy karst hills, luscious green trees, villages perched on the banks of the river with people washing clothes in the river, fishing and kids playing. Our boat weaved in and out of the sandbank islands, the captain knowing exactly which route to take to avoid the shallow rocks hidden just below the surface. As the water level is low at this time of year, occasionally we were riding small rapids – probably grades 1 and 2. When we got close to some more challenging rapids, the captain dropped us off to walk along the shore, while he tackled the rapids on his own. The timing was perfect – I needed to stretch my legs.

One set of rapids in particular was incredibly beautiful. We surfed over the top of white water. I glanced back and the sun was glinting off the water, which tumbled over large pebbles in a riot of colour and light. Listening to some favourite tunes on my iPod finished off the experience – at one point I was almost in tears as I listened to the perfect soundtrack and watched the spectacular landscape.

The water itself hypnotised me. I’ve never seen water so green. I tried to capture the colour in my head to describe it to you all later, but it kept changing in the sun. It was the green of growth and life – chlorophyll green; somewhere between bottle green and Celtic green. Beautiful.

And this stunning river trip was bringing me to Luang Prabang – one of the most romantic destinations and beautiful cities in South East Asia…

Muang Ngoi and Nam Ou River

The bus journey to Nong Khiaw was another Laotian epic. I failed to arrive an hour early (in line with my new resolution), pitching up around 8am for the 8am bus – pushing it, I know. We eventually rolled out of the bus station at 11am. I give up. I have no idea how to anticipate buses in Laos – they simply leave when they’re full. The waiting hours were filled with entertainment as an adorable toddler clambered all over the passengers and boxes on the bus. She looked around a year old, and made me pine for my niece, Hope. Jo – if Hope’s filled with as much energy as this little girl (no doubt she is), you must be exhausted!

Setting off, we passed yet more beautiful villages. The further we travelled from UdomXai, the more impressive the scenery became. Arriving into Nong Khiaw I was in awe of the striking karst scenery around me and decided to put down roots for a couple of nights, before heading further up the river. Nong Khiaw is a village of a few hundred people and is blessed with a beautiful river setting. It takes about 30 minutes to wander the whole village (slowly). Imagine my delight when I found a cinema and a music concert!

I found the music concert by taking a wrong turning, walking too far and then hearing a lot of noise from behind the trees at the edge of the village. I could see a stage with screening all around it, huge amps, a light rig peeking over the top and a large field with people selling food, playing kataw (like ‘keepy-uppy’ over a volleyball net) and football. Swarmed by Laotian kids, I learned that the music concert started later that night.

Strolling back through the village to have some dinner before the concert, stopping off to watch a game of petanque and be presented with flowers and leaves by giggling little girls, I found the cinema. This is basically a DVD rental shop where you choose your film and then watch it in one of the 4 back rooms with large screen TV and surround sound. In back-water Laos!

A few of us from the guest house wandered round to the music concert together. One German guy was muttering, ‘I’ll go to see, but I don’t think I’ll go in – the music will be crap.’ Some people! You’re in a village in Northern Laos. Who do you expect? Madonna? I rolled my eyes and ignored him.

There was singing and dancing – a real festival atmosphere – all the locals were clearly loving it. I felt lucky to be there while it was on – apparently events like this are rare in Nong Khiaw.

Next day I hired a bicycle and cycled up to the caves a few km outside the village. The caves had acted as regional headquarters for the Pathet Lao against the Lao Government/Americans during the war.

Which war? During the Vietnam War, the Geneva Conference had established that Laos was an officially neutral country. However, as the Ho Chi Minh trail passed through part of Laos, the North Vietnamese were providing support to the communist Pathet Lao, and there were hordes of Hmong villagers willing to fight with the Royal Lao Army against the Pathet Lao, the CIA set up a secret, officially denied, operation. There’s an airfield near Vientiane (capital of Laos) that is still closed to tourists. At one time, it was the busiest airstrip in the world, with planes taking off almost every minute. The US government officially denied any involvement in the Lao Civil War, but facilitated the dropping of enough bombs to make Laos the most bombed country in the world. (I do wonder if that is still a truth considering the extent of bombing in Iraq and Afghanistan). Importantly for the Americans, this effort constituted an essential ’second front’ in the Vietnam war.

Read more here –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laotian_Civil_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War

Just outside the caves, a bomb crater remained, it’s almost perfect circle now filled with growth and looking harmless. Inside, a network of caves had provided shelter for the Pathet Lao and villagers from Nong Khiaw during the bombings. My guide took me to a second set of caves, visited less often, lit a bamboo torch and led me through the narrowest of openings to…the Nong Khiaw branch of the bank of Luang Prabang. They had a bank in the caves to fund the communist operations. Squeezing through the caves, with the sweat running in rivers from the built up heat inside and the added heat of the bamboo torch, I was in a state of wonder at how these people had lived during such a horrendous time. But in a sense, the horrendous time is not over. There is still a massive amount of unexploded ordinance (UXO) across rural Laos. It prevents families from working fields not yet cleared, or they take the risk and people are blown to bits as their hoe or plough disturbs an unexploded bomb. Various charities and the Lao government are working to clear UXO, but it is a slow, expensive process. In the meantime, villagers who have lived on the same land for generations are unable to farm and make a living, and their children are blown up as they find and play with UXO.

Sobering stuff.

Nong Khiaw