Vang Vieng - outdoor central

Anyway, it turned out that the bus journey was all worth it. We had 4 charming days in Vang Vieng. We'd been a little unsure about what to expect, and the place was as full of foreigners over-indulging - kind of like Ibiza-inland as we had been warned, nonetheless, it is a stunning backdrop on the river surrounded by steep limestone karsts.

We spent a couple of days relaxing and catching up on email, journals, mail and forward trip planning, and a couple of days on trips to enjoy the local scenery. We spent one day cycling which also included a tour of a massive cave, and a beautiful blue lagoon - which was great fun, but by the end of the day we were literally dripping with sweat and covered in dirt.

The second day trip, we took a kayaking and caving trip. The first cave we visisted was an amazing water cave - according to my book 2km long - you go in an inner tube with a flashlight and paddle your way through the cave. It would probably be quiet eerie if it werent for the fact that we were in a group of about 15 people. The rest of the afternoon spent kayaking down the river was very relaxing (Gary probably did most of the paddling as usual) and scenic, punctuated by a couple of breaks at the bars along the river where we had a very yummy (and quite lethal) mojito.






One of the odd things about this town that we do have to mention is an obsession with "Friends"- there are several bar/restaurants where Friends is playing non-stop - you don't really go there to socialize, you go to lie out in the little bamboo individual booths and watch friends for an hour or two. Very odd indeed (but of course we tried it.... a few times)

The Unforgettable Bus Journey

The bus journey to Vang Vieng was certainly one of our more gruelling experiences yet.

When deciding between the air-con bus (which we actually took) and the more expensive VIP bus, we did not take into account the fact that most locals (who trael on the so-called air con bus, although the aircon actually consisted of bus windows that you can open)are not accustomed to road travel and therefore suffer disproportionately from motion sickness. So we ended up surrounded by vomiting Laos, in fact, this must be just the usual state of affairs on this particular route, since there was one chap whose sole job seemed to be to run up and down the aisles of the bus handing out sick bags, and we even had to stop to renew his supply at one point.

In addition, the bus driver, seemed to be a devout man, because he clearly placed considerable (i.e. a bus load) of faith in the good Lord Buddha himself when launching the bus at break-neck speeds around perilous bends in the mountainous road. We were sure that the bus was on 2 wheels at several points in the journey.

To top it all off, the aisles were filled with the usual bags of rice etc. that you find on local buses, or so we thought.... as we found at the end of the journey that several of those bags in fact contained live crabs, of which we found at least one crawling around near our feet. Note to self: avoid the crab cakes

Hill tribe trek - Luang Namtha

Given that Luang Namtha (far Northern Laos, close to China border) is a center for trekking in Laos, we expected to find the town to be more of a traveller's mecca, however it is a very functional town with little charm. However, we were here for one thing: Hill Tribe Trekking. After much shopping around, we found ourselves taking the last two spaces on a 2 day trip with a great company called Green Discovery which is a very professional eco-tourism outfit.

Day one - we met our fellow trekkers and headed off in the van for about 20 minutes before setting off on the track. The first village we came to was closed off as it was Taboo - this means that the village Chief or Shamen had announced that the village needed to be closed to keep out bad spirits for a few days. Many Lao tribal villages believe in Animism - which is a belief in the spirits, so they leave offerings to those spirits. We trekked for a few hours through the jungle up a very steep hillside until we reached the top for lunch. Our guides lay out banana leaves on the ground to serve up our food which we eat Lao style (seated on the ground eating with our hands). After lunch ,we hiked for another sweaty few hours before reaching our village for the night. The Village was lovely and our homestay bamboo house shared by the whole group was right on the river. We relaxed in the afternoon watching our guides and hosts chop fresh vegetables and meat preparing our evening meal of bamboo soup, tofu (for Her as she is sticking to vegetarian due to more stomach problems), more green beans, water buffalo. Yet again, we had to endure shots of Lau Lau (Happy Wine - as they call it), before settling into a long night of deep sleep, only occasionally interupted by the need to turn due to numbness from the hard bamboo floor.

Day 2 - we all awoke around 8am to coffee and freshly prepared fried rice with vegetables. Might sound an odd breakfast, but the Laos have no real distinction between breakfast, lunch and dinner, and frankly, it was delicious! We hiked through along the river several villages this morning, meeting villages and buying their handicrafts. Lunch was Lao style again - this time Rattan soup (who knew you could make things other than furniture out of this plant?) and more green beans (must be in season). The afternoon held more hiking up and down through jungle hills - exhausting and very sweaty. We arrived at the last village at 4pm - quite pleased to see more fresh water!

Muang Ngoi - A quiet retreat by the river

She didn't want to go, He said it would be fun. They went. They had a superb time. Even She admitted He had been right all along.....

click to see more pictures:

Muong Ngoi - Laos

So, it went like this.... we took a three hour bus journey north east of Luang Prabang to Nong Khaew which is on the Nam Ou River. On arrival, we were not too impressed and disappointed to find that our Rough Guide (yet again!) was incorrect, in that it was not possible to get to Muang Ngoi in a day trip and that we would have to stay an extra day to travel there. We then made our first mistake in a) using a recommendation in the Rough Guide for a guest house and b) settling for the first place we saw. As soon as we had checked in, we wondered out to the river to find a number of far more charming bungalows overlooking the river - doh! Nevertheless, we had a nice afternoon with lunch overlooking the river followed by a walk along the river. We treated ourselves to a fantastic dinner at the Riverside Restaurant where we had a lovely pork and green bean stirfry and veggie pad thai with some pretty good wine.

The next day, we packed up and took the 11am boat up river to Muang Ngoi. Oh, and it was everything we had hoped for. This is a charming town only accessible by river - we shopped around for a good place to stay, now employing our newly designed strict rule of viewing at least 3 rooms before settling on a guest house - it paid off - we found the best place in town - beautiful bungalows with shower and gorgous view over the river (Niksas place for anyone headed there) for $6 a night (fyi - the most expensive place we saw in town). After lunch of baguettes and spring rolls, we spent a very chilled afternoon on the deck of our bungalow watching the sun go down over the steep sided limestone hills across the river, whilst drinking Beer Lao (for Him) and fruit shake (for Her - stomach still not feeling so good...). Dinner was had at yet another lovely restaurant along the river.

Although we had only planned to stay one night, we were intoxicated, so stayed another night. Our second day, we headed out of the town along the trail to the local caves - they seemed really extensive, but we didn't get too far as we soon realized that our headtorches weren't good enough, and She was getting spooked! We then continued along the trail to a tribal village where we intended to rest with a cold soft drink, but ended up being strong-armed into several shots of the local fire water, Lao Lao (sticky rice wine), by the fairly tipsy and very cheerful proprietess. Unfortunately, Caroline managed to get a wasp in her pants and stung on the bum, so decided it was time to head back to our bungalow for yet more R&R.

The following day, we awoke to torrential rain thundering on our bungalow roof, so although we were tempted to stay yet another day, decided to get the boat back and continue on up North.

Our journey onto Luang Namtha, which we had suspected would be painful and take 2 days, was in fact incredibly slick with buses that arrived on time, and connections that worked - we actually got there in one day. The journey did however necessitate and experience on the local bus, which bad luck for us, left us with the seats at the very back of the bus. Bad for 2 reasons: 1) the asphhalt road is non existent in parts which means we bounced out of our seats much of the journey and 2) Laos are not as accustomed to road travel as us westerners which means they get very bus sick.... out of the windows....

Luang Prabang - the jewel of the North

Flashpackers that we are, we flew into Luang Prabang on the very efficient Lao Airlines (on time, free meal and alcoholic drink on a 1 hour flight - you don't get than on United!). Given that Caroline had come down sick on returning from Pai (which we later learned to be a stomach bug from Pai, not food poisoning), it was a huge relief not be undertaking the 2 day overland journey from northern thailand to Laos that most of our fellow backpackers were doing.

We were delighted by Luang Prabang - the former royal capital, it is a charming town characterized by rambling french colonial architecture interspersed by numerous buddhist temples. We stayed in an old colonial style guest house by the river in the old town. We had a huge room with an excessive amount of furniture - it kind of looked like a soviet waiting room, all for $13 a night.



We had a fairly low key time in Luang Prabang as Caroline was still unwell for the 4 days there. However we did get out and about to enjoy most of the key sites.

We did a half day trip to visit the Pak Ou Caves - this is a 2 hour journey by slow boat along the Mekong River - the caves hold hundreds of old discarded buddha statues. They are mostly damaged buddhas that can no longer be venerated due to the damage, but you can't just throw away a buddha image, so they bring them to these caves - it is quite an eerie sight.


We visisted numerous other temples which we won't list out here, but in particular, we visited the former royal palace which was really very interesting: it's quite a modest palace and held some fascinating royal regalia and in particular, a number of curious diplomatic gifts from other governments over the years.

Luang Prabang is really the cultural and high art center of Laos - we visited the ecole des beaux arts and was shown around their gallery by a charming young Laotian who took time to tell us about the medium and subject of numerous pieces of art. There are also many lovely textiles, silverwork and woodwork typical of this area for sale - there are many market stalls where the village people come into the town each evening with all these items - we bought a few items, but would have loved to buy far more to send home.

Luang Prabang was quite superb for food: We discovered some great spots for coffee including the scandinavian bakery (wicked hot chocolate and swedish desserts); and Jo Mas bakery with a cinamon bun and latte to die for. There are also numerous french cafes and wine bars which we didn't get to take full advantage of this time, but if we ever come back... - oh there is also of course lots of Laos food (but we'll cover that in another blog)

On our return visit to LP for one night after our trek up north, we treated ourselves to a special dinner out at the Villa Santi Restaurant - where we had a beautiful table on the balcony and enjoyed cocktails and (pretty decent)wine. We even had creme caramel and banana splits for dessert - yummy!

Lovely Laos: A little background

Coming from touristy Thailand, Laos has been quite a change in pace. Admittedly, we knew little about Laos before we came here, so I thought I would include a little background info here:

Laos (pronounced without the S) is one of the poorest countries in the world, heavily dependent on foreign aid. Accordingly to offial statitics, the GDP per head is about $2100 per year, although other sources suggest that the average Laotian surives on $700 per year (i.e. $2 per day). Most Lao people live in rural villages in the low and highlands without electricity and running water (although we did see many villages where running water projects had been established with aid - most notably World Vision, UNICEF, the Australian and Japanese governments).

The government is one of the last few remaining official communist dictatorships (although, they prefer to call themselves a populist democracy...). The country was formally a monarchy and was under French control earlier in the 20th century, and finally declared independence in 1975. The country has a long bloody history of being fought over by its neighbours (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, and China), and during the 20th century became a pawn in the cold war between the soviets and the anti-communist US and French. Sadly, according to my guidebook, the US dropped 2million tonnes of bombs - the equivalent of a plane load of bombs every 8 minutes on Lao over a period of 9 years - which makes it the most heavily bombed country per capita, and also is left with a considerable amount of UXO (unexploded ordinance) which continue to maim Laos.

From a traveller's standpoint, Laos is quite different from its neighbours in terms of development. Health issues are a concern here for travellers: Malaria is rife throughout the country, and there has been a rise in dengue fever; there are no world class hospitals in Laos - therefore, if in need of medical attention, you need to hightail it to Thailand as fast as possible. There has been an outbreak of bird flu in the North of the Country (close to where we went trekking), but since the government represses bad news, who knows if there are more human cases than the 2 deaths reported by the WHO?

In other ways, Laos is trying to learn lessons from the mistakes that the Thai tourist industry has made. Sex tourism is highly illegal here and violations come with harsh penalties, the same is the case for drug traffiking. Laos has also made great efforts to establish more sustainable eco-tourism operations particularly in the more fragile mountainous and remote areas.


We have been enchanted by Laos and found the people to be extremely welcoming and friendly (and very beautiful) and the scenery is quite stunning - this landlocked country is mostly moutainous and covered in forests.