Laos PDR- Please Don't Rush

My visit to Laos began with an uncomfortable yet very fun 2 day ride down the Mekong River on the slow boat. The boat on the first day was filled with short, shallow wooden benches that my western tush could barely fit on. I certainly don't have a tiny Asian butt. The boat was packed and we still managed to pick up locals along the way, as well as many various animals, even a motorbike. After 7 hours floating down the cappuccino-colored waters of the picturesque Mekong, we arrived at Pak Beng. Nice guesthouse with a gracious owner who forcefully filled us with the local homemade rice wine, Lao Lao. Uh, not the tastiest and burns all the way down your throat and chest. The glass was passed around many, many times and no refusal was accepted. Fun but deadly. he he. We wandered around the streets, desperately trying to find someplace showing the World Cup but with no luck.
Early the next morning, much to every one's surprise, our boat had huge, cushioned seats, just like from a mini van. Nice. This made for a much more comfortable ride to our final destination of Luang Prabang. The scenery was amazing. We even saw an elephant just up from the riverbank as well as numerous water buffalo. I would definitely recommend this trip to anyone who is heading to Laos. If your arse can stand it that is.
Arriving in Luang Prabang was much anticipated. What a lovely city it us too. I fell in love with it as soon as I arrived. It's a quaint little city with a heavy French colonial influence. Much to my amazement, Lao is
the first country since I've arrived in SEA where baguettes and vino is in abundance. Having said that, I don't usually eat much bread and even though the wine is cheap, it's still 3 times more expensive than the beer. Of course. So my beer belly continues to grow.
I rented a bicycle for several days whilst in Luang Prabang. It's a great city to explore on two wheels. During the middle of the day, i.e. the hottest, I usually sneaked away to my room to nap and hide from the heat. You'll rarely catch a local awake, let alone moving, during this time of day. When entering a local hang to grab a drink or bite to eat, you almost always end up waking someone to get any service. It's quite hilarious. Lao must be the slowest country in the world. Seriously.

I went kayaking one day down a river, which I can't remember the name of, and had a great time. There weren't any rapids or anything even close; however, the people in two different kayaks, managed to tip their boats over, twice. I couldn't quite figure out how they managed that one. You had to have pretty much jumped out of it to end up in the water. Who knows. Even though the river was pretty tame, it's amazing how much your arms hurt after. I guess it's just the muscles you don't use very often. Especially when you are traveling, lazy and completely out of shape. Hmm
The best part of the entire day was the children when we stopped for lunch. As soon as they saw our kayaks approaching, the run down the hill towards the river, throw off all of their clothes and jump in to swim towards us. The climbed up on our boats and pulled us into the bank. You've never seen so many happy, little naked kids. They were having such a blast playing in the water. One of the guys in our group was taking turns throwing them up in the air while they back flipped and splashed back into the water. They were loving it. The boys were pretending to be afraid to be next in line but as soon as they had their turn and ran up to the camera to see the picture just taken of them, they were all smiles and laughs. A bunch of hams really. None of them were shy to all of the photos and many were eager to be the center of attention. We had a delicious spread of local Lao dishes all laid out on huge banana leaves over the dirt ground. Once finished, the kids devoured the left overs. I'm sure this a daily event for them with all of the kayaking tours.


Also in LP was a fabulous waterfall that was so nice, I went back again. The pools of water were a gorgeous turquoise. There were several levels as you headed towards the fall itself. On the walk up the side of the falls, towards the top, there was a not so obvious path which lead up to this amazing level of pools, cliffs and falls.



Although the water was freezing, it was fantastic to lean over the edge and look down to your possible, impending death. As I said before, I went twice. It's hard to believe that these are naturally formed pools.
Well, after many days in this great city, I finally had to pull myself away and head to the next town of Vang Vieng. Now, I'd heard many things about this place and wasn't quite sure how I was going to like it. Basically, it's a tiny town, overrun with tourists and their main, actually only goal, is to go tubing down the river and get pissed drunk. I mean wasted.


You hire huge, tractor inter-tubes, and a tuk-tuk takes you up river and drops you off. From there, you float downstream. But what actually happens is that there are loads of 'bars' lined on both sides of the river. When you are approaching, they throw out a rope with something attached to the end of it, and try to pull you in. Once you get out, they give you free shots and such, and if you want to jump off the many giant rope swings or slides, you must buy drinks before they will let you up. Each bar does the exact same thing. End result, lots of incredibly drunk 20-somethings, jumping off super high things into rapidly moving water. Yikes. Many people die here every year. Stupid people.
Instead of taking that route, I only stopped at one bar and then leisurely floated down the remainder of the river, which was, absolutely beautiful! I really am getting old.


Not wanting to experience Vang Vieng the way most people do, I moved to a guesthouse on the other side of the river called Maylyn. This was such a wonderful place. It's owned by an English guy who's married to a Lao woman. He's quite a character and made for a very entertaining host. This side of the river is where the real beauty of the country is. It has several caves which were such fun to explore. I've never actually had to squeeze myself into such tiny spaces as I did in one of the caves. Had I been any bigger, there's no way I would have fit. I walked out of there covered head to toe in mud. This wasn't the only time however. I went on my first ever mountain bike ride. Wow, what fun. If I thought I was dirty before, that was nothing. It's the rainy season now and the amount of mud I road through was such a blast. Luckily along the way, there were streams to wade through, which helped cool me down and wash me off.


Well, I finally had to leave Vang Vieng and headed down through Vientienne, very uneventful, then on to Si Phon Don ( 4 thousand islands). It was a long trek but there were some amazing sunsets around these tiny islands. There really isn't much to do here but I did meet a new friend, Keren from Isreal. We were both heading the same direction so after 2 days on Don Det, we hoped a bus to Cambodia. Ready for new adventures in a new country.


http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosTakingABoatDownTheMekongRiver#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosLuangPrabang#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosVangVieng#
http://picasaweb.google.com/candimichael/LaosSiPhonDon#