Louang Prabang/Viang Vieng

The boat trip to Louang is a real experience.  It's a less than sturdy vessel and is packed, with few concessions to comfort with around 200 people. The scenery along the Mekong is breathtaking, lots of mountainous terrain, thick jungle, idyllic villages and plenty of fishing and river life to keep you interested.  We stop every now and then to collect hitch hikers including saffron robed monks and a gent with three matresses and an outboard motor, I have no idea at all as to how or why he got it all there!

The journey takes 2 days with a nights break in the tiny village of Pakbeng, getting off the boat here is mayhem.  A very narrow plank is laid from our boat to an almost verticle wall of very loose sand and we all need to negotiate this laden with bags and rucksacks.

To get to our sacks I jumped off our boat got back onto another and crawled through the window and into the hold of our boat to avoid the scramble.  In the hold there was no light so I had to use my mobile as a torch to find our bags. At one point I also use it as a cloub to knock some sense into an idiotic Frenchy who is lighting matches to see, we're in the engine hoold with god knows how many gallons of fuel sloshing about everywhere.

Out at the gangplank a dopey great German girl crosses the plank, drops her bag and starts negotiating room rates with a local trapping half a dozen fully laden passengers on the rocking and lurching gangplank.  An English voice politely advises "Don't f*cking stop there you stupid cow"

We find a guest house for just 3 quid the night.  Some nits seem to think it a rite of passage to find cheaper accomodation and spend an hour or so getting this rate halved by sharing dorms, bathrooms etc I point out that they'll be able to buy a weekly edition of the Beano with what they saved.

I have a great meal of Buffalo Curry which is revenge for all the buffalo crap I had to dodge in India and early to bed as there is only electricity from 6pm to 9pm. Pakbeng is just a blast.  A single street is all there is and it's beautifully atmospheric with street food being prepared the whole length.  For all the world it looks like a wild west town from an old clint eastwood movie. The restaurant we eat in is at first floor level and we can look out across the mud track that constitutes mainstreet and watch Laos life go by.  It's very colourful indeed.

Next morning the boat is less packed as we lost some passengers to bus and speed boats and we enjoy the 2nd day despite it being the more dangerous stretch of river with lots of rapids rocks whirlpools etc.

Again the early morning mist on the river and surrounding mountains is beautiful.  The trip is only marred by a couple of things.  A bunch of Brits get involved in a Vodka fueled card game which involves the loser (and I really do mean loser!) jumping to his/her feet and shouting "I'm a stupid shitface"  This perplexes the locals and makes Kim and I squirm with embarrasment.  Doubtless they'll tell their friends etc that they have "Done the mekong" but in fact they sat below the deck level with their backs to it....makes you wander why they bothered.

In the PM we're reminded this isn't a Disney trip when a dead body floats past.  My impression was he was laying across a bamboo frame, someone else thought he'd maybe bumped into some more flotsam in the river which held him up but another said he thought he had been tied to a frame.  His head was below the water as if looking at the bottom and his shoulders were supported by some bamboo which also kept his legs afloat, it appeared he'd been in the water a long time.  The skipper was not interested in stopping and maybe with a river that flows through Burma it wasn't such a rare sight just now.... there was simply nothing we could do.

Coming from a country where such a sight would result in blue lights and helicopters within 10 minutes it's tough to adjust to an envirionment where life is so cheap and communication all but impossible.

We arrive at LP at Sunset.  The river here takes a tight right turn which along with the confluence with the Nam Khan river gives the impression of sailing into a huge, wide lagoon.  As we arrive the sun sets it turning the water silver, gold then red silhouetting the canoes and boats that are crossing it.  It's just stunning with the backdrop of limestone Karst formations and jungle clad mountains.

LP doesn't really qualify as a city.  It more resembles French village architecture; all timber shutters, balconies and red tiled rooves.  The streets are wide and tree lined and coffee shops and baguette stalls are everywhere, all this is punctuated with typically Asian golden Wats guarded by ornate dragons (Naga) and the extraordinary temples, studded with coloured tiles and mirrors that reflect the sunlight and with huge, ships hull shaped rooves that slope down to almost ground level.  It's quite possibly the most beautiful place we've ever seen.

In the evening the temperature is a balmy 18-20 degrees and Christmas lights are starting to sparkle and there is good wine at a local bar.  We spend a lot of time just watching it all go by after days tramping round the stunning temple complexes and taking in the view from the hills above town. There are some stunning restaurants which overlook the river and the views are very spectacular.   At night they're all lit up with lanterns and braziers and they barb q some amazing grub, this is a magical place.

We spend a morning elephant trekking which is just soo great it's hard to describe. The camp is beautiful, set deep in the forest completely peacful and the elephants eem to have a good life.  We got to spend time feeding them and getting to know the individual that would take us through the jungle.  The trip involved some fairly hairy drops and climbs and plunging along a river. We trample through the jungle and our Elephant wallows around in a lake, It's just a truly memorable experience.

There are some waterfalls here "Huang Se" which were also magnificent.  We walked right to the top to picknic on bagguettes and beer then down to a swimming hole.  The water is a bright blue and absolutely freezing! Set off against the dark greens of the surrounding jungle it looks like something from the garden of eden but is so cold as to take all the breath from our bodies to swim across and try to stand under the falls which pound remorslessly.

The 400 odd step climb to the temple overlooking the city gives fantstic views down to the river and beyond and also shows "New Louang" which has added hugely to the places size if nothing to it's beauty.  We wander the river top road to find some food and pass a baby elephant tethered in one of the road side cafes, he looks happy enough.  As night sets in we sit and have a glass of wine on main street as the town starts to sparkle.  the tuk tuks are all lit up like Christmas trees and all the shops are glittering with lights it all looks a little bizaar next to the great sweeping wings of the temples but stunning nonetheless.

We have really loved Louang Prabang, would love to come back and would give anything to be able to share the place with you all ....Fantastic!!!

The trip to Vang Vieng half way between Louang and the Thai border takes 7 bumpy, mountainous hours.  Again the scenery is staggering, the bus crawls higher and higher till we have blue sky and peaks in front of us and below us the clouds, foaming like rivers through the jungle clad valleys of Laos. All along the side of the road grow poinsettas like nothing I've ever seen, 3-4 meters tall the flowers are simply huge.

The down side of this is when we get to the other side of the peaks, to save fuel the bus "freewheels" at a somewhat disconcerting speed down again.... round blind hairpin bends overtaking any number of truck etc. A couple of times it strikes me that if the driver approaching from the opposite direction hadn't stopped for that extra croussaint at breakfast we would have plunged down a precipise.

We pass loads of small villages built up on stilts roofed with grass, it's tough to imagine life here but the kids in particular look incredibly happy. Lots of communal games seem to be going on and on one occassion we pass what looks like a pretty rocking dance  with girls in trad lao dress frugging away to the latest poptastic laoation hits

We arrive in Viang Vien late afternoon and tramp down the street to where the map suggests the river lies, looking for lodgings.  (Janet... ...there is no tour guide!!!!!!)

We end up at the "Grand View".....and it is!!  Just over 8 quid gets us a balcony with uninterupted views of the river, mountains and limestone Kasts that make this place popular with travelers.  The river looks great and you can spend hours floating down it from bar to bar for 10Ks in an inner tube.  There are bars opposite built on stilts which you reach via very rickety bamboo bridges, all of a plank wide and maybe 2 hundred meters long across the fast flowing current.  Your reward is a platform covered in matresses a pillow and ice cold beer-lao to watch the sunset across the river and mountains. The whole place is soooo laid back as to be almost comatose it's so relaxing weve decided to stop another day to chill out.

As regards beer there is good and bad news.  The bad is that it is all fizzy pop like what the Americans and Australians refer to as beer..... but we know as "Girl water"

The other bad news is that it costs between 7 and 10,000 kip for one bottle.

The better news is that a bottle contains 640 Mls (Work it out yourselves)

....and the even better is that you get 18,750 kip for one pound of the realm!!!!  Of course you have to drink about 38 pints to get what our American cousins call a "Beer Buzz" and frankly one's bladder gives in long before this joyous point is acheived but the strain on the bank account isn't as great as that upon the gizzards/spinaker etc.

Terry, perhaps as an Xmas game you could work out how many bottles at 640mls it takes to make 38 pints and what that would cost in Thai Baht (280 kip= 1baht)and sterling???  See you in Vientien assuming all goes well with the tubing.....