Indochina loop continued - Laos

LAOS VOCABULARY:

BEER LAO (local brew)

SABADEE (hello)

KOP CHAI LAI LAI (thank you very much)

Friday

Left Thailand for Laos on boat trip down the Mekong River.  Now as most of you know, I don't particularly like boats and to spend 2 days on one, a very basic one at that, was not my idea of fun!

Changed our dollars into Laos Kip and suddenly felt like millionaires.  Apparently $50 is going to take ages to spend here. (Fact:  They have no coins in their currency and most notes are various shades of blue - how flippin' confusing is that???) You can spend dollars or Kips but not allowed to take any Kip out of the country.

Stopped for the night in a very basic guest house in Prakbang.  Electricity and hot water only available between 6pm and 10pm!!!  We had a great meal in an Indian restaurant and then wearily made our way to the guest house.  Thankfully I was asleep before the electricity switched off but boy was it a hot and sticky night!

Saturday

Awoke with the roosters  at 5am.  Early start back on long boat.  Journey 'same same' ie same kind of scenery and small huts dotted along the river.  We broke the journey with a visit, or should I say intrusion, to a typical river side village inhabited by a Mongolian tribe.  Had a nosey around and as it was very muddy, the fat girl at the back slipped over and made a fool of herself (oh yeh, that was me!!!)  The kids were intreagued by the tall blonde women in our group and one girl felt like the Pied Piper.  We had to do a head count back on the boat incase we had stowaways!

Another journey breaker was to a cave with 1000s of buddahs and steps.  No wonder our guide stayed on the boat - climbing hundreds of steps in 40degrees heat was not much fun.

Finally arrived in Luang Prabang at around 4pm and after another lot of steep steps up the river bank with our back packs (or bag with dead body as my pack is referred to) we arrived at our next hotel.  Rooms not quite ready but 3 of us single girls dived into one room and hit the showers (not all together, don't worry!) and felt sooooo much cleaner.

Wandered round the market place and then met the rest of the group for a typical Laos dinner - Pizza!!!  Come all this way and thats the best that was on offer.  On way to night market, we stumbled across internet cafe so this is where I am having my photos put onto CD whilst I write this blog.

Sunday

"You have to see the monks parade, its a special festival" said our guide.  As if we haven't seen enough orange clad males over the past week, we dutifully woke up at 5.30am!!!!  Today was special because its the 15th of the lunar month and buddah has a birthday.  The monks collect alms from the local women and sometimes the women are poorer than the monks, so they donate the alms back again!

After breakfast, we visited the Royal Palace Museum where the holiest buddah in Laos is housed.  There is no royal family any more because it was disposed of when the country became a communist regime (not that you would notice).

Our treat after traipsing through history was a drive up the mountain to see beautiful waterfalls.  We have been told to dress modestly in SE Asia and that includes swimming, so we went into the swim holes in t-shirts and shorts.  Had fun on rope swings (NO - not me!!) and yours truly managed another spectacular A over T on the mud (this time to a round of applause from all onlookers). There was also an animal sanctuary with a tiger (who was asleep, but dutifully woke up, yawned, streched and posed for the cameras before going back to sleep) and some bears that had been saved from hunters.

Evening was spent trying local cocktails (NEVER drink Laos rice wine with red bull and pepsi - its a lethal combination!) however, the Laos beer is pretty good and comes in wine bottle sized bottles. Found yet another night bazaar to spend our money (can pay in US dollars or Laos Kips).  Everything is soooo cheap here eg Tshirts for 2 dollars.  I had 5 and a half kilos of laundry that cost me 5 dollars to be washed, dried and ironed.

Monday

Had lie in cos nothing to get up for.  Late breakfast (they have fantastic bakeries here due to the French influence) then mooch around town.  Stumble across a wedding party which we tried to gate crash but for some reason they thought we weren't really friends of the bride!

In the afternoon, Becky and I went off for a 'craft' trip.  Had a guide take us in a Tuk Tuk to several villages - blacksmiths where they were making knives for the rice farmers; rice wine makers (Lao Lao) which is the potent fire water I had in my cocktail last night; paper makers (from Saa= mulberry); silk weavers; and silversmiths.  They were all real businesses but of course all had shops for selling their wares.  The scariest thing was the rice wine makers as the 'distillary' (plastic buckets) was soooo primitive and had chickens running around all over the place (as do all the villages - hence the chances of bird flu high in this part of the world).  I love silk but now I know how its made, feel a bit  weird.  We saw buckets of harvested eggs turning into worms and then their cocoons are spun and boiled and dyed and then weaved.  I just bought a simple scarf and bracelet but some of the heavy silks were amazing in colour and design.

This evening, after a stomach churning hot curry, the girls went off for a massage but I had to get my internet fix!

Tuesday

What an interesting night! First of all we arrived back at the guest house to find a little old man sleeping outside our room on the stone floor - not sure who jumped higher with fright, us or him! I have to explain that our rooms are 'out the back' in what looks like the staff quarters (will add a pic asap).  It seems like there are staff sleeping on every available floor for shelter as it rains a lot during the night.  Our guide told us that they are  there for our security - ha ha, he probably couldn't save himself, let alone foreign tourists!

We stumbled into our room to find a pair of ghekos chasing each other up the walls.  They are noisy buggers and get their name from their call "Geh Ko".

Then there was a power cut and our air con/fan went off.  We just sat there laughing but it all came back about 10 mins later when someone put a shilling in the meter.

This morning we went off for a late breakfast.  We have been noticing a begger in town but he usually comes up to diners in restaurants and opens his hands for them to put coins in.  We never give him eye contact and he usually goes away.  This morning was no different.  However, I was taking a lug of coffee when all of a sudden I felt someone touch my arm - it was the begger man - and I had such a shock that I sprayed most of my fellow diners with coffee!  I shouted at him and he ran away.  Then some of our group arrived at the restaurant and said that they had been exchanging money earlier when the begger man had come in with a replica pistol and they were so scared they ran away.  All this in sleepy Louang Prabang!

The heavens started to roar with thunder as we left for the tiny airport.  We had to have umbrellas to run across the runway to our plane in the torrential downpour.  On this 40 min flight to the capital city Vientiane, we were served breakfast (sticky bun, tangerine, 5 tamarind sweets and some water).  The landing was amazingly smooth and it had stopped raining by the time we arrived at 3pm.

Our hotel is very nice and its my turn to have my own room.  Our little gang of 3 set off to explore the locality and to be honest were not that impressed! The high street is currently being laid with tarmac, most of the shops were shut and it doesn't have the same chilled feeling.  Met a couple more of our group and we set off for a cocktail bar where we had noticed 'BOGOF' happy hour 4pm-8pm.  We thought we could share the cost but they bring each person two of same cocktails for price of one.  Needless to say, I got rather merry on the Mai Tais.  We then met the others for dinner down by the Mekong (yes, its a flipping long river...) and after more beers we staggered back to the cocktail bar.  I don't think they noticed I sidled off to the Internet cafe opposite to write this blog!

Wednesday

Heavy day sightseeing - sacred temple, museum, and their version of the 'arc de triumph' which, the story goes, was built with concrete that the Americans gave them to build a runway! Morning market which is actually open all day.  Rest in afternoon and then hit the restaurants and bars again this evening.  We will be 'incomunicado' for next couple of days as we go on a long bus journey to our next point.  So until then, dear readers, I bid you good night until the next exciting installment!:-)

PS - keep sending me emails please so that I have something to look forward to when I next get my internet fix!

Thursday

Spent most of day travelling to our destination near the Laos/Vietnam border.  We were to stay in a family home.  8 hours of tortuous driving, but we eventually arrived in one piece.  Spent an hour on the river in the local craft - B52 bomber fuel tanks!!!  We all had dinner together and then split into 2 groups for the night - one group sleeping at the next door neighbour. They had arranged mattresses on the floor under mosquito nets for us.  You have to imagine that all the houses seem to be just one big room where they eat, cook, sleep and most importantly of all, watch tv (every house has a gigantic satallite dish outside!!)  Lights out was at 9pm after very basic ablutions (no running water) but we couldn't sleep because in our house there were people coming in and going out all night long.  In the morning, we discovered that they were illegal Vietnamese smuggling timber!  Oooh the excitement of being caught up in such things....

Friday

After a very good and filling breakfast we set off for the border.  What an experience that was!  One of our party was reduced to tears because they didn't believe she was the same person on her passport photo.  After quite a while sorting out the beaurocracy, we were delivered by coach to 'no man's land'. Walked a little way and then boarded another bus to take us another 6 hours to our final location.

Will give more description in the next entry entitled Vietnam

My overall impressions of Laos - a sleepy, quiet country with lovely, friendly people.  Very cheap for food and drink (got by on $5 US per day).  Not too impressed with capital city, but loved Luang Prabang.  People in Laos lead a very simple and fairly primitive life.  We all HATED the squat toilets - what an experience!