Laos

My first new country on this trip. It’s been on the South East Asia backpacker route for quite a while but perhaps not the top of many holiday destinations lists.

We crossed the border from Thailand at Chiang Khong, at the Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge VI. Visas are available on arrival for 40 USD (in crisp notes) plus a passport photo. I’ve now got a lovely full page visa in my passport!

After the border formalities, we drove a short distance up the river to get on a slowboat which would be our transport for the next 2 days to take us down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. It’s early January and winter here, though definitely a different winter to the UK! There was a chill in the air in the morning which necessitated a couple of layers, but by mid morning when the sun came out, it was very pleasantly warm.

We sailed for perhaps 7 hours on the first day, to our overnight stop at a local Lao village. This was a real eye-opening experience into how people live along the river. There is no phone signal here, and whilst there are electricity wires and telegraph poles running through the village, it isn’t yet connected. Some of the houses have generators, cooking is done over an open fire, which also provides heat. There is a village water pump. The village is supported by G Adventures as a home stay stop on their tours, so there were sit-down western toilets, albeit with a large barrel of water beside for a manual flush…

The families here are large, with a lot of children running around amongst the roosters and ducks and dogs. Houses are wooden and on stilts to help with both the heat in the summer and the flooding in the rainy season. There was a school in the village so the children can get an education. Everyone seemed happy, and I suppose they know no different but it was a very rustic experience. I was also on my period at this point which, despite the western toilets, I was generally finding quite tough to deal with so can hardly imagine how the girls and women here cope. It was really good to experience the home stay and the genuine way of life when travelling as it really does put things into perspective.

We had Laotian food for dinner which was absolutely delicious and were then treated to a traditional dance performance from the girls in the village. We were also invited to have a go, there’s a lot of twirling wrists which I found surprisingly tiring!!

The next day it was back to the boat for another 7 hours after which we arrived at Luang Prabang. I hugely enjoyed sailing down the river and watching the scenery pass by. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting but I don’t think it was lush hillsides and limestone peaks. It was a very calming experience watching the world go by.

About an hour out of Luang Prabang are the Pak Ou caves, housing numerous Buddha statues in the caves on the riverside.

We arrived in the late afternoon for a 3 night stay in Luang Prabang, at one point the capital of Laos. Just in time for sunset, we headed up Phu Si, for views of the city and surrounding area

The night markets in Luang Prabang were perhaps the best we saw in Laos, or at least felt like they had the most local goods, and we frequented them each night we were there.

The next day we had a full day of activities starting with a tour of the ethnology museum to learn about some of the different peoples who live in Laos. We then drove out in a tuk tuk to a local community supported by G Adventures where we were received with a welcome ceremony and a number of cotton strings tied around our wrists, these provide good luck and fortune on travels and in theory shouldn’t be taken off before arriving home, but I’m not home for another 3 months…

We had lunch there and were then given a demonstration of making rice noodles and cotton weaving, before being persuaded to buy some scarves.

After that it was off to Kuang Si waterfalls for a paddle, and also to see some bears which have been rescued from the countryside and being cared for here.

The following day was a free day in Luang Prabang. Laos has the dubious distinction of being the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world. During the Second Indochina war, on average a plane load of munitions were dropped every 8 minutes for 9 years as the US bombed the Ho Chi Minh trail. An enormous amount of Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) remains here and continues to have a devastating impact on people’s lives. There is a very good UXO museum in Luang Prabang which I visited to learn more about this and the efforts being made to clear the land of the ordinance.

I then wandered around the old town and into Wat Xieng Thong, where despite the bus load of tourists which had just arrived, it was surprisingly peaceful. That evening a few of us went to Manda de Laos where we had a tasting menu of Lao food, and some imported wine. It was all delicious.

After an early start the next morning to see the daily Tak Bat ceremony where the monks proceed along the streets and townsfolk (or, increasingly, large tour groups) offer sticky rice and other foods, we set off to Vang Vieng, on a high speed train. By bus, this journey would take around 7 hours, but once we’d driven the 20 or so minutes to Luang Prabang train station, the train only takes just over an hour (thank you China…)

Vang Vieng used to be the party town in Laos, and to a certain extent it still is, but nowadays it is reinventing itself as an adventure destination with activities such as kayaking, rafting, climbing and hiking on the menu in the beautiful surrounding countryside . I took the opportunity to have a very chilled day and beyond a wander around town and finding a lunch spot overlooking the river, I did very little else. It was actually very nice to have a day almost to myself especially when on a long trip.

In the mornings and evenings, there are hot air balloon rides to capture sunrise and sunset, which were great to watch from the rooftop bar in the hotel.

After a relaxing time in Vang Vieng, it was off to Vientiane for the last stop in Laos. Again I need to give thanks to the Chinese for building a smooth highway and we were in Vientiane in a little over 2 hours. Vientiane is the capital of Laos, and there’s a lot of construction work going on, but it’s perhaps one of the quieter capitals I’ve been to. In the afternoon we went to Patuxai, the Victory Gate, modelled on the Arc de Triomphe, and were able to climb for views of the city. I also went into another temple where all the interior walls had little insets which housed 2 small Buddhas, there must have been thousands in total in the temple.

After a final evening of Beerlaos, we left the next day to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam.

I found Laos to be a beautiful and fascinating country. A much slower pace of life than its surrounding countries. Wonderful scenery, fantastic food and definitely an up-and-coming tourist destination. The slow boat down the Mekong was, I think, my favourite part. Go before the tourists take over!