C & C globetrotting around the world…

After a week in Luang Prabang, we finally got going. To get to Thailand from here you can take a 2 day boat ride, or do a loop to the North by bus. We decided to do the loop and stop along the way to hike. The bus finally came, but we left 2.5 hours late. It was almost the time we were supposed to arrive in Nong Khiaw, as the bus ride was 3 hours. We were in a mini-van and the bus driver was driving a little fast. The bus was rattling on the winding road, so Cecilia wasn’t feeling that good. The scenery was very nice though, with hills and the Nam Ou river on our left. After finding a guesthouse in Nong Khiaw, we set out to walk around. We headed to Tham Pha Tok cave, which was used as a hiding place for the local people during the US bombings of the Indochina war. There are a few of these here in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but it’s the first one we visit. We had to climb up some very steep stairs and then went through the cave. It’s big and the stations were pointed out where the different groups were working from (police, governor, art).

The next morning we took a songtau from Nong Khiaw to Pakmong. Luckily the road wasn’t too bad and we met a German couple with whom we chatted, so the time passed pretty quickly on the short distance. Then from Pakmong to Oudomxai we had a mini-van, but it was the worst road ever! The mini-van was rattling on the bumpy road and the curves were just awful. If you could take your eyes off the road, there was beautiful mountainous scenery around us. Then we caught a local mini-bus for the last stretch between Oudomxai and Luang Nam Tha. Here the road was really good (recently built by the Chinese), but the seats were uncomfortable. The important thing is we made it.

Luang Nam Tha is known as “trekkers’ Mecca” in Laos because there are lots of opportunities to hike in the area, so we also took a trekking tour for a day. We were driven to a village, not very far from the town of Luang Nam Tha, inhabited by the Lanten people, who wear indigo-coloured clothes. The trek was to take us through the jungle and to hill tribes, but to go to the National Protected Area (NPA) you need at least 2 or 3 days in order to get deep enough into the jungle. At first we were walking through rubber tree plantations and were sad to notice garbage lying around. Our guide said that the village people are paid to clean the path once every 3 months, which is a good thing. But it is them to litter in the first place. The worst part is that the litter didn’t only include candy wrappers and chips bags, but also empty plastic packages of chemicals. When we asked what that was, the guide said it was herbicides the village people put on the grass because “they are too lazy to cut the grass between the rubber trees”. It is a pretty depressing story. The Chinese come and offer the hill tribes money to plant rubber trees on the hills. When they do that, they also do the villagers “a favour” by taking the cut lumber with them back to China. The villagers then have to wait 7 years before the rubber trees start producing any rubber. During this time, they don’t have any income, no more forest to collect food from, no more space to grow rice, but they buy herbicides (from the Chinese, of course) for the grass. What they don’t know is that all these harmful chemicals end up in the water they drink downstream. The guide was pretty upset about the Lao government not banning this, but we guess the Chinese pay some good money to the “right” people. Not to mention the dangers of monoculture.

When we reached the jungle, it was beautiful. The rustling of dead leaves on the forest floor and the dappled light falling through the canopy made us forget the disaster we had just seen. The air was nice and cool and the shade made the hike very enjoyable. We had lunch in the forest under a small shelter which was really nice. Our guide quickly made some bamboo chopsticks and the table was set. The tablecloth were huge banana leaves our guide had collected en route and we were served our food in banana leaf packages. It was very nice, delicious and eco-friendly too. On the way down, our guide picked some fruits and flowers to bring home for his family dinner. He was from a hill tribe (the Black Tai) himself and had grown up gathering the forest fruits. He also showed us elephant ear leaf and told us how to make tea if we ever get malaria and are stuck in the woods. Good to know, but hopefully we won’t need to put it into practice.

After a while we reached a village inhabited by the Sita people (there are only 2 villages of Sita in Laos), a people with an animistic religion and their own customs and culture. The village had about 200 people and looked very orderly. There were lots of children running about, but we didn’t see many adults. We think they might have been at the market. While we talked to our guide, he complained about the poor pay, but he gets $15 per day of work, which we think is pretty decent for a developing country. We don’t know if he was complaining because he was hoping for tips, but we tried to point out to him that he had a good job getting exercise, being in the fresh air and not really working, only hiking in the jungle. He usually works 2 or 3 days a week, but his wife and children apparently complain that he works too much, so he has to buy them candy when he gets home. No comment.

The bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was so loooong. The road was always winding and although in better condition than from Vientiane to Vang Vieng, the 220km still took 7 hours!

Luang Prabang has a nice feel to it, so we stayed longer than we had planned. The town is pretty small with its 55,00 inhabitants, but it has a charm. Until the Pathet Lao (communist party) took over power in 1975, Luang Prabang was the capital of Laos and seat of the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Lane Xang (“Kingdon of a Million Elephants”, as Laos used to call itself) since 1353AD. To this day, it is the religious capital of the nation, with over 30 temples (Wats) still active and orange-clad Buddhist monks everywhere on the streets. The UNESCO-protected down-town area is very beautiful, show-casing the typical Luang Prabang architecture where temples, Lao-style stilt houses and French colonial villas alternate to create a wonderful mix. There is sight-seeing to be done, but also just wondering on the streets and taking in the relaxed yet historic atmosphere is very pleasant. There are lots of good restaurants, beautiful terraces along the 2 rivers (Luang Prabang is a peninsula between the Mekong and the Nam Khan river), a night market with local handicrafts, as well as beautiful small alleys with an abundance of flowers.

On our first day we visited Phu Si, a small hill in the middle of town. There are lots of Buddhas all over the hill as part of Wat Tham Phu Si, as well as a cave-shrine and Buddha’s footprint (phutthatbat). At the top there is a golden stupa called That Chomsi, which is visible from the town below. We were thinking of going on a day tour outside town, but they are all very expensive, especially if you consider that many of them only involve trekking. For us, paying $40 per person to walk behind some guy in the jungle is not really worth it. Unfortunately you cannot go trekking by yourself because paths are not well marked and there are still many unexploded American bombs from the Second Indochina War.

As we were walking on the street, a lady spoke to us because Christoph was wearing his Trier t-shirt. She’s German and he is an 81-yr-old American who taught English in the US Army (soldiers’ kids). They now live in San Antonio, Texas and we sat down to chat with them. We were totally impressed when they told us they travel every year for 4 months (at his age!). They also showed us the “food alley”, an alley with lots of stalls of local food. You get a plate for 10,000 kip ($1.50) and can pile as much on it as fits from various dishes they have. The only thing you have to pay extra for is meat (10,000 kip for a big chicken breast skewer), so we had dinner together there and it was delicious.

One evening we went to watch the “Ethnik Show”, where they parade traditional costumes from the various ethnic minorities in Laos. A bit outside town is Pak Ou cave, reachable by boat. The 2 caves hold thousands of Buddha statues and is the place where the kings came on a yearly procession. The boat stopped at a village where they make Lao Whiskey (called Lao Lao) made of sticky rice.

We finished off the year at “Utopia” bar. The bar is a really cool place, half outside, half indoors, so we stayed there for the Midnight Countdown, but left shortly afterwards. When you’re not with friends, New Year’s Eve is not as much fun. There were many “candle/hot-air-balloons” being sent up in the air and people shooting fireworks, which was nice to see.

We started off the year by spending a few relaxing days planning the next few weeks of our trip. Our guesthouse had a nice terrace, so we read and researched a lot there. We also visited the Royal Palace Museum, where the Royal family lived until the 1975 revolution when they were exiled to caves in northern Laos and the Pathet Lao took over the power. The museum is home to “Phra Bang”, a small Buddha statue of gold, silver and bronze after which the city is named. The statue is believed to have been made in Sri Lanka and brought to Laos as the symbol of Theravada-Buddhism. Since 2003 there is a shrine built on the museum grounds for the “Phra Bang” statue, but the statue has not been transported inside yet. This building is beautifully decorated with gilded walls on a red background. The actual royal residence showcases a mix of French and Lao architecture. On the facade one can see the three-headed elephant. The symbol of the Lane Xang Kingdom. Inside the residence, we visited the reception halls, the library, the bedrooms and many exposed artifacts and Buddhist sculptures. In the garage there is the King’s fleet of vehicles. There was also an exhibition (called “Floating Buddha”) from a guy from Trier (Mr. Berger), which we were excited about. He accompanied monks on a meditation camp to the jungle and displayed his photos of the excursion. Quite interesting.

Luang Prabang is a great town to walk around. Once we stumbled upon “Tamarind Cafe”. It is one of the guidebook recommendations and although we don’t usually follow them, we wanted to check it out. The menu looked really good, so we decided to try something. We had the dips platter with sticky rice, a Lao speciality. You take some sticky rice in your hand and form a small ball. With it you scoop up some of the dip and eat it. It’s fun to eat and the dips are delicious (we had eggplant, sweet chili, coriander and marinated veggies). We washed this down with tamarind juice and ginger/lemongrass juice, which were also delicious and cooling after the fiery chili.

One day we walked through town towards the tip of the peninsula to visit 2 of the more famous Wats. Wat Saen has a giant Buddha and very peaceful grounds. Wat Xieng Thong, is the oldest and most famous in town and Cecilia’s favourite. It was built in the 16^th century and is the best example of the architectural style of Luang Prabang, especially the roof. It also served as inspiration for later buildings. The outside walls of the buildings are decorated with tiny pieces of coloured mirrors, like a mosaic. Inside the main building (sim), the walls are also decorated with gilded pattern on red or black background, depicting the enlightenment of Buddha. Also on the grounds is the royal funeral chapel with the funeral chariot and funeral urns for each member of the royal family. The corpse was placed in the urn in the foetal position until cremation. At the back of the hall are also many old wooden statues of Buddha in the “calling for rain” position, the most typical for Laos.

Our lunches in Luang Prabang often consisted of a baguette with chicken and veggies from a street vendor. These baguettes are really delicious, better than Subway’s. They have different combinations, but we like this one: toast the bread, put the grilled chicken inside and add all the veggies you want (lettuce, cucumber, onion, avocado, etc) and top it off with mayo and chili sauce. It costs 15,000 kip ($2) and then we get a fruit shake for 5,000 kip ($0.65) to top it off.

We visited some more temples (Wats), including Wat May. Most Wats have a central temple (sim) where the praying is done and are surrounded by the monks’ quarters, stupas and other Buddha shrines. The central temple at Wat May was very nice, with a gilded bas-reliefs on its facade. We enjoyed our massages in Vientiane so much, we decided to get another one here in Luang Prabang. We went for a Lao-style massage, but without the hot herbal one. It felt really good too (although not quite as good) and we walked home happy. We should do this more often, especially at a price of $5 an hour.

For dinner we went to “Delilah’s” restaurant, the place run by a German, we think. I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara and Christoph asked if the Fried Chicken Breast with fries and salad has tomatoes because Christoph is allergic to tomatoes. The waiter asked the chef and came back with a negative answer, so Christoph ordered it. The Carbonara arrived, we split it and it was good. Half an hour later Christoph’s chicken breast arrived with mayo and ketchup on it and tomatoes in the salad. We told the waiter that we said NO TOMATOES and he said they can take them out of the salad. But what about the ketchup? The guy didn’t know that ketchup is made of tomatoes… So we sent it back to the kitchen. They took the tomatoes out of the salad and WASHED the ketchup off the chicken breast. Great! Christoph started to eat and as he cut the chicken breast, there were sliced tomatoes inside (sort of like cordon bleu). We called over the guy and he said sorry. By this time we were really mad and asked for the bill. He brought the bill with all the items on it. We only paid for the carbonara, not the chicken breast and he asked us if we can’t pay for it. Is he kidding? We said no and he didn’t quite seem to understand why. Luckily Chris’ allergy is not that bad, but he still didn’t want to eat that dish. Laotians always amaze us.

Between all the reading and planning for Thailand, we also booked our flight to Europe on April 6^th. Very exciting and cool since we can now plan with a time line in mind.

The 150km journey North of Vientiane took almost 6 hours, making that an average of less than 30km/h. The road was winding and only partly paved, so it took forever. Vang Vieng is know for its adventure sports and has been marketing itself as such. There is caving, rock climbing, trekking and kayaking. It is actually famous for tubing down the Nam Song river while stopping at bars en route.

Vang Vieng is very laid-back and the bars cater to backpackers and young tourists who come here for fun. One of the specialities is bars showing episodes of “Friends” all day long. We ordered coconut shakes and watched Friends for hours at one of these. What a relaxing day! Unfortunately as the evening wears on, there are drunken people coming from the bars (Christoph calls them Mallorca people). They wear “muscle-shirts”, are loud and drunk, totally unfitting for a Buddhist country. But they are part of the Vang Vieng scene, which encourages them with cheap drinks.

We went on a one-day tour in the surrounding area. We were driven with a songtau for a while, then dropped off with a guide and a French couple. We walked a bit, talking to the guide, a nice 24-year-old guy, then visited 3 caves. “Elephant” cave was called so because of an elephant-looking formation by the entrance. The cave has a Buddha inside and is used as a temple. The other 2 caves (“Hole” cave and “Snail” cave) are deeper and left to their natural state, with many stalagmites and stalagtites. It was interesting, especially Snail cave because we went quite deep into it with our flashlights. We then walked a bit more and reached the place where we had lunch. Afterwards we went tubing in the “Water” cave, where we had to pull ourselves along a rope into the cave. The water was a bit cold at first, but it was fun to explore. From there we walked through quiet country-side sprinkled with karst peaks (similar to Yangshuo in China) until we reached a H’Mong village. The H’Mong minority (like in Sapa, Vietnam) are a hill tribe with their special customs. Right now they celebrate their New Year, so the entire village was gathered on the big grassland with food stands, playing games. The children were dressed up in traditional costumes, but not the adults. It was nice to see, even though they don’t seem to maintain their culture as much as the ethnic minorities in China. The last part of our tour was kayaking on the Nam Song river for 8km. The scenery was beautiful, with karst peaks and clean river water. We also passed some small rapids on the kayak and Christoph and Cecilia were a bit scared, as they hadn’t ever done that before. It went very well and luckily the river was pretty calm since the water level is low now, in the dry season. It was still an adrenaline rush, but Christoph steered the kayak masterfully. After a while the peace and quiet was broken by the bars where the tubing starts. Here, loud music, drunken youngsters and Tarzan swings spoil the scenery. It is interesting to see, because it isn’t really Laos. At least they’re all concentrated here, hehe. The problem is that many drink too much and then go tubing down the river, injuring themselves. We just went passed all this monkey business and continued our kayaking until we arrived back in Vang Vieng. It was a wonderful and fun-filled day!

We took pictures with a waterproof throw-away camera, so the quality is unfortunately horrible. The view were stunning though.

Vientiane, the capital of Laos is a town of 230,000 inhabitants and its name means “Sandalwood City”. Throughout history it was invaded by the Siamese, the Vietnamese, the Khmer and the Burmese. It was settled by the French as an important hub of Indochina, but the town never grew into a bustling city like Saigon. We used this opportunity to catch up on sleep. It feels so good to be able to sleep in, not be woken up by crowing roosters! It was an unusual Christmas for us away from home, but we still pampered ourselves with delicious food and relaxing massages. The influence of the French is still present with some colonial villas and many French restaurants, as well as stands selling baguette everywhere. In the 1960’s, Vientiane was full of CIA agents and Russian spies. After 1975, Pathet Lao (the revolutionary Communist movement) sent many people off to re-education camps, but about 10% of the population (mainly educated people) fled to Thailand.

During our stay here we visited the Wat Si Saket, the oldest temple in Vientiane. The interior walls of the cloister have many small niches and contain over 2,000 Buddha statues made of wood and copper. Underneath these niches are 300 larger standing or seated Buddhas dating from the 15^th to the 19^th century. The temple itself is pretty small, but interesting with many old frescoes. We also visited the Patuxai, an Arc de Triomphe replica, but with more elaborate carvings. It commemorates the Lao who died in pre-revolutionary wars and was built with cement donated by the US for the construction of a new airport. Some people call it the “vertical runway”. We climbed to the top where you get a 360 degree view of Vientiane. The city is really flat, so you can see pretty far. From there we walked to Pha That Luang, the most important religious national monument in Laos. It is a golden stupa and a symbol of both Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty. Legend has is that some missionaries from India built a stupa here in the 3^rd century BC to enclose a piece of Buddha’s breastbone. The current building dates to the 16^th century AD built by King Setthathirat (whose statue is in front of the That) and is surrounded by some Wats and other monastic buildings. It looks nice, but we were disappointed that you can only walk around it (access to go up is closed), so there is nothing else to see.

We found some French bakeries that made heavenly pastries and cakes, so each day we had a piece of these delicious creations. It was great to have “Kaffee&Kuchen”, even if not home-made. There was a French restaurant right next to our hotel, so we went there for 2 meals as well, and it was great. Usually we like to eat the local food, but we couldn’t say “No” to tasty but cheap French food. There are lots of French expats in Vientiane, so the restaurants are abundant to cater to them. We can’t complain. Lao food is also not very diverse we find, with many restaurants serving variations of fried rice and fried noodles, so we welcomed the alternative of Western food. One dinner we went to Makphet, a restaurant run by “Friends International”, like the one in Phnom Penh. It trains former street children to enter the restaurant and serves great modern-style Lao food. We had a nice evening with great dishes while supporting a good cause. Our Christmas Eve dinner was unconventional this year since we had a Lao version of BBQ/Raclette/Fondue. It was good, but we missed the cabbage rolls… We spent 2 days with some Couchsurfers and the guy was a chef in a fancy French restaurant, so on Christmas he brought home a “buche glacee” for dessert.

Even if we are far away, Santa was still able to find us. He gave us a Spa package each. It included a 1-hr Lao body massage (relieves pressure points and stretches the muscles), then a 1-hr herbal massage where they apply bundles of steamed aroma-therapeutic herbs to your muscles and massage you with them and finish off with a neck and shoulders massage for half an hour. We were so relax when we came out of there, it was incredible. Thanks Santa!

On December 25^th, we went to the Catholic church for Christmas mass, where there was a Vietnamese wedding going on. As soon as the wedding finished, we went up to some sisters to say Hello, Merry Christmas and to see if the mass was still being held. They were happy to see us and asked us if we wanted to sing in the Christmas choir. So we did. There were Lao kids, the nuns and us. It was nice and it finally felt like Christmas.

We left the island of Don Det heading for a village called Tad Lo on the Bolaven Plateau, a journey that took forever, even though it wasn’t that far. The Bolaven Plateau is home to dense jungles and many waterfalls. At an altitude of 1500m, it also enjoys a cooler climate and is home to some ethnic groups. Unfortunately they do not dress in traditional costumes like in China, so it’s not as colourful. The area is also known for growing Laos’ coffee, although that was a bit further away from where we stayed.

Here, we were woken up early again. At night there is loud music from the village disco, in the morning it’s the kids and roosters that wake you up early. We are not happy about the lack of sleep we are getting in Laos so far. Christoph says that if in Vientiane he cannot sleep, he’s taking the first plane back to China, hehe. The adults are friendly and smiling, but the kids are ALWAYS crying and screaming. We were too tired to do much else, but we read a lot, which is also nice. An interesting thing we observed while we were reading out on the porch was the fact that although there is a toilet, the family running the guesthouse still goes in the bush. It seems that toilets are only for foreigners… Also, there is a water spring where village girls come to fetch water. One of the girls was pregnant (maybe 5-6 months), but still carried 20L of water on a bamboo stick. Crazy!

When we finally gathered enough energy, we set out to hike in the area. The hike to the waterfalls was pretty quick and the waterfalls were nice, but nothing spectacular. They are probably much more awe-inspiring in the wet season when the water volume increases dramatically. We hear of many people who are impressed by Laos’ nature, but for that one needs to hire a motorcycle and take back roads. We like adventure to a certain degree, but motorbiking on winding dirt roads in the middle of nowhere is way past that point. That is probably why we haven’t been that amazed. We have however experienced “real Laos” and its rural life-style.

We entered Laos by land and got a visa at the border, heading for the “4000 Islands”. This is a region in the Mekong river where the river widens and there are lots of small islands sprinkled everywhere. We arrived to Don Det island and stayed at one of the bungalows of “Paradise Guesthouse”. The terrace overlooking the river with hammocks to hang around in looked idyllic. The island is car-less and there are only a couple of motorbikes driving around. People just come here to relax, so we did just that. Actually, we performed some of the mandatory exercises for “Paradise”: page-turning, hammock-swinging and stair-climbing (to the bungalows on stilts). Very strenuous work! Actually the bungalows on stilts the families live in are very interesting. The upstairs is for sleeping and during floods, but daily life goes on underneath it usually, so it is their way of having a 2-storey house.

We also walked around in the fields. We eventually ended up on the other side and watched the sunset from there while sipping coconut & banana shakes on the terrace. The island was very quiet, except in the morning hours when we would have liked to sleep. The screaming kids, crowing roosters and loud boat engines roars wake you up at the crack of dawn. One day we rented some bikes and headed out to tour the islands passed rice paddies, water buffaloes and to some waterfalls. We only stayed for 3 nights, but most people spend at least two weeks there.