Getting to Lao entailed busing all day to Chang Kong in the north of Thailand. Thankfully Noi, our driver, made Justin and me sit up front so we able to plug my iPod into the van's speakers and drink beer, which is not illegal here. I have had a lot of long road-trip djing experience, (thanks Lo and Ash) and was more than happy to oversee the task. It was also a good opportunity to listen to a lot of the new music that I added to my iPod in Koh Tao. All of our fellow passengers expressed their gratitude for our efforts.
After a pleasant enough six hour drive we pulled into the guesthouse where we were staying and promptly overheated. Spending all day in the air-coned van left us woefully unprepared for the stiffing heat and humidity. By now I have just accepted that for the next month I will be constantly sweating. And I don't mean sweating in a normal Canadian kind of way. This is the kind of sweating where large beads of moisture are forever forming and streaking down all over every body part. The kind of sweat where rings are not confined to the underarms but are in fact visible where ever fabric meets skin. You basically always look like you have just gotten out of the shower. But in fact you desperately need to get into one.
After a pleasant enough six hour drive we pulled into the guesthouse where we were staying and promptly overheated. Spending all day in the air-coned van left us woefully unprepared for the stiffing heat and humidity. By now I have just accepted that for the next month I will be constantly sweating. And I don't mean sweating in a normal Canadian kind of way. This is the kind of sweating where large beads of moisture are forever forming and streaking down all over every body part. The kind of sweat where rings are not confined to the underarms but are in fact visible where ever fabric meets skin. You basically always look like you have just gotten out of the shower. But in fact you desperately need to get into one.
Our guesthouse for the night was nice enough. Although it was overrun with other Laos bound travelers who partied late into the night irritating Justin and me. The next morning we got up before 6am so that we could go down to the morning market and get fresh fruit for the long boat journey. The morning market was great. There wasn't anything about it that was particularly special but it felt like a genuine local market unlike others we have seen (i.e the floating market near Bangkok.) In other words there were no beer logo t-shirts for sale. We got quite a few stares and more than one chuckle at our expense, but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. And I will remember it as one of our most authentic moments in Thailand
After breakfast, if you can call it that, we packed up and waited for the bus to take us to the ferry which would shuttle us across the Mekong to Laos. While waiting we met a few of the other travelers who we would come to know over the next three days of travel. There were quite a few Canadians and a group of really nice guys from Tennessee as well as innumerable Brits. Apparently there is a video of the Vang Vieng tubing on Youtube which became a viral hit in England and now Laos is THE destination for gap year Brit kids. Some of them have been really nice but by and large they have been a bit of a pain in the ass. (The Brits were the major offenders in Chang Kong.)
After sitting around waiting for an inexplicably long time we were finally told to board the bus and we headed for the border crossing. Crossing the overland boarder into Laos involved visiting no less than three windows on each side of the river, handing over my passport to complete strangers with no explanation more than half a dozen time and shelling out way more money than expected. The exchange rates up there were decidedly unfriendly to budget travelers, which was just about everyone there since anyone with any money or sense would have skipped this rigmarole and flown. Eventually we were all loaded onto another bus on the Laos side of the border and were headed for the slow boat that would be our mode of transportation for the next two days to Luang Prabang.
But before we could get on the boat we were forced to endure a thoroughly infuriating shpeel by our Thai tour leader about how the Lao people can't be trusted and that we should be wary of everyone. And perhaps most importantly that we should A.) book our guesthouse for our overnight on the river through them and that B.) It would be a good idea to change Thai Bhat to Laos Kip now with them, or we risked getting ripped off. Right, the Lao people are the ones to watch out for. Justin and I rolled our eyes a' la Jean Amabile and headed to the boat.
It was a long day of floating through sublime scenery. And while Laos is stunning it is only so long before the beauty becomes monotonous and all you want is to get up off the floor of the boat and step on dry land. It didn't help that three of the six or seven people around us were the biggest twats we have met so far. We didn't actually even meet them but we knew they were twats nonetheless. (Brits - no surprise there.*) Finally at around 5pm we docked at a small village, the name of which escapes me, and happily disembarked. We found accommodation, not surprisingly much cheaper than the offer from the Thais at the border, and went for dinner.
It was a fairly uneventful night for us, made even more uneventful when we heard what happened to our friend Philip who had been ahead of us by a day. Apparently when they rocked up their whole boat had had a few drinks and later in the night ended up smoking opium with some locals. (Philip notwithstanding.) He went to bed shortly there after but was awoken in the middle of the night by a fellow traveler who had been beaten in the head and couldn't find his travel companion. He did end up finding her, but apparently he had suffered quite a beating. By whom remains unknown.
Our night was no where near as exciting, thankfully. The next morning we again assembled at the dock and waited to depart for our final leg to Luang Prabang. We were due to arrive mid afternoon. But unfortunately some of the travelers had been given the wrong departure time by there guesthouse and we ended up leaving an hour late. Despite being behind schedule we pulled into Luang Prabang with plenty of daylight left to search for accommodation, and have a nice dinner. But it was a long journey.
Since arriving in Laos we have been here in LPB almost a week, and so far I think this might be one of the best places we have been so far. (The heat however is nearly unbearable.) It is certainly the most beautiful city I have seen in Southeast Asia. We have enjoyed strolling around, for as long as we can bear, and have loved the atmosphere of the old French quarter where we are staying. One day we took a day trip to the nearby waterfalls and swimming hole. The waterfalls were absolutely breathtaking and it was so refreshing to take a dip in the cold water. They even had a rope swing. Sadly, I did not partake because I didn't want to get my hand wet yet. So I mostly just sat in the shallow end and read my book.
The last two days I went on a trekking/kayaking trip on my own with Green Discovery tour company. Me and seven others hiked 15 km through babbling brooks and local farming villages until we came to a largish village where we stayed overnight, and had a delicious communal Lao style dinner. We got to bathe at the local watering hole, since the village had no plumbing and minimal electricity. The watering hole consisted of little more than a trickling stream funneled through a bamboo shoot, where all the water used by the villagers is collected. We had to bathe in the traditional style, which means fully clothed, which was awkward and didn't leave any of us feeling particularly clean. But it was a memorable experience. After dinner the guides offered us shots of Lao Lao, rice whiskey, which was shocking palatable and we all told riddles and sang songs until bed time. One of the best days on the trip. Aside from being woken by roosters at 2:30 am and not being able to get back to sleep, (those roosters are persistent,) I felt pretty well rested and ready for another full day of trekking and kayaking.
After breakfast and delicious Lao coffee we headed off for another intense hour or two of hiking. It was only 8:30am, at the latest, but already it was hot and everyone was sweating buckets by the time we came to the road, where we met the truck with our gear for the kayaking leg of the trip. We kayaked for almost 20 km and it was after 4 pm by the time we reached the Buddha Caves, our end point for the kayaking. The river is so low since it is the end of the dry season, and that made our efforts down labored and slow.
Sarah, my kayaking buddy and I did pretty well but we did have one mishap, which involved a tricky set of rocks that sprang up out of nowhere and capsized us as I tried to steer around them. We ended up going over the rocks sideways and Sarah, at the front, got jammed up on top of them while I, still free at the back, continued sliding along with the current. That caused us to go over, and Sarah end up pinned under the kayak against a rock for a few terrifying moments. When she popped up I could tell she was a bit shaken, and had lost her bearings. I told her to hold on to the kayak as we came through the white water and to keep her legs up. Considering how scared she must have been she responded really well and we were able to right our kayak and climb back in with some help from the guides. The only casualty of our accident were Sarah's sunglasses which never surfaced. And I for one was glad that was all we lost. We took stock of everything in our dry sacks and all the stuff strapped to the boat and everything appeared to be fine. We didn't even lose a paddle down the river. All in all it was a minor incident. We were lucky as well because a few of the other vessels had major leaks and two of the boats were constantly taking on water and were forever needing to stop and dump it out.
Overall that was my one criticism of Green Discovery. The kayaking gear and instruction from our otherwise fantastic guides definitely left a little to be desired. We weren't the only team to capsize either and I blame that accident entirely on poor white water instructions. And by poor I mean non-existent. We got some basic distress signals and a demonstration on forward and backward strokes but that was it. The Dutch couple who went over had never kayaked in white water before, and at least one of them had never even kayaked at all. They flipped because when they got to the rapids they stopped paddling altogether and turned sideways which of course left them more susceptible to the waves. But we were in very easy rapids and it was so shallow that nobody was ever in any really serious danger. At least as long as they didn't panic, which nobody did. It was a long day on the river though and by the time we got to the Buddha Caves everyone was completely spent.
We didn't stay at the caves long before we headed across the river and boarded our van to go to the elephant sanctuary, our last stop for the day. I say sanctuary but that isn't really accurate, since there were only two elephants there and we got to ride them. I don't think they usually let you ride elephants at a real sanctuary. Being on top of that great animal I definitely had misgivings but I am glad I got to experience it once. They are so big and strong it is amazing to feel their power beneath you.
We were also supposed to stop at the nearby Whiskey village where they make the famous Lao whiskey but we were behind schedule so we opted to skip it and headed back to Luang Prabang. All of us agreed to meet for dinner and we had a lovely evening reminiscing about the trip and sharing our travel stories. All in all it was really fun couple of days. But it was an early evening because we were all exhausted and a few of the group members were departing Luang Prabang in the morning. Today I didn't do much of anything. It was unbearably hot, surprise surprise. Justin had suggested when i got back to LPB that we might want to change our plans and head south a day early. I was too tired to discuss it last night but when i woke up this morning to another day of unfathomable temperatures I saw the wisdom in making for the water and agreed to head to Vang Vieng and the famous tubing tomorrow...
*NO offense to all of the lovely Brits out there but some of your Limey brethren are really unbearable. And as an American with equally awful countrymen I can attest.
It should also be noted that all of the Brits on my trek were lovely. Not a drunk pain in the ass in the bunch. Thank god the drunks of any nationality aren't really into trekking.
After sitting around waiting for an inexplicably long time we were finally told to board the bus and we headed for the border crossing. Crossing the overland boarder into Laos involved visiting no less than three windows on each side of the river, handing over my passport to complete strangers with no explanation more than half a dozen time and shelling out way more money than expected. The exchange rates up there were decidedly unfriendly to budget travelers, which was just about everyone there since anyone with any money or sense would have skipped this rigmarole and flown. Eventually we were all loaded onto another bus on the Laos side of the border and were headed for the slow boat that would be our mode of transportation for the next two days to Luang Prabang.
But before we could get on the boat we were forced to endure a thoroughly infuriating shpeel by our Thai tour leader about how the Lao people can't be trusted and that we should be wary of everyone. And perhaps most importantly that we should A.) book our guesthouse for our overnight on the river through them and that B.) It would be a good idea to change Thai Bhat to Laos Kip now with them, or we risked getting ripped off. Right, the Lao people are the ones to watch out for. Justin and I rolled our eyes a' la Jean Amabile and headed to the boat.
It was a long day of floating through sublime scenery. And while Laos is stunning it is only so long before the beauty becomes monotonous and all you want is to get up off the floor of the boat and step on dry land. It didn't help that three of the six or seven people around us were the biggest twats we have met so far. We didn't actually even meet them but we knew they were twats nonetheless. (Brits - no surprise there.*) Finally at around 5pm we docked at a small village, the name of which escapes me, and happily disembarked. We found accommodation, not surprisingly much cheaper than the offer from the Thais at the border, and went for dinner.
It was a fairly uneventful night for us, made even more uneventful when we heard what happened to our friend Philip who had been ahead of us by a day. Apparently when they rocked up their whole boat had had a few drinks and later in the night ended up smoking opium with some locals. (Philip notwithstanding.) He went to bed shortly there after but was awoken in the middle of the night by a fellow traveler who had been beaten in the head and couldn't find his travel companion. He did end up finding her, but apparently he had suffered quite a beating. By whom remains unknown.
Our night was no where near as exciting, thankfully. The next morning we again assembled at the dock and waited to depart for our final leg to Luang Prabang. We were due to arrive mid afternoon. But unfortunately some of the travelers had been given the wrong departure time by there guesthouse and we ended up leaving an hour late. Despite being behind schedule we pulled into Luang Prabang with plenty of daylight left to search for accommodation, and have a nice dinner. But it was a long journey.
Since arriving in Laos we have been here in LPB almost a week, and so far I think this might be one of the best places we have been so far. (The heat however is nearly unbearable.) It is certainly the most beautiful city I have seen in Southeast Asia. We have enjoyed strolling around, for as long as we can bear, and have loved the atmosphere of the old French quarter where we are staying. One day we took a day trip to the nearby waterfalls and swimming hole. The waterfalls were absolutely breathtaking and it was so refreshing to take a dip in the cold water. They even had a rope swing. Sadly, I did not partake because I didn't want to get my hand wet yet. So I mostly just sat in the shallow end and read my book.
The last two days I went on a trekking/kayaking trip on my own with Green Discovery tour company. Me and seven others hiked 15 km through babbling brooks and local farming villages until we came to a largish village where we stayed overnight, and had a delicious communal Lao style dinner. We got to bathe at the local watering hole, since the village had no plumbing and minimal electricity. The watering hole consisted of little more than a trickling stream funneled through a bamboo shoot, where all the water used by the villagers is collected. We had to bathe in the traditional style, which means fully clothed, which was awkward and didn't leave any of us feeling particularly clean. But it was a memorable experience. After dinner the guides offered us shots of Lao Lao, rice whiskey, which was shocking palatable and we all told riddles and sang songs until bed time. One of the best days on the trip. Aside from being woken by roosters at 2:30 am and not being able to get back to sleep, (those roosters are persistent,) I felt pretty well rested and ready for another full day of trekking and kayaking.
After breakfast and delicious Lao coffee we headed off for another intense hour or two of hiking. It was only 8:30am, at the latest, but already it was hot and everyone was sweating buckets by the time we came to the road, where we met the truck with our gear for the kayaking leg of the trip. We kayaked for almost 20 km and it was after 4 pm by the time we reached the Buddha Caves, our end point for the kayaking. The river is so low since it is the end of the dry season, and that made our efforts down labored and slow.
Sarah, my kayaking buddy and I did pretty well but we did have one mishap, which involved a tricky set of rocks that sprang up out of nowhere and capsized us as I tried to steer around them. We ended up going over the rocks sideways and Sarah, at the front, got jammed up on top of them while I, still free at the back, continued sliding along with the current. That caused us to go over, and Sarah end up pinned under the kayak against a rock for a few terrifying moments. When she popped up I could tell she was a bit shaken, and had lost her bearings. I told her to hold on to the kayak as we came through the white water and to keep her legs up. Considering how scared she must have been she responded really well and we were able to right our kayak and climb back in with some help from the guides. The only casualty of our accident were Sarah's sunglasses which never surfaced. And I for one was glad that was all we lost. We took stock of everything in our dry sacks and all the stuff strapped to the boat and everything appeared to be fine. We didn't even lose a paddle down the river. All in all it was a minor incident. We were lucky as well because a few of the other vessels had major leaks and two of the boats were constantly taking on water and were forever needing to stop and dump it out.
Overall that was my one criticism of Green Discovery. The kayaking gear and instruction from our otherwise fantastic guides definitely left a little to be desired. We weren't the only team to capsize either and I blame that accident entirely on poor white water instructions. And by poor I mean non-existent. We got some basic distress signals and a demonstration on forward and backward strokes but that was it. The Dutch couple who went over had never kayaked in white water before, and at least one of them had never even kayaked at all. They flipped because when they got to the rapids they stopped paddling altogether and turned sideways which of course left them more susceptible to the waves. But we were in very easy rapids and it was so shallow that nobody was ever in any really serious danger. At least as long as they didn't panic, which nobody did. It was a long day on the river though and by the time we got to the Buddha Caves everyone was completely spent.
We didn't stay at the caves long before we headed across the river and boarded our van to go to the elephant sanctuary, our last stop for the day. I say sanctuary but that isn't really accurate, since there were only two elephants there and we got to ride them. I don't think they usually let you ride elephants at a real sanctuary. Being on top of that great animal I definitely had misgivings but I am glad I got to experience it once. They are so big and strong it is amazing to feel their power beneath you.
We were also supposed to stop at the nearby Whiskey village where they make the famous Lao whiskey but we were behind schedule so we opted to skip it and headed back to Luang Prabang. All of us agreed to meet for dinner and we had a lovely evening reminiscing about the trip and sharing our travel stories. All in all it was really fun couple of days. But it was an early evening because we were all exhausted and a few of the group members were departing Luang Prabang in the morning. Today I didn't do much of anything. It was unbearably hot, surprise surprise. Justin had suggested when i got back to LPB that we might want to change our plans and head south a day early. I was too tired to discuss it last night but when i woke up this morning to another day of unfathomable temperatures I saw the wisdom in making for the water and agreed to head to Vang Vieng and the famous tubing tomorrow...
*NO offense to all of the lovely Brits out there but some of your Limey brethren are really unbearable. And as an American with equally awful countrymen I can attest.
It should also be noted that all of the Brits on my trek were lovely. Not a drunk pain in the ass in the bunch. Thank god the drunks of any nationality aren't really into trekking.
No comments:
Post a Comment