Life in Laos

The sleeper bus into Laos was a rather long and arduous affair, clocking up 26 hours in rather cramped conditions (I wasn’t actually able to fully extend my legs within the boundaries of my bed) and in as much it was actually more difficult to endure than the train. It was however another new experience to add to the memories, especially as we all had fake Snoopy duvet covers to enjoy the journey underneath!

Becca on the sleeper bus, fake Snoopy duvet in the bottom right

We arrived in Luang Prabang late in the evening and decided to venture out into the town centre to find the night market to get some food. The night markets here in Laos are very different to the ones in China, offering much more conventional food as well as many crafts people selling their products. As you can guess, another opportunity to pick up some locally crafted souvenirs!

It is much easier to pick up a varied mix of fruit and veg here than it has been for a few countries now, and so that has made a welcome change especially for me.

One of the stalls inside the night market

During our second day in Luang Prabang we decided to take a river boat trip up the MeKong to visit the Kuang Si waterfalls which were incredible. As you arrive at the park where the waterfalls are situated there is a small bear sanctuary that plays home to some black bears, before you come across several smaller waterfalls and swimming areas. We carried our way on up the path toward the main falls, and the view was not a disappointment! Standing on the bridge where this photo was taken you can feel the mist from the crashing waterfall landing on your skin and cooling you down in the humid environment.

Us and the bottom part of the waterfall, you can just about see the main drop through the trees at the top of the picture

We decided to walk up a path to the side of the waterfall where we were told there was a path that you could follow right to the top. The path was very steep and in some places dangerously hard to find any grip, but we made our way to the top where we were able to wade through the stream  (varying between ankle deep and knee deep depending where you walked) before it flowed off the edge and into oblivion.

Bob up to his knees at the top of the waterfall

Both while at the waterfall and during the boat ride you were really able to take in the rolling green hills that cover a lot of the country. The trees and the crops that line the hillsides are such a vibrant green, presumably helped by the fact that we are in monsoon season (I’ll mention rain a bit more later!), and often stretch as far as the eye can see.

View across the MeKong

The next day we made our way back down to the river and caught a boat in the opposite direction to the Buddha Caves. There are 2 caves which between them house over 4000 statues of the Buddha in all different shapes and sizes. The caves however only took around 20-30 minutes to see, and a lot of people thought they were overrated by guides for the benefit of bringing in tourists. The caves obviously still have religious significance to the local people, and once a year they are able to bring their own Buddha statues from home and have them cleaned in a special pool near the back of one of the caves (tourists are unable to see this part of the cave as a substantial percentage of the caves are not open to the public), but really there was nothing that you were not able to see in other parts of the city that could justify the 3 hour round trip to get to the caves.

The edge of the Buddha cave next to the river

After several more visits to the night market, and plenty of haggling was done, it was time fo us to move on to our next destination Vang Vieng. This area is very touristy and in turn is completely geared to live up to the stereotype. It is full of restaurants showing back to back episodes of friends on big TVs, selling sub-standard food for overinflated prices. There are plenty of places to buy “happy” fruit shakes or “happy” pizzas which are laced largely with marijuana or some even more harmful drugs, as well as the many bars designed to lure in travellers with their special offers. The other thing that the area is famous for of course is it’s tubing (floating down the river in an inflated inner tube of a tractor tyre, while stopping at many bars to heighten the experience).

Anybody would think that there was alcohol in those buckets!

During our stay in Vang Vieng we gave a large amount of custom to Gary’s Irish Bar across the road from our hotel. In fairness the rain in Vang Vieng had been relentless, and so we spent many an hour sitting in the bar and contemplating how hard it was raining outside. In fact in the 4 days we were in the area it was probably possible to count the number of hours it wasn’t raining on your fingers alone.

Familiar food is always a winner with the Westerners!

Unfortunately on the day that everybody went tubing, I was struck down for the third time by a bad stomach (that now makes more bad stomachs in the last 4 months than I have had in the last 10 years in the UK!), however Vicky was able to go along and have a great time with everybody else. They visited a number of the bars on the way down, and there was many an interesting story shared over breakfast the next morning!

Polly / Kate Winslet riding her tube down the river

We have now made our way down to Savannakhet where we are spending a very quiet day in the town (as it is Sunday as most things are shut). Tomorrow we make our way courtesy of a 9 hour bus journey acros the border into Vietnam where we will be spending roughly 2 weeks. Come back soon to find out what we are getting up to!