Laos

If ever we stumbled upon a great idea for a break this was it. Most people don't realize how taxing travel can be. We had quite a bit of hard travel behind us and with jam packed travel lying ahead in Cambodia and Singapore as well as many arrangements waiting for us at home. Also, Janine was about to age - so we needed a good spot. We had ear-marked a rather pricey spot on one of the islands, Dohn Kong - but Johan was not willing to pay the ferry price to that island so he bought us tickets to the closer neighbouring island from where we would be able to walk. Upon arriving on the island Dohn Det we realized that the walk (with all our baggage and in the noon day heat) would easily take over an hour. We managed to hire another boat to take us the full distance for just a little bit more than it would have cost on the mainland. :-) The US$30 a night place was full so we jumped off at the next good looking spot along the river (back on the Dhon Det island) where we managed to find a big bungalow with en suite for US$3 instead!

There is no electricity bar a faint light that comes on at night powered by a car battery. The bathroom has a cold water bucket system and shower with a squat toilet but it was one of the very few rooms on the island with en suite and our big grass and wood bungalow had two big windows so we could cool our room down well. We were also very blessed to be out of the main part of town. We had a peaceful spot away from the crowds, with large grounds, a hammock out front and table and chairs overlooking the river where we took most of our meals (which mostly consisted of chocolate and banana pancakes). There was also a resident baby pig, a puppy and his mother as well as two single chicken moms with chicks in tow to keep Janine entertained. We had the most amazing four days here.

The first afternoon was for chilling and doing nothing - as was the day after. We did discover a great restaurant, with the perfect view of the river sunset, where we dined most delightfully. No less than 3 of our meals happened here - each time the same food! On day 3 we hired bicycles and explored in the cool early morning. We simply enjoyed ourselves so much - cruising through village life, discovering waterfalls and good places to drink coconuts, stopping at river side cafes to catch up on journaling. We had also discovered a nice swimming spot in the river near our bungalow. The water buffaloes and the ducks (as well as snakes it seems - Johan spotted one swimming across during one of our dips) like to climb in there because the little cove is protected from the stream. The water buffaloes were not at all too perturbed when we settled in alongside them to escape the heat of the day.

Day 4, 17 Jan 2007, was Janine's birthday. Since Johan's chocolate gift (which he had purchased in Ha Noi) had to be given earlier the week to avoid melting and since there is nothing much going on on the island - Johan decided to give Janine 1 hour of internet time in this remote area. Internet was extremely expensive so this was quite a treat. We had our great dinner again and he also managed to find chocolate cake that evening so the day was a smashing success! Besides the gifts we spent the morning exploring on our bikes again and chilling by the riverside. Before the afternoon light was spent we got our stuff packed and ready for the next day's long travel into Cambodia.

Culture shock: White water buffaloes everywhere.

We couldn't quite figure out how our bus driver was going to cover the 400km or so to Pakse in 7 hours while travelling at a max of 50km/hour as well as stopping continuously to lunch, load up people, bicycles, concrete telephone poles, etc. After about 2.5 hours we even turned off for a further stretch of detour but our bus driver miraculously sped up. We made Pakse in just over 7 hours and checked into our basic but cute guesthouse before heading off for Indian dinner! Pakse is great. It is relaxed and one can get good food, good internet and good options for tours and further travel. The next day was for catching up on major website backlog and other admin. We decided that we would hire two motorbikes for the following day to go check out some famous Khmer ruins but once we had counted our days (considering Janine's birthday) we sped through our internet load and booked a minibus south to a place in Laos called the 4000 islands.

Culture Shock: We were amazed to see the bus company turn away additional prospective passengers because the bus was officially full.

The next morning in Tha Khek was hot and got progressively hotter as we pounded the pavement of this extremely spaced out town. First stop was the bank where we exchanged excess dough and took a cash advance for the rest of our needs. There are black plastic bags that you can take to lug your cash out of the bank in - and believe me, everyone needs to make use of them as monies issues are seldom in denominations higher than 1US$ in value.

We then head out in search of a certain tour office on our map and internet. We found neither. The tour office did not exist yet and, it seems, neither does internet here. We did receive a very warm welcome at the tourist office and gathered lots of info. We wanted to find a peaceful way of going to visit the famous Konglor cave, a long tunnel cave that you can boat through for 7.5 km and come out the other side. We eventually decided that we would not have time to fit this in alongside all our other plans (the trip would take 3 days of travel) and opted rather to join some other travellers for a day of cave exploring in the surrounding area.

This turned out to be a great idea as the 6 of us explored 5 different caves and stopped for a dip in a picturesque swimming hole where we saw some stunning butterflies. One cave was particularly impressive as it was natural, big and beautiful. Another cave, called the Buddha cave, was also very impressive. It has a tiny entrance high up in the cliff where some local discovered a whole collection of Buddha statues hidden as he looked for bats for supper one fateful eve. The Buddha statues, probably hidden here from raiding invaders, are estimated to be about 400 to 600 years old.

We also stopped for lunch at the market situated very near the Buddha cave. We ate barbecued fish while our one Japanese travel companion ate roast rat (we also sampled an incredibly small morsel). A great day all in all! We headed back to our hotel for more chocolate pancakes, ginger tea and Lao beer.

Other than that, there is one traffic light in town. The road is wide enough to land a small plane and the traffic, crossing here, is almost non-existent. The locals obey that light nevertheless - we were amazed.

Culture shock: Banks supply customers with large plastic bags, like at check out counters, to carry the loads of money as the most common denomination is about the equivalent of US$1. People obey road rules!

Following our previous Lao-Vietnam border crossing, we were a bit nervous about our "direct" bus to Savannakhet, a town about 4 hours into Laos. Our bus pulled away at 9:00 and the crossing at Lao Bao could not have been smoother (except that the visa issuing official tried to overcharge us). The moment we were back in Laos it was different. The weather was warm with clear skies, the roads were empty, the prices generally honest, people friendly and the land peaceful.

We drove through some beautiful scenery, stopped for lunch along the way and were in Savannakhet by 15:30. We caught a minibus heading to Tha Khek and arrived at our desired destination just after dark. Janine glimpsed the sign-board of the place we wanted to stay and we halted the car. The whole day with all its proceedings had taken place between us and the helpful locals, none of which could speak a word of English. It is amazing how well people can communicate without a common language.

The Tha Khek Travel Lodge was fantastic and our room even better. With some good Western food (for a change) and some Lao beer in we were ready to hit the hay.

So the grand plan was simple. Once a week one can catch a direct bus from Xam Neua all the way over the Nam Neo border and well into Vietnam to a town called Thanh Hoa. We had planned well to catch that very bus the Saturday morning, a day before New Years. From Thanh Hoa a connecting bus will take you 1.5 hours north to Ninh Binh or another 2 hours further to the capital city of Ha Noi. Our plan was to avoid the New Years crowds in Ha Noi and head for Ninh Binh...

After a fast departure and a tedious process of getting over the Vietnam border (a new and much better border crossing should be operational there about 2 weeks from when we crossed) we stopped for lunch in a nowhere Vietnam border town. While the other travellers searched for something edible, Johan searched for Dong (Vietnamese currency). Janine spotted a pharmacy. There was a drinking get-together happening in the room at the back and before we knew it Johan had been carried inside. By the time Janine had finished purchasing her Vit C, Johan had already thrown back a tot or two of their local whiskey (or whatever it was) and was eating tiny whole crabs - much to the delight of the drunk Vietnamese crowd entertaining him. One particular gentleman associate with this group proved particularly difficult to shake later.

After a really long wait a border official came to inform us that our bus was being turned back to Laos and that we would have to catch another bus heading to Ha Noi. After a bit of confusion and an astonishing partial refund we were on our first shoddy local Vietnamese bus (along with the same drunk guys from earlier) full of rice bags and other cargo. After a big fight over price (the English-speaking border official had to be called back to end the dispute) the two of us and the 5 other travellers in the same predicament settled in for our harrowing high-speed bus journey to Ha Noi.

Locals seem to love to smoke and they do it liberally in the bus. A new thing for us was the huge bamboo (about 80cm long and about 5cm in diameter) pipe filled with tobacco that they pass around. About 7 hours or so later we arrived in Thanh Hoa (where we were meant to arrive about 5 hours earlier than what we did). Our bus driver thought it not worth his while to continue all the way to Ha Noi with just the 7 of us (just travellers remaining!) so he put us on a smaller bus rocketing in that direction. All in all we thoroughly enjoyed our time with the other travellers we met that day - great people and some great chats. All worth it!

At around 10:30 pm we were dropped off in Ninh Binh and bid our fellow travellers farewell. We were well rewarded for the days trouble with a super amazing huge room in Thanh Thuy's Guesthouse with a fantastic bathroom and, yes please, a bath! All this for only US$15.

Culture shock: People smoke on busses - not just cigarettes, but also with huge bamboo pipes. Locals are much more loud than the softspoken Lao people.

What would have been a long journey of about 8 to 9 hours ended up being just over 11 hours. The roads are good, winding and beautiful. The traffic is almost non-existent. About 70km away from our destination we heard a loud thud proceeding from our precious transport. The driver stopped to discover a broken bolt meant to secure the fork of the front wheel to it's steering bar.

With the broken half in hand he proceeded to try to remove the rest of the bolt to replace it with another bolt taken from some other less important part of the bus. When this attempt failed and with two trucks by now backed up behind us the driver just put the wheel back on and drove us on to Xam Neua. In the 2 hours we waited broken down next to this main highway the amount of traffic passing in our direction we could count on our one hand. The rest of the journey was fine except that we hit and drove over a small cow, ripping away the right-side head light housing of our bus. We were very relieved to finally hit our comfy bed which we managed to find at about 9 pm. The bus rested for the night at the bus station. Early the next morning Johan went to enquire about onward travel only to see our bus loaded and ready to return from where it had come. Makes one shudder.

Our reason for stopping over in Xam Neua, besides our desired ongoing passage to Vietnam, was to tour the caves in nearby Vieng Xai. There are a lot of karsts around here and of the 102 known caves in the area more than 12 of them have really interesting political history, namely that they served as the former Pathet Lao (Vietnamese supported liberation movement in Laos) secret (and bomb-proof) headquarters. The two of us and two other guys we met on the bus helped fill up a songthaew - a large tuk-tuk like vehicle and headed to Vieng Xai, 1.5 hours away. We managed to find the caves authority office where our guide rented us some bikes.

The whole experience was very relaxing - cycling from cave to cave, the only tourists around. We visited about 5 caves which had been created or modified to shelter revolutionaries and their entourage. Each had a special emergency room fitted with a Russian donated "oxygen machine" good for purifying air in the event of gas bombs. There are also Russian cars to be seen around the premises. One natural cave is so big that a section was modified into an amphitheater where none other than the Russian circus was shipped in to entertain the comrades.

According to our guide the people in the rural areas may very well not recognize the existence of various Caucasian countries but group all white "falangs" (term for foreigner, literally meaning "big nose") as either American of French!

The same New Year's/ball throwing festival was still underway in this small town and our guide took us to the center of the festivities. A great lunch of Lao beer, fish and rice followed Johan's try at a dart throwing game where he managed to win some sweets.

Culture shock: In Laos MSG (Monosodium Glutamate) is available everywhere and you will find it liberally added to all your food. In fact, on a restaurant table you will find MSG and pepper containers rather than salt and pepper containers! Salt has to be specifically requested! The MSG manufacturers even have aprons advertising their product!

There are about 20 sites around Phonsavanh where one can find meadows littered with ancient stone jars of unknown origin and purpose which are thought to be about 2000-3000 years old. There are legends and theories surrounding these jars, but the most likely is that they were used as sarcophagi (burial containers) or as some form of storage.

We visited one of the 5 sites considered worthwhile visiting (which have also conveniently been cleared of visible bombies) which is also the biggest site. We arrived as the afternoon was slowly turning into sunset so the plain was quite romantic. Some of the jars are enormous where you can quite easily fit a person or three in. Others are smaller and very small ones apparently exist but have been carried off by collectors. We explored along the bomb-free trail and enjoyed the mysterious scenery. By the time the sun was getting low we were back at our guest house for another evening around the bomb-shell fireplace.

Culture shock: People don't hassle you for your business. Amazing.

Our next stop after the crater valley was at our guide's village and his home. We all chowed down as we shared our respective market eats and assisted each other in identifying the food. TV was great as he answered all our questions about Lao culture and history as well as our questions about a strange practice associated with their New Year's Festival (which seems to last for a couple of days in the last week of December) by then in full swing around the village.

Women dressed up in luminescent coloured traditional dress stand in a long line, umbrella over the head. With the other hand a woman will throw a ball to a guy opposite her who stands as part of a line of boys. He throws the ball back. The process is repeated innumerable times. The point? Apparently this was traditionally some kind of match finding ritual/technique which would take place at this time of year. You will know when a successful marriage match has been made when the girl and guy throw the ball to each other for a while. Sound a bit shaky? Well, we think it is by far a better practice (and with a higher statistical likelihood of success) than the other former practice of kidnapping the girl of your liking, against her will, to your dad's house. The divorce rate related to this method, TV tells us, is very high.

After sending a cup of local whiskey around the circle we were ready for our trip to the famous Plain of Jars...

This bus journey was bit longer - 9 hours to a town called Phonsavanh. The road was beautiful albeit a bit winding. We hopped off at the local bus station and found a few guest house reps with business cards of their places. No one really approaches you though, perhaps someone will eventually politely and quietly ask you if you require a guesthouse, but that will be it. This is Lao softspokeness and shyness at its very best - unlike all the other places we have been! We picked a great one (Kong Keo) where we would spend the next 2 nights and quickly got into a part of world history we had never heard of before - the Secret War.

The guest house owner showed us a documentary on this Secret War, a war waged against Laos because of their supplies support of Northern Vietnam during the Vietnam war. In violation of the Geneva treaty declaring Laos to be a neutral country, the USA turned Laos into the most heavily bombed country in history...

The US Airforce dropped one plane-load of bombs on Laos every 8 minutes for a period of 9 years - a total of 2.3 million tonnes by the end of the war in 1973. This happened without the knowledge of US citizens or the rest of the world. Even failed bombing missions turned back from Vietnam were ordered to empty their hazardous load over Laos on their way back to base. This was much easier than to undergo stringent safety procedures to land with bombs. Everywhere you go you see war relics. People have made good use of the bomb metal over the past 30 years. Old shells form the foundations of houses, tables, herb gardens and fire places. Metal is re-used to make cooking and farming utensils.

The Hmong people are mountain tribes people who were largely recruited for the CIA-trained and US-funded Hmong army during the Vietnam war. Our guide (whose name is TV) for the area was from a Hmong village nearby. We first stopped at the local market where we saw every conceivable variety of bird and rodent and water creature for sale for food. Even the pigs for sale come conveniently pre-packed in snug reed shoulder carry bags! We bought some food and headed off to a field of bomb craters. One thing that really struck us during all our driving through Laos was how little of the landscape had been cultivated into rice paddies - unlike all the other Asian countries we travelled to. This field was a good example of why this is so...

Throughout Laos there are innumerable amounts of unexploded ordinances (UXO's) that can still explode if provoked. Bombies are the products of the so-called cluster bombs - huge bomb shells containing up to 300 bombies - smaller bombs loaded with 150 bearings that were specifically designed to kill as much as possible. Once a cluster bomb is dropped, it is supposed to open in mid air, releasing the bombies that were designed to be activated by the spinning motion to the ground. Upon impact they explode, sending hundreds of bearings in all directions - but many of them did not explode.

20 000 Lao people have died as a result of UXO's since the end of the war - mostly children. The risk is especially high when trying to cultivate the ground as the ground must be tilled. While there exists an organization called MAG that mine-sweeps the country and removes the bombs that they find - the process takes forever and many villages are on a long waiting list before they can hope to head into the fields again. We walked amids bomb craters and even found some UXO's on the ground: the small tennis-ball sized bearing bombs which the locals call bombies. Hectic! One just has to be careful where you walk. Our driver made a turn on the grass field. Even as he did Janine spotted a bombie out of the window 1 or 2 meters away from the track that we had just made...

An early morning walk through the quiet main streets of Vientiane brought us swiftly to the local bus station. 3 hours later we were in Vang Vieng, a riverside town which has well embraced the party-hard backpacking tourism industry and where one can find many a guest house, restaurant, TV bar, tour agency, internet cafe, massage parlour, pancake vendor - you name it.

The scene, however, was not quite to our taste as the debaucherous crowds make for noisy nights and profane days. The influence on the innocent and gentle nature of the local people is not something we think the tourism industry should be proud of. TV bars are common, playing back to back episodes of Friends to draw the young backpacker crowds! There were also "Merry Christmas!!" everywhere to be heard as locals souped up their stalls for the lucrative festivities. We stayed in great little bungalow next to the river.

The next day we joined a tour which took us kayaking down the Xong river. The scenery of river and karsts (sheer vertical limestone mountain peaks jutting out of the earth or water, depending on area) was beautiful. We hopped out to climb over a "mountain" and descend into a valley. Our guide was very pleased to take us to an animal farm en route where we could see live cows and water buffaloes :-) ! The whole group was, I am sure, very grateful for the privilege. We looped round the farm (our guide told us to "make like a circle") and headed back for the mountain. This time, however, we did not climb over, but walked through a long cave traversing right through the rock. This was great. We returned to our parked kayaks and enjoyed a Lao lunch which our other guide had prepared for us in our absence. The rest of our kayaking trip took us past an organic mulberry farm as well as another cave. We could not quite make out from the guide what the second was used for, but the group consensus was that it was used by genies.

Johan treated Janine to a Lao massage and a good coconut. We could just endure one more night and we were ready to leave the next morning.

Culture shock: this is one Janine just can't seem to get over - the chickens in this country are absolutely enormous, as big as turkeys, and very good looking too (for chickens that is - Johan). The cows on the other hand are really small and the baby cows not much larger than dogs!

Our overnight bus (which we really did not enjoy too much) was, nevertheless, very well organized and managed to get us all the way into the Capital city of Laos, Vientiane (with only 250 000 inhabitants). Visas are simply picked up at the border and the rest is quite straight forward. Vientiane was really a pleasant surprise in so many ways. For one, it is the most peaceful and relaxed capital city we have yet to visit.

The traffic is minimal, the people are all friendly and softly spoken and the city is well set-up for tourists without being overly touristy. Internet is great and eating options (a lot of them with French influence) even better. Laos is doing well to promote itself as a very decent tourist destination, but we experienced our stay in Vientiane as quite authentic. The city, and indeed most of the country, has not yet developed to the stage where people are used to the tourist industry. No-one hassles you, you get the prices that the locals get without a fight and the customary practices of the people are genuine happenings. We also had opportunity to enjoy some Indian food, of course!

Our first full day in Laos we set aside for our own walking tour of the city. We started our walking tour in the most efficient way - in a tuk-tuk. Our first stop was at the iconic monument of Laos - the giant golden buddhist stupa (a sacred Buddhist monument) called the Pha That Luang. Johan wasn't keen on paying the entrance money to go in, but rather on capturing the perfect profile from outside. The stupa had 4 wats (Buddhist monasteries) built outside it, but only two remain. We took a couple of pics around the one wat, Wat Luang Neua, where we found many Buddha statues "enlightening" under a huge tree and Janine could get up close to a dragon. After a bit of souvenir shopping (Johan found some old Lao and French occupation tender and Janine bought some genuine Lao music) we headed off down the main road to Laos's equivalent of France's Arc de Triomphe - Patuxai (basically the same meaning).

This fascinating monstrosity (the Laos call it that themselves!) was built (although never properly finished) from US purchased cement that was supposed to be used to build the airport (some still refer to it as the vertical runway). From close up you can see all the Lao imagery. Besides that, the concrete benches set up around the monument have each been sponsored by some or other hotel or company in town.

The tourist information center was fantastic. We popped in on the way to the market which had hundreds of stalls selling everything from ornate bottles of alcoholic drinks with snakes and spiders inside, spices, Lao fabrics, yarn and clothing - all the way to electronics, silver, eye wear, cooking utensils and so much more. We picked up a little box carved out of stone.

After a spicy lunch at a local restaurant we headed on in the general direction of home. We decided to take a quick peak at Vientiane's oldest surviving temple (1818) - Wat Si Saket. The area had ancient temples before, but most were destroyed during invasions and such like. This little building was great - what was especially fascinating was the cloister wall hedging the temple in: each wall has thousands of alcoves holdings Buddha statues of sizes ranging in size from matchbox to Labrador. Total number: 10136 statues!

Janine discovered a beautiful weaving style in Laos. She was very excited to learn of an organization that offers weaving training for tourists. She spent the next day with the women of the organization weaving, drinking mulberry leaf tea and soaking up the peacefulness of their countryside location. While Janine was away weaving Johan hopped on a local bus and headed off to Xieng Khuan (Bhuddha Park) about 24km out of town. This buddha park is just filled with statues of Buddhist and Hindu personalities. Some statues are enormous - there is even a grand pumpkin with 3 levels (representing heaven, earth and hell) which one can climb up into. Johan enjoyed the bizarre display. That evening we ate at the stalls next to the river - very romantic.

The rest of the time in Vientiane was totally relaxing. Internet, French steaks and strolling. All good! (And it was cheap! - Johan)

Culture shocks: In Laos you see Buddhist monks everywhere! Truth is most of these orange guys are just busy with an internship which can even be as short as 2 weeks. The roads are excellent as are the imported cars - but traffic there is none (no hooting either)! French cuisine is widely available - as are baguettes with Laughing Cow cheese :-) People are really hectic about leaving shoes outside and will perform major acrobatics to avoid stepping in certain areas with shoes!