I love Laos!

For some reason I decided that when Sal left Thailand I wanted to go to Laos, so i got the night bus from Bangkok to Vientiane. From buzzing, busy Bangkok to the sleepiest capital city I have been to! It has less than 250,000 people and has a lovely laid-back feel to it. I managed to see most of the sights in the first day!

The first thing I noticed in Laos, is how quiet it is. The traffic is minimal and nobody beeps their horns, and there is very little other noise! They are very calm, unassuming people and don't really seem to talk a lot! The French, who ruled here from the 18th century until 1953, used to say that "The Vietnamese plant rice, the Khmer stand there and watch, and the Laotians listen to it grow". And to me, this sums things up very well! The French influence here is still obvious, especially in the food - you can buy a baguette anywhere (although not always with a desirable filling as I found out, still hairy fried pig skin anyone? Or how about marg and condensed milk?) Lao food was a bit boring to be honest, or too spicy for me. But the coffee made up for it, strong Lao coffee served with sweet condensed milk, yummy.


I went for a wee wander when I got to Vientiane to explore the city and found myself on a wide, very European boulevard with trees down either side and at the end of the street in the distance was a mini Arc De Triomphe! I climbed up to see the view over the city, which doesn't seem to have any tall buildings or skyscrapers, just lots of lovely houses, many with red roofs and plenty of tree lining the wide streets. That evening I ate my dinner at the market and watched the sun go down over the Mekong.

Next day I rented a bicycle and cycled around the city. A bike is the perfect transport in Laos cities I have decided as the traffic is slow and calm, and a bicycle fits in with the pace of life here.
I went to Pha That Luang, which is one of the most important national monuments in Laos. It is a Buddhist stupa painted gold and it looks beautiful in the bright sun with a lovely clear blue sky behind it.

Next day I caught the bus with Ryan (Ozzie) and Sophie (Korean), who i had met in the guesthouse, to Vang Vieng. There's not really much to attract people to this town except for the stunning scenery and the river, but this tiny little town has turned into one of the most famous places in Laos! Backpackers go there to go tubing on the Nam Song River, which basically means floating down the river on an old tractor inner tube and stopping off at bars along the way!

It's a strange place - the town is split into two parts, one where all the guesthouses are and one where all the locals live. The tourist town has only guesthouses, cafes (all showing friends/family guy or the simpsons on full blast), travel agents and bars. There is not really anything Lao about it. We went kayaking down the river which was loads of fun, and we stopped at one of the bars on the way. They have a huge water slide which you shoot off about 10m above the river and create a massive splash! They also have a zip line which people slide along and let go of into the river too. But this being Laos they haven't got any "health and safety" which is good and bad! Drunk tourists and water can be a bad combination! One guy let go of the zip line upside down and missed a kayak below him but 10cm at the most! Another let go when it was sliding back not forward and landed on the kayaks below! He was winded and the bone in his big toe was protruding at a nasty angle, and the only way out of the bar was in a kayak down the river to the town! Oops!

We had a couple of good nights out at the bars on the river where everyone gathers after a hard day floating down the river. But it felt a bit strange to be in the bar. It didn't seem to fit the surroundings. The only reason to go to the town was to party with other westerners. In a beautiful, peaceful country, it seemed a bit sad to spoil the peace. It just didn't seem the right place to party.

So Sophie and I made our way to Luang Prabang - which is a world heritage city and has loads of things to see and do! It's also becoming very touristy and with that a bit pricey too - 70,000 kip for a room (that's about 6 pounds in real money and out of my budget!) so Sophie and I shared!

The town is set around a small hill with Wat Phu Si at the top. I explored the various beautiful Wats (Buddhist temples) around town (there are loads) and went to the Royal Palace Museum where the King used to live. In 1975 the communists took power and the royal family were exiled to the north and imprisoned in caves in Vieng Xai, (where I think they died, but I need to check this fact...) . The Palace was fascinating.

We met some other travellers that evening and decided to rent bikes the next day to cycle around the town. I went to a yoga class in the morning, I was the only student and we did yoga in front of the lily pond! What a lovely start to the day!
Then 6 of us set off on our old rickety bikes, I felt like a kid again, it was so much fun! Only one brake pad fell out, and we only had to repair one bike chain, not bad going!

I left on the local bus to Nong Kiaw the next day and said goodbye to Sophie who was a great travelling companion, we got on really well. The local bus is what they call a sawngthaew (song-tao) which is basically a pic-up with a roof and benches down either side. It was a 4hour journey and for most of it we had about 25 people crammed in, with a few more standing or hanging off the back! Nong Kiaw is a tiny town, and much less touristy. It felt like a chance to see real Laos, and how people live.

The houses are mostly wooden, woven bamboo walls with thatched roof, usually they are up on stilts. The village was so quiet and the roads going through the town were just dirt tracks. The earth is so red and the red dust that flies up from the cars sticks to the trees and the houses and everything below 3 feet is red! Went to the morning market with the rest of the town and then spent the rest of the day on the bus to Luang Nam Ta.

Luang Nam Ta turned out to be my favourite place in Laos, and I was already in love with the country. Again it is just a quiet town with a few tourists around, but the people here were friendly and kind and made me feel so welcome. It is in the forest and feels like the surrounding area is unspoilt. Most of it is protected area to try to stop "slash and burn farming" and the trekking companies are all eco-friendly and trying to ensure the area does not get ruined by too many people not being respectful of the environment and the people who live there.

I went with two Ozzie girls and a lovely Lao guide called Hug on a one day trek into the forest... We climbed up into thick dense forest full of banana trees, bamboo and others I didn't recognise. It was so much fun, at one point there was only Bamboo around and the swishing noise it makes is wonderful, but a bit spooky. The sun was streaming down but it only came through the trees in small bursts at the clearings. We stopped half way for lunch and Hug set out big banana leaves on the forest floor to use as a table and we ate sticky rice, bamboo shoots and some very spicy veggies and bananas. We continued our walk and finally left the forest to see a beautiful small farm growing rice and walked along the stream to the small farm house. After a gentle stroll we arrived back at the road and drove to a small village of the Lanten people. There are only 72 houses and under 400 people here. They live a very simple life and we got to walk around the village. Some women were dying cotton, another was making thatch to make a new roof for her house, some kids were playing in the school playground, others followed us around laughing and staring. There were pot-bellied pigs roaming around, men sitting about smoking, woman washing in the river.

We then climbed up to the Stupa set on top of the hill. At the top is a brand new, shiny gold stupa, and a ruined stone stupa beside it. The old Stupa was bombed by the Americans during the Vietnam war. The Ho Chi Minh Trail came through Laos and between 1964 and 1973 the Americans "secretly" dropped 2 million tonnes of explosives on Laos, more bombs than were dropped on Germany and occupied Europe during WWII. A lot of the north is still covered in UXOs.

This was the best day I had in Laos. I absolutely loved it. I read a quote in the book I'm reading "Laos is not a place; it is a state of mind". And this is true.

And the next day I left for Thailand. And here I am once more, and it is still the most fun place to arrive to after being without luxuries for a few weeks, it is just the easiest place to be a traveller! I just had a hair cut for 2 pounds! Awesome!

Global truths!

I have realised that there are certain things which are the same everywhere in the world (or at least everywhere in the world i have been so far!)

You can buy a coca cola anywhere - even in the deepest darkest depths of the smallest remotest country sell coke.

You have to buy your petrol from shell, esso or BP - local petrol stations are being taken over and cannot compete.

And that as soon as there is a McDonalds in the area it has lost the appeal and the charm that made the tourists want to go there in the first place.

And if Starbucks is there then it means there is money to be made by big corporations. Starbucks only goes to places they can seriously overcharge you for bad coffee.

A smile will always help any situation (and help you get a discount!)

And people who live in big cities are the same everywhere! In a hurry, less smiley and more concerned with their outward appearance.

And that when western tourists start to flock, things change quickly, local culture gets trampled and the thing everyone originally came to see gets lost in all the commotion surrounding it.
Like Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, this probably once was a beautiful peaceful island with amazing beaches and kind friendly locals. But now it is just an island - and international Ibiza - for tourists to party and sunbathe on. The Thais who live there all work in the tourist industry and very little seems to exist in what would have been the local way of life before the west came to visit. There are still some quiet secluded islands and beaches in thailand I'm told...

Saying that, Sal and I still managed to have a lovely time in Thailand for two weeks! We went to Phi Phi for a few days but managed to escape to a lovely little beach back on the mainland where we stayed in a little wooden hut just off the beach. We also went to Khao Sok national park where we went canoeing and elephant trekking!!! Lots of fun.

I was so overly excited when i first arrived in Thailand! They have proper paved roads!(which I now know extend to all over the country!)! And clean sheets on the guest house beds! And good coffee! And you can walk around the city!! Yes, that's right, you can walk, because they have pavements and traffic that obeys some sort of road rules and there aren't people everywhere and there aren't stalls along every road selling stuff!! It's amazing! And also, they have Ko San Road in Bangkok, which after 2 months of India seems amazing but gets ''same same'' very quickly. It is just built for tourists and caters for tourists in every way - it even has a starbucks!

And they smile at you! Wow!

I think India should be everyone's first stop when they go travelling because after India you can deal with anything. A toilet that doesn't reak is fab - and if it flushes too, well that's a bit of a luxury really! And when buses have seats that recline - wowee! And when they drive along roads which have been tarmaced and the journey seems smooth and comfortable... I can't describe how happy these things can make a girl.