After waving Jenn’s brother and his partner farewell we catch the high speed train from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. As ever, efficient and on time. The queuing lines on the station concourse always make me smile out here – painted strips that tell people where to queue in single file, and which are rigidly adhered to. Imagine that system in the UK!
Our home for the next three nights is on the Nam Song River, overlooking karst mountains. Very pretty and atmospheric. The river is a hive of activity with small boats tearing up and down all day long, complete with waders looking for river weed (local delicacy). There’s a pretty cool bridge that connects two sides of the village, serving both pedestrians and a myriad of motorbikes. It’s fair to say that the bridge is somewhat patched, requiring careful footing to avoid the gaping holes whilst not getting hit by a moped!
We decide to take a hot air balloon over the valley. Incredible value at less than £100 each. Get to watch all four balloons being inflated before heading off into the beautiful hills. It’s a great way to see this part of Laos. The mountains and river are stunning, but flying over the town is also interesting. Far more orderly and developed than I might otherwise have imagined.
Two days disappear in a flash and before we know we are headed back on the train to Luang Prabang. Get back in time to hop up the Ngern view point, return to our favourite restaurant, and visit the National Museum.
Next morning we are up early to join our slow boat to Thailand. Leaving the hotel at 6.30am we are pleasantly surprised to find our boat with room to spare and just a handful of friendly fellow travellers. We are treated to a French Breakfast, consisting of a croissant and coffee, as we start our journey. Can only imagine that any self-respecting French chef would weep at the description. 😉
Our guide for the two-day journey is a local lad called Sen. Schooled as a monk until he went to college, he’s a great person to have to educate us as we make our way up the river. For example, did you know that Laos is the most heavily bombed country in history? According to one source, ‘the US from 1964 onwards, dropped the equivalent of a plane load of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years.’
The first thing that strikes me about the river, is the complete lack of birds. You’d expect to see thousands in a river valley lined both sides with forests. In response to my question, Sen explains that the locals have eaten a lot of them. He elaborates by explaining that the only things that locals won’t eat are tables, chairs, and other people! Everything else is fair game. Pans out that there is some element of hyperbole to that statement – they also don’t eat flies, mosquitos, and cockroaches. 😉 I find this out when looking at an illustrated page of Laos insects and Sen running his finger down the list going ‘we eat, we eat, we eat..’ He’s particularly partial seemingly to praying mantis.
We stop en route at the Pak Ou Caves. The caves are a major pilgrimage site for Buddhists in Laos, but it also serves the Hindu faith. Locals protect the some 4000 statues of Buddha day and night, after a number of them were pilfered in recent years. End up buying a painted snail shell. Was impressed by the ingenuity. Take a seemingly useless item and turn it into something beautiful. Suspect it won’t survive the next 5 months!
Lunch on the boat is excellent and we pass the time watching the world go by and getting to know some of our fellow passengers, a retired couple from Lancashire and an electrician from Ealing. Unlike Taiwan, where we barely saw any westerners, Laos is gaining in popularity as a tourist spot. It’s a reasonably industrious place, with the government having allocated land to private hands some years ago. Thus we watch farming, fishing, and lots of gold panning. On a good day a villager can make $50 or more.
We stop at Pakbeng for the evening. Our hotel is set high on the hills and bizarrely there are only 3 people staying there! Stunning view over the river valley and nice place to watch the sunset.
The following day is a long one. Up and on the water again for 6.30am. Visit a local village in the morning. There are 49 main ethnicities in Laos, not all of whom share language and custom, so we visit our guides’ people. Interesting to see a village outside of the town. As one would imagine – pretty basic. We visit the local school, disrupting class with an offering of books and some footballs, kindly donated by our friends from Lancashire. School in a rural village costs c. $20 a year, per child. Seems basic but adequate and the majority of the village children are in attendance. The makeshift seesaw (see below), serves as a reminder of how good we have things in the west.
The rest of the journey is similar to the day before, the scenery varying little over our c. 300km journey. Actually makes for a very relaxing ride. You never feel you are missing much when you read for a while, but there’s always something to look at when you’re so minded. We arrive at the border at around 16.00. We are then shuttled from the boat across to the Thai border, where we pass immigration. Fairly slick. It’s then into a taxi for a circa 5-hour road journey to Chang Mai. By the time we arrive at 22.00, we’ve been travelling 16 hours!
We are only in Chang Mai for two nights. Sadly, our one full day is somewhat curtailed by a stomach bug that I picked up somewhere on the Mekong. Struggle to leave the room, but manage a short walk. Shame, but could have been a lot worse, and we have been here before.
From here we fly to Bangkok for an evening in an airport hotel before making our way to Myanmar! More to follow on that next time…
A shame about the birds.
I don’t think I would fancy praying mantis!
Ha! No – definitely wouldn’t be my first choice either!