South East Asia (Part 2)

Laos (Land of a Million Elephants)
17/06/2008 - 30/06/2008

I was on my way to South East Asia's most laid back and relaxing country to travel in. Befriending a great group of backpackers (Irish, Canadian, American & English) on the bumpy ride to the border and during a very quick overnight stay in Chiang Khong, we all got our passports stamped and visas sorted and then crossed the border into the Laos town of Huay Xai. The Slowboat bound for Luang Prabang awaited us, but not before a visit to the local shop to stock up on provisions for the bum breaking 2 day trip.

We were the last to board the long 'seen better days' wooden boat. With no seats to our avail, we made ourselves comfortable at the rear using the piled luggage as a lounge area. The deafening engine noise was filtered out by the iPod (speakers brought by a fellow Genius traveler) and of course by the consumption of provisions ;-) Going to the bathroom was a challenge to say the least. As the boat was chockablock, the only way to get to the charming hole-in-the-floor-restroom located in the centre of the boat was to do a Spiderman impression. The trick was to cling to the side of the boat as much as possible and pull yourself along the narrow edge..after a jug or 2 full of BeerLao, one's balance is a little off..from personal experience I wouldn't recommend mixing both alcohol and doing an extreme sport!

At the end of the 1st day we reached our overnight stop at Pak Beng. This place was a tiny little village with just a few guesthouses catering for the daring Slowboat passenger and with electricity for about 4 hours per day. We had dinner overlooking the Mekong river and as soon as the clock hit 11pm the power went out and we were left to drink our BeerLao in the dark. It was incredible how the dark night came alive, the moon peeking through the clouds, the croaking of frogs (at least we hope they were!) and the bombardment of insects (creatures I have never seen before!) whilst Ghost stories were exchanged around the table...I don't think many of us slept that night! The trip the following day consisted of much the same, consuming of provisions and several heroic visits to the bathroom. At 6pm we finally made it safe and sound to Luang Prabang.

Another favorite of mine so far has to be the UNESCO protected World Heritage town of Luang Prabang. A charming place with French influence, where one can stroll along tiny old streets and admire the French Mansions and buy local items from the Handicraft night market. The little town is also dotted with many beautiful Wats, my favorite being Phu Si. It took a little effort to climb to but the views of the town and it's surroundings were well worth it. I done a day biking in the countryside around Luang Prabang and visited a local hand weaving silk factory and went to the multi-tiered waterfall of Tat Kuang Si with it's many shades of turquoise pools.

From Luang Prabang I made my way to Phonsavan by local bus where I met a great German couple (Eva & Martin from Berlin). My reason for visiting this place was to see The Plain of Jars. I was not expecting to step into the twilight zone and feel like I was living in a kind of warzone! Every restaurant and hotel in the place were decorated with war scraps, be it shells, bullets, grenades, mines, tanks, guns or missiles..you name it, they had it! My hotel was even located at the edge of an old airfield. I came to know that this province has the most UXO's (Unexploded Ordinance), gifts left during the secret war. About 30% of the whopping 260 million ordinance dropped between 1964 and 1973 failed to explode and still scarily threaten to detonate, maiming and killing many of the local people. MAG (The Mine Advisory Board) still work hard to clear the land to make it safe for locals to cultivate and live off it.

Thankfully MAG had already cleared the area of The Plain of Jars and walk paths were well marked out. It was incredible to see thousands of huge jars scattered around the countryside. Their true origin and purpose are unknown, some say they were used as ash urns and others say they were used in the brewing process of the local rice whiskey called Lao-Lao..I prefer to go with the brewing story myself! Not only is Lao-Lao lethal but I also tried the Snake and Gecko drink. How can I describe it..it's a drink with a terrible sting to it!!! A delicacy with snake, gecko and scorpion stewed in the alcohol..I was grateful for the BeerLoa at hand to wash the nasty taste away...definitely not for the faint-hearted.

By local night bus it was onto the capital of Vientiane. I did get a bit of a fright as I woke up on arrival to only see a local disembarking holding a machine gun! It was a quick 1 night stop with a stroll around the Wats and to see it's Arc de Triomphe, Patuxai. The victory monument and it's surroundings which commemorates the Lao people who died in pre-revolutionary wars, make you feel like you're on The Champs Elysee in Paris. That evening Martin, Eva and I enjoyed a few BeerLao's on the riverbank and the cocktail Happy Hours in the centre of town. Yet another local night bus (onboard karaoke inclusive) took me south to Savannakhet where I enjoyed sitting by the riverbank and visiting the Dinosaur Museum. A strange place to have such a museum I thought but apparently the Savannakhet province has 5 dinosaur and archeological sites. Then it was on to Pakse and from there to the once capital of Lao, Champasak. On my way I met another great couple from Italy, Eleanora and Marco. We hired bikes and cycled to Wat Champasak for the day. The Wat, once Hindu and was later converted into a Buddhist temple. It was a great taste of what was yet to come in my travels, the mother of all temples...Angkor Wat.

From Champasak, together we made our way to Si Phon Don (Four Thousand Islands) in the hope of catching a glimpse of the rare Irrawaddy dolphins. After many debates with the locals and fellow travelers about it being low season and whether we would get to see one or not, we decided to take our chances nonetheless. While we stayed on the main island Don Khong (where we always had to wake the locals to get any service!), we rented a boat for the day to take us south to Don Khon to do some dolphin spotting. It was incredible how many different colours of butterflies we saw hovering over the Mekong, it felt like we were in a fairytale. And the amount of kids on the banks waving to the tourists, I read somewhere that nearly 50% of the Lao population is under the age of 15. On Don Khon island, we cycled around and then jumped into a small (and may I add leaking!) boat to take us further south and across the water to the Cambodian border. Luck was with us that day, we were only 5 seconds in the area when our captain pointed and shouted 'DOLPHIN!' and there they were popping up for air...it made our day! That night was a bit of a late one with the local BeerLao, while we watched the Euro 2008 final with some French and Spanish. With miraculously clear heads early next morning, we were mini-bus bound to a new country, The Kingdom of Cambodia, home of Angkor Wat.

TO BE CONT...

Some pix @ LOVELY LAOS PICTURES