Laos Part 3: Luang Prabang

Oh Luang Prabang...this was such a strange but an almost magical place. So many random, but fun things that happened. I was there for about 4 days and these were the most memorable things (in no particular order):

1. My Arrival
Simon had taken the bus from Vang Vien to Luang Prabang, while I had gone down to Vientiane and then flew up to Luang Prabang. We were only in contact by email, so I wasn't sure when and where I would actually meet up with him in LP. All I knew was the name of his hostel, not even the location. I told him I would arrive around 12pm so he had some expected time frame.

Since there were extra seats on the earlier plane, I arrived around 10:00am instead. At the airport, they were asking for $5 for a taxi ride into town (which is a lot), so I waited around to see if anyone wanted to share a cab. Eventually, a French couple and their nephew let me share one with them. As we got into town, I see Simon and a couple other people walking up the street! I asked the driver to pull over and I popped out of the taxi, probably scaring the crap out of Simon! It was such unbelievably good timing. If I didn't wait around for anyone to share a cab, I probably would have spent my first day in Luang Prabang searching for the hostel and Simon.

2. Spicy Laos Hostel
Didn't like it the first night AT ALL. There was one guy in my 10-person dorm who came in drunk, turned on the lights at 2am, and started ranting about how someone was in his bed and spilled water on his laptop. I thought, I need to get out of this place! It's a complete zoo!

But he left after that night, so it wasn't so bad. After all, I was staying at a UNESCO World Heritage House. The accommodation itself was nothing to write home about; showers and toilets were hidden around the house, and some beds were pretty lumpy (I got a good one though). It was more about the atmosphere. The hostel was very social, full of characters who had been traveling from as long as 1 year to just a few weeks (even met a person from Sacramento!). I had some good times meeting new people and just hanging out with Beer Laos on the porch at night.



3. Day with the Elephants
I joined a tour that took us to an "elephant camp" where we rode elephants into the jungle/forest and into the lake. It was definitely and awesome experience. The elephants are so sweet. The best part was getting in the water with them. They were playful, and like in a rodeo fashion, they would try to throw you off their backs so they could bathe freely. It freaked me out a little bit (since I can't really swim well), but I held on tight. One fellow got thrown off and lost his glasses! Some local kids dove around and found them though. Pretty amazing. The elephants were so nice and gentle. The mahouts (trainers) were ok. They weren't super mean to the elephants, but you can tell this was not a super ethical outfit running the tour. If I were to do it again, I'd pay more for a more ethical tour.



4. Waterfalls/Scenic Drive
The pools were such a lovely ice blue. Very fitting, because the water was cold! Glad I got to see the countryside of rice fields too. Lots of rolling mountains, lush green fields, and bamboo huts popping in and out of the scenery.



5. Alms Giving Ceremony
Every morning, the monks begin the alms giving ceremony around 6am. It's a really beautiful ritual, because the monks receive donations from the locals (rice, food, candy, etc.) and in turn, the monks give donations (that they just received) and blessings to those who are in need. It was really interesting to watch. Although unfortunately, it's become a tourist attraction. Some tourists were so disrespectful; they would walk right up in front of the monks and take photos (sometimes with flash). It's so intrusive on such a special ceremony.



6. Riding a bike around
I rented a bike and rode out to Ock Pop Tok, a textile center a little bit outside from the center of town. It was a really nice facility for weaving, basket making, and fabric dying, which women from the local area came to work. Afterwards, I stopped by the Phousi Market, and then to the Luang Prabang Red Cross for a massage. It was nice riding outside of the touristy area. Compared to the main strip of restaurants and shops in French colonial buildings, there's a much poorer side of Luang Prabang that I don't think foreigners see. Aside from walking, biking is still my favorite way to see a city.

Laos Part 2: Vientiane

Spending about 3 days in Vang Vien only left me one day in Vientiane before my flight to Luang Prabang (northern Laos). Vientiane is the capitol of Laos, but has been described as very sleep and relaxing. There were not a lot of sights to see or things to do. The main sights I visited were Patuxai (the Lao version of Arc de Triomph), Pha That Luang (which I didn't go into since it was late), and a few Wats surrounding Pha That Luang. I got there a day or two before the 450th year celebration. Preparations were set up for the week long event, and I believe there already had been some pre-partying near Pha That Luang (the national symbol).


Pha That Luang





Patuxai

Since I was traveling alone in Vientiane, I messaged a CouchSurfer (CS), Carole, who was also in town, for a drink. I met her at the Spirit House by the riverside. She is French, but living in Ireland, and was in town with her son to visit her brother. She was a super nice lady, who made me feel at home with her and her family. She had traveled before to a lot of places by herself, which I found inspiring. She joined CS recently, so this was her first CS meeting as well. (This was my first coordinated meet up with an individual, not in an organized group function, like in Bangkok.)

Soon, several of her brother's friends joined us and it turned into a nice gathering. Everyone was speaking French most of the time, but it was fun to be in such a foreign environment. (Even though I am in a foreign country, I interact mostly with English speakers (for obvious reasons).) One of the friends, named Na, was Chinese, studied at a university in France, and is currently working in Vientiane. It was fun talking to her about her upbringing and her experiences. And Carole's son was adorable, especially when he was speaking French. It was definitely a pleasure to hang out with them. After a couple of glasses of wine, I called it a night, and headed home.





A very short, but sweet visit in Vientiane. I didn't give it a fair shot with only one day, but I had a good experience.

Laos in Nutshell - Pt. 1: Vang Vien

I didn't really like Laos at first. I went to the main tourist cities, which did not seem representative of what I thought Laos would be like. I imagined it as pretty "pure", since I have been reading about how it's the last "real" Asia. You don't really see that until you are outside of the city; in the smaller towns and rural areas. I didn't have time to venture out too far, but I liked what I saw, especially on the drives outside of Luang Prabang. So here were my impressions of the 3 cities I visited: Vang Vien, Vientiane, and Luang Prabang.

Vang Vien
Good Lord. This place is a hedonistic party paradise. It was the train wreck you just couldn't stop looking at. But day time, the surrounding areas are gorgeous --lovely jagged mountains, rice fields, river views--with lots of nature-related activities to do. To get there, Simon and I had crossed from Nong Khai, Thailand over the Friendship Bridge to Vientiane, Laos, and caught a 4hr bus ride (which made me feel pretty nauseous towards the end.)The bus dropped us off by an old airplane landing strip, which felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. But we followed some backpackers and found our way in the town center.

After we got in, we walked around a little bit. It only took us about 20 min to walk the whole center. There were bars playing "Friends", "Family Guy, or "South Park". It's like I never left America.






We only had about a day and half really (excluding travel time), so we booked a tour that included caving, trekking, and kayaking. Caving was really fun. We took tubes into these water caves and floated along inside until we reached a spot where we could climb out and wander around.




stacking stones

Trekking...was not really trekking. It was just walking to and from where we had to go :P Nice and scenic at times though.



And kayaking was a lovely way to see the Nam Song River, but it was super tiring. On our way back home, we stopped by one of the tubing bars. It was pretty surreal passing by crowds of people dancing to blasting music, seeing people jump off of tarzan swings into the water, or sliding down a water slide. I just kept thinking, who are these people?! We're in Laos???


Tubing in Vang Vien


Kayaking: Simon doing all the work. hehe.




End of our route

Night time was even more nuts. There's an area called "The Island", where there are about 4 bars that pretty much open one at a time. So when one closes, everyone moves over to the next one. To get to the Island, you have to cross this rickety wayward bridge that really messes with your head if you are tipsy or "happy".

Simon and I met these two nice ladies, Rachel (Ireland) and Marin (Estonia), from our day tour, and we ended up hanging out with them that night. We started off at Bucket Bar, since there were free buckets of drinks before 9:30pm. We met so many random travelers there (even one from San Diego!) who were just buzzing and having a good time. By 12 or so, they shut down the bar and we all moved next door to Limbo Bar. The main attraction here was (you guessed it), a limbo bar lit up with fire. Now combining this with drunk people...recipe for disaster. I tried it, but when the bar was at a decent height. There were several guys who went under the bar at a really low height, but got up too soon and had their hair caught on fire. I think that was the worse that I saw. We stayed up probably until 3am before stumbling back to the guesthouse.


Me, Marin, Rachel, and Simon


Bucket Bar


Limbo Bar - Rachel and I barely made it.

Oh and the nice thing was, once you went back across the bridge, there were Asian pancake/sandwich stalls just waiting for you. The pancakes here were different from the Thai ones. They were crispier and less greasy. Yay for banana nutella crepes after a long night!

Vang Vien was nice...for one time. I don't think I will need to go back there again. The highlight for me really was kayaking along the river, and the pancakes.

Vang Vien, Laos!

I got up bright and early this morning at 6:15am to go to the Thailand-Laos border, with my fellow volunteer, Simon. In order to get to Laos, you have to cross over the Friendship Bridge on a bus (20 baht*). It was a pretty easy process to get the Lao visa. I filled out an application, my departure/arrival card, and submitted those forms with my US passport, $35USD fee, and passport photo, and was ready to go in 15 minutes.

After we passed immigration, we caught a local bus to Vientiane (5,000 kip), where we had to catch another bus to Vang Vien (30,000 kip). Thank goodness Simon had been to Vientiane before, because I was pretty confused about where to go and how much things were. I have to get used to using another currency (that hurts my brain in the beginning :P). But after walking around the bus station and grabbing some last minute snacks, we were off for a 4-hour bus ride.

I love being able to see the rural areas via bus, but this ride was a little bit tough. We had to get through some curvy and bumpy roads. I purposely didn't eat the whole ride, because I felt a little car sick during part of the ride. 4 hours later, we were dropped off on the side of the road, next to an old airplane landing strip, and the Vang Vien town center on the other side of it.

Simon and I checked out a couple of guest houses and then settled on Phouna Guesthouse, one that was a little hidden (there are still loud, obnoxious backpapers here. Darn.) Vang Vien is a very small town, but tons of backpackers come here to go tubing, kayaking, caving, rock climbing, and/or water rafting (I'm sure there are other sports that I am not aware of). Other than that, there's restaurants with "happy" items on the menu. We'll probably try something at one point. There's a row of bars/restuarants where (I swear) every other one was playing "Friends" or "Family Guy". I don't think I saw any other shows on besides those.

We'll be here for only 2 nights, but that will be plenty of time in this town. We're going on a tour tomorrow for hiking, kayaking, caving, and tubing. Let's hope we survive the whole day!

*I thought I would add some more details, if anyone is searching for more info.