Vientiane - last day in Laos

Arc de Triomphe in the Laotian capital, Vientaine

We left Vang Vieng both feeling quite ill - me with a migraine, Jemma with terrible back ache. We took a minivan down south to the capital of Vientaine. It took 4 hours and we had the world's worst driver. He drove like a madman at break neck speeds around the winding country bends which started to make us feel really sick. We had one travel sickness tablet left over from Thailand, so we decided to chop it in half and take half each. Such is the potency of Thai travel sickness tablets, it zonked us both out and we slept most of the way. When we arrived in the capital, we were both so tired we could barely stand up. I had an excruciating migraine caused from twisting my back in the wrong position for too long. Jemma somehow managed to navigate us to our hotel and when we got there we collapsed into bed and slept for a few hours. When we woke up, we decided to try and get tea and see a bit of the city before we left Laos the next day. Jemma felt really ill and shaky, so we went to the nearest cafe and then it started to bucket down.

Monsoon

 We sat there for a bit, ate, and then went back to the hotel for another lie down. Later on, we got up and walked around the city, hitting all of the major sights. There's not much to see in Vientiane apart from an Arch-de Triomphe- like- building and a couple of French looking buildings. A lot of the roads have French names and the city was very developed compared to the rest of Laos. After our city tour, we looked around for a restaurant for tea but couldn't find much, so ended up in a Western steak house which cost us a bomb (well, £5 each, but that's a lot in Asia) and they undercooked our steaks (in fact I don't know if they even cooked them at all?) they were red raw and we had to leave them. Must be something to do with the French influence. By the end of the day, I was ready to leave Laos. I feel like we missed a trick in Laos and didn't really go to the right places. The countryside is so amazing and it is so untouched but we didn't get chance to venture into it much because we were in a rush to get to Vietnam because of our Visas. Laos is a friendly country, and has a lot of similarities to Thailand, but is much less developed and I would like to return there one day before it turns into one giant Vang Vieng.

One of many French steet signs

Laos photos: Album

Vang Vieng – A Paradise Ruined

Once upon a time, Vang Vieng was a very small rural village in the depths of the Laos countryside. Set amongst a stunning back drop, surrounded by blue lagoons, a river and spectacular mountains, it was a place of spiritual importance to the Laotians. Originally, it was a place where few backpackers visited, and those who did were just there to enjoy the nature and the basic way of life. And then... tubing happened. Basically, someone had the idea of renting out rubber inner tubes from tyres, to travellers so that they could float down the river and look at the scenery. Today this has developed into a mini Ibiza on the river, with bars along the way, that travellers stop at to get get wrecked, whilst playing on things such as trapezes and throwing themselves into the river. I really can't describe it better than this article does, so if you are interested in knowing more, read this:

Guardian Article

Also, for a laugh, watch this, it made me cry with laughter:

Anyway, so that's Vang Vieng, but before I get into our experience of Vang Vieng, let me first write how we got there. We got up early on our last morning in Luang Prabang to catch a VIP bus to Vang Vieng. The reason we had booked a VIP bus and not a min van as most travellers take, is that we had read various horror stories about the minivans. So we paid a few pound more to go on a coach, and we were waiting for our pick up to take us to the coach station, which was meant to come at 8.15am to get us to the bus station for 9.00. It got to 8.15am and a tuk tuk came and picked up some other girls from our hostel but told us we weren't on that tuk tuk and we couldn't get on. So we waited and waited, and it got later and later, and I asked the owner of our hostel if she could ring and see what was happening. So she rang and they said they were coming. It got to 8.50 and I started to sweat with worry. If our tuk tuk didn't come soon, we'd miss our VIP bus and waste the money we'd paid in advance for our hotel in Vang Vieng. 8.55 it finally came, hardly enough time to get us to the bus station, and it wasn't even a tuk tuk, it was a minivan. At this point I guessed that the company had taken our extra money for the VIP bus and put us on a hellish minivan anyway. Luckily, I was proved wrong, when the minivan pulled into the bus station and told us all to get off. It was now 9.05. So we all got off, and were told to get into another, much more cramped minivan, with no legroom whatsoever and no aircon. The travellers were packed in there like sardines. We got in anyway, even though I was angry at having paid for a VIP bus and was now going to have to do the nightmare 6 hour journey cramped in a minivan. When we were in, there was a big commotion because there weren't enough seats for everyone. That's when I told Jemma to show the man our tickets and tell him we thought we were on the wrong bus. So she did and a big grin came on his face and he told us to get off and that our VIP bus was just around the corner. We couldn't see any VIP bus around the corner, so we were convinced he was tricking us, so we refused to get off. He started to get quite angry at this point, but we stood our ground and said we didn't want to get off because it was too late for the VIP bus and it would already have left without us, leaving us stranded in Luang Prabang with no refund. Eventually when we could see he was getting very angry, we got off because we didn't want something bad to happen, and then we ran round the corner, dragging our rucksacks, hoping that the VIP bus was still there and that he wasn't lying. 

VIP bus

Luckily, we got there just in time as it was about to pull off, and we were so relieved. It was a much more comfortable coach, with aircon, meals and lots of legroom. When we got to Vang Vieng, the people who had come on the Minivan we were supposed to go on said it was pure hell. 

So, we got to Vang Vieng and it was raining heavily. We decided to just to go straight to a restaurant for tea. That's when we had our first experience of Friends re-runs. Almost every bar/restaurant in Vang Vieng plays Friends re-runs on a loop. Either that or Family Guy. Vang Vieng is like an extreme case of Western Tourism making a place ugly: A beautiful river with drunken, rowdy western backpackers floating down it, a small town that's been turned into a mini Ibiza and restaurants that serve western food and play nothing but Friends: It was dreadful. 

They play my worst programme Friends, everywhere!

Anyway, the next morning, we got up and went tubing (Paradise is ruined already, us not going tubing isn't going to save it). We got these big rubber rings and then a tuk tuk dropped us off at the river, where we got in and floated down. The first bar we came across was at the riverside and was selling drinks with a sign saying 'buy a drink, help children' purporting that any profits from the drinks would go to help children. We didn't intend on drinking (I don't like drinking in the day, and there are far too many horror stories about travellers dying whilst tubing), so we skipped that, and floated down the river past a few bars, hoping to spot our friends in one, but we couldn't see them anywhere. At each bar, a man would throw a bottle attached to a string to us for us to catch so he could pull us in. We ignored these bottles, and Jemma actually got hit on the head by one. We floated on, on the river that was quite fast due to it being the wet season, until we eventually went past a bar that was called 'the last bar'. We hadn't seen any of the drunken people/behaviour we had read about online or in the news papers; all the bars were really quiet and our friends weren't in any of them. So we floated on, assuming that the bar was lying and that it wasn't really the last bar. It turned out to be the last bar and so for the rest of the river, we just floated along in peace, looking at the stunning countryside, and burning simultaneously. (I hadn't put on much cream because I'd assumed we'd see our friends at a bar and get out to talk to them/ put more cream on). It was quite an uneventful tubing session, which I wasn't sure whether I was happy or disappointed about. On the one hand I'd quite like to have witnessed the drunks throwing themselves off trapezes, but on the other hand, it was nice to have the river to ourselves and not have some drunken yob landing on our heads. When the river came back round to the town, two small boys swam over to us and pulled us ashore. When we got out, they demanded money. When we gave them money, they demanded 'more, more!'. They were cheeky, enterprising little scoundrels, who I have no doubt will grow to be the next generation of riverside bar owners. 

Tubing

That night, we went for food, finding one of the few places that wasn't full of drunks/and Friends re-runs. And then we went to bed. We were both quite ill; me with a migraine, Jemma with back pain.

The next day, I really wanted to go on a bike ride to the blue lagoon – a wonder of nature where you can jump into the unusually blue waters (made that way by minerals) but we were both so ill we couldn't get out of bed. I had the worst migraine ever and was actually sick from it. It was an awful day, trapped in a dark room, trying to sleep but not being able to. At one point I managed to get myself out of bed long enough to walk down the street to book tickets out of Vang Vieng. I was so happy the next day when the migraine had gone down a little bit and we could finally leave Vang Vieng. That will not be going down on my list of places to return to!

Laos – Luang Prababang

Main street in Luang Prabang

We left the Luang Prabang bust station in a Tuk Tuk, with the driver promising to take us to our specified hotel. When the driver dropped us off somewhere we hadn't asked for, we tried to argue with him but he didn't speak English. SO we ended up in the middle of a town, at 6am, not having a clue where we were. We asked around for our hotel that we'd booked, but no one could help us. One old man spoke French and directed us the wrong way and everybody else was just clueless or didn't speak English. Finally, we happened upon a Guest house with its doors open and a man sat inside on a laptop, so we asked him if we could use his laptop to see where our hotel was. Eventually we found it, and they let us check in early, which at 6.30am, having just been on a night bus for 22 hours, we were very grateful for. We check in, had a shower and then slept until midday. When we got up, we went for a walk around the town and to get some food. First thing we noticed was how much more expensive it was than Thailand, which didn't make sense to us because Laos is a lot poorer (one of the poorest nations on earth according to LP). But that's how it was. So we begrudgingly paid more for a breakfast than we would have done in Thailand (only about £2 more, but still). And then we wandered around the streets of Luang Prabang, which had a very French feel to them (the French occupied Laos at some point in history and lots of things like signs are still in French). There were lots of boulevards, with cafes and old French style buildings, with Buddhist temples scattered around for good measure. It was a really nice town with a good vibe and not too many tourists. At night there was a night market, so we wandered around those and then went for dinner in a restaurant on the main street.

One of the temples

The next day, we took a minibus to go to the waterfalls nearby. We were joined in the bus by a group of British travellers travelling with Stray Travel. It was a weird mix of people, some older (in their 50s) and some very young (just finished their GCSEs), but all terribly posh. We assumed this must mean Stray is an expensive company to travel with. We got dropped at the waterfalls and had about 4 hours there. Jemma and I decided to walk to the top tier first and work our way down. This was no easy feat: it involved scrambling on muddy branches and climbing some really steep rocks to get to the top, but when we got there, we were glad we'd made the effort as the view was lovely and there was nobody else up there (all the tourists were at the bottom tier). It was the closest thing I have seen to Iguazu falls, except you could swim in it. We climbed back down to the lower tiers and then got in for a swim, jumping off a waterfall and into a deep plunge pool which was lovely. 

There were not many fish there this time, which made it even nicer than the ones in Thailand. There was also a rope swing, which people were queuing up to go on, with everyone watching and cheering. I decided to have a go, and did the most pathetic plop ever off the rope into the water. 

Someone getting ready to swing off

As I swam back to the bank, something (probably a fish) bit me really hard on my leg and drew blood! Also in the same river, were a group of locals washing their hair! We assumed they must have paid the £2 entry fee to have a wash in the clean water as it must beat washing in the dirty Mekong. Perhaps they do this once a week to get really clean? I will never know because we didn't ask them, so this is just a theory. After rope swinging into the river, it was then time to leave, so we got out and walked back to the minivan, stopping to have a look at the bears on the way back (there was a little compound with black bears in it). One of the bears started to get aggressive, and there was only a small fence holding them in, so I told Jemma to get away and we walked swiftly off. If that had been Australia, there would have been at least two 6metre fences between the tourists and the bears!

That night, we went to the night markets where we had an all you can eat buffet for less than a £1 from stall where there was a boy stood wafting the food with a plastic bag on a stick to keep away the flies. God knows how we didn't get food poisoning. After this, we wandered to a lovely bar called Eutopia. 

Wine by the river

Eutopia is a famous bar in Laos that is set next to the river, with cushions for you to lie on and has an excellent chilled out vibe. We ordered a big bowl of wine each (thanks to the French, Laos has good wine and good baguettes) and we settled ourselves on some mats facing the river. It was really relaxing.

Whilst we were eating our buffet, we had noticed a poster asking for people to go to the Library to volunteer to teach English, with no experience required. So the next day, that's what we did. 

Jemma teaching English

We went to the library, where there was a room full of young boys, mostly young monks, and each English speaker got assigned to a pupil. A man came in and said it was time to start and then we just had to speak with them and help them practice. Jemma had a really good student, who already spoke very good English and wanted to know more about the grammar, whereas mine could hardly say anything and I had to go right back to basics with him. Jemma's was from the Hmong tribe outside of the city and was really poor. His family could only afford to send one of their children to school and had sent him. Jemma wanted to offer to take him round the rest of Asia with us and treat him to a nice meal but in the end, she refrained. After teaching, we were going to hire bikes and cycle around the city, but Jemma has had a really bad back for a few days now so we decided to just walk instead, and went to our favourite bar Eutopia for an early tea. They did really nice food, and I had a tuna baguette with chips (despite promising myself that Laos would be the beginning of my chip ban). The chips in Laos are the best I've tasted in Asia, if not the world (UK notwithstanding (or Flunch)). That was our last night in Luang Prabang and we had organised to leave the next day, with a minivan to pick us up from our hostel and take us to the bus station where we would catch the VIP bus to Vang Vieng. That was when we had our first experience of 'Laos time'...

  

Some nice Laos grub

Laos photos

Thailand to Laos (Non stop Lee Mead for 22 hours)

The White Temple in Chiangrai

We first took a minibus out of Chiangmai to Chiangrai and this took about 4 hours, we stopped in Chiangrai briefly to take pictures of a white temple, and at some point, whilst doing this, I either lost or had my precious mp3 player stolen :( It wasn't an expensive one, but it was more the fact that it had all of my round the world songs on that I'd collected from the start, and I now had to do a 22 hour coach journey with no music or any form of entertainment!! :( I think it may have slipped out of my pocket on the minivan and the driver stole it when we got out to go to the toilet but I will never know.

So, we carried on with our 22 hour journey, with nothing but Jemma's mp3, which she rarely ever cracks out, and was given to her by her mum in haste just before we left. It has nothing but songs from musicals on it, which is not my favourite genre of music, but beggars can't be choosers.

When we got near to the Thai – Laos border, we all got herded off, waited outside a wooden shack for a bit and then got herded onto a rickshaw, which took us to the border. We queued at the border, got our passports stamped and then were directed onto a little wooden boat, which crossed a river (the Mekong) and hey presto,we were in Laos. Whilst on the boat, a snake slithered along side us in the water and I was scared it might slither into the boat, but luckily it didn't. 

Snake in the Mekong

At the other side of the river (about 30 metres from the Thai side), we got our visas for Laos from a little office. We paid about £35 for them, which was a bit steep, I thought. Good job we had US dollars because those who only had Thai currency had to pay more. We waited in the boiling heat whilst the whole group got their visas, and then a woman came and directed us up a street, where we were put onto a little bus, that looked like those trains you get at Disney Land. She said she hoped we all had Laos money because there'd only be on stop for food on the way to our destination and they would only accept Laos kip. I was not happy to hear this, as I'd not eaten since breakfast and we hardly had any Laos kip on us, which meant I'd have to go hungry for another 22 hours. The Disney bus dropped us at a bigger 'VIP' bus (a normal coach) and on that we sat for the next 22 hours. It was a very bumpy journey, not too dissimilar from what we had experienced in Bolivia. 

Laos is mainly rainforest

I took my last remaining travel sickness tablet, which really helped because the roads were very windy. We were worried when one girl told us you can't buy sickness tablets in Laos and that we should have stocked up in Thailand. Schoolboy error. After about 5 hours of listening to Billy Elliot and Wicked songs, the battery ran out on Jemma's ipod(hooray!) and we stopped at a cafe for food. (When I say cafe, I mean a hut that sold pringles and sandwiches). Luckily, the accepted Thai Baht, so I gorged on my first Lao tuna baguette and crisps. We paid 30p to go to a squat toilet in an outhouse near the hut, and then we all got back on the bus, ready for the 18 hour journey ahead. I was very happy for the sickness tablets at this stage, as there were locals all around us throwing up into plastic bags (they're not used to riding on buses, and the Laotian roads are windy by anyone's standards). Another advantage of the sickness tablet, was that it more or less knocked me out, so I slept better than I ever have on any overnight bus, despite the uncomfy seats and bumpy roads. I woke up every hour to look at the clock, until finally it was 5.30am and we pulled into our destination; Luang Prabang. We arrived just in time to see the daily procession of monks, walking through the town collecting food off the locals who had gotten up early to offer them. We could tick this sightseeing activity off our list. The bus kicked us out at the bus station, and at first, nobody got off because I don't think anybody clicked that this was Luang Prabang, I for one, had been expecting somewhere a little bigger, seeing as it is Laos' second city, but it just seemed like a town in the middle of nowhere. We were all so sleepy, we stumbled off the coach and into the first tuk tuk that would take us.

Where we got dropped off