After staying in Nong Khai for a night, we made our way over into Laos over the friendship bridge and after receiving our visas hired a tuk-tuk to take us into Vientiane.
We met a guy called Lucan on the border crossing and after we checked in to a hotel, we dropped our bags off and went out for a couple of beers with him. Chatting to him for a while we decided it would be a good idea to go to the cinema that night, we made our way over to what was supposed to be a cineplex. The cinema was supposed to be on the top floor of a new shopping mall just recently opened, we looked for the cinema but couldn’t find it so we asked around only to be told that “it wasn’t ready yet”!! Well, with our plans foiled, we decided to go and walk around Vientiane instead along the river back and into the night market, all very pleasant and we found another place to have a beer which offered great views of the Mekong River and the night market.
Vientiane is a strange capital city and there are not many people around at all, it has the feel of a small European town that only comes to life in the evening. There are a few sites to see but really not all that amazing so after two nights, we decided to make our way over to Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng is a place that Wendy visited some 15 years back when it was just a sleepy village, having read up about the place, it seemed to us that it has changed beyond all recognition since her last visit and it was with some trepidation that we were going.
Our fears were somewhat realised, the place is a real tourist trap with buildings going up everywhere. Luckily for us, we checked in on the other side of the river just outside of the town, into a quiet guest house with great views of the mountains.
Maylyn guest house was started up back in 2002 or so when the sleepy village was still just that by an Irish guy called Joe who was a real character. Wendy and he exchanged stories of how it was back in the day and reminisced on what was lost. Joe employed a dutch guy called Louis and his Laos girlfriend Noy to help out and they were really nice people which made our stay at the place all the better.
We enjoyed some nice activities here, we read our books on the balcony of our room, went kayaking, we walked and visited a cave, we went swimming in the blue lagoon - courtesy of Joe who took us there in his car, it was some 5km down a dirt track that we didn’t fancy walking or cycling down as the dust from the cars was awful. It was very peaceful on “our” side of the river. We ventured into the town of a couple of occasions to eat and go for a drink but we enjoyed the views and garden of our guest house far more and I think we stayed put for two days and didn’t even venture out!
There was a big storm on one day and the thunder and lightning show was a real treat, it also brought the temperature down too which was a blessing as it really was so hot and humid in the day but thankfully cooler at night.
One of the delights of Laos and the guest house was breakfast, just and omelette with bread doesn’t sound that amazing you may think but…. Laos being an ex French colony, it was influenced by French bakers and this legacy still lives on, not only did we have an excellent croissant in Vientiane (much better than some had in France) but the baguettes for breakfast were excellent. You may not think this is much to write about but let me tell you, after seven months of travelling and not having any decent bread, as a frenchman, I’m in heaven!
We finally managed to leave and make our way to Luang Prabang. This was a place I really wanted to visit when we first planned our journey and we were not disappointed. It’s a UNESCO protected town and you can really see why, it is so beautiful with all the old Buddhist temples and French colonial architecture around. It was a really nice place to walk around and take in all the history with little or no traffic around on the roads - indeed one of the main roads is closed every evening for the night market. The old town is on a peninsula in between the Mekong and a tributary river called the Nam Ou which also adds to the beauty.
We’ve seen a few ex-colonial towns on our travels but this one stands out as our favourite so far, even compared to Kochi and Galle.
One day we also visited the Kuang Si waterfall which is about 30km out of town so we hired a scooter for the day and made our way there and enjoyed some great scenery not only on the roads but also at the waterfall itself. There were some bathing pools which were fantastically cool and we also enjoyed a free pedicure from the fish that live in there. There was also a Moon bear sanctuary, so Ludwig got to see some of his relatives! Strangely enough we remembered seeing a documentary at home about a Moon bear which had had ground breaking brain surgery and this was the sanctuary he lives at. All the bears that are here have been rescued from poachers who keep them in small cages for up to 10 years to extract bile from their gall bladder on a daily basis for “traditional medicines”. Unfortunately they can’t be let back into the wild as they wouldn’t survive, but they certainly seemed happy here in large open air enclosures and plenty to keep them occupied.
The last place we visited here was the UXO LAO Information Centre. UXO stands for Unexploded Ordnance, that’s weapons such as bombs to you and me. Laos is the most bombed country in the world, the US Army dropped more bombs here during the Vietnam War than were dropped during WWII, mostly with cluster bombs (there’s a photo at the bottom with some facts). It was sobering to read about the plight of the locals who can’t even farm their land safely for the fear of being blown up. There was a very interesting documentary which showed why the Ho Chi Minh Trail was bombed so much and how during the war, the propaganda machines on both sides denied the existence and the bombing raids of the Trail. It also showed some personal stories of locals who have been affected by explosions.
If you want to read some more, there is plenty of good info here http://uxolao.org/index.php/en/the-uxo-problem
On the food front, apart from fantastic baguettes with pâté (another food craving first since we left home, after seven months, the only food craving I have left is cheese :-0), we also enjoyed some traditional dishes such as Fer or Feu (Lao noodle soup), Laap (a mince meat salad) and Tam Som (spicy papaya salad).
We wanted to stay a little longer in Laos to do some trekking but the heat and humidity did prevent this unfortunately. The temperatures are typically 38c in the day which we can cope with, just, but the humidity is around 80% and that really is what slowed us down. It’s a shame that we couldn’t do more and also visit the south of the country but we enjoyed what we did, so off to Vietnam now, flying into Hanoi, can’t wait to eat the street food!
Lasting Memories:
Baguettes!
Peacefulness and slow pace of life.
Beautiful mountain views.
£1 bottles of Laos Whisky (well rice wine really) but surprisingly nice.
Geckos, we’ve seen a lot on our travels but not as many as in Luang Prabang, we even had a Tokay Gecko in our room that we had fun evicting!! (Rather large and noisy and christened by the US Army in the Vietnam War as the FU gecko owing to its call!)
The signs are in French rather than in English, Vive la France!
Sticky rice.
Beautiful flame trees
The people do seem a little more grumpy than in Thailand or Myanmar, maybe it’s the time of year and they’ve had enough of the hot weather too.
Vientianne
We met a guy called Lucan on the border crossing and after we checked in to a hotel, we dropped our bags off and went out for a couple of beers with him. Chatting to him for a while we decided it would be a good idea to go to the cinema that night, we made our way over to what was supposed to be a cineplex. The cinema was supposed to be on the top floor of a new shopping mall just recently opened, we looked for the cinema but couldn’t find it so we asked around only to be told that “it wasn’t ready yet”!! Well, with our plans foiled, we decided to go and walk around Vientiane instead along the river back and into the night market, all very pleasant and we found another place to have a beer which offered great views of the Mekong River and the night market.
Vientiane is a strange capital city and there are not many people around at all, it has the feel of a small European town that only comes to life in the evening. There are a few sites to see but really not all that amazing so after two nights, we decided to make our way over to Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng is a place that Wendy visited some 15 years back when it was just a sleepy village, having read up about the place, it seemed to us that it has changed beyond all recognition since her last visit and it was with some trepidation that we were going.
Our fears were somewhat realised, the place is a real tourist trap with buildings going up everywhere. Luckily for us, we checked in on the other side of the river just outside of the town, into a quiet guest house with great views of the mountains.
Maylyn guest house was started up back in 2002 or so when the sleepy village was still just that by an Irish guy called Joe who was a real character. Wendy and he exchanged stories of how it was back in the day and reminisced on what was lost. Joe employed a dutch guy called Louis and his Laos girlfriend Noy to help out and they were really nice people which made our stay at the place all the better.
We enjoyed some nice activities here, we read our books on the balcony of our room, went kayaking, we walked and visited a cave, we went swimming in the blue lagoon - courtesy of Joe who took us there in his car, it was some 5km down a dirt track that we didn’t fancy walking or cycling down as the dust from the cars was awful. It was very peaceful on “our” side of the river. We ventured into the town of a couple of occasions to eat and go for a drink but we enjoyed the views and garden of our guest house far more and I think we stayed put for two days and didn’t even venture out!
There was a big storm on one day and the thunder and lightning show was a real treat, it also brought the temperature down too which was a blessing as it really was so hot and humid in the day but thankfully cooler at night.
One of the delights of Laos and the guest house was breakfast, just and omelette with bread doesn’t sound that amazing you may think but…. Laos being an ex French colony, it was influenced by French bakers and this legacy still lives on, not only did we have an excellent croissant in Vientiane (much better than some had in France) but the baguettes for breakfast were excellent. You may not think this is much to write about but let me tell you, after seven months of travelling and not having any decent bread, as a frenchman, I’m in heaven!
We finally managed to leave and make our way to Luang Prabang. This was a place I really wanted to visit when we first planned our journey and we were not disappointed. It’s a UNESCO protected town and you can really see why, it is so beautiful with all the old Buddhist temples and French colonial architecture around. It was a really nice place to walk around and take in all the history with little or no traffic around on the roads - indeed one of the main roads is closed every evening for the night market. The old town is on a peninsula in between the Mekong and a tributary river called the Nam Ou which also adds to the beauty.
We’ve seen a few ex-colonial towns on our travels but this one stands out as our favourite so far, even compared to Kochi and Galle.
One day we also visited the Kuang Si waterfall which is about 30km out of town so we hired a scooter for the day and made our way there and enjoyed some great scenery not only on the roads but also at the waterfall itself. There were some bathing pools which were fantastically cool and we also enjoyed a free pedicure from the fish that live in there. There was also a Moon bear sanctuary, so Ludwig got to see some of his relatives! Strangely enough we remembered seeing a documentary at home about a Moon bear which had had ground breaking brain surgery and this was the sanctuary he lives at. All the bears that are here have been rescued from poachers who keep them in small cages for up to 10 years to extract bile from their gall bladder on a daily basis for “traditional medicines”. Unfortunately they can’t be let back into the wild as they wouldn’t survive, but they certainly seemed happy here in large open air enclosures and plenty to keep them occupied.
The last place we visited here was the UXO LAO Information Centre. UXO stands for Unexploded Ordnance, that’s weapons such as bombs to you and me. Laos is the most bombed country in the world, the US Army dropped more bombs here during the Vietnam War than were dropped during WWII, mostly with cluster bombs (there’s a photo at the bottom with some facts). It was sobering to read about the plight of the locals who can’t even farm their land safely for the fear of being blown up. There was a very interesting documentary which showed why the Ho Chi Minh Trail was bombed so much and how during the war, the propaganda machines on both sides denied the existence and the bombing raids of the Trail. It also showed some personal stories of locals who have been affected by explosions.
If you want to read some more, there is plenty of good info here http://uxolao.org/index.php/en/the-uxo-problem
On the food front, apart from fantastic baguettes with pâté (another food craving first since we left home, after seven months, the only food craving I have left is cheese :-0), we also enjoyed some traditional dishes such as Fer or Feu (Lao noodle soup), Laap (a mince meat salad) and Tam Som (spicy papaya salad).
We wanted to stay a little longer in Laos to do some trekking but the heat and humidity did prevent this unfortunately. The temperatures are typically 38c in the day which we can cope with, just, but the humidity is around 80% and that really is what slowed us down. It’s a shame that we couldn’t do more and also visit the south of the country but we enjoyed what we did, so off to Vietnam now, flying into Hanoi, can’t wait to eat the street food!
Lasting Memories:
Baguettes!
Peacefulness and slow pace of life.
Beautiful mountain views.
£1 bottles of Laos Whisky (well rice wine really) but surprisingly nice.
Geckos, we’ve seen a lot on our travels but not as many as in Luang Prabang, we even had a Tokay Gecko in our room that we had fun evicting!! (Rather large and noisy and christened by the US Army in the Vietnam War as the FU gecko owing to its call!)
The signs are in French rather than in English, Vive la France!
Sticky rice.
Beautiful flame trees
The people do seem a little more grumpy than in Thailand or Myanmar, maybe it’s the time of year and they’ve had enough of the hot weather too.
Vientianne
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| Sticky Rice served in the traditional basket |
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| The strangest sign we’ve ever seen in a hotel room but totally justified, these stink! |
Vang Vieng
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| View from our balcony |
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| Common Tiger Butterfly on a Lantana Bush |
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| Frangipane Flower, smells gorgeous |
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| Lightning Bolt |
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| On the road to Luang Prabang |
Luang Prabang
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| Common Baron Butterfly on a Hanging Lobster Claw |
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| Jack Fruit |
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| A citroen C11, one of only two original citroens in the country (the other is a dilapidated DS in the National Museum) |
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| Sausages drying out in the sun, look at all that yummy fat dripping on the street! |
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| Where's Ludwig? |
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| Stop right there! |
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| A sobering read |
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| Cluster Bomb |
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| Just a few of the items collected in the Laos countryside |
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| We wouldn’t want to end the blog on a sad note though, so see you in Vietnam :-) |
