#3: LAOS
March 19 | Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand.
Listening to funky guitar riffs, watching the leaves fall around me in front of a tranquil river passing by the Akha Guesthouse in Chiang Rai, Northern Thailand. It feels like the sun just got up a minute ago. However, I'm slowly getting hungry and surely cK will come by soon, reminding me of that very tempting looking vegetarian restaurant that we came across while exploring the city last night. I'd be in!
We left marvelous Laos behind some two days ago and are now about to start the slow, but steady (hopefully rather literal) decline towards paradise beach country in the South. However, before that I will tell our very personal account of the last two delightful weeks in what probably is the most-devoured country in the region. Our itinerary basically looked like this: Don Det (Si Phan Don) - Tha Khaek - Vang Chiang (Vientiane for the French) - Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang. We originally planned to further explore some villages in the North, but decided against in favour of Northern Thailand (one just can't have it all, even though a mere one more month would be it..!).
I guess, cK would agree that the times on that river island paradise Don Det had been among the best overall - many of the people we got to know there either got stuck in memory or on further travels along the came-true Banana Pancake Trail northwards, among them the English boys Robert & James (who we knew since Phnom Penh), two girls from Israel and another two from Stockholm (hi there, Kajsa and Josi!). The mighty Mekong River, shaping the so-called Four Thousand Islands right at the boarder to Cambodia seems to be a highly unlikely place to swim in, considering the millions of people living around it, sadly seeming to not considering for a moment it might be somewhat unhealthy to pour in it buckets full of wall colour - overall using that life-granting stream as a mere natural waste basket. The curious looking Irrawaddy river dolphins with some surviving 7,000 individuals likely won't last too much longer. However, fellow travelers reported that you can still see (and come close to) them around Si Phan Don and also in the Greater Kratie area in Northeast Cambodia. Good luck!
Things to do on magnificent Don Det: kayaking, tubing and sunbathing at the beach, once in a while watching amiable water buffaloes descending to the water, thereby spreading sand over the dozen or so books and towels on his way down and later enjoying to be refreshed and petted by daring travelers. Renting bikes and make a day trip down to equally lovely Don Khon and swim next to some stunning waterfalls. If that's not enough: there are rather ancient French railway tracks to be discovered within the jungle (after all, this is Indochine and its history is abundant and virtually ubiquitous!). Later in the evening it's bar time (our favorite being "1 More Bar" on the sunset strip), thereby connecting with fellow sun worshiper, consuming little to loads of pretty acceptable local happy herbs and devouring yummie garlic bread, fruit shakes and either Nhamkong or Beerlao (for usually 8,000 to 10,000 Kip, which translates into either $1 or €1). At one stage, cK and I found ourselves to supply our favorite bar with electronic music, made in Berlin, later heading to the only dance floor we were able to find and, after all (i.e. past midnight) heading down to the beach with many others, circling around camp fires, sharing spliffs, spirits and guitar sing-sang. Socializing: apart from the English boys we also bumped into a befriended couple that we got to know while couchsurfing in Bangkok some four weeks earlier (Salut, Sophie and Fred!). Purely enchanting. If one has the chance: make it to Don Det!
We could have stayed long, very long - and therefore decided to leave before it might be too late... next stop on the way up North had been the not-overly-sexy port town Tha Khaek (about half way to Vang Vieng). I didn't fancy that place much, but that might in part be due to missing the islands a lot. Additionally, we had bad luck with finding the right place to stay: our preferred hostel had already been full (we were arriving too late, ending up walking along barely lit side roads, kinda getting lost among nervously barking street dogs). We stayed two nights, using the one day to discover the seriously stunning surrounding landscape (which absolutely made up for the rest) by bike, thereby crawling into quite a magically looking cave with a pretty ambitious Siberian girl and finding our way to the famous Buddha cave (Tham Pa Fa) that had only rather recently appeared on the tourism agenda due to its discovery in April 2004. Lonely Planet writes, the local discoverer "was hoping to make a dinner of the bats he'd seen flying out of the rock cave mouth and, stepping into the cavern beyond, was greeted by 229 bronze Buddha images", some of the more than 600 years old.
The journey continued by local bus to the capital of Laos, Vang Chiang (a.k.a. Vientiane, I don't really fancy the French altering, though). We originally planned to simply keep on going to Vang Vieng, but eventually got stuck and it wasn't for the worst, really! The guesthouse we ended up staying in was right at the center (next to Nam Phu) and happened to be a combined little restaurant with cheap and tasty meals and fruit shakes. Naturally, there had to be a downside to that: only after returning from quite a shopping fit at the Night Market by the river (cK really goes for shirts, man) we discovered certain (pretty large) writings on our room walls: "BED BUGS! Don't stay here, move on. / She's [the owner] a bitch! / Bed bugs, attention. 2013". Mhm, yeah, great. We decided to stay nevertheless, used as much bug spray as we saw fit, completely wrapped ourselves in linen (at least I did), kept all fingers crossed already being utterly paranoid - and still got bitten. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as in an Upper West Side guesthouse in NYC, summer 2009 and the bites quickly disappeared. It's all good, we're fine. Also, some people simply don't seem to react at all, lucky bastards. (At least I do.) Before heading on to the bus station we, surprise!, met Robert again. Always one step ahead...
Good old Vang Vieng (some 150km further North) had been visited by friends of ours beforehand and we kind of knew what could await us. Apart from an utterly (hmm... what attribute to use now - what about - yep) entrancing surrounding scenery (you need to check on the pictures once I finished sorting them out, don't just use the web, will ya!), Vang Vieng seems to be the spot for the legendary tubing: "(also known as inner tubing, "bumper tubing" or even toobing) is a recreational activity where an individual rides on top of an inner tube, either on water, snow or through the air" (as all-knowing Wikipedia explains it). And so it is! Youngsters mingling together, getting drunk and stoned on heavy rubber rings, floating down the Nam Song River, just sweet. Masses of backpackers seemed to flock into town only some months ago, getting on the tubes and crisscrossing the river-surrounding bars. And then news came up that the local police would finally close everything down since it became simply too big, too intense, too crazy. Well, it's true: less bars, less backpackers, emptier streets and everything. But that's just it: beautiful! Vang Vieng light, so-to-say. Apart from saying hello to the people from Don Det, we teamed up with Josi and Kajsa, the Swedish girls, kayaked and cave-tubed together, simply having a blast. At night we would all gather at a bar called "Fat Monkey" and after some drinks and funky dance moves head on further to "Moon" club (which stopped playing popular Western songs at around 2am). Everything beyond would be clearly up to what one makes of it, I'd describe it. Go for it - it might sound a little uninspired and dull, but it's everything else!
We figured we'd been very lucky to see the never-ending mountains, valleys and all that fruity verdant green outside the mini van that brought us from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang (for 90.000k), our last stop in Northern Laos. That place, however, is among many people's top priority list and right so: apart from being known as Laos' former royal capital ("Luang" means simply 'royal') it is indeed "an enchanting place to idly watch the day glide by from a riverside bar-terrace" (L.P.). It's also an Unesco World Heritage site and hence lacks buses and trucks in the old town (hell yeah). We spent much of our time in thefetching night market and simply strolling along the rather calm and almost relaxing streets, at one stage visiting the Kuang Si waterfalls, but missing out on some others (again, one can't have em 'all), maybe returning day - who knows? Of course we would also meet up with known faces: this time dragging us to the famous "Utopia" bar overlooking the Nam Khan River that either invites to relaxed times reading and sipping soft drinks or getting to know other travelers after sunset while dancing to known Western tunes. Again, once midnight is approaching the whole setting closes merciless and if still not having enough there is only one solution: on with you on a shared tuk-tuk, it's bowling time! No more words to be lost on this, pictures will explain better.
I shall not end this third entry without mentioning our beloved baguette woman across the post office (where the market starts) that served us well with delicious bread, filled with fresh avocados, tomatoes, cucumber and the like (I'm clearly starving by now) for a mere 10,000k (€1). Anything else? Ah well, when it comes to money: it's true that Laos is more expensive in transport, but it varies in accommodation - throughout the trip we never paid more than $10 for a shared room (double or twin), mostly between €3 and €6. However, food is indeed cheaper in Thailand, it seems. Good on us! Here we are, making our way down that country now. Starting tomorrow. Also, neither Laos nor Cambodia proved considerably recommendable when it comes to wearing contact lenses and as a result (from all that dust) I found myself wearing glasses (instead of sunnies) at least on travel days, fair enough.
Just today cK purchased quite a curious copy of a book bearing the title "The Lost Art of Travel. A Handbook for the Modern Adventurer" (by Vic Darkwood - what a name!). The following quote and then good-bye for now:
"Increasingly nowadays there is a trend for travelers to set out on journeys overseas totally alone. This is done for a variety of reasons: some adventurers maintain that travel companions are a hindrance to engaging with the local population and indigenous culture; others [...] travel alone merely because they have not developed any capacity for making friends and to prove to themselves that they are not the freakish loner that everybody makes them out to be. Solo-travel, in my opinion, is a highly over-rated sport, and chiefly the preserve of the utterly foolhardy and those with personal hygiene problems or personality disorders. [...]
Travel is never easy, and the adventurer should not imagine that traveling with a large company of comrades and servants is necessarily the easy option. If anything, it makes the enterprise far more challenging. The most natural course of action when selecting a travel companion is to chose somebody with whom you share a mutual interest. Whilst this does not necessarily rule out spouses, it does not necessarily rule them in either."
EDIT: Okay, I just need to mention one more thing. Yes, Laos is the most heavily bombed country of all times. Just for the record. Despite that being a most regrettable and truly sad fact, it kinda transformed into a running 'joke' over the weeks. However, never literally walk off the beaten track, right.
