Good morninnnnn’
Laos!
So with Day 15, of our 15-day-visa to Thailand upon us, we
decided not to risk the consequences of overstaying our visit and made it to
LAOS! Now here in Laos everyone says LAO
(silent S), but a Lao guide of ours said that when talking about the country
you do pronounce the S slightly, and when using it as an adjective you omit the
S. Ah well, call it what you like, we
have crossed into our 3rd country of this trip. The crossing from Thailand is a pretty big
money grab as you get dropped off somewhere NEAR the port, which means you must
take a tuk-tuk (reasonably priced, but nevertheless still an expense). Once at the port we had to buy a few passport
photos, dish over some more money to cross the 100Meter stretch of water, and
finally purchase a Visa on the other side.
An interesting thing is the Visa cost is dependent upon which country
you are from…Canada seemed to have the highest price of $42 US, with an
additional $1 charge for the staff having to work on a weekend. Aww well, I guess that’s what having a travel
budget allots for….we do have a travel budget, don’t we Mark?! J
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| Money Belt |
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| BAP Guesthouse |
So upon arrival we grabbed a guesthouse with the name BAP,
and as lonely planet mentions a pretty saucy English speaking Lao lady owns and
directs. She showed us some sass, rolled
her eyes when we said we’d buy our
tickets from the main dock (rather than her guesthouse which would have cost
20,000kip more- about $2.50), and harassed us when we took the room with two
twins over the doubly expensive double bed option. ((Mark and I have become accustomed to
sharing a twin as of late…saves us several dollars at each guesthouse and is oh
so cozy)). We meandered down to the dock
to find that it was closed for the day, and were told to come back at 8am to
purchase our ticket for the next day. So
that’s what we did. Woke up early,
backpacks and sandwiches in tow and we headed to nab a boat. The Lao lady at the guesthouse chuckled as we
left so early, but better late than never right?
For those of you who don’t know what our plan at this point
was let me briefly explain. We planned
to take ‘the slow boat’ from Huay Xia to Pak Beng (a 7 hour long boat ride),
spend the night there, and then continue the next day from Pak Beng to Luang
Prabang (about another 7 hour long boat ride).
(see map)
We arrived to the port, purchased ticket #1 and #2 and had
secured our spot for the day. We sat for
a while and then decided to ask to throw our bags on early enabling us to
freely roam for a few hours before departure (which was scheduled for
11am). We boarded our boat and were
taken to the back of the boat where a man lifted the floor boards and heaved my
bag down well under. As he was doing
this we had a eureka moment….throwing our bags on now would mean that we would
most likely get our bags LAST when we arrived to Pak Beng.
Hummm….normally this may not be too much of a
big deal, but upon researching Pak Beng I found that people were raving about
the poor guesthouse options. They spoke
of how much you paid for a guesthouse determined how many rats you would see ((
if you read a previous post I DESPISE RATS—I think as most would)). So I researched the many guesthouses, unable
to make an on-line booking, so we knew we’d have a race to the few possible
options in town. Not ideal if we were to
get our stuff off last. OK, so I had the
man who heaved my bag down under to retrieve it (bless his soul), after some
hand gestures and a poor explanation we trekked back up the hill and found a
place to have a baguette for breakfast.
((Now I should mention that Laos has beautiful, fresh baguettes
EVERYWHERE….a remnant of its French past that I was happy to experience….I love
rice and noodles, don’t get me wrong BUT I love me some tasty bread).
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| Huay Xai, Laos (Thailand is across the Mekong river) |
Hordes of people started to roll in around 9am, 9:30am,
10am, and finally we decided we should chuck our stuff on and find a few seats;
as we did. Mark and I each had a
baguette, some crackers and another snack each for the trip, but people would
come onto the boat with BAGS full of food.
It was as if they were potentially heading out to cross the Atlantic Ocean
or something.
So finally around 12 noon (1 hour later than our departure
time, and 4 hours after we arrived), we set off on our day’s journey. Down the Mekong we went, a brown, fast
flowing body of water, one that I would dare not swim in. At the beginning I was reminded of how I don’t
really lovvvveee boats, but after several hours of manovering around rocks,
trees, fully inflated dead pigs on the water I gained some confidence in our
driver/captain. We opted not to have any
beer as Mark informed me of the state of the toilet, so let’s just say there
was limited drinking of any liquid on this trip.
Despite the brown of the water, the scenery was absolutely amazing. Laos thus far felt like an untouched
paradise. The lush jungle, the rock
formations along the river, the huts in the mountains all made for a
wonderfully scenic journey.
Day 1 went off so far without too much excitement, just a
calm, relaxing, slow journey floating down the river. At the end of the first day we arrived to the
infamous Pak Beng. I had ensured that
Mark knew the seriousness of finding a ‘decent’ guesthouse, so we decided that
he’d run ahead with our hand drawn map, and names of possible places that we
could stay, and I’d stay back and sort the bags. So Mark ran off, and I nabbed the bags…Marks
on my front, and mine on my back….what’s two 70 litre bags…nothing. Mark met me with good news that we got our
second option on the list and we headed directly there. We were happy to find that our hotel had 24
hour electricity, a luxury in this city as most cut their power at 10:30pm. We went out for a delicious Indian meal and
several Beer Laos….the national drink that we just hhhhhad to sample.
I am happy to say that there were no rats to my knowledge;
Mark and I squished on the twin bed again, and fell into a deep sleep.
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| Pak Beng, Laos |
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| View from Guesthouse in Pak Beng |
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| UXO (Unexploded Ordinance) Souvenir -- safe, at this point -- |
Day 2 was much of the same as day 1. This time we switched boats, meaning a new
crowd, and any order that was kept on day 1 with people following seat numbers
was now out the window. We showed up
about an hour before the presumed departure, grabbed two seats together
thankfully, and waited for the captain to take us back down the Mekong. About two hours past, just an hour after our
departure time, and the last few hung over youngens boarded the boat ((Mark and
I are definitely feeling the age gap between the 19 year old backpackers out there…were
we reallllllly like that at that age? My
mom and dad would probably say yes J
)). Again not too much excitement down
the river; we saw an elephant and his owner along the sandbanks on the side of
the river at one point, a cool site. By
the end of the 7 hours on day 2 we were both ready to feel the pavement under
our feet. So when we finally arrived to
LUANG PRABANG it was a welcome moment.
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| The Mekong |
We had booked a hostel beforehand, had our little hand-drawn
map and made our way to the hostel…tuk tuk’s at the ready, but oh no, we are
strong, we can walk. After a few glares
at my travel companion wondering WHERE we were going, and WHEN we would get
there we finally arrived to the street we were meant to be staying on. No guesthouse with this name. The kind people at the guesthouse directed
us, and sent us just a few streets away, so all was not too bad at that point.
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| Luang Prabang, Laos |
Luang Prabang…Mark could list some history for you…and he
may very well when he gets to writing, but from my perspective we were in a
city that was reminiscent of the streets of Paris with the baguettes and
bakeries everywhere, and of Venice with the small side streets and narrow
pathways. The city had a pretty sweet
vibe, one that we enjoyed for 3 nights. We
explored the endless stalls of the night market which was blight and full of
amazing fabrics and scarves (none of which I bought), and upon a fellow travelers
recommendation found an all you can eat vegetarian street. Each stall owner had about 30 huge bowls full
of food which you could dish onto your plate (reminds me somewhat of the
Mandarin in Barrie…my papa’s fav’). For
10,000kip or $1.25 you could fill ONE plate ONE time as full as you’d
like. So after already having had a
baguette we both opted for this cheap option, not a bad one at that. Later that night we checked out the Luang
Prabang Film Festival, watched a few intro live acts, some amazing break
dancing the highlight, and watched a few minutes of their feature film. Once I realized it was a horror movie, in
which the first scene showed an awful image we set off to hit the streets and
find a pancake dessert. ((Mark and I
have become obsessed with the crepe like snacks they have here…covered in
carnation milk and sugar…pureeeeeee heaven…believe me!))
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| Night Market |
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| Buffet |
Day 2 we spend wandering around the city, grabbed a nice
breaky, treating ourselves to an actual meal (shared of course) after the two days
on the slow boat. We had made it a
priority to find an eco-conscious/friendly tour that would allow us to trek in
the mountains, stay in a hill tribe village, do some kayaking, AND play with
some elephants. All of which we found
when we booked our 2 day adventure with White Elephant tours. So check the next post where Mark will highlight
Day 3 and 4 in Luang Prabang and area…..trekking, elephants, hill tribes and
all!
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