Luang Prabang immediately charms you, the pristine streets are lined with French colonial architecture, such a difference from the dusty,poverty stricken villages we had travelled through. It is hard to believe that you are not in a holiday resort somewhere in the South of France.
As we had spent 3 days travelling on local buses and staying in pretty basic guesthouses we decided to treat ourselves to 3 night in the Ock Pop Tok villa, a beautiful hotel along the Mekong river. It was well worth the money (still extremely cheap by our standards) and it was especially nice to be welcomed by the friendly staff with a drink and guided tour of our room - it was designed in tribal village style so everything in the room was made by local people. I was just happy to have a comfy bed at last and I slept like a baby!
View from our room:
We had such a lovely 3 days here, however i'm glad we stayed outside of town as if you didn't you would not see any of local life! Although I really liked the town I have never been somewhere which seems to solely be geared around tourism and in this way it seemed a bit soul-less. For instance if you sit in a restaurant or drink in a bar you never see anyone from Laos as the prices are all over inflated for tourism. I found this really bizarre and walking back each night to our neighbourhood, police lined the streets - not because there was any trouble (it seems the safest place i have ever been to) but I got the impression they are keeping the place in order very tightly and hiding some of the real Laos in some way.
Towards the end of our stay here I began to get a little irriated by the local men, unlike in Thailand where they seem to really respect women, here you get the impression they are laughing at you and talking about you as you walk past. Although they do not really say it to you directly I don't think they think a lot of western women and even a police man made some remark to me! They are quite reserved about it but it makes you very paranoid and I am really sad to say that I have not witnessed much of the infamous Laos hospitality - most people look at us stoney faced (except for the women and the hotel manager -although he was trying to sell me something everyday which really irriated me too) Also you seem to pay over the odds here compared to Thailand, which I can understand they are trying to make money from tourism but it really leaves a bad taste in your mouth eventually - for instance when a tuk tuk driver laughs in your face as he charges you a ridiculous amount. Anyway rant over...
From here we headed on to the infamous party mecca of Vang Vieng. We were tempted to miss this stop out all together but the scenery is supposed to be amazing. As we approached the town I was was glad we had chosen to give it a go as the mountains are incredible! We headed straight down to the river and saw the most incredible sunset I have ever seen (unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me and it was ruined by the Canadian men behind us who were talking about sleeping with prostitutes - perhaps a sign of things to come that evening..!!).
As it goes dark and the bars open the horror of an 18-30's holiday destination unfolds! I have never been so ashamed to be from the west. British, Australian, Canadian, American groups of 20 somethings come here to get absolutely intoxicated tubing all day and then party all night. I don't want to sound like a pensioner but I was horrified by their behaviour. They come back from tubing (which results in at least one fatality a year) absolutely wasted, high, dancing in the streets practically naked and this is all at about 6pm in a very conservative country. We were just tucking into dinner as they arrived back in town and couldn't believe it - one girl,who already had a broken foot from tubing couldn't open her eyes she was so drunk and was thrown in the back of a tuk tuk, another was covered in bandages down his leg - i'm all for a bit of fun but you had to see them to believe how awful they were!!
We went back to the hotel for some sanctuary and found that half of the idiots were staying there. As we sat outside talking to the only other sane people in the place, we witnessed the most disgusting racial abuse on a female member of staff at the hotel - some drunk Australian guy called her every name under the sun and tried to hit her all because she wouldn't let him check in to the room he had checked out of earlier that day (because we'd checked in). The manager stood back and did nothing as she had to listen to the most horrific insults. We felt terrible for her as none of the staff even flinched so we went over and asked if she was ok and if it happened every night. She said that they were staying there for 8 nights so she could not answer back to them as they bring money in and that it did happen often - it was at this point that we decided to make a stand and complain to the manager. We told him we didn't feel safe and there were no rules in this town and that if he couldn't even look after his staff member why would he protect us from that group of lads. Anyway we moved out of the hotel to a quieter one down the road - we had to pay for the priviledge though!
Waking up the next day it was hard to believe the carnage of the night before as the view from our hotel was breathtaking, however the night before and some of the comments from the hotel manager had left a bad taste in our mouth so we decided to see the sights and get the next bus out of there to the capital of Laos, Vientiane.
So that is where we are now as I write this blog. After another horrible bus journey with men looking us up and down and being once again dropped off miles from the town so you have to pay a ridiculous amount for a tuk tuk.
Yesterday we were really disheartened by the behaviour of the other tourists and also sadly by the local people as generally we have not been made to feel welcome here at all. Maybe we have just been unlucky or maybe the behaviour of those tourists in VangVieng are to blame but despite the beauty of Laos I find myself wanting to leave. I appreciate that this is a poor country but I do feel like a walking cash machine at times here too.
We are going to change our route and head to Hanoi in Vietnam on an overnight sleeper train ready for Christmas!
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