Upon arrival we decided to cross the border straight into Laos as we had a lot of travelling ahead over the next few days and knew we had to be on the bus early the next morning for our next stop.
It was already about 4pm and I envisaged queues of tourists waiting anxiously to cross the border before the gate closed at 6pm (we had seen so many buses on route). When we arrived at the crossing there was just a small hut and two people in the queue - you could barely tell it was a border at all and I doubt anyone would have noticed if i'd just wandered through! There was no signage or explanation of where to go next so we wandered down the track and spotted a tiny boat ready and waiting to get us across to the other side of the river - after hours of being on a hot bus you can enjoy a nice cold shower on the boat as it soaks all the passengers and gives the impression that it could sink any minute as it is weighed down by so much luggage!! (not mine!)
After disembarking at the border- ie: jumping off the end of the boat onto the sand and going to another hut with an equally short queue, paying for the visa - you are into Laos!! We immediately became millionaires as we exchanged our Thai Baht into Kip - it's about 10,000 kip to 1 dollar!!
Having read some terrible reviews we were very pleasantly surprised by the border town of Huay Xia, Laos. Although only made up of a couple of streets, it has beautiful steps up to a temple and some pretty descent guesthouses along the river front. We climbed the steps to the temple at 5ish and got to see the most beautiful sunset, this, coupled with the lovely border staff, made us feel really positive already about our time in Laos. We were also delighted to find that the food was just as yummy here!!
We got up bright and early the next day to begin the two day journey to Luang Prabang. We had two options here: a) take the slow boat with all the other backpackers along the Mekong river which has an overnight stop in a not so pleasant sounding town or b) take the public bus to Omdomxai,stay overnight there and then take a second bus the next day to Luang Prabang. We opted for the supposedly shorter bus route rather than following all the other back packers like sheep, although Omdomxai is a complete dump!!
Whether this was the right decision we will never know but I would warn anyone going to Laos that overland road travel in Laos is hard going so be prepared for some painstakingly slow journeys - especially on public buses! I am not exaggerating when i say that the first bus reached a top speed of 30 miles an hours and a 33okm journey took 7 hours!! Up hill this dropped to 10 miles a hour (which is most of the way). Also be warned that every bus is packed full and I don't just mean with other passengers - they use the rickety old buses for transporting deliveries so we were surrounded by bags of grain, boxes of toiletries, you name it. We had our bags on top of us and a guy picking his feet and peeling oranges all the way!! Infront a girl was being sick into a bag for 5 hours and then tossing them out the window!! This is not a one-off as I have read that chickens are usually brought on the bus too. If a time is quoted then add at least two hours for toilet stops, lunch breaks where they tucked into some delicious looking grub, random breaks when everyone piles off the bus buys a bag of potatoes and then gets back on again then eats the lot raw. There is never a dull moment I can assure you but be patient. Fortunately the first journey was on a road with tarmac (for most of the way) however the second day was on very steep mountain dirt track roads with no barriers and some steep drops. That said the drivers do go very slowly and the scenery is stunning!!
Inside the bus is not so comfortable:
Roadkill for lunch anyone?
Anyway, although a little frustrated at times by the speed, we were glad we took this route as travelling through the mountains you see the highlands with all the hillside tribes - something I expect you miss out on on the boat. It is by doing this route that you realise why Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world - which arriving in Luang Prabang you would never believe!!
After 7 hours on another bumpy bus journey we began to make our descent from the steep mountain roads into Luang Prabang Province. Suddenly the bamboo huts, which we had seen precariously balanced along the roadside for miles, were replaced with lush french villas. The contrast is remarkable and it is evident how much money has been invested here.
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!
The plan to get our Vietnamese visas pronto and get the hell out of here has not really materialised as we forgot that it is the weekend so our visas can not be processed until Monday!!
We are leaving for the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi on Tuesday night (as we can get the Vietnamese sleeper bus with proper beds and a toilet rather than the Laos bus which is falling to bits and takes ten times longer - not that anyone told us this we had to do extensive research ourselves).
So we have 3 more days to kill in the most boring capital in the world (sorry). There really isn't a lot for the tourist to do here as, unlike the rest of Laos, it lacks any real beauty. There are a lot of good restaurants however and for the first time on the trip we treated ourselves to some western food by having a delicious steak in a French restaurant - Laos food is really quite bland compared to Thai food so I had exhausted all the other options!
We have a nice balcony in the IHouse Hotel though:
On the bright side the people here are much friendlier and it is great to be in a proper city mixing with the locals: some old guys asked us to play cards with them yesterday and some others danced with us in the street. I feel a bit mean for my rant the other day now as all the women, children and some men have been friendly (most men are still stoney faced though).
We visited the COPE exhibition yesterday.COPE provide prosthetic limbs and rehabilitation for civilians who have been injured by cluster bombs. It is really quite frightening how heavily bombed Laos was by the USA during the Vietnamese war - they dropped at least 280 million bombs on Laos and they believe at least 80 million cluster bombs did not detonate on impact and so remain in the ground today! Children are often the ones who are fatality injured as they find them and play with them or they collect them as scrap in exchange for money. We talked to one 19 year old boy at the centre who had lost both his arms and was blinded on impact. I am pleased to say that the UK has signed the petition to stop the use of such bombs but sadly the US has not and it is the Australian and Japanese governments who provide most of the aid for this centre. We gave a donation and also donated some extra by buying a few books for the children but it seems very little given just how many people are affected.
So it is with mixed feelings that I leave Laos - on the one hand I have been dazzled by just how beautiful it is, on the other I have been a little disappointed. I will always remember the nice moments such as the monks chatting us up at the border (very entertaining as they were only 15),the lovely sandwich lady in Vang Vieng and the public bus journeys where we saw all the road kill being eaten at the side of the road and the locals laughed at use for eating crisps and we at them for eating raw potatoes. Despite sounding quite negative about Laos at times it has been a great experience .
