Lets Do It The Laos Way
Vang Vieng
Laura writes
Its moments like these that make life worth living; floating down the River Mekong in a rubber ring, Beer Lao in your hand and sun on your shoulders.
This blissfully relaxing day was spent with a bunch of fantastic people; three good old Bristolians and a Dutch, and was certainly made entertaining by their ambition to throw themselves off high zip wires and wobbly swings.
We met them the a couple of days before in The Rising Sun, just one of the many bungalow style bars lining the Khao San Road of Vang Vieng, whilst Rupert and myself sampled the delights of cobra and scorpion whiskey after swaying merrily from too many Whisky Sours, a local cocktail we’d grown a liking to (naturally it felt like a good idea at the time, until the whisky blues set in).
Vang Vieng is a rather peculiar place where found in the middle of endless countryside lies a small dirt track road, cramped with guest house, restaurants, shops and tour agencies. Its here Friends play endlessly on TVs, bars sell ‘alternative’ teas and rickety bamboo bridges lead to riverside bars.
Here are some pictures that Louis (pronounced Louie, by the way), our new Dutch friend mentioned above, provided us – because somehow we managed to lose all our photos Vang Vieng (technology strikes again) ….
Before we set out; our four new friends
We stopped at a few of the many riverside bars to soak in the sun and top up on Beer Lao
This was the craziest swing. They also had Zip Lines that ended in the middle of the river.
It’s not extreme, but it’s extremely relaxing.
When flouting down the river bar staff will throw you a bamboo stick to grab hold of so they can pull you in. This time one person grabbed the stick and everyone linked on in an effort to stop and stock up on Beer Lao
We had dinner with them twice and on both nights had Indian
Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang is another small town found in the northern part of Laos. It’s fine restaurants, friendly guesthouses and elegant charm not only makes you feel at home, but a little saddened when it’s time to leave.
I was in my element when we stumbled across the night market, one of the prettiest I have seen yet. Rugs, mats and cushions cover the concrete floor, making it a cosy base for traders bottoms, with hand made crafts, tapestries and ornaments neatly laid out under the ever growing river of light bulbs hanging from sticks. Here if one stall sells what you want numerous other stalls in opposite directions sell the same, so the endless bargain hunting is perfect for the friendly haggler.
The day before we left Vang Vieng we preped ourselves for an early 5.00am start in order to watch the monks receive alms. For those who are unfamiliar with this term; it’s the giving and receiving of free food from locals to monks. Before the sun had rose we found ourselves buying sticky rice and banana leaf wraps from a local Laos lady and waiting patiently for the river of monks to come flooding our way.
One by one they followed each other down the street, bowls held out at their sides with their yellow and orange gowns glimmering beautifully as we and others who dared to be up at such ungodly hours of the morning gently deposited food into their bowls.
Unfortunately, as warned, this peaceful and silent traditional ritual has been ruined by the ever growing coach loads of people driven in to watch this morning event. Unthoughtful and careless tourists happily flash their cameras as noise levels rise and at one point I was appalled to see one lady stood so close that her camera might has well have been resting on the monks shoulder as the flash lit up his entire face. It was awful.
Due to respecting the tradition we have only a few dark, distanced pictures of this special event (although we have now lost those to technology error), however, we decided to support a local artist by buying one of his incredible oil paintings of this very event. A perfect caption of a perfect moment.
Back in Vang Vieng
On our two day stop over in Vang Vieng, before heading back to Vientiane to collect our visa’s from the Indian Embassy, we decided to seek a little adventure and hire a couple of quad bikes for the day.
Yes, yes, yes!
I was a little wobbly to start with, unsure on how the heck to steer the thing, but after 15 minutes I was zooming along and bumping myself down into ditch and off the road. OK, so it took me a bit of practice, but I got there in the end! Giggle.
During the trip, along with saving a stranded man with a broken down bike, getting lost and sun burnt, we managed to finally make our way to the local caves. A few eight to twelve year old local boys led us deep down into the depths of nothingness, with no light (just torches) and not a word of English to put our minds at ease. I’d like to say I loved it, but to be honest, it was all a little too much for me, as claustrophobia set in a little too quickly for my liking. Rupert is certainly the best to be asking about that story, he loved it!
Rupert writes
At the end of the longest cave I have ever been in (it took twenty minutes to get to what appeared to be the centre of the mountain) was a cool pool of fresh mountain water, dripping from the cave ceiling. Laura wasn’t liking the experience one bit so we headed back sharpish. There was no sunlight, if our torches run out of power or the bulbs broke, which happened frequently along the way (fortunately the kids had spares), we would of had serious trouble getting out of there – it would have been a case of feeling our way home. So I can understand Laura’s fear. But I thought it was awesome!
Here’s some pictures from the day…
White Water Rafting – coming soon!
Tags: Laos, Travel, Vang Vieng
Monkey
Cool some of my fav places! I have just had to show all my office mates to make them dead jealous. Still more fab memories for me of those places tramped by my little feet! Makes me feel quite close to you even though you are millions of miles away.
Gary and I popped in unannounced to see the boys new abode the other night – think we managed to freak them out good and proper by our spare of the minute visit – Could we have been parents??? hehehe.
Hugs V
hi there rups and laura, sorry I’m still monkey but cant figure anything out, looks totally fab,[expression from the sixties], wish I was there, freezing here nearly time for ski… I,m totally and completely jealous that Henry is going to India, doesn’t he want to take me as well ????? Oh well dream on load of love or as Robert says got a whole lot of lovin, missing you mumki
hello there, I’ve read your blog and it’s very interesting (well written too). I’m planning a 4-month trip to SE Asia and found your blog. Your trip sounds really awesome so far! Good luck with your future adventures
Dear Rupert and Laura!
How are things goin’? Great to read your stories and I finally managed to discover some pictures on your site which I’ve seen before :-))
Everything well there? How long travelling to go? If ur still somewhere in Asia please order me an tailor made suite from Mr. Bu in Hoi An, another suite with a big hood and huge buttons like this and a bag like that would be nice. And as Henry Ford said: the colour doesn’t matter as long as it’s black….
I suppose you guys will return somewhere in September to the UK or did you overbudget as you did in Laos (the damn influation in those asian countries!)?
Best regards,
Louis