Pants (three pairs) – I’ve got to go to Vientiane to get a visa for China. Three travel agents confirmed that Luang Prabang’s embassy shut 7/8 months ago. Another rethink as Laos is a big country and it’s a long way to Vientiane. And back, of course. Plus, getting a China visa is a bit of a rigmarole – you have to show a ticket into and out of the country, itinerary and hotel bookings for your stay and proof of funds, plus the application form and two passport photos. No wonder not many people visit China.
Great views on the journey back to Luang Prabang:
And an odd chap at the bar that evening – he kept on buying people drinks. People crowded round him. Quite simply, he was trying to buy people’s attention (and it was mostly working!):
It’s good to be back in Luang Prabang again. I really like the place and it’s much easier arriving somewhere you know. Especially when they do great chocolate chip brownies 🙂
My flight home was drawing ever nearer. But I wasn’t done. I was enjoying travelling again – it’s much easier with two, and Rudy and I were still getting along just fine. But he was due to go to China, and me to Thailand. I told him I kinda felt I wasn’t done yet. “Come with me to China”, he said. This would obviously be a major change of plan, and one that I’d dismissed because I needed a visa. Turns out I can get one in Luang Prabang. By the time we’d finished breakfast, I’d decided to at least try. I just had a good vibe, and if there’s one thing I’ve learnt on this trip, it’s confidence in my instincts. We booked a bus back to Luang Prabang for tomorrow. Fingers crossed.
The climb was tough. Through impressive vines:
… and fascinating wildlife:
… with the view emerging at each glimpse:
… until we finally reached the top. And the effort was most definitely worth it:
Then back to base camp for a relaxed evening:
It took most of the day, but I went to bed content and really looking forward to seeing Luang Prabang again tomorrow.
I lay in bed staring up at my mosquito net. I really didn’t want to leave. But I was due to catch the 11am bus back to Luang Prabang as my Mekong cruise to the Thai border left tomorrow morning. Once again, I kicked myself for making plans too far in advance – it means you can’t respond so easily to what’s going on. After the recent energetic days, a lazy day in the hammock on our balcony was very appealing.
But this is Asia. So I called the cruise agent and less than five minutes later my cruise was postponed to Sunday. In England, the administration surrounding this would be a nightmare. Here, when they just asked me to come into the office when I got back to Luang Prabang so they could “change my ticket”. This meant they’d cross out “Wednesday” and write “Sunday”.
Laos has surprised me. Talking to travellers earlier in my trip who’d been here, the general consensus was that “there wasn’t so much to do”, “two weeks will be enough to see it” and it was “behind” compared to the other countries on my itinerary. All three are utter rubbish. There may not be so many grand attractions, but there’s no shortage of things to see and do. Two weeks is enough if you go from Vientiane via Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang and then head to Thailand. But there’s so much more to the place and it doesn’t take much to scratch the surface (and, unlike Vietnam, it’s fairly easy to see the real Lao rather than the pre-arranged tourist version). And I’ve also seen little evidence that it’s “behind”. In fact, in many respects it’s more advanced. For instance, most major cities have a “smoke-free” policy (you can smoke everywhere in Vietnam except the explosives factory); only the remotest villages still make their dwellings out of bamboo and wood – most have at least a few made of concrete (unlike Cambodia); and infrastructure isn’t bad, not up to UK standards, I’ll grant you, but much better than I’d been led to believe.
It made me wonder what a UXO-free Lao would look like…
Awesome bug of the day:
And this is me blogging from the owner’s laptop (kindly loaned for an hour or so):
Twenty minutes into the “gear” presentation and things were getting repetitive. Despite telling the guy I’d used them before (!), he was obviously enjoying explaining how they worked. But finally we were off:
Down the river…
…to a village…
… where we watched people unloading a narrow boat. Seeing them lug heavy bags of oranges up the bank reminded me once again how “manual” their life is:
More butterflies:
After lunch we visited Patok cave:
… accompanied by several children who were clearly angling for money in return for showing us the clearly marked path. I knew this because they kept repeating “Hello, money”. They might want to work on their sales strategy.
Met Eleanor on the bridge for sunset:
And then rewarded our active day biking with a banana split:
Another really good day 🙂
Today’s random stuff consists of two rather fine bugs:
Another Laotian bridge:
And a photo to capture the memory of their open-to-the-street shops:
It used to be possible to get the boat from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw but not anymore. The Nam Ou river is obviously still there, but now it’s got a ruddy great big dam in the middle of it. A Chinese dam. Despite the fact that it’s displaced many local tribes and has adversely impacted the local environment and livelihoods, nobody’s protested. That’s Communism – Laotians just accept whatever the government throws at them. Dissent is not allowed. The good of the country comes before the good of the people, and the single ruling party decides what’s good for the country. That was all Ken, our guide, would say. Like all the guides who have touched on the subject (very few), he wasn’t comfortable talking about it.
Our tour started with a boat up the river. “Can I drive?” I half-jokingly asked. A staccato conversation in Lao, then “Yes. But some river have rocks, so later when it is deep.” And so, about fifteen minutes later I was given control. They go fast, those slow boats. And they’re relatively high for their width which makes them feel like they’ll topple if it got too rough. But I safely navigated us through the treacherous waters of the Nam Ou:
People make stuff to sell. It’s just they all make the same stuff. Wooden home after wooden home with their beautifully handmade scarves proudly displayed outside:
But from whom should you buy? Michelle solved the problem by buying four, each from different women.
Further up the river, we reached Muang Ngoi:
… where another massive butterfly fluttered across our path (no, sorry, still haven’t managed to get a picture of one as the bigger they are, the less they alight). It was disguised as a bird. Seriously, it’s wings had a feathered pattern. Less likely to be attacked by a predator. Genius.
Whilst this is the turning point for most tours, we’d wanted to see further up as we’d been told it was the most beautiful part of the river. Much negotiating with the travel agent owner, who I think was convinced that we were out to get as much for as little as possible (like most Asians) rather than agree a reasonable price for what we wanted to do (like most Westerners), and he’d finally agreed. It was so worthwhile, with the mountains becoming taller and steeper as we progressed:
Walk up the river to the waterfall was exactly what it said on the tin – we literally walked up the river to the waterfall. It wasn’t worth taking our shoes off and finally we arrived:
A pre-lunch dip:
And then lunch served in freshly-cut bamboo:
The kayaking should have come first. By the time we’d swum, eaten, and walked the 1½ hours back to the river we were shattered. But it did, of course, mean we were kayaking downriver. I enjoy kayaking so gave it a go but tired quickly. Reto and Susie, on the other hand, were in their element:
Then sunset:
A quick round-up of the amazing wildlife from today (yes, that’s a spider’s web):
And this guy who was building a boat:
And a curry at a rather good Indian restaurant with the gang. Another great tour group. It transpired that Michelle, an online tutor, was trialling ‘remote working’ (at her request) for her company. This was, indeed, remote. Her challenge was finding a suitable place to conduct student seminars – it turns out that cockerels and karaoke in the background can adversely affect her students’ attention. Made me wonder, though – surely there’s something I could do whilst on the move. Suggestions below, please 🙂
As soon as we arrived in Nong Khiaw, I knew I was gonna like this place:
A chilled vibe, life on the streets and plenty of locals, but was still surprised at how many tourists had made the effort to get here. We wandered the “city” (aka village) and stumbled upon some kind of extended family gathering. It turned out to be the beginnings of a wedding… with our tour guide very excited about his invitation.
I guess a reason for a party doesn’t come about very much up here. It also meant that tomorrow’s tour will start a little later than usual!
Lao dogs are really cute, and appear to all be related to each other:
And I found this bug on the railing at the cafe we stopped at for lunch on the river:
The cafe came complete with an enclosed deer:
I’m still not sure of why a deer was being kept: they don’t produce milk or meat, and aren’t the best workers as far as I know. And it seemed very un-Asian to keep it as a pet. But it seemed happy enough.
And then to the bridge for another amazing sunset:
Sitting in the Indian restaurant after dinner, Rudy suddenly said, “Eleanor”. And so it was. She’d stayed another day in Phonsavan as she was very sick and needed to recover before moving on. Seeing her now made me realise how ill she must have been.
And then back to our bungalows on the river, complete with balcony and hammock:
And this is what my room now looked like. Can you spot anything concerning?:
It was *massive*. Easily the biggest (wild) spider I’d ever seen with my own eyes.
I sheepishly knocked on Rudy’s door and enquired about his arachnid removal services. He pointed out that we didn’t know whether it was poisonous, so glass and paper it was. My mosquito net was duly installed over my bed, despite there being no mosquitoes. Taking no risks 😉
