The Lou Bon Voyage

Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos - click on the image for more photos.

After the over-indulgence of Christmas and New Year – which felt a bit like a holiday from travelling – we were well ready for our trip to Laos.  We arrived in the town of Ubon Ratchathani in the far north-east of Thailand, and caught a bus that would take us over the border.  The border itself was a pretty relaxed affair on both sides and for once there were not too many touts; even the officials seemed okay, although we had taken the precaution of getting our visa in advance anyway.  The onward journey to Pakse, southern Laos’ main city, was uneventful.  Once there, we found that our only option to head south was to get a songthaew – a pickup truck with benches in the back – for the two and a half hour journey.  We braced ourselves and crammed in with a load of local people.  Of course there was a fair amount of staring on their part, but I’m often touched at how kind people can be even when there is a massive language barrier; one old lady tried really hard to make sure we got off the songthaew at the right place (she only understood the name of our hotel), and she got it absolutely spot on.

Our destination was Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands, a huge collection of sandy islands resting in the waters of the Mekong.  Some are more like simple mounds with plants growing on; cycling around the biggest will take a whole day.  Our first stop was the latter, Don Khong, where we spent one night in a teak house.  We enjoyed a dinner by the river – where it felt quite chilly at night – but decided to move on the next day as there didn’t seem to be much going on.

Move on we did, and while I did feel that perhaps we didn’t give Don Khong enough of a shot I was glad we did move on to spend time on Don Det.  A much smaller island, with electricity only available from 5-11pm if you’re lucky, I found Don Det completely enchanting.  Very basic accommodation – that is, just a wooden hut with a bed and mosquito net, with a shared outdoor bathroom and cold shower – intermingles with local people’s properties and the complete absence of tarmac roads (there are also only a handful of mopeds on the island) made it feel like stepping back in time.  We hired push bikes to explore the island along with its neighbour Don Khon and it was just such a lovely day.  We saw the remnants of a railway that the French laid, an enormous waterfall, rice fields and a quiet, remote beach area.  We found a small restaurant there and the cook (a young mother) plonked her baby on the table for the three of us to look after while she cooked our food.   Life is very laid back and very simple on the islands and that suited me just fine.

Very reluctantly, we had to move on from the Four Thousand Islands because we ran out of cash.  There was plenty in our bank accounts, but ATMs are yet to reach the mainland so we were forced to leave!  Thus, we spent Carly’s birthday on the road, travelling first to Pakse then on to Laos’ capital Vientiane by sleeper bus.  Mine and Paul’s previous experience of overnight buses had been absolutely horrendous (16 freezing cold hours sitting bolt upright on a too-narrow seat with no legroom) so we were intrigued to find that this bus had actual beds.  Granted they were too short and too narrow for even us, and it was slightly irritating to stop at 1am to let a load of really loud locals on, but it got us there exactly on schedule and I think we all managed to get a little shut-eye.

Vientiane was really not what I expected – in the words of Bjork, it’s oh so quiet!! There was so little traffic, so few people and really so little going on (at least that we could see) that it was hard to believe it was the capital.  We sampled a couple of nice restaurants and bars, and there were a fair number of tourists milling about, but other than that it was as though everyone had heard we were coming and had taken off for a few days.  We did manage to notch up a couple of proper Laos-style experiences; the first a barbecue restaurant where the staff spoke very little English and there was something called Grilled Tiger Crying on the menu (Carly ordered it and it appeared to just be chicken…or at least it tasted like it!) and the second a night in a club called Future where we made some Lao friends (again, who spoke very little English).  They adopted us, topped up our beers (and mixed it with red bull, a surprising taste sensation!) and generally ensured we had a great time.  The club itself was quite funny; a sort of chic school disco of old, there were some pretty good dance mixes to start with, but as the night drew to a close the tempo slowed and there was a Careless Whisper style slow dance at the end!

From Vientiane we travelled to the town of Vang Vieng, a place shamelessly (or should that be shamefully) dedicated to drunken madness.  The main activity on offer here is tubing, where you float down the Mekong in a tractor inner tube, getting hauled into a series of riverbank bars in order to drink buckets of alcohol. This is a truly ridiculous activity, but as a veteran of not one but two outings, I can say it is the best fun!  Our first run was in the pouring down rain.  This was fine – you can only get so wet after all – but it descended into not-so-fun territory when we got separated and the sun went down, leaving us all alone in the pitch dark.  I eventually found Paul as he floated up to where I was languishing on the riverbank, and by some fluke we then found Carly as we walked up a road, but we were in the middle of nowhere! Luckily a local guy took pity on us and ran us back to the town for a reasonable fee.  Here, we made it our mission to find Anette (a Norwegian girl whom Carly got chatting to on the bus and who joined our merry band); it turned out she was in the last place we thought of looking – in her own bed!!!  Unperturbed by this experience, we decided to tube again when the weather cleared up, and so a day or so later we took to the water again.  Again, it was great fun, although I did still have enormous bruises on my thighs from landing poorly from a water slide on the first day (there were a number of these rigged up at the bars – most of them were far too scary but I somehow persuaded myself to do it!).  We timed it much better this time and allowed ourselves time to a) sober up a bit in the evening and b) catch some Family Guy in one of the many bars showing it on loop.  I love that show and it was a pretty perfect antidote to a day of drinking in the sun!

From Vang Vieng we travelled north to Luang Prabang, an altogether more civilised town where the main attraction was really just…well, being civilised and enjoying the architecture and laid back atmosphere.  The journey through the mountains was absolutely stunning, and the town – which centres around its night market – was really well preserved with a lot of old French influenced buildings.  Whilst in Luang Prabang we did a day excursion that involved a few hours’ mountain biking (not challenging at all for Paul; I thought I was going to die) and some kayaking back to town.  The kayaking was fun – we even had a shot at some rapids – and Paul and I managed not to capsize our boat.  It was really nice taking in the scenery and also to do something a bit more outdoors-y and virtuous!

Whilst hanging out in Luang Prabang we got our Vietnamese visas organised – you have to have one before entering the country – and tried to work out how to get to Hanoi. It became clear that our options were: a thirty six hour journey by road, or a one hour flight on Lao Airlines, who are listed in our Rough Guide (printed in 2008, I think) as purveyors of death-trap planes, and only to be considered as an absolute last resort.  We booked our tickets and prepared to leave our lives in their hands.  Being me, I couldn’t help but do a bit of internet research and it would appear that our Rough Guide is a bit outdated – apparently Lao Airlines have started servicing their fleet and have actually been awarded some kind of award thing for being safe for three years!  The flight was actually really good, it was smooth and the food sufficiently indulged my mild OCD (I like airline food because it’s all neatly packaged up and compartmentalised).  As we left Laos behind I felt a little pang of sadness.  The people are more reserved than anywhere we’ve been, but are really friendly and kind at the same time.  The whole place goes beyond laid back; I guess you could describe it as sleepy, but in a really good way.  There’s development – and there are some pretty incredible hotels and resorts dotted around – but it seems quite careful; as a result there’s very little pushy selling and they don’t seem to be as money-orientated as other countries.  Who knows whether it will stay like this, but I hope it does.

After just an hour in the air, we arrived at Noi Bai International Airport, Hanoi waiting for us in the evening mist.  Vietnam awaited us. To be continued (again)!