Having spent about a week total in Chiang Mai, I was more than happy to be on my way to Laos with my little group of travel buddies - Rob & Charlotte, Laureli, and Bee (and, later, Graciella). After struggling with whether to let our hotel manager take all of our passports or to arrange our own visas at the border
(and possibly face a 2 hour wait), we finally succumbed to her pressure and handed over our most important documents, hoping that we'd see them (and her) again in the morning!Perhaps, in retrospect (and, seeing as there was NO queue for visas in the morning), it was a bad idea, but all worked out fine and we safely putt-putted across the Mekong to Laos the next day. It was the next part of the journey, however, (a 2 day boat trip from the border to Luang Prabang) that we were completely unprepared for. The seats on the boat consisted of little more than a plank of wood and a cottonwool-stuffed flimsy pillow, which would have been fine for a couple of hours...but after 8 hours of trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable and watching our fellow travellers get progressively more drunk we couldn't stand to be on that boat for another minute. Except we had to get right back on again the next morning for the same amount of time! Needless to say, we were all relieved to finally reach the beautiful old town of Luang Prabang. It has a delicious mix of French architecture (and croissants and coffee) and Lao culture. When you need a break from temple-watching, you just stop somewhere for a latte and a baguette! On our 2nd (or was it 3rd??) day we journeyed out to these beautiful waterfalls about 30kms out of Luang Prabang with the most amazing coloured water and set amongst lush forest - we spent hours climbing, swimming, and swinging off ropes into the crisp water! We also discovered L'Etranger - an adorable bookshop/restaurant/cafe/movie venue - with the most delicious food I have had in months, where we watched
Stranger than Fiction (GREAT movie...suprisingly, considering that it has Will Ferrell in it!)! Eventually we had to pull ourselves away from Luang Prabang and get back on the travel-wagon (along with most of the people from our boat trip from the border...they just keep popping up everwhere...I guess most people take to same route through Laos), so we headed for Vang Vien - NOT a cute, charming town at all! In fact, Vang Vien is full of tourists and backpackers under the influences of multiple substances all glued to televisions playing
Friends on repeat and at the highest possible volume! However, the AMAZING scenery around Vang Vien almost makes up for the abnoxious travellers and blaring TVs - it is surrounded by huge limestone cliffs that shoot up into the air dramatically...full of caves to explore and a quiet river running through it all. It took us a few days to really get anything out of Vang Vien...partly due to the incessant rain and partly due to the lure of pizzas, internet, and DVDs! When we finally did visit some caves and go tubing down the river (virtually a right of passage in Vang Vien), we were hugely rewarded! Having felt (finally) like we had done some justice to Vang Vien, we hopped back onto a bus (no trains in Laos) to the capital city, Vientiane. Very possibly the quietest capital city in the world, Vientiane is quaint and small, but still a convenient place to hang around in or pass through in between other travels. Although it is much more expensive than the rest of Laos and despite the VERY messy and muddy combination of massive road-works and the rainy season, the cafes and convenience (and, perhaps, waiting for my Chinese visa to be processed) will keep me here for a few more days. Unfortunately all of my fellow travel buddies have now left me - Laureli to Cambodia, Bee to Thailand, Graciella back to the US, and Rob & Charlotte to Thailand and then to Aussie, so I will be on the lookout for more poor souls to latch myself onto over the next few days!
Having spent about a week total in Chiang Mai, I was more than happy to be on my way to Laos with my little group of travel buddies - Rob & Charlotte, Laureli, and Bee (and, later, Graciella). After struggling with whether to let our hotel manager take all of our passports or to arrange our own visas at the border
(and possibly face a 2 hour wait), we finally succumbed to her pressure and handed over our most important documents, hoping that we'd see them (and her) again in the morning!Perhaps, in retrospect (and, seeing as there was NO queue for visas in the morning), it was a bad idea, but all worked out fine and we safely putt-putted across the Mekong to Laos the next day. It was the next part of the journey, however, (a 2 day boat trip from the border to Luang Prabang) that we were completely unprepared for. The seats on the boat consisted of little more than a plank of wood and a cottonwool-stuffed flimsy pillow, which would have been fine for a couple of hours...but after 8 hours of trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable and watching our fellow travellers get progressively more drunk we couldn't stand to be on that boat for another minute. Except we had to get right back on again the next morning for the same amount of time! Needless to say, we were all relieved to finally reach the beautiful old town of Luang Prabang. It has a delicious mix of French architecture (and croissants and coffee) and Lao culture. When you need a break from temple-watching, you just stop somewhere for a latte and a baguette! On our 2nd (or was it 3rd??) day we journeyed out to these beautiful waterfalls about 30kms out of Luang Prabang with the most amazing coloured water and set amongst lush forest - we spent hours climbing, swimming, and swinging off ropes into the crisp water! We also discovered L'Etranger - an adorable bookshop/restaurant/cafe/movie venue - with the most delicious food I have had in months, where we watched Stranger than Fiction (GREAT movie...suprisingly, considering that it has Will Ferrell in it!)! Eventually we had to pull ourselves away from Luang Prabang and get back on the travel-wagon (along with most of the people from our boat trip from the border...they just keep popping up everwhere...I guess most people take to same route through Laos), so we headed for Vang Vien - NOT a cute, charming town at all! In fact, Vang Vien is full of tourists and backpackers under the influences of multiple substances all glued to televisions playing Friends on repeat and at the highest possible volume! However, the AMAZING scenery around Vang Vien almost makes up for the abnoxious travellers and blaring TVs - it is surrounded by huge limestone cliffs that shoot up into the air dramatically...full of caves to explore and a quiet river running through it all. It took us a few days to really get anything out of Vang Vien...partly due to the incessant rain and partly due to the lure of pizzas, internet, and DVDs! When we finally did visit some caves and go tubing down the river (virtually a right of passage in Vang Vien), we were hugely rewarded! Having felt (finally) like we had done some justice to Vang Vien, we hopped back onto a bus (no trains in Laos) to the capital city, Vientiane. Very possibly the quietest capital city in the world, Vientiane is quaint and small, but still a convenient place to hang around in or pass through in between other travels. Although it is much more expensive than the rest of Laos and despite the VERY messy and muddy combination of massive road-works and the rainy season, the cafes and convenience (and, perhaps, waiting for my Chinese visa to be processed) will keep me here for a few more days. Unfortunately all of my fellow travel buddies have now left me - Laureli to Cambodia, Bee to Thailand, Graciella back to the US, and Rob & Charlotte to Thailand and then to Aussie, so I will be on the lookout for more poor souls to latch myself onto over the next few days!
2 comments:
Man Laos is very colourful. I'm so jealous staring at all these colours while sitting in my windowless office! sigh-.
Ya, it is really gorgeous! Very simple and laid-back but also with a great French influence, which means yummy baguettes and great coffee!
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