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Not full of confidence, but hoping that our journey to Laos would be smooth in that it was our first border crossing, we got on our early minibus and headed for our next destination. Everything was going to plan with even the added and surprise bonus of stopping at a white temple which was pretty amazing (see the pictures). The border crossing, despite a slightly tedious wait in the boiling heat, went relatively undisturbed. However from the minute we were dropped off at the make-shift bus station everything descended into chaos. We soon found out our tickets for the bus to Luang Prabang had been passed on to a superior travel agent and traded to other passengers. Faced with staying a night in god knows where, we boarded this bus with two seats between us, meaning the brave Hyams was seated on the floor in the aisle ... for 12 hours, with Felix sharing the pain for 6 hours, and it only got worse. On a bus that seated 32 and with 41 passengers we soon discovered there was no air-con and that the back of the bus where we were seated was above the engine, meaning that a sauna would have provided more comfort than what we experienced for 12 hours that night. It was indeed the journey from hell as we spun around disgustingly windy roads in what seemed a never ending nightmare, dripping in gallons of sweat and that's probably an understatement. And so we arrived in Luang Prabang ready to torch the entire town and the Laos people that lived there.
Despite first impressions, Luang Prabang was in itself although very, very basic, a nice chilled spot. We didn't do a lot that day, but enjoyed the various markets the place had to offer and set up camp in a civilised internet restaurant. The next day was more productive as we visited the most popular site in the city, the waterfall, and spent most of the day there before returning for a night out until 11.30pm, the curfew for the city apart from a bowling alley which everyone piled into later. The most disappointing aspect of the city was that due to the curfew I was limited to watching the Chelsea Barcelona semi-final game cramped over my notebook laptop only being able to listen to the drama, being eaten alive by mosquitos at 3am … Worth every second though. Up the Chels! After two days of a minor detox we headed for the world's most dangerous backpacker destination due to its flow of alcohol drugs and related deaths, Vang Vieng, famous for its tubing. The journey re-established Laos' reputation for being awful for its transport as I genuinely feared for my life going around every corner. I would recommend flying to most places in Laos for anyone going there if at all possible.
Tubing summed up is the floating down a shallow river, with sharp rocks invading it, in a rubber tube, stopping at multiple bars getting even more multiple shots and enjoying blaring music and rope swings into the fast flowing river. If you somehow are still standing there is the famous Laos snake whiskey which is exactly what it says on the tin, whiskey with a dead snake or in some cases a scorpion inside of it. I never did discover why an earth they did this but it did the job and finished off any sober thoughts floating around in your head. This was only in the afternoon as after a strong meal we would head out, still very drunk and hit the island that was home to 14 bars with buckets of buckets of even more whiskey. The presence of other substances sold by the menu was obvious in explaining why over 50 backpackers died in this destination last year. For 5 days we did this, for Felix it was slightly less, being the first to be struck down by Asia flu. The only interval to this madness was the day we spent on mopeds touring the outskirts of the town visiting a very suspicious cave that was home to horribly large insects but also being treated to some awesome scenery, a nice break from the madness half an hour away in the town. This did produce my first casualty as after attempting a James Bond style maneuver I dropped the bike on my leg and the engine sent a rather unpleasant burn up the inside of my leg. Fortunately there were very few witnesses. The state of the river meant it wasn't long before I needed a clothes wash which I have now become accustomed to, however a moment of madness had me hand over my clothes to a very old female local resident in some horse shed behind our hostel. That moment of madness had my whites turned to pinks and my clothes momentarily stolen overnight as the family she was a part of decided what items of clothes they wanted to keep. Another topic of mention was that every food bar that wasn't alcohol fuelled showed 20 hours a day of non-stop episodes of friends which did very well for nursing a morning hangover. It also did well as a time of reflection over a number of events, one of the main being me questioning why I didn't take up the job I was offered in one of the bars and also being secretly pretty impressed by our stamina over the last week in not just the savage events but also enduring the fairly warm weather of 43 degree heat and a casual 31 degrees at night in the company of cockroaches in our room. With the sewer pipes of Laos in better shape than my liver, we were ready to leave Laos for a night of detox in Bangkok before we headed to the biggest party on earth, the full moon party. Let's see if we stick to this supposed detox.
- comments
Mike Anderson you should have taken the bar job....Dad
Sairsha Hey, it's so good to read a blog where someone is doing such a similar trip to what I am doing next year! Did you go on your own? From January - March I'm doing the Oz Experience from Adelaide to Cairns and then off to Thailand for the March full moon party, catch the East Islands, then the West, some volunteering at an orphanage near Phuket then a tour to Koh Samet before coming home. Would love to fit in Fiji at some point though and do some volunteering, looks awesome! So would you recommend Laos or not? I'm a bit wary after everything I've heard! Where else are you doing? :-)
Cristi When i first saw this book on Facebook by a relative (owns a Laotian rasuetrant) I told her I was going to try and order it online or at amazon.com. However after finding it here and flipping through.. I won't be ordering it. The book only has 28 pages and maybe 10 dishes. How can you publish a cook book with only 28 pages and less than a dozen recipes?