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Laos, what a beauty!
As I am writing my next blog about Laos, I am cruising down the Mekong river on a slow boat. Intoxicated by the breathtaking beauty everywhere I look, I am starting to think that Laos is the most beautiful country of all the ones I have visited!
An 11 hour bus journey brought me from Cambodia into Laos, and my first stop was immediately one of the most beautiful spots I have seen so far: 4000 islands. It is in the south of Laos, and as Lonely Planet describes it is where the Mekong river catches her breath. It is a group of small and medium size islands, all packed together, and the sunsets are amazing, with locals in small narrow boats throwing out fishing nets.
In the bus I met 2 UK girls who were both travelling alone, and we accidentally ended up doing the whole of Laos together. When we arrived in the middle of nowhere, a local on the bus arranged a pick-up and boat ticket to get us to Don Det, the most popular island of 4000 islands. Here we found little (bringht pink..) bungalow huts for €2.50 for 2 people, jackpot! Though it is easy to get stuck on this area of the island, we managed to drag ourselves away from the many chill out areas and biked around Don Det and Don Khon, another island. The scenery was magnificent!
1 night became 2 nights, 2 nights turned into 3 nights, and ...
Eventually we packed our bags and took yet another bus, this time to Tha Kaek, somewhere halfway of Laos. Most people go all the way from south directly to north, to the capital Vientiane, but as this is a 24 hour bus journey we decided to do it in 2 rounds. However, apparently that also means you change from comfortable VIP buses to regular local public transport buses. And that's a whole other story. Though it is still more comfortable than the buses in Africa (thank god I did Africa first!), it is surprisingly similar to African style and runs on African time. The promised 'airconditioning' was now open windows, open doors and rotating fans on the ceiling. Buses only leave when they are fully packed, and that does not mean when all chairs are occupied. No, only when the entire aisle is also packed with people and boxes piled to the ceiling it is full.
To recover from our bus journey, we spent a day in Tha Kaek, cruising around caves and waterfalls with our tuktuk. Unfortunately we had to skip the 7 km long Kong Lo cave, but hearing stories about giant spiders made me feel less sorry for myself.
Next stop was Vang Vieng, famous for its drunk-party-tubing, which is now closed down because of the (many) fatal accidents. However it is still a popular town, if only for its laid back vibe and the restaurants showing Friends all day long. It is shocking how addictive that serie still is, and I only feel a little ashamed when I confess to have spent 2 complete days laying in the pillows watching a total of 20-30 episodes..
We did manage to do a day of kayaking and tubing, and especially the tubing in the cave was amazing. You lower yourself in a charming manner (not) in one of those rubber blow up donut bands, and only by making yourself flat you could enter the cave. There was a robe all the way to the end of the cave, so in a little train we pulled ourselves further into the darkness. When our guide suggested to turn off our headtorches, there was no difference in having your eyes open or closed. Pitch and pitch black. Scary!
And than we kayaked 9 km down the river, with the typical Laos mountains surrounding us. It felt a bit like kayakking in Belgium, except for the stunning scenery ;-)
Oh, and ofcourse we scored the typical Fat Monkey t-shirt from the Fat Monkey bar.
On to the next destination, Luang Prabang! Again a night bus, and ofcourse our promised sleeperbus was no sleeper bus, but hee, there is no one to complain to so who cares. Just suck it up. We arrived in the early morning, and immediately loved LP. It feels very colonial and small, but at the same time there are very nice international style café's and hotels. Especially the breakfast café just outside our guesthouse was too good to pass, as it served real take away cappucino's and bagels with creamcheese. Yum!
Unfortunately we had some problems with our accomodation, and it was quite annoying. We were told to come back later as our beds weren't cleaned yet, but when we returned our entire reservation (plus deposit) was missing and the guesthouse was fully booked. We were offered a few other crappy options, but luckily their neighbouring guesthouse had a very nice room for 3 people for a cheaper price. Solved!
We wandered around town, climbed the Phu Si mountain (say it out loud, hahaha) for an amazing view of the entire city, and strolled around Dara market. After sunset the main street turns into a night market, and in the side streets you can fill up a plate from the buffet for only €1. They even sold poffertjes, but sadly and shocking enough they tasted like crap, probably because they were called cocos pancakes. Blegh.
Next morning we got up at 05.00 o'clock to watch the Alm ceremony, during which locals hand out sticky rice to monks passing by. A local told us it would start at 06.00, but when we returned after a 30 min nap the whole thing was over already. So the next morning we were there at 05.20, and got to witness this calm and peaceful ceremony. Very special!
We spent 2 days at the Kuang Si waterfalls, a natural 'swimming pool' area with robe swings and smaller waterfalls you could jump off from. Very annoying and quite painful were the little fish that attacked your feet and legs, and with people chilling in the water it sometimes looked like a scene from Jaws in which they were pulled under water to never come back up again..
My last night in LP was spent at Utopia, a popular bar, and very random as they had a volleybal court as well. Ofcourse I spent my entire night pretending I could play volleybal, and eventually went home smiling and sweating and with a typical show off injury on my knee. Life is good!!
The girls left early in the evening for a 19 hour bus journey into Thailand, as they didn't have enough time for the slow boat journey. I will get to Chiang Mai on the 15th and will probably meet them there again.
I only have 3 more weeks left, and I am trying to seize every second, as I don't want it to end..
- comments
Linda Geniet van je laatste weken lieverd! Ik moest net hard lachen nadat ik hard op p**** mountain zei in de coffee company. Kus!
Sophie So this is me.commenting. :) oh my your time in lao sounds amazing! So glad u found good ppl! Longing to b on the boat with u! Big fat kiss girly!
ning wah Geniet nog maar even! Wij genieten met je mee.