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The first update from Laos! We have been here for almost two weeks
now, so I will endeavour to fill you in on what we've been up to...
We crossed the border from Thailand at a place called Houay Xai and
then took the slow boat down the Mekong river to Pakbeng. The
journey was indeed slow, even though the boat goes at a fair speed the
distance is great so it took about six hours in total. We were lucky
to get some of the comfier coach type seats, rather than the wooden
benches. Although we had bought a couple of pillows in preparation!
We spent the night in Pakbeng and then took another boat the following
day to Luang Prebang. Another long journey (about eight hours) but it
passed quite quickly and it was certainly much nicer than travelling
by bus. A couple we had met the day before got on the boat before us
and very kindly saved us some of the coach seats. We had escaped the
fate of the wooden benches once again!
Luang Prebang was really nice- one of my favourite places so far. It
has retained a lot of its French colonial architecture and it is
obviously well looked after. Given its small size and the amount of
tourists pouring off the boats, I expected it to be crowded and busy.
In fact, it was the complete opposite. It was nice just wondering
around the quiet streets, walking along the river, and browsing in the
markets. We took a trip across the river (via a creaky bamboo bridge!)
and visited a village where they made paper and silk, and also had a
Laos massage (not too dissimilar to a Thai massage).
After Luang Prebang we diverted off the most common tourist route
(down to Vang Vieng) and instead made our way to Phonsavanh in the
North-East. It was about an eight hour bus journey, and we arrived
into a town starkly different to what we had left behind in Luang
Prebang. Phonsavanh is a much smaller town, consisting of just one
main road. Thankfully this one road is made up of mainly guesthouses
and restaurants, so we didn't gave any difficulty finding somewhere to
sleep and eat!
The main reason we went to Phonsavanh was to visit the Plain of Jars.
The 'jars' are huge stone urns that are located at many different
sites in the Phonsavanh area. Only three of the sites are open to the
public as this area was also heavily bombed by the US in the 60s/70s.
Many of the bombs did not explode on impact and remain buried under
the soil. Even within the sites open to the public you have to stick
to the marked paths, as the surrounding areas haven't been cleared of
unexploded bombs that could potentially still be active.
The jars themselves were pretty impressive. Archeologists believe
they were used in funerals to cremate the bodies. However the Laos
people (including our guide) believe that they were made by some
mythical giant- a story they are the told throughout school until this
day.
After a couple of days in Phonsavanh we took another long bus jouney
further east to Vieng Xai- an even remoter part of Laos. We wanted to
go there as it is the site of the caves that the government and
army used as shelter during the war with the US. Vieng Xai
itself is a small village, constituting of a few restaurants, shops
and a market- selling (amongst other delights) dead cats, squirrels and
moles. Lovely. The main thing we noticed was the drop in
temperature, which had been steadily decreasing the further east we
travelled. It wasn't too bad during the day when the sun was shining,
but at night it was flipping freezing! After so many weeks in a warm,
tropical climate, it was quite a shock to the system!
We visited the caves on our second day there, opting to do the tour on
bikes in order to see as much as possible. There's not much left
to see in the caves, just the layout of the rooms and a few items of furniture and other possessions. However, the fact that people lived there and both the
army and government operated from there was pretty impressive. Not
everyone's cup if tea I guess, but we are both quite interested in
history so we found it interesting!
Our next destination after Vieng Xai was the capital, Vientiane. We
decided to save time and money by taking the overnight 'VIP' bus which
would take 18 hours. When we arrived at the bus station we were
allocated the last seats, and unfortunately for us these were on the
back row. When you are travelling for 18 hours on a bus the last
place you want be is on the back row, for the following reasons: 1)
the seats do not recline, 2) you're sitting above the rather noisy
engine, and 3) you feel the full swing of the bus as it goes round
corners. The last thing wouldn't be so bad if the journey consisted
of straight roads, but it didn't. It was very bendy roads for
practically the full 18 hours. This also caused another problem,
namely motion sickness, which all Laos people seem to suffer from.
The bus had barley gone 100 metres when the women a couple of seats
away started vomiting into her (provided) sick bag, and this started
some kind of domino effect and soon the whole bus was at it. Well,
apart from us. You'd think it would be other way round as we're not
used to such windy roads, but maybe it's because the locals don't get
to travel much. Anyway, it was a pretty grim journey- probably the
worst we've had to endure so far. Neither of us got any sleep and by
the time we reached Vientiane we were exhausted!
Are first day here was spent looking for somewhere to stay, sorting
out our visas for Cambodia, and catching up on some much needed
sleep! It has subsequently rained non-stop for the last couple of
days, so we haven't been able to see/do that much. We are going to
visit the National Museum today (indoors!) and then spend the rest of time in
cafes, internet shops, etc. in order to keep dry! Tonight we are
taking the overnight bus further south down to Pakse. This one
actually has beds so hopefully we'll be able to get some sleep. I
just hope it's not a repeat of the 'Vomit Express' we took last time.
Fingers crossed....!
Jess
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