Laos

The full story……

March 24th, 2007, finished and updated on April 18th, 2007 (bit late, I know)

As promised I will give you the full story, starting from Vang Vieng. Like I said Suus and I met up again and over a beer came up with a plan to travel the South of Laos & Cambodia together. The first step was to get from Vang Vieng to Vientiane. Instead of doing another completely packed local bus, we went kayaking. Of course they forgot to tell us that this meant we would spent 3 hours in the back of a truck… but who cares

The kayaking was amazing, a very beautiful 3,5 hour trip paddling through amazing surroundings with no other sounds than the water and the birds. This scerene peace was interrupted by a pretty scary rapid – which both of us ended up doing with the help of our guide – which means he paddled, we didn’t   – and a lovely BBQ lunch. Once in Vientiane, we headed straight for dinner at the riverside and some well deserved sleep afterwards.

The next day we rented some bikes to check out the city. But having agreed to watch our budgets a little more, we came up with the brilliant plan to rent the cheapest bikes we could find. Smart plan! NOT we ended up having the oldest bikes in Laos, laughing at eachother the whole time – which really didn’t make sense, cause we looked equally stupid! Completely beat by the end of the day, I found myself scared shitless by a dog coming up to chase me on the bike. After cycling away as fast as I could on the crappy bike, I turned around to see the dog was a genuine little Fifi-dog! Big hero, huh?

Spending the day sorting out all sorts of passport, visa and bankstuff the next day (on expensive but decent bikes!), we managed to still visit the most important Wat of Laos and watch the sunset there. After this busy but fun day, we had no trouble what-so-ever to sleep on the nightbus from Vientiane to Pakse.

From there we rented a motorcycle to explore the Bolaven Plateau. In 3 days we drove over 400 km on our little scooter, visiting waterfalls, villages and enjoying the beautiful nature. The weird thing is that there are these strange shapes in the land that don’t make sense. At least not untill you realise that they are bombcraters. Forgotten in media coverage, Laos got very severely bombed during the Second Indochina war.

On the second day we were stopped by the people of a tiny village who were having a little party. Fortunately, the ricewine seemed to be a perfect means of communication The third day we headed for the ruines of Champasak and accidentally took the complete d-tour. Both having no feeling left in our bumps, every bone aching and being completely grumpy we went for lunch. With our spirits back up we hit the road once again, but Suus was pretty tired  of driving for 2,5 days. So (and I can already hear you guys back home thinking OH OH) after a short instruction I drove the rest of the way to Champasak. This would later prove to be very fortunate. The temple was beautiful and we took our time climbing the stairs and enjoying the view. 

By now it’s already sunset and we still had to find our way back (neither of us wanting to take the crappy d-tour road again). So we hooked up with a Thai tour group and drove our own little TT, trying to keep up with their trucks. We managed and they took us with them on their ferry across the Mekong. Having found a better road to drive home, we thought we’d be fine. But driving in the dark proved more of a challenge then we expected. After a bit Suus was so tired that we switched again and I was now also introduced to driving in the dark (so the drivinglesson in the afternoon came in pretty handy). Me driving us back to Pakse, was fine untill we hit the city. Not used to the shifting the gears and avoiding I don’t know how many other motorcycles got me completely confused, which Suus seemed to find hilarious, since she wouldn’t stop laughing at me! However I managed to get us back to the rental place in one piece. Thinking we’d find a hotel and go for a well deserved beer and dinner proved to be too optimistic. Apparently there was some festival going on, so we spent the next 1,5 hours walking around trying to find a place to sleep. When we finally landed a matrass on the floor of some dorm room, we were rewarded with a really horrible spaghetti ;-(

The local bus to Don Det the next day turned out to be a sangthew (local truck with small benches), which was quite the challenge for our asses after 400 km of sitting on a motorcycle. Finally making it to Don Det by ferry, we decided to go for a big lunch before looking for a place to stay. Bad decision. By then so many more tourist had shown up that we ended up practically walking around the island with our backpacks in midday.

Don Det is a small backpacker-haven island in the Mekong. With small bungalows, a lot of water and little islands, beautiful green vegatation it makes for a pretty good place to relax. Which is exactly what we did. We chilled out in hamoks on our riverside bungalow porch, lay on the beach and made a beautiful cycling tour on the neighbouring island Don Khon.

The last day we were up for something active again, so went kayaking. The 15 km kayaking was interrupted every now and then by some sight seeing on Don Khon. Our tourguide (of one week) was enjoying the sights just as much as we were. The most interesting informations we managed to get out of him was the very interesting knowledge that we saw a very old train and a very old temple. How old? Very old! Our lunch was served on a rock in the middle of the river, where we were joined by a few of the rare irrawada dolphins. Finishing the 15km kayaking tour was rewarded by a visit to the biggest waterfall in South-East Asia.

It was a gorgeous day, with loads of laughter, so not a bad ending to a 1,5 month visit to this really amazing country.

More chilling??

March 20th, 2007

After Vang Vieng we headed for Vientiane, the Bolaven Plateau and then Don Det.  Here in Don Det (small island in the Mekong river – which is still in Laos, Dad!) there only is electricity from 6pm to 9pm and apart from that the internet is really expensive. I will give you all the juicy details of my trip when I get to a decent internet cafe. Which will probably be from Phnom Phen, Cambodia where we are headed for the day after tomorrow. For now, you guys are just gonna have to be happy with knowing I am still alive, doing fine and even doing some more chilling

See you soon! 

Swiiiiinnnnngiiing, tubing and…… oh yeah rockclimbing!

March 9th, 2007

My last day I in Luang Prabang I came up with the brilliant idea to arrange for a VIP busticket to Vang Vieng. I guess I was clear voient that day (I usually travel the local bus), because the next morning the tuktuk driver was banging on my door together with Tuey from my guesthouse, trying to wake me up to get on the freaking bus… what happened? I went out with Chris, Rob and Javier for Chris’ birthday and we let him decide what we were gonna do… Well that is something you should never ask an English guy! To put it short, my neighbour on the bus the next day waited untill we had had lunch to ask if I was OK (my pick up was at 8.15 am ). It was a great evening though and when Tobin joint us I almost felt like I was back in Pai (except for the fact we were in a bowling instead of sitting by a nice fire).

Anyway, I made it to Vang Vieng (needless to say I didn’t do much the first day) and checked out the town and chilled a bit. Than ran in to the happy drinking bunch again the next day and together with two Dutch girls from my hotel we all went tubing the next day. What? Tubing. You rent an inflated tractor tyre and drift down a river for about 8 km and to make sure you don’t get bored you stop at bars by the riverside to have a beer and fly down enormous swings. I know….. I have found such meaningfull ways to spent my days  

To put some counterweight to these meaningfull and energetic days I spent three of my days in Vang Vieng rockclimbing. (Tante Kee stop reading here) The climbing was great and my guide tought me how to lead climb. Lead climbing means you’re the one taking up the rope instead of the rope already being up in the ancor. The climbing is the same, but it feels a little different when you are not climbing secured with the top rope. Since it basically means if you’re gonna fall, you’re gonna fall a bit further No panic attacks now, you’re still attached to a rope and secured to the rock!

(Start reading again from here Tante Kee)

The chilled out time the past 2 weeks in Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang have been great, but it’s time to move on again (besides my visa is running out… so they’re gonna kick me out soon anyway). Since my climbing days have prolonged my stay in Vang Vieng, I ran into Suus again so we might just see if we can make some plans together. I’ll let you know! 

Still alive, kicking & some well deserved chilling

It has been a while, but I have a very good excuse for that. So what have I been up to the whole time????

I left Pai on the 11th and took a night minivan straight to the Laos border. Big mistake. The night before Amnon and me both had our last night in Pai, so saying goodbye Pai-style we went for drinks (which were accompanied by a jamming session of a guitarplayer and a six-year old on bongo’s!), the bebop and ended up in the bamboobar. Hey I was thinking I could sleep on the nightbus the next day evening….. but the driver raced across the mountainroad with such speed and sharp curves, I had to stay awake the whole night to avoid tumbling through the complete van. However when we arrived at the border at 5.00 am, they did serve us breakfast, which made up for a lot . By 9.00 am I had my visa, taken the “ferry” across and found myself standing in Laos.

On a tip from Erinda (a very nice Spanish/Dutch combination) I took the bus to Vien Phuka. Where? Exactly what the busdriver thought. Not being used to foreingers getting off the bus, he forgot to drop me off, so after a nice fully packed hike I found myself in the town of Vien Phuka. Town? Something got lost in translation here…..

It didn’t really matter, because I was so tired, I slept like a baby even with the karaoke-bar next to my bungalow (No I’m not that blond, the electricity only works from 6-22pm ). After breakfast, ordered by walking into the kitchen pointing at sticky rice and eggs, I headed off with my supposedly English speaking guide. We visited some small villages, a beautiful cave and ended up in a bamboohut in a village where the supplies of rice where just coming in. Greatful for a beautiful day, I sat there watching all the commotion, while being watch by 20 children. Hungry from the long day I was so happy to finally have dinner, that I actually managed to swallow my banana when my guide used his long pinky-nail as the perfect tool to get the eyes of the chicken from the head to his mouth. After which he happily held the head against the candlelight to see if there were any goodies- like brains – left inside

The next two days were even more beautiful and tyering. Seven our hikes up&down hill (HILLS, not the little bumps we’ve got in the south of the Netherlands), villages so small and remote the “entire” population would walk out to see me. All and all I had a blast; Being to only foreigners for miles, river showers and the scenery made this one of the most special trips I have made in my life. Though next time, I’ll bring a friend, for three reasons:

1. to be able to have conversation that actually consist of more than me saying: Jeannette, 31, MARRIED, Holland)
2. to be able to share with someone the awesome experiences of this trip
3. to avoid the splitsecond thought: that I am so screwed  – if my guides decide they like “white meat” when I find myself in a cave or jungle I will never find my way out of by myself

Returning to the village (I am still not convinced its a town) I decided to make my way to Baan Dotchai, cause I was in desperate need of washing, high maintainance and laundry. Brilliant idea! Baan Dotchai is not even on the map, so after waiting about 2 hours for a bus that “might” come today and a 2 hour dustride, I found myself in a place that consisted of 10 shags. One of those happened to be my guesthouse. I was immediately welcomed by the family, treated to beer and something to eat. That night I went to bed completely satisfied by the candle light “shower” (scooping freezing water from a bucket), the warm Lao-hospitality, the beer and the memory of my trek.

The next day was relaxing and taking care of my stuff and myselve, so I was ready and clean enough to be picked up for the “gibbon experience” the next morning. The gibbon experience takes you into Bokeo National Park, where you combine hiking, ziplining through the treetops, sleeping in a treehouse, and taking a shower in the waterfall with watching monkeys at 6.00 am. Now I know this sounds simple but trust me it’s AMAZING.

Watching the forest from up above, finding yourselve flying through the air, incomparable with anything else I’ve done. I was very lucky to be with a very nice group of people (although me fellow-Dutchie Susanne had to work through a waterfall of words – 6 days of only Laos people got to this little talkative girlie), so after three days, all of us were already making plans to go on strike and not leave the treehouse when our guide was very stricked on us leaving ! The end of the day held a little surprise from me, cause the language problems and lack of organisation head lead to my big bag still being in Baan Dotchai – 2 hours from where we were going. This little glitch treated my guide and the driver to some genuine Dutch stubborness, topped with a little Jean-style anger ;-0

With my bag I travelled by slow-boat to Luang Prabang together with Rama, Susy and Suus. We managed to secure the “luxury” seats for the first day, but the second day we were packed away as cattle just like the rest. Susy made my morning despite the cramped seats – treating me to a nice cup of coffee (served in a plastic bag). These were not exactly the 2 most comfortable days of travelling sofar, but it was stille a very special experience travelling along the Mekong river like this.

Tuesdaynight we arrived in Luang Prabang. Like everybody else it took me and Suus ages to find a room, only to find out later that our other roommate was a rat. The next morning we moved to another place and have spent our days chilling out, seeing some sites (not to much), doing some shopping and drinking some beer (okay a little more than some beer). Suus left for the North of Laos yesterday and I will really miss the company, fun and chitchat. Tomorrow I will start going futher south to do some tubing in Vang Vieng…