The Tale of Two Falangs in Northern Laos...

Prepare yourself for a long blog post as it has been a while since we’ve had the wifi to put one up! 

...To start where we left off in Nong Khiaw and Chris’ birthday.  We went climbing on one of the beautiful Limestone Krasts.  It was a tough walk just to get to the climbing site, over slippy rocks and through small gaps in the bushes!  The climbing seemed tougher than in China and I didn’t get on too well with it.  Chris on the other hand did really well and managed both routes easily.  Due to my frustration the guide agreed to let us go back early and he took us mountain biking to a huge cave on the other side of town – the ride was beautiful and the cave very impressive as it was one of the Government hideouts during the Vietnam War.

Next came Luang Prabang.  We found a nice hotel with a slightly intense, bored owner who tried to engage in conversation / cook for us / sell us a tour at any opportunity!  Luang Prabang has a French feel to it, the architecture appears European and they sell baguettes – which in my opinion is the best thing that France brought to Laos as we’ve had 4 months without a sandwich so our baguettes tasted amazing!  We did the normal sightseeing and temple hopping, viewing what is claimed to be Buddha’s footprint (which is much larger than the footprint in Thailand we saw...but who I am to judge - maybe he had odd, giant feet?!)  We also did a cooking course and the food was amazing!  Not quite the same as Thai food, more casserole dishes, less curries, but very flavoursome with fresh herbs, garlic and lemongrass featuring in most dishes.  We were stuffed by the end of the day after having 2 dishes for lunch and a further 3 for our tea.  It was a great day and we’ve come away with a good recipe book so be prepared for Lao food on our return!

There was a great night market where we both picked up some treats – dress for me and trousers & a BeerLao top for Chris, a table runner for our imaginary dining room and an apron for all my cooking in our imaginary kitchen!  We also bought some amazing slippers – which cost far more to post home than they did to buy!  On our last day we went to a waterfall which had been recommended to us; it had stunning turquoise blue pools which you could swim / jump into and the falls itself was impressive.  Chris randomly bumped into someone he used to go to Primary School with!  Small world!  We also visited the bear sanctuary – we loved the bears!  They were so playful seeking out the treats their keepers had hidden around the enclosure, their bodies almost looking human when they stand on two legs and their faces looking quite dog-like especially when they were panting in the sun, super cute!

The next day we had a loooong bus journey with a stop while a car was rescued from down the cliff side, a stop for lunch, numerous wee breaks and a 30km/hr limit!  But we eventually got to Vang Vieng – backpacker, party Laos capital!  After a good night’s sleep we headed into town, signed up to tubing down the river, met 2 others doing the same thing, Sheila and Anna, and we headed by tuk-tuk to our start point (a bar on the river!)  It is the strangest, most exciting pub crawl you could ever do!  All in our individual rings we float quite quickly down the river as it is rainy season, the current is fast!  Then as you pass the bars they throw rope to you to grab onto and they haul you in!!  We sampled our first (second, third and maybe forth...) South East Asia ‘bucket’ (like a seaside bucket and spade!) which instead of a glass you get a bucket of spirit and coke – which for £1.20 for a Whiskey bucket, it would be rude not to!  All the bars have different attractions to lure you in, Chris went on 2 slides (one we call the death slide as it hurt...a lot!) we played mud volleyball which turned into a mud fight and we watched some river surfing from our last bar – too exhausted and tipsy to join in!  After an exhausting day of tubing and bar crawling we headed to an Irish Bar for Cottage Pie and Pan Fried Chicken – was a good end to a fun day!

With a hangover we headed to Vientiene where we saw the most amazing sunset above the Mekong River.  It was a productive couple of days there, getting washing done, applying for our Vietnam visas and posting home our souvenirs.  As ever, the post office was not the most straight forward process!  Well we entered through a staff back entrance (feeling like real stupid falangs!) then we went to one counter for wrapping, one counter for customs, one counter for weighing, one counter for paying and then back to the weighing counter to give in the receipt!  Randomly all the post office text was in French – but we think we got through the process fairly smoothly!  We also visited the Buddha Park which is a random collection of various religious statues and some mythical creatures which one man decided to combine all together; so it’s a surreal journey through Hindu, Buddhism, Spiritual gods and plain make belief!   We also saw the Arc du Triumph replica which gives good views of the city.

Back up the country we go to Phonsavan.  With hardly any other tourists in town we organised a private tour to the ‘Bomb Village’ and the Plain of Jars.  The Bomb Village is a small tribal town which has got its reputation from its imaginative use of the scrap metal bomb casings left over from the Vietnam War.  They use the casings for house stilts, BBQs, benches, plant pots and fences – it’s a sight to see and really opened our eyes to the amount of bombs dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War.  Neither of us really knew about the extent that America bombed Laos – it feels like it’s a dirty little secret that somehow has managed to be swept under the carpet.  For 9 years, billions of dollars of bombs were dropped on Laos in attempt to stop the Vietnamese travel along the border and the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail – but Laos an innocent bystander continues to be swamped with landmines and unexploded bombs.  We visited some bomb craters too – they were huge but more harrowing was seeing the amount of them, you could almost visualise the line the plane would have taken to drop the bombs.  After a noodle soup lunch we went to the Plain of Jars – here they have done a sweep for landmines to ensure it is safe for tourists but there is a strict path which you must stick to as much of the surrounding land has not yet been cleared.  The jars are as mysterious as Stonehenge.  Some of them are massive and there is no real explanation of how they got there or why (although I’m choosing to believe the legend that they are cups for giants to drink their Whiskey from!) and there are loads of them!  They are thought to date back from 500BC.

Another bus journey – this time with a break down and garage stop for some welding!  But we eventually arrived to Sam Neua.  Today we headed to Viengxay Caves which is a fascinating network of caves where the Government lived for 9 years of the Vietnam War as it was thought to be the safest place to escape the bombings.  Each cave had an emergency room which were reinforced and had machines which could provide filtered air whilst they were hiding out in the room.  The army barracks was a huge open cave and the Government even had a huge theatre where people would come to perform or have celebrations such as weddings!  It was amazing to see where they had been hiding in the karsts – it shows how bad the bombing must have been – I can’t imagine our Queen living in a cave for a decade!

Today is our last day in Northern Laos with the Vietnam border only 4 hours away!  Laos has exceeded all my expectations of it.  It is beautiful – the North is full of river towns with rolling lush green hills as their backdrop and butterflies everywhere.  The people are friendly and helpful – there is the odd increase in price for being Western – I now fondly call this being ‘falang-ed!’  The food has been good – especially if you like the sticky rice!  And there a surprising range of things to do and see –I think we’ve managed to cover most of it!  Now we wonder how will Vietnam compare?!

Love K&C xxx