April 14, 2005

Kayaking to Vientiane

We kayaked to Vientiane from Vang Vieng. We had the option of a three hour bus trip or to kayak part of the way and drive the rest. It still amounted to three hours on the bumpy roads though. The kayaking was good. This is probably the most dangerous trip I’ve done so far. Not really because of what we were doing, but in terms of the instruction. This consisted of five minutes of ‘this is how you hold a paddle, make sure you have your life jacket on’ and the guide waving his arms about in a paddling motion and that was about it.

After about an hour’s paddling we got to the rapids and were told they were Grade Two. Whatever they were they looked very dodgy. Our guide tried as best he could to explain how to get through them safely, which proved pretty confusing as he would shout “left” when he really meant right and throw stones in the rough direction of where to aim for. We kind of understood though. Abby was the only one in our group to make it through without capsizing. I on the other hand got about half way down, then the world turned upside down. When I got washed out of the rapids, I kind of expected one of our guides to either be there or motion for where to go, instead I just got washed downstream and eventually swam towards the shore. All pretty exciting.

Posted by jon jack at 1:22 PM

April 11, 2005

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng, the tubing capital of the world. We got here after a five hour bus trip from Luang Prabang on the infamous Route 13 road. ‘In February 2003 an attack on a bus near Vang Vieng killed 13 people including two western cyclists. Two months later, another bus was attacked, killing 12 and injuring 31, confirming fears that government assurances over the security of the road were badly misplaced.’ (Lonely planet, South East on a shoestring, 2004). Thankfully nothing happened to us, your risk is significantly lower if you don’t use government buses and stick to private cars or tourist minivans. We did see four separate groups of armed men on the road, not one of them looked very official.

We spent a few days in and around Vang Vieng. It’s like a mini Kho San Road - lots of backpackers, bars showing western movies and re-runs of ‘Friends’. On one corner there were three bars showing ‘Friends’ and they were packed full of people glued to the TVs, sipping their Beer Laos. As well as tubing, Vang Vieng is famous for its ‘happy shakes’ and ‘happy pizzas’ or there’s the ‘Ecstatic shake’ if you’re feeling like getting, well, ecstatic I suppose. We saw a few dudes in very ‘un-happy’ states from the shakes. The owner of the restaurant that sold them to them had to look after them all night, and it didn’t look like the best place to be freaking out on hallucinogenic pizzas and milkshakes.

Did a day of tubing down the river which was cool; basically you sit in a giant inner tube and float down the river in the sun for three or four hours. The scenery is spectacular, limestone cliffs rising out of rice paddy fields. There’s bars along the way were you can grab a cold bottle of beer. If you want to stop for refreshments you let the guy at the river side know and they pull you in on a big bamboo pole.

Posted by jon jack at 1:17 PM

April 8, 2005

Luang Prabang

One thing about travelling that can be either great or awful is that you tend to see the same people over and over again. We left Chiang Mai with one group, met more at the border and more still on the boat trip. This time we’ve been lucky and have spent the past few days here with a bunch of really cool people. It’s almost impossible to lose each other as there’s really only one bar and one main street.

Today we decided to go out to the Kwang Xi waterfall. After we’d been shouted at by about a million tuk tuk drivers and one of the group had almost had a fight with one of them who’d been following us around, we piled into a minibus and went to see the waterfall. In the past we’ve sometimes been disappointed with attractions which have turned out to be nothing like the description in the guidebook. This was totally different. “This beautiful spot…features a wide, multi-tiered waterfall tumbling over limestone formations into a series of cool, turquoise green pools”. It’s hard to believe that it hasn’t been man-made to look like a ‘jungle paradise’. We dived off a rock into the pool at the bottom of the falls. It was literally breathtaking.

We had a wander round a temple perched on the hilltop with a spectacular 360° view of the city and surrounding area. That wasn’t the best bit though - on the way down there was a monkey jumping around and playing in the trees. Its owner came and chased it away from us. Next thing we saw it climb into an outdoor bathroom, then come leaping back out clutching a tube of Colgate toothpaste, which belonged to a slightly bemused monk who came wandering out after it.

Posted by jon jack at 8:38 AM

Pak Beng to Luang Prabang

Another day another boat trip. It was another eight hours from Pak Beng to Luang Prabang. This time there was only one boat. We sat at the front in the hope of having more legroom but as the journey went on, more and more Lao people got on the boat and had the same idea as us. We ended up being pretty squashed but it was good to travel with the Lao people. One old guy got on with a huge machete and a bottle of dodgy-looking ‘whiskey’ and not much else. After a couple of sips of the whiskey, he spent the rest of the journey crouched at the side of the boat just gazing out with a satisfied expression. Must be good stuff.

Luang Prabang is “an incredible collection of Buddhist and French colonial architecture clustered together on a small riverine peninsula and surrounded by mountains”(Lonely planet, South East on a shoestring, 2004). We stumbled off the boat to another onslaught of tuk tuk drivers and guest house touts all after your custom. It has to be said the tuk tuk drivers here are shocking, we saw about eight people bundled into the back of a tuk tuk, only to be driven 200 metres down the street and charged 20 baht each for the ride.

Luang Prabang is cool, good town to wander around and lose a few days here and there.

Posted by jon jack at 8:33 AM

April 7, 2005

Huay Xia to Pak Beng

“Cheap cheap, special price for you.” We’re told this by almost everyone in Laos. I think ‘special price for you’ can mean anything between ten times the going rate and double the normal price. You have to haggle for everything; you get asked crazy prices at first. Our room, for example, started at 700 Thai baht (ten pounds) but we ended up paying 250 baht (three pounds).

We left Thailand from Chiang Khong, and after a five minute ferry across the Mekong River, we were in Huay Xia, Laos. We spent our first night here. You instantly notice the difference once you leave Thailand; Laos is a lot poorer - the infrastructure crumbling, colonial buildings everywhere.

We caught the boat the following morning, about fifty people crammed into a tiny dilapidated old thing. It resembled a canal barge but packed with backpackers. We sat moored on the river for another two hours then eventually started off. Fortunately some of us were moved onto a different boat which was much better, loads more legroom and compared to the other boat, felt quite luxurious.

The weather had turned really cold, something we were totally unprepared for after the forty degree temperatures of Thailand. Apart from the scenery, much of the day felt a bit like a school trip in Scotland – grey skies, rain and a packed lunch. It took about seven hours to reach the halfway point, Pak Beng. As soon as we jumped of the boat with our bags we were surrounded by touts and locals trying to entice us to stay at their guest house or buy weed or opium or eat dinner. It was really overwhelming after seven hours just gazing at the scenery from the boat.

Posted by jon jack at 7:13 AM