Laos - Wind of change

After we left Bangkok we continued our trip to Laos. We did not know a lot about this country only that it is poorer than the countries we have been so far and that it had suffered a lot during the Vietnam war. Actually, Laos is the most bombed countries during war so far.

Vientiane

Vientiane is the capital of Laos which you would not think when you arrive. It does not look anything like KL, Bangkok or even Georg Town. It looks more like a normal sized town. The streets have french names as Laos used to be a former colony and you can buy baguette at every corner. When you walk through the streets and the pier you realise immediatly that this country is still on its way to become as developped as its brother country Thailand (if it ever will). The flags with the 'sickel and hammer' can be spotted everywhere so even when you sit in a french looking coffee house enjoying your coffee and baguette you are continously reminded of the fact that you are in a communist country (which is open to capitalism).

The first thing we felt when we got here: It is hot hot hot! Walking only for 5 minutes (downhill) results in immediate sweating but then big times. That is why Rick and me decided not to do any huge tours here (above all no tours that would involve any kind of moving). We just sat down, watched the people walking by and enjoyed some good French food: cheeeeeeeeeeese!

We also took the time to plan our bustrips further to Vang Vieng & Luang Prabang and decided that we will take a slow boat from Luang Prabang up North where we even might do the Gibbon Exerience before heading back South. We had a plan!

Well, this plan would change the coming weeks due to facts we could not have known and some we should have known before planning (the whole planning ahead thing is not really working out well for us haha).

• First fact: Since april the Dutch & German ambassies advise against travelling by bus from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang as they have been some shooting accidents. Almost all the tourists still take this route every day but being a chicken I insisted on flying.

• Second fact: Someone in this marriage has a huuuuuuuuuuuuuge issues with heights. We did not take that into an account at that time of making the plans of us doing the Gibbon Experience.

Bah Tha Heua

As the route from Vientiane to Vieng Vang was still safe we took the bus up to Bah Tha Heua where we booked a few nights in a small but very nice resort (resort sounds more special than it is as almost every hotel of hostel is called resort in Asia).

Bah Tha Heua lays directly next to a big artificial lake that is the result of a dam just like in Koa Sok and even though the water level is not very high right now the views of the nature were worth staying there.

Coming there though was a little complicated as the bus driver almost forget to let us out of the bus and just dropped us in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, we just enjoyed the peace in the Green View resort and watched buffalos grazing all day. It sounds boring but it was just relaxing sitting there in the middle of nowhere.

Vang Vieng

Hmm, what can I write about Vang Vieng where we went after Bah Tha Heua?

Loads of backpackers came here years ago to do the famous tubing. They sat in their tubes got too drunk due to all the bars next to the river & did other stupid things which led to approx 20 dead people per year. The government barried that way of tubing a few years ago. It is still one of the main activities (next to some tours you can book) you can do there and many young backpackers still do it. The only difference now is that there are only two bars open and not 20. After some serious thinking what to do in Vang Vieng we decided to go tubing as well but in a grown up way. We stopped at one bar for one drink, felt like grannies, left the bar and spent the rest of the day just relaxing in our tube flowting down the river. It was a nice experience but not great.

There is not really much more I can write about Vang Vieng so we were happy to leave again (the sphere there was really weird anyway). As we wanted to avoid taking the bus up to Luang Prabang we went back by bus to Vientiane, checked in into the same hotel (Hello Moonlight Champa staff! It is us again) as the last time in Vientiane and flew the next day further to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang

We really liked this town! It is a Unesco World Heritage and the old town just looks and feels like being in France ...well, with a lot of Buddha temples and monks.

We stayed 3 nights there in our little bunker (this is what we called the room we got as I made a small mistake with the booking..oeps). The guesthouse though was very charming so please read the word bunker with love. ;)

You can bike easily through the charming streets, visit the night market, watch the sunset from the hill and enjoy the good french food the colonial looking restaurants offer.

Laos food btw is like thai food but not as nice as thai food so that is why we mostly eat western food here.

We even signed up for a tour to the famous waterfalls Kuang Si Falls but that was not much fun. The waterfalls are beautiful and very blue but all the Chinese there are less (beautiful not blue) ... and every time we visit a waterfall it rains ...

Oh and we did some minor chances in our planning and instead of travelling further north (no Gibbon Experience for me - remember my fear of heights) we will travel further south to Thakhek to do the so called "Loop" on a motorcycle (starting and finishing from Thakhek).

In order to get from Luang Prabang down to Thakhek without taking the bus we first had to fly back to .....yes, Viantiane! We checked in into the same hotel again (Hello Moonlight Champa staff! It is us again) and will continue travelling by bus to Thakek.

Where we go from there and if we still want to see more of Laos or even Cambodja, who knows. We might even take the plane to somewhere else in the world.

Ps. One of things we have learned about us travelling so far. Plans do not always work out the way you plan them but there is always a second plan A.