Vang Vieng

After a night's pitstop in Luang Prabang following Muang Ngoi, I took off for Vang Vieng, tubing capital of Laos. I decided to avoid the millions (ok, 10-20) of travel agencies that wanted to sell me a spot in a small air-conditioned mini-van or VIP bus full of only foreigners, and I headed to the bus station by tuk tuk, expecting a bus to be leaving before too long. Afterall, Vang Vieng is on the way to Vientiane, Laos' capital, and there's only one road connecting Luang Prabang and the capital.

I arrived to the station just after noon expecting there to be a 12:30 or 1pm bus, as my guide book suggested there might be, and I saw three backpackers on the ground sprawled about their bags and playing cards. Good sign to see some foreigners waiting, I thought - that means that the bus I needed hadn't left yet, and hopefully there would be one soon. Wrong. The next bus left at 2pm, despite signs all over to the contrary.

I bought a ticket and plopped down close to the three backpackers, who were English. We started chatting and I was soon invited to play some gin rummy. I found out that they had been waiting since about 10:30am, and the 11am bus wasn't full enough to go, so they'd deferred to the next time of 2pm. Not a good sign. Luckily, the bus did indeed leave at 2, and we were treated to some beautiful scenery and a very, very windy road. Right as we were setting off, the driver's helper walked through the bus handing everyone 1 or 2 plastic bags meant to be used as sick bags if needed.

We ended up being just fine, and I enjoyed the views immensely. Laos is a beautiful country - green and full of winding roads, which means big hills/mountains. At about 8pm, we were dropped on the side of the road, and we walked to the main strip of Vang Vieng.

Vang Vieng is a very unique place. There are several things that define the small town, and I think that "Friends" is probably the most defining of all features, as there are literally 5-6 restaurants side-by-side that include seats you lean back against so you're basically laying down, all facing the same direction, which has several TVs mounted against one wall, all playing "Friends." You just have to listen for a couple of minutes, and then you'll figure out if they're playing the season you'd like to see. If not, there are another 4-5 restaurants for you to plop down in for several hours.

What a crazy concept! It threwme off when I first got there, but by my second (and last) evening, I had joined the masses and watched a couple of episodes.

The two main things to do around Vang Vieng are tubing and caving. I decided to fast-track it on out of there, so I chose to try out the tubing. For about $5, you rent a tube, and get taken about 5km upstream of town. And that's where the fun begins!

Tubing in and of itself is fun, but tubing in Vang Vieng is a bit dangerous. Not due to rapids or rocks - but because the river is lined with bars, and all bars have some sort of device from which you can hurtle yourself into the water from up high.

I took off down the river with my 3 English friends from the bus, and we stopped at basically every bar. We had a dry bag that we'd rented between the 4 of us for clothes and money, and we traded off who had to float with it. We started off slow, not drinking at all of them. The first one had a ridiculously-high rope swing (*note: the swings were more like trapezes than swings) that I refused to go up to, but the second was a bit more up my alley. The second bar had a zipline starting at about 4-5m high and finishing at about 3-4m. I was a bit nervous before I went, but it wasn't nearly as fast as it looked, and I landed in the water without any problems. After nursing a bit more of my beer (my first), I went again. Fun!

Then the crew headed across the river to another rope swing. I needed to finish my beer, so I said I'd join them. When you're floating down the river and you want to go to a bar, you signal to the guy or gal on the side, and then they'll pull ya in either by throwing you a rope, extending a piece of bamboo or some other like-minded contraption. Saves you from working up too much of a sweat paddling.

The day progressed slowly, and at our 2nd bar, the bar staff started handing out free shots of LaoLao, a whiskey that's so cheap they can afford to give it away. I did a half-shot to appease my British counterparts, then I handed the bottle back to them. When I wasn't jumping off of of or waiting in line for the rope swings, I enjoyed watching everyone jump off of them. Things went along just fine until we hit stop number 5 or 6.

We decided to share a bucket. A bucket is a small pail, about half the size of the bucket I used to use when I went to the beach when I was a kid, and they fill it with ice, half a bottle of booze, whatever mixer you want, and about 10 straws. Vodka/Red Bull was our poison of choice. I had a bit, then I headed up to the rope swing, as any good person on their way to drunk should do, and I jumped, much to the surprise of the three Brits I was with, as I had skipped several of the previous swings because they were too high for me. This one must have been about 20-30 feet above the river. When I came back up the banks of the river, the crew had dipped into our money and gotten another bucket. Great.

The rest of the evening is a blur for me, including a mud fight at dusk involving about 30 people, another rope swing further downstream, a massive (and I mean massive) mystery bruise on my upper right arm (that I apparently got as I slipped getting back into my tube later on), and the tuk tuk ride back to town, as we hadn't quite made it all the way back to town (too much drinking/swinging!) and needed to hitch a ride to return our tubes. And after showering and sending off some drunk e-mails, I plopped down in one of the aforementioned chairs and indulged in some friends.

The Day After
Four Days Later

The next day, I decided it was time to leave, and I was on a mini-van at 9am heading for the capital. I'm sad I missed out on the caves, as they're meant to be great. And I didn't find out until AFTER I left to ask for the "special" menus both on the river and in town. The Special menu is apparently special because the ingredients on it will leave you in altered mind-states after ordering. Someone told me that one day, a certain bar "didn't have" a special menu, but then the next day, after the police had stopped poking around, their special menu magically reappeared.

Anyway, Vang Vieng's certainly a unique town - I could never live there, but getting drunk while floating down a river (it was a very gentle river, mom...) and then curling up to back-to-back friends seems to be just what a backpacker needs from time to time.

Muang Ngoi

I was told that if I wanted some beautiful scenery, fewer tourists and a nice hammock to relax in, I should head up to Muong Ngoi, to the north of Luang Prabang. So, I set off early one morning to catch the 8:30 bus to Nong Kiaow, where boats leave for Muang Ngoi. (No roads to Muang Ngoi... boats only!)

I grabbed a tuk tuk to the bus station and was dropped off in front of a sawngthaew, which is a pickup truck with benches running along the two sides of the back and a covered metal frame on top (for piling tons of stuff on top of). When I arrived, they pointed me to the ticket window and then I headed back to the truck, which looked like it was bursting at the seams. There was a bit of miscommunication, but then I was ushered to the back and told to get in after people moved aside enough to give me about a cheek's worth of room. Not only were there people on the benches along the side, but there were also several wooden chairs set up in the middle of things with several people, and a couple of kids were perched on top of random crates and containers in the middle. There was one non-Asia couple already squeezed into the other side of the truck, but we were the only non-Laotians there.

Eventually, we set off and I counted everyone. We had 17 adults and 5 kids just in the back. And several big containers with gasoline in them and other random baskets and things. I started to chat with the couple across the way (she's Italian, he's Israeli), and they were equally incredulous as to how many people fit in the truck. After about 45 minutes, we slowed down long enough to let two more people in; the guy next to me squeezed closer to me, and he patted the seat on the other side of him, signaling to one of the new guys that he should sit there. The newly created spot was about the size of my hand, but sure enough, the guy was able to slowly but surely work his backside into the space. 19 adults, 7 kids.

After about 2 hours, the truck finally stopped and was turned off. My eyes lit up, and I asked the guy next to me if we had finally arrived to Nong Kiaow. He shook his head no. It was just a break, so I got out to stretch. When I asked how much longer, he signaled that it would be another two hours. My legs and knees were already pretty stiff from being wedged against a kid and a big plastic container, so I suppressed an inward groan at the thought of another two hours. Sitting across from me were two very old Laotian men; it seemed that one of them was over 80 (who knows - maybe even in his 90's), and the other may have been in his 70s. Complaining about my stiff 20something joints (even inwardly) made me feel a bit like a wuss in comparison to those two.

Eventually we arrived to the river town where our next boat left from, and thankfully, it was only one more hour on the sawngthaew after our pit stop. The narrow boat that took us to Muang Ngoi just a few hours later was equally overloaded. I overheard a Spaniard on the boat describe the Laos phenomenon (that seems to be the case in Guatemala, as well...) that just when you think that nothing else will fit into whatever vehicle you're in, they managed to double the number of people and things on board. So true!

While on the boat, I was treated to some beautiful scenery - mountains, greenery, fishermen, calm waters. About an hour into the ride, we pulled over, and half of us were instructed to get off the boat to walk while the boat went through a shallow part of the river. We walked for about twenty minutes or so, and it was quite pleasant. It helped me to rationalize that it wasn't necessary to do any trekking while I was in town.

Once we finally arrived (about an hour and 45 minutes after we started on our "1-hour boat ride"), I grabbed my bag and headed down the main street. The scenery was stunning! Dirt road through town with every second or third building advertising either bungalows, food, or random household necessities, with mountains in the background and a river to one side.

I headed down to the end of the road and got a cute bungalow with a hammock out front (its most important accessory!) for just over $2. I changed after a night because the bed was hard as a rock, but my second bungalow was also cute and had a hammock and river views. I moved away from my hammock for about an hour or two during the days to walk around town a little bit, but more than anything, I relaxed (and finished a book!).

Wandering around town, I saw millions of little chicks and baby ducks ... perhaps us tourists aren't eating enough eggs! Or maybe it's just bird mating season... who knows? But everywhere you looked, there were little things running around. Weaving looms were also set up in front of several houses, and it wasn't just for the benefit of the tourists - in fact, they didn't seem to sell textiles anywhere in town. It is definitely a tiny town, though, and I bet that no more than 20-30 tourists arrive a day. No electricity - just a few precious hours of generator energy every evening. Just serenity and beautiful nature. I was quite shocked to see a peanut butter and banana baguette on the menu of my guesthouse's restaurant, as that didn't really seem to fit in with everything, but then I was pleasantly relieved that true North American creature comforts hadn't quite made their way to the small town - when I got my sandwich, it was a baguette smeared with butter, sprinkled with crushed peanuts and topped off with banana slices.

The second evening, I ran into the two Canadians I shared a room with at the Thai/Laos border a week beforehand, and we agreed to catch up over a beer later on. It of course decided to pour down rain right when we were supposed to meet, so I donned my rain jacket and ran down the street to find them at a restaurant with an Aussie guy they'd met. They told me about a hare-brained plan they'd come up with and were setting into action. They bought a canoe and some paddles and were going to attempt to paddle down stream, all the way to Luang Prabang. This is a journey that's meant to take about 8 hours WITH A MOTOR. They were hoping to arrive in two days, maybe three. I nearly jumped on board (literally and figuratively) but decided against it at the last minute, as I remembered the nightly rainstorms we'd had since I arrived to Laos. That, and they were setting off the next morning at 6am.

Long story short (sorry, too late), then next morning, I heard my name being yelled from a restaurant close to the dock, and lo and behold, it was them! It was closing in on 9:30am, so headed up there to get the scoop.

They'd set out at 7am or so and gotten about 500m downstream before their boat sprung a leak. So they walked their boat upstream and found someone to repair it. They were going to head off shortly after breakfast, but they'd changed their destination to the less-lofty goal of Nong Kiaow, just about four hours downstream. I haven't heard from them, so I hope they made it somewhere or another without tipping the boat and without injuries!

The ride back to Luang Prabang was similar to the ride out of town, except all of the Laos people were replaced by mostly backpackers and we managed to shove about 25 adults in the back of the truck - and I thought it could never be done! This country will never cease to amaze me.

Luang Prabang, local style

My good friend and ex-boss Eileen sent me a message a few weeks ago, letting me know that one of her friends lives in Laos, and we should catch up when I'm there. So I sent an e-mail to her friend and found out that she lives in Luang Prabang. Yesterday, Karyn and I met in the morning and went for a nice brunch along the river while we chatted. At the end of brunch, she asked if I'd be interested in going out to a party that evening that was held for the staff of several area restaurants that share one owner. I said yes, and we met up again later that evening.

The entire evening ended up being a great lesson in Laotian customs and culture and great fun on top of that! The invitation said that it all kicked off at 6pm. At about 7pm, we hopped in a tuk tuk and hoped that we wouldn't be the first to arrive. We weren't, thankfully. Karyn immediately spotted a Lao friend at a table near the entrance, and we went to join Lang and a few of her friends at a big round table. The food was already set out on the table, waiting in Saran Wrap until we were given the word to start.

The French restaurant owner came over to say hi and to let us know how the evening was going to proceed, seeing as most everything was going to be said in Laotian over the PA system. It started off with drinks (soft drinks, wine, or the amazing BeerLao), and once most of the people had arrived, we were given the go to dig into the chow. We had bread, rice, mango salad with squid, a nice fish dish, sun-dried beef (which looks like beef jerky's close cousin), some sort of meat teemed with cucumbers on a plate, beef (or maybe pork) and potatoes in a nice yellow curry sauce, cut up mango, and rambutan fruit scattered around our table. I picked around some of the meat, tried the fish, and chowed down on the fruits. All in all, a decent spread.

While we were eating random people were going up on stage and singing Laotian songs. Karyn told me that the people here are not timid about singing and dancing in the least. They love parties and they love to party. After a healthy round of introductory singing, the competition was underway. Nine employees got up and either sang or danced. The singing was all Laotian songs, and I was lucky enough to see my first traditional Laotian dance by the only female competitor, plus two guys dancing hip hop (one with quite a good routine; the other a good dancer but too drunk to really put on a good performance).

A funny trend started with the first singer, as the Laotian started to raid the flower bouquets on their tables and carry them up to the singer to offer encouragement. Karyn told me that traditional gender barriers, as they exist in the cultures I know, don't really exist, as it was common for both men and women to carry flowers up to the singer. But following the first singer's finish, most of the bouquets had been picked through, and they started resorting to the leftover greenery for the second singer. By the time the third singer took the stage, singers #1 and #2 were helping out and letting the others recycle their bouquets. #4 was a dancer, so no flowers were given until the end, but by the time numbers #8 and 9 took the stage, they were bombarded by masses of flowers, some taken from nearby plants and bushes, plus some of the original flowers. It was hilarious, and you could see the people bringing up the flowers laughing at the massive bouquet as they returned to their seats. It was pretty ridiculous but hilarious and kinda sweet as well.

After the competition, the dancing began. Karyn informed me that if anyone asks you to dance, it's considered very rude not to dance with them. And it's not uncommon for women to dance with women nor men to dance with men. I watched one dance go by, and I have to agree with Karyn, it's quite a simple and boring style of dance. At the second song, I was asked to dance about 30 seconds in, and I found out that it's not so hard to learn the dance. It involves shuffling your feet forward 3 steps, then to the back, standing in place for three steps, then you alternate your hands (one up, one down) with every step. Although you dance with a partner, you don't touch at all. Somehow or another, the younger people can turn it into a bit more energetic and interesting dance, but it's still more or less boring. I was asked to dance/endure two more songs before Karyn and I decided to take off. She was hoping for some Laotian line dancing (probably nothing like Country-Western line-dancing), but it never came. She was right - some of the songs go on forever! They seem to last between five and ten minutes... that's a long time to do the same dance with no variation. I miss salsa dancing!

The slow boat to Luang Prabang

Two days after my trekking, I hopped aboard a bus (well, two... Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai, then Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong) to the Thai/Laos border and arrived at about 7pm. I went searching for a hotel with two Canadians I met on the bus, and we got a steal of a deal - about $6 for a room with 3 beds. Perfect! We had dinner with 3 others from our hotel, and then we went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up and went downstairs to use the bathroom to find about 15 people crowded around the TV watching a movie at about 6:30am. Weird! I later found out that they'd taken an overnight bus to the border town and were killing time until the border opened. I much preferred my more bed to a mini-van going around curve after curve through the hills of northern Thailand.

After breakfast, we started walking to the border and got our stamps out of Thailand (10 seconds per person, yay!), then paid a bit over a dollar for a boat across the river to the Laos side. There, we sat around filling out some paper work for about 10 minutes before forking it over with passport photos and money for our visas ($35 for Americans, $42 for Canadians). Then, I decided that I would indeed take the slow boat up the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. (I had been throwing ideas of going into the jungle near the border on this cool gibbon excursion, or of maybe taking the bus, or of maybe taking the boat partway, then swapping over to bus for the final leg.)

In preparation, I had a sandwich made up, and I bought a seat cushion for just over a dollar (I had been forewarned that the seating consist of wooden benches. And the trip is TWO DAYS LONG.).

I made my way to the boat, which was pretty long and narrow with a roof and big windows. After I put my backpack in the luggage area in the back, I claimed a window spot and hoped that the light rain wouldn't turn into something stronger, although we did have plastic flaps we could roll down if we wanted. I crossed my fingers that no one would sit next to me, but in the end, an English girl did. There was lots of conversation around, and for the next 7 hours, people chatted, read, listened to music, tried to sleep, drank beer (sold conveniently at the back of the boat) and tried to pass the time.

That evening, I hooked up with three of the people from my hotel from the night before, and we went off in search for a hotel in Pak Beng, a town described by a friend as a "no-horse town." We found a place that was very cheap and decided it'd be fine for a night's sleep. The guy who dragged us in there also made it very clear that if we wanted to buy some marijuana from him, that was no problem. When I said, "No thanks," he was like, "why not?" I told him that there was more for him... And then when we went to pay for the room, I didn't have any small Thai bills (they still accept Thai currency and the price was quoted in Thai baht). He said no problem and hurried off to get my change.

He came back with a fistful of Laos Kip and handed them over. Me, being unfamiliar with exchange rates and the two currencies, counted the kip and decided that it didn't seem right, although I couldn't remember the exchange rate. He recounted and said, "oh right, I miscounted," and added a couple of 10,000 kip notes to the pile. That still didn't seem to be enough to me, so I called over my travel companions and asked them about exchange rates. They were pretty useless, as well, but at least I had some moral support. I asked the guy point blank what the exchange rate between baht and kip were, and he pretended not to know. At about that point in time, one of my fellow travellers offered to pay for my room, and I'd pay him back later. So, I started to suggest to the sketchy dude that he give me back my 1,000 baht note, and I'd hand him over the 100 baht he needed. He started doing a song and dance about how the market had closed, and he'd already changed the money, blah blah blah. I continued to insist on getting my 1000 baht note back, and he said he couldn't do that. We moved up to the restaurant area where two women who worked there were standing, and they got involved and started talking to the sketchy dude in Lao. Then I started in on how I didn't trust him, and I just wanted my money back, and we would leave the hotel, blah blah blah. He questioned why anyone wouldn't trust him (!!!), and I came back with commentary on his original "mis-counted" change and the fact that he'd just tried to sell me drugs. Eventually, he gave in and gave me the true exchange rate (or something close to it), and my change was sorted.

Upon leaving my room for dinner, I grabbed all of my valuables, as I wasn't sure if he would try to retaliate or something. I had nothing to worry about, though... nothing had been touched when we returned. The 4 of us had a nice dinner overlooking the Mekong River, and then we headed to another place for a drink and played some cards. At about 9:30pm, we decided we were all exhausted, and we went to bed to sleep in preparation of the next day's 7 hours on the river. Good thing we went to bed then, as the generators for the town's power were shut off at 10pm. I hoped that the rest of Laos would surpass my experience in Pak Beng in enjoyability... if not, it's gonna be a short and fast trip through Laos!

The next day turned out to be closer to 7.5 hours, and I managed to score my own bench for the entire day. Hooray! The whole trip along the river was gorgeous! Lush green hills, local people in dugout canoes and fishing from the rocks, little villages of wooden huts... too bad it was overcast both of our days on the river, but that also provided for a more comfortable journey, as it stayed cool enough to make the trip very enjoyable.

When we arrived to Luang Prabang, the 4 of us, plus a fifth, a Canadian girl, set off to look for accomodation. After about an hour, we'd all found a place to stay, and I was rooming with the Canadian girl in a nice room with a balcony and private bathroom in a quieter part of town for just a little over US$6. We set off shortly afterwards to explore town and immediately stumbled upon the night market, which is full of beautiful handicrafts. After dinner at a street vendor that had about 8 different bowls full of vegetarian local fare (as-much-as-you-can-fit-on-a-plate for less than US$1!!!), we walked around a bit longer before deciding we were all exhausted again, and I was in bed by about 10:30pm again.