Photos : Laos, Luang Prabang Laos, Vang Vieng
Prabangers
First stop on our misguided tour of Laos was Luang Prabang and it was to prove one of our favourite cities. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed and although not too many sights for an active tourist, there’s enough to keep you occupied for a couple of days. The local people and the relaxed atmosphere makes this a perfect place to chill out and unwind or contemplate the meaning of life.
Our hotel was presented well from inside and out however we found the beds harder than steel. In both Luang Prabang and Vangvieng the mattress doesn’t seem to exist but merely the bed base. The springs have adopted their own personalities. Like steel snakes they surfaced at random points and lines making finding a comfortable position to sleep challenging. The steel snake bites created a patchwork of colours on the body but the rest was welcomed.
Being our first stop we decided to ease our way into the holiday by strolling around town. The main sights here are a few temples, museum, Buddha on a hill, alming of the monks, local food markets and the night market.
Loving food in general and particularly Asian food, eating here was to prove a pure delight. It seems difficult to get a bad meal. The dishes are similar to other places but maybe it’s the dirty water used in cooking or maybe the spices, but the flavours are delightfully rich and strong The cost of food is low as too are the wages. In general we weren’t paying more than USD6 for a main and often less than USD5. Whether at a street stall or a restaurant the food looks and smells inviting.
The average annual wage is $1000 yet they must pay Thailand prices for produce and raw materials not available in Laos. Translated, in order to offer competitive prices with neighbouring countries their margins are drastically reduced. I love a bargain as much as the next person and the haggling is part of the fun however I saw tourists going that extra mile and quibbling over a pittance. I guess for them saving EU50 cents is more important than allowing the store owners to feed themselves and their families. And to set the record straight, the quibbling I could deal with but the manner in which they went about it and the somber facial expressions as though they were doing the world a favour merely by breathing and walking upright, was downright rude. Oh how I wish I knew how to speak French!
The main street comes alive from dusk when the store owners arrive to set up on and along the road. It’s a tourist market containing mainly handicrafts. At one end there are food stalls but also running down a side street is a series of small outside eateries. Meat lovers salivate over the smell of charred remains but there are plenty of salads and of course summer rolls aka rice paper rolls. We sampled the latter and give it a big thumbs up.
From what I’ve seen here, there are some fundamental differences between Laos and Thailand. Laos is financially much poorer yet it is noticeably attempting to resist the temptation to follow Thailand into the seedy side of tourism. There are some bars or restaurants that attempt to dissuade those intending to head down the seedy path by educating tourists about the Laotion approach towards sex outside marriage. These values are challenged and contradicted more in Vientiane. I’m assuming this is due to tourist types, tourist numbers and maybe its location to Thailand. It’s great to see they are attempting to retain their national identity and self respect.
Ready? Alm! Fire!
On your list of “must do’s” is to get up before the sun and give alms to the monks. This tradition came about because when Buddha was knee high to a grasshopper the monks were only allowed to eat food given to them each morning by either their family or the ritual.
It became a never ending parade of orange men. Around the town are a plethora of wats (over 30 I think) that either house the monks or maybe they breed them 🙂 Wherever they were hiding they knew it was time to assuage the thirst of the tourist and probably because they were hungry, and shuffle along the street to collect food from locals and tourists alike. The photography frenzy was ghoulish and insensitive. Don’t get me wrong, I took photos too however stood away from the procession and didn’t use flash. Some German, French and Japanese tourists crowded a corner and shoved their cameras in front of each other to get a forgettable and more than likely blurry photo of a disgruntled monk. The machine gun bursts of flashes lit up the souls of men in orange. Now blinded, the monks politely shuffled past the frenzied tourist throng and towards the next meal. We heard the monk hierarchy approached the government to do something about the tourists and threatened to stop the monk show. The government responded stating that if they didn’t want to continue then they would find laymen to dress up in the orange robes and perform for the tourists. All in all it was a mildly interesting sight that is quickly becoming a 3 ring circus where the almed monks perform to satisfy the tourist thirst for the different.
We climbed hill to see the temple, we walked the streets to see the temples (lost count of how many we saw), we wandered the night market, wandered the day market and managed to eat our way from one end to the other. Not a bad meal in sight and our taste buds, not our bellies, thanked us for the experience. Prabangers proved to be one of our favorite places. It has great food and very relaxed vibe.
Whilst there are tens of wats here, each is different to a degree. There is the standard theme of gold Buddha’s and kitsch interiors however there are some that differ. Wat Xieng Thong is a perfect example. On the rear wall of the sim you’ll notice a glass mosaic of a large tree. This image relates to a legend surrounding the temple’s origins. The story holds that two hermits settled at the temple’s present location, choosing to place it near a large flame tree and the junction of the two rivers.
I’m too sexy for these pyjamas
As a way to ease our way into the holiday we felt we done sufficiently little to warrant a massage…so that’s just what we had 🙂 Massages run at 40000 to 50000 kips or $5 to $6.25 for an hour and recommended by everyone, including us. Upon entering you don their massage pyjamas and await your fate. Chris and I had a massage together or more accurately we were lying side by side on separate mattresses with Chris having a female masseuse and myself the male. From what we’ve seen this is always the case i.e. masseuse is always the same sex as the client. This isn’t a ‘Thai’ massage although for the last few minutes my masseuse attempted to contorted my body by standing on my calves and pulling my arms to arch my back….or break it. He must have learnt at the same place as the blind masseuse I had in Chang Mai Thailand but this time he could see the most contorted thing was my face! The last couple of minutes aside, it was very relaxing and a well spent USD5 for a full body massage. Another reason to like Prabangers!
Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng aka the boil on the backside of Laos
We made the decision to get the VIP coach complete with aircon and toilet. Both were interesting implementations if only ideas. The aircon exists but whether they didn’t like putting it on or it didn’t work, we will never know. Either way it was only a gentle breeze that wafted over us. The bus was advertised as having a toilet however upon throwing our bags downstairs you realised this is not the bus you pictured. Rather than having separate bays for baggage underneath, there is one large bay into which your bags are thrown creating a big ‘bag mattress’. The array of bags was of benefit to the bus company staff as this was to serve as their bed.
The bus didn’t look as though it was going to make any toilet stops so I tried to think positive thoughts along the lines that my bladder was the size of a whale. Mild panic could have set in about 1.5-2 hours into the drive however a guy opposite couldn’t hold on any longer and sought some guidance from the driver and his entourage about what was going to happen. Having received his answer he disappeared towards the back steps in search of salvation. Returning to his seat he looked visibly unscathed and relieved. Curiosity and necessity lead me to ask the guy what happened. I thought he must have found a portal to a toilet or there was a back window open.
When boarding via the back stairs it was no where to be seen however here was a cupboard door standing about 4 to 4.5 feet high and being held closed with a bit of wire. The noise emanating from the lower area indicated this was a cover for parts of the motor. You’ve probably already worked out that a small cupboard downstairs was the VIP coach version of a toilet. The toilet itself stands about 1/2 a foot high. A light would be nice but a luxury in this bus. A way to lock the door from the inside would have been good but probably drain power from the motor.
The only light source was to come from having the door ajar. With the pitch of the bus constantly changing from it weaving along the winding road, a line of sight was essential therefore you had to use your foot to hold it in position or just let it flap open. Hunched over with my head planted into the side of the bus and over the target, I pushed my shoulders into the roof, like a wombat in its warren. With each corner it felt like my head was going to burst through the side of the bus but the pain from the head was outweighed by the necessity. There isn’t enough room to turn around so you carefully reverse from the cupboard whilst looking for hand grips to keep you upright. I missed a grip and as the bus rounded a corner I went sailing onto the baggage collection and bus employee sleeping atop. Hey, he shouldn’t be sleeping on the job anyway!
Now before you start thinking this is only about my bodily movements, let me continue setting the scene. Walking up the stairs from the luggage store and toilet cupboard, you’re about 5 rows from the back of the bus and for anyone susceptible to travel sickness this is not the place to be. Immediately at the top of the rear stairs was a poor kid who’s not used to travelling and whose only salvation was the plastic bag into which his breakfast now resided. Unfortunately for me the seal was broken and I would have to use the hobbit room on more than one occasion. Without fail on each trip the kid was looking more shattered and was clutching his ever filling plastic bag. I realised later this was the bag the bus staff were throwing out the front window. The plastic bag may be bad for the environment but the contents may promote vegetation growth 🙂
As part of the bus fare you get lunch. Whilst cresting some ridges you had beautiful sweeping views of jagged steep mountains. Invariably there were restaurants on outcrops with unimpeded mountain and valley views however no matter how many of us willed the bus to stop it kept going. The more we travelled the flatter it became and the majestic views of the mountains gave way to farmland. It was after 2pm and the bus didn’t look like stopping. If it had stopped on the flat area then our choice of restaurants would have been a small fire in a field with some boiled rice and possibly fried insects. Around 2:30 we did finally stop at a small roadside restaurant where you had a choice of a soup starter and 1 main. When I say choice, I mean you could choose to have the soup or not. You also could have Pho or selection of 3 items from the bay-mare. The young kid who was green on the bus was now seated next to us and this time his head was virtually submerged in the Pho as he slurped at it with ravenous delight. I could not help but think it was going to be watery when he started his unplanned exorcism on the bus. 🙂
Vang Vieng aka Scumville
The least favourite town. It’s like Bangkok complete with stupid drunk inconsiderate indecent amoeba tourists. Its soul has been sold to the foreign dollar devil. Despite the requests from the restaurants and general population to respect their wishes and levels of acceptable dress and behaviour, the younger backpacker crowd snub their collective nose. Overcoming our bus ride with too many cultural vacuums devoid of money and decency, we arrived at our oasis in the sea of scum. A small hotel on the waterfront. For the cost of $50 per night it was money happily spent to keep the riff raff at arms length.
The calm was shattered as soon as you exit the hotel and face the hospital. The sight of 2 drunk Westerners bouncing off each other with the woman attempting to disrobe ( at one point wrapping her t-shirt around her male friend’s head so he couldn’t see, not sure it would have mattered anyway). Well done you intellectual vagrants, I bet your parents would be proud.
In town it’s worse. They act disgracefully and show blatant disregard for the wishes of the Laotion people. Returning from a day floating down the river on a tube and drinking at various bars along the way, they stagger back into town. Most often they don’t bother to change from their swimwear or put on shoes or engage their feeble brains into any other gear than reverse. Bare chested and empty headed, they attempt to find another watering hole in which they can test their vocal abilities at Karaoke.
There are tears of drunken stupor as some women console each other about something someone said or might have said causing their world to implode. They are oblivious to anything approaching common sense as they stand literally in the middle of the intersection with cars, Tuk Tuks and mini busses whizzing by.
Their numbed brains prevent any social graces including being polite to the locals. It’s the latter that raises my ire. End of rant…
I’m sure there’s a place to eat somewhere…
We were rejected from 3 restaurants as they were either full or catering for a private party. The fourth time’s a charm and we found a place on the main strip. This provided further justification for my comments calling many backpacker scum. Up and down the main street they paraded, yelled, staggered. Where’s a giant hand to slap them back to being respectful when you need one? I’m thinking of one like the huge foam hands you can see at sporting events only bigger and harder 🙂
Again the food was cheap and good quality.
In town there are bars playing US TV sitcoms repeatedly eg there is a Friends bar and a Simpsons bar. If you don’t like those then there’s heaps of other bars to visit but all are infested with the backpacker scum. The saving grace is the town is tiny and good food everywhere.
The following day was a chance to see the sights….and there aren’t many. We managed to see both Wot’s in town in the space of 5 minutes. There was little else to see or do. So why come here? It breaks up the journey to Vientiene and the surrounding mountains provide a dramatic backdrop to the town location. Luckily for me it was a day I could recover from a stomach bug. If you’re planning on coming to Laos the don’t stay here unless you absolutely have to.
From our bungalow on the water, the symphony of life welcomes you each day; bright and early! That and of course our Chinese family neighbours who numbered about 20 (not an exaggeration). The huts are located on the waterfront which is good and bad for the river is the highway of Scumville. The bamboo huts provide basic protection from rain but little to none from noise. From 4am the roosters, chickens and dogs have a friendly chat about the meaning of life and about how their respective masters are treating them. When the conversation concludes with no obvious winner, there is a respite of about 30-45 minutes until the locals arise. At which point the boats are up and down the river and whilst not exceptionally noisy in their own right, without other background noise, their sound is amplified.