Khob chai lai lai (thank you) Laos!

Current Location: Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand

I originally started this blog in Laos but I just couldn’t finish it.  For some reason I couldn’t properly articulate my thoughts about the country.  You see Laos was a lot different than I expected – far more developed than I ever imagined.  In some ways even as much as Thailand just in smaller doses - I don’t think I encountered a squat toilet once, western style food is abundant and they do it quite well and the streets are really quite clean for an Asian country.  Nearly everyone tells you that Laos is about 20 years behind it’s South East Asian neighbours and while that may have been true just a few years ago, due to tourism I think they are certainly catching up quickly.  I expected something much more like Cambodia with its bad roads and evident poverty but Laos was very different to that.

Now all the Laos lovers out there are probably recoiling in horror right now as they will be assuming that I am suggesting that Laos isn’t a nice place to visit.  I’m not at all.  Laos is an absolutely beautiful country with some of the most breathtaking scenery I think I have ever seen however it took me about a week in the country to really get to see some of that.  The reason for this is that if you come in from the north of Thailand as I did, the next part of your trip is taken up by two days on a slow boat down the Mekong which is full to the brim with other tourists.  You see some lovely scenery on the trip down the Mekong but you don’t really come into contact with many Laos people.  Then you arrive in Luang Prabang which is a rather quaint little French inspired town that is expensive and full of restaurants offering western food for the tourists.  It was actually quite difficult to just find a noodle soup side street vendor which was a little weird.  Most people absolutely love this place and the people I was traveling with fell into that category but I couldn’t get into it.  I could see it’s charm but for me I just wanted to get to somewhere else where I could actually see some more of Laos and it’s countryside. 

As a result I took off from Luang Prabang one day earlier than everyone else and headed down to Vang Vieng.  I traveled by what was apparently the “express” bus which was a bit of a scream.  It was supposed to take us around 7 hours and it took 8.5 hours due to the huge number of “deliveries” we were doing along the way.  You see, they often load any form of transport up with other cargo and stop here and there on the way to drop it off.  Rather practical I suppose.  It’s a little weird at first but you get used to it.  The road is long and winding and travels through the limestone mountains containing some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen.  This was one lovely bus ride apart from the stop in the middle of nowhere to go to the toilet.  I have no idea what was wrong with stopping at one of the villages we were passing through but our driver preferred the old fashioned way! 

As soon as I got to Vang Vieng I liked it so much better than the previous town.  Don’t get me wrong, Vang Vieng is also very touristy but it does still have some of that Asian flavour and it is surrounded by some lovely scenery and some great things to do.  Vang Vieng is famous for the pub crawl you can do whilst tubing down the river and that is why a lot of people don’t like to stay there however if that is all people think this place is about then they just aren’t trying.  On the first day I hired a bicycle and cycled a few kilometres out of town and around and I honestly had one of the best days of my trip so far.  It was so much fun to just get out there on my own and check out the outskirts of town that aren’t geared towards tourists.  I also did a tour one day that involved some caving (which I really liked – confined spaces are my thing) and kayaking down the river.  That was also a lot of fun.  Yes, I did tube down the river and yes I did certainly get drunk and it was a lot of fun but that is not all that Vang Vieng is about.

Eventually though, I did have to get out of the place as really, in the centre part of town, it just gets a bit like spring break after awhile and you are well and truly over it.  Next stop was the capital Vientiane.  Once again, I didn’t fall into popular opinion with this place.  Most people say “Oh it’s just another city” but I quite liked it.  I thought it had a really nice feel to it and I think I could easily live there.  For a capital city it is super chilled out but still with a few things to do.  It is a good representation of Laos as it has that Asian flavour that Luang Prabang doesn’t seem to have but it also has the laid back spirit that is Laos through and through. 

As I came back into Bangkok on the train this morning though I realised why it is that I was having trouble really having an opinion on Laos.  You see Thailand and even more specifically Bangkok always invoke a reaction in me whether it be good or bad.  Some times I will be so frustrated with being scammed and almost hate it and then I will see thing in the city that will absolutely amaze me and I will love it again.  Aside from the beautiful scenery in Laos I really didn’t have anything that invoked a strong reaction in me one way or another.  I think it’s a really nice country but I guess I haven’t connected in it in the way some other people do.  I plan on traveling to the south later this year which isn’t such a firmly trodden tourist track so hopefully I will have some things to say about it then.

I’m flying to Vietnam today to see Dad, Xuan and maybe a new baby which I’m rather excited about.  I intend to arrive in Cambodia within the next couple of weeks.  It’s really heating up here now as we approach the end of the hot season and move into the wet season. Humidity is high and it just keeps getting hotter.  I can’t think of a day for some time where I will not be sweating profusely.  I think not having power in the village in Cambodia (which means no fan) will be quite the challenge for me but I’m sure I’m tough enough to survive it (well let’s hope anyway!).  ‘Til next time…