Sabaai-dii!
After crossing the Mekong River from Chaing Kong, we officially entered into Laos, which holds the unsettling title of “the most bombed nation on earth”. Between the years 1964 and 1973 (During the Vietnam War), the US Military are reported to have dropped over 2 million tons of bombs on Laos. While the war has ended the carnage still continues. Approximately 30% of the bombs dropped did not explode on impact as intended, but instead have been buried inches underground and are still as deadly as they were 30 years ago. Sadly, only a small percentage of these UXO's (Un-exploded Ordnances) have actually been cleared. The country is still working to remove all of these bombs, but it is a slow, dangerous and tedious procedure which at its current rate of clearance is calculated to take over 100 years.
We began our trip through Laos with a two day slow boat ride down the Mekong River (sounds romantic doesn't it!). Our boat, which was packed to the hilt with at least 150 other passengers, was indeed slow (and the romance of it wore off after about an hour). However, we were able to see the countryside and the villages that were scattered along the river, as well as several animals cooling off at the water's edge. We were also able to meet many fellow travelers, share a few laughs and swap travel stories (not to mention complain about how slow the dang boat was!). We stopped for the evening after about 7 hours of travel in a small village called Pak Beng. After we ate our dinner, we headed to our room to pack it in for the evening. As we settled in, we read the rules of the guesthouse and had ourselves a much needed chuckle or two. We thought they were so funny that we took a picture of them to share with you. Click
here to check them out. In the morning we hopped back on the slow boat and continued down the river. Overerall, the slow boat trip was pleasant, although at times a bit uncomfortable, but if we were to do it again, we would definitely look into taking a faster boat.
Upon arriving in Luang Prabang, our first official destination in Laos, we were thrilled to climb out of the boat and be on dry land. We were greeted by friendly touts, trying to get us into their guesthouses. We decided on one, and within minutes we were settled into a comfy room. We strolled along the streets of Luang Prabang, and we were in awe of the quaint town which was the former capital of the nation. It was an interesting mixture of Asian and French architecture which was eye candy through and through.
The next morning we woke up bright and early, ready to start our day. We had decided to rent bicycles and take a tour of the city. We rode them for about two hours, when we stumbled upon a beautiful old stupa in the middle of the town. We locked our bikes up and took a look around. We had been less than 10 minutes when we were all too pleased to find out that someone had stolen Amanda's bike. As she wept over her loss, Jono went to investigate the situation. After talking to a few locals and tourists, it was concluded that no-one admitted to seeing the culprit, and that the bike was indeed gone for good. We rode back to the rental shop on the one remaining bike and explained the situation. They politely opened a book, and pointed to a page that said we had to pay $60 if such a situation were to arise. We explored the alternatives (with much frustration and displeasure) and after doing so, Jono went out to try to purchase a bike to replace the one that had gone missing. Twenty minutes later, he brought one back, but despite the fact that it was nearly identical to the stolen one, it wasn't considered “up to snuff”. In the end, they ended up taking $35, but we're pretty sure that we had fallen into a scam (apparently this happens on a regular basis). The lesson learned here is twofold: #1 - Don't rent bikes in Luang Prabang; #2 – If you are silly enough to rent bikes in Luang Prabang, don't let them out of your sight! However, our day was revived when we ran into Kat and Tom, two friends we had met during our cooking course in Chaing Mai. We spent the rest of the day together at the Tat Kuang Si Waterfalls, playing in the water and enjoying the afternoon.
We spent another day in Luang Prabang just exploring the city's hilltop temple and more or less killing time while waiting for the bus. The next day we were on a bus and on our way to Phonsavan (which runs once each day). After a good seven hours on the public bus fitted with “Lao-sized seating options” we arrived in the small town of Phonsavan (which was slightly over 100 kilometers away). We checked into a guest house and dropped our bags once again. We were getting ready to go for a stroll around town, when our guesthouse owner invited us to go to a barbeque with him. Not being the type to turn down food (ever!!) we went along. Dinner consisted of BBQ Dog-meat or Steamed Dog-meat and a spot of “lao-lao” moonshine. Together we ate our fill and we also engaged in some very interesting conversation. One conversation in particular was with a local man, who worked for the Mines Advisory Group, which is the organization responsible for removing UXO's and land mines. He told us about his dangerous job and gave us a ton of information on the post-war situation in Laos.
The next day we were up and ready to go to the main (and only) attraction in Phonsavan. We crammed in a van with 7 other travelers and headed to the Plain of Jars. Their were three sites in total, each home to various sized jars, made out of solid limestone. No one really knows how or why these enormous jars came to be, but they are estimated to have been there for anywhere between 2500-3000 years. They are really quite unique and would be best compared to a type of “Stonehenge of the Orient”. We also stopped off at a local village where they explained how “lao-lao” was made, and we met some very kind people there.
Our time in Laos was short, but we feel as though we got a good taste of the country where there are plenty of friendly faces to be found. Just don't rent a bicycle!
Xin Chao!
After a hot (40 degree) 12 hour bus ride from Phonsavan (the “Jar” capital of the world), and with no problems at the border, we entered into the Communist Republic of Vietnam and headed toward the city of Vinh. Once there we boarded yet another bus (and paid 3X's the local price... which according to most other travelers to Vietnam is a common occurrence) and we headed for the nation's capital. 6 hours later (at nearly 2:00am) we found ourselves pulling into the city of Hanoi. We expected to find a bustling nightlife scene, however, what we found was somewhat unsettling. The streets were dark and empty and as we were escorted from closed guesthouse to closed guesthouse we were dismayed to learn that each and every one of them was full (and none to happy about our rapping on the windows at such a dreadful hour). We were finally dropped off at a sympathetic hotel who allowed us to wait out the morning on their lobby's floor. The next day we quickly found an open guesthouse and were blown away with the amount of activity on the streets that were empty only a few hours before (it was literally like, “night and day”). We booked ourselves in and spent the rest of the day exploring the sights, sounds, and smells of Hanoi. We visited the centrally located Hoan Kiem Lake and the Ngoc Son Temple, as well as the Temple of Literature with a few other sites dotted along the way.
The next day we were off again to the Northeast coast of Halong Bay where we boarded a boat and spent the next few days sailing among huge natural limestone islands which spring up unnaturally out of the water. The legend behind these islands are that the celestial Dragons from heaven descended down to the bay to protect the Vietnamese from foreign invaders and once the enemies were defeated the Dragons refused to return to heaven. While the water wasn't as pristine as some of the other locations that we had been to, we still enjoyed a dip in the water to beat the mid-day heat.
We spent the rest of our Halong bay trip kayaking and boating around the area stopping off at fishing villages where the entire community lives on floating houses deep in the bay only returning every couple of weeks to the mainland to sell their wares and pick up some supplies. Every once in a while we would catch a glimpse of our friends (Steve & Laura) who we met at our guesthouse in Hanoi.
We rounded up the rest of our trip in the bay and were back in Hanoi in time to catch the nightly performance of the age-old cultural showcase known as the Vietnamese Water Puppets. We went with our friends not expecting much, however we were all pleasantly surprised and intrigued to contemplate the mechanics of this strange art form. We went to bed completely unaware of the unlucky circumstances that would be waiting for us the following morning.
Goooood Morning Viet-Nam! (I couldn't resist)
When we awoke bright eyed and ready for the day we were shocked to find that our one and only ATM card had “magically” disappeared. After checking every single bag, pocket, and article of clothing we were on the phone back to Canada to cancel our financial link to our home bank. After doing so, it dawned on us that traveling without any means of money withdrawal might not be so easy, we decided to see if we could remember any of our PINs for our Credit Cards. Amanda was the first to give it a shot and was once again thrown into panic as her first attempt to remember her PIN was promptly greeted with the machine “eating” her card. After speaking with the security guards in a garbled sort of broken Vietnaminglish we were informed that because it was Sunday we could only get our card back during regular business hours. This would have been fine if we hadn't already booked our overnight train to the Northwestern village of Sapa. We said a quick prayer and hoped that our card would stay safe and sound in the bank until we returned on Wednesday. Then we packed our things and headed for the train station.
After a short and bumpy night sleep we found ourselves pulling into the Train Station in Lao Cai a Vietnamese city located only 6kms away from the Chinese border. After searching the dozens of “tour operators” holding name signs we soon found that a sign with our name on it, simply wasn't there. As nearly everyone else on the train had left the station an hour before we quickly and quietly stowed ourselves aboard one of the last buses which was getting ready to pull out of the parking lot. Once we arrived in Sapa we showed our ticket around and were eventually sent to the Summit hotel where we were relieved to hear that there was indeed a tour arranged for us, however, it was scheduled under the name of Christopher. We shrugged our shoulders and signed up for the rest of the excursion (PS> our extreme apologies to the real “Christopher” if he did indeed exist... your tour was great!).
We spent our time in Sapa walking up and down the beautiful cool mountains seeing the rice terraces and chatting it up with the Hmong tribal people who were there to lend a hand down the slippery mud filled slopes that led to the various waterfalls and villages we passed by. Of all the tribal people we've encountered, the Hmong people seemed the most genuine and eager to spend time in conversation about something other than the various handicrafts that they had to offer (although they did have handicrafts a plenty)!
As we said our goodbyes to Sapa we pulled once again into Hanoi in time to grab our Credit Card, call Canada to work out some sort of solution to our financial crisis, take a cyclo tour, and bump into some of our traveling companions (Tom & Cat) who we met during our cooking course in Chiang Mai. Then it was time to get down to the overnight bus headed for central Vietnam. On the road again...
