Laos (Luang Prabang) - white water

Luang Prabang, the place of 33 temples, is  small city and a place dubbed The Gem of Laos. We have not only read but have met people who think it's amazing and would stay forever. Our opinion isn't quite as high but it certainly is a pleasant and lovely city to explore for a few days. The city has imposed limits on traffic and vehicles inside e city which mens that you're not constantly watching your back for buses, lorries and cars - in fact only tuk-tuks and motorbikes are allowed which means the streets are relatively decongested and safe to walk down. The city isn't quite as charming as I expected but I guess that once a place becomes a main stop off point for tourists you are bound to lose some charm. We planned on 4 nights to allow for general exploration of the city, white water rafting and a day to see some local water falls and a bear sanctuary.

The first day we explored visiting some of the 33 temples, picking the biggest and best reviewed ones we could find. They weren't the nicest temples we have seen but good none the less. The Buddhist monks all lived next door to the main temple and watching them go about thier daily lives, washing, eating and praying was interesting to see. At every opportunity when we saw a tour operator (there is a lot) we popped in a asked about white water rafting, they varried in price drastically and after gaining some insight and reading reviews online we went with a respected and Lonely Planet recommended company called Green Discovery Tours.

We got picked up at 8:30 the next day to head out for a day rafting. We boarded a truck with 10 people all together with three guides between us. After stopping to load the truck with paddles, kayaks and various other bits we headed off. After about 1.5 hours of driving we got to the launch point. We unloaded and geared up and then began a brief safety lesson. The trip consisted of a 22km kayak down stream through varying strengths of rapids from 1-3. We had no idea how big they were but the maximum strength is 5 we were told. Having already been kayaking a few times on this trip me and izzi should have been fine but after about 100m we were stuck directly on a rocky/bushy outcrop right in the middle of the first 'baby rapids' as the instructor called them. I had to jump out and try to get us untangled, not a great start to the trip and the instructor told me I owed him a beer! We headed of further down and things became easier, successfully navigating, inside the kayak, several smaller and medium rapids befores stopping for lunch. Me and izzi have got along well on the trip and with little to no problems but by the first stop we had decided that as kayaking partners we weren't so good, god knows how many times we found ourselves going down the wrong way, paddle coordination was none existent and tensions occasionally flared, looking back its funny now but frustrating at the time! The views, scenery and buffalo wallowing in the river bank mud were really cool. We stopped for dinner on a quiet bend and all sat round Lao style and got stuck in, fingers all the way. The food was good considering it was cold and we liked the fact everything was wrapped and served in banana leafs meaning at the end there was no rubbish or mess. We paddled for a further 20-30 minutes then stopped on a bank. Just ahead was the tough part, several strong and dangerous rapids all in a row. Our guides spoke between themselves and carefully examined the currnets telling us the best way to get though and what to avoid. They explained that as it was wet season the river was high and the rapids strong hiding rocks below which were the main danger. We got told to go left, then straight, right around the large rock and paddle hard left again once after the small calm stretch. Rule of the thumb is, if you capsize go feet first and try hold on to your paddle. We set off second in turn to attempt it. The first bit went well we were in position for the next bit then the kayak started to turn and we hit the biggest part of the rapids at an angle. Padding my ass off trying to straightening up, izzi with her eyes closed and not paddling (dont get me started) we had no chance, we hit a rock and I was out! It was scary, I had no chance of staying in but managed to keep hold of the paddle. I smashed into a rock and have bruised my leg and hip. It was great fun and a good bit of adrenaline was pumping though my body once I reached the calm stretch. I felt better as two other people and one of the instructors and his passenger also went over and all at the same point I felt out. We regrouped and made sure everyone was okay, rescuing lost paddles and flipflops people had dropped and headed to the next section. From then on we started to do much better and we didn't capsize once and neither of us fell out. The next sections were fast but not as many rocks and obstacles, we even went down them facing the right way :-). After a further hour or so we reached a wide part of the river and everyone jumped out, floating downstream and letting the current do the work for a change. All in all a great day out and we both felt it the day after, my back and shoulders were aching.

The last day we had planned to get a tuk-tuk to some nearby waterfalls and to a local honey bear sanctuary but izzi wasn't well and stayed in the air conditioned room most of day, I only ventured out for food and medicine. One of the most interesting bits in Luang Prabang was to get up at 5:30am and go see the hundreds of monks follow the alms ritual where people give them food, interesting to see but by 6am I had had enough. We have a flight booked to Chiang Mai the next day so izzi rested and I watched a film and planned the next part of our trip. Having only spent 10 days in Lao I would definitely say we've only seen a glimps and only gone to the main parts, I would come back and venture further south and to some of the lesser known places but you can't do it all and we need go get to Thailand to see the north before our friends come to meet us. It will be nice to see some people we recognise and know for the first time in nearly 3 months.

Laos (Phonsavan) - The Plain of Jars

Phonsavan is the back of beyond, miles away from most major places but there lies the plain of jars, one of the top things I wish to see in our short 10 days through Laos. We arrived on a small half empty propeller plane from Vientiane on an air strip which flet like a old tarmac road with an airport terminal (if it can be called that) which resembled a scout hut. Not to say the plane wasn't pleasant as it was and a 30 minute flight is better than a 10hr bus especially when we don't have much time. We plan to spend two nights here before quickly moving on to Luang Prabang. The scout hut (terminal) was very busy with people coming and going and once you'd got your bag from the trolly and been through passport control, a man with a book writing down your name and passport number (by hand!), we jumped in a car to drop us off at our guesthouse, 'Nice Guesthouse'. The town was very quiet, the man driving us told us that in high season 30 tourists a day come and in low only 10. We checked in and scoped out the main strip, soon realising the main strip was a 500m long road where all the action is, not that there was much action. We both liked the town - it felt a bit like a place from an old western movie set, albeit no cowboys and pickup trucks instead of horse and cart. The area itself was the most bombed area in Laos and only 7 of the 50 jar sites have been cleared of UXO and opened to tousits. We wondered around and tried to book some sort of tour/visit to the jar sites only to find that of the 3 nearby sites only one was really available due to the wet season - the others being inaccessible by car most of the time. Site 1 is the biggest and best we have read so were not to bothered about not seeing the other two sites around town.

The first day we booked a tour, our mini bus away to Luang Prabang and wondered around. We visited the Military Advisory Group (MAG) to learn about the effects of the bombing and UXO's on the local people, shocking and emotional indeed, a travesty that it isn't more widely known about the abuse and problems faced. We tried to find something to do stumbling on a shop front with two snooker tables and a very rowdy drunk local, we asked to play snooker and he said okay. We got an hour of snooker and a few beers for £3 which was okay. The table was in a poor condition and with only 5 red balls, we were still both very bad at it and only managed about 1 1/2 games in the hour. That evening a lot of the bars put on short films and documentaries about the bombing and the modern history of Laos, we settled down to a film and a few beers. Two Australian blokes came in and we started to talk. Soon the Lao Lao was out (local rice whisky tasting like vodka and tequila mixed together - positively awful!) and we started to drink and chat. Damien was a Catholic military priest and the other guy was retired and lived in Thailand, both on holiday. We got chatting and had good conversion all night, moving to two other bars and finishing about 1am.

The next day we woke at 7am, not feeling to fresh, to ready ourselves for the trip to the jars. We had organized a tour to site 1 of the jars, the quarry where the jars where made, crater ally (a crater riddled valley where bombs where dropped) and a local village where they use the bombs and debris to build houses and other things. We first stop was the quarry, a huge mountain with a 1000 step walk to the top. The walk was great although steep and tough, the quarries consisted of half finished jars. The best thing about the climb was the views at the top, spectacular views of the surrounding countryside with mountains in the distance. The ground was wet and slippery which made for slow progress of our group of 6 people. It was definitely worth the climb and effort, again I iterate how breath taking the views and landscape of Laos is, the most beautiful we have seen on our trip. Lush green jungle and fields flow up and down the mountain scenary like something from a postcard. We headed for lunch at a local eatery and had traditional Lao lunchtime dish of noodle soup with fresh herbs, lettuce and runner beans which you put in the soup as you please. On the table was this chilli paste which our guide told us to put small amounts in and try before adding too much. Both me and izzi (and in fact the rest of the tour group!) were overly confident and by the end of the soup everyone was breaking a sweat from the heat of the soup, delicious it was though. The second stop was a Hung village, the village was interesting but we didn't see many locals which can sometimes be the best bit. They use bomb casings as stilts for the houses and to grow herbs and plants inside them. The downside is that the dirt path to the village was very bad and to make it worse my flipflop broke and got stuck in the mud, I ended up caked in mud by the end of the walk but thank god I had already walked up the mountain and my flipflop could be mended easily. The next stop before the jars was crater ally, again the craters were interesting but the views and landscape were what made the stop. A sweeping low lying valley with mountains and jungle in the distance, peppered with huge bomb craters. The final stop was the jars site, we headed into the site with instructions to keep to the main paths just incase of UXO. The jars were impressive, varying in size but with a common shape and look. Local mythology states they were drinking cups of giants or just used to brew Lao Lao for huge parties after wars between neighbouring areas. The archeology tells a different story with evidence of burials taking palce inside and around the jars. We walked around and admired the site and the scale as over 300 jars exist at this site alone. The site had an old and ancient feel, both of us agreeing it felt a bit like stone henge. On the way back to the start we were on top of a hill when torrential rain started, we took refugee under a few branches and eventually decided to walk down, the path now resembled a small stream which was good as it cleaned my feet, not sure how safe it was though. Next we have a minibus for 7 hours to Luang Prabang.

The journey to Luang Prabang started of well, we arrived at the bus station and prepared our packs for the trip, securing them up and wrapping them up with water proof covers ready to tie to the roof rack. We set off and soon realised the bus wasn't going to be smooth or spacious in any sense of the word. Every now and again the driver would pick up another person, stopping for 5-10 minutes to adjust the roof rack and add more stuff to it. By half way we were nearly full and then he stopped again, this time 4 more people got on with god knows how many bags of stuff added to the roof. Now the minibus was about as over loaded as it can get and we had 13 people on 10 seats, excluding the driver. The 8 hours actually passed quickly and the people were nice, all of them local which was good fun. However me, izzi and the two locals sharing 3 small seats at the back were cossy to say the least. At one point when we stopped I was the centre of the attention from the villagers, 'big nose' as they call white people, they acted like they'd never seen a tall, fairly stocky and generally large white man before. Before I knew it the camera was out and several people lined up next to me, most weren't  as tall as my shoulder, they were all very nice and smiling which made it fun not unpleasant. The drive was good until the final 20km, the driver seemed to be board and decided to the drive very fast. We bombed though a village and then bang and a massive jolt of the van. We looked behind and unfortunately saw a dog rolling around howling on the floor, obviously in great pain. The driver didn't even blink an eye, our only hope is that the dog will have been quickly put out of its miserly, probably eaten from what we know. It wasn't nice and broght things home about how unsafe the roads can be. We arrived in Luang Prabang eventually safe and well.

Laos (Vientiane)

We decided to fly from Phnom Penh to save time and on arrival paid a flat fee of $6 to the taxi to take us to our hotel. We booked only one night and thankfully only one. The room was big, hot water and a fridge but the hotel staff were unhelpful and the WiFi didn't work. I tried to explain the WiFi problem on several occasions but they didn't seem to care. We walked around that evening and scoped out a guesthouse which was in a better location, the staff were friendly, WiFi throughout and breakfast was only an extra 1$ each. We moved hotels and booked another two nights to give us time to explore and see the city and plan the next phase of our trip to Phonsavan. Breakfast was surprisingly good consisting of eggs, bread, tea, coffee and cake even though only an extra $1 each and the laundry we did came back smelling clean which was the first time for a few occasions. The guesthouse was $5 cheaper a night so altogether a good choice to move.

Vientiane had the feel of a small provincial town littered with newly built coffee shops and restaurants. It was more modern than we expected and some of the streets could be at home in any European city. It was however small and reasonably lifeless. The night market wasn't bad, we both got a new vest and a souvenir. Laos seems to have a big BBQ culture with small street stands peppered around selling fish and meat on burning coals, it seems to be a staple for the locals. One of the main attractions is the COPE Centre which details and documents the huge number of UXO (unexploded ordinance) and the thousands of people which have been killed and injured by them. What was new to us was the shear volume of bombs, Laos being the most heavily bombed country in the world. American and the CIA conducted huge covert bombing campaigns and during the Vietnamese war American planes would drop all their unused explosives on Laos before landing for safety. The figures were astonishing - a plane load of bombs dropped every 8 minutes for an entire decade. We read that you shouldn't stray from the well trodden paths due to UXO - the COPE centre really hit home why. There were photos and videos of entire families which had been killed/injured by the explosives - very emotional.

Walking round the city we went to a large temple full of Buddha's which izzi enjoyed and the National Museum. The museum was average at best and felt more like an old school, even the smell and decor felt like an old school building. It did give some insight in to Lao history both modern and historic but poor compared to some of the others we've seen. The Laotian people seem pleasant and friendly, there seems to be a lower level of English spoken than in other countries but smiling and pointing seems to go a long way which is good. Also the tuk tuks are different, more like 3 wheelers with caged benches on the back, not as comfy but the drivers don't pester you as much as in other places (they do still double the fare as your a white man but still that's easy to haggle with). The pace of life seems to exist at an extremely slow speed and the daily siesta could span anywhere from 11-3 which seems extreme. The food was underwhelming and tended to be rice or noodles with meat and veg or as a soup. We did find a great bakery serving tasty sandwiches which was a good find.

Next we go to Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars, a 30 minute flight or a 10hr bus drive...we chose to fly! We turned up at the domestic airport terminal, consisting of extremely lax security measures and a single waiting room, this is however the biggest airport in Laos. We headed for our small propeller plane which was half empty but pleasant and clean and set off. The ride wasn't the smoothest as with every bit of turbulence the plane was thrown about and we were glad to land after the 30 minutes. Hopefully the jars will be as interesting as we expect.