After the 298th bus trip, this time to the Laos entry point, we were in! The Laotians had decided they didn't mind Stu and I spending a bit of time in their country, and so on we went in a tuk tuk to the boat pier. Laos relies heavily on the massive Mekong river to transport people and goods, so there were 2 options we had to get to our Laos destination of Luang Prabang -
Option 1: A 7/8 seater old wooden 'speedboat' that gets you there in just 1 day. Crash helmets are essential and there's no cover from the elements along the way ( a key thing to bear in mind seeing as we're in rainy season here!) so the likelyhood of water smacking you in the face along the way is high.
Option 2: A rickety old 120ft long slow boat that holds approximately 60 people, locals and foreigners, has a hole for a toilet at the back of the boat and car seats that aren't screwed into the floor make for a wobbly yet more comfortable and scenic journey.
We decided to go for the latter, giving us the perfect opportunity to see the beautiful Laos scenery (and being cheaper helped sway the decision). We had met a group of Aussie / South African friends the previous night in a Chiang Khong guest house that had gone for speedboat...we hoped to see them again later in Laos but the way the those boats were dangerously wizzing past us ...we couldn't be sure!! In the meantime, we spent a leisurely 7 hrs drifting down the biggest river in Laos with plenty of other backpackers in the same boat ( literally! ) to chat to and get travelling tips from. The views down the Mekong river were incredible - towering forestry and cliffs either side, locals fishing and bathing at the side of the river, and plenty of storms to pass through to keep us entertained.
Mekong River view from the slow boat
Around 4pm on the first day, we arrived in a small village called Pak Beng. Very much a 1 night stop over destination ( ie. one street with a few guesthouses and restaurants) for all the tourists en route to the larger city of Luang Prabang in Laos. We found a lovely guesthouse and headed to a decent Indian restaurant that night along with the majority of foreigners off the slow boat, for a good old curry and our first sampling of the pretty tasty and refreshing BeerLao.
Early the next morning, we were back on our trusty boat for round two, armed with a packed lunch of sandwiches and fresh banana and chocolate muffins from the local bakery. Another 7 hrs of river cruising and chatting with fellow travellers, the journey flew by. We even managed to awkwardly sleep a little too! At 4pm that day, we finally arrived at our destination of Luang Prabang.
We'd heard and read of a few nightmare stories about the long trip on the slowboat but apart from all the foreigners getting chucked off 10km out of Luang Prabang and having to pay for a tuk tuk the rest of the way (whilst the locals stayed on the boat) the journey was actually pretty good!
Luang Prabang (5th - 8th Sept)
We'd pre-booked a nights accomodation in Luang Prabang and were really happy with where we were staying. The tuk tuk from the foreigners boat pier dropped us off at our guest house which was in the old quarter of the town right next to the river front with plenty of nice restaurants, bakeries, boutique hotels, temples and French styled villas. We went for a wander around the quaint streets to get our bearings, and then after freshening up in our room, explored the night market for dinner that evening. We were lured into a cheap market stall where the food looked a lot better than it tasted...we dined on cold fried noodles, veg and suspicious looking spring rolls, leaving our table with a slight worry that we may be experiencing our first holiday sick bug that evening!
Looks good doesn't it?! It wasn't!!!
Relief then ensued when we heard from our Aussie / South African friends that same evening ... The speedboat had got them to Luang Prabang in one piece! So we met them for celebratory drinks in a cool bar called the Hive and then another called Utopia. A few too many drinks later, we found ourselves stumbling home at 1am in the morning after kindly refusing the offers of opium from the tuk tuk drivers outside the bar. Instead, we were happy with a Magnum Gold and a Coke Zero to help soak up the BeerLao (I'm not sure I've ever seen Stu look so happy to see chocolate?!). After getting lost on the way back home, we arrived at our guest house to find that we'd been locked out! We'd forgotten about the 11pm curfew and so were forced to scale the fence as quietly as it is possible after 6 BeerLaos, and made it back to our room without waking any of the guesthouse staff.
Stu's 7am alarm woke us up the next morning (one month into the trip and I'm still confused as to why we're waking up at the same time as those with full time jobs back at home!) and with slightly sore heads, we went and got 5kgs worth of washing done. I have never been so happy! I was down to my last pair of shorts and shirt, and I'm sure our rucksacks were starting to attract flies, so it was long overdue. We hired out bikes from our guest house and rode to a French bakery for a pain au choclate and iced coffee to nurse the sore heads, then spent the rest of the day cycling round the town the the 30 degree heat, visiting temples, chatting with young monks and helping them with their English homework, before meeting our Aussie friends again for an afternoon drink (of the non-alcoholic variety this time) and goodbyes as they were heading to onto Vietnam.
Continental breakfast in Luang Prabang
Later that evening a group of around 8 of us, all who had met on the slow boat from Thailand, met up for a tasty Indian meal. It was great to hear everyones stories, travel plans and tips. As we all walked home later that evening, the rain came and we got caught in a torrential downpour on the way back to the guesthouse. As you'll see from the picture below, I don't even think an umbrella would have helped in this instance!
The group of us at dinner had arranged to all take a trip to some nearby waterfalls the following day, so the next morning we all met at 9am, haggled a tuk tuk driver to give us a decent group price to take us there and set off. The waterfalls were amazing - as we're currently in the wet season, the water levels were high and the currents were stong, but there was still an area where we could swim and Stu even had the delight of having fish suck on his blistered feet (poor fish)!
The rest of the day we chilled back at the guest house and local market, we had sundowners on the riverfront and had dinner by candlelight. We then met Phil and Christine ( a lovely couple who just happen to have the same name as my parents!) who are traveling around the world in their yacht, and have moored up to spend a few months travelling South East Asia. We had a nightcap with them in a local bar, and vowed to keep I'm touch seeing as we all might be I'm Thailand at the same time further down the line.
The next morning was the earliest start yet - a 5.30am alarm woke us up so that we could go and see the alms of the monks - a Lao tradition which sees the monks go through the town and locals come out in their droves to offer them food. Through squinted sleepy eyes, we enjoyed watching the local tradition take place. We then waited for the market stalls to open, gathered up food for a packed lunch, and were picked up at 8.30am by a mini bus that would take us to our next Laos destination - Viang Vieng.
Viang Vieng (8th - 10th Sept)
The 6 hour mini van journey to Vang Vieng was an experience in itself - the roads wound round the mountains so much that you felt you were on a helter skelter. There was little else you could do during the journey other than hold on to your seat to avoid hitting your head on the window / passenger sat next to you. I think the majority of the bus felt car sick and even 2 of the locals on the bus had to stop to be sick. Other than that, the views were great and I'm pretty sure we managed to catch some bumpy scenic photos whilst on the journey.
At 3pm we arrived in what we found to be a fairly quiet town of Vang Vieng. We found a nice guest house right next to the river and spent the afternoon wandering around the local town and chilling in river front bars with a smoothie.
That evening, we had dinner in a Korean BBQ road side restaurant where each table has a mini fire pit and BBQ plate on top to cook on. You cook the meat on top and are given noodles and veg along with plates of chilli, garlic and sauce to cook in the water section at the bottom. The food was amazing but it was definitely one of the sweatier dining experiences I've had being so close to the fire the whole time. After our 5.30am start, we decided to call it a night and retired back to our guest house.
The next morning, we decided to book the infamous 'tubing'. But it does seem now that Viang Viang isn't quite the party destination it used to be. Formally known for its wild 'tubing' days, it now seems to be a much quieter and calmer place to be. Whereas in the past, tourists used to drink themselves into oblivion whilst floating down the Mekong river in a giant inner car tyre tube and zip-wiring into bars / the water, a lot of the bars on the river have now been shut down by the government due to deaths of tourists. The tubing still takes place, just with only 3 or 4 bars to visit instead, so we decided to give it a go and met a guy called Max from Belgium at the tube hire place the following day. We all shared a tuk tuk to the first bar, got our tube at the ready and were given a free shot of whiskey and a neon wristband before jumping into the river.
As it's currently wet season, the river level is high and the currents are strong, so you float pretty fast down stream. Within 5 mins of floating through the impressive lime stone vallys either side of us, we saw the first bar ahead with locals at the ready, throwing out ropes that had plastic bottles tied to the end of them to tug us in to the first bar. With another whiskey shot, neon bracelet and BeerLao on offer when we arrived, a Phad Thai was in order for lunch to soak up some of that local alcohol. The bar we were in was pretty cool, with a basketball court, table tennis, hammocks and sun loungers to chill out on in the sun. You could see how tourist back in the party days had quite easily spent the whole day drinking far too much in the sun. After an hr or 2 there, we jumped back in our tubes and floated down the river some more, carefully taking cameras / phones out of our waterproof tube bags to take pictures. Low season and fewer bars meant we were pretty much the only people on the river at various points! We stopped at another bar or two along the rest of the tubing route, before jumping off at the end point (battling against a strong current to get back to the shore) and sitting in hammocks with a mango smoothie in hand watching the remaining tourists who had been floating behind us struggle to get out of the water as we had. So many of the Koreans who it seemed may not have been able to read the massive English sign saying 'End of tubing' simply carried on floating down the river...despite the locals shouting out to them! Who knows where they ended up?!
A cashew nut curry was in order that evening (my favourite dish and one which we learnt how to cook on our cooking course in Thailand too!). After falling in love with the owners dog, I had to drag myself away and we went and met Max again for a drink in a nearby pub. The secret menu we were given (pic below) had some rather unusual options one could choose from!) we stuck to what we knew and just ordered a cold BeerLao, I wasn't quite hungry enough for the Mary Chicken curry on offer!
The next morning, we had breakfast on our balcony (egg on toast from a restaurant everyday can't be good for you, so homemade muesli and yogurt is going down well instead) and we got picked up by a minivan that was taking us and Max across Laos to the capital of Vientiane.
Vientiane (10th - 14th Sept)
After a bumpy 6 hour journey sat at the back (ie. on the axel) of the minivan to Vientiane, we arrived in the Laos capital looking a little disheveled having felt every stone on the road and taking the impact on our now numb bums! We were dropped off in the city centre - a cool looking, high rise building cluttered place that sits right on the riverfront where you can see Thailand on the other side. We hadn't booked any accomodation for that night, we spent a good hour walking around looking for a decent guesthouse. After seeing several prison cells, cockroach invested boxes and damp rooms, we finally managed to find a really nice place to stay for the next 3 nights, free breakfast included too! After dropping our bags in the room, we headed straight to the Vietnamese embassy which was a 30min walk away. Vietnam is the one country where you have to apply for the visa ahead of crossing the border, so we arranged with the embassy to pick up the completed visas in 2 days time and parted with $65 each to pay for them. That evening, we had a walk on the riverfront where the amazing night market is set up each night selling everything from artwork and clothes, to fake iPhones and selfie sticks. We had a chicken Phad Thai from a street stall for dinner that was unfortunately littered with prawn claws, giving it a strange fishy chicken taste! Then we met Max for an iced coffee and a BeerLao before bed.
The next morning we had our free cooked breakfast and unlimited Lao coffee (which tastes amazing - very sweet!) at the guesthouse served by an eager bunch of Laos PHD students studying tourism and working at the guest house. We decided to hire bikes to help us explore more of the city, although traffic was a little busier in the capital and so there was a lot of dodging and swerving taking place. We visited temples, road down the river front and went to a museum and support facility called COPE, which educates people about the American war bombs that destroyed Laos, 30% of which still remain undetonated and kill / injure hundreds every year. The support group and funding from the museum help those who have lost limbs and also helps continue the search for undetonated bombs. It was a really interesting visit and we'd recommend to people going to Vientiane!
Later that afternoon, we took a ride to a nearby local gym. We'd heard of a good place that overlooked the Mekong river, and as we'd been downing a lot of BeerLao recently, a gym session was in order. Post workout, we met up with Max before he left for south of the country, and then tried a local Laos dish for dinner called Laap salad - a spicy salad with minced meat. We also tried the local BBQ'd Laos sausage later in the evening which was so tasty!
On Friday, workout number 2 was in order - we somehow ended up walking approximately 15km around the city, simply seeing the sights and getting a little lost at times too. Vientiane seems to have its very own equivalent of the arch d'triumph which after walking to the top, gives excellent views over the city. We booked the 24 hr bus to Vietnam for the following day too, and in the afternoon, the heat had got to us (and showed via the sunburn we had caught!) so we headed to the Vientiane national swimming pool to cool off.
Views over the city
By 5pm that day, our visas were ready so we walked to the embassy to pick up our stamped passports. 20 metres from the embassy, we both realised at the exact same time that we had put the visa date on our application form as one day later than we had booked the bus for earlier that morning! We wouldn't be able to change the date of the bus we'd booked, so the only option was to ask the embassy to change the visa date on our passports. We didn't think it would be possible, and thought we may have to book another bus and stay in Vientiane another night, however after a bit of back and forth with the lady at the embassy, they could change the date for a $30 fee, which Stu managed to haggle down to $20. The change simply ended up being a tippexed out date and a new date biro-ed over the top. So I'm sure that $20 helped pay for someone's Friday night out that day! At least we could stick to our plan though and get the overnight bus to Vietnam as planned.
We headed back to the river front and celebrated our Vietnamese visa with a wine cooler and BeerLao on the riverfront at sunset. It's worth noting just how cool that riverfront is at that time of night. It's a massive plaza type riverfront with a really social atmosphere, of which the night market runs alongside.There's people rollerblading, teenagers hanging out, and at 6pm each night, 2 massive aerobic classes take places with the music booming over the city, often with 200+ people taking part. We shared a curry that night at a small fairy light lit restaurant and prepared outrselves with an early night ready for our epic 24 hr bus journey to Vietnam the next day.
Seeing as we would be sat on our backsides the whole way to Vietnam, on Saturday morning we went for a run along the riverfront. Stu keeps on suffering from horrendous blisters (I blame too much exercise!) and the one gained this day made him look like he had grown an extra toe! Gross! I won't make you suffer with a photo!) The bus to Vietnam was leaving at 5pm that day, so after checking out of our guesthouse at lunchtime, we busied ourselves walking around the local sights, relaxing in the nearby park and going to the local mini-mart to buy ourselves 24 hrs worth of snacks to take with us on our upcoming journey. At 5pm, we were picked up in a truck that looked suitable to heard cattle, and were taken to the international bus terminal. The journey to Vietnam was upon us!
The international bus terminal was beyond hectic. Hundreds of people, different buses going everywhere and we didn't really have any idea which bus we were meant to get on. Our rucksacks were chucked into the hold of one bus along with several bags belonging to other foreigners. Then 3 of us were told we had to take our bags off and were going on another bus. We relunctantly got on the other bus, slightly worried we'd been downgraded. But once we were on, we realised the bus was just as nice and was only half full, so much quieter and the 3 of us had the back of the bus to ourselves, although right near the toilet where the bus driver had told us we had to go. We were thrown around in our sleeper bunks until 2am when the bus pulled over at a petrol garage. We waited there until the border opened at 7am drifting in and out of sleep on the hot bus as the bus driver had turned the aircon off! Passports and visas at the ready, we were all set to enter Vietnam.
Our beds for the night
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