Luang Prabang
Ahmad: After heading back to Kunming, we spent a couple of days relaxing, doing a little shopping (no H&M in Laos or Cambodia) and generally building ourselves up to deal with some bargaining again (I didn’t enjoy it in India, and I don’t enjoy it now).
We had booked a sleeper bus from Kunming, China to Luang Prabang, Laos, a 28 hour journey, though it did have sleeper beds. After speaking to the hostel (who arranged our bus tickets) we got onto a local bus to the bus station, the hostel told us to get off at the terminus of the bus, they didn’t however tell us that the bus was a circular and after getting to the south bus station (which we didn’t see from the opposite side of the road) it came straight back into town. We asked some locals (mostly by miming and pointing) and they told us to get off the bus immediately and jump on another bus going the opposite way. We duly got off the bus, and with 20 minutes till departure we got into a cab to the bus station. We did make the bus but only with 5 minutes to spare.
The bus journey was pretty annoying, there were two double beds per side of the bus, and each of the beds was a ¾ size (pretty small, more like a double coffin really) though we did manage to get a little sleep (luckily we were sharing a bed, I wouldn’t want to have shared with a random Chinese guy). The driver was really irritating and spent the entire night smoking and/or listening to very very loud, very very bad music (Chinese opera couldn’t compete). We passed into Laos with a smooth border crossing around 9AM. Though the scenery out the window was truly beautiful, we were glad the bus was on time and ecstatic to get off.
After getting to Luang Prabang we found a decent guesthouse (clean and with air-con) for £6.50. I had honestly been expecting to stay in the same kind of dilapidated, hot and filthy guesthouses as in India and was pleasantly disappointed.
We had gotten into Luang Prabang late-afternoon, we spent the evening settling in, found a buffet restaurant for about 80p . The next couple of days were spent getting our bearings and going to the waterfall that is the main attraction. The water fall was nice and we went swimming (water was freezing) in a clear pool at the bottom. Laura did some water acrobatics for us (jumped from the top of the waterfall and a rope swing, alas I didn’t join in as I didn’t not wanting to exacerbate my fractured toe).
We spent the next couple of days doing very little (there is very little to do in Laos), generally wandering around temples (known locally as ‘Wat’), and even used a hotels swimming pool (for little over £1 each). We eventually bought a bus ticket and headed to Vientiane.
Vientiane
We had opted for a day bus to Vientiane, hoping to avoid the previous Chinese bus experience; the journey was uneventful and a little slow. We did eventually get into Vientiane to discover that most of the cheaper guesthouses were taken. We eventually found a place and went out for some dinner.
There was an Indian restaurant on the corner, which served passable Indian fare (nothing like the taste sensation in India), getting up the next day we moved to our guesthouse of choice and explored the local area.
‘Travelling’ in Laos
Laos generally caters for first time travellers. You can’t turn a corner without finding a bar (dressed up as an English tavern) or western coffee shop. The travellers in Laos (and I’m assuming in most of south east Asia) are also very different, Its mostly 18-22 year olds ‘travelling’ together. I personally don’t think that you can now go travelling anywhere in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia or Thailand. Every traveller we met in Laos was effectively taking a 3 month holiday with their mates, I don’t have a problem with that, I just wish they wouldn’t call it travelling. South east Asia has effectively become Spain for pre and post university students.
We didn’t do a great deal in Vientiane, we visited (yet more) temples and relaxed. We did however go to the excellent COPE centre. The centre helps victims of cluster bomblet explosions recover and rebuild their lives. They make prosthetic limbs, and generally educate the public about the dangers that unexploded ordinance poses (mostly to children). If you’re ever on holiday in south east Asia, I would defiantly make a detour to go to the centre (by the by, Laura is now afraid she is going to step on a bombie – as they are known locally).
On our last day in Vientiane we went to the local swimming pool and went for a nice swim. The local kids decided to harass me a little (they had never seen a hairy chest before) so we passed our time well (Laura: The children were actually stroking his hairy chest and pulling on the chin beard!)
Pakse
The same evening we were picked up by a tuk tuk the size of a van and headed to the bus station (with people hanging off the back). After getting to the bus station we were told to board a bus, the driver however told us to go to the ticket office, the ticket office would tell us to get on the bus. This cycle reoccurred several times before we found a conductor who actually had our tickets, baggage stowed we started our journey. We had been told that food would be provided on the bus, as it was all we were given was two quite small and very cold meat filled steamed buns each.
After eventually getting to sleep (this was a sleeper bus i.e ¾ bed for two people), we arrived early in Paske. As before we found a guesthouse, ate and decided that we had, had enough of Laos, we went to the local bus station and bought onward tickets to Cambodia.
If you want a 2-4 wee k holiday doing nothing but sun bathing, drinking, swimming etc, come to Laos. Don’t come here travelling though (Sau and Max I’m sorry to disappoint you). If you came 6-8 years ago, you probably got a much more fulfilling experience, for me, I’m never coming back (there’s nothing wrong with Laos, just nothing spectacular either).
Apologies if this blog entry is somewhat dull, there just isn’t that much to say about Laos, other than you can get non-sweet bread (which in itself after 4 months made me very happy).