Laos, was the third stop of our trip and one of the most relaxing and removed place I have ever been. Also, it is the birth place of Beer Lao, a deliciously smooth beer that you can only get in Southeast Asia because it is not exported to the rest of the world apparently.
Starting in Luang Prabang on the 29th, Jameson and I got up around 10 due to the construction going on around our hotel.
We hit the town for some breakfast and to book a trek for the next day with White Elephant tour company. It wasn't what we had talked about, but Jameson jumped on it before he thought about how much he had wanted to do an elephant tour instead of a bike/kayak trek; even when there was a place next door that offered one. After booking our tour we hit some of the sights. We started at Wat Sop, then on to Wat Xieng Thong which was built in 1560 and had great decoration and colour. After that we went to where the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers meet and crossed the Nam Khan on a rickety bamboo bridge that took us to some outskirt villages where we met and talked with some monks. Once back on the town side of t
he river, we stopped at our guest house before heading to the Royal Palace Museum. After the palace we grabbed some Indian food for dinner then climbed Phu Si, a tiny rock hill in the center of the backpackers area with Wats and other religious bits. It is located in a spot that is great for watching the sunset. The sunset was spectacular,
and once it was finished we headed back to the guest house for a break before grabbing a few beers and street food (chicken). We called it a night at 1030 to get some much needed rest.The 30th stared out cloudy but became sunny and hot in a hurry. We got up at 730 for our jungle adventure. We got to White Elephant tours and waited for our guide Ken, who was actually Laotian and of Hmong descent. We started on mountain bike and headed out of Luang Prabang. After a short while we were out of the city and riding through small "jungle" villages, I use quotations because they were in the process of having roads put in, for 2 hours. Eventually we reached the Nam Khan
river where we traded our bikes for kayaks and started the trip down river that would take us back to the city. We stopped about 20 minutes down river at a waterfall for lunch. The water fall falls just over 60m in a 120m span, and has many pools for people to swim and play in, though the water was quite chilly. We had a 1.5 hour lunch/swim break before getting back in the kayaks and heading 2 more hours down river to the city. In the end it was a nice trip, but we did get a little sun burnt and sore from all the paddling. Back around 4pm we took showers and hit the market to find some souvenirs, and stop for food at a street food buffet extravaganza. After we ate we dropped our buys off at the guest house and went to Utopia Bar for a couple beers, then called it a night on account of exhaustion around 10.Waking up at 7 the next morning we packed then grabbed breakfast, the place where we saw the dancing Beggar for the first time, before going back to White Elephant for our tuk-tuk to the bus station so we could head to Vang Vieng. Getting on the minivan bus at 9, we settled in for our 6 hour ride through winding mountains. It wold have been a great time to take pictures but my bag was tied to the top of the van. We got into Vang Vieng and found a place to stay then went out for some dinner and drinks at The Irish Bar then Q-Bar, but had to call it a night because everything in Vang Vieng closes at 11.
Once we woke up at 10 on the 2nd we got some breakfast at Aussie Bar, then bought some new swim shorts since mine went missing in Vietnam, so that we could go tubing on the river. We rented our tubes and headed to the river for the daily party and tubing, though hardly anybody ever tubes, they just drink and party at the bars along the first stretch of the river. We met up with a girl from Ottawa named Miriam and spent most of the day hanging out and partying with her. We drank from bar to bar and played in the river until around 5 when we got separated. So I took a tuk-tuk back into town to find Jameson and get some dinner with Miriam, which consisted of "Special Pizza"; then a bar promoter came and talked us into going to his bar for a few drinks. At the end of the night Jameson had gone back to the hotel while i finished my last beer. Then on my way back I stopped at a sandwich cart that made me the best sandwich ever. It was on a baguette and had chicken, ham, bacon, hot dogs and cheese on it, in fact it was so good I went and got Jameson so he could get one and I could get another. Then is was off to bed feeling full and tired.
The sandwiches from the night before came back to haunt me the next morning, as i woke up at 7 with a stomach ache and had to go back to bed until 10. After breakfast with Miriam, we packed our bags and headed to the bus station for our bus to Bangkok. this is the point in which I lost my phone and camera cord due to one of the bus station employees rummaging through my bag while I was in the washroom. I caught him as I was coming back but wasn't
aware of what he had taken until I was back in Korea. Either way the bus left at 2pm for the 15 hour ride to Bangkok. And, on a side note, I punched a fly into the window during this ride because Jameson couldn't kill it and I told him to just punch it like a man.........we were both beside ourselves when I actually landed the punch. Reaching the Thailand border around 930, I had some more passport trouble, that was eventually sorted out by one guy saying to another, "just give him the stamp on the special paper and staple it in his book". We got into Bangkok at Koa San Road around 545am and headed straight for the airport.It was a quick trip through Laos, but worth every penny. Up next, Thailand and some much needed time in a place for more than 2 sleeps.
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