LAOS - Monday 28 June to Friday 2 July – Vang Vieng to Pakse

Monday 28 June – Vang Vieng
Happy Anniversary to us – 35 years!!
Well we didn’t sleep too badly despite the noise from the island. It poured rain all night and looks as though it has set in for the day. We are watching the river flow by and a fisherman upstream with a net at the end of some bamboo poles standing in the river fishing. Decided the river was far too muddy to do the tubing (floating down the river with the current in a rubber tractor tube past lots of bars). Our guesthouse owner found a snake in his house eating a frog. He took the snake out and then took the frog out. We talked to an Aussie who said he had been to Angkor Wat and it was just a bunch of old buildings way past their used by date!!! Philistine!!!! A young Brit we met said he had been working at the bucket bar and three Irish lads came in. The young Brit had contracted red eye (conjunctivitus) so instead of shaking hands they were all touching elbows. He was looking the worse for wear and really needed to get out but was having trouble leaving! We went for a meal then decided to see what the Bucket Bar was about. The buckets were free for an hour – they held about 1 – 1½ litres of lao whiskey and coke, fresh lime with a straw. Everyone drinks from a plastic bucket – sat around on a built up platform watching the soccer, listening to the very loud music and chatting to our young Brit and Irish friends. Our bucket lasted us the entire time we were there so it was a cheap night. When we left our young Brit friend was up dancing and looked as though he was going to be stuck for another day – hope he gets out soon! Poured rain on the way back across the little bridge to our room.

Tuesday 29 June – Vang Vieng to Vientiane
Happy Birthday Yvette
Left in sprinkling rain after admiring the wonderful view from our room again. Took a tuk tuk to the bus station. The bus left at 7am and was pretty old but we had the windows open and it was only 30,000 kip each - $4.40. The tuk tuk cost 20,000 kip to go 3km. From Vang Vieng to Vientiane was around 170km. It started off a little bit windy and a couple of the locals had to get out their barf bags. The bus was only half full. The terrain then went flat with lots of rice paddies. They have a kind of tractor thing with long handles which they walk behind to plough with and on the road they put a cart behind to sit on and steer via the long handles. There were lots of little towns and villages along the way. There are a couple of major roads but when you get off them everything is dirt. All the houses in the villages have swept dirt around them, not grass. We arrived at Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, at about 11am. Took us a while to find a guest house but found a very nice room for 90,000 kip ($13). You really notice the French influence here – baguettes the principal sandwich and bread. The old French houses, some in a state of disrepair look great. There are lots of Wats (Buddhist temple complexes). A long avenue much like the Champes Elysees with an Oriental Arch de Triumphe at one end and the Presidential Palace at the other. The place was ransacked and basically destroyed in 1828 so the majority of the place was built after this period. There are a lot of huge expensive buildings and a lot of building going on. We walked around for the afternoon and had dinner and an early night.

Wednesday 30 June – Vientiane to Tha Khaek
Left our guesthouse early and walked back to the bus station and caught a local bus to the main bus station. Got there at 7.30 - an air/con bus – and got our seats and our baguettes and the bus left at 8am sharp and drove around the corner and stopped for 20 minutes while all sorts of people got on trying to flog off food. The bus was chock a block full. The scenery is very rural with lots of villages along the way and rice paddies – lots of rice paddies. They throw the seeds into one or two paddies and they sprout very thickly. When this has grown enough they pick it and put into little bunches and then plant it one plant at a time. Very labour intensive. A lady had a chicken under her coat and took it out to feed it. People kept getting on and the bus got quite crowded with kids doubling up and then a couple of stools appeared in the aisle. One lady was nursing her baby and one lady was nursing her dog! After about 3 hours there was the obligatory loo stop – ladies behind a big tree and men along the edge of the road. Just as we were coming into the bus station we saw two buses which had had a head on collision - where both drivers had been was all smashed in and the whole left hand side of both buses had been sideswiped. Confirmed our plan to sit on the right hand side – seats 11 and 12 looked good! Arrived at 2pm and took a tuk tuk to the Travel Lodge Guesthouse as recommended by Lonely Plant but were not impressed at the bare cement floor and inflated price so walked to the tourist office and then found a good big room at Pouhkanna guesthouse. There was one thing about Labuan Prabang we didn’t mention and that was all the street venders cooking chickens – whole chooks, bits of chooks etc – you would hardly credit there would be enough chooks in the country to keep up this supply!!!!

Thursday 1 July – Tha Khaek
Happy Birthday Jeremy
Woke to pouring rain but it was nice to be able to sleep in. Had a slow start to the day (much needed). We found Tha Khaek to be a lovely laid back town. We walked along the Mekong River admiring the decaying French buildings. The water fountain in the middle of town didn’t work and the town just had a lovely feel about it. We only saw one other white person through the day. We went to the markets and walked back out to the bus station to check the times. It was a lovely walk through the country and the people were really friendly. The people don’t seem to care if you buy anything or stay at accommodation – if you do, you do but they don’t seem to care. Walked for miles and went back to the river for a beer. Peter got a beer out of the fridge and rattled around but couldn’t get the girl to wake up so put it back and went down the road to where the proprietor was awake!! We could see Thailand across the river and it looked more affluent but having said that there is certainly some money in town. There are a lot of beautiful big houses – some huge and Government buildings and the vehicles are new Lexus and Toyoto diesel 4 wheel drives. Saw the World Vision office and it wasn’t too shabby either – three storeys. We ate the most delicious dinner at our guesthouse restaurant – best since we have been in Laos – served by three of the loveliest young girls. They could only bring one thing at a time. First the beer, then the glasses and finally the bucket of ice – yes ice. They drink their beer with ice and its really nice. This service could take 5 or 10 minutes but no-one minds – there is plenty of time. There were two other pairs of backpackers in and then 4 NZ/Aussie blokes turned up who clear unexploded ordinance in Laos and Cambodia so the power grid can go through. For the adventurous here there are caves and waterfalls and treks but we just had the loveliest day. Fell asleep to the sounds of very loud very bad karaoke!!

Friday 2 July – Tha Khaek to Pakse
Had our morning tea & coffee with our trusty little kettle – what a good buy that has been. We walked to the bus station leaving at 7 and got there around 7.40 in time to catch the 8.30 bus to Pakse. We stuffed around for a bit and next thing the bus started up so we dived on and our 8.30 bus left at 5 to 8! And holy moly this bus driver was in a hurry! He turned the air con off we think so he could go faster and passed everything in sight blowing his horn all the while. Two other backpackers were on the left front seat behind the driver – we were glad we weren’t there! The conductor was putting luggage in and hadn’t even closed the luggage door when the bus took off and he had to run to jump in the door. The first loo stop was a quick dive in the bushes – we presume everyone made it back on the bus. Second stop no time for modesty – quick dive into the bushes and the horn is blowing to get back on. This driver was in such a hurry! Apart from that the scenery was fantastic – so rurally rustic. The bus was supposed to stop at a big town Savahnakat but he offloaded those people going there onto an already overcrowded troop carrier truck – we were pleased we weren’t going there. The area was quite populated with villages all along the road. Houses range from opulent to lovely to wooden to huts – the whole spectrum. Australia and Japan seem to have put quite a bit of money into this country. The countryside is flat with loads of rice paddies, some in use, some overgrown. The middle part seemed to be in drought as there wasn’t much water around and then there was heaps of water. It is weird seeing so many water buffalo. We don’t know what their use is (food??!!) as they are not used in the fields – they use the hand push tractor things. There have been wandering cows, pigs, goats, turkeys, geese – a real rural menagerie. Most of the chooks seem to be on sticks in the market! (cooked). For a while we could hear chickens chirping on the bus – a man had three in a little cage. The bus driver slowed down when he nearly hit a cow! No it was because the speed limit went to 30 kph! We were supposed to go to the Pakse bus station but we pulled up and the driver told us and the other European couple this was our stop so we grabbed all our things and got off into a waiting tuk tuk which had two monks and two European girls already in. The other girl went to climb in next to the monk and a look of horror crossed his face. We had to stop her and sit her on the opposite side – women are not allowed to touch monks. On a bus a monk will sit on the back seat so we are not allowed to sit there. Anyway they threw our backpacks in on top of us and off we went about 6k to the centre of town. We found a place to stay close to the river – it was pretty basic and the mattress was lumpy. Ate at the Indian restaurant – very good food.