Laos Part 3: Luang Prabang

My apologies for not writing about Luang Prabang long ago. Laung Prabang was by far my favorite stop in Laos. My friends and I spent four lovely days there, mostly sitting around, drinking Beer Lao, reading, and playing cards. The bus ride to Laos was both magical and sickening. Six hours of twists and turns on roads through a breathtaking mountain range. I wish I had been able to take a decent picture, but there was really no way to take one properly through the rear window. Along the sides of the road I saw many small communities of people living in bamboo shacks, hauling their water in jugs down the road, bathing children in communal fountains. This is definitely the least developed part of the world I have ever been to. We arrived in Luang Prabang late at night and were instantly charmed. The city is located at the confluence of the Nam Kahn River and the Mekong River and is filled with French colonial shop houses, wats, and alleyways dripping with tropical foliage. It's an incredibly romantic and relaxing place. I enjoyed every second of it.



The Highlights:

1. The Food
Once again, we were in love with the food. Our favorite place to eat was Cafe Bon Vat Sene, an atmospheric cafe with the best tartines I have ever had.



The food was just as delicious on the Laotian side, we enjoyed lots of laarb, sticky rice, and Lao BBQ.



If you are ever in Luang Prabang, you simply must try the river weed. It is not as bad as it sounds.



2. Kouang Si Falls
On our second day in town we took a songtheaw up to Kouang Si Falls. We poked around the bear rescue center and then spent most of our trip seeking shelter from massive thunderstorms. In between the raindrops, we managed to check out the falls and swim in their pools.





3. Boat Tour
We took a sunset boat tour. It was lovely.



4. Cooking Class
On our final day, Erin and I learned how to cook Laotian food. This was one of the most enjoyable experiences of the entire trip. I was really impressed with the amount of information our instructor gave us. She sat us down with several baskets of ingredients and went through them one by one, explaining what it was used for, where it was found, and what substitutes you could use if you couldn't find it at home.

Then we cooked. My favorite thing was this delicious eggplant paste snack.



I was impressed by my natural spring rolling talent.



Our final meal was to die for. I'm excited to go home and try out the recipes.


(Ignore the ridiculous hats)

5. Sitting Around, Doing Nothing
Bliss.

Laos Part 2: Vang Vieng

After another breakfast of delicious pastries we attempted to take a bus out of Vientiane to Vang Vieng. Unfortunately for us, poor planning on the part of the bus company meant that it took two vans, two buses, and over an hour before we actually went more than a mile away from our guest house. After that it was a relatively smooth and easy ride to Vang Vieng. The flatlands of Vientiane gave way to steep cliffs lush with jungle. Around every turn was a new waterfall tumbling down the side of a mountain. After a three hour ride we found ourselves in the backpacker capital of Laos: Vang Vieng.



Some guidebooks and websites warned against Vang Vieng as being too touristy and not the "real" Laos. Despite that, it really is a great place for a traveler to stop, as it breaks up the 10 hour ride between the capital of Vientiane and Luang Prabang. While in Vang Vieng you can sign up for a multitude of adventure trips and activities. Rafting, biking, kayaking, and rock climbing are all options, You could easily stay in Vang Vieng for a week and do a different activity each day. That said, the main draw of Vang Vieng is the river that runs through it. Every day, scores of backpackers rent innertubes and spend the day floating down the river from bar to bar, stopping to drink a beer, explore a cave, or play volleyball. The town of Vang Vieng is relatively calm and laid-back but other than that it is nothing special. All of the restaurants serve more or less the same mixture of Laotian food and bland western junk food (though I will admit I LOVED the proliferation of baguette sandwiches) as either Family Guy or Friends plays on a TV in the background. Most of the hotels seemed to offer the same quality of hospitality for the same prices. Our hotel had a beautiful view and was fairly clean but we were astounded by how apathetic our hotel management was and how little they cared about our presence.






What really is spectacular about Vang Vieng is the scenery. The town overlooks a swiftly flowing river lined by stunning limestone karsts. Each morning we enjoyed taking long walks around the valley. The further away from town we got the more interesting our walks became. We found ourselves following fisherwomen, inspecting strange communist monuments, and wandering along the edge of rice paddies. I paused often to marvel at the beautiful butterflies. They looked like nothing I've ever seen in Thailand or in the states.





And did you know about the mulberries? They apparently grow a lot of them in Laos. Everywhere you go there is mulberry this and mulberry that. I'm drinking mulberry green tea as I type this. If you ever go to Vang Vieng, I insist you try the Mulberry Set at the Organic Farm Cafe. There is no better way to start your morning than with mulberry pancakes and a mulberry shake.

We left Vang Vieng after two days, slightly worse for wear but happy with our stay and even more enamored with Laos than we had been.

Please note that I switched the my picture embedding such that if you click on one it will link you directly to a higher res version and the rest of my flickr pictures.

Laos Part 1: Vientiane

I've done a considerable about of traveling around South East Asia last year but unlike most backpackers I've done everything in little spurts. A weekend in Indonesia here, a weekend in Malaysia there... almost always flying wherever I went in order to take advantage of cheap airfares and maximize the little time I had to explore. Finally, on our journey to Laos I was able to check off "massive overland journey" on my SE Asian traveler checklist. And what a journey it was!



I had yet to take a train in Thailand, so we opted for the overnight train from Bangkok straight up through Isaan to the friendship bridge with Laos near Vientiane. We bought tickets for the second class sleeper section of the train. We started our journey happily with some Leo beer and sub-par fried rice I purchased on the train. After we had been traveling for an hour or so, our seats were made into beds and we all scurried away into our berths. This is where it became less fun. While lying in bed on your paper thin mattress you close your eyes to the bright lights streaming in through the bright green curtains. And then you start to notice that the swaying of the train becoming more and more vicious with each second. The banging sounds become louder. You begin to wonder how often trains get derailed in Thailand. Is that a good noise? After eleven hours of this, you end up at the Laos-Thailand border, safe and sound and only $20 lighter.



After making it across the boarder we quickly found ourselves a guesthouse to stay in. For $5 a piece the three of us shared a dorm room on the top floor of our guesthouse. The place was pretty minimalist but clean. The best part of the room was the spacious patio with chairs to sit in and read and a nice view overlooking the rooftops of Vientiane. The perfect place to watch the sunset later that night.



I had heard that Vientiane was a lackluster city. Not much to see, not much to do, nothing to write home about. We were very pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed Vientiane. True, the scenery and architecture in Vientiane look dull compared to the rest of Laos, but the relaxed pace, good food, and friendly people more than made up for it. We decided to start our Vientiane sightseeing with a bike ride to the most notable religious building in the city, That Luang. That Luang was built on top of an ancient Khmer site. The original stupa was plundered and destroyed by the Chinese in the late 1800s (the gold in it was ripe for the taking after the city had been raided by the Siamese and subsequently deserted in 1828). The current golden spire was rebuilt in the 1930s. Soon after we started our bike ride we realized that Erin did not really take well to bicycles. Thus, we set off on foot. Our sweaty hike brought us out of town and up to the Patouxai. The Patouxai is more or less the Arch de Triomphe of Vientiane. This sign says it all:



I'm impressed by their honesty. I didn't think it was THAT much of an eyesore.



Finally we reached our destination:


Not as well kept up as similar religious monuments in Thailand, but still very beautiful.

We also passed some interesting examples of Soviet architecture.





And realized that street signs in this communist country have private sponsors. Strange.



Our evening in town was very relaxing. For dinner, Dave and I were excited to go to a French brasserie and sink our teeth into steaks. Please get used to my raving about the food in Laos, it will continue. The French colonizers left behind a fantastic food legacy. I was in heaven with the delicious pastries and superb baguette sandwiches. Although I typically try to eat the cuisine native to the country I visit, I really couldn't help myself in Laos. I ate much more Western food than I typically do. I made up for it with a Laotian cooking class on my last day in the country.



After dinner we wandered along the Mekong, eating banana-chocolate roti and drinking Beerlao Dark. Off to a good start and only one day in.

Evening in Vang Vieng

P1000207, a photo by AnnaRae on Flickr.

My vacation in Laos was quite possibly the most relaxing and fun vacation I've ever been on. My friend Erin is still in town, so I'll be rather busy this week. Expect blog posts up some time next week with all of the details. For now, tide yourself over with 250+ pictures of our trip . I know that is a lot of pictures, but Laos is stunning and you'll be glad you looked at them all.

Laos!

At long last the school year is over! Today I held back tears as I said goodbye to my babies. I'll be teaching a summer camp in July, but many of my students will not return. Now it's off for a week of adventure and relaxation in Laos with great friends (including Erin, imported from the States!). More to come!

Ukulele Lesson, Cha-Am Thailand

Am I doing it right?, a photo by AnnaRae on Flickr.

Kanchanaburi Adventures

Kanchanburi Province

Earlier this week a potential four-day weekend was dangled in front of me, causing me to come up with exciting plans for a spur of the moment trip to Cambodia. Unfortunately, on Friday our boss discussed all the work we would be doing together on Monday... no long weekend. Since my roommates and I had already been in the mindset of getting out of Bangkok for the weekend (and because we wanted to celebrate my roommate Emily's birthday in style) we decided to quickly pack our bags and head to Kanchanaburi.


Allied P.O.W. Cemetery, Kanchanaburi

Kanchanaburi has two main draws, the first is that it lies along the banks of the River Kwai-- yes, the one from the movie. In Kanchanaburi there are cemeteries filled with allied POWs from the UK and Australia as well as several museums and monuments commemorating their sacrifices during the war. The other draw is its proximity to Erawan National Park. This park has a lovely series of seven waterfalls that are extremely popular amongst Thais and tourists.


Outside the Hellfire Pass Museum

On our first day in Kanchanaburi we hopped on a purple bus and headed out into the countryside to see the Hellfire Pass Memorial. To give you a bit of background, during World War II over 60,000 British, Australian, Dutch and American Prisoners of War along with 270,000 Asian laborers built a railroad stretching between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzat, Burma. From October 1942 to October 1943 these workers were forced to work as much as 16 hours a day in the jungles of Thailand and Burma under terrible conditions-- little food, poor sanitation, inadequate medical facilities, and brutal treatment from their captives. By the time the railroad was completed,12,399 of the Allied POWs and 70-90,000 of the Asian laborers had died. In 1984 one of the POWs came back to Thailand and searched for Hellfire Pass, one of the cuttings that the men had made during the war. Once he found it, he asked the Australian Government to dedicate it as a historic site. Over the years this site has been redeveloped to include a beautiful and informative museum as well as a 4km long walking path along the site of the former railroad. We arrived at the museum 45 minutes before closing so we had to rush a bit to get through it. We then took our time walking through Hellfire Pass. As it was pouring rain and late in the afternoon, we had the pass all to ourselves. Walking through the misty pass and looking at the monuments to the men who lost their lives building it was fascinating and quite moving, I'm glad we went out of our way to see it.





On our second day in Kanchanaburi we woke up and headed straight to The Bridge. The bridge that now spans the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi is actually not the same one as the one as was made by the POWs. That one was bombed to pieces by the Allies. That makes visiting it much less exciting but it was still a necessary stop during our trip.



Our big day trip on Day 2 was up to Erawan Falls. These falls are located in a national park about an hour and half from Kanchanaburi (yes, another long bus ride.) and are extremely popular with Thais. Since it was a holiday weekend I suppose I should have expected the crowds, but I really wasn't prepared for the waterpark-like atmosphere we were met with. Kids, food, watertoys, etc. littered the park.



There are seven levels of waterfalls. The further up you go the less people you find-- they stop selling concessions after level two after all. Unfortunately, we didn't really have all that much time to explore the waterfalls, just a bit under two hours before catching another bus back to Kanchanaburi. We decided to stop our hike at the fourth waterfall and jump in for a swim. The water was cool and refreshing after hiking in the heat of the Thai jungle but it was impossible to relax too much. As soon as you stopped swimming fish would start nibbling at your extremities. This didn't really hurt at all but certainly had a bizarre sensation and threw me off guard a few times. I eventually settled down, sat on a rock, and let them bite my feet.


Biting fish!


I slid down this rock into the water!

Our trip ended with a 1.5 hour ride back to Kanchanaburi and a 2 hr minivan ride back to Bangkok. I believe we spent at least ten hours in vehicles for a grand total of four hours of sight seeing over two days, but I'm not going to complain! I loved the relaxed pace of Kanchanaburi and really enjoyed the long leisurely bus rides through the Thai countryside. That part of the country is so different from Bangkok, I'd really like to have more time to explore it.



P.S. A few hours after we arrived in Bangkok on Sunday night I was informed that I didn't have work for the next two days.