Ooh La Laos

When originally sketching out the route home, we planned on a couple of months travel in southeast Asia, starting in Vietnam and finishing in Thailand. We then shared the itinerary with the Hitchcocks, our southeast Aisan travel Advisors, and the feedback we received was that we’d be stupid not to include China and Laos in our travels. Thus we set about squeezing two additional countries into an already tight itinerary. This update follows the week we found to tiki tour through Laos.

First stop was the capital, Ventiane, a place that has escaped French colonialism in good shape –French pastry bakeries are numerous while no sign of a penchant for striking. Ventiane is pretty sleepy for a nation’s capital and the pace of things is certainly a step down from the rest of Asia. Our time in Ventiane was brief and we took to the sights on a scooter. Very few sights to speak of, so here’s a picture of Mat on a scooter instead.

Mat on the afore mentioned scooter.

Blogging can be hard work.

Next stop was Vang Vien, a small town set alongside a river of the same name and a favourite with tourists. The set-up here is very simple and certainly aimed at an age-group below the 28-35 bracket we find ourselves in! Cafes and pubs line all the streets, all offering cosy laid back booths to lie back and pass the day while watching episodes of ‘Friends’, South Park’ or the ‘The Family Guy’ on loop. Morning’s are spent here, but the afternoons are what everyone visiting Vang Vien live for.

As we noted, Vang Vien’s nestled beside a muddy tributary of the Mekong river, and the locals have put this setting to great use. Around lunch time, the local tubing cartel starts dropping tourists 3kms up the road, armed with an inner tube to get back to Vang Vien on. Between the drop off point and town lie a dozen or so riverside bars, all constructed without building permits and all offering a little something, a beer Lao or bucket of Red Bull and vodka. Kids line the riverbank and throw rope lines to you as you pass by to pull you from the current and into the bar. Water slides, rope swings and zip lines catapult willing participants into the river, while the sporting inclined tend to enjoy the beer pong or mud volleyball on offer.

Despite felling a little old compared to the 6 foot tall and bullet proof 18 -23 year olds that proliferate in Vang Vien, we took to the river and had a great afternoon partaking in most of the shenanigans. A repeated rumour of a pink-eye epidemic kept us away from the mud volleyball, but we managed a 2 match test series of beer pong with a Canadian couple that we shared the journey down the river with.

Vang Vien, situated amongst the Laos mountains.

Drop off completed...

...let the shenanigans begin.

Caros on the first rope swing .

Mat gives it a nudge - if you have a high res screen you'll notice a distinct look of fear.

Waterslide...

... be rude not too...

... classic 'Mangere' position.

Caroline drifting between bars.

Our Cansadian beer pong opponents, shortly before defeat by the 'Silver Pongs'.

We also both made offerings to the river God, Caroline in the form of her travelling wedding band which was lost on one of the rope swings in the act of preventing her board shorts from coming off in the current. For Mat, he left his New Zealand dog-tag in the river after a memorable water entry at the end of a zip-line. With the reflexes of a sloth (dulled by a couple of beer Lao), Mat failed to let go of the zip line before the end of the line and was catapulted from the line in a somersaulting motion. Caroline managed to catch his entry to the water which, as you’ll see below, was head first with all four limbs still out of the water, with the force ripping the necklace from the place it had occupied for the previous 4 years.

Top, marks for dificulty, but the entry could have been better. More heart than 'Eric the Eel'.

We had a great day pretending we were twenty something again and had plans to make a repeat appearance on the second day in Vang Vien (a plan thwarted by the hangover which followed the first day). But it was fair to say that we were certainly at one end of the bell curve that was the age distribution of participants, though not the oldest! We did come across a group of 40 something ladies that were giving it a crack, including some impressive action on the rope swing.

From Vang Vien, we moved off the gringo trail and headed east to Phonsavan (again on the recommendation of the Htchcocks). Phonsavan is bang centre in one of two regions bombed massively by the US during the Secret War (a massive US aerial bombing campaign on the fringes of the Vietnam War aimed at destroying part of the Ho Chi Minh trail and communist activities in Laos - Google it). Phonsavan is also set in the ‘Plain of Jars’, an area of Laos dotted with the remains of 3,000 year old stone jars , the purpose of which remains very much a mystery. There are 90 odd sites around the country side where groupings of these jars can be found, and we visited three of the more important sites.

Thats a big jar.

Someone jokingly yells 'Snake' and the ginge is frozen amongst the rice paddies. At least there is sustenance for 2-3 years...

The sites were impressive and being Kiwis, we were quite proud that we were able to visit them because of the work of NZAid in clearing the sites of un-exploded ammunitions. The favourite bomb dropped by the US during the secret war was the cluster bomb, which is essentially bombs within a bomb. Within a cluster bomb, there are a couple of hundred tennis ball sized smaller bombs which fire ball bearings when they explode. The smaller bombs have their fuse lit once they start oscillating through the air, and on 20-30% of occasions, the fuse will fail to light and thus they fall to the ground unexploded. Since the war, these unexploded bombs have claimed thousands of lives when encountered by humans in the course of their day.

During the course of the Secret War, the US dropped more bombs in Laos than they did in the whole of World War II and there is an estimated 8 million of these unexploded bombs littering the Laos countryside. To put it in perspective, in the areas cleared by NZAid, an unexploded bomb was found in every 1,600 square metres, an area measuring 40m by 40m or in two average residential sections in New Zealand. Now extrapolate this over an area bigger than the mighty province of Marlborough and you get an idea of the number of unexploded bombs lying about and stifling development in Laos(hard to convert land to agriculture or build roads quickly when these bombs have to be dealt with). Life has adapted though and while a number of charities work to clear more land of what the locals call ‘bombies’, the remains of the bombs are converted by the locals into everything from spoons to flower pots.

The entry to a small cafe across the road from the 'Mines Advisory Group'.

From here, we ventured north to Luang Prabang, a place held in very high esteem by Lonely Planet (‘one of South East Aisa’s most beguiling cities’). This city is set on a spur of land at the confluence of the Mekong and one of its tributaries in the heart of the northern Laos mountains. There are more Buddhist Wats than off-licenses in London and plenty of activities outside the city. It was here we first learned of the Canterbury earthquake. Having pumped for more salubrious accommodations so Mat had wifi access for a spot of work, we woke to headlines on Stuff that an earthquake centred a few kilometres from Caroline’s parent’s home had cause a fair amount of damage. Thus our first day in Luang Prabang was spent Skyping to see that all was right with family back home. Thankfully the family avoided any significant damage, though the same can’t be said for many other places (including the Church we were married in). With many friends in Christchurch, we hope everyone has emerged from the events well, and for those in the Selwyn District, be happy that Deputy Mayor Jum Morten is on the case.

We split our time in Luang Prabang amongst a day visiting the best of the temples and a day in the mountains visiting a waterfall. Good times had, aided by the sill relaxed pace of life in Laos. One particular highlight was a traffic jam we were greeted with on our last day in Luang Prabang, caused by 5 elephants walking down the road in honour of 15 years of UNESCO heritage status.

At the end of the rainy season, each town on the Mekong hosts a boat racing day. Two days out from Luang Prabang's day, a local team trains.

A traffic jam - Luang Prabang styles.

Like a 'Mangere' or a 'Bomb', the 'Lunag Prabanger' had a distinct style.

If the Police ask who was taking photos of young boys in undies, it was Caroline, definately Caroline.

All the single ladies who hate tanned bods, all the single ladies....

On our last morning, we rose early (5:30am) to take in ‘The Alms’, which is a procession of Buddhist monks who are given food by the locals on their way to morning prayers. Quite an amazing experience, we purchased some coconut and rice balls wrapped in banana leaf to pass on to the monks. Over a 15 minute period, a constant stream of monks in orange robes passed by, and as they received food, they’d offer some back to young children on the street.

So while Laos was an afterthought on the original itinerary, the Hitchcocks have emerged with travel-cred intact and put us on to a winner by suggesting we fit Laos into the equation. Laos was well worth the re-route and the laid back approach coupled with fantastic scenery made for a great week’s travel. So with a week left in south-east Asia, we head back to Thailand to rendezvous with Simon ‘Bandy’ Gullery (Best-Man at the Mort-holomew wedding) and his lady friend, Amy.