Vientiane

We took some time in Vientiane to map out the rest of our trip.  If you can believe it, we actually feel like we're running out of time!!  We originally hoped to visit some of the off-the-beaten-track / less-touristy southern parts of Laos.  However, since we had to plan our schedule around the upcoming busy/expensive Lunar New Year and we still have 3-4 more countries to visit before heading to the middle-east (before it gets too hot there), we decided we'd have to skip the South and fast-track a bit.

Vientiane, the capital of Laos, was our final stop for this country.  Here, we walked around to check out the various temples and monuments, discover some cute restaurants/cafes, and stumble upon a pretty fun night market along the river.  Dom also finally found a hair dresser that he likes… too bad it's expensive to fly to Laos from Canada!  Of all the temples we visited here, our favourite was the Golden Stupa (Pha That Luang). 

We also visited the Buddha Park, located located 25km from Vientiane.  This park contains several Buddha and Hindu statues that looked really cool when we first entered the park.  But beware!  As you get closer, you quickly realize that the statues are not ancient relics carved from stone - they were actually made of concrete just within the last 70 years.  A bit of research revealed that this place was essentially set up as... a tourist trap :)  Anyway, it still made for some fun photography.

Kayaking to Vientiane

Vientiane is about 4 hours from Vang Vieng by bus.  To make our journey a bit more interesting, we decided to "Kayak to Vientiane"… or part of the way, that is.  We didn't really save on any driving time, but the adventure was worthwhile.  It started with a 1.5 hour drive to the starting point, then we did 2 hours of laid-back kayaking through some beautiful scenery.  We stopped for a delicious local-bbq lunch where we could also cliff jump and/or swim, before kayaking for 1 more hour to the pickup point.  It then took another 2 hours of driving before reaching the Laos capital, Vientiane.

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a popular stop on the tourist trail between Luang Prabang and the capital city, Vientiane.  Its relaxed atmosphere is perfect for floating down the river, caving, hiking, and other great activities.  Over the years, it has gained a reputation for being a chill, laid-back, backpacker hangout.. sadly it now also has a reputation for having very high tourist fatalities and countless injuries.  In 2011 alone, Vang Vieng's tourist death toll was 27.

This picturesque town is nestled among the tranquil farms, villages, and karsts in the centre of Laos, so we were very surprised to find tourist advisories in such a quiet paradise filled with temples and culture.  Was it because of the bombies/land mines? poor safety regulations on adventure activities? dangerous wildlife? monsters?? 

As it turns out, the fatalities are due to monsters, but the monsters are the tourists themselves.  Most young tourists don't come to Vang Vieng to experience the peaceful culture and temples - they come to party and get wasted.  The exploding popularity of river tubing, along with countless makeshift bars that sprung up along the banks, make for a deadly combination resulting in many badly behaved tourists.  Numerous partiers repeatedly float down the river getting so drunk and high that they decide it's a good idea to mindlessly jump or swing from ropes, head-first into shallow depths of the river banks.  Many fail to notice the sharp rocks just below the river surface and basically jump to their deaths.  If you are not careful, you might even tube over sharp rocks causing cuts/scrapes, or if the current is strong enough, the tube could catch a rock and flip you head-first into the river.  The saddest part is that the tourists aren't just hurting themselves - this mindless wild behaviour has negative social impacts on the modest, conservative villagers in the area.  The locals now believe that the serene river that once breathed life into their villages, is now cursed with bad karma.

We were hesitant to come here until we were told that the government finally shut down all of the bars along the river in summer 2012.  We guessed that the city itself would continue to have a loud party nightlife, but when we arrived we almost wondered if we were in the right place - the vibe was way quieter and calmer than expected.  We hardy noticed any partying or drunk people anywhere.  As we strolled the main streets, we mainly noticed the results of fast growth and lack of urban planning.  The town itself is fairly ordinary and not particularly charming, but, we absolutely appreciated the peacefulness and surrounding nature - the karats along the river are just are breathtaking.  We lucked out with a perfect view of the sunset from the window of our room.

Despite the temperature being a little cold here, we decided to check out what the tubing hype was all about.  Seeing the location of the banks and rope swings still lingering from past, we could definitely just imagine drunken partiers being tempted to jump to their death… the water is fairly opaque so it's difficult to see the rocks below or notice the changes in depth along the river… we also learned that even when completely sober, tubes are not the easiest things to navigate when approaching the shallow rapids. 

The fact that the bars have now been shut down (and it was chilly that day) made for a very tranquil and enjoyable 2-hour float down the river.  We really enjoyed it.  

We also rented a motorbike and set out to explore the countryside.  We stopped at another popular attraction near Vang Vieng where there's a blue lagoon and cave that lie at the foot of a big karst.  We checked out the nearby cave, took a quick swing into the lagoon, chilled out under a hut along the banks… it was a great day :)

Until now, we had assumed that the reason Vang Vieng and the river felt so deserted while we were there, was because the tourists stopped coming here after the crack-down on partying.  It turns out the partiers just moved the party elsewhere.. the blue lagoon appears to be their newest popular hang out.  

 

Phonsavan Plain of Jars

On our way south we made an 8 hour detour to Phonsavan to investigate the mysterious Plain of Jars.  The Plain of Jars is an area where they've discovered multiple sites containing jars chiseled out of rock.  The jars range from 1 to 3 meters in height, with the largest weighing about 6 metric tonnes.  Due to excessive bombing during the American Secret War, most of the sites are not recommended for visit (unless you want to risk death or having a leg blown off), so we only visited 3 of the bomb-free sites: Site 1, Site 2 and Site 3.

Why are these giant jars laying around here in the first place?  Unfortunately, archeologists and historians still haven't figured that one out…

Site 3
We rented a motorbike and started our visit with Site 3 - the smallest and furthest of the 3 sites we visited, but also our favourite.  

Site 2

Site 1
We finished with Site 1, the biggest of the 3 siteS.  It has 334 jars, with the largest being 2.6m tall and 2.5m in diameter.  Since Site 1 is the closest site to Phonsavan, it also gets the most tourists :) 

American Secret War

One thing we didn't expect during this visit, was to hear about all the bombings that occurred in Laos during the American Secret War.  We had heard that there are unexploded ordnance (UXOs) in Laos but assumed it was from unintentional spill-over of the Americans trying to prevent Ho Chi Minh Trail traffic during the Vietnam War.  We were surprised to learn that the bombings were actually part of a secondary scheme for the US to support the Royal Lao Government against the Laotian Communists.

As part of the 1962 Geneva Accord, participating countries (including the US) agreed to respect Laos' neutrality, sovereignty, independence, unity, and territorial integrity.  However, between 1964 and 1973, the US ignored their agreement by dropping more than 2 million tons of ordnance (bombs) on Laos during 580,000 bomb missions: this is about 1 bomb every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years.  It was called a Secret War because the American people and congress didn't know this war was occurring.   

It's estimated that approximately 30% of the bombs did not explode as intended, and now contaminate the villages and farmlands of Laos.  Many of the bombs were called cluster bombs, or "bombies".  On detonation, these tennis-ball sized explosives project up to 200,000 metal fragments in all directions - they are designed to kill, and they are effective.  According to MAG, there have been 20,000 UXO post-war casualties... 40% were children.  Sadly, bombies are the same size, shape, and sometimes even the same colour as a tennis balls, making them attractive to children… try to imagine 80 million undetonated tennis balls scattered around around your city, waiting for unsuspecting kids to find and play with.

Thanks to organizations like MAG, the country is slowly removing the various bombs that contaminate the country, finally allowing farmers to safely begin cultivating their lands so they can work their way out of poverty and starvation... but it will still be decades before the country is free of UXOs.

Driving Elephants

Who would have thought that you could actually learn to be an Elephant Driver (Mahout).. and what better place than the "land of a million elephants", Laos, to do it. 

Our 1 day mahout training started with a short drive to the Elephant Village camp.  Our guide gave us some information about the organization, elephants, and Laos.  Here are some of the interesting facts that stuck:
  • Laos is known as "the land of a million elephants", however no more than 1800 elephants now remain in Laos and of those, no more than 300 of those elephants are wild 
  • An elephant costs approx. $15,000 USD, and they eat around 500 pounds of food per day
  • Elephant owners who want to mate their female elephant with a male, must pay about $7,500 USD
  • The gestation period of an elephant is around 24 months
  • 90% of Laotians can speak Thai - they learned it because most of their TV channels come from Thailand.
While waiting for our training to start, we sipped coffee and tea right next to 2 grazing elephants.  We got to get close to the elephants, talk to them, feed them, and even touch them… let's say that Jen was in heaven.  

Before riding the elephant, we first had to learn the Lao commands and movements that the elephants have been trained to understand.   We only had 6 key commands to remember, but once on the elephant, you seem to forget them really quickly. Luckily, we cleverly wrote them in our hands just incase! ;)

Here are the commands we learned:
  • Pai Pai - Go Forward
  • Haow - Stop
  • Doon Doon - Go Backward
  • Sai Sai - Turn Left
  • Kwa Kwa - Turn Right
  • Seung Seung - Lift right knee (so the mahout can climb onto the elephant)
  • Map Map - Kneel down onto knees (so the riders can climb onto the elephant)
  • Kop Chai Lye Lye - Thank the elephant
  • Boon - Shower your back with water
After doing a trial run at driving, we quickly noticed that the elephants are pretty stubborn and prefer to obey their real trainers.  So.. it really turns out that we were more controlling the trainers than the elephant directly - we'd say the command and if it doesn't work (which is most of the time), the elephant's real trainer would repeat our commands to the elephant… resulting in a little more success :)

Following the test drive, we took our elephants for a walk through the nearby river to practice what we had learned. 

The best part of the training was bathing and playing in the water with the elephants.  The mahouts gave commands to tell the elephants to spray water on their backs using their trunks, while we brushed their heads clean.  They also let us stand up and jump into the water from the elephant's heads…. Jen was a natural.

Lastly, just to make the tour a bit more complete, they brought us to the Tad Sae waterfall where we spent 1 hour exploring.  It was a nice side-trip, though we would have preferred to spend more time with the elephants :(...  but elephants have to spend time in the forest being elephants….bye bye Dumbo!

Around Luang Prabang

Not everything we saw was in Luang Prabang, we took some time to visit the areas surrounding with included waterfalls, villages, and caves.  

Pak Ou Caves
Our first organized outing started with a river cruise to some local villages and then to the Pak Ou (4000 buddha) caves.  
We chose a less touristy company hoping to avoid the crowds.  The tour itself was well organized and the guides were really nice, but we still ended up being disappointed with all the hype around the Pak Ou Caves.  The cave itself is really small.. it has many Buddha statues inside but for the most part they're all 
small and nondescript - standard buddha statues
 that one might even see in a souvenir shop.  Despite its spiritual history and claims to many famous visitors, to us the site felt more like a tourist trap than spiritual destination.  
 

Mekong River Cruise
To go to the Pak Ou Cave, we had to do a 3 hour cruise on the Mekong river….and that was really good: Super scenic, beautiful, and relaxing!!

Paper & Whisky Villages
The Pak Ou Cave tour included stops at 3 villages: a standard/small/non-touristy village, a whisky village (where they make local whisky), and a paper village (where they make…. paper)… neither of us has much else to say about the villages.. here are the pics:  
(
So…it's at this point in our travels where we've begun to wonder if we've just visited too many "remote" villages and temples to fully appreciate and be wowed by them anymore…)

Kuang Xi Waterfall
One day, we also rented a motorbike and set out to find the Kuang Si waterfall.  Biking out on your own is by far the best way to discover Laos and the country side.  As you ride, you can stop anywhere you want and just admire the beautiful surroundings… it was a nice and enjoyable day :)

Apparently many asians covet bear bile for "medicinal" purposes, so these asian black bears are often captured and kept in tiny cages so that their bile can be harvested.  Near the waterfall, we visited a bear sanctuary where they rescue and protect these cute, endangered, asian black-bears from poachers.  

Luang Prabang's Bites and Briquettes

Since our stomachs are still supporting our recent streak of street food (knock on wood), we decided to take on the Laotian street vendors.  Laos doesn't have as many traditional dishes as some of the other countries we've visited, but the food that we have tried has been really tasty!!  
  • Luang Prabang Salad: The dressing of this salad is to die for.. though not always consistent.  The place we preferred for this dish was Khmu Restaurant on the main street.
  • Luang Prabang Sausage: They have a few different types of sausages with different levels of spiciness.  We found some at the night market that was really good, particularly the Lemon Grass Pork and Buffalo sausages.
  • Khanom Khrok: These mini coconut pancakes are amazingly addictive when eaten fresh from the night market.  You get a cute little banana-leaf-bowl of these delicious pancakes for less than $1 (5,000kip).
  • Fruit Shake: Pick your flavour - you can choose any assortment of fresh fruit shakes at the night market for a meagre 10,000kip ($1.25usd).

At the west end of the night market, you can also find a bunch of food kiosks where you can eat for really cheap… 1 plate of vegetarian dishes (piled as high as you can handle) for 10,000kip ($1.25usd)… can't really get cheaper than that!!

Tamarind Cooking Class
Our ever-growing excitement for different foods and flavours led us to join a class given by Tamarind, a local restaurant reputed for serving traditional Lao food.  We started with a tour of the local market before heading to the cooking school.  

We learned that most Laos families still have and use 1 or 2 traditional briquette "stoves" for preparing all of their meals.  Here are the dish we learned to prepare using Laotian traditional tools and recipes:
  • Sticky Rice: The Lao staple food
  • Jeow Mak Keua: Eggplant Dip (for the Sticky Rice)
  • Jeow Mak Len: Lao Tomato Salsa (for the Sticky Rice)
  • Oua Si Khai: Lemongrass stuffed with Chicken
  • Mok Pa: Fish Steamed in Banana Leaves
  • Khao Gam: Purple Sticky Rice with Coconut Sauce and assorted fruits (Dessert)

The best thing about the school was its beautiful location - just outside town in a secluded area.  We finished off the day dining on the fruits of our labour on the patio next to a peaceful lotus pond. 

Luang Prabang

Everyone that we've met who has been to Laos, tells us that we have to go there... and warns that we might never leave.  Laos has a reputation for being a fairly undiscovered backpacker country with laid back locals, amazing scenery, and countless adventure activities (kayaking, trekking, elephant riding, zip-lining, biking, rock-climbing, etc.).  Our first stop is the major tourist hub of the north - Luang Prabang.  Ironically, it doesn't seem so undiscovered as it's here, that we have seen the most tourists of all the cities we've travelled so far.  

Even without doing any of the activities, the city is really interesting and attractive.  We spent a lot of time trying different Laos foods and wandering the scenic, temple-filled streets.  Here are some of our highlights:

The Monks at Dawn
One of the most unique experiences in Luang Prabang (and probably Laos) is seeing the monks do their daily walk through the streets of Luang Prabang.  Every dawn (not sunrise), the monks walk single file from the Golden City Temple (Wat Xieng Thong) to collect alms (rice and other food) from the local population.  Since monks have no possessions, they rely on the alms to feed them for the day.

We woke up around 5:30AM and headed to the centre of town.  At around 6:30AM, we saw the first monks proceeding along the side walk.  We were impressed by the numbers of monks there - the procession lasted around 45 minutes. 

As much as the procession was unique and peaceful, we also sadly witnessed the farce that the tourists made of this spectacle.  Several paparazzi-tourists would boldly get right up in the faces of the monks, madly flashing their cameras right into their eyes... it was like we were witnessing the opening of the latest new zoo attraction :(. 

Overall, we loved the experience, but felt sad that the tourists weren't respectful enough to give the monks space to perform their ritual.  On a funnier note, Dom thinks the monks might have been the true inventors of halloween… they wear orange outfits... walk the street collecting food... into their pumpkin-shaped bowls… hmm.. that can't just be coincidence! ;)

Walking the Streets
Luang Prabang is a small town that is easily walkable.  It's a pleasure to enjoy the relaxing vibe while strolling the various streets and alleys, among some of the most beautiful statues and temples we've seen in our travels so far.

The Night Market
Every night along the main street, locals setup kiosks to sell their food and eye-catching wares.  This is a perfect place (if you are not on an extended vacation) to buy some great souvenirs for you and your family.  We regularly frequented the night market because we loved that it was super laid back, not too busy, and actually had so many beautiful and interesting things to look at.  If we weren't travelling so light, we might have overindulged here… instead, as usual, we just enjoyed the window shopping…  

Utopia Volleyball
Utopia's slogan says it all: "Don't wait till your last day in Luang Prabang to visit us".  This off-center haven is a great place to chill out, read a book, do some yoga, or play volleyball.  We went there a few times to have a drink and read, but most of the time you would find us playing volleyball with the locals (who are definitely a lot more skilled than most of the tourists!).