Laos... WITH photos hurrah!

We flew into Laos direct from Thailand, we passed up the opportunity to do the trip overland by boat as the LP book used the phrase 'fatalities are not uncommon' and having debated exactly what this might mean, we decided that we'd take the trip in such a way that fatalities would be most definitely uncommon. We've spoken to a few people since then and it looks like it could have ben a good experience but one couple ended up sharing a boat with 80 people (capacity 60 painted on the side) and what felt like several tonnes of rice so we don't feel to bad about it.

We spent a week in Luang Prubang, another world heritage site, although it appears to be for the way of life rather than any particular landmark. The village was very nice and Debs greatly enjoyed the night markets... we are now the proud owners of bed covers and a table runner (I don't know, I'd never heard of it before either), all we need now are matching bed and table accessories but I'm sure we'll get around to that eventually. We are getting better at haggling although we still feel a bit guilty when we make a stand over 50p or something...

The food & coffee was particularly good (former french colony, credit where it's due) and we enjoyed the baguettes (Vive la France!) together with BBQ chicken and sticky rice in the night market.

We also took a trip to a waterfall, swam in limestone pools with turquoise water and climbed to the top of the main falls (having taken a few wrong turns and confronted a water buffalow or two... signs are not a strong point of Laos) it was pretty strenuous, especially in flip flops again (thanks Kev, they have taken some punishment!) but the wooden staircase with water flowing all around it and the stepping stones across the river that went over the edge made it well worth the effort.










We have now made our way south and visited the plain of jars at Phonsavan. The Jars are actually large carved urn like things scattered around the hillside, no-one really knows what they are but theories range from burial rites to containers for brewing rice whisky to fuel a conquering army's celebrations. The jars are in a variety of different conditions and are about 2,000 years old and are quite impressive as a monument to a lost civilisation. What made the jars so poignant was that they rest in one of the most bombed places on earth, during the secret war the US dropped 2 tonnes of bombs on Laos for every person that lived there and there are still thousands of unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattered around the countryside, the areas of the plain of jars that you can visit have been cleared of bombs but you can still see the craters in some case right next to, or in the middle of a collection of jars.















http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2003-12-11-laos-bombs_x.htm - An article on the UXO problem in Laos.

http://www.theintrepidfoundation.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=18_9&products_id=23 - A foundation that matches donations made towards clearing of UXO in Laos.


We are now in the middle of Laos, about 3 hours by road north form the capital in a place called Vang Vieng which is very different from Phonsavan... it is famous for "tubing" and bars playing Friends on constant rotation. Tubing involves hiring a tractor tire... being driven up the river for 5km... and then floating down... oh, and there may be a few bars with rope swings, zip lines and water slides along the way... To just drift down the river would take 2 hours... with the stops it can take all day. It is a fantastic way to spend a couple of lazy days and the mountain scenery is fantastic. These photos probably tell the story better :)

In case it all sounds too good to be true we should also share a couple of other things about the trip... firstly the actual travelling... no-one ever really tells you about it when they get back because it's not the thing they want to focus on... we have made a number of trips now that have involved 8+ hours on either a coach or minibus, often the state of the roads mean that the average speed is ussually around 40km an hour and the size of the seats is distinctly sub Ryanair. The world going past you is usually very pretty and we stock up with books, but if the heat and winding roads make you feel ill then it can be a very long trip. You get a bit stir crazy on some trips and you get to thinking about all sorts of strange things... We actually developed a theory on the relative strengths and capacity (based on number of stops per trip) of the Thai and Laos bladder, the Thais will generally only stop once no matter how long the journey (we don't pack water for those trips!) whilst the Laos will happily stop every hour or so and half the bus will head off into the bamboo...

Oh, and we also had a hired bike stolen which cost us 40 quid to replace... this was pretty bad as we had seen the bikes unlocked all over town and we were about 3km from where we lived and hired the bikes... all I can say is that I don't know where Debbie learnt those words, but if the little chap who stole her bike knew what they meant then he better wash his ears out. We considered chasing on the remaining bike but frankly it wasn't worth getting hurt over... still hope he fell off and broke something important or painful though... but not permanent damage despite what we may have wished fervently at the time.

Right we've whittered on enough for now I think! We are up to date which is good.