Laos 2020

Two Days On the Mekong River

A very quick black coffee, a quick bite, 6.15am pick up, head off towards Laos, still dark. Thai visa exit paperwork complete, over the bridge, obtain and pay for Laos visa, on to the boat which is home for the next two days. This is the start of our journey to Luang Prabang, two days on the mighty Mekong River, its glorious landscape passing by as we glide through its waters. Our overnight stop is Pakbeng, as it is for everyone who makes this journey; Pakbeng is a small town which has sprung up principally to cater for the boat stopovers, and has a fun transient feel as a result. So we eat curry with new friends from the boat, whilst darkness falls and cicadas hum, and the mighty Mekong flows through town beneath us.

Over the two days we cover over 300 kilometres of river, though throughout that entire distance Pakbeng is the only town, the rest is rural lands and occasional tribal villages. The river water itself is an endless attraction, sometimes hugely wide, sometimes narrowed almost to rapids; eddies and whirlpools spin, transverse currents rage, flat calm pools sit beside whirling chaos. These boat skippers must be very skilled; we are told whilst on board that the shifting sands change the river daily, meaning that reading the surface water is his only guide, there is absolutely no other clue to safe navigation.

Of course, it’s dry season, so water levels are low – apparently, this year, exceptionally low, changing the character still further and making navigation even more of a skill. 

The boat makes three stops en route, two at tribal villages and the other at Pak Ou cave, a remote cave packed with Buddha statues of all sizes. At each village the children throng around, trying to sell handcraft items, their eyes pleading. It’s hard not to give in and buy off each one. These villages are Hmong tribal villages, a tribe dominant along the Mekong but historically repressed in Laos by successive political regimes. These children are probably the lucky ones, at least they have boat passengers to sell wares to. There must be hundreds of other villages struggling without any such privilege.

The age of sexual consent, and the age of legal marriage, is fourteen here. Some of these little things will be mothers before they are adults. Some already are. 

Long stretches of the embankments are coastal in appearance, rocky outcrops punctuating huge expanses of beach with soft golden sand, miles of empty river beach. Much of this is of course under water throughout the rainy season. Dotted along these shorelines are groups of tribespeople panning for gold, meticulously sifting through the grains for their piece of fortune.

As our second day on board comes to a close, we moor at Luang Prabang, our home for the next few days, bidding farewell to our shipmate friends and the rather wonderful crew. For this 2-day journey, we opted out of the speedboat, but likewise didn’t take the crowded public boat either, opting instead for Mekong Smile Cruise, and we can’t speak highly enough of their excellent service. They were brilliant.

And so the next experience begins. A new location in a new country, a changing cuisine and a different language, and a country where drawing a million out of the Bank gets you less than £100. 

Laos – Luang Prabang

As the mighty Mekong swings its way through northern Laos, a tributary, the Nam Khan, no small river itself, sweeps around to join the Mekong at a 45 degree angle. In the resulting triangular peninsula sits Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage site with a reputation of being one of the most beautiful places in South East Asia. Here is the story of our 5 days in Luang Prabang.

The Town

Expectations were high coming here, based on many blogs and commentaries, and, as we all know, high expectations can often lead to disappointment. Not here though: everything about Luang Prabang is delightful, from its mix of Lao housing and French colonial architecture, to its golden temples, laid back bars and bustling markets. 

Its setting between the two rivers is visually beautiful, enhanced by easily accessible viewpoints from which to look down on the town. The Mekong is wide and powerful set against backdrops of hills on the far side, the Nam Khan swirls beneath the spectacular bamboo bridges (which get dismantled every rainy season and have to be rebuilt from scratch), the quiet town gratefully accepts its awestruck visitors.

It’s actually a lot more quiet than it normally would be, like everywhere else has been so far. The closure of the Chinese border through Coronavirus fears has decimated the tourist trade round here.

Luang Prabang has its fair share of temples, we visit 2 or 3 but after 5 weeks in South East Asia, the novelty is wearing thin and we mainly admire them from afar. The “Sai Bat” is LP’s other famous attraction, as monks from its 34 monasteries file through the town at first light in silence, accepting gifts of sticky rice from the townsfolk. This daily ritual is time honoured and was clearly once a moving ceremony to witness: nowadays it’s a little watered down with gawping tourists outnumbering benevolent locals. You still have to do it though; get up early and see it.

The former royal palace, now the National Museum, is probably the least opulent and most spartan royal dwelling we have ever seen, but still provides plenty of interest and insights into an earlier era. It’s interesting to note that the commentary tells us that the communist Pathēt Lao party created the museum, conveniently sidestepping the fact that, during the seizure of power by the party, the royal family in its entirety was spirited away to a secret location, and was never seen again. This was only in 1975 by the way. 

Mount Phussi overlooks the town, 300 steps lead the way from opposite the National Museum taking you a short but steep climb through the wooded hill to the tiny temple at the top. There are a couple of other routes leading to the top which meander through temples and an array of Buddhas dotted amongst the rock face. We take in the views, one side we look out over the pointed roofs of Luang Prabang and the mighty Mekong, boats seemingly tiny at the waters edge, the shadows of the distant mountains just visible through the haze. To the other side the Nam Khan River snakes through the jungle.  We hear that the sunsets across Luang Prabang are beautiful from here so we make an evening visit to see for ourselves, we wait in anticipation, the orange sun briefly reflects on the Mekong before disappearing into the haze, the sunset a bit of a non event on this occasion.

Kuang Si Waterfall

Just a 30 minute drive from Luang Prabang is the beautiful waterfall of Kuang Si. The minivan takes us through farmland, rice and vegetable fields, cows and buffalo before reaching a number of food shacks at the entrance to the falls. The short walk through jungle vegetation to the falls is pretty, imposing trees, beautiful flowers, the sound of the water combined with insects deafening. Butterflies everywhere, all sizes, displaying their beautiful colours. The waterfall cascades down the rocks forming terraces of pools. Pool after pool of beautiful aquamarine and jade water, streams flowing through the jungle undergrowth. We take a swim in the icy cold mountain water, it’s invigorating, the sunlight peeps through the trees , its rays dancing on the water, this is truly a jungle paradise.

Foodie Stuff

Here’s some detail on food changes from southern Thailand to northern Laos. Spicy is optional here and generally speaking dishes are not quite as hot as they were down south (although there are exceptions); potatoes, largely unseen in Koh Lanta, made an appearance in the Thai north but have now vanished again. Some dishes are still here (Pad Thai, Tom Yum, Khao Soi) but there are subtle differences in herbal seasoning of each. The main local dish is “or lam”, a pork stew with changing contents. Our first or lam was in Luang Prabang market, where rather wonderfully you choose your own raw ingredients from the stall, and hand them to the cook, who has the base stew soup boiling ready. You add chillis to suit your own palate. The other novelty is Mekong River weed; delicious in both as a spinach like veg, and also in crispy sheets a bit like nori seaweed. These days Laos cuisine has two other major influences, Chinese food for the many tourists, and, thanks to its years of French colonisation, baguettes and croissants are everywhere.

Before coming to these parts, we’d heard a lot about barbecued rat being a staple dish, but haven’t seen any that we know of. Until now. One barbecue market vendor has some very rodent like creatures on her charcoals, butterflied and on a stick.

“What’s this?“, says Michaela.

The cook hesitates and examines us.

“Errrr….baby pig”, she says.

Yeah right. Any pig that small would be an embryo, not a baby!! We think we know what we’ve seen.

And Finally 

Whilst in Luang Prabang, we have experienced two other “firsts”, both on Day 35 of the trip. First, Montezuma comes calling to wreak revenge and Phil loses seven hours of the day in and out of the bathroom. Then, as we sip sweet iced coffee by way of recovery, our first tropical storm of the trip hits town, suddenly palm trees are bent double, thunder cracks and rain pours off canopies and rushes down the street. It’s fun watching the townspeople deal with it.

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That storm was just a forerunner to what came the next day, the afternoon storm flooding streets and bringing down trees in a spectacular half hour.

And so we move on from Luang Prabang to our next destination, deeper into the Laos countryside.

Laos: Nong Khiaw

Nong Khiaw is an absolutely spectacular and beautiful place, just simply one of those places which really does take your breath away. It wows everyone: every other traveller we meet uses phrases like “most beautiful place I’ve ever seen”. It is for us too, it is beyond stunning. More description in a minute.

First, it seems the storm on our last day back in Luang Prabang was actually the outer reaches of a typhoon, and as we leave, our minivan has to pull around fallen trees and other debris, and we hear stories of one of the Mekong riverboats being turned over into its murky depths. Hopefully with no one on board. Our time in Luang Prabang ended with a bang (see what we did there?).

And so to this beautiful place, Nong Khiaw. The village sits on two sides of the Nam Ou River, a road bridge connecting the two halves, with a location which is more than wonderful. Either side of the river, and towering over the village on all sides, are gigantic limestone mountains, rising majestically and incredibly steeply. It’s almost difficult to believe it’s real, it really is as beautiful, scenic and dramatic as that. Wherever you are, you just look around and pinch yourself that you are lucky enough to see this. It must be one of the most beautiful places on Earth; it’s certainly one of the most beautiful we’ve ever seen.

Nong Khiaw is now on the backpacker trail, on the activities radar, a few cafes, bars, guest houses and activity agents have sprung up, but essentially it’s still a mountain village, nestled quietly amongst this incredible scenery. And as if to cap it all, we find a little cafe called “Families” which only goes and serves up the BEST Khao Soi we’ve had on the whole trip so far.

It’s well publicised that this part of Laos is still riddled with unexploded bombs and the like, so if you’re going trekking round here, you either go with a guide or, if you go alone, you stick to the marked trails. We do both.

With Nong Khiaw presenting such good opportunities for activities, we throw ourselves in with both feet, and spend three days wearing ourselves out and pushing back some pain barriers. First, we take a trip on the Nam Ou, our traditional wooden narrow boat glides effortlessly along the river, the chugging of the engine echoes around the valley. The jungle clad mountains tower above us, buffalo wallow in the cool waters edge. Fishermen tend their nets and children play on the narrow sandy beaches, making mud slides on the river bank, giggling as they splash into the water. We make our first stop, Hou Ahoy, a small riverside village inhabited by Khmu tribespeople. A dirt track leads through the trees to this tiny village, stilted houses made of bamboo, corrugated iron roofs. Chickens scratch the earth, chicks everywhere, it’s very rustic here, no lines of tourist shops just a lady sat outside her house selling some bamboo cups which her husband has made; next a man who has made scarves by hand on his homemade loom. 

Next stop we take a trek up to Phanoy Cave, it’s where locals from the village of Muang Ghoy took cover when the Americans were dropping bombs on this region. The climb is steep, the opening high up in the mountain gives way to a cavernous tunnel, we don’t know how they managed a quick get away to this hidden cave! A further climb up this mountain gives way to spectacular views of the Nam Ou and the village far below.  We trek back down passing through a temple and into the village where there are a handful of guest houses and restaurants, would be a cool village to stay in. 

Back in the boat we head towards our next trek to a waterfall. We enjoy a picnic lunch then the trek leads us out through farmland, we walk amongst ancient rice terraces, cross fast running streams and clamber up through the jungle to a clearing, the waterfall cascades down the rocks to the jade coloured pool below, we cool our feet in this mountain water. The mix of trekking: steep mountains, jungle trails, rice terraces, villages, is ever changing and ever pleasing.

Already tired, we’ve taken on the challenge of returning to Nong Khiaw by kayak, and by the time we’ve paddled our way upstream against the current of the Nam Ou, we are absolutely and totally exhausted.

Nong Khiaw has a number of trekking trails leading from the village to viewpoints on the mountains; we take on three of these without a guide. The trails are easy to follow (as they would be, what with the unexploded bombs!), but the climbs are challenging and at times quite testing. We climb to Pha Deng, Pha Noi, and the highest of all, Pha Kao, the views at the summit of each is truly magnificent, but after three days of challenging exercise we are ready for a rest!

So to interrupt this activity with a bit of relaxation we indulge in a double whammy of local treatments, first a herbal steam bath, then a Lao massage, which involves being massaged by hand, and by foot pressure as well as a considerable number of crazy contortions. And that’s contortions by the masseuse as well as by us – it’s quite an experience, and feels pretty good afterwards too.

Nong Khiaw is a terrific destination. We knew this would be a place to enjoy activities but we seem to have pushed ourselves to some limits here, but if you don’t do it in a place like this, you’ll never do it anywhere.

Our regret as we leave is that we overfilled our time here with activities, we really wish we now had a couple more days just to chill in this marvellous scenery. But we are committed by ticket purchases, and so we move on now from this spectacular and beautiful place, as we start our journey out of Laos and towards Vietnam. 

Laos: Final Words

In our short time here we have seen a stunningly picturesque country, packed with glorious scenery, some so beautiful as to be hard to believe. Mighty rivers flow through mountainous landscapes; lush green crop fields fill the plateaux between jungle clad mountains; unchanged tribal villages mix with developing visitor spots and peaceful laid back towns and cities. 

Laos remains a poor country in spite of increasing popularity and over 80% of the population are still farmers or self sufficient; fortunately this is a fertile land and food, particularly fruit and rice, is plentiful. Its people are happy and honest and eager to please. Yet the memory of the bombings must be so recent in the national consciousness. Here’s a few truly shocking facts:

Laos was never at war, yet is the most intensively bombed nation in history.
From 1964 to 1973 the USA made 580,000 bombing missions: an average of a plane load of bombs once every 8 minutes for 9 years, 24 hours per day.
Of the 270 million bombs dropped, around 80 million didn’t detonate.
Since bombing ceased, over 20,000 people have been killed or seriously injured by unexploded bombs.
Since 1993, the USA has spent 4.9 million dollars per year on UXB clearance. The total amount spent in all those years is less than it spent every TEN DAYS during the 9 years of bombing.
Laos still suffers more deaths from UXB accidents than the rest of the world put together.

This is the legacy of the so called Secret War, the dual aim of which was to stop Russian backed aid reaching North Vietnam, and to prevent the Pathet Lao Communist Party seizing power. Both aims ultimately failed, at terrible cost to a country which never declared war on anyone.

We are of course heading to Vietnam next; we have already visited a family grave at a WWII cemetery in Thailand. War will no doubt continue to be a historical theme of this trip.

On a lighter note, so will food. Both Thai food and Lao food have been delicious, there are so many great meals and great dishes in our diaries already. As ever we have thrown ourselves big time into the local cuisine. However, you can have too much of a good thing: no matter how good a cuisine is, three times a day every day reaches a level and for your own culinary sanity you have to take a break eventually. Nong Khiaw caters for backpackers. Different stuff is available. This is our way of admitting there’s been a cheese baguette on the agenda. And burger and fries. Oops.

So as we prepare to leave Laos and cross the border, here’s a few facts of our trip so far:

Days travelled – 41.
Countries visited – 2.
Beds slept in – 11.
Locations – 9.  Bangkok 5 days, Kanchanaburi 1, Klong Nin (Koh Lanta) 14, Chiang Mai 3, Nongtao 3, Chiang Rai 2, Pakbeng 1, Luang Prabang 7, Nong Khiaw 4. 
Different beers – 6 (Chang, Leo, Singha, Beerlao, Beerlao Gold, Beerlao Dark).
Mountains climbed – 8 (in terms of reaching summit or waterfall). Distance walked according to Fitbit – 266.8 miles.
Modes of transport used – 14.
Storms witnessed – 2.
Massages – Michaela 6, Phil 5.
Bouts of ‘travel tummy’ – One each.

And so, maybe a little prematurely, it’s a big goodbye to Laos, and kopchai lai lai…

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The Other Side Of It

We always try and keep the blog upbeat and positive in keeping with our outlook. But of course although we are very lucky, not everything is perfect. This story is for those like our lovely follower Terrie who always says she wants to see a “dark side” blog post. It’s the story of Day 41; not exactly a disaster but probably not the best day of the trip so far. Written by Phil…

For me the gut rot attack had arrived the previous Tuesday. You know how it is, a slight odd feeling upon first waking quickly becomes extreme gripes and an hour later it’s obvious that breakfast is off the agenda. Now, the way to use Imodium is to not be too hasty: if your body has a gremlin inside then you need to let the body get rid of it. So the next few days were a battle of man against gut, and some of the treks were doubly challenging through firstly feeling off colour and secondly through not having eaten very much. The kayaking nearly finished me off, I haven’t been that shattered in many a year. It was, in truth, gruelling and not one bit enjoyable.

It was clear though by Sunday (Day 40) that I was winning the war, so it was time for Imodium to get me over the finish line. This was the day we tackled Pho Kao, a huge mountain, and an impulsive on the spot decision to climb it, probably taken a bit rashly without giving due respect to the size of the challenge.

By the time we finished, I felt great. Michaela was the opposite, as floored as I was after kayaking and looking very drawn. Diving into the first cafe, we gulped water, fruit smoothies and food by way of revival. I looked at Michaela. She looked worse and we both knew all was not well. It was her turn for gut rot: but unlike mine, Michaela’s was fast and violent and she spent pretty much the whole night being ill. 

By the morning of Day 41 she was weak and still very down. Ahead of us was the 4-hour bus ride back to Luang Prabang. 4 hours. Bus. Bus with no toilet. She braced herself and somehow found the courage to take it on.

Half an hour into the journey we enter a village where a beer lorry is parked delivering to a local store. The driver of a bus coming the other way tries, inexplicably, to fit his bus between our bus and the lorry, through a gap which simply doesn’t exist. So much so that his bus smashes into both our bus AND the parked lorry, metal crunches and glass shatters, his roof rack shears off and flies forwards. Glass and debris everywhere, three vehicles locked together on impact, the main road all but blocked. It’s a mess. Cue the entire village coming to join in the inquest. 

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Cue also a 90-minute wait whilst the aftermath is dealt with, interviews and form filling and photographs. And all the while Michaela sits, hiding in the shade, head in hands, wishing she could be anywhere else on Earth right now.

Beginning to end, it becomes a 6 hour journey, and then there’s a jerky tuk tuk ride into town, followed by a backpack laden trudge to our room. Michaela can barely drag herself up the steps, she is feeling 100% wiped out and looking it too. She looks so poorly. I unlock our door, she collapses on to the bed and has a little cry. And then she’s asleep. Her ordeal is over. She’s safe now.

I kiss her on the cheek and there’s barely a reaction, she’s clearly in recovery sleep. I leave her in peace and go and have a couple of beers in town. Not much else I can do now, and there’s no point both of us missing out! Independent travel is fantastic; but it can’t be glamorous all the time.

Footnote. Don’t worry. Day 42 saw Michaela up early, the smile back in place, coffee and bananas for breakfast. These things happen…