Communists on Motorbikes (Laos: The Bolaven Plateau)

I arrived in Pakse at the ungodly hour of 6am after a fairly good night's sleep (surprisingly) on the sleeper bus from Vientiane. Pakse is one of those towns that has nothing going for it except its proximity to other cool stuff, in this case the Bolaven Plateau. This is an area to the East of Pakse with lots of waterfalls, coffee plantations and dramatic landscapes. Of course I had no option but to rent a motorbike and see it for myself. Found a travel buddy on the bus to Pakse, met a great kiwi couple at the guesthouse and bumped into Lisa & Kate who I’d traveled with from Muang Ngoi to Vientiane. Small world! Instant dinner crowd right there. Over dinner we discovered that 4 of us have matching Asian Tattoos, which makes me feel a lot better :)

I didn't know this, but Laos is a communist country. I should have guessed, given all the hammer & sickle flags flying on important-looking buildings, see exhibit A:
So we decided we should get in the spirit of things and fly the national flags like good communists, see exhibits B and C:

We got a lot of laughs from locals and travellers alike along the way :)

The Bolaven Plateau can be done in as many or as few days as you like. I'd spoken to some people who'd done it as a 3-day loop which fit quite nicely with my schedule, so we decided to do that. On the first day we rode East from Pakse, turned at a junction at 21km and headed north, destination Tad Lo waterfall. There were lots of people selling pineapples and durian along the road, and when we stopped for a drinks break I bought a whole pineapple and the woman chopped it up so we could eat it.

En route to Tad Lo we stopped at a village called Huay Hun to stretch the legs. As we were walking around, lots of kids called out “Sabai dee!” (hello) from their houses (it’s a game that can go on forever, reminds me a bit of the Japanese after-dinner courtesy battle where everybody wants to give the last pleasantry). We spent a good half hour playing with a bunch of kids in their front yard; at first they were quite shy but over time they came closer. They absolutely love seeing themselves on your camera screen! I even let them take a few shots, I held up the camera and let them look through the viewfinder and push the shutter, and of course they ALL had to have a go :) Matt was climbin trees with the boys and started a game of long-jump with them. After that they pulled out their karate kid moves and even got a bit fresh... after a kick in the ass Matt decided it was time for us to go :P

Continued on to Tad Lo waterfall where we spent the night at a guesthouse right on the water. Accommodation is dirt cheap when you get out of the cities, we paid 40,000 kip between us for this place (that's less than NZD$8).


Went for a nice dip in the waterfall in the afternoon, such a relief after roasting in the sun all day! And the water was cold - what a novelty.

On day 2 we set off or Sekong. Along the way we stopped at Ban Kok Pung Tai, a village of Katu tribe people. Our gueshouse in Pakse does some charity work with this village, and we had picked up a whole lot of school supplies and sports gear to drop off at the village. Unfortunately it was school holidays so there were no kids, but I left the books & crayons with the teacher. To be honest this village gave me the creeps; it was nicely developed and relatively tidy compared to some, but they all smoke tobacco in home-made bamboo bongs. And when I say they all smoke, I mean the children start when they're 2 years old. To them it's normal, but I found it heart breaking. The guide told us the life expectancy in this village was around 40 years. Hmmmm.




The rest of that day was pretty crap - an uneventful ride to Sekong (crap town) in stinking heat and no clouds, I even put my gloves on to prevent my hands burning. We wanted to find the Tad Hua Kon waterfall just out of Sekong, there are supposed to be guesthouses right by the waterfall, but we couldn't find it :( that's not uncommon in these parts - things are so badly signposted you have to be psychic to know where stuff is. Anyway, the skies were clouding over at an alarming rate and the wind had kicked up which means only 1 thing: tropical downpour coming!! And sure enough, within 5 minutes it was hosing down. We continued on to Attapeu, another 50km away, and overnighted there.

On the morning of Day 3 we woke up to even more torrential rain. We'd planned to get an early start, lots of kms to cover including a 71km dirt road right across the middle of the plateau. We were hoping against hope that it wasn't washed out, as that would mean backtracking what we'd already driven. We set off in the pouring rain, but luckily about 10km out of town it stopped raining altogether. It hadn't rained on the dirt road at all, different altitude, and I was pleasantly surprised at the excellent condition of the road. We drove past lots of coffee plantations and more villages (and lots more Sabaidee-ing kids). At 18km we managed to find the turnoff for the most spectacular waterfall on the route - Tad Katamtok. I have better pictures of the waterfall but here's one with me in it.



The dirt road was without a doubt the best part of the ride. It was another one of those places where you feel a million miles from home, and you could be inside National Geographic. It was a tough 71km though, the last 30km or so were very badly potholed and extremely bumpy. We stopped off for a coffee in Paksong, at the end of the dirt road, then continued on back to Pakse, closing the loop. Slept like a log that night!

Next stop: 4000 islands for some R&R before heading to Phnom Penh in Cambodia to meet mum. Can't wait to see her!

And here's just a random photo of me eating a chicken claw:

Until next time!
x ML

On the road to recovery (well actually, Pakse) - UPDATED

Took the bandage off my burn today and was very pleased to see it's healing nicely, my leg should be fully grown back in no time. The old motorbike tailpipe burn is affectionately called the Asian Tattoo in this part of the world, and it's kind of like a badge of honour - I've met a few people with matching ones and swapped stories. Some scars are worse than others - hopefully mine will be minimal!

(no I'm not going to post a photo of it, it's gross)

Spent the last 2 days in Vientiane, the Lao capital. I sum this place up in 1 word: "meh". It's not just nondescript, it's rather ugly. It's not an offensive place, it's just nothing special, particularly for a capital. There are some cool boutiques here though, lots of tailors that can whip up anything you want. Lots of Lao textiles and fabrics (look out!!), but there's no tourist area/scene like there was in Luang Prabang and no food alley! They're doing construction on the riverfront so the promenade and local evening outdoor food market has been replaced with bulldozers and trucks. It has a LOT of French influence, we had a fabulous breakfast at the Cafe Croissant d'Or, and there is a boulevard with a French-inspired Lao style monument at the end that looks very much like the Champs-Elysees and Arc de Triomphe (I will post a photo of this later - keep an eye out)

We watched the football at a restaurant last night that had dubbed itself the Vientiane Home of World Cup 2010 - South Africa in SE Asia. They even have a special SA menu while the cup is on (incl hoender pastei but no boerewors?)

Have been hanging out with a Dutch guy I met in Muang Ngoi and today we rented a motorbike and drove 20km out to the Buddha Park, it turned out to be a bit crap (crep hehe) but the bike ride out there was fun, had some noodle soup at a roadside stand and talked to some chatty monks at the Buddha park.

I'm taking a sleeping bus to Pakse, apparently they have beds in them. Let's see if I can get some decent sleep! Once in Pakse I'll be headed to the Bolaven Plateau on a bike, can't wait :)

UPDATE - Here's a photo of me meeting some monks at the Buddha park, and the sleeping bus to Vientiane. It actually had beds instead of seats!!



Until next time
ML x

Sometimes I feel like I'm inside National Geographic

Hi everyone,

I've just spent the last 4 days in rural Northern Laos, in a place called Muang Ngoi Neua. I'm convinced this is the single most beautiful place on the planet. I'd been wanting to come up here since the very beginning, but it had been put off because of the burn on my leg.

After a provebial kick up the backside from Dad (and the green light from the doctor) I decided to head up there anyway instead of sitting around watching Grey's Anatomy in Luang Prabang feeling sorry for myself. Best. Decision. Ever. It was a horrendously bumpy 3-hour minivan ride up to Nong Khiaw, crammed in with 9 other tourists, but we got there in the end. A quick lunch stop then we were on the ferry up to Muang Ngoi. Now when I say ferry, I mean toothpick-shaped boat that fits 20 Lao-sized people at best, but of course they will cram on 10 falangs, 17 bags of rice, 25 locals, a whole lot of luggage and a really cool mini-4wd that would be some kid's birthday present. We then precariously navigated upriver , stopping along the way to pick up more bags of rice, and made it to Muang Ngoi an hour later.

This place is just a tiny collection of guesthouses and eateries set amongst local houses, high up on the riverbanks of the Nam Ou river. There is a place where everyone hangs out called Riverside restaurant which is basically a platform with hammocks, low tables and the ubiquitous triangle cushions (they're not comfortable, who designed these things??). After a shower and a change of clothes I trucked down there with my book and camera, determined to do absolutely nothing all afternoon. I got a few pages into my book then made friends with the other travellers there. Such a great bunch of people; 2 American couples (Laura - one of them was a big an anime freak as you, he got so jealous over my Ghibli museum memorabilia) and an awesome old Australian guy called Steve. We spent the night chatting and playing cards, had some really good sticky rice and other things for dinner, and of course a cold Beerlao. It was such a good bunch of people, a far cry from the drunken yob crowds of Vang Vieng or the hordes of tourists you get in the main centres. I think it's a certain type of traveller that will take the effort to get somewhere that's a bit off the beaten track, a bit out of the way. We had some good talks about the places we'd been, where we were going, and the topic of volunteer work and charities came up quite a few times for discussion as well. Steve the Australian (I think he's late 50's, early 60's) actualy has an 'adopted Indonesian family' that he visits for a few months at a time each year, he had some really interesting stories to tell about his life and his travels.

Anyway, the next day 7 of us went on a fishing trip. Well, it was supposed to be a fishing trip but we got a few other things thrown in as well, we took a boat up the river and stopped at a silk weaving village (seriously, how many of these are there in SE Asia??) where the prices were ridiculously low and quality ridiculously high - a bad place to be for a scarfaholic!!! Of course I bought one. Shame on you for even questioning me. Its a gorgeous soft grey/purple with gold Lao motifs woven into it. The next stop was a cave ,nothing to look at from the outside, but inside it went for miles - we walked a good 15-20 minutes into it, along fresh, cold clean water, stalactites, bats, all sorts of cool stuff. There was a huge swimming hole at the end and we ll took a refreshing - and much-needed - dip. Then we went fishing. Actually, the guides pulled up nets they had planted yesterday and collected 2 fish, then threw out those circular nets and caught a handful of little ones, while we watched. We got to have a go at throwing the nets (epic fail!)
We had a lovely fish dinner that night, fish that we (ha!) had caught that day.

The next day Steve, Julian (a Dutch guy) and I did the walk to the next village. This felt like the pages of National Geographic - we walked through Lao bush, past rivers and streams, through mountains, and came out in these picturesque rice fields. We walked along the little ridges between rice fields, saw people in cone hats planting rice, water buffalo just everywhere, and finally got to the vilalge at the end. Everything is made of bamboo - no other material handy, I guess. We walked through and saw so many cute kids :) It was stinking hot that day; it took us a good 2 hours to walk there (prob more, we dilly-dallied a bit and took lots of photos), and it was around 1pm when we headed back. Scorching sun, apparently it was around 40 degrees. I'd believe it! The water that came out of my shower was hot, it was too hot to lie down in my room, the only respite was to lie in the hammock at the Riverside restaurant. Not a bad last resort, actually :)

Said a sad goodbye to my new buddies this morning and got on the toothpick boat back to Nong Khiaw. We decided to take a sangtheaw (oversized tuk tuk) back to Luang Prabang instead of waiting 2 hours for the next minivan. It was packed to the rafters - 20 people (4 of whom were locals), 2 bags of rice, a few mini suitcases, unidentifiable boxes of things, and all our luggage on the roof. But it was a really nice ride, we all got chatting and had a very enjoyable time. It was bumpy but at least the sides were open so we got a good breeze.

I'm off to Vientiane tonight on the overnight bus, then down to Pakse for some more motorbiking.

Until next time!

May Lee x

Morning mission in Luang Prabang

Today was my 2nd attempt at the dawn alms-giving photo mission. Every day here, at first light, monks pour out of the temples and walk the streets collecting alms from the locals - alms can be money, food, pretty much any kind of donation people want to give, but here it tends to be sticky rice and sometimes bananas and other types of fruit. Buddhists believe in karma; that by doing good, good will come back to you. And if you do good for a good person, the amount of good that comes back to you in multiplied, i.e. giving to a monk earns you more 'karma points' than giving to a regular person. (it's true, I read it in a book about karma when I was in Chiang Mai)

So anyway, this involved a 4am wakeup and groggy start to the day. Last time I attempted this mission I was out on the streets at 5:30am and it was too late, I'd missed them all. This time I was determined to catch them in action. I'd scoped out a cool temple to use as a backdrop and parked myself there at 4:30am, ready to wait it out.

so I waited...

and waited..............


and got bored, so tried shooting creative angles of the temple

hmmmm, 5:15am and I don't see any monks yet? Am I in the wrong part of town? (I was on the main road)

Perplexing. Oh wait, there they are. Only a few though, the other day people said there were like 400 of them. I saw about 7. I moved closer to the market area of town and spotted a few more, but overall the monk-spotting mission was a bit of a disappointment.


By this time it was nearly 6am and I was STARVING. I'd had a mini green banana and a malaria pill for breakfast at 4am but that was it, and walking back through the market seemed like a marvelous idea. A clever thought hit me on the way to the market; on the street I'd seen lots of ladies selling sticky rice and bananas to tourists to give to the monks - there are lots of signs around town discouraging tourists from buying from these street vendors, and urging you to only give rice if it's meaningful to you, they don't want to turn this very serious Buddhist tradition into a tourist circus - where was I? Oh yeah, I had the clever idea of buying a pot of sticky rice for myself for breakfast. Except they were all humongous pots, not single-serve sized, so I gave it a miss for now.

The morning market is one of my favourite places in Luang Prabang. It occupies a small back street parallel to the main road and at 6am is party central. You can buy anything food-related you want here: live frogs, ducks, chickens, sliced fish, bbq'd fish, veges of all descriptions, chillis, other assorted condiments, you name it. Anything except sticky rice, it seems. Bugger! But I found a DELICIOUS bbq meat stand at the end of the road and had the best pork bbq skewer for 5,000 kip (about NZD 90c). Here are some pics from my several visits to the market.






I picked up a kilo of rambutan and some noodles wrapped in a banana leaf to snack on back at my guesthouse (much better for you than a bag of chips and a Kit Kat, which melts anyway). On the way back home I bumped into a few of the monk rice-selling ladies, one of whom had small(ish) rice containers. In my scheming mind I was thinking "hmmm, this could be breakfast, PLUS I get to keep the cool rice container thingy!" I'd been wanting one of those but couldn't justify buying one as a souvenir - bound to be overpriced at a souvenir stall, and how was I going to carry it anyway? Funny how you find creative ways of justifying things. I now have a rice container. Went back to my guesthouse and slept for a good 3 hours and woke up to sticky rice and rambutan breakfast.

Mission accomplished (sort of) :)

Vang Vieng: tubing, sandwiches, pancakes and endless reruns of Friends

I’ve just come back from 5 days in Vang Vieng (plus many hours transit time), a tourist hotspot set alongside the Nam Song river about halfway between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. Mark and Charlie (the people I met on the slowboat) flew out on Sunday and Sebastian and I headed down to Vang Vieng a day or so later. It’s another one of those towns that for some reason was bookmarked as a tourist spot, and over the years has become overrun with backpackers and has turned into a soulless mish mash of crummy guesthouses, cheap bars, restaurants, tour operators and of course the ubiquitous sandwich/pancake street stalls. Apologies if I sound a bit negative; as long as you know what to expect you will have a good time and enjoy the place for what it is. Don’t expect to see any Lao culture here, it’s definitely a party town; the booze is cheap and plentiful (and so are other substances), the national curfew doesn’t seem to apply and there are plenty of places to schmooze around and wait out your hangover. In fact, that seems to be a Vang Vieng specialty; restaurants that have platform sitting areas and low tables, all facing TV screens where they play reruns of Friends all day long. All. Day. Long. Every Day. (to be fair, one or two places play Family Guy but the one we went to had fleas). Still deciding if I liked it or not – I had a great time partying it up and met loads of great people, but I’ve decided I’m definitely a cultural traveller rather than a party traveller. I enjoy partying as much as the next person but I don’t need to do it for days on end, and spending too much time in places like this makes me feel like I’m missing out on other stuff.

People drive motorbikes across this bridge.

People primarily come to Vang Vieng to go tubing. You rent yourself an inner tube and get driven a few kms up the river where there is a collection of bars along the riverside. You float from one bar to the next, meeting all sorts of cool people along the way, and there are swings and slides as well. Everyone comes back from tubing a bit damaged (alcohol is most definitely a factor), I got a big bruise on my leg where I hit the water at the wrong angle, Sebastian got a few cuts on his foot, but I think we got off pretty lightly. Overall it was a most enjoyable afternoon, although my dry bag didn’t stay so dry and my little camera got drowned :( Maybe someone in Phnom Penh can fix it, otherwise I’ll just buy a new one I guess.

The next day we had an awesome sunset behind the cliffs:

Because of it’s party-town reputation, VV’s natural beauty and surrounds often get overlooked. It’s set in the most breathtaking landscape; sheer limestone karst cliffs, lots of unexplored caves, rivers and waterways including some really beautiful blue lakes instead of poo brown Nam Song water. On Friday Sebastian and I rented a motorbike and went for a cruise around the local countryside. We stopped at the Blue Lagoon for a swim, where the water was actually cold!! After that we carried on down some dirt roads through some nearby villages, where kids would run after us and yell out “Sabai dee!” (hello) as we passed and the men would stare at us like “who are those strange falangs with helmets on?” It’s very different from Thailand, you really feel that you’re in an undeveloped country, it’s almost like going back in time.

So now I’m back in Luang Prabang for a day or two before heading up north to Nong Khiaw to see some cultural stuff, maybe learn a little bamboo fishing, who knows? My Lonely Planet says they only have power from 6-10pm, so don’t be surprised if it’s a little while before you hear from me again.

Love

May Lee

Laos: The Land of a Million Elephants

Travel is good for the soul; this is my thought for the day. I’ve spent the last couple of days in the Lao jungle riding elephants bareback and watching fireflies dance in the night sky; I am in a completely different world. But let’s backtrack a little…

I’ve arrived safely in Laos and am currently living in Luang Prabang, a gorgeous French-Lao style town that was named a UNESCO World Heritage site some time ago. I got here by crossing the border in northern Thailand, at the Chiang Khong (TH) / Huay Xai (L) border crossing, which consists of a rickety ferry across the Mekong and even ricketier (is that even a word?) ticket booth where you get stamped out and stamped in. My passport is starting to look pretty interesting! J

Met a bunch of interesting people on the bus up to the border who’d also been staying in Chiang Mai. I attached myself to them and we found a guesthouse and got some dinner, larb and Beerlao (about $4 altogether, tops). No better introduction to the country! Except of course the tropical storm that came about an hour later followed by a powercut (why are heavy rains always followed by power cuts??). Welcome to the 3^rd world.

Laos is very different from Thailand, you notice it the second you cross the border. The crustiness rating goes up (down?) a few notches, and people don’t seem to give a shit about you at all. Not in a bad way, but a blasé, disinterested, laid-back-they’re-almost-falling-over kind of way, whereas in Thailand they’d be trying to sell you something. It’s a nice change to be left alone! I’ve already picked up the essential phrases: hello “sabai dee”, thank you “khawp jai lai lai”, how much “thao dai” and no worries “ben phan nyang”. The numbers 1-10 are the same as Thai (thank you!!!!) so I’m doing ok on that front too. Makes such a difference when you learn a few phrases and try to use them.

On Tuesday morning we got the slowboat down the Mekong, a 2 day trip that involved spending the night in Pakbeng (aside: Pakbeng is an absolute hole where our guesthouse lady tried to sell us opium and weed when she realised we weren’t going to buy breakfast from her, and the boys room had cockroaches the size of Texas) before arriving in Luang Prabang on the evening of day 2. The boat itself was a lot cushier than I expected; I had memories of the wooden benches on the Cambodian boat trip (Siem Reap – Battambang) crammed into a space the size of 3 bathtubs. Although this boat had wooden benches, there was heaps of room and even a row of car seats at the back that reclined and everything – swish! Our comfort level was helped immensely by the fact that the boat wasn’t even half full, due to it being low season. I’ve read horror stories of 100+ people being packed into a boat with a capacity of 70, but we would have been pushing it to make 40. The scenery along the way was beautiful… for the first hour or so. Then it got samey; no floating villages, no animals, no birds, no rapids… it was quite a long 2 days. I started and finished my book – Sharon Osbourne’s autobiography, highly recommended – played a number of card games, napped and whinged about the heat. But we made it and Luang Prabang is definitely worth the effort to get here. I’ll write more about the town itself in my next post.

Yesterday I went to the All Lao Elephant Camp to do a 2-day mahout course. This involves learning elephant commands, riding on the neck rather than on a seat, bathing and feeding. It was so much fun!! It’s unbelievable to be up close & personal with these huge animals. The camp is located 7km out of town on the Nam Tha river; they have a bunch of elephants and also do trekking, kayaking, tubing and offer accommodation in their eco-lodge. I got to stay in one of the chalets as part of my 2-day course, OMG it was like a presidential suite! It was so beautiful, it had wooden floors and beams, a humongous soft cushy bed with mosquito net, beautifully decorated, and NO COCKROACHES. I couldn’t believe this was included in the price (just over NZD$100 for 2 days incl all meals and activities). Check it out!

When we first got there we went for a 1 ½ hr ride through the jungle in the elephant seats. It was raining but that made it more fun, lots of slipping & sliding around and I think the elephants enjoyed it too. After that we had lunch and changed into our stylish mahout suits, and had a 15-minute lesson on elephant commands:

…which we promptly forgot as soon as he took the board away. But the key ones are “pai pai” which means “go, go!” and “houw” which means STOP. After a slippery trek back to the main camp (the lunch spot and eco-lodge is a 10-min walk and precarious boat ride away from the main office) it was our turn to be mahouts… this first time we got to mount using the platform and sit on the elephant’s neck. Not as comfortable as it looks!!! L You have to use your leg muscles constantly to hold yourself there, or you will fall off and it’s a looooooong way down. The real mahouts were on the elephants with us, but we got to ‘drive’ them through the jungle. Woo hoo!

On the second ride we had to mount them from the ground. This involved a couple of commands: they made me clamber on by saying “haab” which gets the elephant to bend his knee, you grab his ear, step on his knee and pull yourself up. Not graceful at all! The others used the “mab long” command, which means lie down. Much easier.

(Just to clarify: we were using the commands but it was clear the elephants weren’t really listening to us most of the time, the mahouts needed to give the command to lie down before they actually would :P)

This time round we took them to the river for bathtime. “Boun boun” means spray water! We had lots of fun using this command J After the second ride, the other 3 went home as they were just doing the 1 day course. I had the early evening to myself in my presidential suite, and had a fabulous afternoon nap. The heat really takes it out of you! I woke up to a beautiful soft evening light and the smell of Lao home cooking calling my name. I shared a delicious curry, vege stir fry and rice dinner with my guide Kor and we chatted about all sorts of things. He’s not actually Lao, he’s from the Hmong ethnic group (one of the hilltribes, also found in Thailand) so had some interesting things to tell about his village and their beliefs at all. His English was really good; you have no idea how much you appreciate that when you’re on the road. Not just someone who knows how to order a beer, but actually have a conversation with. I spotted some fireflies just past where we were sitting and he caught one and put it in a jar so I could get a better look – my very first firefly J I saw quite a few flying around that night, it’s neat and adds to the “jungle” feeling.

The next morning I got up for the elephant’s early morning bath. It’s so much fun being in the river with them and splashing around J Then we headed back to camp where I got to feed them, then it was time to say goodbye. Kor and I headed upriver for some kayaking down the Nam Tha, a nice end to my stay. All in all a fantastic experience and a beautiful part of the world to be in.

Over the next few days I’ll be checking out Luang Prabang, getting back on the photographic wagon. I’ll be doing the sunrise wakeup call to watch the monks collecting alms… followed by a strong coffee (café Lao, the locally grown stuff, is delicious).

How are things at home? Write me!

Until next time

May Lee x