Arrived 27/12/19
When planning my original itinerary I had considered travelling overland through Laos from Hanoi to Myanmar, but dismissed the idea because it seemed too difficult and flew instead. However, while on the road I had heard good reports from visitors to the country, so when two people on consecutive days in Myanmar recommended the slow boat to Luang Prabang I began to think about a possible trip, and in Chiang Rai Corriene and I decided to give it a try.
My Ayeyarwady trip had been 13 hours of non-stop relative luxury on a wide river across a flat plain on an uncrowded boat with decent meals provided. The Mekong trip could not have been more different.
It started at 6.00 am when we were picked up from our hotel and taken in a pick-up truck to join a van which took us to Huay Xai on the Laos border 2 hours away. We had an inauspicious start when the lads loading luggage on the van roof dropped Corriene’s case from a height; fortunately it was undamaged. The driver then thoughtfully drove the entire way in the cool morning air with his window down; we were certainly not over-heated. We stopped for an hour at a little restaurant-come-travel agent where we had a bite to eat and booked a hotel at Pak Beng, the overnight stop on the river. Moving on we negotiated first the Thai immigration process and then, after a short bus ride, the Lao border, where a long queue and 5 stages awaited to obtain the necessary visa on arrival and entry to the country. After sitting stationary in a tuk-tuk for 30 minutes we were finally brought to the boat and were lucky to find a pair of seats together on the already crowded vessel. The river adventure began.
The Mekong here was much narrower than where we had viewed it the previous day, jungle-clad slopes rising steeply on both sides from the often rocky banks between which the water flowed rapidly, frequently forming little whirlpools. Sometimes the channel constricted, forcing us close to the rocks; fortunately our driver seemed to know what he was doing, but it was not encouraging when we passed the roof of a sunken boat just above the surface. On occasion the boat would aim straight for the rocks, the current carrying us around them at the last moment. Now and then the boat stopped at small villages half hidden in the trees, carefully manoeuvring to ‘dock’ against the sand while small children ran down to meet us and passengers carried sacks of goods up the bank.
The 90-odd passengers were served by 2 toilets; coffee and crisps but no meals were for sale. The seats appeared to have been taken from an old coach; head restraints had been removed and they were too low for me to rest my head, while my posterior appreciated the springs poking though the exhausted foam padding. All in all it was hardly luxurious, but good preparation for the boat we were to take the next day, which made this one look up-market.
Before then we had our overnight stop. As we got off the boat someone grabbed hold of Corriene’s case and carried it onto the jetty before demanding payment. Considering he had not been asked to help and had refused to give me the case when I asked for it, I did not feel inclined to give him anything at all, but nevertheless offered what I felt was fair for 2 minutes work. He demanded more and became quite persistent so I offered him less and when he refused that told him he was getting nothing. He wasn’t happy. What with that and a small child taking and running off with a tube of crisps that had been sticking out of a small bag Corriene was carrying, our first impressions of Laotian hospitality weren’t great, and to cap it off our hotel was quite as basic as most I have stayed in. We did have a private bathroom and the shower wasn’t bad – when the water pressure permitted; it was, of course, conveniently situated just above the basin and the toilet with no curtain. Food was better, with a decent dinner, large breakfast and a takeaway chicken baguette provided for lunch on the boat. I slept reasonably well but Corriene was kept awake by the gay guys in the room above; I did not enquire too deeply about exactly what she heard. Breakfast overlooking the river was accompanied by the trumpeting of elephants bathing on the opposite shore.
We arrived at the jetty to find that we had to board a different boat. This one was narrower and more crowded but with the same class of seating. Once again I managed to choose a fine seat with worn padding and springs that tipped me to one side. There was only one lavatory for 80 people. I waited ages for the locked door to open until eventually someone came with a key and unlocked it to reveal no-one inside. The journey continued much as it had the previous day, gliding past rocky shores enclosed by jungle-clad hills with small villages at intervals. Eventually the mountains receded, the valley widened and we arrived at the port of Luang Prabang which, for no obvious reason given there are perfectly good jetties in the town, is located 6 miles from the centre, necessitating a tuk-tuk ride.
A few miles before our destination a huge new bridge over the river was being constructed. Part of China’s vast belt and road initiative, this will carry a high speed railway from Kunming in China’s southern Yunnan province to the Laotian capital Vientiane 250 miles away, reducing a 3 day journey to 3 hours. The nature of the terrain is such that half the distance is going to be tunnels and bridges. While China is paying 70% of the $6 billion cost, the Laos government is funding the rest with loans from Chinese financial institutions that may be difficult to repay given that total Lao GDP is only $16 billion. There is also doubt in the country about how much benefit will accrue to Laos as opposed to China and whether the easy access will lead to an influx of illegal Chinese immigrants. Time will tell, but one thing is for sure: transportation times in this mountainous landlocked country are going to be changed for ever.
Our well-reviewed 3-star hotel room welcomed us with a strong odour of mothballs and stained pillows. Corriene managed to get hers changed, but the replacement was no better. The manageress promised the next morning to change them but nothing happened until another complaint in the evening prompted her to go out and buy new pillows. We were close to lots of restaurants and only a 10 minute walk from the night market, but even with triple glazing the road was a little noisy.
After a busy last day and a half in Chiang Rai followed by 2 days on the river we were ready to take it easy and Luang Prabang was the perfect place to do just that. A leafy town of French colonial houses and ancient temples at the confluence of the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers, it was the royal capital until the communists took over in 1975 and a delight to stroll around. Add in a choice of decent eateries with the lovely weather, not to mention good, unblocked pavements (unusual in SE Asia), and we had a very pleasant time. Mind you, apparently it has not always been like this. According to a Spanish couple we had met on the boat, 15 years ago there was no electricity and 10 years ago the streets were a mess.
Our first day we climbed to the Wat Chom Si temple on the top of Mt Phousi in the centre of town. It is actually just a hill and the temple wasn’t anything special in itself, but afforded views across the rivers to the mountains, unfortunately not very clear in the haze. In the evening we strolled through the very relaxed night market, where, instead of the usual hard sell, most vendors seemed content to browse their mobile phones. At one end was a large stage where children dressed in various colourful local costumes were competing for a prize.
On day 2 we took a shared van to the Khuan Sy waterfalls. The road was in poor repair but our driver had a way of dealing with it: drive as fast as possible around the winding roads and crash through the potholes. The shock absorbers had given up the uneven battle so it was only the springs in our seats that saved us from jolting brain damage. The waterfalls were pretty and worth a visit, although they were actually not quite as marvellous as we might have expected given the crowds. Of more interest was the bear sanctuary on the path to the falls. A large enclosure had been created in the jungle to house Asiatic Black bears rescued from terrible lives living in tiny cages where their bile was farmed.
Day 3 found us strolling by the river and visiting Wat Xiang Thong, reputedly the most beautiful temple in the town. The colonnaded interior with its golden seated Buddha at the end was similar to Thai temples, but smaller and darker with the decoration perhaps showing a hint of more Chinese influence. Sadly, it was crowded with the usual selfie-snappers, who cannot photograph anything unless they are posing in the picture, and treat a temple as just another excuse for a picture of themselves.
We also took a look at the local museum, actually the former royal palace. Like the palace museum at Phetchaburi, this one required removal of shoes and wearing of long trousers; stricter rules than for visiting temples, where shorts are acceptable providing they come down towards the knees. I found this reverence a little strange given this is a communist country that sent the royal family to their death in labour camps. In the grounds was another even greater oddity: a large statue of the king (aka. the Head Laos) cast in Russia in 1975, the year he was overthrown by the Russian-backed opposition. Inside no photographs were permitted, so you will have to take my word for it that the king’s audience chamber was beautifully and impressively decorated with colourful mosaic figures on a rich maroon background.
It was new year’s eve and the night market stage was blasting very loud music together with a Lao commentary from a woman with an ear-piercingly screechy voice. We decided that for the sake of our hearing we would retire to the hotel well before midnight and try to get a decent sleep ahead of our 8.30 start the next morning.
Vang vieng
The van ride south from Luang Prabang took us through fertile valleys and over the mountains. I had read a 2 year old review that explained there was an old route and a new route. The latter was too steep for buses and was not quite finished. I can report that it is both still very steep and still unfinished; I don’t know whether the money for road surfacing ran out or whether they just didn’t bother because the surface gets washed away in the wet season; there were certainly stretches where the road appeared to be supported by nothing more than a precipitous bank of dirt, but we emerged unscathed from the hazards and enjoyed the views.
Vang Vieng sits on the banks of the Nam Song river, to which it seems to owe a good part of its livelihood, providing activities for tourists. Our first day we strolled around the town and relaxed, something that was easy to do there; the second day we got stuck into those activities, taking a tour that began with tubing (sitting inside a large floating inner tube) in a cave, pulling ourselves along a rope when it was deep enough and walking bent double when it wasn’t; great fun. Then lunch on the banks of the river was followed by kayaking through mini rapids; the kayaks needed to be pretty tough because we several times grazed hidden rocks beneath us. The final stop was at the blue lagoon, a swimming and sunbathing spot that was pleasant enough but nothing remarkable and was unaccountably allotted over 2.5 hours, which would have been quite tedious had we not found interesting conversations first with a Canadian guy, then a Japanese lady and a German guy.
The next day we struck out on our own, walking out of town and climbing to the Phangern viewpoint. It was steep, rocky going until we got near the top, when it became an even steeper, rocky climb. I was a little outside my comfort zone here and Corriene was a long way outside hers but we made it safely up – and safely down – and enjoyed great views. There was another, slightly higher viewpoint signposted, but as it had taken us 15 minutes to climb down the ‘50m’ from the first one, we decided that the ‘400m’ to the next one would be a step too far and headed back down the mountain.
One of the pleasures of Luang Prabang was bumping into people we had met on the boat, so it was a bonus on our last evening in Vang Vieng to catch up again with a Majorcan couple whose Laos trail was following ours. They have been coming to the country for 20 years and indeed seem to have travelled all over the world. A fine example.
Our final activity of the evening was finding another hat for Corriene. Hat buying seems to be becoming a nearly full-time activity. First we bought Corriene a hat in Chiang Rai after she left her original one in Chiang Mai. Then while the hat I had acquired in Australia was in the wash here I was tempted into buying another; this turned out to be a good thing because the old one shrank and no longer fitted me, but luckily did fit Corriene, who was able to use it on our hike, having left her Chiang Rai hat at the Blue Lagoon. It kept the sun off that day but for some reason she didn’t feel it was quite her style, hence the evening hat hunt, which ended successfully. So I am now on my third hat in 8 months and Corriene is on her third hat in 3 weeks.
Vientiane
We were due to be picked up from our Vang Vieng hotel at 9.30 to be taken to the bus station to catch the 10.00 bus. In the event our transport – an extended golf buggy – arrived at 9.15 and we found ourselves on the 9.30 bus that actually left at 9.45; a little confusing but on our way. The high hills gradually reduced to gentle undulations and finally flat plain as we approached our destination back in the valley of the Mekong.
Vientiane, home to 560,000 of Laos’s 7,000,000 population, does not feel like a a capital city: the main streets are busy but we saw no serious traffic jams, and the highest completed building we saw had only 7 storeys. However, things are beginning to change; we explored a large 4 year old shopping mall next door to what appeared to be another brand new and as yet largely unoccupied retail development, close to high rises under construction. There is no hustle and bustle other than the occasional unrequested offer of a tuk-tuk ride; the people are so relaxed that many of the stalls in the open plan part of the mall were unattended so long I had trouble buying a shirt. All 3 of the shirts I previously bought on my travels had shrunk to uncomfortable proportions so I was now in need of 2 more and found possible ones on 2 unattended stalls; we looked at other floors and had some lunch before returning to find one was still without an owner, but at least succeeded in buying one shirt.
Like every town we have been to, there is a night market here. Unlike others, this one has less handicrafts and more western style clothing, so was less interesting for us but seemed popular with the locals who also congregated on the adjacent promenade by the river. There are less local street eateries here than elsewhere but plenty of restaurants offering western and ‘fusion’ meals. Overall the city is not especially attractive but neither is it unpleasant to stroll around, the quality of the pavements, the amount of rubbish and the number and degree of bad smells being quite good by Asian standards.
We took a look at a couple of temples, Sisaket and Hophakaew. The former was interesting for the thousands of miniature Buddhas displayed in niches in the walls, but the whole place seemed run down and in need of a good clean up. Hophakaew was a more impressive and beautiful structure but, having seen rather a lot of temples now, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
Not too far away, the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) visitor centre provided a sobering reminder of the country’s troubled past and continuing problems. A charity set up to provide support and treatment for victims of unexploded ordnance (UXO), it also now assists those injured in other ways. The centre explains how America’s ‘secret’ war in Laos against the Ho Chi Minh trail from 1964 to 1973 led it to drop more tonnage of bombs per head of population than any other country in the world has experienced, a total of over 2 million tons, equivalent to one plane load every 8 minutes for 9 years, including at least 270 million cluster bomblets, of which 10-30% did not explode on impact but remained hidden to maim and kill innocent civilians for decades after the war ended, a total of 50,000 to 2011. Even today there are 100 casualties a year with all 17 Lao provinces and 25% of villages still affected. Land cannot be cultivated, roads constructed or schools built without the risk of explosions. 3000 men and women work every day to survey and clear UXO in Laos but recently funding cuts have slowed the effort.
Over the past 25 years the USA has provided $400 million for UXO clearance in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. That averages $16 million a year. The US ‘defence’ budget for 2019 was almost $700 billion. In my humble opinion if America really wants to make itself great again in the eyes of the world it could do a lot worse than acknowledge the terrible damage it wrought in this part of the world and devote a much more significant part of its considerable resources to making the land safe once more. Instead it assassinates the leaders of other countries, stirring up mass hatred of America and provoking the very attacks it says it is trying to prevent.
The Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) is a 2008 international treaty that prohibits the use, transfer and stockpiling of cluster bombs. A total of 120 states, including all of Western Europe, have signed up to it. The USA has not.
After all that sadness it was time for something less troubling so we took a look at Wat Si Muang on our way back to the hotel.
At dinner we bumped into a young Canadian family we had met on the slow boat and again in both Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng. They have permission to take the children travelling for 2 months and are giving them wonderful experiences in SE Asia.
Corriene had been telling me she was dying to ride a motorcycle. At least I think that’s what she said – it was definitely something about death and motorcycles. I try to please so the next afternoon we rented a motor bike and with Corriene on the pillion we set off to find Buddha Park. Google maps took us on a very convoluted route out of town and as I could neither see the screen nor hear the instructions as I drove we took a wrong turn or two before Google sent us up a wide tarmac road that suddenly turned into a dirt track along which we bounced for some miles before getting back on a decent surface. It was further than I thought and we arrived hot and dusty at the rather remarkable park. Designed and built from 1958 by priest/shaman Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat it consists of over 200 often rather weird and ancient looking Buddhist and Hindu statues, some small, some very large, one big enough to climb up inside and out onto its roof, all set in well tended gardens. Definitely an interesting place to visit.
Our next stop was the national museum in town. We found a better route back and made good time – good enough to arrive just as it was closing. Ah well, we had a look at the impressive exterior of the new building and were spared having to trudge around looking at old artefacts. Instead we headed to Pha That Luang and wondered why we had wasted time on other far less beautiful and interesting temples the previous day. This most important of Laos’s national monuments with its golden stupa was reminiscent of Myanmar temples and looked magnificent in the late afternoon sun. It was built on the site of an older temple by King Setthathirat, who moved the capital from Luang Prabang to Vientiane in the 16th century and is celebrated by a prominently displayed statue.
Our route home took us past the Lao answer to the Arc de Triomphe, the Patuxay monument dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France, which ruled the country from 1893 to 1954 apart from a brief period of Japanese control in WW2.
And so our last full day in SE Asia came to an end. It had been an interesting experience: beauty, both natural and man-made; people of many races, some cheerful and friendly, some less so (a particular mixture of moods in Laos); leisurely times and active times; cities and countryside; roads and rivers; some excellent food and some that we only ate because there was nothing else; travel friends made and experiences exchanged; a trip whose destinations changed as we travelled; but above all a journey that was an eye opener to the way of life and the history of this part of the world. It was never boring.
Rob's Roads 