It's the evening of May 18 in Luang Prabang, and all of you are probably just waking up to your post-St. Paddy's Day hangovers. I'm officially more than halfway through my journey (actually, almost two months in!) and I can feel the pressure to start enjoying every minute a little more than I was before. A month to go seems like a long time, but when I look at how fast the past two months have gone by, I can't believe how close the end is.
Luckily, I'm bound and determined to make the final month worthwhile.
After Si Phan Don, I headed to Vientiane for a day. The trip was a combination of minibus and sleeper bus, with several hours' stopover in Pakse, where I met two German girls I've been bumping into ever since. Pakse, despite being the capital of its province, is a sleepy town with hardly any traffic--strange how much different Lao cities are from the rest of SE Asia. You can tell this country only recently became modernized. The population is the lowest of any mainland SE Asian country by far, and it's evident in the undercrowded streets, smaller cities and slow, laid back pace of life. No rushing around trying to get to the next business engagement or beat the rush hour traffic on the commute home. People move at their own pace. They don't let life push them to go faster.
Vientiane, the capitol city of Laos, is similarly laid back. It's a beautiful riverside city with French architecture on nearly every building and, despite it's small size, quite a personality. You can walk from end to end in less than an hour, going from back streets, to main thoroughfares, to the market district, and even through a small Chinatown area. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in personality. Still, one day is enough if you don't plan on doing countryside excursions here. So after a night, I headed to Vang Vieng, the small town-turned-tourist haven sandwiched between the mountains, the Mekong and a huge, cave-riddled karst range across the water.
As in most tourist areas, the people here have a love-hate relationship with the tourism industry. Although it's easily the most beautiful and diversely-landscaped place I've visited in Laos, Vang Vieng's biggest draw isn't kayaking, trekking, rock climbing or caving. It's the drunken inner-tube trip down the river, which amounts to something between MTV spring break and a waterlogged bar crawl. Despite Laos' nationwide 12 a.m. bar curfew, the bars here make an exception and stay open until at least 4 a.m., blaring music from open air loudspeakers. The menu at nearly every restaurant includes such offers as "happy pizzas" and "mushroom milkshakes," and despite it being illegal, the restaurateurs never seem to get in trouble. Tourists, on the other hand, are regularly busted by undercover cops who demand hundreds of dollars in payoff to avoid being thrown in Laotian jail. It all means money in the bank for the locals, but they hate the fact that their small town has been turned into a 24/7 party spot.
That said, they sure do know how to throw a good bash! I met up with the German girls and we spent about four hours "tubing," but only got about 100 meters downstream due to frequent stops at the bars that line the river all the way down. Each bar has some sort of gimmick to keep people hanging out there, so we spent the afternoon swinging from giant trapeze and zip lines over the water, tubing down huge water slides and watching mud volleyball games. All this happens while people are sucking down buckets of cocktails, so it's no surprise injuries are pretty common (we made it back to town safe and sound).
I also spent a day here biking through the countryside across the river, doing some caving. The first half of the day, I was completely alone, but I mustered up the courage to go through the caves by myself, and it was pretty creepy-especially when I noticed the cave spiders crawling around the rocks. I don't think I'll ever have a problem confronting a spider on my wall again. Caving here is a completely different experience than I've ever had in the US. There are hundreds of cavesand basically no regulations, so you can just grab a flashlight, pay the entrance fee and explore. No carefully planned routes, no barred off areas. At times, I was literally squeezing through crevices so skinny I could barely fit my head through, and crawling on my belly through tiny tunnels. One cave ended with a rickety bamboo rope ladder leading down into a pit filled with water. I dipped my toes, but I wasn't about to go swimming at the bottom of a pitch black cave by myself. Later on, I paired up with a group of German guys for the 7k bike ride to a cave that goes hundreds of meters into the side of a karst cliff. To get there, you first have to make the steep climb halfway up the cliff to the cave's entrance. You work up quite a sweat, but the air is instantly cool and dry once you get into the cave. And after the climb down, you're greeted by a turquoise blue lagoon with frigid waters. There are rope swings dangling into the water and a vine to swing out on. There's also a tree hanging over the river, and somehow we mustered up the courage to climb to the tallest branch and dive into the water. I did it, but my heart was pounding and my knees didn't stop shaking for about ten minutes after the dive. It's not so easy when you don't have the liquid courage they supply you with at the tubing bars.
Like Si Phan Don, I found myself wanting to stay here for a few more days, but I forced myself to move on to Luang Prabang. Took a night bus here after going tubing (not my best decision ever) and got into town at five this morning. At first glance, Luang Prabang is quiet, quaint and very touristy. There are several impressive temples and I'm told the nearby mountains make for good hiking, but I'm anxious to get to Luang Nam Tha and do some rafting or trekking. It's supposedly one of the top nature reserves in the world and home to some impressive wildlife. But since it's the dry season and the sky has been hazy the past few days, I'm trying not to let my expectations get too high. But it'll be good to get back into the woods again. I'm beginning to become somewhat of a hiking addict here, which makes the idea of going back to Michigan's flat landscape a bit depressing. There's always the lakes, though.
French protectorate influences are alive and well in Laos, from the food, to the architecture, to the road signs.
Oh you know, just hanging out in one of the five caves I visited today. About to go further into that tiny hole behind me.
Crystal clear pool at the bottom of a pit in my fourth cave.
This photo was taken less than 50 meters from my bungalow in Vang Vieng. What you don't see, though, are the open air bars just behind me on the riverside.
That tiny speck is me, halfway down the plunge into the blue lagoon.
Who knew that tuk tuks were amphibious vehicles? When he realized the toll bridge was closed, our driver opted to fjord the river rather than lift the piece of bamboo that served as a blockade.
Tubin'.
One of the death-defying rope trapeze on the Vang Vieng riverside.
Pretty cool looking Buddha atop Phu Si in Luang Prabang.
Luckily, I'm bound and determined to make the final month worthwhile.
After Si Phan Don, I headed to Vientiane for a day. The trip was a combination of minibus and sleeper bus, with several hours' stopover in Pakse, where I met two German girls I've been bumping into ever since. Pakse, despite being the capital of its province, is a sleepy town with hardly any traffic--strange how much different Lao cities are from the rest of SE Asia. You can tell this country only recently became modernized. The population is the lowest of any mainland SE Asian country by far, and it's evident in the undercrowded streets, smaller cities and slow, laid back pace of life. No rushing around trying to get to the next business engagement or beat the rush hour traffic on the commute home. People move at their own pace. They don't let life push them to go faster.
Vientiane, the capitol city of Laos, is similarly laid back. It's a beautiful riverside city with French architecture on nearly every building and, despite it's small size, quite a personality. You can walk from end to end in less than an hour, going from back streets, to main thoroughfares, to the market district, and even through a small Chinatown area. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in personality. Still, one day is enough if you don't plan on doing countryside excursions here. So after a night, I headed to Vang Vieng, the small town-turned-tourist haven sandwiched between the mountains, the Mekong and a huge, cave-riddled karst range across the water.
As in most tourist areas, the people here have a love-hate relationship with the tourism industry. Although it's easily the most beautiful and diversely-landscaped place I've visited in Laos, Vang Vieng's biggest draw isn't kayaking, trekking, rock climbing or caving. It's the drunken inner-tube trip down the river, which amounts to something between MTV spring break and a waterlogged bar crawl. Despite Laos' nationwide 12 a.m. bar curfew, the bars here make an exception and stay open until at least 4 a.m., blaring music from open air loudspeakers. The menu at nearly every restaurant includes such offers as "happy pizzas" and "mushroom milkshakes," and despite it being illegal, the restaurateurs never seem to get in trouble. Tourists, on the other hand, are regularly busted by undercover cops who demand hundreds of dollars in payoff to avoid being thrown in Laotian jail. It all means money in the bank for the locals, but they hate the fact that their small town has been turned into a 24/7 party spot.
That said, they sure do know how to throw a good bash! I met up with the German girls and we spent about four hours "tubing," but only got about 100 meters downstream due to frequent stops at the bars that line the river all the way down. Each bar has some sort of gimmick to keep people hanging out there, so we spent the afternoon swinging from giant trapeze and zip lines over the water, tubing down huge water slides and watching mud volleyball games. All this happens while people are sucking down buckets of cocktails, so it's no surprise injuries are pretty common (we made it back to town safe and sound).
I also spent a day here biking through the countryside across the river, doing some caving. The first half of the day, I was completely alone, but I mustered up the courage to go through the caves by myself, and it was pretty creepy-especially when I noticed the cave spiders crawling around the rocks. I don't think I'll ever have a problem confronting a spider on my wall again. Caving here is a completely different experience than I've ever had in the US. There are hundreds of cavesand basically no regulations, so you can just grab a flashlight, pay the entrance fee and explore. No carefully planned routes, no barred off areas. At times, I was literally squeezing through crevices so skinny I could barely fit my head through, and crawling on my belly through tiny tunnels. One cave ended with a rickety bamboo rope ladder leading down into a pit filled with water. I dipped my toes, but I wasn't about to go swimming at the bottom of a pitch black cave by myself. Later on, I paired up with a group of German guys for the 7k bike ride to a cave that goes hundreds of meters into the side of a karst cliff. To get there, you first have to make the steep climb halfway up the cliff to the cave's entrance. You work up quite a sweat, but the air is instantly cool and dry once you get into the cave. And after the climb down, you're greeted by a turquoise blue lagoon with frigid waters. There are rope swings dangling into the water and a vine to swing out on. There's also a tree hanging over the river, and somehow we mustered up the courage to climb to the tallest branch and dive into the water. I did it, but my heart was pounding and my knees didn't stop shaking for about ten minutes after the dive. It's not so easy when you don't have the liquid courage they supply you with at the tubing bars.
Like Si Phan Don, I found myself wanting to stay here for a few more days, but I forced myself to move on to Luang Prabang. Took a night bus here after going tubing (not my best decision ever) and got into town at five this morning. At first glance, Luang Prabang is quiet, quaint and very touristy. There are several impressive temples and I'm told the nearby mountains make for good hiking, but I'm anxious to get to Luang Nam Tha and do some rafting or trekking. It's supposedly one of the top nature reserves in the world and home to some impressive wildlife. But since it's the dry season and the sky has been hazy the past few days, I'm trying not to let my expectations get too high. But it'll be good to get back into the woods again. I'm beginning to become somewhat of a hiking addict here, which makes the idea of going back to Michigan's flat landscape a bit depressing. There's always the lakes, though.
French protectorate influences are alive and well in Laos, from the food, to the architecture, to the road signs.
Oh you know, just hanging out in one of the five caves I visited today. About to go further into that tiny hole behind me.
Crystal clear pool at the bottom of a pit in my fourth cave.
This photo was taken less than 50 meters from my bungalow in Vang Vieng. What you don't see, though, are the open air bars just behind me on the riverside.
That tiny speck is me, halfway down the plunge into the blue lagoon.
Who knew that tuk tuks were amphibious vehicles? When he realized the toll bridge was closed, our driver opted to fjord the river rather than lift the piece of bamboo that served as a blockade.
Tubin'.
One of the death-defying rope trapeze on the Vang Vieng riverside.
Pretty cool looking Buddha atop Phu Si in Luang Prabang.
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