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Luang Prabang Wat

We had heard so many positive things about Luang Prabang from fellow travelers that we flipped our itinerary to accommodate a trip here. Luang Prabang is not easy to reach unless you’re willing to fly. It’s a 2 day slow boat ride down the Mekong River from the north of Thailand or a 12 hour bus ride from the south. However, that being said, it is really worth the effort.

A Unesco World Heritage site, it sits beautifully on a peninsula between the Mekong and

Whenever I See This I Think of Mary Poppins

Nam Khan rivers. French colonial architecture is evident throughout the town, all ranges of accommodations are provided, wonderful restaurants abound, night markets and many small shops dot the tree lined streets, while there are neighborhoods of silversmiths and textiles and paper makers. I find myself wondering what this bohemian town is doing here in the middle of nowhere. You could spend 2 or 3 days just investigating the many guesthouses that proliferate throughout town – or you could just hang out on the main drag at a different café every day drinking thick, rich Lao coffee (you add condensed milk to top it off).

Hard Evidence of Global Warming

One of the advantages of staying longer at each location is the opportunity to develop habits, however small they are. For instance, I have my favorite WiFi internet café up the street that we go to every morning, or we frequent this noodle lady around the corner that makes the best fried noodles, or the crepe and fruit shake stand up the street, or the nice wine bar downtown that we’ve gone to every night. We just try and make it feel like home if only for a few days, and think spending quality time in each place - by staying longer and patronizing local guesthouses and restaurants - is a higher priority than trying to see everything.

Marge with Carol

In our travels we met Lynda and Alan who have a sister Carol who works in town on a project to help local Lao people develop learning skills to better their opportunities in life. This involves reading and writing exercises, learning English and developing computer proficiency. Education in this country is not very developed, yet this town is the ‘Harvard’ of higher education and has the best schools. We were both very impressed with the effort Carol is making in her project  www.thelanguageproject.org

Village Kids

Despite the appearance of prosperity in Luang Prabang, a quick 5 minute boat ride across the Mekong to the other side of town will bring you face to face with the more realistic face of Laos. Here rice farmers tend their fields as they have for many generations and live in well worn bamboo bungalows. Walking through these poor villages, all the kids would readily call out ‘hello’ in Lao which sounds phonetically like ‘sabbai dee’ (said very quickly). It seemed like everyone was running out of their house to say hi to the two tall tourists – pretty funny. How they manage to distill so much happiness and zest for life from the apparent meagerness of their material possessions is refreshing to see. To them

a successful day at the office is scraping together 50 cents for a bowl of rice or finding six

Slow Day at the Office

eggs in the roost or replenishing their water from the local well. Unlike the ‘Land of Smiles’ (Thailand) where smiles seem opportunistic, these are genuine.

In a few more days we’re going to head three hours north to the town of Nong Khiau, set in a dramatic mountainous region along a spring fed river. The town itself is not visited very often and Marge has purchased some books from an organization in town that distributes reading material to kids of all ages – even adults. We’ll take them to local villages up there and do a lot more ‘sabbai dee’s’. From there we’ll do a week long loop thru a few other

Monks at the Wat

villages - Phonsaven and the ‘Plain of Jars’ - before returning to Luang Prabang for a few days before taking the slow 2 day boat trip up the Mekong to Northern Thailand. Today we realized that we have 60 day visas, so we’re not rushed to exit Laos and may spend more time here.

I’ve named this posting after one of my favorite Indigo Girls songs – after spending time in many towns and villages and big cities the last few months, it’s invigorating and encouraging to find such a gem as Luang Prabang. Even more inspiring are the people that populate this great country, some of the nicest people you’ll ever come across. It’s certainly not perfect, but closer to fine than anywhere else we’ve been so far.         

This Guy Was Always Asking Me for Handout

One added note – back in the states I subscribed to this service ($50/year) that backed up all my files off site – it runs in the background, detects when changes are made to any files and backs them up (only changed or new files). I transferred this service to my new laptop and within 10 minutes had access to all the files backed up from my old PC. Very easy to restore backed up files, this service is very slick. My laptop is now configured to backup all my digital pictures, so whenever I have an internet connection it backs up any new pictures (which I download every day from my camera memory card). Send me an email if interested…

Thankfully, I see all my Indigo Girls songs on my backup, so the next rainy day I’m going to work on getting them on my Ipod where they were inexplicably not included in my final
play list.

Marge Waiting for Driver in Tuk Tuk

Bill and the Village Kids After School

Luang Prabang Architecture

Sleeping Tiger

Tat Kuang Si Waterfall - Luang Prabang

Drying Tortillas

Hmong Vendor

On the Way to Laotian Village of Ban An

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View from Our Room in Vang Vieng

We took a 3 hour bus from Vientiane to Vang Vieng, which is along the Mekong River. On one side there are mountains & the other side of the river you see limestone karsts. It is a very picturesque and a popular spot for the young backpacker crowd.

As the story goes, Lonely Planet (travel books) discovered this area a couple of years ago and now there are many guest houses, bungalows, and small hotels. With our room karma working, we found a nice bungalow for $18 a night in a quiet spot off the main road along the river.

Pretty Garden Along River

We were not impressed with the “downtown” area at all. The few streets all looked the same, and all the restaurants and shops had the same ugly yellow signs. No charm quality about it and way too many moronic ‘Friends’ reruns on the TV’s! I never liked that show anyways. There is a backpacker den across the river where the young party till the break of dawn. Flashing lights, loud music, campfires, it’s a happening.

What attracts both the young (besides the partying) and young at heart about this area besides the views are the outdoor activities. There is tubing,

Marge on Locally Constructed Bridge - It's Rebuilt Every year After Floods

rafting, & kayaking on the river. Rent bicycles or walk along the many paths that lead to caves and rock climbing or just wander through the countryside. You can walk over rice paddies and farmland and never see a ‘no trespassing’ sign.

The karsts  have many caves and the locals will stake one out, put up a sign, and charge anywhere from $1 - $3 to either guide you inside or allow you to enter on your own. We are not sure how one claims a cave, but some of the caves are manned by kids. We entered one cave with a sitting Buddha inside and a rock climb for a view of the entire valley. You can see by the pictures that the climb had some very inventive ladders made out of bamboo. They use bamboo for scaffolding as Bill showed, inside and outside of bungalows, railings and walkways over rivers and stream crossings. How about a bamboo

Path to One of the Many Caves

umbrella and stand! 

I titled this update ‘Singing in Lao’, because they love to sing. They could be walking through their gardens, tending their cattle or water buffalo, or just relaxing, young and old sing. It is very pleasant to hear.

We are in northern Lao and close to some of the Hmong villages. The Hmongs sided with the Americans during the Vietnam War and there is still some

Marge Climbing Bamboo Ladders - Just Like That Old Game - 'Ladders and Chutes'

hostility against them by the rest of the communist/democratic Lao. In fact the US allowed many of the Hmongs to migrate to America because of their help. I can remember my dear mother-in-law talking about the Hmongs who moved to her Wisconsin town. Bill and I were clueless at the time who they were. She learned to warm up to them at her farmer’s market and said they had the best produce and she was right! The Lao food is not as spicy (hot) as Thai, but some dishes have a mild punch to them. Their veggies, yogurt, and tofu are super fresh.

As we walked about during our 4 days here, we saw the evidence of how poor the people are. Because they have no running water, they bathe, brush their teeth, and wash their clothes in the river. Tourism is helping some and we hope it continues at an even pace so as not to destroy the area.

Cute Girls Charged Me 10 Cents for This Picture

We hit a bit of cool weather for a couple of days, so we wore our 2 long sleeve shirts but then the weather turned warm again. The cold weather came down from neighboring China (about 6 hour bus ride north). We have been on the road for 4 months and are in a good rhythm, still enjoying the new sights, and the local and foreigners we meet. This is really turning into a trip of a lifetime and as always I love being with my husband 24/7.

Marge

We Dropped A LOT OF BOMBS on Laos in the 60's

Restaurant Along River

Marge on Valentine's Day

Nice View of the River and Local Villages

This Mother Hubbard Had 6 Kids

Cleverly Constructed Fences

Lovely Restroom Along River - Guess Where the Leach Line Ends Up

Marge and One of Those trip Wires

Local Relaxin Spot

Bill Chilling with Beerlao

Another Nice Path Through the Woods

Hike Through the Rice Fields to Far Hills

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Traveling in Southeast Asia involves some risks to your personal well being – there’s always the ever present upset stomach from something you recently ate, or the nagging colds and sniffles you readily pick up on crowded public transportation. You also need to be very careful when crossing streets or stepping out of transport, or in any way traversing roadways – checking and cross checking traffic in both directions. Sometimes, you have no choice but to move into the fast moving traffic and slowly pick your way across, trusting in the driving skills of those who buzz by you.

 
But beyond these obvious traveling hazards are others that you need to be aware of. These include things you step into, things you trip over, things that potentially fall from above and things that you never ever should touch. These also include the bewildering array of roaming dogs that are allowed to propagate throughout Southeast Asia – so far they all seem pretty docile and scatter quickly with a sharp clap of the hand, but nonetheless, I’m glad we both have our rabies immunizations.

Watch Your Step

First off are the things you step into – it’s probably best to walk in the street whenever possible because sidewalks are not meant to be walked on – this is where one parks their motorcycle, or sets up a food stall. I ’m amazed at what you see when you walk around – many potential road hazards for a person to insert their foot into or twist an ankle, or worse be swallowed up by an open sewer (why they don’t put barricades around these is beyond me). By no means are these limited to any one country – we’ve seen these examples in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Laos.

Just Big Enough to Rip Your Ankle Apart

Hidden Land Mine - It Opens Up When You Step On It

Now That's Nasty

Then the Earth Opened and Swallowed Me Up

These You Hardly Notice Until Your Flip Flop Gets Entangled

Head's Up on This Pipe - What's It's Purpose ?

Next are things you trip over. In the pictures you can see varied examples of what I mean – so many pipes, pieces of metal, wire stretched over the ground, and so on. Most streets at night are very poorly lit, so extra precaution needs to be taken when walking around after dark.

Thes Guys Were Wiring in A Food Stall - The Wire Remained On the Sidewalk

Watch That Wire

Next are things that you walk into. These include the many signs that are disturbingly mounted on poles at heights below 5 feet – why I’m not sure. Whenever you come to a sign, you need to walk around it since you can’t walk under it – worse, these signs have sharp metal corners, so if you fail to follow the way around you risk scraping off parts of your body on the sharp edges. Also, in this category are the many Romex wires that dangle overhead that people (obviously not licensed electricians) tie into for their power needs. Also needing special attention are the food stalls and their metal corrugated roofs

Chop That Head Off

that have their edges at westerner eye level. If not careful, when

This Food Stall Vendor Was Nice Enough to Cushion the Sharp Edge with Masking Tape

Watch Where You Walk

ordering your bakso, you could open a gash on your forehead if you don’t take precaution. For this, I’m glad we have our tetanus immunizations.

For those things you don’t touch, I need to mention the many open circuit breaker boxes and cobbled together Romex wire that you see everywhere. I’m not sure how they sort out the PG&E bills over here, but it seems everybody mooches off of everybody else when it comes to electricity. So many wires overhead and at head level, so many boxes with wires spliced together, so many cheap extension cords and lights  tied in everywhere – I have yet to see any wire nuts in use here –

Yikes - No Wire Nuts

Let's Tie Into Neighbor Joe's PG&E

lots of black tape instead. Needless to say, I give wide berth when passing power poles or anything metal that has electrical wires running to or around it. I really doubt if anything is grounded.

Huh - Imagine That - No Wire Nuts - No Junction Box

Don't Even Think of Touching This

Bamboo Scaffolding

Next are things that potentially fall from above. There’s a lot of building going on over here and I’m constantly amazed how these people construct 10 stories of scaffolding out of nothing more than bamboo poles. If you’re walking down the street and see this construction going on, immediately cross to the other side of the road and give it wide berth. Hard hats are not used here and they use buckets and ropes to hoist up material, concrete, lumber and tools. I can’t imagine they have any kind of worker logs for so many days without an injury. I routinely see construction workers 5 stories off the ground pounding away with no safety harnesses of any kind is case they slip and fall.

Southeast Asian Construction Site

I Paid Marge to Walk in Front of this Job Site

Amazing Bamboo Scaffolding

Crew Above Wqs Throwing Bricks Off the Roof into This Pile

Well, At Least They Use Rebar

Special mention also needs to go to the broken glass that litters the beautiful beaches. Marge and I routinely would fill up a bag of debris when taking a walk on the beach. Why anyone throws an empty beer bottle on the rocks is beyond me.

We’ve both been very fortunate up to now, but it’s worrisome sometimes to see these hazards everywhere you turn. Surely the locals suffer the same consequences as the foreigners ? Enjoy the pictures and don’t trip through your wire….

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Outdoor Cafes in Vietiane

My eyes moistened as I surveyed the gastronomical landscape scattered around the fountain in downtown Vientiane where our bus from Thailand had dropped us off. A lively scene presented itself as people sat around the town square munching away and enjoying the sun. After weeks of night markets and Asian food I hadn’t been so excited about eating since we were in Georgetown, Malaysia.

We had arrived in the small cosmopolitan town of Vientiane, a former French colony, after a short bus ride over the Friendship Bridge from neighboring

Fruit Shake Stand in Vietiane

Thailand. With a quick stop at Thailand immigration, then another quick stop at Laos immigration, we had our passports stamped and were on our way. It turned out to be a busy week in this part of the world because of Chinese New Year, so accommodations were challenging – that plus the fact that this town is littered with cheap backpacker places, so there were a lot of people in search for a place to crash. We ended up at this pretty nice hotel style place; Marge thought it was nice, I thought it was a little dark and depressing. Maybe that had to do with the fact that as you opened the curtains on both walls of the room, you looked out into gray concrete walls, a consequence of it being sandwiched between two other buildings.

Auberge Sala Inpeng - Vietiane

We loved Vientiane, the town itself sits along the Mekong River, and there are many nice accommodations and a lively night scene. At happy hour one night we met a fellow traveler from Canada who steered us to where he was staying – Auberge Sala Inpey – a lovely bungalow style guesthouse on a quiet street run by a local family. Fortuitously, we checked out of the cave and ended up staying there for 4 nights. An added bonus was the very popular French restaurant 200 feet away. And speaking of French, there are many, many French people who come to vacation here, so I can see why the food and wine is a cut above normal.

Marge on a Cool Day in Vietiane

As far as attractions, we didn’t do much other than hang out and window shop – we did put together a package that we sent back to the states. Curiously, this area used to be a haven for opium dealers and smokers (see Paul Theroux, The Great Railroad Bazaar), so in the antique stores around town, you can find these old opium pipes which you can purchase quite cheaply (I bought 4 – thought they were great souvenirs). There are quite a few Laotian Wats scattered around town, but unfortunately, they are not as nicely maintained as the ones we saw in Thailand.

Two Buddhists in a Tuk Tuk

Laos is a very poor country and just recently became a democratic republic, having been communist for many years. Only within the last 20 years have foreigners been granted visas for tourist purposes and aside from Vientiane and Luang Prabang, the other towns and villages are rural and very poor with per capita income per family of under $600/year. We plan on spending 3-4 weeks in the country, coming in from the south and exiting in the northwest back into Thailand.

But back to the food – it was outstanding, one night a burrito carnitas,

Birds For Sale

another night pizza which was pretty decent, another night fettuccini alfredo and homemade raviolis, then beef fondue at the French restaurant; baguettes for lunch and croissants for breakfast - just say there was great variety.

We both rank this wonderful town high on our list of favorite places so far on our journey, and trust that you’ll always be able to find these three things in this charming destination. Next stop, the adrenaline charged hamlet of Vang Vieng, a 3 hour bus ride north of here.

Funky Bar on the Mekong River

A few modifications to the blog – first off, we started a list of all the places we have stayed so far under ‘Collections’ on the right hand side. I’m still trying to figure out a way to arrange them in chronological order, but no luck. Marge and I have become very, very adept and lucky at sniffing out charming places to stay along the way – we avoid the obvious $5/day backpacker haunts, and spend $10/day more on upgraded, more atmospheric places. So any place listed gets our highest recommendations. I’m also, starting today, going to update the picture at the top to reflect where we are that day – it may be a picture of the both of us or just one of us, or maybe a funny picture, but at least you’ll know where we are.

Wat Ceiling

That’s it for now…

Marge Making Wax Flowers for Chinese New Year

Cool Dragons on Wat

Wat

Most Famous Wat in Laos - Can't Recall the Name

Vietiane Wat

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Upper Bunk on 2nd Class Train

If our Thailand Visas were not expiring on 8-February (if you overstay your visa you start accruing fines of $15/day per person which they collect when you do finally leave), we would have stayed here longer than 3 nights. Arriving in Nong Khai after an overnight train from Bangkok (left at 8:00 PM and arrived at 10:00 AM), we came to this charming border town on the banks of the Mekong River opposite the country of Laos - the kind of place that you warm up to and then regret leaving.

The 2^nd class train sleeper car wasn’t bad - separate upper and lower bunks

Lower Bunk on Train

with curtains for privacy – and we both had a pretty decent nights sleep. One thing to note is that

the upper bunk is exactly 72” in length so if you’re longer than 6’, you can’t stretch out – fortunately, I sleep on my side in more of a fetal position, so I had no problem. Marge was in the bottom bunk and had a little more space. Total cost for two people was $40.

Thai Nongkhai Guesthouse

Part of the charm of this town was the great guesthouse we stayed at – the Thai Nongkhai Guesthouse. When I inquired about availability, the lady that showed it to me had been staying there for 3 months, and I can see why. Not to mention it was only $14 a night.

Most travelers use this town as a one night stopover before hitching a ride on the international bus to Vientiane, Laos, maybe 10 miles away. However, it’s worth hanging around for a few days and soaking up the local atmosphere. There’s an extensive new boardwalk that follows the meandering Mekong,

Nong Khai Wat

passing many Wats along the way. Outside our guesthouse, there’s a lady selling banana/pineapple shakes for 75 cents, while further down another lady makes these great crepes for 50 cents.

Marge and I both need a break from Asian food for a week or so. The first Mexican restaurant I see I’m pigging out- the same for Italian. We’ve tried many different pizzas but they all taste like those frozen take and bake kind you buy back in the states. We’re thinking Laos and its French influence might

Nice Little Temple in Nong Khai

bring a fresh variety into our diet.

So here’s our latest plan: Friday, 08-February we’ll cross into Laos and spend up to a month there depending on how we like it. There are three main towns – Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang where we’ll spend time. We expect the weather to be cooler and the country to be a little less commercialized. After Luang Prabang, we’ll take a 2 day cruise up the Mekong River back into northern Thailand where we’ll spend another month or so before heading south to Cambodia. Starting April 1^st, we have 30 day visas for Vietnam, so that’s our next hardcoded stop. Until then, we’ll be flexible.

Boardwalk Along Mekong River in Nong Khai

So, we’re one step closer, it’s pretty easy to get around by bus or train and neither of us are tired of traveling. So keep reading the blog, and we’ll try and keep it more up to date – usually, I’ve been posting things 5-7 days later, so when you read we’re in Bangkok, we’re really in Laos (right now I’m typing this entry at a wireless café in Vientiane, Laos – great little town, more on that later !

And as I sit in the café and gaze across the Mekong at yet another new country and adventure we wish you all well and trust that we’re safe and sound.

Very Strange Park with Buddha, Christian, Hindu Statues