T&A

The morning we traveled in Vientiane, it was overcast and cloudy. We have grown to like this weather because it means that it’s not excruciatingly hot. However, as luck would have it, we stepped off the bus and it began to pour. The rain tends to only last for twenty minutes or so during the day before quitting, when the sun comes out. However, if it rains at night, it will pour long and hard – practically all night! It’s actually very strange.

We finally found a cheap guesthouse after a few hours of searching, and found a restaurant to relax and plan our time in Laos’ capital city. Vientiane is the largest city in Laos, with 200,000 people, so instead of feeling like a city, it actually feels like a large town. Since it’s so small, we decided to do our own walking tour to see the sites. Our first stop was Patuxai, which basically looks like a replica of France’s Arc de Triomphe. It was built to commemorate the Laos people who died in pre-revolutionary wars using cement donated from the USA intended for a new airport construction. The roads leading to and from Patuxai are beautifully manicured with streetlights and grass down the centre of the road. We climbed seven stories to the top of the monument, but there wasn’t much of a view from the top.

It was an extremely hot day, so before continuing our walking tour, we found a small ice cream parlour. For only 3,000 kip a scoop (about 30 cents), we had the best tasting and creamiest ice cream we’ve had in months. It was so hot out that as soon as we got the cones, there was an instant cloud of mist around the cone from melting so fast! As soon as we had cooled down, we walked further to Pha That Luang, a HUGE golden stupa surrounded by a few wats. This stupa, a symbol of the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty, is the most important national monument in Laos. It even appears on the national seal. Unfortunately, after our two hour walk, we arrived just after the doors to the stupa had closed. We walked around the monument before grabbing a tuk tuk back to our guesthouse for dinner, and then we went to sleep.

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By the time we arrived in Phonsavan, we were incredibly worn down and tired! The “air-conditioned” (fans blowing air) bus ride from Luang Prabang took 9 hours, and although the scenery was incredible, as we drove along huge mountains and through beautiful valleys, we were never in our seats for more than a few moments before swaying back and forth again. These roads were definately the most windy we have ever driven on, and it took a toll on us as well as the locals. A few of them were even sick and had to keep spitting out the windows! However, the closer we got to Phonsavan, the more the scenery morphed into flat rolling hills.

The area around Phonsavan is one of the most heavily bombed regions in the most heavily bombed country in history. In the ’60s and ’70s, as part of the Vietnam war, the US dropped over 2 million tons of bombs, most of which were anti personnel bombs, without the knowledge of congress or the general public. Today, the effects are still visible in the surrounding landscape, and there are still hundreds if not thousands of unexploded bombs (bombies) present which cause damage and take lives each year. Many of the farmers in the area are extremely poor and are hesitant to expand their crop production because of these unexploded ordnances (UXOs), but have to anyway to survive. More than 12 000 people, many of them children, have been killed or injured by bombies or other unexploded ordnance (weapons) in the past three decades. The area is also known for the mysterious Plain Of Jars, large stone vessels believed to be ancient funerary urns. The jars were our main reason for visiting Phonsavan.

When we arrived at our guesthouse late in the afternoon, we were greeted by a handful of Lao men sitting around a table, and were instantly invited to hang out with them. It turns out that this is a regular occurance for these guys. We sat down, and were offered shots of Lao Lao. Tara refused the drinks from the start, but Adam decided to have some. The problem with drinking Lao Lao with locals, is that they like to drink until the alcohol is gone, and Lao Lao is bought in liter bags! We were also taught how to serve shots like a local. The host will pour himself a shot, tost his friends and then drink it. He or she then pours a shot for everyone else in a clockwise direction. This continues until everyone at the table has had some Lao Lao, and then it is the next persons turn. The entire process basically ends when the whole liter of Lao Lao is gone.

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Luang Prabang, the original capital city of Laos, is a beautiful city set along the Mekong River with fantastic views. It felt more like a large town than a city, which made it a very peaceful place to spend a few days exploring the area. There are scores of temples sprinkled throughout the older part of town, and a huge night market which is set up and taken down each day. The French influence in Luang Prabang is immediately apparent in the beautiful, colonial architecture with wrap-around balconies and 19th century shuttered windows, remnants of Indochina.

During our first afternoon in the city, we decided to take a walk down the main road toward the Mekong river, and continued our stroll riverside. Along the way, we were bombarded with numerous vendors selling fruit, fruit shakes, delicious chicken sandwiches, and of course incessant tuk-tuk drivers trying to take us to the local attractions: waterfalls and caves. We were pretty tired from the bus ride, so we spent the rest of the evening relaxing.

After sleeping in the next morning, something we haven’t been able to do for a few days, we grabbed a chicken sandwich and were off to try and hitch a ride to Kuang Si Falls, a large multi-stage waterfall located about 30km outside of the city. We ran into two Dutchmen and an Englishman trying to do the same, and so we shared the tuk-tuk together. The waterfalls were better than we had imagined. After arriving and paying our entrance fee, we followed a trail through the forest which passed by two separate cages: one for a family of bears, and one for a tiger which was “sleeping” that day. As we walked further into the forest, the path finally opened up to reveal a large pool of water, which was at the lower end of a series of tiered pools. The water was bright baby blue, and was so inviting that we immediately jumped in for a cool-down. This pool was only about 15 m wide, and in the middle we were not able to touch the bottom. After climbing the small waterfall and jumping off, we decided to continue our adventure further through the forest and up to the other tiers.

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