Over the past couple of weeks we've been using Luang Prabang as a base to explore northern Laos. Luang Prabang is a small city but has a much bigger feel compared with Vientiane which is actually about 4 times the size. The city has UNESCO world heritage status which may partly explain why it has more charm than Vientiane. It is filled with temples, french colonial buildings and it was the home of the exiled royal family - the previous royal palace is basically in the same condition as when they were booted out a few decades ago and is now a museum. Even though the city attracts lots of tourists it doesn't feel as overrun with them as Vang Vieng. It is also a good spot to try authentic Lao food - we took the opportunity to have a bit more of an adventurous take on Lao food, which included us trying deep fried crickets, stir fried wasps, steamed bee larvae, herb infused pig brains, BBQ river eel, herb stuffed frog and various weeds and plants.
Our first excursion from Luang Prabang was to Luang Nam Tha in the northwest. We decided to take the long way to get there (a 1 day boat trip up the Mekong followed by a 1 day bus trip). The boat trip was interesting but not something that we'd do again unless the boat turned into the luxury cruise boat we saw on the way - our trip didn't get off to a great start when we found that the seats were thin wooden benches not good for a 12 hour trip and then ending with us holding onto lifejackets in the dark (the boat had no lights) hoping the boat would find the village to dock. The trip and scenery were good for the experience but if it had finished at lunchtime we would have been happy.
Luang Nam Tha is a small town that edges the Nam Tha National Protected Area where we went on a one day trek through the forest. Our trek was quite fun and exactly what we wanted - along the way we got to pick and eat wild raspberries, eat tree bark (it's meant to be medicinal) and collect some leeches in our shoes and in Nic's case get bitten by one. The food in Luang Nam Tha was surprising good, we especially enjoyed our picnic lunch on our trek eatting sticky rice and curries off banana leaves the way the locals do.
From Luang Nam Tha we travelled back to Luang Prabang and then on to Phonsavanh in the northeast. Phonsavanh's main attraction is the Plain of Jars. There are hundreds of large stone jars that are 2-3 thousand years old. There are many stories about what the jars were actually used for but archelogists have found evidence that they were used as burial jars. Phonsavanh province is also one of many provinces in Laos that were heavily bombed during the Vietnam war and the evidence of these bombings can be seen by the huge craters that dot the land and the many bomb casings scattered around. There are UXO (Unexploded Ordinance) removal teams working in the area to remove the bomb fragments and we heard that it could 400 years before Laos is completely cleared of UXO.
Travelling in this part of Laos is quite time consuming due to the roads being very hilly and windy and the average bus speed is 30km/h. Most trips take all day, and every few km you go through a village where the chickens and piglets scatter off the road and the cows just stare blankly at the bus as it weaves through them.
We're now back in Luang Prabang and are flying to Hanoi, Vietnam, tomorrow. We saw a guidebook that mentioned one of the dangers in Laos as being "forgetting to leave" - and with the slow pace of life here, we can see why.
Track where we have been!
Friday, 18 July 2008
Sunday, 6 July 2008
Vientiane & Vang Vieng
After our overnight bus trip we arrived in the capital of Laos, Vientiane. The french influence is more obvious here than down south, from the days when Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam were all part of "French Indochina". Many buildings have a french colonial style, French restaurants are common, and wine is more easily found than elsewhere in southeast asia (real wine, that is, not rice wine). The city even has its own version of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, set in a roundabout in the middle of a street sometimes optimistically called the "Champs Elysees of the east". A sign outside the monument is brutally honest, admitting it was only half finished due to funding problems and describing it as looking like a "monster of concrete" from up close.
Alongside this is the traditional Laos culture and architecture with temples scattered throughout the city. We've found that many of the traditional buildings are badly maintained, and the colonial style buildings that still look good are the ones that have been turned into hotels, restaurants, etc.
Disappointingly we had a hard time finding decent Lao food in Vientiane, with most eating places in the central distict catering to tourists. After a couple of tries we gave up and found that the western food is the best we've had for a long time. We almost went to a fancy French restaurant for $8 a main but decided at the last minute to have cocktails instead at our "usual" western style spot. The cocktails were normally $2.50 each but being happy hour we got 50% off and had a good night.
After a few days in Vientiane we kept going north to a town called Vang Vieng, which is renowned for its scenery amid sheer hills and nearby caves. A popular activity is floating down the river beneath the hills on old tyre tubes, which has overrun the town with backpackers. We signed up for a tour to see the caves and go tubing, and were surprised after about 50m on the river to stop at one of many very busy bars on the riverbank which were packed full of more tourists than we had seen people in town. The first bar had a rope swing over the river which Kristal had a go at (see the link to youtube from the blog page). One of the caves we saw was particularly interesting as a river runs through it and we had to pull ourselves through the cave on rubber tubes.
Apart from the scenery in Vang Vieng there was little reason to stick around so we kept heading north to Luang Prabang, the ancient royal capital of Laos. The bus trip was very windy, but scenic through 260km of steep hills and gorges. Luang Prabang is in the middle of northern Laos and we plan to use the city as a base to do loop trips in the far north and north east of the country.
Alongside this is the traditional Laos culture and architecture with temples scattered throughout the city. We've found that many of the traditional buildings are badly maintained, and the colonial style buildings that still look good are the ones that have been turned into hotels, restaurants, etc.
Disappointingly we had a hard time finding decent Lao food in Vientiane, with most eating places in the central distict catering to tourists. After a couple of tries we gave up and found that the western food is the best we've had for a long time. We almost went to a fancy French restaurant for $8 a main but decided at the last minute to have cocktails instead at our "usual" western style spot. The cocktails were normally $2.50 each but being happy hour we got 50% off and had a good night.
After a few days in Vientiane we kept going north to a town called Vang Vieng, which is renowned for its scenery amid sheer hills and nearby caves. A popular activity is floating down the river beneath the hills on old tyre tubes, which has overrun the town with backpackers. We signed up for a tour to see the caves and go tubing, and were surprised after about 50m on the river to stop at one of many very busy bars on the riverbank which were packed full of more tourists than we had seen people in town. The first bar had a rope swing over the river which Kristal had a go at (see the link to youtube from the blog page). One of the caves we saw was particularly interesting as a river runs through it and we had to pull ourselves through the cave on rubber tubes.
Apart from the scenery in Vang Vieng there was little reason to stick around so we kept heading north to Luang Prabang, the ancient royal capital of Laos. The bus trip was very windy, but scenic through 260km of steep hills and gorges. Luang Prabang is in the middle of northern Laos and we plan to use the city as a base to do loop trips in the far north and north east of the country.
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