Tag Archives: laos

Champusak and Pakse

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Champusak, a small town in southern Laos, is surprisingly enough the nicest and tidiest town in Laos I have visited. A very nice place to spend one day/night it. More than that and it will undoubtedly become boring. The town is an one-street affair with nice-looking cared buildings. Step out from the main street and walk 100 meters and its idyllic Laos countryside with its mountains and rice-fields. Despite the simple geography we managed somehow to get lost and had to ask directions for the guesthouse. The biggest local attraction is of course Wat Phou Champusak. An ancient temple, dating to the same period as Angkor Wat. Not as massive as its Cambodian counterpart, but very impressive nonetheless. It is mostly ruins, but the beautiful surrounding nature compensates for the sorry state of the temple. There is an elephant stone with a small altar under the mango tree. Putting an unripe mango on the altar immediately resulted in a ripe mango falling down from the tree. Miracles do not end here, though. In the town we met an old lady selling delicious fish and banana cakes for dirt cheap among other delicacies I had never seen before. Having bought a few and realizing that they were delicious, we tried to buy some more 15 minutes later, but the lady was nowhere to be found. A true mirage.

Pakse, on the other hand, is incredibly boring. Nothing to do and nothing to see, but you will end up there anyway. It is one of those places that you end staying at anyway whether you like it or not. There are a couple of Indian restaurants serving decent food, though. Plus we made it to the cat party at a temple, while overseeing two scantily-clad ladies coming on a moped out of the temple. It is amazing how much insight into the local culture can come from just hanging around with cats. Oh, the incredible Pakse. The surroundings of Pakse are a whole different story. Bolaven Plateau with its cooler climate, scenic untouched nature, coffee and tea plantations is magnificent. There are plenty of “dreams come true” waterfalls with Tat Fan being the most prominent one. I thought I had seen some impressive waterfalls, but how wrong I was. This is THE waterfall, which trumps on all other waterfalls combined. Tat Fan alone is worth making a trip to Laos. Next on the agenda is two weeks of intense travelling in Southern Vietnam. Another chapter, another adventure.

Easy Rider

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At the the age of 28, I rode a motorized vehicle for the first time in my life. I chose Pai for a maiden voyage, because of its low trafic, excellent roads and scenic views. I was tempted to ride a motorbike on Koh Phangan and Koh Tao, but poor condition of roads, extremely hilly terrain and a high number of accidents put me off. I did not have a chance to explore the islands (taxis are expensive there), but personal safety is far more important. Learning process was surprisingly easy. The first attempt: an automatic bike, a crash course into basics, extremely slow driving. On the second ride I drove more than 100km in one day and the third rida was a nighttime driving with a passenger on the backseat. On the fourth try I switched to a manual gear bike and rode in somewhat busy traffic of Chiang Rai. Much more intense than sleepy roads of Pai, but nothing extraordinary. The learning curve for a manual gear bike was a little bit steeper, but essentially it is just like a bicycle with gears, except that you do not have to do all the hard work. Then I had a chance to test substandard Laos dirt roads with a passenger on the backseat too. That followed by an 185km ride from Tha Kaek to Kong Lor cave and back the next day with a passenger on a backseat. And finally a three day tour around Bolaven Plateau. The highlight was riding 71km on a dirt-road after heavy raining the night before. It took almost four hours of very intense and cautious driving. When we hit the paved road and I thought the hardest part was over, the final 45km ride to Pakse proved even more intense than the dirt road part. Darktime driving, crappy light, millions of wasps aiming for the eyes, wandering dogs, a very agitated snake on the road and finally busy traffic of Pakse. At some point it started feeling like a computer game progressing from one level to another and ever-growing intensity. The weirdest thing was three people on a tandem bicycle appearing out of the blue. No accidents nor near-death experiences.

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I remember reading an article about Saudi women and how they were not allowed to drive cars. Saudi women have been trying to obtain rights to drive in the recent years, but the Saudi patriarchy resist these motions, as the right to drive is closely linked to freedom of movement and subsequently emancipation. Having learnt to drive a motorbike, I can fully relate to that. Being independent from public transit, overpriced taxis or own physical capabilities is truly liberating. Distances which are too long for walking or cycling are easily doable with a motorbike. After a couple of days on a motorbike in Pai, I rented a mountain bicycle just to see how it was. The lesson I learned here was that going 6km uphill in the +30C heat was not an enjoyable task by any means. A similar thing happened in Vang Vieng, I had a chance to compare to a) a crappy bicycle b) a less crappy bicycle c) and a motorbike. The motorbike came out as a winner here as well.

Been there, Don Det

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Si Phan Don aka Four Thousands Islands is an archipelago in the southernmost point of Laos, where Mekong reaches its widest point along its long journey. The area blooms in the dry season when thousands of islands emerge from the water. Some bigger islands are permanently inhabited like Don Kong, Don Khon and Don Det. Life here is all very old-fashioned, slow-paced and undeveloped. Don Det, the most interesting island out of the three, has no hospital, no police station, no postoffice, no ATMs. If you get sick, Pakse or Thailand are your best and nearest choices. In case you run out of money, they can arrange an ATM run for you. The island is connected to the electricity grid though, but this happened only a couple of years ago. The main village on the island shows the signs of the birth of a tourist oriented town, but walk 1km away to find slow Laos countryside with little signs of technological progress (apart from TVs and satellite dishes). Local people live their lives, never minding tourists. There is no Bob Marley coming from every other bard, but instead it is Lao music and locals post-maturely celebrating Lao New Year. There are free-roaming pigs and chicken, buffalos and cows, kittens and dogs. Cows’s buffalos’s prime time is during the night, when they freely roam on the roads creating road hazards. Walk even further away and you find rice fields and bush.

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There are plenty of guesthouses and most of them are cheap and very basic: four walls, a roof, a bed, a fan and a shared toilet across the road. The idea of having to cross the road (Sunset Boulevard nonetheless!) for the toilet did not appeal to me, so I spent extra energy on finding a more substantial place to sleep. Little more expensive than most places, but the service was friendliest I have ever had. The family prepared food for me late in the evening (read 7PM), after the restaurant kind of closed for the day. Another time I left my laundry and they fixed my shirt free of charge! Cats and kittens were all over the place too. One of the cats paid me a visit once and ate a huge spider in the bathroom and a cricket causing a havoc in the room. Free of charge too.

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There is not a lot in terms of sights. Thousands of islands of different size and shape, a spectacular water-fall on the next island, tropical storms and sunset over Mekong. However, the latter is the only sight you ever need to see and it never gets old. Tropical storms are excellent night entertainment too. There is no boredom here though, only profound laziness. Laying in a hammock all day long, eyes closed and listening to music is something you can easily fill your entire stay here with. Never gets old too. The geography of the island reminded me of Sairee Beach on Koh Tao. Sunset Boulevard with restaurants on the water-front and bungalows further inland. The local landscape is breathtaking and has got a lot of potential, as well as many other natural wonders in Laos. I can see that in five-ten years the entire Don Det will rush to exploit tourism income. Fancy resorts with A/C and swimming pools will be built, free wi-fi will make roads and endless repeats of Friends and Family Guy will make it to every other bar. Sooner or later business oriented minds will join the party, though. Until then it is sort of a backpacker’s paradise with its unspoiled nature, laid-back community and the slow-paced life of the extremely rural Laos.

Pee Mai Lao

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I “celebrated” Chinese New Year in Georgetown in Penang. I stayed on the first day of the celebrations only and found it rather boring. Nothing was going on, except people visiting temples, praying and burning incense. Granted the first day of Chinese New Year is supposedly a family affair celebrated at home, but disappointing nonetheless. I probably should have stayed longer, but at that point I could not take Georgetown any more. Lao New Year is entirely different. It is all about having fun and getting yourself and other people soaking wet. Everything is a fair game: water guns, hoses, buckets, stealth drinking bottles, water bombs, dyed water and so on. If you happen to be on the streets, you will get wet. Excuses like carrying expensive gadgets or important documents do not apply. Riding a motorbike or a tuk-tuk does not spare of this fate, you will get wet. I first experienced this tradition a week before the main celebration in Luang Prabang, when we got completely wet sharing a tuk-tuk on the way to waterfalls. At the time I was going through a “Laotians are evil” phase and getting did not help my opinion about Laotians. The driver seemed to deliberately slow down over splashing points to get kids a better aim to us. Only later I realized that it was all about premature New Year celebrations and on your way back we retaliated the kids with own dose of water. Lao New Year is probably the only occasion, when you can get away with splashing water to a person’s face and telling them shut up with no repercussions, as demonstrated by a drunk Scotsman, who systematically kept getting us wet as we had a conversation. No hard feelings, it is all good craic.
I am glad that I made to Vien Tiane during Pee Mai Lao, as the city truly showed its best during these three days. Other than that it is rather a sleepy place with pretty much nothing to do or see. Some fine restaurants, Mekong with its sunset, the strange, but fascinating Buddha Park (well worth a visit) and some temples. I got attacked by bedbugs again. Third time during this trip already. On a positive side, all the Pee Mai Lao water warfare made me almost forget about itching bites and bulging blisters. Sabadee Pee Mai!

The bizarre Vang Vieng

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Vang Vieng is a bizarre place. I hated it when I arrived there, but the more I stayed the more I enjoyed. Planned to spend two days, but ended up doing six days in total. Felt guilty about it too. The town itself is like Had Rin (the Full Moon Party capital on Koh Phangan) of Laos. Very undescriptive, touristy and messy. Full of chavs, very quiet in the daytime and blooming in the night-time. The main attraction of Vang Vieng is of course tubing. Party like there is no tomorrow, starting in the morning and going on until the sunset. Very full-on and very messy on the verge of being dangerous. In fact a girl was found dead in the river, while I was there. Not really surprising considering the river, free alcohol and zip-lining. This is partying Jimi Hendrix style – party hard with no handbrakes until you drop dead. Thankfully the tubing site is some 6km outside the city, so you are spared of the horrors of tubing in the daytime, unless you are up for it. I went there twice only to realize that it is not my thing by any means. Instead I attempted to swim down the current, which frankly was a bad idea, because of the low muddy water and rocks. The result was bruised knees and funky body odor.

Around the sunset time Vang Vieng loses its sleepy atmosphere with tubers getting back into town. It is truly a remarkable sight to see tuk-tuks packed with wasted tubers getting back into the town. Very surreal. Despite the initial skepticism I found the nightlife in Vang Vieng itself very enjoyable. The place to be is Q-Bar with decent music (crazy baila extravaganza and occasional house) and good atmosphere. People are undoubtedly wasted, but in a good way, no drunken idiots. Partying is full-on, take no prisoners type, but as everywhere in Laos it ends up early around the midnight. On the other hand people compensate the early end by starting early, so the net result is more or less the same. The after-party is at Sunset Bar, which goes on till 3AM, but no music at all.

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Vang Vieng surroundings are a whole different story and is the main reason why I stayed so long. You go across the Nam Song river, walk 100 meters and you find yourself in unspoiled countryside, full of rice fields, mountains and caves with little signs of development. It will undoubtedly change at some point. Hotels, minimarts and roads will be built and the tourist infrastructure will spill onto the other side of the river. But for now it is such a contrast to the busy life of Vang Vieng. There is Blue Lagoon, one of the major tourist attractions. Not technically a lagoon nor that scenic, but a fine place for swimming and spending a day at. There are a lot of caves and the ones I went to were truly remarkable. Tham Hai was especially awesome – a dark and long tunnel, which just keeps going inside the mountain. Almost like a prototype for a subway. Most hills are unclimbable with the exception of one. Not a very high one, but it was challenging to climb nonetheless, especially considering very basic infrastructure, flip-flops and the dusk time. The mountains also sports a 10000 kip entrance fee and is locked for the night. That is Laos.

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The second reason for the extended stay was the accommodation on the chill side for the river. If I did not find it, I would have left much earlier. Banana Bungalows, 30000 kip (slightly less than 3 euros) for a bungalow with no bathroom and some kind of dust falling down from the roof all the time. But the atmosphere was lovely – very Pai-like, tranquil and peaceful, plus amazing people. A bunch of californians, two Israeli guys who pretended to be twins, a magician with anger problems and Pai/slow-boat crew. Vang Vieng is bizarre indeed.