The small country

I have received a number of complaints concerning the lack of blog posts over the last three weeks. Not accepting any responsibility for this as usual, I blame the unbearable heat and the fact that I have been away on holidays.

To make it up to you, here's our latest blog post, this time on Laos. Laos? Well, were it not for the massive surge in its popularity as a tourist destination in recent years, many people on this planet probably wouldn't have heard a lot about this small and landlocked country in the middle of South-East Asia. And to be honest, the veil of ignorance in front of my face was just as obscure in that I didn't even know the name of the capital of Laos before planning this trip. It's Vientiane, by the way.

Anyway, Judith & I started off our time in Laos in the aforementioned Vientiane. Because of its rural character, this city of a whopping 200,000 inhabitants is sometimes referred to as “the world's most relaxed capital”. In our view, that statement certainly holds. Except for the local Mafia consisting of 10 Tuk-Tuk drivers, there's not a lot of hassle to be experienced by foreigners. The French as the former colonial power have left a distinct mark on the city, most notably in the form of nice cafés (there are at least three of them around) and delicious baguettes (“sorry, don't have”). Apart from that, there are many, many temples in the city, which we, ehem, of course all visited. Despite the typical anonymity prevailing in many mega-cities like Vientiane, we got a first taste of how very friendly the locals are. Wherever we went, we got greeted by constant cheers of “Sabaideeeeeeeeee”, which, surprisingly, means hello. 

The only thing big in Laos is its currency. Not even being 30 years old, Judith & I finally managed to become millionaires.

After two days in the “city”, we continued on to the tourist hotspot of Luang Prabang in Northern Laos. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage site and even has its own airport. As a result,  the tourists in town are either young backpackers looking to add in some culture into their South-East Asia beach time or older people being able to afford proper flight tickets. Luang Prabang very much deserves its popularity: it is a beautiful city with many colonial style buildings lining the Mekong river bank and dozens of temples and monasteries all over town. 

One highlight for tourists is to watch the alms giving ceremony for the monks. Sadly, the ceremony has become so popular with tourists that it has turned into somewhat of a Disney attraction by now. We ended up not watching it – the fact that it takes place at sunrise might also have contributed to our decision. For my part, I started to wonder where mankind would be today had it not poured all those funds into the construction and maintenance of temples (or churches or mosques for that matter), but invested it in schools, universities, and hospitals instead. Oh well.

Fortunately, our time in Luang Prabang coincided with the annual boat race, the local equivalent of the Oktoberfest. For us, watching the animate spectators was as much fun as watching the boat race itself. We even got invited by the town drunks to join them at their table and share a drink (which we gladly accepted) and to sample some of their delicious fried fat bugs (which we politely declined). We concluded our stay in Luang Prabang with a very nice cooking course – more on that in our next (and last) separate post on food. All I will say here is that I got to kill an animal. 

After Luang Prabang, Judith & I continued North to the villages of Muang Ngoi and Nong Khiauw. Muang Ngoi is pretty secluded as it is reachable by boat only. Electricity is limited to a few hours at night when the village-chief puts on the generator. The town is located in a truly beau-ti-ful valley covered in very dense tropical rainforest. Our boat ride to Muang Ngoi reminded me of the helicopter scene in Jurassic Park, just without all the flying and them dinosaurs. 

During our time there, we took a boat to an even smaller minority village further upstream. The only monetary income that village generates seems to come from selling hand-woven silk scarves to the few tourists who show up there from time to time. It was fun to see how excited the locals got once they saw us entering the village. Hmm, tourists. On the way back, we had a great time tubing down the river. We had the big river pretty much to ourselves, only sharing it with a nice and fellow round-the-world-couple from Canada. Once again, a fabulous day. It seems like tubing has become a major industry in Laos, it's offered everywhere. That's what you get for visiting a country without beaches. 

The second village we stayed at, Nong Khiauw, is more developed, featuring a proper bridge, a paved road, and 24h-electricity. Accommodation once again came in cheap at only US$ 3 per night for a bungalow with an en-suite “bathroom”, naturellement including the usual giant spiders.

And now for something completely different: random excerpts from Laotian history. The region North of Muang Ngoi and Nong Khiauw is also where the collateral damage of the Vietnam war was the strongest. In fact, to this day, Laos holds the unfortunate title of being the world's most bombed country per capita. During the Vietnam war, some of the North-Eastern provinces sided with the communists and allowed parts of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the supply network of the Vietcong, to pass through Laotian territory. Not liking this at all, the CIA had the shit bombed out of the region. Since the US officially had never declared war on Laos, it became known as the secret war. Wiki claims that on average, one B 52 bomb load was dropped on Laos every 8 minutes, 24 hours – for 9 years from 1964-1973. That's 260 million bombs (!!), the legacy of which still lies hidden in the jungle until this day. In addition, Laos, like so many other countries, became the staging ground for a long-lasting commies-v-capitalists battle. Ironically, most Laotians themselves didn't really care too much about global politics and often frustrated their “sponsors” with a lousy attitude towards fighting. That's the spirit.

After our time in the North, we decided to follow the flow of the Mekong river towards the South. Even though the bus rides themselves were tiring (we did 10 hours back to Vientiane plus another 12 hours to get to Southern Laos), we got to see some amazing landscapes. Check out the picture below: spectacular mountains & abundant vegetation. In your face, Dubai.

Our next stopover was in Pakse, a medium-sized and not particularly attractive town. From Pakse, we visited Wat Phou, the predecessor of Angkor Wat. Since 900 years of tropical rain and the need for construction material of the local villagers have left their mark on the compounds, the temple turned out to be not that impressive. However, we thoroughly enjoyed our Tuk-Tuk ride there, as literally every person we passed smiled and waved at us. So this is what the Queen must feel like. In addition, we managed to fit in a bit of thrill, as we watched how a van overtaking our Tuk-Tuk hit a motorbike on the dirt road right in front of us. Nothing serious, though.

Our last stop in Laos was on one of the famed 4000 Mekong islands. Actually, we thought 4000 islands is a gross exaggeration, it's more like 40. From the island, we did a few day trips, including visiting the biggest waterfalls in South-East Asia in terms of water flow. At 15 meters in height, the falls are, well, cute. Judith & I also rented some bikes and cycled around our island – a wet experience during Monsoon season, as we found out later. Nevertheless, exploring the local area by bike was a great way to catch a glimpse of the rural lifestyle (which is a lot more traditional than in, let's say, Vietnam) and the endless rice fields.

Sadly, our time in beautiful Laos soon was to come to an end. Next stop: Cambodia – a country, which, despite several superficial similarities, is very different from Laos. This time, it won't be three weeks before you hear back from us, promise! Thank you for your attention. So long, readers.