Lao
Lao was amazing! A rugged country of lush bush covered mountains and idyllic villages set amongst rice paddies nestled within valleys. We entered Lao at the Chiang Khong / Huay Xai boarder crossing via boat across the Mekong River .We spent a day in Huay Xai to recover from our epic bus journey through northern Thailand to reach the boarder, before taking the river boat down to Luang Prabang. The Mekong runs through Lao acting as one of the major means of transport; it was fantastic to travel with the locals, stopping off at little river side communities to unload and pick up supplies during the two day trip to Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang sits at the confluents of the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers and is made up of an incredible collection of Buddhist and French colonial architecture, complete with tight paved lanes and tree lined avenues. We spent a few days here checking out a few of the local temples and generally eating a lot before heading south east to Phonsavan.
Roads in Lao defy logic as they seem to cling impossibly to cliff faces and balance precariously on ridge lines. As most of Lao is insanely mountainous going the shortest distance takes hours, however the scenery is fantastic with idyllic little towns and rice paddies in the valleys and rich green bush covering hills and mountains everywhere. Phonsavan exists in stark contrast to the rest of the country having been stripped of all greenery by agent orange during the Vietnam war, the landscape has the sunburn feel of a Hawkes Bay farm in summer. It's a fairly grim place, being the most heavily bombed place during theVietnam war the original town was wiped off the map and the area is still peppered with unexploded bombs. We did proudly note that New Zealand is responsible for a lot of bomb disposal in the area, including making land safe for farming. However the land is still so polluted from agent orange nothing much can grow. After staying a night we visited the Plain of Jars, three fields containing huge jars thought to have been used in burial rituals. Most of these were formed from huge chunks of stoned dragged to the site from miles around. The tour also included a visit to two minority villages, which was great but it was hard not to feel slightly intrusive and vouristic. Both were communities living in thatched houses, farming animals and rice for their own consumption.
From Phonsavan we took the overnight bus to Sam Neua near the Vietnam boarder. It was in the caves near hear that the communists hid for nine years during the war. After arriving at 8.30am with no sleep we decided to visit the caves. The place was an amazing underground labyrinth of bomb shelters, meeting rooms and dorms and is now a national monument. The next morning we took the 13 hour bus trip to Nong Khiaw, stopping halfway for two hours so that the road could be made! Nong Khiaw sits nestled next to the Nam Ou river and is dwaft by huge mountains on all sides. We stayed here a day visiting more caves near by used as bomb shelters during the war and hitched a lift with two French guys touring the country on motorbikes to a local waterfall, which turned out to be just a damn.
From Nong Khiaw we took the river boat up to Muang Ngoi Neua, a really remote community only reachable by boat. Staying in a tiny bungalow on the rivers edge, the place was a welcome reprieve from the hectic days of travel. It was great to get up early and watch the fishermen prepare their boats for the day. We traveled further up a nearby valley for a day walk to another settlement, a really basic place for workers of rice paddies in the valleys, explored more caves and swam in fresh water springs. After a few days of bliss we headed back down stream to Luang Prabang to check emails and make contact with outside world. We reluctantly said goodbye to Luang Prabang and bused ourselves out to Vientiane, the capital. Reportedly buses get shot at in this part of the country by insurgents, so our VIP tour bus came equipped with armed guard. On the trip the bus blew two tires but the sceneryary was fantastic.
Vientiane doesn't have much aesthetic appeal on the surface but after a few days we discovered a few great French colonial and Soviet inspired government buildings. We spent time here sorting our Cambodia visas out, biking two hours in midday heat to buy bus tickets to Pakse in southern Lao and visited the most important national monument, Pha That Luang. This temple is both a symbol of Buddhist religion and national sovereignty, comprising of a 45m stupa within a cloister which measures 85m square. After two nights in Vientiane we took the overnight bus to Pakse and then took a bus to Tadlo on the Bolaven Plateau. The plateau sits 1500m above the Mekong valley and is the main growing area for Lao coffee, rubber and bananas. The coffee is really good! Tadlo is a tiny place nesseled around a group of waterfalls and is surround by lush bush with many outlying hill tribe villages nearby. A tranquil two days was spent lying in the sun, swimming in the river and exploring the surrounding villages. The second day there I had a swim with the local elephant!
On leaving Tadlo we bused back to Pakse and then took a tuk-tuk to the ferry crossing over the Mekong for the town of Champasak. Champasak was a sleepy one street town hugging the bank of the Mekong with decaying French colonial buildings and a great noodle soup shop. From here we hired bikes to reach Wat Phu Champasak, an important Hindu and Buddhist temple which occupies a dramatic mountainside site overlooking the Mekong valley. The size and grandeur of the site was amazing and the views down to the Mekong breathtaking. The Si Phan Don group of islands in the Mekong river was our last stop in Lao. Here we stayed on the small island of Don Det, a backpacker paradise with $1 bungalows on the rivers edge. Don Det and its neighbour Don Khon used to be important for ferrying goods around the near by Somphamit falls which straddle the Mekong. We spent a week here of doing nothing but reading in our hammocks, eating and jumping into the Mekong from the deck of a restaurant. It was a great relaxing end to our Lao adventures and helped ease us into the onslaught of Cambodia.
Roads in Lao defy logic as they seem to cling impossibly to cliff faces and balance precariously on ridge lines. As most of Lao is insanely mountainous going the shortest distance takes hours, however the scenery is fantastic with idyllic little towns and rice paddies in the valleys and rich green bush covering hills and mountains everywhere. Phonsavan exists in stark contrast to the rest of the country having been stripped of all greenery by agent orange during the Vietnam war, the landscape has the sunburn feel of a Hawkes Bay farm in summer. It's a fairly grim place, being the most heavily bombed place during theVietnam war the original town was wiped off the map and the area is still peppered with unexploded bombs. We did proudly note that New Zealand is responsible for a lot of bomb disposal in the area, including making land safe for farming. However the land is still so polluted from agent orange nothing much can grow. After staying a night we visited the Plain of Jars, three fields containing huge jars thought to have been used in burial rituals. Most of these were formed from huge chunks of stoned dragged to the site from miles around. The tour also included a visit to two minority villages, which was great but it was hard not to feel slightly intrusive and vouristic. Both were communities living in thatched houses, farming animals and rice for their own consumption.
From Phonsavan we took the overnight bus to Sam Neua near the Vietnam boarder. It was in the caves near hear that the communists hid for nine years during the war. After arriving at 8.30am with no sleep we decided to visit the caves. The place was an amazing underground labyrinth of bomb shelters, meeting rooms and dorms and is now a national monument. The next morning we took the 13 hour bus trip to Nong Khiaw, stopping halfway for two hours so that the road could be made! Nong Khiaw sits nestled next to the Nam Ou river and is dwaft by huge mountains on all sides. We stayed here a day visiting more caves near by used as bomb shelters during the war and hitched a lift with two French guys touring the country on motorbikes to a local waterfall, which turned out to be just a damn.
From Nong Khiaw we took the river boat up to Muang Ngoi Neua, a really remote community only reachable by boat. Staying in a tiny bungalow on the rivers edge, the place was a welcome reprieve from the hectic days of travel. It was great to get up early and watch the fishermen prepare their boats for the day. We traveled further up a nearby valley for a day walk to another settlement, a really basic place for workers of rice paddies in the valleys, explored more caves and swam in fresh water springs. After a few days of bliss we headed back down stream to Luang Prabang to check emails and make contact with outside world. We reluctantly said goodbye to Luang Prabang and bused ourselves out to Vientiane, the capital. Reportedly buses get shot at in this part of the country by insurgents, so our VIP tour bus came equipped with armed guard. On the trip the bus blew two tires but the sceneryary was fantastic.
Vientiane doesn't have much aesthetic appeal on the surface but after a few days we discovered a few great French colonial and Soviet inspired government buildings. We spent time here sorting our Cambodia visas out, biking two hours in midday heat to buy bus tickets to Pakse in southern Lao and visited the most important national monument, Pha That Luang. This temple is both a symbol of Buddhist religion and national sovereignty, comprising of a 45m stupa within a cloister which measures 85m square. After two nights in Vientiane we took the overnight bus to Pakse and then took a bus to Tadlo on the Bolaven Plateau. The plateau sits 1500m above the Mekong valley and is the main growing area for Lao coffee, rubber and bananas. The coffee is really good! Tadlo is a tiny place nesseled around a group of waterfalls and is surround by lush bush with many outlying hill tribe villages nearby. A tranquil two days was spent lying in the sun, swimming in the river and exploring the surrounding villages. The second day there I had a swim with the local elephant!
On leaving Tadlo we bused back to Pakse and then took a tuk-tuk to the ferry crossing over the Mekong for the town of Champasak. Champasak was a sleepy one street town hugging the bank of the Mekong with decaying French colonial buildings and a great noodle soup shop. From here we hired bikes to reach Wat Phu Champasak, an important Hindu and Buddhist temple which occupies a dramatic mountainside site overlooking the Mekong valley. The size and grandeur of the site was amazing and the views down to the Mekong breathtaking. The Si Phan Don group of islands in the Mekong river was our last stop in Lao. Here we stayed on the small island of Don Det, a backpacker paradise with $1 bungalows on the rivers edge. Don Det and its neighbour Don Khon used to be important for ferrying goods around the near by Somphamit falls which straddle the Mekong. We spent a week here of doing nothing but reading in our hammocks, eating and jumping into the Mekong from the deck of a restaurant. It was a great relaxing end to our Lao adventures and helped ease us into the onslaught of Cambodia.
