Vientiane, temples and tuk-tuk paradise

 

Boloven plateau

Hmmm, we were in Lao roughly 10-11 months ago... Back in 2013...

So this is me trying to make a big memory effort!

On the way back from Champasak, we returned to Pakse to take a bus (again) to the Boloven plateau. As there is no main town on the plateau, we had picked one which looked big enough for a hotel and which was a bit central so we could tour the area on a motorbike.

The bus dropped us on the main road and we had obviously decided to go to the furthest hotel on top of a hill...

It was a bit like a ghost house, no one at the reception, dust everywhere long dark corridor but apparently the best hotel around ;-))))

Touring the area on our motorbike, we discovered gorgeous waterfalls (if you remember from previous Lao posts, waterfalls are the selling point of Lao), tea and coffee plantations where we indulged in numerous coffee breaks!

Coming back to town (hmm village), we thought we should stop for a drink at the first place where they were people. There was a nice outdoors setting, they only seemed to sell coffee but we asked for a beer (we had a caffeine running in our veins after that many coffee breaks!). As it is always around SE Asia, nothing is a problem, if we want beer and they don't have it, they send a kid to the shop to buy beer!

After one or two beers, we started feeling a bit like intruders, they were setting plenty of tables outside with soup, drinks and the excitation was building up. We thought that we better leave as there must be a wedding arriving or a big celebration. That's when we asked for the bill and were told it was free!

We could certainly not leave without paying, especially knowing that they had to go to the shop to get the beer! By that time people had started arriving for dinner. We had tried asking what was going on but English doesn't go very far in Lao... We noticed a table of tourists who were eating so we thought we would try our luck with them. They were staying at a guesthouse in town and were told to come here for dinner as this family was inviting the entire village and anyway anything else would be closed. It was half way between a family reunion, a religious event and a village party!

So we joined in! It was delicious, food had been cooked in massive pans, similar to the ones they use in the Indian temples in Singapore for celebration. They kept on serving us beer all night (by that I mean up to 8.30pm) and at the end, we made a donation at the temple set up in the living room to cover for dinner cost, drinks and a bit more!

It was such a great night, I would have liked to understand a bit more about the why and how, how often they do that, who organizes but anyway, it was nice to be part of the community.

The day after, we were back in a bus on our way to Pakse airport, flying to Vientiane (the flight which since the crash this summer doesn't have such a good reputation...)

 

4000 islands and the temple of Champasak

After having flown from Luang Prabang down to Pakse, we took a bus (hmm a truck might be a more appropriate word...) for a 3h ride down to the 4000 islands, a suite of many islands (4000 only in dry season if you count all sand bars!) on the Mekong at the Cambodian border.
There are 3 main islands for tourists to choose from, the very quiet (Don Khong), the very party (Don Det) and the middle ground one (Don Khon). Initial idea was to go to Don  Khon but the boat driver did not seem to agree so we went for the party island! To be honest, that was probably a wise choice, Lao was so quiet at this time of the year that Don Det was really fine, at least we found a few bars and restaurants opened!
We booked ourselves in the first hotel we found, owned by a drunk looking Russian man (no stereotype there...) and proceeded to enjoy sunset on the Mekong with a drink.

Next day, we rented bikes (no motorbike this time) and we went on an exploration trip, it goes without saying that there were a few waterfalls, it's Lao after all! If I'm really honest there were more rapids than waterfalls but not the type I'd like to do in a raft!

R did go for a swim but the current was incredibly strong, to give you a feeling for it, there was even a safety rope! (In Asia you very rarely see anything about safety, that must be a sign of a lot of previous accidents)
On this tiny little beach where about 5m2 were allowed for swimming we met another French guy (playing chess, just for info...) who introduced himself as being from Morteau, like the sausage! (Special thought for B)
Despite how many times I have eaten and heard about the Morteau sausage, I still don't know where is Morteau and I was too ashamed to ask the guy...
Just in case anyone is interested, here's a map

Moving on swiftly, we explored the island where we originally wanted to stay and agreed that it was fine for the day, watching buffaloes, enjoying the rice paddies and the views of the Mekong but we had probably made the right choice to stay on party island for the night life! (By night life I mean 3 restaurants and 4 bars with most of them selling magic something...)

Dinner on that same evening was marked by the discovery of the rubbish collection system: put your trash in a big bin bag, tie it well, throw into the Mekong, when it crosses the border to Cambodia, this is not your problem anymore!
I did not ask about recycling...
Next move was to go to Wat Phu Champasak, for that we just needed to make our way back to dry land and then catch a bus, at least that's what we thought!
We had managed to be the only ones who bought tickets for a different bus company which was not leaving from the central point, we ended up randomly stopping mini bus in the street to find ours (lucky us, I think it was the 2nd one!)
And then after a couple of hours drive, he dropped us in the middle of nowhere saying that we had to walk 1 km to take a boat, arguing did not change anything so we went. A good 4km later with our big bags and under midday sun, we made it to a remote village with a ferry crossing of the Mekong. Obviously the ferry which costs nothing crosses once a day, for tourists, it's a private boat! A private boat which drops you exactly on the other side of the river, still 2km from the village, my patience was starting to run thin...

Luckily a real good hostel owner had probably realised that offering free tuk tuk from the boat to the village was a good way of getting business, and I fully supported his initiative! That was by far the cheapest night if the holidays, 10$ for 2 people breakfast included! (I also had to use my silk sleeping bag for the first time as I couldn't risk touching anything...) I fell asleep watching 4 gekkos having a fight on the ceiling and hoping the fat one wouldn't be overcome by gravity and fall on me...
The night actually went peacefully and we were ready to explore the temple the morning after. It's mostly destroyed, it's full of tiger mosquitoes but it's actually rather beautiful and quiet. A bit the same feeling as in Angkor with a fraction of the tourist population!

This same afternoon, we made our way, uneventfully, back to Pakse bus station (3rd time in 5 days, even the noodle soup lady knew us by that point!) to continue our holidays towards the Bolaven plateau.

Luang Prabang, UNESCO town

Luang Prabang is by far the most touristy part of Lao, for a lot of people who do the usual Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao in 2 weeks, it's actually the only stop! For us it was a bit longer, we spent 4 nights there in a nice hotel where the pool was so hot that it couldn't really cool us down... (Special thought for YM and the air conditioned Qatari swimming pool!)

First day, we are on a temple mission, there are indeed a lot of them, and they are particularly beautiful and well maintained. The Lonely Planet addicts will recognize the cover of the Lao guide in the pink-ish small temple.

Apart from the temples, the town is dominated by its 2 rivers, the wide Mekong on one side which can only be crossed by boat and the other one (I'm not even sure I have ever known its name) which has some really interesting bridges...

Finally to conclude the day, we climb the unique hill where the view gives a rather good idea of the low industrialization of the country, it's green in all directions!

Second day, back on the bike (that's the super expensive 15$ a day bike that I had mentioned previously in Lao intro), we are heading for some water falls on the advice of little sister. Tat Kuang Si is a great place for a little swim and a little hike to the top of the fall. Water is incredibly clear and the locals seem to enjoy it as a picnic destination.

There's also a bear centre where animals who have been taken away from people for trafficking, mal nutrition are kept. When we arrive, it's feeding time followed by nap time and life doesn't seem to be too hard any more for these cute little sunbears!

Final day in LB, we are off to Pak Ou cave, let's be honest, it's just an excuse for a cruise on the Mekong as the cave itself is not exceptional apart from being full of Buddhas!

The Mekong itself is quite cool, first it takes some skills to navigate it, our small boat tend to stick to the side but not always the same one, sometimes we go though the mangrove, sometimes it's more like small rapids, no way a big boat can navigate these waters!

On the side, we see buffaloes, gold diggers, elephants, construction yard (a pinch different from the ones I'm used to in Korea and Singapore...) and finally the cave!

It's a lovely quiet day to finish our trip in LP, the day after we are flying down to Pakse, south of the country.

PS: people who have been to LP may notice that I haven't mentioned at all the famous alms with the monks in the morning and it's normal, we haven't seen them.

The truth is that we tried... But apparently the monks alarm clock went off earlier than ours! (For my defense, we got up at 5.45am as I thought it was at 6am but apparently summer time had changed that...)

 

Vang Vieng, previously capital of tubing...

Reading the lonely planet, VV is where hordes of backpackers ride the quiet Mekong river on caoutchouc tubes, stopping on a very regular basis at bars along the river. Except that the government recently got fed up with the number of accidents and the amount of drugs and decided to close all the river bars and that killed the tubing as well! (Apparently tubing sober was not that much fun)
So we arrived in a town that used to be a major party place and which has recently turned back to being a quiet little Lao place.

We had a lovely room with balcony looking over the Mekong and the impressive limestone rocks, a bit of a reminder from Krabi or Halong bay.

 

The area is also known for its caves so we rented our first motorbike of the holidays and started exploring. We were assisted by a local who took us around, no choice there is not a single sign and finding the entrance of the caves requires to cross (dry) rice paddies and climb over gates!
The caves are really bare, no sign, no handrail, no light but they are huge, massive stalagmites, columns and a few Buddhas here and there as well.  After a rather long walk in the cave, our host points at a really small opening explaining that we could go on for 2 km on our knees in the water and I think he really expected us to go! We politely declined and decided to go for a well deserved lunch (and a nap, after all we are in Laos, it's a national sport)

 

The second location for caves was more touristy as there was a lagoon to go for a swim. I'm actually not sure people were making it to the cave.
No local to take us around the cave and we actually had to give up. There were a couple of red arrows on the wall, but it was wet, we were wearing flip flop (as you do when you go caving...) and following the way was quite an exercise, we had to go over, under rocks, pull ourselves through small gaps, not sure how long we could have safely gone on...

After that rather sweaty and dirty (it was difficult to tell that my shorts were originally cream) exercise, I decided to take the next day off and just watch R climb. Limestone cliff= climbing!
My take -it-easy day was actually not that easy as we had to walk through the jungle and climb the first part of the cliff before getting to the climbing routes, I should have worn again this not so cream anymore shorts...
The view was actually breathtaking from the starting point so it was well worth coming up.

And that's the end of our VV experience, after climbing it was time (for a shower) to move to Luang Prabang through the so pleasant 6h drive in a mini bus... (See previous post on transport)