On April 12th, John, Sherene, and I caught a flight to Laos. You can fly from Siem Reap to Vientiane (Laos' capital) on Lao Airways, with a stop in Pakse in southern Laos.
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| Propeller plannnneeee! |
The odd thing about this flight is that you don't just stop in Pakse. You get off the plane and go through immigration, THEN you get back on the plane. This is not really explained, you just have to figure it out. It's also an expensive single entry visa at $35 and takes up a whole page in your passport (much like the Cambodian visas, of which I now have 6...gotta get more pages). Then you fly on to Vientiane. It's a short flight, maybe 2 hours total including both legs. By the time you finish climbing you're nearly starting your descent, at least that's what it feels like. Once we arrived in Vientiane, which was the dinkiest airport I have ever seen (I was half expecting live chickens to come out on the luggage belt), we got an overpriced cab to a bus station that wasn't in our outdated guide book. We bought tickets to Vang Vieng and a few tall Beer Laos (which is made by the state Lao Brewery Company and is surprisingly awesome) and piled onto the bus, our luggage on the roof. We were immediately greeted by a very rowdy group of Brits. This group would succeed, along the 3-4 hour bus ride, at pissing off nearly every single person on that bus. Spraying beer, throwing clothes, demanding their photos be taken, blasting dance music, etc etc. Laos, and specifically Vang Vieng, is a haven for drunk tourists who go there to party while tubing on the river. While we were initially amused upon boarding the bus, this quickly changed to utter embarrassment, as there were also a lot of locals on the bus.
We arrived in Vang Vieng after dark, and confusedly walked around for a bit til we managed to find someone who could point us in the way of our guest house, Pan's Place. It was very simple but the staff was very kind and helpful, and it was cheap. We were also glad we'd booked ahead because Laos New Year was nearly upon us and some of our bus mates had not even bothered, so were just wandering around looking for accommodation. Vang Vieng is a weird place. Laos is communist but you wouldn't really know that walking around this place. It was full of shops selling tourist crap and western restaurants. There are several bars that just play reruns of Friends or Family Guy on repeat 24/7, because a lot of their patrons are stoned or have been drinking opium shakes. It's a sad place. Maybe more energetic and interesting in wet season, but probably also more annoying. So after a slow dinner (because service in Laos is notoriously slow), we headed back to the room to crash. In the morning, we had breakfast at the guesthouse in front of this amazing view:
The mountains in Laos are really dramatic and beautiful. So with only one full day in Vang Vieng, we decided to do what most tourists to this city do: go tubing on the river. Armed with dry bags, water guns, and sunscreen, we rented some tubes (inner tubes from tractor tires) from the government regulated river tube rental place and they drove us to the river. This was the first day of Lao New Year (SABADEE PI MAI - HAPPY NEW YEAR!). I don't know much about Lao New Year but I do know that, much like in Cambodia and Thailand at this same time, it mostly consists of people throwing water at you. So before we even got to the river we were soaked. Kids stand on the side of the road with huge drums full of water and water guns and buckets, and just wait for tuk tuks to drive by. Because of this, I wasn't able to get many pictures of what actually happens, not wanting to have my camera destroyed. Eventually we made it to the river.
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| Organic mulberry mojitos, water guns, beer lao, and John repping Hot Dog Johnny's from Buttzville, NJ. |
Usually the river is full of drunk tourists, and the launch point shores are crowded with bars. Since we started earlier in the day and this was quiet season, we didn't have to deal with large crowds. The bars were still there, hoping to lure us in, but we mostly just went on our way down the river. In wet season (busy season) it would be a lot faster but the river was low, actually in some points so low that we had to prop ourselves up on the tubes to avoid rocks. Highlights included coming upon the area where all the Lao locals were partying and having a good time with their families, so we stopped there for a while with a couple kids in tow. After that we stopped at another bar for some beers (where the more adventurous tourists could also buy opium shakes)...we stuck with Beer Lao and oddly flavored chips. Asia has a lot of odd chip flavors, like sushi and seaweed, etc. By the time we got back to town it was getting late, we got attacked by a bunch of water wielding locals (and joined in), dried off, had dinner, hung out at one of the Family Guy bars, and then called it a night.
To be continued....
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