Wednesday, 5 June 2013

A drive through the clouds

After a long night's drive, we arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, in the morning. We had been warned by other travelers that there weren't any attractions in Vientiane, and therefore not much to do there. We were pleasantly surprised at the sight of this small capital; there wasn't any traffic, the people were laid back, and the European influence made the city charming. Every sign was even written in Laotian and in French. Best of all, it wasn't as hot as anywhere else we had previously visited. We spent most of our time walking around the city by the river, looking through handicraft shops, and making the hard decision of where to eat every meal, since the city was full of great restaurants, most of them of European cuisine. Every morning we spent some time eating fresh pastries at the nearby Scandinavian Bakery. We only spent three nights there, but really enjoyed our stay.

After Vientiane, we headed north for the small but touristy town of Vang Vieng. The town is surrounded by beautiful mountains, fields, and of course the Vang Vieng river, infamous for its tubing. After spending our first night in the worst hostel we stayed in yet (we slept on the floor because of bed bugs), we spent the next few nights in a much better, same-priced hotel, with a beautiful balcony view of the mountains and the river below us.

We rented a motorbike once again and had a bumpy ride through a gravel road. There are many caves to visit in the Vang Vieng area, so our first stop was a cave recommended in our guidebook. After getting off the main road, we drove on a narrow, steep and rocky road, where I often had to get off the motorbike for Alex to trudge through mud. After a while, we arrived on a little farm, where we paid the cave entry fee, took some flashlights, and walked through their fields and around ponds to get to a shaky bamboo bridge. After crossing it, we hiked along the mountain to arrive to a very dark and narrow cave. We decided not to venture in too far, for it twisted a lot and it was too dark for us to see, even with our flashlights. So we hiked back, and continued on to another cave. This one was even narrower. We had to leave our bag, and Alex had trouble squeezing in his shoulders sometimes. We kept going because apparently there was a natural swimming pool at the end of the cave, and we were both soaked through and through. What we discovered at the end of the cave was a ladder that went from the narrow passage into the small pool of turquoise water. The passage was so narrow that there was no way of changing out of our clothes, and the pool twisted around, so we couldn't see where it led, and what the bottom was like. On top of it all, there was no natural light shining onto the pool, so we would've had to swim in the dark. We doubled back, disappointed.

Hungry and tired, we decided to keep going on the main road anyway to try to find the Blue Lagoon, along with the most visited cave. When we got there, we climbed very steep steps carved into the rock to get to the cave, but this time it was worth it. The cave was gigantic compared to the narrow ones we'd seen, and there was a big statue of Buddha along with bats flying around. We had finally found the Batcave. After climbing back down, we swam in the freezing Blue Lagoon, its turquoise water coming from the mountain.

Before leaving Vang Vieng, we knew we had to try tubing down the river, for it is the town's main attraction. We floated down for two hours, meeting along the way kayakers, fishermen, and many children playing in the river. We also encountered many rapids, where we had to move swiftly to avoid sharp rocks jutting out. The tubing ended up being tiring instead of relaxing, since we spent most of our time trying to avoid rocks and tree trunks.

After staying longer than expected in Vang Vieng, we left for the city of Luang Prabang. The drive there was long, but breathtaking. We drove through the mountains, admiring from atop the beauty of the region. We even drove up so high that we drove through puffy white clouds. It was amazing. We crossed many little towns, and saw locals chatting, tending to their animals or their fields, and small children chasing each other. The Lao people are very laid back and a very happy people. They also live in an absolutely beautiful country, which would make anyone envious.

We were immediately charmed by the city of Luang Prabang, who sits between two rivers, one of them being the Mekong. The European influence is even more pronounced here than in Vientiane, and the guesthouses and shops are very endearing. Our guesthouse was located in a small alley behind a bakery, and about a hundred meters from the Mekong in one direction, and another hundred meters from the night market in the other. We really loved the night market, and spent time walking around it every night. There were well over a hundred tents and kiosks of handicrafts, clothing, paintings and souvenirs, all locally made. On a narrow alley off the market road is the night food market, where we ate dinner a lot, because the delicious buffets only cost us $1,50 each.

Yesterday we took a trip up to the Kuang Si Falls, where beautiful exotic flowers surround the area. One big waterfall drops from the top of the mountain into a turquoise pool, which then cascades on many different levels. A few bridges cross a few of the cascades, and people are able to swim in most of them. The mountain water was cool, and little fish nibbled at our feet and legs in the water.

All and all, we loved our stay in Laos, and we are very glad we kept this lush country for the end of our trip, because we really enjoyed relaxing on our balconies, watching the beautiful scenery, eating great food, and walking around these more peaceful streets.