Laos

Luang Prabang

We caught a boat back to Nong Khiaw and then had to wait for a few hours before our minivan left for Luang Prabang. I found a guesthouse/restaurant that had all the latest issues of Time, Newsweek, and The Economist and was in heaven for two hours. It is rare to find magazines like this in Asia especially in Laos and when you do find them they are really expensive, so it was nice to be able to relax for a while and catch up on some news. The bus to Luang Prabang was a pleasant ride and I slept most of the way. It was the smoothest bus ride thus far in Laos, which is not saying much but still. We arrived in Luang Prabang around 6:00 and after searching for a little while found rooms. I shared a room with Fanny, the French-Canadian girl. The conversations continued in French with the five of us together as I was the only one who didn’t speak French but someone would translate in English the gist of what was being said and they tried to speak in English when we were all talking together. Luang Prabang is a beautiful city. All the action like any other Laos city is based around the river, this case the Mekong. There are bakeries and French baguettes everywhere and most of the tourists were French as well. Luang Prabang has a very European feel to it. The city itself is beautiful, there are many temples and the streets are small and charming. It is not a very big city, in fact you can walk the whole thing in half a day but very quaint and charming. There are nice cafes you can just sit with a coffee and book and relax. There are a lot of tourists though. The first night we didn’t do much just checked internet after being without it for a few days and had a beer. We also had some delicious sandwiches from the street filled with chicken, egg, tomatoes, cucumbers, tofu, chilli sauce, and some other things that I can’t really say what they were. All of this for a little over a buck. It is very easy to eat cheap in Luang Prabang as there is street food everywhere but there are also a lot of really nice restaurants that make it hard to always eat street food. On my first full day in Luang Prabang I basically walked around the whole city stopping at all the sites. There were some famous temples, but the most interesting site was probably the National Museum also known as the Royal Palace, which was the place of residence to the King of Laos during France’s occupation. It had some really nice mosaic glass and other things inside. For lunch I stopped at a restaurant called Tamarind, which was mentioned in Lonely Planet and has been in different magazines and such as well, and for good reason it was delicious. I had a dish that was basically chicken with some spices cooked inside sticks of lemongrass. You open up the lemongrass to find the chicken inside and then dip that into a sauce they give you, it was delicious. They have fresh fruit refreshers as well that are quite tasty. The meal set me back about $5 or $6, which is a lot for Lao standards but it was well worth it. The rest of the day I just wandered around the streets, which is the best thing to do in Luang Prabang. At sunset I walked up to Du Phi, which is a temple at the top of the mountain and provides spectacular views of the city below. It was very pretty to see at sunset but there were hundreds of tourists there so it kind of took away from the atmosphere. After sunset I met back up with the group for some dinner and I had some delicious grilled chicken from a street vendor. That night Laos was playing against Malaysia in the semifinals of the SEA games in soccer so Julien, Florian, Dominic and I went to a bar to watch the second half. There is a street in Luang Prabang that all of the bars are on and there are some really nice bars with firepits and a DJ and everything. However, it was a Monday night and not many people were out. Laos ended up tying the game at 1 but then Malaysia scored two more goals to win 3-1. We ended up staying at the bar until midnight when everything shuts down in Luang Prabang and all over Laos for that matter. Officially 11:30 is curfew and no bars or street vendors are allowed to stay open past then. It’s one of the few occasions you see police in Laos as they come out to enforce the closing time. Dominic ended up getting extremely drunk so we had to help him back to the hotel.
The next day my plan was just to relax and read. I found a bookstore the night before and bought On the Road a book I’ve been meaning to read for a while. First I stopped by the Lao immigration office and extended by Lao visa for 8 more days. The process was surprisingly painless and took all of ten minutes. I just had to pay $2 per day. Then I went to the bookstore, which also doubled as a restaurant/teahouse. There was one book there that was available only to rent. It was about an American who had just graduated from Princeton who went to work in Laos for a tourism development organization that was run by the government. This was back in the late 90’s when tourism was first starting in Laos. The book is called Another Quiet American and was a very interesting read as the author recounts his experience in Laos. It was also very practical as it delved a lot into the history of Laos and I could understand a lot of the things he was saying just by being in and traveling in Laos and I think it has and will make my experience in Laos better. I sat and read the book for four or five hours and finished it in one sitting. Afterwards I met up with Julien, Florian, and Dominic who had just finished their dinner and we went back to the hotel a short time later. That morning Fanny had left so I had the room to myself. We didn’t really do anything exciting on our last night in Luang Prabang as we had to get up early the next day. I will say that Luang Prabang is one of the nicest cities/towns I have been to in SE Asia. The people are friendly, the food is great, it’s nice to see monks walking around, and it is a very picturesque city as well. The atmosphere is inviting and charming and this is a place I could see myself living for a year or two if an opportunity ever arose. It is small though and would probably get boring after a while. Another really nice thing about the city is that there are so many good things going on for the locals. There are numerous nonprofits in the city and a lot of different restaurants and business work to help the local community. It was very nice to see. The next morning we woke up early and took a tuk-tuk to the bus station to buy a ticket to Vang Vieng. We had inquired about tickets at numerous travel agencies but the cheapest ticket we found was 105,000kip, which is about $12. We figured if we went to the bus station and bought a local bus ticket it would be a lot cheaper. Our plan backfired however as the price of the local bus was 95,000kip and we already paid 8,000kip each to get there. Furthermore the next bus (9:00) was full so we had to wait until the 11:00 bus. This turned out to be not so bad though because we just sat and played cards for a few hours while we waited for our bus. I learned a new French card game that is pretty cool and involves a lot of strategy.

Vang Vieng

The ride to Vang Vieng was an experience. First of all let me begin by saying that Lonely Planet says if you get motion sickness at all be sure to have the proper medication before taking the bus from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. The whole ride is on curvy roads and these big buses don’t handle curves very well. On each curve your body and everything in the bus to would lean to one side then would fall to the other side when the bus changed direction. I have never really had a problem with motion sickness and I felt fine but there was an older Lao lady that sat in front of us who was puking the whole trip. She would puke into bags and then tie them up and put them on the floor. Another woman, perhaps the daughter of the older woman also puked several times during the trip and put her puke bags underneath hear seat as well. After a while the smell started to seep out through the bags and to make matters worse after ever sharp turn the bags would roll around the floor inching towards our feet at which point we would kick it away. After a few hours of this Julien finally asked them to put the bags somewhere else. Although the ride was rocky it was pretty scenic passing by huge limestone formations. We finally arrived in Vang Vieng at about 6:00.
I was interested to see how Vang Vieng really was. It has become a favorite destination for backpackers and “tubing” has become the most popular activity drawing in thousands of tourists. Everywhere I’ve traveled so far I’ve seen people with the exact same tank-top from Vang Vieng. The town is filled with restaurants and guesthouses that are all the same and all play Friends or Family Guy all day. Vang Vieng is also known for having a lot of drugs available and some tourists just come to get high and watch Family Guy all day. I was looking forward to having fun but had reservations about Vang Vieng as well.
We quickly found a guesthouse and after relaxing for a while went out and had some dinner at the most “local” restaurant according to Lonely Planet. It was pretty much just like all of the others as well. We walked around the town a bit and it is nothing but guesthouse next to restaurant next to travel agency. We also checked out a bar that had a bunch of people laying in hammocks and sitting around fires. It was pretty cool but we weren’t really in the partying mood. We walked around a little more and went back to the guesthouse and went to bed. The next morning I awoke feeling weak and cold and my stomach really hurt. Julien felt the same and we had the dreaded travelers diarrhea. We were planning on going tubing but scratched that idea because we both weren’t feeling that great. We mustered up enough energy and along with Florian went to check out a cave that was about 2km away. The cave was ok, just another cave for me but I couldn’t really appreciate it that much because I was afraid I would defecate in it at any moment. After the cave we walked back to town and had a late lunch. I just took it easy the rest of the day and had some bread and rice for dinner while watching a few hours of Family Guy. We were hoping that this bout of diarrhea would be short-lived because Florian and Julien had time for a couple days and it would suck to miss out on tubing. The next morning I felt really bad and there was no way I was going tubing. Julien also wasn’t feeling great so we decided to wait one more day and hopefully go tubing the next day. After a little while I felt a little better and again along with Julien and Florian went to check out another cave, this one about 7km away. We rented motorbikes but had to go to three different gas stations before we found one that was actually working. We rode on a dirt road and I was just hoping that a tire wouldn’t puncture. We made it to the cave in one piece. There was a large grassy area in front of the cave where many tourists were sunbathing and there was also a lagoon in front of the cave that you could swim in. The real attraction was tree you could climb and jump in from that also had a rope swing. I went to explore the cave while Julien and Florian just relaxed. The cave was huge and good thing I had my headlamp because it was also dark. I walked about 20 minutes into the cave and there was no sign of an end. I didn’t feel comfortable walking much further because if my light died I was screwed, so I decided to head back. I got lost finding my way back a few times but eventually was able to find my way. After that I just relaxed while Julien and Florian went to explore the cave. When they got back it was around 4:30 or 5:00 and the sun was setting soon but we decided to play in the water and jump from the rope swing for a little while. By the time we left the sun was pretty much gone and we were wet and freezing. We drove back to town as fast as we could and made it back to the motorcycle rental place. Then we met Dominic and some Swiss people he had met for dinner. The Swiss told us that they just saw a local guy beating the shit out of some tourist and they had to step in and break it up. The tourist was bleeding everywhere and had to go to the hospital. That is the problem in a place like Vang Vieng, tourists have overrun the place and with the mix of alcohol and drugs tourists don’t realize that the locals have the power. We have no resort if something happens. But I’m sure the local had every right to beat up the tourist. He was probably acting like an idiot and disrespecting the local. We went to the most popular bar after dinner and it was like being at a college party. Everybody was wasted and dancing and singing and it might have been fun if I was equally as drunk but I couldn’t help thinking about the situation. These tourists were going crazy and getting drunk like they were at home but we are in Laos, one of the UN’s least developed countries. They have a different culture and are not used to seeing stuff like this. The tourists get drunk and end up arguing over things with the locals. One tourist was yelling at a street sandwich seller for giving him the wrong change. The whole thing was ridiculous. Many tourists just come to party without thinking about where they are, they want to learn nothing about the country they are in, and just want to have a good time. Now, I am definitely not speaking about the majority of tourists but many of the tourists in Vang Vieng are different than you meet elsewhere. They are the tourists that just travel around to the party spots like the Full Moon Party in Thailand and Bali. They come to party cheap and it’s those tourists that I can’t stand. They have big muscles and walk around with no shirt on in a place where none of the locals do. It’s a mix of emotions and feelings that comes to mind about Vang Vieng. On one hand the locals don’t seem to be losing their culture, I mean why would they when they see a bunch of drunk tourists, it doesn’t really encourage them to be like that. They are also making a lot of money on the tourists selling sandwiches or opening a guesthouse, it seems like every local resident has done one of the two or found some other business catering to tourists. On the other hand the locals should not have to put up with the disrespect and drunkenness of tourists. At midnight when the bar was trying to close, nobody wanted to leave but then the police came up yielding machine guns and everybody quickly cleared away. However, there were still the one or two drunk tourists that tried to reason with the police. Perhaps, if I were drunk and having a good time I would forget about all these things I speak of but as a sober observer it’s a little disgusting.
Magically the next day I felt fine. My diarrhea was gone and Julien felt all right too so we were finally going to go tubing. We got up and had some breakfast before going to rent our tubes. We had to pay 55,000 kip for the tube (about $7) and pay another 60,000 deposit. If we brought the tube pack before 6:00 we got the full deposit back, after 6:00 we only get 40,000 back. So we got in the tuk-tuk who drove us to the start. There is a bar at the beginning that everybody starts at. You don’t actually use your tube until you leave this first bar. All the tubes are basically stacked up outside the bar and you just take one when you’re ready to leave. At the bar there is also a zip-line that you can swing from and at the end you just let go and fall in the water or if you are more adventurous, which many people were, you can try doing a back-flip or other acrobatics. We ended up getting pretty drunk at this first bar and probably spent a few hours there. We jumped into the water from the zip-line a few times and were feeling pretty good. There are also markers throughout the bar so people start getting drunk and writing things on their friends. Finally we left the first bar got a tube and headed for the second bar that was maybe 20 meters down river. So we tubed the 20 meters to the second bar and that’s as far as we would go. We drank a little bit more there and to be honest the rest is pretty fuzzy. It got to be the time to leave and we went to get our tubes but they were nowhere to be found. There were no tubes left. So after Julien, as he usually takes the lead in the negotiations, argued with the locals and tuk-tuk driver to no avail we gave up defeated and took a tuk-tuk back to town. We went back to the tube rental place but they had not been returned there so we got no money back. The whole thing was bullshit, pretty much the last twenty people to leave are not going to have a tube as somehow they mysteriously disappear. I’m not sure exactly what happens, either tourists who didn’t pay for a tube take one or locals take the tubes and have some understanding with the rental place. When you are at the bar though which for the majority of time people are you have no control over your tube. The worst part is that we didn’t even need the tube, we used it for all of 20 meters that we could have swam and we didn’t even go down any of the river. Looking back it was all stupid, we were being the dumb drunk tourists. We lost about $14 on the tubes for nothing but you win some and you lose some and the ones you lose you just got lay your head down and get over it. After we got back, we met Dominic who had left and actually made it down the river, and the Swiss people for dinner. I ate way too much food but we played with some local kids for about an hour, combining our little Lao with their little English, which turned out to be the highlight of the day. After that I wobbled back to the hotel and tried to go to bed. There was a lot of loud music though that was rambling in through our windows, which happened to be coming from a wedding that was going on in an open area behind our hotel. Earlier we had seen chairs and tables being set up for the event and had wondered what it was for. Finally at I have no idea what time, I fell asleep.
Julien, Florian, and Dominic left the next day but I decided to stay in Vang Vieng for a few more days, although I didn’t drink or party again. The first day I didn’t really do much of anything but the next day I went on a caving/tubing/kayaking trip that turned out to be really great. There was a group of about 15 of us, mostly older tourists. First we went tubing through a cave that had water running through it. We were given headlights that simply consisted of a bulb with nothing covering it strapped to a battery pack that we wore around our necks. We went in groups of five our so each connected to each other. Even after all the caves I’ve seen it was still pretty cool because we were in tubes and there was water. The cave didn’t have that many cool formations but it was dark and it was more the tubing experience that was interesting. After all groups had gone it was time for lunch, which was a delicious meal of sheesh-kababs with chicken and vegetables and rice. There was a group about six Russians on the trip with us. I always feel awkward speaking to Russians in Russian, both because I’m ashamed of my lack of Russian but also because I don’t really know what to talk to them about. So as they were talking the whole morning in Russian I never said anything to them. The leader of the group was a large and loud Russian man that looked like he could have been a former wrestler or bodybuilder. His legs were thick as tree trunks and although he had a big belly I wouldn’t call him fat, he was just a large individual. He spoke very little English and there were times when one of the guides would speak to him and he would answer back in Russian to a completely different question. It was quite hilarious. Also both in the cave and outside of it as we were waiting for the others he would get someone from his group to take pictures of him posing in different positions and places. He was quite a character. During lunch he was looking for something to drink and speaking to his friends in Russian. At the beginning of the day we had all been given a bottle of water with a number on it. We were supposed to remember our number as that was our bottle. However, with his lack of English he missed all of this so he had no clue what number his bottle was. So as he was having a conversation in Russian with his friends he said he would just take any bottle, what difference does it make. Well the bottle he happened to choose was mine and just as he was about to take a sip I said in Russian, “That is my bottle.” It caught him and his group completely by surprise and everyone except for him started laughing. He was clearly the leader of the group and it was pretty funny for the rest of the group to be laughing at his expense. After they knew I spoke some Russian, the rest of the day I spoke some with the group going over the usual questions, where are you from, how long are you traveling, etc…
After lunch was the kayaking portion of the trip. I have kayaked before but certainly don’t consider myself an expert kayaker. The water was pretty calm as it is the dry season so I didn’t think it would be that difficult. I was paired with a man from Singapore who had never kayaked before so I took the back, which is the more important position because they steer. The kayaking went pretty smoothly but my partner was pretty bad and we could never get in a good rhythm. It was easy enough though, so it wasn’t too much of a problem. The kayaking was done on the same river as “tubing” so as we went by, we passed the bars that I had been unable to escape a few days prior. We did stop at a further bar down the river though to rest for a little while. After jumping from the swing into the water a few times, we got back into our kayaks and paddled the rest of the way back to town. All in all it was a very good day. We kayaked about 15km and it really is a great workout. Although my shoulder started to ache by the end of it, I told myself this is one of many things that I am going to try to do more often when I get home. We got back to town around 5:00 and after that I washed up, had some dinner and didn’t do much the rest of the evening.
The next day I was excited because I had booked a one day rock-climbing trip. Vang Vieng is supposed to be one of the best places in SE Asia for rock-climbing, along with Krabi in Thailand. Our guide was a 22 year old local who had been climbing for 4 years and along with me there was also an Australian guy and British girl. I have only ever been rock climbing at a gym indoors and never outdoors so I was excited to give it a try. I learned how to properly tie the rope and to belay when others were climbing the wall, two of the first skills you learn. In the morning we each climbed about four or five different routes. It was just like climbing a rock wall indoors except there are so many options to choose from to put your hands and feet that you don’t know what the best spots are. On one route I was unable to make it to the top and I felt such a fierce sense of disappointment. There are few other things in the world that success is so easy to measure, you either succeed or you fail, you either make it to the top (the way you do doesn’t matter) or you don’t, and when you don’t it really sucks. I vowed that this was going to be another thing I would take up when I get home, my list was growing by the day. After lunch it was just Apple (guide) and I as the two others only booked a half-day trip. Because it was just the two of us we were able to move a lot faster and do more climbs. After four or five more climbs I was utterly exhausted and could not make it up the last one. Again the feeling of bitter disappointment resounded over me. Apple gave me some pointers on things I could do if I really wanted to take climbing seriously like using the hand squeezer things. Rock climbing requires incredible upper body strength, flexibility, and finger strength and it really is a fun and rewarding activity. However, it is something you always need a partner to do, which can be hard to find sometimes. As we were climbing we met a couple from Vancouver that has been climbing for fifteen years and have been all over the world to climb. I realize then that it would be great to take up rock climbing, kayaking, mountain biking, surfing, and whatever else but I should find one hobby/passion and really devote myself to it. What that might be, I’m not sure yet. Apple and I also had discussions about tourism in Vang Vieng and what he thinks about what has happened there. He said on one hand he was grateful for all of the tourists because it had given him a job but on the other hand his heart drops a little every time he sees a girl in a bikini or guy with his shirt off walk by the temple with the monks watching. He also enlightened me a little bit more about relationships and romance in Laos. It was basically forbidden or unheard of to have a girlfriend or boyfriend and you couldn’t really sleep with a woman until you married them. Unlike its close neighbor Thailand, Laos is a very conservative country when it comes to romance. I was pretty exhausted after the day of climbing so once again I had some dinner but did little else that night. At dinner though I did overhear some tourists talking about getting arrested for smoking pot. Apparently some bar had enticed tourists in with the promise of free joints, which they gave but then the police quickly came and arrested many of the tourists. The bar must have had some relationship with the police to get the tourists in trouble. Everyone who was caught had to pay a $500 fine or go to jail, just another one of the problems with Vang Vieng. The next day I had quite the journey ahead of me. I wanted to make it to the 4,000 islands for my birthday because it is a nice place to relax but also because Fanny, the French Canadian girl I had met earlier was going to be there with some friends. In total the trip was supposed to take 18 hours and consist of 3 bus rides and a boat ride. The first bus was to Vientiane, which took about 4 hours and arrived without any problems. From there I was shuttled into a tuk-tuk to a travel agency in Vientiane where the bus to Pakse, the next stop would pick me up. I had about an hour to kill and it was around 6:00pm so I went to have some dinner at an Indian restaurant. There was some kind of celebration or concert or something going on across the street from the travel agency as there were a lot of people gathered and live music. I tried to go see what was going on but the entrance was blocked off by two armed guards. The bus was supposed to leave at 7:00 but at 7:30 it was still not there. I didn’t really know what was going on and the two employees at the travel agency had left to go somewhere else and just told me to wait there. I was alone in the office and could have stolen anything I wanted but they knew that I wouldn’t. Finally at about 8:00 one of them came back with about 7 more tourists and then took us all to the bus station where the bus was waiting. The bus was a sleeping bus, which meant that instead of seats there were small beds. I had experience the sleeping bus in Vietnam and wasn’t looking forward to another one. This one was even worse though. Each sleeping area was meant for two people with nothing separating them. They were small and cramped and not meant for your average size Westerner. I was paired with a middle aged Basque man from Spain who had what appeared to be burns on his legs. I knew it was going to be a long and unpleasant night. I had the space closer to the aisle and was trying to be as close to it as I could. Well the man I was with was a little larger than me and kept moving his legs over to my “side” of the area. I had to basically hug the side railing to avoid touching him. Even worse was that he was snoring half the night and I was also directly over the bathroom, which emanated a foul stench of urine. After twelve agonizing hours of which I managed maybe two hours of sleep we finally arrived in Pakse. From there I was shooed into a minivan and was driven to another travel agency from which I would catch a van to the 4,000 Islands. After about half an hour of waiting I was finally on the final leg of my long, exhausting journey. The ride to 4,000 islands was a nice 2 ½ hour ride of which I was able to catch a few winks of shuteye. We finally arrived to the pier and took a short boat ride to Don Det, the backpackers island and I was finally able to relax. After arriving at the pier, I instantly heard a voice shouting my name and saw Fanny up above sitting at a restaurant. Well that was easy, I thought. I knew she was there but didn’t know where she was staying but figured it would be easy enough to find her as the island wasn’t that big, but I didn’t even have to worry about that. I found a place to stay with a Korean guy I met on the boat and was ready for pure relaxation. The first day I walked around with Chan, the Korean, and explored the island for a little while. There wasn’t really much to do on the island, which was the point. There a basically a row of bungalows overlooking the Mekong River all with hammocks overlooking the river. The first day I also ran into Omer, the Israeli who I had been traveling with in Vietnam. I also forgot to mention that that first day on the island was my birthday. For dinner I met up with Omer and a group of about 7 other people that he had met there or before and a special “happy” cake for my birthday. Since my birthday is also Christmas Eve and apparently is celebrated as Christmas Day in some parts of Europe, everyone went out to the beach that night. There were about 40 people spread out in groups gathered around bonfires and drinking Beer Lao. It was a good way to spend my birthday but once again was overshadowed by the fact it was Christmas. Even in Asia I can’t escape that my birthday falls on one of the most inopportune days of the year, but I have learned to deal with it even if I still have a little bitterness inside me.
The next day I rented a bike and went exploring with Chan. We biked the length of Don Det and crossed a bridge onto the next island Don Khon. On Don Khon we biked to a famous waterfall that is supposed to be the biggest in SE Asia. Although the waterfall was quite a sight with rapids rushing furiously over large rocks I’m not sure if it is indeed the biggest in SE Asia. Apparently there is a place you can swim by the waterfall but we were unable to find it, instead we biked over a very rocky road to the end of Don Khon to a beach where we went swimming instead. Here also sometimes you can see dolphins in the river but we didn’t spot any and after a while biked back to our guesthouse on Don Det. The rest of my two and a half days on Don Det I did absolutely nothing and it was great. My days consisted of laying in my hammock and reading and eating and that’s pretty much it. There really was little else to do, which is the appeal. The 4,000 islands may truly be one of the most relaxing places on earth. On my first day in Don Det I was introduced to The Bakery. The Bakery was well exactly what it sounds like, a bakery run by an Australian guy who had been living on the island for 4 years. He made delicious doughnuts, bread, cinnamon buns, etc… Unfortunately that first day was the only I was able to experience the deliciousness of The Baker as the Australian was affectionately known. He did not bake anything for Christmas, as he deserved a break, or for the few days following. Each day I would get up in the morning and make the ten minute walk to the Bakery hoping that it would be the day that The Baker was back at work but alas every time I was disappointed. On the day I was planning on leaving, however, I heard rumor that The Baker was going to be back at work. I considered long and hard staying for an extra day just so I could feast on baked goods but decided against it and left without them. It was probably for the best, I was eating a lot on the island as it was, if there were delicious baked pastries available I may have never stopped eating. Omer and company had left the day before me so on my last day I was pretty much by myself just reading and relaxing. Omer and the others had decided to go the Koh Phagnon for Full Moon New Years Eve Party. I was very tempted to go with them as well as it was going to be massive. Not only New Years but a fool moon as well it was going to be complete chaos but there was still more to see in Laos and I had Thai visa issues to worry about as well so I decided against it.
I left Don Det reluctantly on the morning of December 29th and took a boat back to the main land and from there a bus to Champasak. Champasak was the site of the famous Wat Phu which is one of the most famous sites in Laos. It is another Khmer era temple like Angkor Wat. The guidebook said it was a must see so I decided to go to Champasak for a day before Pakse for New Years. The bus dropped us off at a junction in the road. Along with me there were three other guys traveling alone, one Japanese, one French, and the fourth sounded American but I never found out. From the place the bus dropped us off we had to take a boat across the Mekong River as the bus was on the other side. There was also a “ferry” that took cars and motorbikes over the river. The “ferry” was simply some wooden boards with an engine, it was like a giant shipping crate and looked like it may fall apart at any moment. We made it to the other side from where we had to get a Tuk-Tuk to the center. The tuk-tuk driver was a brother of a guesthouse owner and the owner was there as well saying the tuk-tuk ride would be free if we stayed at his guesthouse. He was fat (an uncommon site in Lao) and happy man with a giant grin that showed many missing teeth. It also seemed like he ran the whole small town as all his brothers were either tuk-tuk drivers or worked with him at his guesthouse. The guesthouse wasn’t great but it was fine enough and the French guy and I shared a room. We both wanted to make it to Pakse the next day so we inquired if we still had enough time to go see the temple. It was 3:00 at this point and the temple closed at 5:30 so we figured it was ample time. We, along with the Japanese guy took another tuk-tuk driven by the same brother as earlier and drove the 8km or so to the temple. The whole temple was on three different levels, the first level had two temples across from each other that were closed for entry and were under construction. On the next level there were some statues of some Hindu goddesses and after climbing a steep set of stairs we reached the third and most impressive level. On the third level was s small temple that reminded me of Angkor Wat and some other scattered rocks and stones with inscriptions of gods and goddesses. The most interesting being a large rock with a picture of an elephant inscribed. At the top of the temple was a beautiful view looking east of the town of Champasak along with the lowest part of the temple and two lakes that were there as well. It was really a beautiful sight and I sat there overlooking it for half an hour or so. Overall though I wasn’t that impressed with the temple. It was cool but the historical significance just didn’t get to me and after seeing Angkor Wat it was hard for anything else to compare. There was little to do in town so after we got back to the guesthouse we had some dinner and just talked for a while before going to sleep early.
The next day the French guy and I caught a “bus” to Pakse, which was only about 25km away. The bus was really a sawngthaew or one of the converted small pickup trucks with benches along either side that I mentioned previously. This sawngthaew actually had three rows of benches and before we even got on was so crowded that there were guys standing on the back of it where there was a platform of railings about two feet wide to stand on. All of the luggage was on top along with numerous bamboo chicken cages filled with chicken. The locals all crammed in some lying on top of each other and I was able to get a standing space on the back. Obviously something like this would never have been allowed to pass back home or in any Western country but I don’t think Lao has the highest of safety standards. An accident, even of the not serious variety, was almost certain death for me. All in all there were about 30-40 locals and tourists alike crammed into the back of the sawngthaew. I will admit standing and riding at the back was kind of fun, I felt so free with the wind hitting my face and getting a great view of the open road. Eventually after a couple of passengers had been let out there was room for everyone to sit. I wanted to keep in standing but the locals said that I should sit because of the police, I guess maybe it wasn’t kosher to have four guys standing on the back of a sawngthaew, unless a necessity. We arrived at a bus station and all the tuk-tuk drivers tried to convince the Frenchman and me that we had to get off here and take a tuk-tuk the rest of the way but the locals in the sawngthaew told us we didn’t need to get off so we stayed on. A few minutes later we arrived at a large market and at this point we did need to take a motor taxi which was a motorbike attached to a cart with two seats and some room for luggage. He took us the 2km to a guesthouse and I was able to check in and set my bags down. Pakse is a town of 66,000 people or so and one of the biggest cities in the south of Laos. I figured I wasn’t going to be able to get to or it wasn’t worth getting to a bigger city or party spot to spend New Years so Pakse was the alternative. The first day I was there I basically walked around the whole city in a few hours. There were a few hotels and restaurants but not really any strictly bars that I saw. I was trying to scope out the city for a place to go for New Years but I found nothing. I asked a couple of local people if there was a good place to go but nobody knew anything. I was beginning to wonder if anyone here even celebrated New Years and if there would be any sort of celebration. At night I walked down to the Mekong where there are a row of restaurants frequented by the locals at night all enjoying local food and Beer Lao. I kept walking along the river for quite a while and ran into a Cinema/Bowling Alley. None of the movies that were playing looked any good so I decided to go bowling. Each game was about $1.50 but when you are playing by yourself the games go really fast. I bowled one game and did terribly not even breaking 100. I did so bad that I had to bowl another game. The next game did not go much better and I kept experimenting with different grips and releases but none seemed to work. Finally I told myself the third game would be my last. I broke 100 for the first time on the third game but still left pretty disappointed. I told myself as I left that bowling was not going to be the hobby that I picked up. I returned back to the guesthouse and went to sleep.
I woke up on New Years Eve determined to find somewhere to spend that night. First I had some breakfast and caught up on the web, which was much faster and cheaper than it was in the 4,000 islands. Then I went back to my room and forced myself to update my blog or at least type it, which I hadn’t done for over a week. Actually updating it online would have to wait because I didn’t find anywhere that had wireless.