visiting a different part of Laos

I was in Laos in December 2007, down in the south of the country, and always knew that I had to come back to see the central and northern parts.  Finally, with it just a (long) bus-trip away from Vietnam, it was easy to do.

I started in Savannakhet, where the bus arrived.  Nothing much to see there, but that in a way was good, as I was able to relax for a couple of days without feeling I needed to be out seeing things.  From there I would have gone straight to Vientiane, but a friend had told me how I needed to stop on the way in Thakhek, to see some amazing caves.  I did so, although it was pricey as I couldn't do the usual tourist thing of renting a motorbike and spending 3-4 days driving the 'loop' but went instead on two day-trip personal tours in a minivan, driven by the hostel manager.  Worth it, I think, for some really spectacular caves and pretty good scenery generally.

From there I moved on to the capital, Vientiane, a place many travellers bypass, but I stayed for five days in part because my hostel there was not only very cheap (£2.60 per night) but it also had a kitchen!  A rare bonus in this part of the world, but meant I could prepare myself porridge for breakfast, pasta with pumpkin in a garlicky cheese sauce for dinner ... delicious!  Fellow guests were also good to chat with, which always makes the travel pleasant, and the big gold Buddhist stupa was nice to visit.

Then I moved on to Vang Vieng.  Not a place I'd originally planned to go, as it is known as a party place for young travellers, but someone had told me of a bar there which served all kinds of unusual substances - including opium tea!!  So I booked myself into a hostel with a reasonable-sized swimming pool (still only £4.30 a night including breakfast!), relaxed for the first day, then went for a cup of opium tea on day two.  It tasted awful - very bitter - made me feel warm and smiley for a while, then slightly off-balance, so I went to lay down.  Was woken a couple of hours later when someone came into the dorm room noisily - at which point I was in the middle of an extremely colourful dream of some sort.  For the next 24 hours, however, I felt mildly nauseous and just stayed on my bed apart from the two times I needed to visit the bathroom to vomit.  Not something I'd want to repeat, but it was only ever something I wanted to try once, so that's not a problem.

After Vang Vieng came the famous (UNESCO-listed) Luang Prabang.  Unfortunately another party place, but still worth visiting with its riverside setting, old French-style architecture (and patisseries!), beautiful Buddhist temples, and the famous early morning (6:30 - 7:30) alms ceremony, where people line up along the street to donate food - usually baskets of sticky rice - to the monks.  Tourists are welcome to watch (and even participate) provided they behave respectfully.  Most males in the country attend a monastery for a period of time, mostly as young boys (sometimes when their parents cannot afford schooling) or as young men, but some older men also take time out for this.  Which means you see monks with tattoos, monks on their mobile phones, etc.  Not really what I'd expected!

What I also hadn't expected - to the extent I experienced it - was the effect on the air of the 'burning season'.  Slash-and-burn agriculture has been practised for hundreds if not thousands of years in northern Laos (and northern Thailand), as the land is not sufficiently fertile for continued prodution of rice (the main crop) and so has to be abandoned after a few years - to naturally regenerate - whilst a nw area of forest is cut down and the residue burnt, so that the ash fertilises the ground before it is used for cultivation.  The air got worse and worse during my time in the north - in Luang Prabang especially - so that everything was surrounded by this grey, smokey haze, which you could even taste on some days.  It is of course bad for the environment, but I also wonder what effect it must have on the health of the population of this part of the country.

From Luang Prabang I also took a day trip out to the beautiful Kuang Si waterfalls, which had the unexpected bonus of a sanctuary for rescued moon bears at the base of the walk up to the falls.