Luang Prabang and Vientiane: July 2015

Laos. Passed the border with Thailand.

After a 17 hour bus ride we arrived around 6 am. The town was quiet. We took a tuk-tuk to our hotel. We were tired, but they wouldn’t let us check-in early. They had a room available, but wanted to charge us half a day to check-in. I was not a fan. Instead, we left our bags and walked to a coffee shop to eat and blog. 

We both had fairly high expectations for Laos. Side note: it’s pronounced “Lao.” The “s” is silent, or people are just too lazy to pronounce it. Either way, they say, “Lao.” We had heard from multiple people that it was a really great place- how the people were so nice and genuine. Well, from the moment we entered the country, I found them to be less hospitable and friendly than anywhere else in SE Asia. Maybe it was just our experience, but we found it to be true throughout our time in Laos. Sneaky people, trying to take advantage. No bueno. 

Local Curry, deadly.

Once it was check-in time, we went back to the hotel and fell asleep. When we woke up, it was already dinner time. We found the same chain as in Cambodia, so we decided to give it a try. By this time, we were ravenous. Javier had this soup, and accidentally ate a pepper as he was shoveling in the food. At first, it looked like he was having a stroke. He couldn’t speak, didn’t move, and just had this horrified look on his face. I kept asking him was happened. It took some time before he barely squeaked out, “Pepper.” He looked scared, and I was scared. I yelled for the waiter and asked if they had milk or yogurt. He looked confused. So I repeated myself in a less calm voice. I pointed at Javier’s face and said, “MILK! YOGURT!” He got the picture and went running. He came back with a tall glass of milk, which Javier quickly drank. I kept asking if he could breathe, and just stared at him. My head was reeling. Is there even a hospital in this one-horse town? The waiter kept hovering until Javier’s panicked look disappeared. Before we left, we told the waiter that in the future, they might consider removing the pepper of death before serving the soup. I used this painful experience and parlayed it into a delicious ice-cream treat. After all, Javier’s mouth and throat was still on fire, and the more ice-cream, the better, right? He didn’t disagree. 

After some soothing ice cream, we walked through the night market to get home. Javier wasn’t feeling too great, so we just relaxed for the rest of the night. 

Luang Prabang, Laos

We spent the next few days blogging at different coffee shops and seeing the sights. We walked up the hill to Mount Phousi. At the top is a lookout and a Bhuddist shrine, Wat Chom Si. We took a different route down, and were greeted by many buddhist statues hiding among the trees, as well as several other shrines. There were also old cannons and other military artillery hiding here and there. Once at the bottom, we decided on lunch. There is this row of food stands along the street. They all serve the same things. Sandwiches and juice. Both are delicious, and subsequently became our lunch every day. On this day, a man walked up to us and asked if we wanted to go to the waterfall. We did, and negotiated a price. Only problem with our price was, we needed to wait for more people. No problem, by the time we were done, we had a full tuk-tuk waiting. One the way to the waterfall, we sat across from a woman and her son. The woman is Thai and lives in London. Her son is half Thai/half English and a non-stop talker.

Friendly character

For the entire 45 min drive. He talked about everything. He’s only 10 years old, but talked about everything from climate change to the onesies he likes to wear. He told me all about his friends, and the current drama taking place between two of the girls in his group. I thought he was a cool kid, Javier wanted to jump out of the tuk-tuk. At one point, one of the other passengers started smoking- a young European girl. This boy leaned over, and asked her to please put out her cigarette. Ha!

We parted ways at the waterfall, and were given a time to return for our ride home. There is an area where they have caged bears. Apparently, they are being rehabilitated. There were signs all over educating people on the dangers the bears are facing. Apparently, in China, they use the bile from bears as medicine.

Pooh Bear

The signs were talking about how terrible this was for the bears and for the humans as well. All of this was done in the name of awareness, but here’s the kicker…none of the signs were in Chinese. Everything was written in Lao and English, but no Chinese. Kinda pointless if you ask me. We decided to write a little note in the “comments” book. Whaddayaknow? We weren’t the only one’s who picked up on this. Every comment was, “Since the Chinese are the one’s who use bear bile, maybe the signs should be written in Chinese.” Our thoughts exactly. We continued on to the waterfalls. We didn’t do the research beforehand, and apparently you’re supposed to picnic and swim in the pools.

Kuang Si (Xi) Waterfall

Everyone was running around in a bathing suit- jumping off rocks and trees, and swimming right in front of the “No swimming” signs. It was really crowded, and after we walked through and had a good look, we were satisfied. Outside, we walked the stalls and took a peek at the barbecued fish. When it was time to go, we had to wait for the rest of our party, and the little British boy talked the whole way back. 

For first dinner, we happened to be walking by a woman barbecuing chicken on the street. They smash a chicken breast, as well as other meats and fish, between two sticks and tie the ends together. It’s delicious.

Luang Prabang, Laos

We would grab a breast whenever we walked by and felt like a quick snack. For real dinner, we found a whole alley full of street food. Also quite delicious.

The next morning, we headed down to the Mekong river to take a long boat to the Pak Ou caves. The boat ride was long, the boat was very narrow, and the life jackets were buried in the back. If you leaned to one side or the other, the whole boat would rock and the driver would look back, concerned. The river is polluted with cut trees and branches.

Luang Prabang, Loas

Our driver was weaving through these trees, going faster than everyone else. He scoots from one side of his little bench to the other depending on who has crossed their legs behind him, shifting the balance of the boat. It’s that sensitive. Let’s just say, it wasn’t the safest ride. On the way, we stopped at the tourist trap, where they make and sell black sticky rice wine and whiskey. We tried it, we didn’t like it. They even have some bottles with snakes and scorpions inside…I don’t get it. We walked around before heading back to the boat. We finally arrived at the Pak Ou caves and were greeted by Buddha.

Pak Ou Caves near Luang Prabang

Inside the cave are hundreds, maybe thousands of Buddha statues. This used to be a place of worship back in the days, and the wealthy people who would visit, would bring their statues. The second cave required a decent stair climb. This cave was deeper, and therefore darker. Also a place full of Buddha statues and writing on the walls. Our visit was short and sweet and we were back in the boat of death for our ride back home. 

Once we were safely on solid ground, we walked back to the hotel, picked up the laptop and found a coffee shop to blog. I have to say, there are many nice coffee shops in Luang Prabang…but they’re all foreign owned. Weird. 

Luang Prabang, Laos

All in all, we were less than impressed with our visit to Luang Prabang. It truly feels like going back in time while you’re there, which is actually pretty cool, but not cool enough for these two to stick around! On to Vientiane!

Our bus ride was scary. It was so foggy and the road was wet and very curvy. So this is why they said not to take a night bus…

In Vientiane, we boarded a local bus to our hotel. We were with an Italian family who were good company. Our diver decided, after he picked us up and drove for 15 minutes, that he needed to check his tires…not before, so we sat in his sweat box while he went about his business.

Vientiane

We were dropped off at a central location and had to find our hotel from there. Ha! After walking back and forth in the heat with our heavy backpacks, we finally walked into an Ibis and asked for directions. They were very nice and even gave us a map. We decided next time…we’re staying at Ibis. 

We had intended on eating local food for dinner, and ended up at a gourmet pizza place. There was a sign that said, “Italian chefs” and we thought…riiiiiight. It was actually really good and lo and behold, the workers looked and spoke Italian. Incredible! 

Patuxai Victory Monument

We only planned to stay in Vientiane for two days. We had heard it was just a city, and not really worth a look. We had to fly from here, so we decided to give it a day. The next morning, we walked to the Patuxai monument, which is like a big gate. We had low expectations, but were pleasantly surprised. We really liked this place! It’s Hindu, and has many sculptures and pictures of various Hindu gods. The top is very ornate, with several spires, and other artistic detail. The inside is quite colorful as well. We have seen several gates like this, but this was the most unique yet. On our walk home, we stopped at a local restaurant and had soup. They all stared at us while we approached. It was good, but we were both a little over zealous and put in a little too much spice. So we were sweating profusely, both because it was hot outside, but mostly because we were burning up from the inside out. On the walk home, we passed by a concrete fountain with several lily pads and a single lily. I don’t know why, but we were both transfixed by the lily and stood there looking at it for about 30 minutes. 

Patuxai Victory Monument. the ceiling.

There was this dessert place that we had to try. We ended up ordering bubble tea, which was absolutely delicious, and stayed there far longer than the workers appreciated, due to the lovely air-conditioning. For dinner, we walked to the water and had some stick chicken. It was twice the cost of the chicken in Luang Prabang, and not nearly as good. We walked the night market, which was not at all impressive, before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our trip back to Thailand. Peace-out, Laos.

To see more pictures of Laos, click HERE.