Laos, friendliest nation on Earth

Day 85 - April 25th

Because Phosavan is a small town and we are in low season there was only one option for traveling there: Local Bus. And as it turns out the local bus was better than the VIP bus. Okay the physical bus wasn't better, the bus was a piece that's for sure. However, the ride was smoother because we were going slower and the open windows provided more ventilation and cooling. And, somewhat surprisingly, our bags made it too. Which was good because they were strapped to the top of the bus with rope.

Said bus

After settling into our hotel room I wandered around town. It took me ten minutes. Like I said, this town is small. After getting some shady offers from a couple of tour companies (for example one guy stated a price, then his "brother" chimes in with a higher price claiming the first guy doesn't speak English that well. Not sure what Lao for "yeah right buddy" is, but we didn't book with them.) I booked a tour with a local company to take us to the Plain of Jars. The convincing tactic of offering me a "special discount" worked like a charm. Also, I was at the last place in town. As they were taking my money and filling in my information they made me promise several time not to tell anyone how much I paid because the "discount" was for us only. Turns out several other people paid the same amount, but it did make me feel special.

Day 86 - April 26th

Sometime in the 5th or 6th grade I read a magazine with an article about the Plain of Jars. It is a site in Northeastern Laos where there are acres and acres of stone jars, each carved from a single stone of all different sizes. Since there is no carbon matter, they aren't really sure when they date from, or exactly what purpose they served. All in all, this means I was totally pumped for today's tour! Loaded in the the van and we were off. Due to heavy artillery during and after the Vietnam war (the US systematically bombed the area, one drop every 9 minutes for ten years, which seriously adds up) only 3 areas have been sufficiently de-mined to be open to the public. The first site was very cool, rolling hills with jars all over the places. It turns out our guide when to University to study archeology and then spent 2 years working on the Plain of Jars sites. He now works part time as a guide and part time with an archeology group in the area. Continuing in the Laos spirit, it was a laid-back, informative tour, actually the best one we have been on yet. The combination of information, followed by our guide plopping down in the shade until we were done taking pictures, made the whole tour feel, well, un-tour like. The roads to the 2nd and 3rd site deteriorated the further out we went to the point that the ride felt a lot like the massage chairs one finds at Brookstone, only bouncier.

One of the large-sized jars


Day 87 - April 27th

Hopped in a tuk-tuk with two people from our guest house this morning and headed back to the "new" bus station. Purchased a "Special" ticket to Vang Vieng (turned out to be a cross between local and VIP, with the bags still strapped to the top but an AC option on board). Over the next 6 hours we befriended the entire group of falang (foreigners) who had been on the bus from Luang Prabang to Phosavan and upon arrival in set off en mass to find a place to stay. After looking a a few places we stumbled upon a new guest house with huge rooms for a very reasonable price (under $10 per room, US rates are going to be painful when we get home).
After settling in and having a Beer Lao to calm the bus nerves, settled in for dinner. As we are eating, our friend Kyle wanders by, after a few shouts he realized it was us and joined up. Also learned some new rules for the British game "S@#t Head" tonight, John pretty much never lost, can't say the same for myself.

Day 88 - April 28th

Around 5am, I woke up to one of the most massive rain storms we've experienced yet! The result of the storm was the group decision to post pone floating until tomorrow. After a morning of playing cards, all the clouds completely cleared and left us with blue skies and sunshine! Through all the card playing, we learned that our friends Jenn and Alex also played a game called Beer Pong when they were in college, this conversation lead to the idea that we should bring it to Laos.

Market in Vang Vieng

After lunch, a smaller group headed up to the local market in search of tiger balm and a ping pong ball. With much success at the market it was time to introduce our game. Once we got started Ben and Lu totally got the hang of it and the local guy from the store next door turned out to be a complete ringer! Maybe this is where the idea that Americans have weird habits stems...

Day 89 - April 29th

Today the weather was clear enough to head out floating, or tubing as they call it here. I'll let Eliza describe most of the day, but I wanted to pitch in for the description of the ride there. The Tuk-tuk loaded up about eight of us and our tubes and headed off down the road. About half way we hear the ping-ping-ping sound of metal on concrete as something fell off the tuk-tuk. A couple people made the comment "I hope that part wasn't important". It was. As the driver went to take a left, the right wheel fell off. Which would be bad if you have four wheels, but on this tuk-tuk there were only three wheels. So the tuk-tuk tipped sharply to the right and came to a rest leaning badly. Fortunately we were not going that fast, so nobody was hurt. However the best part had to be the drivers comment, and this reaffirms the Lao attitude towards life. "No problem. We're here."

After clambering out of the tuk tuk and grabbing our tubes we headed down the road to the river. Looked to be moving pretty quickly but we hopped in and were off. About 100 yards down river a Lao gentleman with a long bamboo pole was waving wildly at us and pulled us to shore, turns out to be the first of many shore side bars along the way. After getting our whole group out and then back in again, we decided to be more selective in our stops. A bit further down, eagle eye Lu spotted a volley ball court and it was time to pull over again. As the first 6 people to arrive, we set up a rousing game of 3 on 3 with no real idea what the rules of volley ball were. Over the next hour as more and more people joined the game it became clear that our make shift rules were quite off base, ah well, it was lots of fun. Back in the tubes to head downriver in search of some lunch. Over the next 4 hours we floated more, marveled at the rock formations on either side of the river and got up the nerve to try these swings into the river. Essentially many bars have built platforms on the river banks where you can swing out over the river and then drop, surprisingly not as scary as it sounds (and I am sure twice as safe as my description implies). At the end of the float we realized we were on the cusp of the 6pm return deadline, this resulted in some mad paddling on the part of our group and a nice jog though town to return things in time. All in all, great Laos fun!

Day 90 - April 30th

In order to reach the Tham Phu Kham cave we rented mountain bikes and headed out of town with a photocopy of a hand drawn sketch as our guide. Accompanying us were our new friends from England. The bikes weren't necessarily up to the road conditions much less a mountain, but we managed anyway.

At one water break on the ride out, we were catching our breathe when we hear Lao singing wafting over the hills. As we sat there listening to this baritone voice, a small boy of ten or twelve came riding around the corner on a bike two sizes to big belting out the unknown melody. He is effortlessly navigating the rocky/pot hole filled road with one hand on the handlebars and the other gesturing in full opera form. As he approaches us he stops and loudly sings/exclaims "Sabadee" (hello in Lao). Then picks up right where he left off and continues on his way.

So as I am riding my bike along the "road" when I hear a familiar and disheartening "phhffffff" from my back tire. A crap a flat, how the hell am I going to fix this? What I need is a tire repair shop. Let me set the scene. We have been riding four 45 minutes along a dirt road through farm after farm. The only signs of life we have seen are fellow bikers (mostly Lao school children), cows, and chickens. There have been four houses and no villages. So as I survey the damage I look around for any source of help. And I am not kidding, about 30 feet down the road is a house with a sign that reads "Tire Repair". So I push my bike to the house where an elderly lady sits weaving and a boy sits resting. I point out my tire and he hops up and starts to fix it. His tools were a little more crude than I am used to. Not sure a chisel is a part of the normal bike mechanic's toolbox, but it works. Thirty minutes and 5000 Kip ($0.75) later I have a fixed tire. At seventy five cents a pop, I thought about offering him a job following me around to fix all my flat tires.

When we reached the cave it turned out to be at the top of a "path" that was more of a scramble/climb than a path. Inside the cave was a reclining Buddha statue. At the base of the climb is a lagoon great for swimming and cooling off from the heat of the ride and the day.

Eliza headed out dancing that night with two of the girls we met. I didn't ask her what she did and she didn't offer any details.

Day 91 - May 1st

Most of today was spent in the back of a pickup truck or sawngthaew headed back to Vientiane. These pickups are converted to passenger vehicles by adding to benches to the back and throwing a roof over it all. A good way to travel (except see my previous description of the road conditions, Day 82), but I got really nauseous on the ride. I did get to see a local family buy and consume bbqed bat on a stick (that didn't help the overall nausea).

On the sawngthaew

When we finally reached Vientiane, we check into our hotel and headed to dinner with Kyle (who accompanied us on the sawngthaew).

Day 92 - May 2nd

Laos Airlines has disappointed us once already this trip with their "we have that route, but it is not flying now" answer to all our inquiries. Okay, so they don't actually say it that way. It is conveyed in more of a "no" fashion. Which confuses us because we don't know if they mean no tickets are available, no because of the weather, no because the pilot got lost, or no because we are in the low travel season and the route is not flying due to lack of customers (the actual reason we think). But anyway, there is no flight to Pakse from Vientiane. This leaves one option: the dreaded overnight bus. So we signed up. This time for seats and not beds, because we figured why pay extra and not sleep.

Day 93 - May 3rd

After the overnight-not-sleeper-but-still-not-sleeping-on bus we arrived in Pakse. Most people travel that day to the Four Thousand Island (our next stop), but we are familiar with each other, so we decided to take a "calm" day (as Eliza calls it. I call it "keep Eliza calm-day". POtato, PotAto.). And Pakse is the perfect place to take a clam day. And I thought Phosovan was small with nothing to do. Highlights of the day include...okay no highlights to speak of, but we did book a bus to the Four Thousand Islands.

Day 94 - May 4th

Our bus picked us up right on time and drove us two blocks to a bigger bus. Highly efficient. This bus then took us to Nakasang. There we hoped a ferry to Don Khone. On Don Khone, there is absolutely nothing to do. There is no power (generator run for 4 hrs per day), and no plumbing (unless you count the pipe from your bathroom to the river). There are hammocks, playing cards, and three restaurants. Oh and about one billion bugs and thousands of fat geckos and frogs. So we sat around and played cards, took naps, ate food, and avoided the bugs.

View from our deck

Day 95 - May 5th

Happy birthday bro'

As today's adventure (just to break up the card playing routine) we went to see the endangered Irrawaddy dolphins. In order to see them we were driven almost to the Cambodian border, where we got in to a set of small boats. Them we were transported to a couple of rocks in the middle of the Mekong river. Not an island, but a couple of rocks about 15 feet in diameter where ten of us sat for an hour. We did get to see the dolphins as they traveled past us. I have pictures of ripples that used to be dolphin tails to prove it. Very cool. And as the piece de resistance, as were we headed back to the dock in the boats, three or four dolphins fully breached right in front of us. Very cooler.

Day 96 - May 6th

We originally thought we would head back to Pakse and then take a day trip to Champasake. On the bus to Pakse we started talking with a couple from Portland who were headed to Champasake. After a quick geography lesson from them, we decided it was going to be best to bail early and visit Wat Phu today. The ferry from the drop off point across the Mekong to Champasake was two boats lashed together, on an oooooold bus filled with tiles, rice and other random sundries. The bus dropped us between THE open hotel and restaurant. Checked in and went to find food with our new northwest friends. Towards the end of lunch the sky opened up and we decided to play some cards until things dried up a bit (noticing a trend in our time wasting?). As it never quite dried up we ended up at the same table in the same restaurant from lunch right on thru to dinner, that was a first.

Day 97 - May 7th

The ruin of Wat Phu is a Angkor style temple built on several levels extending from the river plain up a mountain. The result is a spectacular temple. You begin by walking along a dry reservoir, then through a pair of large buildings on opposite sides of a main path. Then you walk up a series of stair cases to reach the second level. Following that are more stairs and a third and final level. On this level are the ruins of the main temple. The temple is backed up to a shear rock cliff probably 100 feet tall from which a spring naturally bubbles. When you finally turn around to see where you have been you realize the view extends as far as the eye can see along the Mekong river valley. The natural scenery on the temple grounds makes it a beautiful place of worship.

Main temple building

Obviously my description is highly simplified, and I don't feel I can give it an adequate description, but this was one of the highlights of Lao for me.

After our visit we all decided we should head back across the river and try to catch a ride back to Pakse on the same bus we jumped off the day prior. Today's ferry was much smaller than the day before and though still was two boats lashed together, these were more of the canoe variety with some planks forming the passenger platform.

Ferry ride (& me avoiding a sunburn on my head)

On the other side we started asking around for some transport to Pakse, pretty much all the locals only wanted to offer us a very expensive ride to the main highway (about 4km from the town at a price more than double the cost of a 80km ride). In principle our groups of now 6 decided we would just walk back to the main road. About 1 km into it our packs felt incredibly heavy and we were all beat, as luck has it, this was when a giant pick up truck slowed down and motioned for us to hop in the back. The "hop" was about 6 feet off the ground but with one an other's help we were on our way with the drivers 4 kids, bouncing towards the main road. I got the distinct feeling that we were an unusual site by all the giggling "sabadees" we received along the way. At the main junction a mini-bus heading to Paske immediately pulled over, we worked out a deal and we were on our jolly way.

Day 98 - May 8th
As happens every so often when traveling, the travelers completely run out of clean clothes. These are laundry days and almost always result in said travelers wearing some pretty strange outfits as the entire rest of their packs are being washed, today was one of those days. At least we will enter Cambodia in style!

Day 99 - May 9th
This is what we have referred to thus far as an "administrative day". It means we spent most of the time figuring out:
1) How we will get back to the US at the end of our trip (via Jordan on Royal Jordanian Airlines)
2) If we can fund the rest of our trip (yes)
3) Where we will stay in our next location (thanks for the rec Kyle)
4) If we can cram everything purchased so far into our bags (mostly)
and other fun things of that sort.

Side note: We are writing this from an Internet Cafe in Malaysia where they are playing on TV an Asia version on American Idol. The "artists" are performing a variety of hits including: "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John, the theme from "Phantom of the Opera", and several Chinese songs. The Malay cafe workers are periodically singing along.

Ok, some pictures up, John's still to come!