Laos, finally
Well, after a week at Nong Khai, looking across the river at Laos and spending lazy days encamped at the dining tables in the garden, reading, playing games and chatting to friends, we finally, finally, crossed the bridge.
Vientiane was boring and expensive.
Nothing too interesting or unique to see, lots of foreign food, and a lot of architecturally effusive buildings in french and pseudo-french style occupied by one govt. department or another. There is an old stupa in the middle of town called That Dam, or the Black Stupa, which is said to contain a seven-headed snake which will protect the city from attacks by the Siamese. Given its history of failure in that regard, it isn't worshipped very much, so there is a lovely little garden but the stupa itself is neglected. On our last night in Vientiene, we indulged in the authentic, traditional Laos pasttime of ten-pin bowling. The alley is a gift from some of their communist neighbours i suspect, judging from the hammer-and-sickle motif over the bowling lanes. Alec won, convincingly, both times.
The redeeming feature of Vientiane was the prevalence of Beer Lao. Very good, very cheap. 10,000 kip ($1.20) for a 640 mL bottle.
We did go to a traditional Laos herbal sauna, which is adjacent to one of the large temple complexes a few km out of town, and had a lovely time. It was a rainy 'cold' day, so dwelling in the steam room was no chore. The steam was heavily scented with herbs that they must have been cooking in the kettles underneath, lots of lemongrass and lime leaves and a host of other things. In between steams, you come out to cool off and drink refreshing hot green tea and then, after a few cycles in and out of the steam room, you cool off, dry off and get a Laos massage (very similar to Thai massage). Alec spent a hour in bliss, however, my masseur wasn't so good and i spent half an hour in discomfort, terrified that my sarong was going to fall off. Oh well.
For the last couple of days we have been in Vang Vieng.
Stunning scenery, sudden limestone outcrops and cliffs full of caves, with the river Song at their feet. A little village that has been turned into a swarming den of tourists who populate restaurant bars with large TVs that play endless episodes of Friends. We're in a guesthouse 10 minutes walk out of the centre of the town, for which i am grateful as it actually feel like we're in Laos and not Bondi Beach.
We'd heard from another tourist that we could hire bikes and cycle to the various caves, so on the first day, under a blue sky, we set off over the river to find the Khanh Cave. The town has asphalt, the other side does not. It has dirt roads full of large pebbles, and pebble roads full of more pebbles. With the bike boucing and skipping sideways, i was a nervous wreck by the time we made it to the cave. (Let it be known that i only fell off once. Even Alec burst a tyre on the way home.)
A few of kids were charging 10,000 kip ($1.20) each for entry to the cave, which was a complete rort, but since we had to leave our bikes behind we paid it. One of them offered to be a guide for 5,000 kip. We said no. After a couple of minutes walking up the track, we ran into a Laos man who pointed us in the right direction and then accompanied us, so we ended up with a guide anyway. There was a large Buddha statue in the largest carvern of the cave, and we walked through the various tunnels with our guide pointing out all the holes into which we could fall and die, which was nice of him. One of the tunnels was a crawl space only and we decided we wouldn't bother. Two French guys, who were also at the cave, said it was only 30 metres or so and then followed the guide down. After 10 min, Alec and I got sick of waiting and just left. I'm sure the guide would have liked some more kip, but Alec reckoned he was in on the scamming kids at the entrance anyway.
When we got back to the bikes, the kids asked us for money in return for watching our bikes. We pointed out that we had locks on the bikes and that, in the first place, nothing had been said at the beginning and they couldn't just slap a charge on at the end. I just rode off. The kids, apparently, then started loosening the caps on the tyres of the frenchmen's bikes, so Alec asked how much they wanted.
They wanted 2,000 kip for the two bikes. That's about 25 cents. Okay.
He gave them a 5,000 kip note and they gave him 1,000 kip change. What's this?
One of the kids then indicated that there were two kids doing the watching and they wanted 2,000 each.
Alec just grabbed his 5,000 note off them and gave them the 1,000 back, told them they were too cheeky and didn't deserve anything. Funnily enough, the other kid suddenly had 3,000 kip change available, but Alec rode off.
We never did find out how the frenchmen made it home.
Yesterday, we took a tour. After experiencing the difficulties of reaching the caves by bike, we decided that a tour was probably a better idea, and it turned out to be the best idea ever.
From 10am - 5pm, we kayaked from 20 km north back to town over numerous small rapids past amazing limestone cliffs, we visited two famous caves on the way, one by floating up the underground river in the inner tubes of truck tyres, and we went swinging.
Swinging involves climbing up onto a platform 10 metres above the surface of the river and grabbing onto a trapese swing. Then you somehow have to coax your feet to jump off. That's the hard part. Swinging out and back and then letting go at the highest point of the arc, screaming as you plunge into the water, well that's easy. And really fun. Then you swim back to shore with a stupid grin on your face, and climb up to the bar that is invariably attached to the swinning platform.
This section of the river is full of bars with swings, and full of young drunken tourists in scanty clothing attempting half-heartedly not to drown. The ugly side of the tourist boom in Vang Vieng, perhaps, but at least these swings aren't adjacent to any real Lao villages.
The tour cost 95,000 kip each ($11). And that included a lunch too big to finish and plenty of drinking water. There were 10 people in the group and three guides, pretty much a perfect size. Brilliant.
Tomorrow we head south. We may have to spend another night in Vientiane, eating traditional tex-mex pizza in a pseudo-french hotel, but we'll survive somehow, i'm sure.
Vientiane was boring and expensive.
Nothing too interesting or unique to see, lots of foreign food, and a lot of architecturally effusive buildings in french and pseudo-french style occupied by one govt. department or another. There is an old stupa in the middle of town called That Dam, or the Black Stupa, which is said to contain a seven-headed snake which will protect the city from attacks by the Siamese. Given its history of failure in that regard, it isn't worshipped very much, so there is a lovely little garden but the stupa itself is neglected. On our last night in Vientiene, we indulged in the authentic, traditional Laos pasttime of ten-pin bowling. The alley is a gift from some of their communist neighbours i suspect, judging from the hammer-and-sickle motif over the bowling lanes. Alec won, convincingly, both times.
The redeeming feature of Vientiane was the prevalence of Beer Lao. Very good, very cheap. 10,000 kip ($1.20) for a 640 mL bottle.
We did go to a traditional Laos herbal sauna, which is adjacent to one of the large temple complexes a few km out of town, and had a lovely time. It was a rainy 'cold' day, so dwelling in the steam room was no chore. The steam was heavily scented with herbs that they must have been cooking in the kettles underneath, lots of lemongrass and lime leaves and a host of other things. In between steams, you come out to cool off and drink refreshing hot green tea and then, after a few cycles in and out of the steam room, you cool off, dry off and get a Laos massage (very similar to Thai massage). Alec spent a hour in bliss, however, my masseur wasn't so good and i spent half an hour in discomfort, terrified that my sarong was going to fall off. Oh well.
For the last couple of days we have been in Vang Vieng.
Stunning scenery, sudden limestone outcrops and cliffs full of caves, with the river Song at their feet. A little village that has been turned into a swarming den of tourists who populate restaurant bars with large TVs that play endless episodes of Friends. We're in a guesthouse 10 minutes walk out of the centre of the town, for which i am grateful as it actually feel like we're in Laos and not Bondi Beach.
We'd heard from another tourist that we could hire bikes and cycle to the various caves, so on the first day, under a blue sky, we set off over the river to find the Khanh Cave. The town has asphalt, the other side does not. It has dirt roads full of large pebbles, and pebble roads full of more pebbles. With the bike boucing and skipping sideways, i was a nervous wreck by the time we made it to the cave. (Let it be known that i only fell off once. Even Alec burst a tyre on the way home.)
A few of kids were charging 10,000 kip ($1.20) each for entry to the cave, which was a complete rort, but since we had to leave our bikes behind we paid it. One of them offered to be a guide for 5,000 kip. We said no. After a couple of minutes walking up the track, we ran into a Laos man who pointed us in the right direction and then accompanied us, so we ended up with a guide anyway. There was a large Buddha statue in the largest carvern of the cave, and we walked through the various tunnels with our guide pointing out all the holes into which we could fall and die, which was nice of him. One of the tunnels was a crawl space only and we decided we wouldn't bother. Two French guys, who were also at the cave, said it was only 30 metres or so and then followed the guide down. After 10 min, Alec and I got sick of waiting and just left. I'm sure the guide would have liked some more kip, but Alec reckoned he was in on the scamming kids at the entrance anyway.
When we got back to the bikes, the kids asked us for money in return for watching our bikes. We pointed out that we had locks on the bikes and that, in the first place, nothing had been said at the beginning and they couldn't just slap a charge on at the end. I just rode off. The kids, apparently, then started loosening the caps on the tyres of the frenchmen's bikes, so Alec asked how much they wanted.
They wanted 2,000 kip for the two bikes. That's about 25 cents. Okay.
He gave them a 5,000 kip note and they gave him 1,000 kip change. What's this?
One of the kids then indicated that there were two kids doing the watching and they wanted 2,000 each.
Alec just grabbed his 5,000 note off them and gave them the 1,000 back, told them they were too cheeky and didn't deserve anything. Funnily enough, the other kid suddenly had 3,000 kip change available, but Alec rode off.
We never did find out how the frenchmen made it home.
Yesterday, we took a tour. After experiencing the difficulties of reaching the caves by bike, we decided that a tour was probably a better idea, and it turned out to be the best idea ever.
From 10am - 5pm, we kayaked from 20 km north back to town over numerous small rapids past amazing limestone cliffs, we visited two famous caves on the way, one by floating up the underground river in the inner tubes of truck tyres, and we went swinging.
Swinging involves climbing up onto a platform 10 metres above the surface of the river and grabbing onto a trapese swing. Then you somehow have to coax your feet to jump off. That's the hard part. Swinging out and back and then letting go at the highest point of the arc, screaming as you plunge into the water, well that's easy. And really fun. Then you swim back to shore with a stupid grin on your face, and climb up to the bar that is invariably attached to the swinning platform.
This section of the river is full of bars with swings, and full of young drunken tourists in scanty clothing attempting half-heartedly not to drown. The ugly side of the tourist boom in Vang Vieng, perhaps, but at least these swings aren't adjacent to any real Lao villages.
The tour cost 95,000 kip each ($11). And that included a lunch too big to finish and plenty of drinking water. There were 10 people in the group and three guides, pretty much a perfect size. Brilliant.
Tomorrow we head south. We may have to spend another night in Vientiane, eating traditional tex-mex pizza in a pseudo-french hotel, but we'll survive somehow, i'm sure.