We awoke bright and early—- ok, not really bright- it was 6:00am, (which on this trip was sleeping in), to catch our bus to Vang Vieng. Conner, Chris, Jess and I had booked our bus a couple of days earlier and were told they would pick us up at our hotels at 7:30am. After a good hotel breakfast, to include my favorite- passion fruit- we sat in the lobby waiting for our bus. Chris and Jess were at their hotel down the street and we figured we would just meet on the bus. Around 7:45am we started getting worried. Where was our ride? I asked the front desk staff to call and check for me. She ensured me that they were coming. A mini van arrived and I watched in worry as the driver haphazardly threw our bags on top of the van. We climbed into a packed 14 seat van with 2 seats left for us. Conner and I remembered the ticket seller saying we would be taken to the big bus. We started driving and arrived near a big bus.  Conner and I had agreed we would run off so we could get seats next to each other for the longer ride. As soon as we stopped, we jumped out and were quickly told by a man on the side of the road- “no, no, stay”. After our driver had a discussion with the man, our driver got back in and began driving again. We couldn’t understand what was going on, and nobody tried to explain it to us, but what we sort of assumed the big bus was full. It made sense, as there was no method of tracking bus ticket sales. In the entire town of Vientiane, (and we found later throughout Laos), everyone could sell bus tickets. The woman selling bikes, the guy at the street corner, the ladyboy playing pool at a bar—- yes, anyone could take your money and give you a paper receipt for a bus ticket. How could they possibly keep track of how many were sold?

It seemed their method was to just have a driver, or 3 extra on hand to drive the “extras” in the mini vans. Well, we had paid for a big bus. We thought we would be on a big bus. And now where were Chris and Jess? Were they on the bug bus? Who knew? We couldn’t reach them , since they didn’t have Wifi access.

So here we were on a cramped mini van with our luggage on top of the van , for the 4-5 hour journey. John and I were the only Westerners in the van, and the only English speakers it seemed.  After 5 minutes the driver stopped again at a gas station. He was filling up the tank. We found out this was common practice too. In our next Laos rides, we would see they always fill up their tanks with the van full , and even change tires. It is just funny because in the US, these are things that are typically done before picking up the customers. However, this driver didn’t seem to have planned to be driving us all the Vang Vieng.

So the journey began. We tried to nap on the ride, but the winding roads up and through the mountains made it tough. The ride was quite beautiful, if you have a string stomach. I was ok, and actually really enjoyed the beautiful views.

Our Korean and Chinese co-passengers mostly slept during the ride. We stopped half way at a rest stop for lunch, and ran into Jess and Chris! They were on the big bus! Thank goodness! They figured we had been put on another bus when they saw their’s was full.

As we arrived closer to the beautiful mountain- river town, I thought about it’s crazy history from my previous research. The legends say that the main flowing river was named “Xong (bed) of Phra Nha Phao” — or “Nam Song “— in 1356 AD, after the body of the deceased King was seen floating down the river. Nearly 700 years later, the bodies were still coming. Sounds gruesome right?

After many, many years of the town being a sleepy fishing and farming village, backpackers and travelers began to catch on to its beauty. It started becoming a destination for rock climbing and caving. Many travelers would volunteer to help local farmers, in exchange for  a place to stay. In 1999, an organic local farmer had an idea to use old tractor tires as tubes for his volunteers to float along the idyllic lagoon-like river. Once more guesthouses opened and saw how much the travelers liked tubing, they all began offering tubes. More and more people started coming. Word of mouth amongst the backpacker population really spread. A few locals opened little bars along the river to offer the tubers drinks. Once the locals realized that these young travelers enjoyed the “party” while they float along the river- more and more and more bars opened. Signs would advertise “free joint with booze” along the river.

Next came ziplines, rope swings , and very intoxicated backpackers. Many locals were making money off of the new escalated tourism, but many were upset. The lovely, quiet village now had loud techno music blaring over rice fields. And then people started getting hurt. In 2011, it is said that 27+ backpackers/ travelers died in the river. Many drowned, or hit their head falling from swings or ziplines into shallow water. Interesting article link—

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/07/vang-vieng-laos-party-town

Families of the injured or deceased contacted their embassies with concerns and despair. Reports stated the bars were serving laced alcoholic drinks. Drinks with mushrooms and opium. Eventually this “unregulated tourism” was recognized by the government and a huge overhaul took place. All of the bars were shut down. The years that followed required tourists to wear life jackets along the river that was only accessible during certain hours. Tourism and business drastically declined. Apparently in 2015 it started to pick up again. A couple of “regulated” bars were approved to open again. (We will get to that later).

It is quite sad to know and think how a beautiful destination could be so tainted with such circumstances.  I can say from my experience with spending some time, talking and hanging out with some backpackers- they are a very unique group. They are like modern day hippies, or beatniks. Some start as young travelers freshly out of school, just exploring the world.  Many Australians, Israelis and Europeans encourage their children to do so. Not just for a few weeks or months. Many do a year, some 2 years. And some just keep going. It seems it is common for some to get caught up in the lifestyle. Who can blame them? They just travel, hangout, meet new people. No job, no responsibility.  Southeast Asia is a very popular destination for this group because it is so inexpensive. They can live on $10 USD easily. A cheap hostel and street food. Of course Conner and I do not stay in those hostels, or eat in that way. But then again, we aren’t traveling for a year at a time. We have enjoyed hanging out near the backpacker hostel neighborhoods in the past though. In Cambodia and Vietnam we had great times having late night talks with some interesting backpackers. Some have fascinating stories! Their ages range from 18- 40 (with some outliers).

One of the bloggers I follow wrote this interesting piece on the subject—( Make sure to watch the video on the site as well)

http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-are-backpackers-in-southeast-asia-so-stupid/

So we arrive in the lovely town. After getting our packs we set out to find our hotel. Walking along the streets you could immediately see the “backpacker” presence.  They were everywhere. The restaurants and stores catered to the population with signs saying “ free drinks”, “magic milkshakes”, “ cheap pizza” etc. I was in agreement to come here knowing it wasn’t as crazy as it had been years earlier. It was startling to see some of the open advertisements for drugs. Did I mention this is a communist country? They say “ social republic” but it is really a fancy term for communist ( in my opinion, and from my research).

Conner and I found our hotel and checked in. It was ok- “Laos Haven”. Nothing special, but it was fine. Jess and Chris messaged us. They had found it too and were ready for lunch. We met at a German- Laos restaurant. A small restaurant with one man working. A small menu of both German and Laos food. We all had pork schnitzels , which were pretty tasty!

We decided to use the rest of the afternoon tubing. We were going to wait to tube until the following day but it was still early afternoon, so we had plenty of time!

Signing waivers for our tubes was like signing off on our life. They would accept no liability if we were hurt. They wrote numbers on our hands in permanent markers and we were led to a truck that would take us to the tubing starting point. We passed an extremely intoxicated couple , probably in their mid 50’s. The man was mumbling nonsense and stumbling. They were in bathing suits and returning their tubes. Eek- scary to think they were just in the river.  We set out on the river – the water a bit chilly,  but the scenery really beautiful. There were some other small groups tubing near us but everyone was calm and enjoying the ride. We rode along for quite awhile with mountains surrounding us. Only a few spots had strong currents.

We approached closer to loud music and people laughing. As we edged closer we could see one of the river bars on the side packed with tubes. We decided we would stop and take a look. As we got off of our tubes and walked up the shore, Jess gave me a look like “ oh my gosh”. There was just a bunch of people  in bathing suits dancing and acting silly.  It did look a bit like a hot mess as we approached. I warned Christopher and Jess that they would see way more of this when they go to areas of Thailand-especially Phuket. Nobody was necessarily doing anything wrong.They just were drunk and some of them looked really ridiculous. One girl’s breasts were pouring out of her way too small bathing suit- if you think that sounds sexy , well it wasn’t -hah…she was a non-hot mess. But you know- more power to her. She was having fun. One guy was dancing in circles by himself. The bartenders at the makeshift bar were Australian and European tourists in their 20’s. It seems they will stay and work in the Vang Vieng bars for a month or 6 months to make money and just hangout, until they decide to travel on to their next stop.

We had a beer and people watched. It was great “people watching” to say the least. Back on our tubes we floated along the lovely river. We passed multiple small boats with monks. They were taking our pictures, while we were taking theirs. How funny!

As we neared the end of the tubing (takes about 2-3 hours or so to get down the whole river), we unloaded out at the same time as a bunch of other tourists. We all bargained with a local driver to take us back in his truck with benches in the back. There were about 10 of us. We loaded in and drunk boob girl made room for herself laying on a hammock over the rest of us. The driver seemed shocked that she was laying in his hammock. “Oh hey guys. Now this is weird—“, she said in her Australian accent, “ you aren’t any of the people I started with tubing today. Haha, so funny. Who are you people”? Oh jeez. She continued to say silly things during the ride. One guy begged for money to borrow to pay the driver. “ I promise I will pay someone back”, he kept saying. Everyone just kind of ignored him, until finally after the 5th time of him asking one guy gave him money.

There was a nice couple we chatted with a bit. They would be traveling for 8 months they said. They seemed young- probably 22 or so. We returned our tubes- boob girl tried to accuse my brother of taking her tube because she couldn’t find hers. But hers was right in front of her. Yup, that happened.

We went back to the hotel to rinse off quickly so we could go eat dinner. All that tubing made us hungry! Conner, Chris , Jess and I had a nice dinner of Asian dishes. Many of the restaurants in Vang VIeng offer a similar eclectic menu- one that caters to tourists. Menus that have asian dishes, pizza, burgers, etc.

After dinner we walked around the cute and busy street. We stopped at a cool looking bar to hangout for a bit. It was really cool, you take off your shoes and sit at a very Japanese type table. We took a look at the menu to pick out our beer or, in my case wine- and were shocked at the menu items—- an entire section with items like “mushrooms” , “opium” , “joints”. Were we in an alternate universe? I am going to go with yes. Yes, we were.

We saw this type of thing in Cambodia 2 years ago, but it wasn’t so blatant. It wasn’t listed on a menu with prices right next to pizza and a soda. Hmm ok——well, needless to say after one drink we left. We left to find another bar—- have you seen “locked up abroad”- that show will scare you to death! They literally give tourists the death penalty in Indonesia for drugs.

So we found another bar with pool tables and music. They weren’t advertising drugs, but they were giving away free shots. Yes, just giving away free liquor to anyone who would take it. No strings attached. Now, I don’t drink liquor so it was a no for me. Conner had one free drink. We sat and watched the interesting people. This particular bar had good music, cool pool tables and games, and lady boys. A couple really attractive ladyboys. Yes, they are men who look like women, and dress like women. Some of them are very attractive, and you just can’t tell. Conner and Christopher say you can “always tell”, but I don’t know- they had me fooled. Christopher thinks the key is looking at the hands. Conner says he can “just tell”.Hmmmm— ok well I know some ladies with bigger hands.

After our people watching entertainment for the night we set off to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling quite sick. Maybe it was something I ate? I don’t know. I was hoping it would pass because I was so excited to hike the next day.

Well it didn’t pass- I still felt weird and sick in the AM. Conner brought me a sandwich and smoothie but I didn’t feel up to eating. It is quite common to get a little food poisoning or sick at least when traveling , especially in Southeast Asia. I eventually told Conner to go enjoy without me. He, Chris and Jess rode bikes and took a hike that I had been so excited to take!!!! I was so incredibly sad to miss it!

By 7pm I was finally feeling better, so Conner convinced me to go get pizza. We walked around, had some pizza and enjoyed the town. While Vang Vieng is tainted with a history of poorly behaved tourists and unfortunate situations, it is still a very lovely town. I definitely recommend a 2-3 night stop here when in Laos.

The next AM we set out for Luang Prabang- another city I was so incredibly excited to see! Our mini van bus picked the four of us up at outside our hotel in the AM. Conner got us some really delicious breakfast sandwiches. The french baguettes with egg and cheese were so yummy!

The ride was another twisty, turning, stomach- wrenching ride along the mountains. Really, really beautiful. But again- if you have a queasy stomach- take something!
We arrived in the quaint and beautiful town around lunch time. Conner and I walked and found our adorable hotel “Villa Ban Lakkham” and Chris and Jess walked a little further to get to theirs- only about a 2 minute walk away.

I really liked this hotel! The room was so pretty and clean, with our own private balcony.

Overlooking the water, the hotel had a very rustic, but chic feel to it. We settled in and then went and walked around. Jess and Chris met us along the pretty Mekong riverside for lunch. After a nice lunch we walked around the town and then hiked to the really cool temple view point.

We saw monks making crafts in the street, women selling birds that you could buy to “set free for good luck” at the temple. At the top we had amazing views! We even saw buddhas footprint in a cave!

We then walked along the night market, and tried to figure out bus tickets for Huay Xai-our next stop in a couple days. Huey Xai was where we had booked the “Gibbon Experience” ( more on that later). This town is far out- way out- even Laos locals have no idea where it is. It is not a super common place to go to, so we didnt want to miss our chance to get a ticket booked. Did I mention you can’t book these things ahead of time? Bus tickets in Laos , are not able to be booked via online, phone or other means that we could figure out. So odd, considering it is a pretty established country. More established than Myanmar overall, and way more accustomed to tourists- but somehow Myanmar had their bus/ train system planning down better than Laos.

We tried chatting and negotiating with a few sellers. After some debate and chat, Conner and I decided to do a day bus trip to allow us an extra night in Luang Prabang. Chris and Jess decided to do a night bus ride, so that they wouldn’t lose any day time. Both have their plusses I suppose. Conner and I wanted to maximize our time in Luang Prabang and didn’t think we would get a good nights sleep on a bus. We felt a rested nights sleep would be better for us. Jess and Chris felt they could pass out and sleep their whole ride.

That night Conner and I had an amazing dinner at a French restaurant right along the main street of Luang Prabang called Tangor. It was such a cute place with so much detail and art. I had a delicious cheese & meat plate for dinner and Conner and a duck breast!

After some more investigation and negotiation we booked our daily activities for the following day with a tour guide. We had planned to see the well-known Kuang SI waterfalls, and the “Living land farm”. Jess and Chris just wanted to the do the falls and booked a separate time. As it worked out, for us to do both, we had to get up early in the AM to go see the waterfalls so that we could be back in time for the Living Land at 1:00pm.

Getting up early to an alarm on vacation is never intriguing, but sometimes in order to make the most of your time, and see everything, it is the only way! Up bright and early we enjoyed breakfast on the balcony of our hotel, and then our private tuk -tuk driver picked us up. The journey from town to the falls took about 45 minutes. I realized all of the group tour times advertised were for 11:30am and later in the afternoon. None for the morning! This meant we would have the whole place to ourselves! Only 1 other vehicle was outside the entrance when we arrived around 8am.

As we entered, we were excited to see the awesome bear sanctuary. I had read about it online but it was even cooler in person! There were so many bears- and they were set up living in natural habitats. We watched them wrestle and play. It was really neat!

We then began our hike to the falls. There are some beautiful pools and falls near the ground level entrance- they go on and on and are so pretty. Some are described and called “fairy pools” because that is what they look like. They reminded me of a movie I loved growing up called “ Fern gully”.

Conner and I decided to take the hike to the right side to the top of the falls. Conner had read it was steeper and more challenging but that it was a better view.  It was actually very steep and both of us almost fell a couple of times. Once we made it to the top, it was so worth it!! It was so pretty and peaceful!

We had a really great time! Eventually, we knew we had to head the hike back down to find our driver. We started walking and figured we could go down the left side- the opposite of the side we came up. So we walk, and we walk— and we walks some more. After some time we started thinking something wasn’t right. We had no clue where we were, but we knew we weren’t heading the right way. We realized we were lost. With no internet/ cell connection, we didn’t really know where to go. We were officially- lost in Laos.

We kept hiking at a faster pace, hoping we would see something, or somebody. It is a little scary when you truly have no idea where you are. This happened to us on a hike in Thailand. We went over a Tsunami -struck island- a hike the locals told us we were crazy to do.We made it through that time, as we would this time ( that’s what I told myself). I wonder how long it be for someone to notice we were missing? Would our driver care if we didn’t return? Would the hotel report us missing? What about Chris and Jess? They probably wouldn’t worry for a day or so-thinking we just didn’t have cell connection. I could see the headline now ” US couple mysteriously vanishes in the waterfalls of Laos”.

As my imagination ran wild, we suddenly heard a lovely sound– the sound of the falls! We were getting closer. We knew once we found the falls again, we could follow them all the way down the mountain.

Once we made our way back down the steep mountain, we found our driver and made our way back to town. Whew! Thank goodness! We had just enough time to grab a sandwich to scarf down quickly!

Our afternoon was spent at the Living Land farm. We arrived, greeted by a sweet, local guide. Our 4 hours there was magnificent! We had a nice group of people from all of the world. There were about 12 of us- Germans, French, Australian, Canadians. Our guide took us through all 13 steps to make rice. Who knew rice was so complicated? I appreciate rice now, like never before. The process is quite amazing!

We were able to partake in all the steps- that includes ploughing the sweet water buffalo. Conner was so good at it! Keep in mind, the fertilizer is water buffalo poop. Yes- that huge water/ mud looking stuff is poop, and we walked all through it. Your feet sink like quick- sand! Oh, and there are leeches too!

Our awesome guide singing —

It was really such a fun afternoon! After working hard in the rice fields, we got to enjoy some rice treats and rice wine!

After a fabulous day of waterfalls, bears and rice farming we relaxed! We had an amazing dinner of Korean Bbq to end our night in Luang Prabang!

 

Korean BBQ, allows you to get to cook at your table! They light coals and provide you with all the veggies, raw meats, and sauces. It was so fun to have Conner cook dinner, since at home in the US, I usually cook ;).

An amazing night to end a great day! To bed we go to get up early for the alms of the monks!

ບໍ່ໄດ້ສູນເສຍ

bode sunsia (not lost)– In Laos,

Kinz