Laos Adventures

Steph and I were really nervous heading into Laos from Vietnam. We had read horror stories of appalling bus scams and scandalous border crossing problems. It turned out to be HORRIBLE, just kidding it was actually a breeze. So, after our shockingly comfortable 20 hour bus ride we found ourselves in the capital of Laos, Vientiane.

Vientiane has a population of around 750,000 people, but you would never know it. We arrived on a Sunday and the city was like a ghost town. All shops were closed, only a few restaurants were open, and there was hardly any traffic. We thought it might just be because it was Sunday, but Monday wasn't much different. It was less busy than Steph's home town of Park Rapids, MN (population around 4,000). It was an easy decision to leave the city after one night.

On Monday morning, we took a minibus north to Vang Vieng. The trip should've taken 4 hours, however we were delayed by several landslides covering half of the road and at one point there was a recovery attempt in process for a large truck that had driven off the road. The small town of Vang Vieng is situated on the Nam Song river and is famous among backpackers for its tubing adventures. Adventure is the right word for our tubing experience. It is wet season in Laos and we now have a very good understanding of what that means. The weather was looking fine as we were renting our tubes and piling into the truck to head to the starting point. Halfway to the starting point a thunderstorm rolled in. It didn't seem to bother anyone else, so we figured it would be fine. By the time we got to the river it was downpouring and the current of the river was incredibly fast. We waited until we thought the lightning had passed and then took the plunge. There were large hills on one side of the river making the scenery that we were tubing through so beautiful. The companies that rented the tubes weren't organized very well. The only thing they told us was to have the tubes back to them before 6pm. There were no signs for the ending point and it wasn't obvious where to get out of the river. Also, the current was so fast that it was almost impossible to get from one side the river to the other on the tubes. We knew that the town was going to come up on the left side of the river, so we tried our best to stay on that side. We finally decided that we'd gone far enough and we were lucky that there were some young kids on the side of the river to help swim us back to shore on our tubes. It obviously wasn't going to be a free service with the kids, so we gave them some Kip and everyone was happy. Other than tubing , partying (Steph had a good quote about the partying..."You're only young once, and we're not young anymore") and watching reruns of Friends and Family Guy in every restaurant, there wasn't much else to do in Vang Vieng. Next stop Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is said to be the most beautiful city in SE Asia and it is definitely beautiful. The city was formed where the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers meet. We enjoyed relaxing there for a few days. We spent some time walking around to see some temples and the palace. The best part of LP for us, besides the night market, was enjoying dinners next to the river as the sun set behind the hills along the opposite river bank.

Another minibus ride took us to another beautiful Laos village, Nong Khiaw. We had an amazing bungalow directly on the Nom Ou river. There wasn't much to do there, so all of the tourists would get together at the main restaurant in town and lounge around talking. The one attraction the town boasted was a cave a couple km's away. We walked there one afternoon with an American couple (we haven't run into many Americans on our journey, so it was a nice treat) and on the way we were stopped by a truck with guards blocking the road. As we were walking up to the truck we heard and felt an enormous explosion that shook the ground and echoed through the entire valley.

We learned that the men were exploding undetonated bombs that were dropped by the Royal Laotian Air Force and the U.S. during the "Secret War." As I understand it, the Vietnamese people occupying northern Laos were stationed near Nong Khiaw and were using the area as a part of a supply chain to the North Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War. Thousands of bombs were dropped in the area and for a couple of years the villagers were forced to relocate into the cave near town for safety. Nowadays, several undetonated bombs are exploded everyday in order to make the land safer for farming and living.

The American couple clued us in on our next adventure which was The Gibbon Experience. The Gibbon Experience office is based in the town of Huay Xai which is on the border of Laos/Thailand. It worked out perfectly because our plan after Laos was to enter northern Thailand. Other than some organizational and administrative problems with the company, the experience was absolutely amazing. The 2 day/1 night trip in the jungle consisted of trekking, zip lining, and sleeping in a treehouse (has always been a dream of Steph's) a couple hundred feet above the Bokeo Nature Reserve. The zip lining was incredible! There were about 25-30 different zip lines and the average length was about 1/3 of a mile long, the longest being just under 1/2 a mile. There were 6 of us on the tour and 2 guides. We would zip line directly in and out of our treehouse and the guides would zip line our meals in. It was an unforgettable experience. In fact, Steph was ready make a permanent move to Laos and become a master zip liner.

Next we entered Thailand again and headed to Chiang Rai, which is where we are currently. We found a really nice hotel (probably the best room we've stayed in on the trip) along the river. Our room/bungalow has a porch that is about 20 feet up from the river bank. We've been relaxing here for a couple of days and are planning on moving south to Chiang Mai tomorrow.

We have just under 2 weeks left in Asia and then we're off to South Africa!