Laos Recap!

We're back...ah and alive, more importantly!

The past week has been full of all sorts of adventure for the both of us. It was somewhat a vacation from our vacation... but for some reason it felt a little more draining than our former vacay. It must have been the constant movement of packing and unpacking of our belongings and the mentality of actual vagabonding where nothing is absolutely permanent.

As mentioned, our initial intentions to head across the river to Laos was to apply for a Thai visa that would grant us an extension to stay for another 3 months and to explore a little bit of Laos. CHECK & CHECK. The latter, however lead to a little more craziness than anticipated (in one city), but I will post another blog dedicated to that city for the sake of this recap. We stayed in Laos from the 20th till the 27th, made our way through 3 cities: Vien Tienne, Vang Vieng, and Luang Prabang, all with their own unique energy to them. I'll spend a little bit of time describing our adventures through these cities right now.

Vien Tienne
The capital of Laos, Vien Tienne is the entrance way travelers use to get through to Thailand. As with many capitals, several embassies are established here to aid fellow travelers with anything they might need to make their stay in a foreign country comfortable. We spent only a total of 2 days here and majority of it was handling visa business. Unfortunately, Lara and I never had a chance to explore this city besides our first day there to the bus station to head to Vang Vieng and on our last night there in search of street food (ugh, the one that gave me really bad heartburn and a stomach ache. Mai ped on the Pad Thai, please! That meant not spicy). From Ming's pictures of her exploration of Vien Tienne, it seems like a beautiful place. Perhaps one day, I'll give this place a proper exploration.

Vang Vieng

Arrival

Absolute heathenism, debauchery, and release of inhibition at it's darkest and finest. Lara and I stayed here the first two nights of our trip, making our way 3 hours from Vien Tienne. I'm somewhat speechless when finding adequate words to express how I genuinely felt about this place, but am left with the thoughts, 'one time is definitely good enough for me'. I won't write too much about this place in this post since a full on action update of our infamous tubing experience is underway, and believe me... it is an experience I have never had before.

Vang Vieng is somewhat of a spring break type of getaway, but a SE Asia version. Imagine waves of westerners in bathing suits and summer wear populating a small Laos town (mainly 4 blocks) where everyone is completely obliterated and submitted to the effects of alcohol causing rambunctious outbursts in the middle of the night and meathead-like tendencies. Imagine a lush lifestyle where drunken stupors lead travelers disoriented and waking in the morning, confused as to "what in the hell was in that drink I had last night" in the middle of restaurants after a very heavy night of consumption. Imagine an adventure point where caving, kayaking, and hiking out into the nearby mountains and river is spent in leisure. Imagine a place where restaurants' floor plans consist of raised seating with cushions available for reclining and enjoying the DVD set of FRIENDS, possibly Season 1-10 playing through and through. And, imagine a place that knows no boundaries in cases of safety precautions and poison distribution (take your pick, if you know what I mean...) That, my friends is Vang Vieng. I'm sure I haven't given this town the proper introduction sans tourist influence, but with my brief exposure to this place, this is all I can entirely vouch for. It was absolute madness. But, OMFG did I have fun.

The restaurant that played FRIENDS all day

One of many massage parlors. Do not ask if they have happy endings here.

Luang Prabang

A polar opposite to the above mentioned city in Laos. Luang Prabang was certainly a favorite due to the civility and tranquility this city had. Perhaps after experiencing Vang Vieng, I then realized the beauty in stillness again and sobriety, for that matter. Among other things, Luang Prabang charmed travelers, like me with their breath-taking scenery, beautiful waterfalls, gorgeous temples and lovely night markets and restaurants. Lara and I stayed here for a total of 3 nights. It was a place for R&R (and this is definitely not a euphemism for a detoxification, haha). I had a chance to visit a book store where I paid to check out a book. I finally got to finish Siddhartha, a book by Herman Hesse that I've meaning to finish reading for quite some time now at the Phousi Stupa temple while overlooking the sun setting on the Meekong. A quote spoke to me while I was reading it, words that somewhat affirmed to silence my thoughts more along this experience and allowing myself to accept inevitable changes that have been occurring in my life recently, but I'll share that later with you all.

Night market

Kuangsi Waterfalls

Sculptures at the Vat

In practice of our frugality we settled for the cheapest possible forms of transportation. The 10 hour rides in large and or small vehicles were painstakingly winding and hella boring! I swear, it's probably the longest time I didn't speak to Lara... maybe it was because we were trying to avoid the negativity of having to endure such a long ride to places. Amidst the constant motion sickness throughout our bus rides ending in passengers vomiting and dry heaving, I kind of enjoyed seeing the changes in terrain despite our bus' soundtrack. These bus rides took us through the mountains of Laos covered in forest/jungles where I saw a plethora of beautiful flowers, various livestock crossing the roads, random children lurking about on the side of the roads, remote villages in the distance, farmers tending to their lands and every so often experiencing road block due to wild animals steering away from their paths and into our road.

20 year old bus that lived up to it's age. The stench of this bus reeked of rusted metal and musk...the best fragrance to inhale for 4 hours....-___-

Check out our bus! Great mural of elephants bathing and several lotuses.

A few things that I have learned throughout this trip:

• Do not lose a life-jacket [from Vang Vieng]
• Reggae music is the most relaxing to listen to while on vacay
• Laos sandwiches bought from street vendors are the best, especially with EGG
• Creepers come in all sizes and shapes. Do not "Sa bai dee" me, Phelang.
• Patience makes you healthier (as experienced when Lara and I walked several flights of stairs up to the temple with over 300 steps)
  
• Beer relaxes you and hard alcohol makes you brave
• Bus rides make you miserable and numb
  
• Guest Houses we stayed at have the worst measurements in stair architecture, some too steep, some too close from one another, and some too restricting... god, am I Goldilocks or what?
• "you want a bag? or a ...."
• Hmong village children love candy and sweets (as experienced while visiting the village on the way back from Luang Prabang when ravenous children took one of our bus rider's candy)
• Fellow travelers are very helpful and friendly (i.e. getting dropped off in the middle of no when when arriving to Vang Vieng and asking some Americans where to go... luckily they had their Lonely Planets to guide them...a video will be provided!)
  
• Camoflaging as Thai or Lao people is still distinguishable despite our skin tones. We've tried this many times by speaking in their tongue through various inquiries such as "taorai gee baht?" (how much Kip in Baht?)
• Patience again while waiting for our Visas

I'm sure I've missed more details about this trip, I'll add on when some thoughts cross me later. Videos will be provided shortly!

Photos from my Flickr