Almost-A-Month in Laos

The map we used to navigate Laos. You can click on any image to enlarge it.

 I rendezvoused with Tarci in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, for a month of gypsying and exploring.  We had fun catching up on the latest happenings in each other’s lives, and then got out the maps to try to figure out the best way to see Laos without any plan or research whatsoever!

Street scene in Vientiane

The first few days we explored Vientiane on foot, visiting many of its golden wats (Buddhist temples), taking in the bustle of the city.

Monks chanting in the wat.

Exploring on foot brought us to the Patuxai gate straddles a major boulevard.

The arch at Patuxai.

This massive arch was built in 1969 with cement donated by the US to build a new airport, and is called “the vertical runway” by expats. You can climb stairways to the roof for panoramic views and browse vendor booths inside, where I picked up a bootleg copy of Lonely Planet Laos guide. Illegal as it was, it came in handy for the rest of the trip.

A view from the top of the Patuxai arch.

We visited the lively Night Market for a look at handicrafts and daily necessities and sundries for sale under bright orange tents along the Mekong River. The street food was tempting and I indulged in an order of piping hot chicken feet on a stick. Yum. Dinner street-side was delicious, and the street life was entertainment enough.

The street market.

I just had to try the chicken feet. Tasty!

We rented a motorbike and rode out to the Buddha Park, a fantasy garden of concrete Buddhas and Hindu deities along the river outside of Vientiane. 

Sculptures at the Buddha Park.

We got our first taste of the road dust, exhaust, potholes and traffic. No wonder everyone wears surgical masks to travel along the roads.  On the way back we passed the roadside studio of a carver who transformed massive teak stumps into elegant statement carvings, clearly destined for the Chinese market.

A marvelous carving made from a massive teak stump, outside the city.

Heading back to the city, we stopped to see the most important monument in Laos, sleek Pha That Luang, said to house a piece of the Buddha’s breastbone since the third century. Preparations for the massive annual festival were underway,  and we watched the setting sun gleam off the golden stupa and serene Buddhas, and monks in orange robes.

Pha That Luang,  Laos' most important Buddhist temple.

A young monk with a ubiquitious cell phone.
Most young men spend time as monks; it is a traditional part of their education.
If they feel they do not wish to continue living as a monk they need only to speak with the Abbott.
Being monk is not necessarily a lifetime commitment as it is in other religions.

We rented a car for the next three weeks, and headed west out of town for Phou Khao Khouay national park, which was supposed to be the home to a herd of wild elephants, extremely rare outside Northern Laos. We bounced over dusty roads pocked with bathtub-sized potholes, through secondary growth forest.

Bouncing through the National Forest.

Beautiful Tad Xi falls.

Sadly, we learned that they had been hunted out by farmers after ravaging the sugar cane fields. We went on to the Tad Xi and Tad Leuk waterfalls. The water was low as it was the dry season, and we walked the river bottom to both falls.  We were quite alone since tourist season had not yet begun, so took the time for a refreshing dip in the river.

The next day we drove east along the Mekong outside Vientiane to see what life along the river was like. Quite rural, as it turns out. We clambered down to the water and slipped along clay and sand banks to splash our feet into the mighty Mekong River.  

Along the banks of the mighty Mekong.

We were stopped at a roadblock by the police, who, seated in plastic chairs under an awning, told us we’d been speeding and would have to surrender the driver’s passport and pay a fine of 75000 kip ( or LAK, Lao currency)!  An offer of 50,000 kip cash (about 8 USD) took care of the problem, and we got away, sputtering but still in possession of all our travel documents.  Turns out, this happens all the time and we got off cheap.  From expats we learned that it’s just a part of the police officers’ job percs, their pension program...and just roll with it and keep smiling.

It was time to hit the road. We headed north.  Our first stop was to visit two Buddhas carved into a cliffside in the 15^th century.

I love the expressions on their faces.

We went on, getting slowly accustomed to the traffic of trucks, motorbikes, and everything in between, and the battered condition of the roads, toward the top of the reservoir lake formed by Nam Ngum dam. 

The most delicious pork , and yummy "morning glory" greens.

We had lunch in Thathet at a nice local restaurant filled with Chinese tourists, where we had a nice chat and, of course, a selfie with the owner, then drove along the dam, and up a narrow winding hair raising two track to a wonderful overlook of the lake. 

Views of the reservoir behind the dam, on such a lovely day.
A teak tree with it's tattered elephant ear-like leaves stands on the left.

Tour boats plied the flat calm waters, and white cumulus clouds were reflected in the blue lake.  We drove back and continued north and found a rather exclusive French-owned hotel, The Sanctuary, right on the lake, and got a room at low-season rates. It would have been fun to rent a jet ski, but at $60 US per hour it cost more than the hotel room itself! Spent a lovely evening watching the sun set, and the moon rise over the lake.

Sunset over the lake.

In the morning we set out toward VangVieng, famous for beautiful views of vertical limestone karst mountains and mass-marketed outdoor adventures like tubing, kayaking, caving.  For hours we hammered along serpentine mountain roads deeply potholed and damaged by massively overloaded trucks hauling stone and cement. Cars and trucks pass on hairpin turns in the narrow roads, and people on scooters, sometimes also massively overloaded with passengers and/or merchandise, move with bold serenity in and out of traffic as well.

This is a very good stretch. The worst were not photogenic.

The car shuddered and bounced, and billows of rosy-red clay dust concealed obstacles, both moving and fixed, as we went. 

 The occasional flock of ducks, a buffalo, or gaggle of small (but traffic-wise) children would appear out of the dust cloud, heralding our approach to a village, where the house fronts were right on the roadside, backs supported by stilts overhanging the steep mountainside.

A roadside village perched between the road and the gorge.

Buffalo wandering on the road. 

Our eyes were glued to the road ahead. After several hours, we were grumpy and dispirited when we arrived at Vang Vieng, and so our outlook may have been a bit jaundiced as well. Until a few years ago,Vang Vieng rode the crest of back-packer tourism and anything went. The government eventually reined in the sex, drugs and rock and roll (well, at least the drugs) and the town is now going through a bit of a dry-spell trying to retool to accommodate Gray Nomads. We walked through the town for a needed stretch and found some redeeming features of interest, and enjoyed the views of the river and karst mountains beyond. 

The city streets at Vang Vieng

A view across the river at an attractive tourist lodge.

Cool wooden foot bridge across the river.

 We bought some tasty skewers of chicken, pineapple, peppers and onions, did a little browsing and had a massage, and in early afternoon drove on toward Luang Prabang, only two inches away according to the map…about 120 km.

The mountains got steeper, the truck traffic more intense, and the roads worse.  Landslides occur in this mountainous region, where deluges of rain destabilize even the natural hillsides, and a routine road maintenance issue. We wended our way slowly along, with many delays, and finally had to stop for almost an hour while some unknown operation was completed far ahead of the traffic queue.  

A shot out the car window as we wind through the mountains.

Check out the terrain profiles on the roads where we traveled!

We got out, had a stretch and visited with Bernard, a pleasant Belgian circumnavigating in his military-expedition-grade motor home. We learned that all the massive truckloads of concrete and stone were for the building of a Chinese railway to link China with Vientiane and eventually through Thailand to Singapore, a part of China’s “Belts and Roads” economic colonization initiative. (The original deal with China is said to have included a land easement of 30 km on each side of the railway line. Yikes!!) The winding road from Vang Vieng grew fantastically mountainous, and we were relieved to arrive just after dark at Villa Champa guesthouse in old Luang Prabang.  It took over six hours to drive 120 km.

So glad to arrive!

We explored Luang Prabang for three days. It is UNESCO world heritage site, built on a peninsula of land between the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, and graced in the last century with French colonial architecture and municipal planning. 

The main street in the Luang Prabang.

A beautifully restored colonial house.

One of the many wats, or Thats, as they are called in Laos.

Wats abound. Early in the mornings, monks walk barefoot through the streets near the wats, and the pious townspeople reverently place balls of sticky rice in their alms bowls, a beloved tradition which tourists may witness…quietly and at a respectful distance. Café society is alive and well, with French bakeries, coffee houses, cafes and wine bars co-mingled with funky or elegant boutiques, galleries, and of course the vibrant night market with beautiful hand woven fabrics, artful teak carvings, clothes, sundries, and of course, food!

Fruit smoothies of all kinds!

There are fresh fruit smoothies of every kind, and local foods such as hot chicken and rice-noodle soup, and grilled fish. A typical Lao dish is larb or laab, a delicious spicy salad made from browned minced beef, chicken or pork, mixed with fish sauce, shallots, mint leaves, lime juice, toasted, roasted ground rice, and lots of chilis, which I enjoyed along with my favorite green papaya salad; sweet, salty, spicy and cool all at once.

Laab

We hired a longboat to take us up the Mekong to a “typical” Hmong village, then further upstream to a “Whiskey” village and on to the Buddha caves. The young guy  who we dealt with spoke English, and loaded us on the boat and left his father, who spoke no English at all, to drive. 

Longboats and the ferry on the Mekong at Luang Prabang.

Heading up the Mekong on a longtail boat.

 Up the swirling river we rode pleasantly through countryside with small farms, and we passed under the pylons for the ever-present rail line under construction. The first stop was the Hmong village, where we landed and Father pointed us up the hill and settled in for a smoke in the shade.  We walked tentatively up the hill, seeing nothing and no one. We arrived at the “typical” village, which looked the same as all the rest of the villages we’d passed driving here…as well as deserted. 

The highlight of the "Typical Hmong village", a string of goat jawbones ?!?

The few individuals we did see acted as if we were intruding. It was weird and awkward. We returned to the boat pretty dissatisfied, and gestured our concerns to the Father, who connected us with the son.  After a frank conversation about what we saw (or didn’t see) at the village, we went on to the Whiskey village, Ban Xang Hay, where the villagers were all-in on welcoming tourism.  Along with the hand woven textiles, carvings and other handicrafts, this village is known for the local rice whiskey, infused with snakes, scorpions, ginseng and other healthy, delicious flavorings. 

Lao whiskey with a prize in every bottle.

Free samples were offered and accepted. Unfortunately, the airlines and Customs won’t allow the whiskey, and we were traveling light, so we didn’t help the economy much. We motored upstream through pretty farmland to the Pak Ou Buddha caves, where the Nam Ou and Mekong rivers meet.  These caves are set into steep karst mountains, and we climbed steps to enter the largest cave through an ancient wooded portal, to view scores of Buddha images large and small, of stone, gilt, wood, as best we could in the darkness of the unlit cave.

In the evening we went to the elegant Calao Restaurant for a free screening of “Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness” in their garden. The Oscar-nominated movie was made in 1926, and was fascinating because of the amazing wildlife scenes of attacking tigers, wild elephant herds rampaging through a village, and glimpses of long-lost village life.

The next day we took a day-long mahout training at the beautiful Elephant Village center, where elephants liberated from lumber camps now live a good life of semi-retirement.

We were introduced to elephants by feeding them bananas, and we were taught the Lao commands used when riding.  We learned to mount by climbing atop her raised foreleg and grasping her giant ear to scramble aboard…with a hand from the Lao mahout who rode along during the training run.  This experience was unique because we got to ride bareback instead of on a howdah (platform-like elephant saddle). Better for us and the animals!

Our guide teaching us elephant commands.  Good luck!

  Seated on the neck right behind her head, we lumbered around the yard, then we learned how to dismount (and…ahem…how not to). I lost my balance as I slid down her side and fell gently to earth in a heap, earning the reputation as the clumsy kid. Bah!!! (The trick is to slide down with your side against the elephant’s…if you do it facing the elephant, her round belly might put you off your axis...just sayin’)

Rider's-eye view on an elephant's back.

Next we boarded a longtail boat for the short ride up the Nam Ou to the forest where we would meet our elephants and ride through the jungle. My elephant was Mae, blind in one eye from the hard life of the lumber camps, and her mahout was Deth (pronounced “Det”; fun with words…the Elephant Ride of Deth!). Up I climbed, and when all were situated (riding alone as the mahouts walked nearby), we moved off through the muddy jungle trail at a dignified pace. 

Deth took my camera and snapped pix for me. Mae and I bonded, and she graciously responded to my commands. What fun!  After lunch at the Center, we returned for elephant bath time.  We mounted up, this time with the mahouts aboard, and rode the elephants right down into the river. Elephants can learn over 60 commands, and one of them is to fill her trunk and spray water all over her rider. What a blast! I scrubbed her head and behind her ears, and she sprayed and splashed me.

Mai, me and Deth. 

We had the Most Fun! Part of the etiquette of riding is to thank the elephant after, and I hugged her massive trunk. Kop Chai, Mae! Best tourist activity of my life, and a little contribution to Laos’ worthy elephant relief effort.

After breakfast we hit the road for Nong Khiaw, known for it’s picturesque location along the Nam Ou river, a little playground for trekkers and river sports with jaw-dropping views of towering karst mountains rising above the mist, and the glistening curve of the river.   

The rice harvest. Cut and threshed by hand in the early morning coolness.

A lady making a regional treat, Mekong seaweed strained, seasoned with
sesame seed and chilis and dried on racks in the sun.  It was good!

View of Nong Khiaw.

We found a nice guesthouse with a terrace overlooking the river bend, for about $15 US (livin’ large). After early morning yoga on the terrace, with morning mist veiling the mountains, and we decided to climb a trail to the top of a mountain, 1:45 heart-thumping hours to the top and lovely views with the town, river and mountains hidden and revealed by drifting silver mist.

A tough early morning climb.
Hot and sweaty, I rolled up my elephant pants to get this fashionable look.

We backtracked and continued northeast toward Oudomxay and Luang Namtha. At the village market in Oudomxay we joined a local man for a delicious bowl of noodle soup, and I bought Khmu handwoven sarongs. In Namtha we stayed in a little riverside guesthouse consisting of traditional bamboo huts, clean, tidy and unique. We ended the day having a beer on the little balcony, watching villagers across the river doing laundry and bathing in the river. 

The traditional cottages we stayed in. They were nice.

A lady bathing in the river.

A day’s ride southeast, through easier terrain and rubber plantations by the mile, brought us to Houei Xai, near the Golden Triangle.

These are food storage buildings, protected from rats etc. by traditional
techniques. Virtually identical to traditional horreos in Spain.

                               

Rubber trees. You can see the receptacles for sap. Bushel-sized,
smelly lumps of solidified sap were collected alongside the road.

We found a room at the Sabaydee Guesthouse near the river, and where we ended the evening seated on the roof parapet enjoying the colorful fairy lights and people passing below along the main street. 

Beautiful sunset over the Mekong in Houei Xei

Party on the roof.

The next day we drove on the to the Golden Triangle special economic zone, where the going is made easy for Chinese and Thai gamblers. In colonial days the Golden Triangle was formerly a hub for the opium trade. Now fanciful casino and resort buildings, one topped with a giant crown, line the riverbank, and all kinds of currencies (except the Lao Kip!) are accepted. 

The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone. China's playground.

 We continued on to into the countryside to fine the ruins at Souvannahomkham, built in the 1500’s and now surrounded by farm fields and concealed with veils of creepers.

A ruined stupa from the ancient city of Souvannahomkham.

On over good roads to Pak Beng, a picturesque river town which is a stopover for tourist river boats running between the Golden Triangle and Luang Prabang. We got in early before the boats arrived and got a nice upper story room at Dockhhoun guesthouse on a high bluff overlooking a dramatic bend in the Mekong. The village is a strip, and we found good street food and colorful sights, and returned to enjoy watching little children frolicking in the river protected from the treacherous current by a huge sand bar.

See that sand spit in the center? We swam there under the full moon.

Getting directions.

Back to Luang Prabang for a day, where we stayed in the Golden Lotus Place

guesthouse, on a tiny lane bustling with an early morning market, featuring every kind of local food, enticing or not, including fresh honey and bee larvae, freshly killed songbirds, rat on a stick and smoked bats! 

The early morning local market right outside our guesthouse.

Smoked fruit bat and other bush meat.

Fresh frogs for your dining pleasure.

Honey and wasp combs and  larvae

Super fresh mushrooms, and fresh songbirds.

We climbed to the top of  Phu Si hill, in the center of the old city, to visit the gilded That Chomsi stupa and the Buddha Footprint shrine. Lonely Planet’s Laos guidebook comments, “If this really is his rocky imprint, then the Buddha must have been the size of a brontosaurus”. We watched Lao people lighting incense and leaving flower offerings as the sun burned off the morning mist above the city.

The shrine of the Buddha footprint.

Buddhas overlooking the city at the top of Phu Si

Reclining Buddha at Phu Si

Flower offerings shaped like little stupas.

In Phonsavan, we stayed at a mammoth guesthouse with marble floors and high varnished teak ceilings, and were the only guests. We walked around the corner and had dinner at a city hotspot, where we were the only westerners and attracted much friendly attention from local businessmen. Dinner was a hotpot, charcoal brazier-heated broth in which we placed our raw meat and veggies to make a wonderful boiled dinner. Visiting the Plain of Jars, we wandered through meadows dotted with large stone jars, thought to have been burial vessels from around 500 BC. The landscape was pocked with bomb craters from the intensive bombing by the US in the war, and unexploded ordinance is still a major hazard.

The stone jars on the Plain of Jars

                     For the the full story of the history of the Plain of Jars, click on this link:   
                  https://www.archaeology.org/exclusives/articles/5126-archive-plain-of-jars

Giant poinsettia plants reminded me that Christmas is coming!

The next day we were literally in uncharted territory; none of our three road maps, nor two navigation apps had the roads right. We took a picturesque, rugged secondary road through lovely forests, but were stopped by a police roadblock (nobody spoke English) so we had to double back and rough-ride over another uncharted two track, through massive landslide territory. 

The teak forest was remote and lovely and we stopped to swim in a river and watch exotic butterflies congregated on a riverbank.

A landslide across the road left these  massive boulders.
MIraculously, our car could just make it through the gap.

Another landslide hazard.

Butterflies sipping water from a sandbar in the river.

 After a tortuous drive, we arrived at Vieng Thong. We visited the hot springs, and got kicked out by a courteous Frenchman since the springs are privately owned and the guidebook got it wrong. We kept him talking for a long time, and I got to soak my feet in the thermal spring to my contentment before we actually left! We wandered through Tha Bak village and climbed down the to the riverbank to see the famous “bomb boats”, canoes built from old bomb casings by enterprising watermen, now a tourist attraction.

The "Bomb Boats", made from remnants of Vietnam era ordnance.

On to Nam Thout Dam, where the area had been logged out and had a stripped appearance when it should have been thickly forested. Stumps protruded from the flooded valleys. Heading out we stopped to hike the “Orchid Trail” up a hill, and had a pretty view shared with a sweet Belgian girl, traveling solo. We continued southwest toward the famous Nam Lode caves, until we discerned that we would never make it there and back in a day over such rough, remote terrain.  We doubled back and continued on the “Loop” road to Thakhek, a gently decaying French Colonial outpost. 

Le Bouton d'Or in Thatthek

Here we treated ourselves for two days in the luxurious Le Bouton D’Ore boutique hotel, a steal at $60 USD per night. We explored the town, found a huge outdoor poker party in progress, and later went to meditate (and nap) in the coolness of the nearby Buddha caves surrounded by pretty gardens.  

Prayer flags in the Buddha grotto.

Inside the nearby caverns, colored lights illuminate flow stone formations.

Dry season rice paddies, recently harvested.

Ladies using natural tree bark dyes to color hemp threads for weaving.

Working at the looms..here she's making a beautiful sarong.

My new hemp ikat scarf and the lady who made it.

We also went to a river cave which ran right under a massive karst mountain. We rode in a longtail boat into the caves, using flashlights to wind our way over a kilometer  through the cave,  portaged under the heart of the mountain, and continued on to exit the cave.  We continued on to a little village where we could buy refreshments and watch the women weave at their looms before boarding the boat to return through the cave to the other side. Very cool.

Walking to the cave mouth to board our boat.

Looking back at the last daylight for more than a kilometer.

Exiting the cave. Lovely.

A view along the way.

We ' on a boat.

Entering the cave on the way back.

After driving over 1300 miles /2100 km, it was time to return to Vientiane and the long flight back home. Many times along the way, people commented to us how unusual it was for us to be touring on our own in a car; most tourists travel using tours or public transit. Laos was interesting and intriguing, a communist country where private enterprise is allowed; talking politics, not so much. So grateful to have seen and learned so much about this fascinating place.  Kop Chai, Lao.

                                            November 10 - December  5, 2018