Kicking Back in Vang Vieng, Laos

From Luang Prabang we bussed it to Vang Vieng, a town famous on the backpackers trail for taking it easy.

We found a great little guesthouse overlooking the river there...

...from which the sunsets were spectacular...

Still in Laos, so saw some more religious icins in caves...

...and other things (no wonder Char doesn't like caves).

Did some more motoing around to explore the surrounding countryside and villages, this time with a new friend, Kit.

...found a better bridge...

...kept on cruisin'...

...stopped for a beer...

...stuff like that.

Meanwhile, back in town the school kids worked the community garden.

Vang Vieng is truly famous for the float you can do in the tubes down the river, stopping at the docks at several riverside bars along the way. OK, maybe we were a little older than the rest of the folks involved with that scene, so we spent less time at the bars, but we enjoyed the float...

...twice.

All that floating can wear a person out, so back to the hammocks. We enjoyed this taste of the easy life so much that we pretty much made this our last stop in Laos before heading for the beaches around Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

To the Mekong and Luang Prabang

Then we got in a bigger motor boat for an 8 hour cruise doown the Nam Ou...

...to its confluence with the Mekong...

...arriving at Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is a town famous for its religious icons, monasteries, and temples.

Icons in caves...

...temples...

...and more temples.

Hundreds of monks walk the street every morning at dawn to receive their alms, hand-outs of food from the townspeople.

Sunset on the Mekong in Luang Prabang.

Roadless Nam Ou, Muang Ngoi, Laos

Well, we have gotten some good feedback on the blog so we will try to get out some more of these Laos photos we uploaded a while back. We lost 3 weeks to beautiful beaches in Cambodia, and are in Saigon now. Found a good hospital, and for those of you who followed the bee sting thing, we got some good meds now if it were ever to happen again. More on Cambodia and Vietnam later...now for memories of Laos.

Further up the Nam Ou we found beautiful Muang Ngoi, a very quit town accessible only by single track and boat. Again, the view from the deck at the guesthouse we stayed in...

Took a tiny motor boat...

...to a waterfall...

...and did some canoeing...

...stuff like that.

Nong Khiaw on the Nam Ou, Laos

After leaving Luang Namtha we traveled to the Nam (River) Ou, to experience riverside life in Laos. Below is a photo of the first riverside village we visited on the Nam Ou, Nong Khiaw.

It was a beautiful river, a peaceful vilage, and the view from the deck of our bungalow was spectacular...

...as Char was appreciating in the above photo.

We took a hike to see some caves, but before we got there 4 young local boys asked us if we wanted to go with them to see some other caves. It was fun to walk with them for about an hour, but before we found the cave the trails became indiscernible, and they became frightened (We assumed their fear was because they realized we were becoming at risk of discovering a land mine). Jon asked if they would prefer to go back, and they were thrilled. Then they informed us that we owed them some money...although that had not been discussed previously. We gave them one dollar to share among 4, and except for the fact that the bills did not allow for an even split of the fee, they were happy. Us too.

We did eventually reach the caves we were looking for, where some villagers supposedly lived and survived the American (Vietnam) war. Above is the rebuilt access to the larger of these caves. And below...

...is a narrow passageway that led deeep into the limestone mountain where there was supposed to have been the wartime "bank."

The views from the river tended to be much more relaxing...

...especially for Char who is not much into caves.

Moto-ing Around Luang Nam Tha

We quickly learned that another great way to explore Laos is on motorcycle (if you can call the tiny, automatic clutch, near-scooter things in south east Asia motorcycles).

Very little traffic to negotiate...

...but some other potential pitfalls.

They may not be the best machines, but they sure can get you to some cool places. This is the view of a remote Ahka village in the forest we stumbled on after a gorgeous up-and-down 15 km ride. We did not have the heart to take any pictures in the village. These beautiful, financially-poor-but-in-other-ways-rich people still live a truly tribal life like we forgot still existed. The clothing and jewelry they wore was amazing, the women all topless. They were very kind, but without getting into a long discussion of the merits of different kinds of tourism, we decided the way we were visiting this village was not the best way to do it, and left quickly without accepting their hospitality.

Our Welcome to Laos - Luang Nam Tha

After several long bus rides with stop overs in Kunming, and some other places not worth mentioning, we arrived at the Lao border. It's a walk-across-crossing, and we were detained by the Chinese border guards upon exiting for over an hour because they had not seen a version of the US passport as new as those we carried. They were, however, impeccably polite and made us a comfortable as possible. After buying our visa for Laos we hopped in the back of a pickup with seats (this is public transportation) and drove 60 km (through nothing, very striking after China where there is always something) to Luang Nam Tha, a large valley...

...that serves as the capital of this region of northern Laos. There is a large protected area of forest here that also is home to some tribal villagers. One of the highlights of our time in Luang Nam Tha was a 2 day kayak trip we took down a small river (Nam Ha) in the protected area.

It was a great way to see the forest, and the kayaking (class 2, open inflatables) was just our speed.
Our group of 8 included 6 tourists and 2 Lao guides, one of whom spoke excellent English and afforded us an opportunity to learn a lot about Laos. We stopped for traditional Lao lunch spread on banana leaves cut from the forest and ate sticky rice and spicy concoctions with our hands.

We stopped to visit one of the villages midday. It was quiet, because those not too old or young were all out working on the rice harvest.

The kids were around though, busy husking the harvested rice, but playing really. Although the food in Laos was tasty, there were some things...

...such as sun dried rat and bat, that we would not eat.

Sierra, apparently, likes water buffalo as much as me. Here's another picture for you Sierra. Very funny looking animals, but those we did eat (sorry Sierra, I hope you knew they were for food).
We stopped in another village to spend the night, where we spent some time hanging out with the locals. The kids are always very happy to have their photos taken, adults not so much.
The next morning there was a crew there to see us off as we got back in our boats and headed downstream. At the end of the float we "got the opportunity" to try some local fermented rice wine stuff.

I think our guide enjoyed it more than we (at least Jon) did.

Near Tibet, Last Days in China

Well, we took a bus up to Zhongdian, recently renamed "Shangrila," (as a part of the Han Chinese effort to promote tourism in ethnic minority Yunnan Province) which is just on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau and ethnically essentially part of Tibet. As elsewhere in Yunnan Province, it was fascinating to see the traditional clothing...

...and architecture.

Every conglomeration of 4 houses has a religious spot, as Buddhism, as in much of the part of China we had visited, is very important.

We spent a couple of days cruising around town, but our plan had been to do some hiking at the edges of the Himilaya and it was very cold and snowy.

Our Chinese visas had only a few more days on them - we had to leave the country to renew them, and head back (so we thought at the time). We admitted defeat by the weather and hopped a bus...for Laos. Stay tuned for Laos, a totally different kind of place!