Laos, Short and Sweet

Anxious to get to Vietnam, Abbie and I reserved 6 days for the lesser-known country of Laos. Laos is sandwiched between Thailand and Vietnam, and is one of the five communist countries in the world with a substantial amount of French influence as it was once a colony. As first-timers in the region, we wanted to make sure we saw the most of Thailand and Vietnam, as we had heard amazing things mostly about these two countries. Therefore, we opted to hit only two cities in Laos: Vang Vien and Vientiane, both located in the north of the country.

Vang Vien is one of the most unique towns I have ever been. Not because of its crazy locals, or unparalleled cuisine, or endless amounts of activities to do. No, Vang Vien solely exists to supply drunken, dreamy, I-don’t-want-to-face-the-real-world backpackers an oasis. The infamous “tubing town” is insanely fun, but many are only able to handle it for a couple of days max. The typical day includes:

1. Waking up circa 11am so as not to miss the free “breakfast” of your local guesthouse… aka an entire loaf of French bread and Crisco-like butter

2. Putting on your bathing suit and stuffing Laos currency, or “kip”, and cameras into your purchased waterproof purse

3. Walking to the rent-a-tube station to rent your inner tube and to catch a ride with other tubers to the river

4. Piling on the back of a truck with your tube and heaps of other backpackers to bumpily make your way the 2km to the “starting point” of the tubing expedition

5. Taking a shot at the first of 15 bars along the river

6. Getting on your inner tube

7. Floating a few feet to the next bar

8. Drinking a beer

9. Floating a few feet to the next bar

10. Sharing a bucket of mojito with many new-found friends

11. Floating a few feet to the next bar

….I think you get the idea. The various bars are loads of fun, each with a different theme and pumping music. Tubing In Laos is a great way to meet people and certainly a backpacker “must-do” of the region. The end of the day is also pretty standard: after making it the end point of the river, everyone heads to one of the many TV bars of the small town. Every bar/restaurant is a sit-on-the-floor hangout place, with multiple TV’s playing either Friends or Family Guy! Whoever came up with the concept is a genius, and TV-deprived travelers spend hours lounging, ordering BeerLaos and stir-fry.

Abbie and I concurred that one day of tubing was enough, so the following day we asked around what other things there were to do in the city. Someone suggested the “blue lagoon” so we asked a tuk-tuk to take us to this mysterious hang-out. While the ride was the most uncomfortable, pot-hole-ridden journey we had, the scenery was stunning and took our minds off our rapidly-bruising fannies. Huge, marble mountains lined fields of rice paddies that stretched all the way to the dusty roads where we were trotting. The blue lagoon was just as stunning. Bright blue water filled a small pond, and people took turns on a rope swing all afternoon while we relaxed “lagoon-side”.

A relaxing day in Laos..

The next day we made the seemingly short journey to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Only about 100km away, the journey took 5 hours because of the horrible quality of the roads. I have never seen such a dysfunctional road system; pavement is simply unheard of! Finally in Vientiane, we checked out the night market and river walk, and ended up at a nice, quaint restaurant to test some Laotian food. A unique mix of French and Thai, food in Laos is unique; however, the cuisine is not yet very established and it is therefore difficult for it to truly make a culinary statement.

Our time in Vientiane was very relaxed, as it is a quiet city and all bars/restaurants are required to close at 11pm. We enjoyed exploring the town on foot, gathering Laotian souvenirs, and taking a little day trip to the Buddha Park. The Buddha Park is somewhat like the concrete world of Buddhism – giant, concrete replicas of the Buddhist religion have been donated to this park, including a huge pumpkin-like structure that is supposed to represent hell, earth, and heaven within. We got an eerie feeling when inside, as the bottom section is full of disturbing statues representing tortured souls in hell. Add to that, a little boy started subtly following us with a slingshot in one hand and a dead lizard in the other…after that instance we were done with the Buddha park and rushed to the safety of our tuk-tuk! Oh, the everyday life in SE Asia…

Buddha posing!

We had booked a flight from Vientiane to Hanoi, Vietnam, as we had heard horror stories of the 24-hour bus ride between the 2 cities. Eager to get to our last country of the trip, we boarded the plane excited and oblivious to the fact that continuous sweating would be replaced with continuous shivers in the chilly, northern region of Vietnam…