Do's but especially don'ts

The Nam Ou river was getting the first reflections of the sun over its waters, the fog was dissappearing while letting our senses prepare for one of the nicest experiences of our trip, a slow boat journey back to the Mekong and to our next stop Luang Prabang.

During the seven hours of the trip we were constantly astonished by the spectacular scenery. Through the emerald green waters and the huge limestone mountains, we were able to see local kids completly naked playing in the water while waving and smiling to us, fisherman working hard, women doing their laundry or just showering, homemade watermills for electricity, ...

The water buffalos and cows enriched the view together with the amazing contrast of the different shades of green from the surrounding mountains and vegetation. It was an extraordinary experience, not only because of the view but because of the circumstances.

The water level was not always high enough, so on two ocassions we had to step off the boat, the first time we had to take a tuk tuk to bring us further down river were the level was normal, and later on we also had to walk for some meters until the level was navigable again. Needless to say that the two stops were also good for our bums because sitting on a wooden chair for so long made our hams fall asleep.

At the end of the afternoon we reached the Mekong and arrived to Luang Prabang, we took our backpacks and climbed the steep stairs up the pier, said goodbye to the kiwi family and started our walk into town, while looking for a descent and cheap guesthouse.

This Unesco World Heritage city is very different from the Laos we have seen so far, houses with french facades fill the main street, while a nice bohemian athmosphere surrounds it, here backpackers and upper scale tourist come together to enjoy the temples, the night market, the food stalls or the cozy restaurants, where inflated prices is the language everyone talks.

Luang Prabang is located between two rivers and it's size allows us to discover it by foot. In short walking distance it is possible to see the many temples, the Royal Palace and to visit the famous Phu Si, located on a hill and surrounded by magnolia trees. From here it is possible to have a nice view from the city and when the clouds allow it, it is possible to enjoy a nice sunset, but sadly enough that was not our case.

The heat is so overwelming that at lunch time we have to stop because it is impossible to walk around under the intense sun, so either we go back to our guesthouse to have a little siesta or recover from the sweating by having an ice cream while standing rigth in front of a fan for more than an hour.

At nigth the main street is closed to traffic to give space to the hundreds of stands from the local vendors, selling all the same kind of scarfs, t-shirts, souvenirs, jewlery and clothes. Also the food stalls appear, and from them the most interesting was the yummy and cheap vegetarian buffet with local vegetables and rice.


We finished our day with a cold and refreshing Beer Lao, and then back to our room for a nice nigth sleep even on the hard rock bed.... zzzzzz but the peace didn't last long, the late arrival of four backpackers that were not only stinky but also very noisy, made our nigth become very tiring. Anyway we learned our lesson and the next nigth, before going to sleep, we used our ear plugs and were able to keep their noise in the distance.

In the morning it is always a pleasure to shop for food, thanks to the French rule, the breakfast in Lao always include warm and crunchy baguettes, filled with Vache qui rit (cream cheese), veggies or omelette, and thanks to the abundancy of tropical fruits the delicious shakes are the perfect combination for a flavourful and cheap meal.

But being a famous tourist attraction also has its downside: it inflates the prices amazingly and simple things like taking a boat to the other side of the river can be a frustrating experience. After negotiating with a fisherman we were able to cross the Mekong for 5.000 kip to visit a circuit of temples, from which we liked Wat Tham Xieng Maen the most, it was a deep and narrow cave in which many destroyed Buddha statues have found a last place to rest. The way back was again a struggle to get a boat, they wanted us to pay 30.000 kip this time, so we waited until a boat for local people was leaving letting us pay the normal price and not the falang one.


The giving of alms (monks collecting food early in the morning) has become such a tourist attraction, that even our noisy neigbours got up early for it. The tourist observance of this practice means that many travellers just see it as a spectacle, so they take close ups of the monks, get in their way, make noise and so on, so this whole experience ends up being an insult to this tradition that the Laotians value a lot.

The next day we were offered to be brougth to the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls, for half the prize, so we took the offer and left 32 kms south of the city. After a nice ride we arrived to this amazing place, where we discovered the most beautiful spot so far. Here we were able to see and enjoy the multi level turqoise blue and refreshingly cold waters. There are no words to describe the beauty of this place, so just enjoy one of the many pictures we took.


To finish our trip here we took a motorbike with a carriage next to it.... cool way of transportation. On it we arrived at the bus station and waited for the bus to Vang Vieng. During our long trip, 8 hours for 220 kilometers we are able to see again the real Lao.

There is no such thing as numbered seats in Laos but as the couple that said they had our seats insisted on them we moved a couple of rows backs. Then a whale of a young lady that found it appropiate to scream at the guy stacking the luggage and demanding him to take everything out and restack properly came to the row where we were sitting also demanding her seat.

Little did she know that we were on edge and that her remarks resulted in an avalanche of arguments from us that made her crawl under the rock she just wobbled out off and she quietly sat on an available seat at the back.
It's going to be a loooong ride we thought and we were right.

It took us 8 hours to ride the 220 km to Vang Vieng. It was an even longer ride for the local woman close to us that vomitted nearly all the way. Locals are not that use to go up and down a winding road.
The route 13 we were following had in the past been a dangerous road so one of the buspersonnel carried a loaded AK-47 which to us seemed more dangerous as this would imply a firefight but we planned to use the woman from earlier as a shield as we both would be protected by her figure. As you can tell we have no sympathy to people who show no respect for the beautiful peoples of Laos.

After being in heavenly Laos for some time has given us a better understanding of the Lao culture, it is wort to mention that they are forgiving, extremly friendly, laid back, and very supersticious people and even though they are Buddhist they are also animist and believe in spirits and ghost, this is the reason why they have small houses for the spirits and offer food and drinks to their ancestors as a sign of respect and rememberance.

Laotians are also a very conservative, where the appearance is very important and where locals always dress neatly, women cover their shoulders and legs, men never go shirtless, and the concept of beauty is not related to a cleavage or a small outfit. Actually the more covered the prettiest, and the whiter a person looks the nicest and distinguished they are.

This however is in big contrast to what we were about to encounter in Vang Vieng. Once a sleepy town, today the party paradise for drunken or stoned westerners, just another student street like in any other country where people run around without shirts, without caring or respecting the local culture, behaving in a way that they even wouldn't at home and abuse the language of Shakespeare who would die on the spot if he would hear their foul mouths. We thought that there was a grammatical limit for using the word "fucking" in a sentence but actually it can be used infinetly it seems.

If you want to see what NOT TO DO (click here) in Laos DO come to Vang Vieng and learn from the mistakes of others, and please do not repeat them, it just contributes to the bad image the Laotians have of us the travellers. As usual a couple of idiots ruines it for everyone.

It is a shame that such a beautiful place, located between limestones and cristal blue waters be converted by hunderds of irresponsible travellers into a party town and we fear that other places in Laos will fall into this trap.
The streets are filled with western food restaurants and video bars showing old episodes of Friends, or Family guy, which was amusing, but that absorb you from the beautiful surroundings (not the girls running arround in their bikinis but the nature). You can almost here the people fade away into oblivion as they stare as mindless drunk zombies at the screens.

But you will ask yourself why did we stop there if we knew it was like that? Well we wanted to break the long journey from Luang Prabang to Vientiane, we wanted to see the caves and the blue lagoon but also it was our destiny to sleep for two nigths in the most confortable bed...... so white, so puffy, so soft, that just sleeping there was a reason enough for being thankful.

After a nice and well deserved nigth sleep and a powerful breakfast we walked for 2 hours under the strong sun and over the dusty dirt road, where every tree that gave shade became our water stop.
After two hours we reached our destination: the Tham Phu Kham caves, and what was more amazing, the blue lagoon. After a refreshing plunge in the cold and clean water, we climbed the rocks and arrived at the cave, where a reclining Buddha welcomed the visitors. The more we walked into the cave the darker and the narrower it became, so much that at a certain point it was neccesary to bend over to continue, so Angela decided to wait outside while Jonny used his adventurous spirit to discover it and I was left alone as like Celine Dion will sing AAAAAALL BYYYYYY MYYYYYY SEEEEEEEELF!


Eventually Jonny came back from the center of the earth and we were not really looking forward to 2 hours walking back but as always there is a lifeline and that came in the form of a big pick up that was just about to leave. We asked if we could hop in the back and just 20 minutes later we were back in town. Free and fast, ALRIGHT!


On the next episode of the Vancirez' travels :
Cycling in the furnace of Vientiane, demining a garden, teaching some english to young punks, haggling to the death to visit a temple and petting a fluffy bunny rabbit.

"Off" the beaten track

Welcome to the Lao People's Democratic Republic, the only landlocked country from South East Asia, the most bombarded one by the US (we'll talk more about this on our next blog) and the one with the most relaxed lifestyle from Asia.

The normal backpaper route is after you cross the murky Mekong in the north of Thailand, you take the boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang but as you could tell from the video in our previous blog we are not that normal so we decided to discover the north and build our route to the south, our first stop: Luang Nam Tha.

It's amazing that by just crossing a river and a border that the people and the pace of life completly change. On board of a local bus, our 5 hours ride went by smoothly, but slow, very slow, multiple toilet stops were to blame, because whenever a passenger was in need a scream to the driver was enough to stop immediately. It is also worth to mention that because of the not so good state of the roads, some trips take a lot longer specially in this mountainous part of the country.

Around lunch time we arrive at Luang Nam Tha, a small town (one road with some side roads) that is good start for trekking trips and hilltribe visits. After walking around under the strong afternoon sun we were able to find a very nice, clean and cheap place, the Bounthavong Guesthouse, were we tried to communicate with the owner using our first words in Lao, but our horrible intonation and falang pronounciation made our goal impossible to achieve.

At night we visited the small night market were we ate delicious and spicy local specialties, together with a cold Beer Lao and had the pleasure to have a good chocolate pancake to put a bit of sweetness to our exhausting traveling day.

On our second day we rented mountain bikes to discover the surroundings of the place. We biked around dirt roads, and trough rice fields, we visited the That Phum Pluk, a stupa located on the top of a hill, that had been bombarded by the Americans on three different occasions. On the way back Jonny raced his bike with a group of school girls and had the prize of many smiles for winning the informal contest.

The nigth arrived and with it the temperature dropped remarkably, it is very strange how drastic the change from day to night is but for us this was a blessing, we just had to wear long pants and a fleece, and when going to bed we were happy because it was always a good temperature to have a good night sleep, even on a very hard mattress that would be the rule rather than the exception. Imagine concrete covered with a blanket.

We wanted to do a trekking and a visit to a hill tribe, and after reading some brochures and hearing the absurd prices of other companies we decided to book a two day trek with Into the wild a smaller trekking operator offering a good price package.

The journey started very early, we met our guide and also our trekking companions, Douglas, Marisa, and Ashia a family from New Zealand. Before starting our trekking experience we visited the morning market, were we saw all types of fresh vegetables, fruits, meat and fish being sold, and also had a taste of the local version of smoutebollekes (fried donut) filed with delicious peanuts.

After a short and cold drive on the back of a songthaew, we arrived at the starting point of our trek around the Nam Ha national protected area. We walked through green paths filled with bamboo trees and nice vegetation, we heard the birds singing and even some monkeys in the distance. Every once in a while our guide showed us different plants and talked about it's medicinal properties.

Around 12 we stopped for lunch, a delicious Lao style pic nic, were banana leaves were used as a placemats and dishes. A tasty menu composed by sticky rice, green beans, spicy meat and salad were the fuel we needed for the rest of the journey. Needless to say that making balls with the rice and eating with our hands just added more pleasure to the lunch break.

The trek continued and not so long after our break we were able to see in the distance the village, our sleeping place for the night. Around 4pm we arrived to the Akha village where 467 people live. Our arrival made all the kids come out of their houses and greet us with a smile and the sweet 'Sabaidiii abuma' (hello, how are you) coming out of their mouths.

From the top of the hill, were our shelter was located, we walked through the village, but the sweat and the dust were making us crave for a shower, and what better way to do it than the local way. Nowadays the village has a pipeline that brings water, but before they had to go to the river to have water for showering and cooking.

So we went to the communal shower and enjoyed a cold and refreshing experience. For the locals this was also great, many of them were looking and laughing at our clumsy way of doing it. Of course nudity is forbidden so the guys had to shower in their underwear and the girls had to wear a sarong to cover their bodies. The funniest part was seeing the laughter of an old lady while she was looking how Jonny was drying Angela's back after the public shower.

As the sun went down our dinner was served and once again the sticky rice, tasty meat and vegetables appeared. Candles were turned on, and there we were in the middle of the Lao mountains, having a candle light dinner and enjoying the stories of our guide and the chief of the tribe. As no social gathering is complete in this country without the presence of the mighty Lao Lao, the strong but delicious rice whiskey appeared on our table and delighted the guys palate, specially Jonny who was very enthusiastic about it.

Before bed time some Akha girls came to our shelter to give us a traditional massage but also the rest of the tribe youngsters came along and had fun looking at the girls squeezing the falang. After the massage the youngsters stayed around, while a illuminated transistor was playing the Lao hit of the moment. The lack of communication skills made us use the Point it dictionary (thanks Tina and Anton for the tip) which ended up being a great way to socialize and show maps from were we came from, and different images. Jonny's leatherman and our headlights were also a success and objects of amusement that night.

At 4.30 the next morning every single rooster from the village decided to simultaneously crow , and our last day in the tribe started, we saw the kids coming to school, saw them singing the national anthem, and also their teacher checking for their nails to be clean.

After breakfast (again with Lao Lao), and a small walk in the village it was time to leave the Akha village, once again the children came out to greet us and give us beautiful smiles. We really liked this experience because it gave us the opportunity to visit a tribe, while doing low impact tourism, meaning that our visit was intended to show us the life in a hill tribe village and support their local projects without imposing development.

Back to the city also meant back on the road. So early the next day, and together with our Kiwi family we left to Nong Khiaw. A tiny town located on th shores of the Nam Ou river, that had the most amazing sights we've seen so far.

The magical sigth of huge limestone mountains, surrounded by cristal clear waters, that our eyes couldn't believe, made us feel very lucky for being here. A basic bungalow just in front of the river (but behind some bamboo trees) was our home for two nights.

Here we woke up early and saw the fog eating the mountains, we walked around, close to the amazingly green rice paddies and smiling Laotians. Some kilometers outside the town we visited some caves, that during the war were used by the locals as shelters, hospitals and banks.

In Laos the lack of coastal areas is compensated by its beautiful rivers, the sandy banks can work as beaches and as playgrounds in the warm afternoons. So after a walk around the town and the lack of possibilities to rent a kayak we went to the white sand to catch some sun, while hearing the laughter of many kids playing in the water.

The sun set and we both had a craving for potatoes and the coincidence was once again to coincidental and we found an indian restaurant that not only had delicious potatoedishes but also creamy Mango Lassi and where Angela finished (in tears) the book that Alton gave her: A thousand splendid suns.

To change a bit the routine of traveling, we went to Le Cinema, a small house with many rooms, where people could choose from their movie collection and have their private movie, the chosen one was the Whale Rider about a young New Zealand girl coming of age.

Once again it was time to leave and to cross our fingers hoping there would be enough people to take the slow boat to our next destination, the famous Luang Prabang, but according to the guides, the boats did not leave every day but sure enough today it did.

We treated ourselves to a very nice breakfast, served at a cozy cafe run by European travelers, where we had a crunchy bagel with cream cheese, it was heavenly and a very good way to say goodbye to this magical place and continue our journey to Luang Prabang, former capital of Laos with old french colonial houses.

Ain't no mountain high enough...

A friend of ours told us that when a guidebook says there's nothing to see in a certain town usually there are many things to discover, and he was damn right. According to the lonely planet Chiang Rai is a gateway more than a touristic attraction so our plan was to just stay one night but plans change especially doing a trip like this.

After visiting a not so clean guest house we decided to walk some more and look for something a bit better and our intuition was not wrong because we found a hidden gem the Baan Bua Guest house, a lovely and dangerous place to stay. Lovely because of the clean and spacious room, the beautiful garden, the extremely friendly owner and Kees an experienced Dutch guest and dangerous because you want to stay there forever!

A discovering nigthwalk in the city brougth us to Cabagges and Condoms, a restaurant serving excellent food, the name of the place is related to it's purpose: make condoms available for everyone as easy as they can get cabbages. After a tasty dinner we went to see the clock tower, at the center of Chiang Rai, an impresive golden tower where every nigth a show of ligths and music stops the traffic arround it for 7 minutes.

Our Dutch guru recommended us to visit the unkown (by the lonely planet) White Temple, so we rented a basic bike to get there. The 15 kilometers distance were a unique biking experience, because we were doing it on the highway, something impossible to do in Belgium, and we even drove against traffic without having someone beeping or giving us the bad look. For some footage please click here

The Wat Phra Kaew was a big surprise to us, not only because of its colour but also because of it's amazing beauty and modern feel, built by the same architect that designed the clock tower. The white structure was decorated with tiny mirrors that sparkled whenever the sun light reflected on it. Around it immaculate ponds with white fishes swimming in it were the welcoming greeting for the few visitors.

The closer we got to the structure, the more we were able to appreciate the strange and in some cases creepy details, like some hands carrying skulls, the images of two naked dwarfs at the beginning of the bridge and a very strange and contrasting inside.

Like most of the temples, the main wall had a beautiful painting representing Buddha, and a fake wax monk. Everything seemed normal until we turned round and gazed at he the back wall. Just above the door there was a mural, that had a representation of hell. As modern as was the temple's design were the contents of the wall painting which had many figures representing our present, the twin towers on fire, the fight for fuel, GSMs, the matrix, star wars and so on, but what was most striking was that the central monster had in his eyes the reflection of Bush and Bin Laden.... weird!

After visiting heaven and hell we decided to keep on biking to our not so far (we thought) destination, the Khun Kon waterfall, located only (!!!) 19 kilometers away from were we were. Of course we thought that the way would be as easy as the first 15 kilometers, were we drove on a very easy way surrounded by rice fields and flat surfaces. But no no no as with many things the closer you get to your goal the harder it gets and this ride was no exception. Our way got tougher and tougher but indeed waterfalls are on mountains so for obvious reasons our way became steeper and steeper. The lack of gears on our city bikes, together with the heat turned our smooth bike ride into an alpine leg of the Tour de France.

Just one kilometer before arriving we had to get off the bikes and start walking, and the moment we reached the entrance Angela just laid on the grass completely exhausted, but the waterfall was still 1.5 kilometer away.... aaaaaahhhhhhhhh we had to keep on walking. What we saw there washed away the tiredness.

The view spectacular, a very powerful waterfall 70 meters height, with a very strong wind and an army of hungry mosquitos. After a nice rest it was time to get back and as everything that goes up has to come down and so we also did on our little bikes..... what took us 3 hours to get to became 1 hour and 40 minutes thanks to the steep downhill, needless to say that it was lots of fun, and perfect timing because we got back just before sunset.

According to our calculations the total kilometers of that day were 70, not bad considering we're supposed to be on holiday huh? We needed a well deserved treat after all the effort: a nice and relaxing foot massage of one hour, and a chocolate rotti, heavenly!

It was time to move on and we took a small bus that brought us to the even smaller town of Chiang Khong, were we stayed at what at first looked like a normal place the Baanrimtaling guesthouse but once we entered saw that it had a stunning view over the Mekong (the 12th biggest river in the world), so there we were having a cold Chang beer and enjoying the view of the river and the first sights of Laos.

The room we had included a huge balcony (no we did not paid a fortune), and because of that we were able to sleep with the doors open, and like that we saw the first lights of the day and the foggy morning.

After a huge and delicious Thai breakfast we left for the border, got a stamp on our passport and took a small boat. By crossing the Mekong we were leaving behind the refreshing 7 eleven shops, the posters with images of King Bumibol, and the Thai Baht.

On this side of the shore the greeting sawadee changed to sabaidee, the kip notes appeared in our wallet and the shy but extremely friendly Laotians were waiting for us... but for stories about this truly amazing country you will have to wait for our next post

Sabaai dee