Sabaidee

After a few hectic days in Cambodia, we've turned the dial down and are taking it easy in Laos. For Chris, it was interesting to see Cambodia again, especially how far it has come in such a short time. Five years ago, it was mainly the province of backpackers; now, the Angkor area has reached the high-end market. But he was excited to move on to a new place.

We've been in Laos over a week now and are loving it. This landlocked country sits between Vietnam (to the east) and Thailand (to the west); China and Burma are to the north and Cambodia is south. As with much of the region, it was formerly a monarchy but fell to communism in 1975. It has since followed the paths of China and Vietnam -- communist only in name, essentially a one-party system with a market economy. But compared to its neighbors, everything seems more low-key here. The government isn't as intrusive (e.g., Facebook isn't blocked) and people in general are more laid-back -- the Lao apparently express the notion that "too much work is bad for your brain." So, this general attitude, combined with the lowest population density and most intact natural environment in South East Asia has made this a great destination after Vietnam and Cambodia.

We flew first to Vientiane, the capital. It was far nicer than we expected -- set along the Mekong River, it's not exactly a beautiful city, but it's clean, has some nice architecture, not much traffic or pollution, lots of trees, and in general a good vibe. There's a large ex-pat community, especially of French, meaning lots of cafes and bakeries. When not in a cafe, we spent most of our time walking around visiting the many wats, Buddhist temples.

We then decided to take an alternate route to Luang Prabang. Most travelers head due north via Vang Vieng, a backpacker haven with beautiful karst scenery (and plenty of drugs). We decided to take our guidebook's advice and travel northwest to Sayabouli instead. This way we'd be able to get off the main tourist path for a bit. It ended up being a pleasant place to spend a night -- not much to do but good scenery and fun to be the only tourists, literally, in the entire city. But getting there and away was, interesting. After India, each country we visited had better and better buses. Here in Laos we've now regressed back to the beginning. Because Vang Vieng is on the main tourist path the route has big "VIP" buses with comfy seats, a bathroom, AC, etc. Sayabouli, however, does not. It has what is called an "express" bus for the 15 hour overnight trip. Boston to Rochester, NY is 400 miles and takes 6 hours. This 15 hour trip took us a total of only 280 miles! The seats were far too small -- Chris' knees were crushed against the seat in front of him. Large sacks of rice filled the aisle, on top of which were packed with people. Lao pop music blasted all night and it was pouring out (despite being dry season) so bathroom breaks were in the open in the rain. Luckily, we had peanut butter to tide us over, since the food at road stalls was often grilled rat. Amazingly though, the time actually went by pretty quickly.

My new little Lao baby friend

After our night in Sayabouli we then went to Luang Prabang. (This bus ride was only four hours but it was missing some windows and broke down once on a steep hill.  On the upside we had a great interaction with a family who handed their baby over to Alex for awhile.) This has been the city Chris has been most excited to see in all of SE Asia. It's amazing. It opened itself up to tourism in 1989, in 1995 it received UNESCO World-Heritage status, and since then has been restoring and preserving itself. It's not really like any city we've been to. The main section is on a peninsula between the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers. A hill, topped with a stupa (Buddhist monument) looms above most of the city. The area is completely walkable but not too dense and full of tropical trees and plants. And everywhere there are wats, which are beautiful. Our book lists well over 20 and we've seen several more that weren't listed. At 6:30 every morning hundreds of orange-robed Buddhist monks walk the streets collecting alms (mainly rice to eat). Seeing the monks at the wats and on the streets, doing everything from studying under a tree to chatting on their cell phones, is one of Alex's highlights. At night, the main road closes to cars and a night market opens. And with money pouring in from UNESCO and tourism, the city has aimed at an upmarket clientele -- everywhere are nice eateries, cafes, inns, and restaurants.

The beautiful archictecture of downtown Luang Prabang

 

Luang Prabang has its own unique food. Alex got a chicken stew with a local bitter-spicy root. And Chris got deep fried river weed served with a jam of chilis and buffalo skin -- once was enough. In general, we've indulged in the new main staple of the city -- baguettes and crepes served with everything from ham + cheese to nutella.

The mornng alms tradition

After 4 months of almost constant travel, we knew we'd eventually need a place to stop and relax. And Luang Prabang has been it. We planned on staying four full days. As we were walking to the bus sales office to buy tickets to our next destination, we realized we just weren't ready to leave. So, we decided to spend an extra day. We're using the extra time to recharge our batteries and it allowed us to visit a nearby waterfall that was beautiful and  natural pools for swimming.