Arrived in Paksee in the afternoon and decided to stay a night before heading north to Vang Vien, a notorious tourist town on the Don river. After paying for a room I found out the only bus heading north from town was an evening sleeper to the capital city Vientiane…..gutted meant I would lose a day of travel, and it would made more sense to continue on directly that evening…but with the room paid for would have to kill 24hours in the small town before leaving the following evening….
Actually I really enjoyed my time in Paksee…had a clean room to myself ( good after a week in a rickety wooden hut) and found a cheap Indian restaurant where I could fill up on my Staple sub-continental food Palak Paneer. The next day I explored the town while waiting for the bus…saw some great views along the banks of the Mekong ( see photo ) and avoided the white skinned backpacker brigade that had begun to annoy me….felt like I was travelling again rather than being on holiday
The night bus was at 8pm that evening and when I tried out my berth was disappointed to see it was too short for my legs….I could just about stretch out straight diagonally across the bed…. “ oh well” I thought “ this will have to do “…..2 minutes later I had a moment of horrible realisation as a middle aged and drunken local man was pointed in the direction of my bunk…..turned out the bed was made for 2 people…WTF????
Spent the next 10 hours trying to sleep in an awkward position, crammed up against the wall with a snoring drunk doing his best to try and spoon me in his sleep….another classic Trains, Planes and Automobiles moment….Actually I found out the next day that I had slept for a considerable amount of time when I was informed that the bus had hit a water buffalo around day break and had stopped for an hour while the driver argued with a disgruntled farmer….news to me!…..
My first impression of Vientiane in the morning light was that it looked like every other city I had been in recently ….decided to press straight onto Vang Vien and jumped on a local bus for another 5 hour ride over bumpy roads…actually wasn’t that bad, as there were plenty of local people to attempt to talk to instead of whining new graduates who complained about every thing ….(okay im being a bit harsh there but it does feel like your on a package tour at times with every one travelling the same routes on VIP busses)
The scenery on the way became increasingly more impressive with Karsts limestone hills jutting up amongst the rice paddies. Got to Vang Vien around 2pm and found a hotel room with good wifi connection, essential for planning the upcoming Chinese leg of my journey…
The town was set along the river with really impressive hills in the background ( see photos) had a chilled afternoon and then watched the sunset by the river…really realaxed and the town was no where near as full of drunken short trippers as I though….even the infamous tubing wasn’t too bad ( one of the local activities is to rent a tube and float down the river while getting drunk at various riverside bars along the way , luckily it’s a day time activity, meaning most of the more obnoxious participants are past out drunk by 10pm.
The next day I rented a crappy mountain bike and decided to ride out into the hills to check out a few of the natural caves…..After I crossed the river and road towards to trail out of town I heard my name being called loudly from some nearby bungalows….turned out to be Andre from Don Det, and he was sharing with Gadi who he had met randomly in town the night before…awesome good to see some cool people again totally by chance.
After catching up and exchanging bus nightmare stories, I headed out again and quickly found the road to be bumpy as hell and the mountain bike to be dodgy as hell. The seat was felt like it was made of stone, only one gear worked and the kick stand would fall down randomly for no reason. I had opted for some exercise that day and decided not to rent a scooter….but as countless people cruised by me on motos began to regret my decision…..
Before long I ran into a British couple who were also on motor less bicycle and we teamed up in order to find a cave with a natural spring outside called Pa khoum …..It wasn’t as easy as it should have been….. We were initially sucked into a different cave that claimed to be the one we were looking for …the sign on the way stated that Pa khoum cave was off to the right …despite the map showing a left we decided to check it out and after 500m riding down hill realised it was a scam…!!!**&&%%…( the caves all had entry fees charged by the local land owners so we had to be selective in which we went to )…..should have known better, had to turn around and ride back uphill on the shitty bikes in the mid day heat …not cool but apt punishment for our gullibility.
After passing another 2 or 3 diversion signs we found the real cave as indicated by the large amount of bikes and scooter parked nearby…..The cave itself was 200m up a flight of stairs but at the foot was a natural spring with crystal clear fish filled cool water running straight out of the mountains…..jumped straight in …amazing!! The perfect way to cool off after the hard ride.
After chilling for a while we walked up the steep stairs to the cave…At first it looked big but after finding a passage into the rear section that was not lit by daylight, we realized it was totally massive….walked for about 10 minutes to the back off the chamber alongside some hairy drop offs into the dark below while using the light of my ipod to guide me….easily the coolest cave ive been in with a geologist’s delight of features…stalactites and mites, crystal growths and drop pipes…straight out of a GCSE geography text book….
After exploring the cave for 40 minutes went back down to the lagoon for a cool off swim and then got back on the bike to ride back to town. It was at this point I realized the damage that the bumpy road and hard seat had done to my posterior …was in so much pain had to ride standing up for much of the journey home and would be uncomfortable for the next couple of days….
Stopped of at Andre and Gadi’s bungalow to watch the sunset and laugh at their behaviour after they had hit “happy shakes” during the day….good to see them again 2 really interesting charactors……had a simple noodle soup dinner and then spent the evening utilising the wifi connection in the hotel….
After initially being dubious of Vang Vien ended up having an awesome time there, and wishing I had a few more days to exploring the surrounding countryside and possibly even the tubing but time was getting short and I pressed on the next day to the northern town of Luang Prabang on route to china…
The bus trip was simple enough, listened to LOTR on audio book to block out the sound of other travels and a local family sitting near me who spent the trip throwing up into plastic bags…pretty gross I nicknamed them “the Pukingtons“…With a 30 hour bus ride to China on the horizon I hope it was hereditary motion sickness and not a stomach bug that was causing them problems.
The scenery along the way became more and more stunning as we climbed slowly into the mountains and passed through villages of bamboo huts built along the side of the road..
Eventually reached Luang Prabang in the late afternoon and found a cheap guest house where a cool Finish guy called Marco offered to share his room with me…a stroke of luck as Luang Prabang is a U.N. world heritage town and therefore considerably more expensive than elsewhere in Laos…staying opposite us were 2 cool Danish girls…we all headed out to the night market where you could get an all you can eat noodle buffet for around 1 pound…finally the perfect restaurant for my dwindling funds…..
Spent the evening exploring the market…the vibe in town was very different from the south of the country and felt generally more Chinese influenced….started getting excited about the next leg of the trip.
The next day I went with the Scandinavian crew to a local waterfall called Tat Kaung Si …we negotiated a tuk tuk for us four and an American couple and drove for about 45minutes to the falls through some amazing hilled countryside…
The falls themselves were pretty busy with westerners but were very impressive….set over many levels with natural limestone pool you could swim in and an amazing view from the top ( see photos). Reminded me a lot of the Pamakule terraces in Turkey I had visited the previous summer ( see previous instalment if you can be bothered) At the entrance there was a bear rescue centre with some cool sun and moon Asiatic bears to checkout!
Spent a few hours exploring the falls and swimming in the chilly water, the sky was overcast for the first time in ages so was a bit cold but I think my skin was crying out in relief….was an amazing day trip one off the coolest things I did in south east Asia…
That evening did some blogging and got ready for the 30 hour bus journey I would take to Kunming in china at 6am the next morning…this was going to be a tester…but thankfully I had experience of a bus journey over two times as long already( Toronto to Vancouver grey hound 2005) and all of Return of the King on audio book to get through……
So what can I say about my time in S/E Asia….wasn’t exactly what I was expecting a lot more touristy than I had hoped. I definitely didn’t have enough time here to it justice…really enjoyed Bangkok but had a shit run of luck on Kho Chang…Cambodia was brief but sweet and saw some really interesting history , but Laos…ah Laos what a cool country soooo chilled and so beautiful ….could easily spend two months here….I think it would be the perfect place to come with a full budget on a 2 weeks office escape break …im pretty sure I will be back at some point in the future, ……but now a new chapter begins and if all goes to plan ill be in China in 2 days…somewhere I’ve wanted to go for ages…….a new chapter begins!
( note to my knowledge Blogger website and face book are blocked in China so likely no more updates till next month …watch this space MD )
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