Life or Death and then Baguettes in Laos

I've just returned from a four-day vacation in Vang Vieng and Vientane, Laos. This past Tuesday was Mother's Day (i.e., the Queen's birthday, replete with the traditional Royal, nation-wide televised procession), so I had a long weekend. Kate and I took an overnight bus on Friday night went through immigration, and then passed over the "Friendship bridge," the bridge linking Thailand and Laos, which crosses over the Mekong River. In Thai, the literal translation of "Friendship Bridge," is "bridge which connects Thailand country with Laos country," so not sure where the "Friendship" came from, seeing that almost every south east asian country seems to dislike Thais and Thailand. Anyway, we went over the bridge, paid a slew of entry fees, and then took a short taxi into Vientiane.
Even in the taxi, before we reached any destination, I could immediately feel that Laos was different from Thailand--much calmer and laid back, not as heavily developed; overall it had a more relaxed feel. We got to the bus station in Vientiane, met Chris and Phil, and immediately got tickets and boarded a bus which would take us three and a half hours north to Vang Vieng, our first stop. Our bus was a "VIP bus," just as our overnight bus was, but this bus seemed to be out of 1970's Japan--it had plastic seat covers a la the Bradys, with interesting Japanese writing. Regardless, it got us, through windy mountain roads steeped in incredible scenery, to Vang Vieng, and actually dropped us off right in front of our hotel, which was basically a main building and a cluster of bungalows. Our little bungalow was adorable, much nicer than the one we stayed in at Samet. It was perched right on a river with views of giant mist-covered mountains. It was also clean, had a bathroom with a flushing toilet (!!), and a nice mosiquito-net over our bed which made us feel like little princesses out of "The Secret Garden."

View from our bungalow

Kate in our bungalow modeling with the mosquito net

Starving, we decided to head into town for a quick lunch. The "town" was basically one road with a few small streets off of it, but overall it was very cute. It was filled with internet cafes, a few massages parlors, street vendors serving sandwiches and crepes (!! so different from my Thai street vendors where bread does not exist!) and lots of little restaurants, all seemingly showing old episodes of "Friends," (no joke), advertising pizza and other types of pizza: "pizza contains...", "happy pizza," pizza with "other stuff;" most of these restaurants were playing Bob Marley or Jack Johnson in the background. So that was funny. After lunch, we went on a hunt in town to go tubing.

The main street in Vang Vieng


A small shop in Vang Vieng

Apparently, Vang Vieng is the tubing capital of the WORLD. Yes, that's what the ads say. We'd read about this before we came. The catch though, in Vang Vieng, is that the tubing experience includes drinking: as you tube down the river, there are little bars that you're supposed to stop at. So, Chris, Phil, Kate and I rented our tubes, and headed to the river. Our driver drove us about 200m from the river entry point and left us to walk the rest of the way. Normally, wlking 200 m would not be a problem, BUT, we had no shoes since the tubing company took them and told us to go barefoot, AND, the reason our driver left us so far away was because the mud was too thick and deep that his tuk-tuk could have gotten stuck in the mud if he tried to move. So, we were left to walk 200m barefoot, in the gross Laos mud. It was truly a disgusting experience. Chris then taunted me and Kate that we'd get hookworm from this--I'm seriously hoping that we don't.

Me and Kate walking barefoot in Laos mud

Anyway, after the mud debacle, we finally got in our tubes into the river, which was a lovely shade of poo-brown, and after a few strong paddles, we were headed on our merry way, awaiting our first bar stop. Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long--within a minute of our almost peaceful floating, we heard loud bar music--"Paradise City" to be exact, and within second the bar was in site. The bar was like a little alternative universe, filled with wasted, mud-covered farang (white foreigners; from mud-wrestling of course), and was complete with a zip-line into the river. We got to the bar, zip-lined some, but were just not in the state as the others were, so we left after 20 minutes or so, onto the next bar. However, as we were leaving, there was a mass exodus and people started to frantically grab tubes. Someone took mine and sailed off with it, so I ran and got the last tube left at the bar. Some clearly too-drunk girl, who could barely stand, yelled a feeble "bitch" at me, since she was left without a tube. However, karma seemed to catch up with me pretty quickly, since right after I got into the river, I was pushed by a very strong current into a tree, and then a pole which supported the zip-line, which, unfortunately for me, had a big hook which cauht the tube and quickly deflated it, leaving me bobbing in the water under strong currents, trying to hold onto anything that came my way for dear life. After a very scary current-ridden minute or so, I came upon the next bar, was thrown a lifesaving tube to be pulled into the bar, got to the bar, stole someone's tube there to replace my long-gone deflated one, and then headed out to the river again with my group. We relaxed for a bit--my fast-beating heart needed it--deciding not to stop at the more rowdy bars and opted for a calmer, more empty one.

Kate and I enjoying a bucket-beverage at one of the

Chris, Kate and Phil--calm tubing

View along the river

This was our last stop before the last bar, which marked the end of the tubing experience. We were pulled in by young children, literally about 7 or 8 years old--it was kind of sad that they risked their lives (for a small fee) in strong currents to get us safely onto land. To return the tubes, we all had to walk barefoot and practically naked in our swimsuits, with our tubes, through town to return them. I came to the conclusion while tubing that although this was an awesome concept, the only reason it probably existed in Laos (and almost no where else) was because of the lack of an insurance industry.

The next day, Chris and Phil went back to Vientiane and Kate and I decided to go on a day-long trek called "The Secret Eden." Let me just say from the get-go, someone's eden is certainly someone else's hell (perhaps hell is too strong though). To sum up the trek/hike experience, Kate and I scaled two mountains--went up and then down both of them; were ankle deep in mud though covered in mud up to our knees; bitten alive by possibly malaria and dengue mosquitos (don't worry, we're fine); rcok-climbed up huge rocks; hiked up through three caves; used our hands and knees to hiked up and down the steep, muddy mountain terrain; and waded through 3 rivers and swam through rapids, all in 8 or so hours, without helmets, harnesses, or any of the Western gear probably mandated by a Western insurance company (again, not in Laos). The pictures, all though amazing and show some sublime views, cannot really illustrate what we went through on this hike/trek. All I had to show for my experience were two matching leech bites on the backs of my heels, mosquito bites galore, and a very sore body in need of a Laos massage.

Scenery on the way to the mountain

On our hike/trek, we were accompanied by our really lovely guide, Lay, (who completed the hike/trek/caving in flip flops or barefoot at times, while Kate and I, in our Wester sneakers, slipped and had some very scary falls about 8-10 times) who taught us about the Laos people, and Laos culture and history. My favorite anecdote was when he told us that to determine if children are ready to go to school, teachers make the children raise their arm up and try to touch their opposite ear (if use right arm, try to go over the head and touch your left ear). Most children can't do this until about 8, so that's when most start school. It was pretty funny.
Anyway, overall, the hike/trek was a great experience, I'm glad I did it, but would want to wait awhile before doing it again. About 6 hours into the hike, I became paniced that we would be stuck in the forest because there seemed to be no end in sight, and it was getting dark and all the mosquitos were out. So, for the last two hours, all I could think about were the following three things:

1. I'm never getting off this mountain, what if I can't get out. Would a helicopter know how to airlift me out of this mountain if I broke my legs??
2. This would never, never happen in the U.S. No one in their right mind would go on this trek--I had no idea what I was getting myself into. What is this company thinking, that people over the age of 30/35 would actually do this? When ICE does ecotourism, it better not be anything like this or we won't make a damn penny.
3. I now completely and totally understand why the U.S. lost the Vietnam war.
After the hike was over, Kate and I took much-needed showers, got a lovely Western meal, and amazing, amazing Laos massages for half the price they are in Thailand (as if they couldn't get any cheaper).

Kate and our guide Lay

A view of one of the TWO mountains we scaled


Little boys in one of the villages we passed in the valley between the two mountains we hiked

Monday morning we headed back on the bus to Vientiane to do some relaxing, sightseeing and shopping before heading back to Thailand. When we got there, we checked into our hotel which was so lovely and clean, comparable to the $45 hotels in Thailand, but was half the price for the two of us (definitely better hotel value in Laos). We walked pretty much all of Vientiane in two hours and saw the major temples, other sites, and Vientiane's own version of the Arc du Triumph, which they themselves diminish and degrade. Walking in Vientiane though, I really didn't feel like I was in Asia, or not the Asia I knew in Bangkok. The streets were wide and nicely paved and weren't croweded to the max (I could actually walk!); there were tons of little bakeries and cute cafes; the overall pace was slow and sleepy; the people were warm and friendly; there was interesting architecture, a lot of green, and, there were pedestrian crosswalks, truly a novelty; Vientiane definitely had a colonial feel. I was also so surprised by the number of farang in Vientiane, I hadn't seen so many in a long time, probably not since my July 4th celebration thrown by the American Chamber of Commerce, or on my visit to Khao San Road in Bangkok.

A monk sitting in the Wat Si Saket complex

The food was also incredible in Vientiane, my stomach finally felt at home again. I got cheap wine, cheese, delicious baguette, baked goods, and salads (truly a rarity). Kate and I ate at an adorable little French restaurant one night and the next morning went to the Scandinavian Bakery for breakfast. Overall, Vientiane was a much-needed culinary retreat.

Sky in Vientiane

After some market-shopping (minus famous Laos silk scarves since we'd gotten those in Vang Vieng) and last minute purchases, we relaxed and made our way back over the border, into Nong Khai for dinner with Chris and Phil at a Vietnamese restaurant on the Mekong and then back on the overnight bus back home to Bangkok. It was perfect timing since the Mekong was starting to flood in Vientiane and as we left, people were furiously sand-bagging by the river to prevent flooding damage. Our taxi driver said the flooding hadn't been that bad since 2002.

The morning market under the stress of rain

Flooding in Vientiane, the worst since 1966 actually


Boys playing in the flood

Volunteers sandbagging

Stay tuned for more stories coming up from Samui.....

Addendum: As I'm sure my family would like to know, I was able to meet up with my cousins Beth, Andy, Jenna, Hallie and Owen for dinner upon their arrival in Vientiane; they were kind enough to bring me a few items from the states! After about two weeks of intrepid traveling, they will be in Bangkok where we can meet up again for another lovely evening!