I'd run out of time on my Thai tourist visa, and Kirra was running out of time on her trip, so we travelled up from Chiang Mai to the Thai-Laos border crossing. It was a 9 - 10 hour trip, but it was in a very comfy minibus on tarmacked roads, so no problem.
At the border, we got out and headed down to customs, which was pretty standard - just stand in line and get an exit stamp in the ol' passport. Then we walked down to the Mekong River, hopped into a longboat, and proceeded to cross the water into Laos. It was hot. The hottest yet. Even our shins were dripping with sweat. The customs area was just a huddle of white 20-somethings looking confused and sweating profusely. And it wasn't even the middle of the day - it was 5pm!
We filled out the necessary forms, stood in one line and handed over our passports. Easy enough. Then we waited for about 15 minutes until a second guy held up a passport that resembled yours for you to collect. As the customs official was in an awkward place, and it wasn't really feasable to be always watching him, this idea didn't really work that effectively. To be honest, I wasn't even aware of the fact that I was meant to be watching out for my passport until about 10 minutes later. So this explained WHY there were so many confused looking western 20-somethings wandering around. One of the guys I met actually had to hand a passport back to customs because they'd given him someone else's one, who'd just happened to look a bit like him. It was certainly the most lax customs security i'd ever come across! But a great experience.
So now I was in Laos. We got in a sawng-tow (don't know how to spell it - a taxi similar to a tuc-tuc but bigger! Essentially a pick-up-truck with a roof. We went to a bus station, and got on an overnight bus to Luang Probang. 12 more hours of travelling. Ugh. It was ok though... a bit cramped, but managed a bit of sleep.
We stopped off for dinner at a strip of shop fronts. It's difficult to explain, and again I didn't take any photos, but the front of the 'reastaurant' was open to the outside. There was a kind of hostess trolly outside which had some food (there was also a menu) and where you handed over money. But behind the hostess trolly was a living room with kids watching tv. And when I asked where the toilet was, I was instructed to go in through the house to the back, where the food was being cooked in the house's kitchen. It was pretty cool to see a genuine shop / house combination, but it must be strange to actually live in that scenario. But then I realised that most shops in rural areas are like that here. You work where you live. Whether you sell BBQ'd pork, fruit shakes (which I'm not sure HOW I'll live without!), or toiletries - in most cases, you'll be able to see into the person's life whilst buying your bottle of 7-Up soda. And it's really quite fascinating. They often live in one room, all sleeping on the floor. Very limited material goods. And they're the happiest and friendliest people I've ever met. Hmmmm - interesting...
We got into Luang Probang at about 4am, well ahead of schedule. Which we were grateful of. Not that we were grateful to be there so early - that sucked a bit... but we were grateful to be there... alive! Honestly - that bus driver was going so fast along tiny pot-holed dirt roads, and taking corners so fast in the dark, I found it best to just shut my eyes and hope for the best. Others said they were panicking the entire journey and didn't get a wink of sleep. But we made it. And so I came to find out that Laos bus journeys are pretty scary affairs! Having not experienced any Thai bus trips whilst there, I can't compare them - but the Malaysian ones were pretty tame - at least they were ALWAYS on tarmac roads!
We got a tuc-tuc to a guest house where some new friends, Anna and Harry, were staying. It was 5am, and no-one appeared to be up (as you'd expect) so we went for a nosey round. When we came back to the front, someone had opened the front door... the manager had been asleep in the front room incase anyone needed him. Thinking back, this is standard across SE Asia. People sleep where they work - and I don't just mean the shop / house combos I was harpouring on about. I mean the man sleeping on a bench in the reception hut in the Perhentians; the man sleeping next to his boat in Koh Phan-Gnan; the taxi man sleeping in his cab in Koh Tao... all of whome were happy to be woken up at an ungodly hour to provide service either to me or someone I was with. This truly is a service culture. If someone woke me up at 5am and asked me to take them somewhere for $1, I'd roll over and go back to sleep. For sure. But not here... they even smile and make small-talk! Crazy...
God I do like to ramble on... back on subject: we got a room in Luang Probang and first thing's first... we showered. And it was good. Then we slept. And it was good. Then we went out to explore, and it stopped being good.
The first thing we did was go to an ATM... which proceeded to swallow Kirra's card. So we went on a quest to seek out the bank which operates the machine. Not as easy as you might think! Although everyone thinks they're helping, we'd really rather that people don't tell us directions with such conviction unless they actually KNOW where we're trying to go. And that tuc-tuc drivers don't just starrt driving without having at least some inkling of where the ultimate destination is. Needless to say, it took us a few hours to finally make it to the correct bank who (hallelujah!) told us to come back the next day to collect the card. Neither of us thought they'd be fobbing us off and that they wouldn't actually be open the next day as it was a Saturday... Grrrr!
Anyway, happy with our result, we headed off to explore and to eat. Neither of us had eaten that day, and we both felt a bit queasy. But food didn't work - we couldn't eat, so we went back to the guesthouse and went to sleep. And slept until the next day. What a failure of a first day in Laos that was!! But it could only get better...
Luang Probang was a lovely city. The second biggest city in Laos... it it was still tiny - the size of a town really. It had a nice, chilled-out vibe and the best night market I've seen. We were only there for two nights; the first night we both felt too ill to go to the market, and the second one we missed it entirely. I was so gutted! We'd walked through it to get to dinner (and I was very excited by what I saw!), but had spent so long chatting at the dinner table, that by the time we walked back through, everything was either packed away or being packed away! I was absolutely distraught! Ah well... I was sure that I'd find other great night markets here in Laos... But as of yet, I'm still searching for one of the same caliber :o(
During that second day, Kirra and I went off to some waterfalls and went swimming in the pools. It was a pretty nice day-trip. And then we finalised our bus tickets for the next day... we were off to Sayaboury to volunteer at the Elephant Conservation Centre! It's part-run by the NGO ElefantAsia, and I was very, very excited...
At the border, we got out and headed down to customs, which was pretty standard - just stand in line and get an exit stamp in the ol' passport. Then we walked down to the Mekong River, hopped into a longboat, and proceeded to cross the water into Laos. It was hot. The hottest yet. Even our shins were dripping with sweat. The customs area was just a huddle of white 20-somethings looking confused and sweating profusely. And it wasn't even the middle of the day - it was 5pm!
We filled out the necessary forms, stood in one line and handed over our passports. Easy enough. Then we waited for about 15 minutes until a second guy held up a passport that resembled yours for you to collect. As the customs official was in an awkward place, and it wasn't really feasable to be always watching him, this idea didn't really work that effectively. To be honest, I wasn't even aware of the fact that I was meant to be watching out for my passport until about 10 minutes later. So this explained WHY there were so many confused looking western 20-somethings wandering around. One of the guys I met actually had to hand a passport back to customs because they'd given him someone else's one, who'd just happened to look a bit like him. It was certainly the most lax customs security i'd ever come across! But a great experience.
So now I was in Laos. We got in a sawng-tow (don't know how to spell it - a taxi similar to a tuc-tuc but bigger! Essentially a pick-up-truck with a roof. We went to a bus station, and got on an overnight bus to Luang Probang. 12 more hours of travelling. Ugh. It was ok though... a bit cramped, but managed a bit of sleep.
We stopped off for dinner at a strip of shop fronts. It's difficult to explain, and again I didn't take any photos, but the front of the 'reastaurant' was open to the outside. There was a kind of hostess trolly outside which had some food (there was also a menu) and where you handed over money. But behind the hostess trolly was a living room with kids watching tv. And when I asked where the toilet was, I was instructed to go in through the house to the back, where the food was being cooked in the house's kitchen. It was pretty cool to see a genuine shop / house combination, but it must be strange to actually live in that scenario. But then I realised that most shops in rural areas are like that here. You work where you live. Whether you sell BBQ'd pork, fruit shakes (which I'm not sure HOW I'll live without!), or toiletries - in most cases, you'll be able to see into the person's life whilst buying your bottle of 7-Up soda. And it's really quite fascinating. They often live in one room, all sleeping on the floor. Very limited material goods. And they're the happiest and friendliest people I've ever met. Hmmmm - interesting...
We got into Luang Probang at about 4am, well ahead of schedule. Which we were grateful of. Not that we were grateful to be there so early - that sucked a bit... but we were grateful to be there... alive! Honestly - that bus driver was going so fast along tiny pot-holed dirt roads, and taking corners so fast in the dark, I found it best to just shut my eyes and hope for the best. Others said they were panicking the entire journey and didn't get a wink of sleep. But we made it. And so I came to find out that Laos bus journeys are pretty scary affairs! Having not experienced any Thai bus trips whilst there, I can't compare them - but the Malaysian ones were pretty tame - at least they were ALWAYS on tarmac roads!
We got a tuc-tuc to a guest house where some new friends, Anna and Harry, were staying. It was 5am, and no-one appeared to be up (as you'd expect) so we went for a nosey round. When we came back to the front, someone had opened the front door... the manager had been asleep in the front room incase anyone needed him. Thinking back, this is standard across SE Asia. People sleep where they work - and I don't just mean the shop / house combos I was harpouring on about. I mean the man sleeping on a bench in the reception hut in the Perhentians; the man sleeping next to his boat in Koh Phan-Gnan; the taxi man sleeping in his cab in Koh Tao... all of whome were happy to be woken up at an ungodly hour to provide service either to me or someone I was with. This truly is a service culture. If someone woke me up at 5am and asked me to take them somewhere for $1, I'd roll over and go back to sleep. For sure. But not here... they even smile and make small-talk! Crazy...
God I do like to ramble on... back on subject: we got a room in Luang Probang and first thing's first... we showered. And it was good. Then we slept. And it was good. Then we went out to explore, and it stopped being good.
The first thing we did was go to an ATM... which proceeded to swallow Kirra's card. So we went on a quest to seek out the bank which operates the machine. Not as easy as you might think! Although everyone thinks they're helping, we'd really rather that people don't tell us directions with such conviction unless they actually KNOW where we're trying to go. And that tuc-tuc drivers don't just starrt driving without having at least some inkling of where the ultimate destination is. Needless to say, it took us a few hours to finally make it to the correct bank who (hallelujah!) told us to come back the next day to collect the card. Neither of us thought they'd be fobbing us off and that they wouldn't actually be open the next day as it was a Saturday... Grrrr!
Anyway, happy with our result, we headed off to explore and to eat. Neither of us had eaten that day, and we both felt a bit queasy. But food didn't work - we couldn't eat, so we went back to the guesthouse and went to sleep. And slept until the next day. What a failure of a first day in Laos that was!! But it could only get better...
Luang Probang was a lovely city. The second biggest city in Laos... it it was still tiny - the size of a town really. It had a nice, chilled-out vibe and the best night market I've seen. We were only there for two nights; the first night we both felt too ill to go to the market, and the second one we missed it entirely. I was so gutted! We'd walked through it to get to dinner (and I was very excited by what I saw!), but had spent so long chatting at the dinner table, that by the time we walked back through, everything was either packed away or being packed away! I was absolutely distraught! Ah well... I was sure that I'd find other great night markets here in Laos... But as of yet, I'm still searching for one of the same caliber :o(
During that second day, Kirra and I went off to some waterfalls and went swimming in the pools. It was a pretty nice day-trip. And then we finalised our bus tickets for the next day... we were off to Sayaboury to volunteer at the Elephant Conservation Centre! It's part-run by the NGO ElefantAsia, and I was very, very excited...
