Images in reverse order
1. Me again Hello everybody
2. Local transport
3. Organic farm walk
4. Lao temple
5. On the bus
6. East meets west
4th October 2007 Vang Vieng Laos
Well it's been a while and a lot has happened since the last chapter. I took the bus as planned to Vientiane, arrived late at night and woke up next morning to rain. The rain seems to be following me for some reason. Vientiane, the capital city of Laos was a very quiet and easy place but still a city, and it was raining, so what to do. I had breakfast in a riverside cafe and decided not to hang around so I quickly packed the bag and took a tuk tuk to the bus station and got on the local bus heading north to this place called Vang Vieng which I knew nothing about. Another fun and interesting trip on the local bus full of Lao people and boxes and bags of supplies with the coolest looking driver wearing Ray Bans. We wound up and up into the forested hills through brilliant villages and spectacular scenery. Then eventually we arrived at Vang Vieng. Tuk tuk to town again to find a place to stay. What a strange place this is. Some years ago some bright spark had the bright idea of driving people about 10km upstream on the river Nam Song and letting them float back down to town; it's called tubing. Well it's now become one of the number one "Must Dos" on the gap year backpacker trail and the market has responded accordingly. There's now more than 10 tour outfits offering tubing, kayaking, caving and trekking and loads of guesthouses, restaurants, internet cafes, bike rentals and "all the support that the backpacker needs" suppliers have sprung up. Everyone wants a bit of the action. It's a meeting of the corrupted and the innocent. There's young smiley Buddhist monks wandering about amongst bed bars where you can lounge about on cushions and watch movies or Friends all day while drinking and eating; and other restaurants where you can order a spliff or a happy pizza or a cup of mushroom tea even though those things are highly illegal and subject to big fines. But it's more than pleasant here despite all that and I've now been here for 5 days and feel mighty relaxed for it. I had to do the tubing experience having heard it was great fun and so signed myself up on day 2, finding myself with a gang of 20 something year olds. But what a great day it was, I so enjoyed myself. Half the lads on the trip were from Ireland, and it has to be said that as a nation the Irish are just the best fun. They were of course going for it with the booze but they were straight in there with the wisecracks and jokes and slagging and song. I was the granny of the group and felt I was viewed with a little trepidation at first but that didn't last. I just loved the trip, mostly floating lazily downstream, but every now and then hitting a bit of rapid exitement. Then after an hour and a half or so we stopped at the first of the riverside bars, plus 3 really high ariel swings for jumping into the river. All the youngies were going for it and I climbed up to get a look at the drop on the lowest one and bottled out. Fear got the better of me and I chickened out even though I did jump off one of those yokes years ago. A very concerned looking young Lao guy came up to me and said I shouldn't do it, I was as old as his mother and his mother wouldn't jump. Anyway I was kind of pissed off with myself for being a wimp and knew I'd regret it if I didn't have a go, so....... we floated down to the next bar where there was a last chance even higher swing and one of the fellas said he'd talk me through it so up I climbed again. Meanwhile the Irish lads had gathered everyone together on the riverside and they all started chanting and by then there was just no choice so I JUMPED AHHHHHH, and it was just great. I really enjoyed flying. According to our guide I've got the prize for the oldest woman to jump but that's probably not true.
There's been lots of other experiences here, today I rented a mountain bike and went out into the countryside to see a cave and do some swimming at a place called the blue lagoon. It's stunning landscape here, a wide fertile river valley full of rice and bananas surrounded by these craggy forested limestone peaks. There's a very low population in Laos, only 6.5 million people. There's hardly any traffic and that makes it very pleasant. Life here seems to be easy and simple and the people don't seem at all stressed.
Yesterday I met this guy called Andrew from Trinidad who is an English teacher at a local school. His card lists his fields of expertise as English Teaching, Storytelling and Folklore. Tomorrow I get to visit his school as guest Falang (that's what the locals call us whiteys) so the kids can chat to me. Next to the school is an organic farm which I also get to visit, organic mulberry for silk production is the main line but they grow other stuff too and also have a restaurant. So that's it for tonight...to be continued
Well it's been a while and a lot has happened since the last chapter. I took the bus as planned to Vientiane, arrived late at night and woke up next morning to rain. The rain seems to be following me for some reason. Vientiane, the capital city of Laos was a very quiet and easy place but still a city, and it was raining, so what to do. I had breakfast in a riverside cafe and decided not to hang around so I quickly packed the bag and took a tuk tuk to the bus station and got on the local bus heading north to this place called Vang Vieng which I knew nothing about. Another fun and interesting trip on the local bus full of Lao people and boxes and bags of supplies with the coolest looking driver wearing Ray Bans. We wound up and up into the forested hills through brilliant villages and spectacular scenery. Then eventually we arrived at Vang Vieng. Tuk tuk to town again to find a place to stay. What a strange place this is. Some years ago some bright spark had the bright idea of driving people about 10km upstream on the river Nam Song and letting them float back down to town; it's called tubing. Well it's now become one of the number one "Must Dos" on the gap year backpacker trail and the market has responded accordingly. There's now more than 10 tour outfits offering tubing, kayaking, caving and trekking and loads of guesthouses, restaurants, internet cafes, bike rentals and "all the support that the backpacker needs" suppliers have sprung up. Everyone wants a bit of the action. It's a meeting of the corrupted and the innocent. There's young smiley Buddhist monks wandering about amongst bed bars where you can lounge about on cushions and watch movies or Friends all day while drinking and eating; and other restaurants where you can order a spliff or a happy pizza or a cup of mushroom tea even though those things are highly illegal and subject to big fines. But it's more than pleasant here despite all that and I've now been here for 5 days and feel mighty relaxed for it. I had to do the tubing experience having heard it was great fun and so signed myself up on day 2, finding myself with a gang of 20 something year olds. But what a great day it was, I so enjoyed myself. Half the lads on the trip were from Ireland, and it has to be said that as a nation the Irish are just the best fun. They were of course going for it with the booze but they were straight in there with the wisecracks and jokes and slagging and song. I was the granny of the group and felt I was viewed with a little trepidation at first but that didn't last. I just loved the trip, mostly floating lazily downstream, but every now and then hitting a bit of rapid exitement. Then after an hour and a half or so we stopped at the first of the riverside bars, plus 3 really high ariel swings for jumping into the river. All the youngies were going for it and I climbed up to get a look at the drop on the lowest one and bottled out. Fear got the better of me and I chickened out even though I did jump off one of those yokes years ago. A very concerned looking young Lao guy came up to me and said I shouldn't do it, I was as old as his mother and his mother wouldn't jump. Anyway I was kind of pissed off with myself for being a wimp and knew I'd regret it if I didn't have a go, so....... we floated down to the next bar where there was a last chance even higher swing and one of the fellas said he'd talk me through it so up I climbed again. Meanwhile the Irish lads had gathered everyone together on the riverside and they all started chanting and by then there was just no choice so I JUMPED AHHHHHH, and it was just great. I really enjoyed flying. According to our guide I've got the prize for the oldest woman to jump but that's probably not true.
There's been lots of other experiences here, today I rented a mountain bike and went out into the countryside to see a cave and do some swimming at a place called the blue lagoon. It's stunning landscape here, a wide fertile river valley full of rice and bananas surrounded by these craggy forested limestone peaks. There's a very low population in Laos, only 6.5 million people. There's hardly any traffic and that makes it very pleasant. Life here seems to be easy and simple and the people don't seem at all stressed.
Yesterday I met this guy called Andrew from Trinidad who is an English teacher at a local school. His card lists his fields of expertise as English Teaching, Storytelling and Folklore. Tomorrow I get to visit his school as guest Falang (that's what the locals call us whiteys) so the kids can chat to me. Next to the school is an organic farm which I also get to visit, organic mulberry for silk production is the main line but they grow other stuff too and also have a restaurant. So that's it for tonight...to be continued
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