Vientiane to Viang Vian (Tim)

The view from our balcony was quite a contrast to Thailand, with bakeries lining the streets (a remnant of the French occupation?), a communist flag flapping slightly in the breeze across the street, and a thick wad of Kip (Lao curreny: $1 = 10,000 kip) notes in my pocket. Laos was definitely different.

The first thing we did (after sleeping) was to sample one of the many bakeries. I think it was a comfort to us all to have found a place that offered proper pastries again, having gone 2 months enduring the Thai equivalent (they look nice, but are filled with lard and green custard and other nasty things). It didn't take long to find out that there wasn't really much else to do in Laos' capital city, which was fairly unfortunate since we were bound to the area for a while. Rose had only 1 week with us before heading back to Phana for the start of the school term, so we had to stick close to the border until she headed back. It meant a very lazy and uneventful, but not unpleasant, first week in Laos.

On the fifth day we decided to visit an eco resort that was close by to the city, where we could hang out for a while, further out in the jungle and away from the temptation of all those chocolate-filled croissants. We wanted to get to the station to take the government bus at a price of about 50p but the tuk-tuk driver wouldn't hear of it and instead ended up taking us all the way to the resort for 8 times the price - what a swindle. The location of the resort was pretty remote and could be reached only be a 25-minute boat ride. It was to be our introduction to the typical Lao landscape - forrested hills and mountains, small secluded villages - just stunning really. As we boated down the river we passed groups of kids splashing around in the hot (our arms got sunburned) midday sun, having mud-fights, doing backflips and just generally having fun. They all stopped to wave happily at the four white foreigners and to shout "Sabidee!" and "Hello!"..it's hard to imagine kids in England doing the same on encountering four Lao's.

We were worried that there wouldn't be enough room for us to stay at the resort, but it turned out that we were the only 4 people staying there so we had the whole of the place to ourselves. There wasn't really much more to do there than in Vientiane, but due to its seclusion it was relaxing to hangout in the hammock outside the bamboo hut overlooking the winding river.

We returned to Vientiane after the 2nd night, where we stayed for another couple of days, eating by day and dancing & drinking by night in clubs populated purely by Lao's. For the day on which Rose left, we booked a two day adventure trip that would finish in our next destination - Viang Vian.

The first day we jumped into 2 two-man kayaks (Shaun with our guide) and took to the Nam Lik river for some intense paddling action. I've been kayaking a couple of times, but nothing really compares to the backdrop of a Lao river. It was plain-sailing until we got to some rapids and had to fight pretty hard not to get completely upturned by the sweeping current and large walls of shifting water. Both boats managed to stay upright, but we were still completely soaked. Just after this point we stopped for lunch river bank and whilst our guide was preparing the food we had the opportunity to walk back up and jump off into the rapids to swim down (it's much easier without a boat to worry about, but still just as fast). Quite a rush.

After lunch, we paddled some more until we reached some overhanging rocks where we had the opportunity to stop and partake in a little cliff-jumping (which, of course, we could just not say 'no' to). The climb up was a little precarious and involved a bit of rock-climbing and shimmying, and it was only when you walk up to the ledge you realise how far up you've come. The drop was about 10m, which compared to the 50m of bungy jumping is not a lot, but it's all very different when there's no length of rope tied to your ankles to prevent you from colliding with anything. We agreed to all jump together but just before we started the countdown some other guy shouted the numbers and then there was a bit of confusion as whether to go or not, and so co-ordination was not a virtue of our fall (nor grace or elegance). The free-falling feeling really is a peculiar one, and the water-hitting feeling really is a painful one. As I fell, I looked down to see how far I had left to go and then received a kind of belly-flop slap on my face when it got to be "not much left at all". Went a few more times, but never made that mistake again.

Once more we headed down the river, and reached the end-point an hour later, where we were taken by a series of songthaws to Ang-Nam-Ngum reservoir, where we spent the night with our guide. The reservoir is contained by a dam and is amazingly huge, being perhaps 10km in radius with sets of man-made island in the centre. On the second day, we were taken by longtail boat across the lake to visit some secluded fishing villages. The boat-driver suggested a particular one where there was a rocket festival being held, and we found when we got there that most of the inhabitants had never seen a person with white skin before. Turned out we were a day early for the festival, but it was still interesting to walk around the village and see the dogs and ducks and pigs and small native huts raised above the ground and the small kids, with their excited shouting of 'farrang! farrang!' (Thai and Lao word for white-skinned people). We were invited to sit with a family and drink shots of Lao-Lao, a whisky fermented from sticky rice and about 60-70% alcohol. For a spirit it tasted good and not that strong, but needless to say it went straight to the head.

We visited one more village a bit further along the reservoir with a different culture and language, but didn't stay long here before boating to a small sandy island for lunch. After this we headed back to the mainland, from where we were taken to Viang Vian - the true backpacker heart of Laos.


(1st photo: Shaun, Rose and I at eco-resort, 2nd photo: Ryan swimming in the river on which we kayaked, 3rd photo: Shaun jumping into rapids, 4th photo: Slightly dark, but you can make out the three of us standing on the cliff ledge preparing to jump. Luckily you can't see our trembling knees, 5th photo: The splash, 6th photo: A village hut with misty mountains behind, 7th photo: Shaun, Ryan and Jee (our guide) eating lunch. You can see the reservoir in the background, with the bare pole-like aquatic trees growing from the water.)