Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!

The evening of the 25th we were originally scheduled to take a minivan to Chiang Khong (a border town between Thailand and Laos in the North) which takes about 5 hours. We then were supposed to rest for the evening in a pre-booked hostel, before taking a slow boat for 2 days and nights into Laos. Henk and I had debated between the slow boat option and speed boat option before finally deciding on slow.

Speed boats, we heard, were very dangerous and the passengers had to sit crammed together wearing helmets and holding on for their lives for 6 hours. The slow boat was slightly roomier, and obviously slower. You traveled only in the day and rested in the evenings; as a result the pace of the journey would be calmer. However, there hasn’t been enough water in the river for the past few weeks – making it impossible to take any boats, speed or slow into Laos. As a result, everyone who decided to book a boat package into Laos was switched to a bus package without choice: that is 12 hours on a VIP (slightly nicer than a regular public) bus.

This seemed uncomfortable but just on the edge of do-able for us. After all, we didn’t really have much choice at this point, right? We had considered flying to Luang Prabang from Thailand but all of the flights were operated by Laos airlines. The airlines has a website up that I had e-mailed, but we heard numerous times that there were many fake websites up and that it wasn’t possible to get a “real” Laos airline ticket online – you had to go to the airport and chance it. Since our visa was up soon we didn’t have the luxury of chancing anything. Furthermore the tickets weren’t cheap by our standards and we hoped going by boat/bus would be a more cost-effective choice. However – to be blunt – it was an absolute journey into hell… one which in the process we’re quite positive we got both lied to and ripped off on more than one occasion.

It started with us going to the travel agent’s office we booked our tickets from for dinner. Henk had somehow negotiated for us to get dinner included before our trip, so the agent had went out and bought us some stir-fried Thai dishes and water to snack on while we waited for our minivan to Chiang Khong. The van arrived about half an hour late and we were one of the final pick-ups. Plus the van was quite crammed with people with no room to move.

Thus began our 5 hour journey that Henk and I tried to make more manageable by watching Simpsons episodes on our laptop. Sadly, our laptop, being a gaming laptop, has a battery life that drains very quickly and after 2 hours we were on our own again. We snacked on the treats I managed to squirrel away in my new Lisu purse (now dubbed the “snack purse”) and… exhausted… we tried to get some sleep. Since the drive was another “4000x curves” ride, it was quite uncomfortable, almost impossible, to sleep through.

We arrived at the hostel around 1:00 AM (an hour before schedule because the driver was an insane speed demon; it was scary to even look at the road!) and checked in, rushing straight to our room to try and get some sleep. However since the generous people next door couldn’t sleep (we asked them nicely to keep it down and they seemed to not understand the walls were paper-thin) we didn’t end up with a restful night either. That morning we set our alarm for 6:45 AM, but the people next door decided their alarm should be earlier and extremely loud so we ended up awake just after 6:00 AM instead. Even less sleep for us! Henk went to reception and filled out some forms for our visa application while I sat and fumed over my lack of sleep. We then went for breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast (the first place I’ve seen in Asia that served up scrambled eggs!) and moved our bags outside for the next minivan pick-up.

Then we had a short 5 minute drive to the waterfront. We jumped out and dragged our bags to a longboat for a ride across the river to Laos. We stood in line while our passports were handed out and our visas distributed. We were gathered by the transport coordinator and given this fabulous news:

"There are only two buses from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. One is a public bus that leaves around 12:30 PM and takes 16 hours. There is also a V.I.P. bus that leaves at 5:00 PM and that one takes 14 hours. The final option is a minivan, which costs 400 baht per person and will take about 8 to 10 hours, depending on the traffic. If there are 10 people you can leave now. You will not get a refund, because I lose money on this. Normally it costs 1500 baht per person to get to Luang Prabang by minivan. I only get 900 baht per person back, which is the price for the V.I.P. bus. I lose money on this. I do not know why travel agencies do not tell you this. Also, the river has been like this for 3 weeks, and the drought will continue until the end of May, so there will not be any slow/speedboats."

Great… this means we paid for a V.I.P. bus that we aren’t going to take because waiting 6 hours for a bus is ridiculous, and of course we won’t get any money back for our “change of plans.” IN FACT we get to shell out more money for our trouble. Has anyone heard of this scam before? It has con-artist construction written all over it. Henk asked for a headcount and 9 people agreed to take the minivan. We grabbed our bags and dragged them uphill and down the road where our new transport was conveniently waiting for us. As we drove towards Luang Prabang Henk talked to 2 Belgian backpackers and a bunch of Germans while I read through some magazines left in the car by another passenger. The drive to the city was absolutely horrible. The entire ride was extremely twisty-turny and at one point a girl had to have the van stop because she was so nauseous from the ride. Me too! I was scared to eat my packed baguette lunch, as tasty as it looked, because I didn’t want it to come back up.

We made a quick stop in Luang Nam Tha for a re-stocking of food and drinks and continued on the road. The road got even worse when we made it into Udomxai Province turning to rubble. On either side of the road were young Lao construction workers working on the drainage system. There were also kids and mothers constantly walking or playing in the streets; our driver permanently had his horn blasting to warn them away from our oncoming car.

Despite the horrible roads, the scenery of Laos countryside was quite breathtaking. Even though it was the dry season much of the land was still pretty green. Everywhere we drove there were high rocky cliffs that reminded me of the ‘wild west’ image. Currently Laos farmers are slashing-and-burning their fields to prepared for the new harvest so there was a bit of smoke in the air. Sadly we weren’t really in the mood to take many pictures since the drive was so difficult to get through on its own.

Having left the border in the second minivan at 11:00 AM, we were expecting to get into Luang Prabang around 7:00 PM or slightly later due to the stops we made. However, around 7:00 PM when the driver stopped to refuel at the gas station, he informed us that there was another 5 hours of driving left and we wouldn’t get into Luang Prabang until midnight. What!?! We had been told the drive would take just 8 hours with the minivan.

Looks like we all got played… I was getting pretty aggravated at this point and the lack of sleep was really getting to me. Henk and I looked in the Lonely Planet for other towns sooner than Luang Prabang, thinking we could be dropped off sooner and complete the rest of the drive the next afternoon. However, being underdeveloped Laos, there weren’t really any options for a place to stop off. We ended up just suffering through it, arriving to the city a bit before midnight due to our driver’s NASCAR-impersonating speed. One tuk-tuk ride later and we made it into our guesthouse after finally getting ahold of reception. Considering we had been ‘on the move’ since the morning of the 25th and just made it to our room the early morning of the 27th we were pretty exhausted! Needed sleep!

After sleeping in on the 27th, Henk and I ventured out only around 6:00 PM. Our first experience was of the night market down the main street of the city. Many of the goods looked mass-produced from China, but some of the soft pillow-slippers looked pretty neat. We made our way to ‘The Pizza’ for some dinner. After our bite we continued walking through the market, finding a few side-streets along the way packed with people grabbing scary-looking helpings of various animal guts. (Eww…) Then back to the hostel for more sleep!







On the 28th we felt rested enough to try and see some of the city. We started just before noon at Mt. Phou Si across from the National Museum. The climb up to the temple was grueling: 323 steps and quite a few of them were “large” steps; it would take 5 or 6 paces just to get across them. But the climb was worth it for the awesome view at the top of the Mekong River, Nam Khan River, and the city-scape below. We snapped pictures as we explored the temples, going at one point into a small cave to see a temple there. There was also a large imprint of “Buddha’s foot.” Back down at the base we found a nail salon where we could escape the heat while I got a mani/pedi that was well needed. We then went to the National Museum for a look around.

















The National Museum is actually the old Royal Palace, but since the royal family was forced to abdicate the throne in 1978 it is now just a museum. From the Wiki on the Laotian Civil War:



“The Laotian Civil War (1953-1979) was an internal fight between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government in which both the political rightists and leftists received heavy external support for a proxy war from the global Cold War superpowers.

The Kingdom of Laos was a covert theater of battle for the other belligerents during the Vietnam War. The Franco-Lao Treaty of 1953 gave Laos full independence but the following years were marked by a rivalry between the neutralists under Prince Souvanna Phouma, the right wing under Prince Boun Oum of Champassak, and the left-wing Lao Patriotic Front under Prince Souphanouvong and future Prime Minister Kaysone Phomvihane. A number of attempts were made to establish coalition governments, and a "tri-coalition" government was finally seated in Vientiane.

The fighting in Laos involved the North Vietnamese Army, American, Thai, and South Vietnamese forces directly and through irregular proxies in a battle for control over the Laotian Panhandle. The North Vietnamese Army occupied the area for use as the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply corridor and staging area for offensives into South Vietnam. There was a second major theater of action on and near the northern Plaine des Jarres.

The North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao emerged victorious in 1975, as part of the general communist victory in Indochina that year.”

Thus the royal family left us their palace as a museum for tourists. Henk and I walked around the palace, which was relatively simple except for the colorful mosaic décor made of cut glass on the walls. There was also a multi-part story told with accompanying paintings about Prince Wetsantara who was thought to be an incarnation of Buddha. Basically the story went that the Prince gave away a white elephant and was sent away as a result by the people. Along the way he gave away his horse and his goods, and his children were kidnapped. He was also asked to give away his wife, which he did. Around the same time the kidnapper returned to the capital of the kingdom where the King recognized his grandchildren and realized he had made a big mistake. The Prince got his wife and kids back and returned to the city to become King shortly after.

After the National Museum/Royal Palace we then headed to the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center for an overview of the different ethnic groups in Laos. The population of Laos is divided into three categories: Lao Loum (inhabitants of lowlands), Lao Theung (inhabitants of mountain slopes), and Lao Soung (inhabitants of mountain summits) – but the categorization isn’t perfect as some of the groups live in different areas than the categories specify.

Some of the hill tribe groups that live in Laos are: The Hmong, and the Black Tai (who wear black headscarves with yellow trim) who migrated into Laos, and the Khmu who are considered to be the original inhabitants of Laos. The Khmu people classify themselves by clan, with each clan totemic (named for mammals, birds, or wild plants.) It is held that it is taboo to marry within one’s own clan or to eat the clan’s totem. We also read about the presents of the Mien and Mun here in Laos, who practice Taoism – a Chinese religion/philosophy that involves elaborate and expensive rituals. One example of how outrageously dedicated the Taoists get to their ritual is the story of a family who spent more than 20 million kip on a ritual for their sons. Remember the annual family income is just 5 million kip per year!



After a quick stop at the Dara Market (which sold some electronics) and a pause for some orange juice (which was not too fantastic) we found another temple in the city where some monks were banging on large drums. We walked through and found an exhibit I wanted to see on the other side of the temple: the Kopnoi “Stay Another Day,” exhibit. While it was just a small little exhibit on the second floor, I was impressed by the concern for the production of ‘original Laotian’ products, fair-trade, and eco-tourism. Henk and I played a ‘tic-tac-toe’ game where we had to identify the products made in Laos vs. the products mass manufactured in China. Not as easy as you would think!

We passed a French cultural center (not much to see there) on the way to Wat Nong Sikhounmuang where we found the famed Tamarind restaurant we wanted to eat at. However, since it was Sunday they were closed and we had to move our plan to another day. It was getting insanely hot outside by now with absolutely zero breeze and I was desperate to find somewhere to cool off and get something to eat. We ended up going to an Indian restaurant we had discovered across from ‘The Pizza.’ They didn’t have butter chicken but I settled for their chicken tikka masala which was quite nice, while Henk had the chicken sag. Filled up and cooled down, we returned back home for some relaxation time.







Francesca