Luang Prabang

We arrived in Luang Prabang, a UNESCO world heritage town in northern Laos, after a flight from Vientiane and  after lunch we planned to view some temples and have a swim at a waterfall.  Due to time constraints the temples were postponed and we set off for the waterfall. Unfortunately, due to Chinese New Year – which lasts about a week – Chinese from everywhere descended on the area. There was a massive traffic jam that would do Sydney proud, and David ended up having a conversation with a family from Shanghai in the adjacent car. I found it amusing as David went through places we all lived and got to Ulladulla, near Wollongong. Their pronunciation was beyond this family.

The waterfalls were beautiful and lots of people were taking advantage of the hot weather and the holiday to go swimming. The area also includes the Tat Kuang Si bear rescue centre.

After 2 nights at the Plain of Jars at Phonsavanh we returned to Luang Prabang. We spent quite a bit of time visiting temples and museums, which, although beautiful, have a certain sameness after a while. Features include gold decoration often stencilled, numerous Buddhas of different sizes and dustiness, walls and ceilings covered with painted scenes from Buddha’s life, stairways and rooftops decorated with Naga (serpents), entrances cluttered with miscellaneous collections of shoes and hats and floors partially covered with worn matting. Luang Prabang has an abundance of temples, many quite old such as Wat Visounnarath, Wat Aham which is a complex of temples.

Wat Visounnarath

The nipple shaped of Wat Aham

Wat Aham

Jim hitting the gong

The highly decorated exterior of one of the small chapels

 

Next was an afternoon river cruise up the Mekong on a nicely appointed river ferry. Our stops on this cruise included a village selling hand-made paper objects, then another one selling home-made wine in bottles containing snakes. To return to the ferry we had to run the gauntlet of about 50 stall-holders selling woven fabric. Further on was a cave we had to climb up to, complete with another collection of very dusty Buddhas of varying ages and sizes. Despite the climb it was a very relaxing afternoon watching the life of the river pass us by. 

The hordes climbing up to the cave

 

Marion in a pensive mood on the river

Snakes and scorpions in bottles

Some of the very steep hills along the Mekong

Our hotel was the best we have stayed in – Le Sen Boutique Hotel - only opened in December. The manager did his training in Sydney and presented our whole group with a T-shirt each – a very nice gesture.

Le Sen Hotel - swimming pool and red lantern reflections

This was the end of our time in Laos, which unfortunately ended with our group being split into 2 flights to Hanoi. Our wait at the airport was a comedy of errors. First, our luggage didn’t arrive from the hotel a planned. Second, we all walked through immigration with our passports unstamped because the official was at lunch – seemed like a very long lunch once we found out. Next we couldn’t get anything to drink or eat for hours as the “international airport” had nothing at all for sale. We were luckier than the Ginises and Georgesons who had to wait for 2 hours for their luggage to arrive in Hanoi.

The only way is up from here.  

To Phonsavanh and back again

Wednesday 13 – Friday 15 February

Phonsavanh is about 250 km south east of Luang Prabang, but the journey there was long and tedious. It took about 9 hours on a long and winding road through some very steep country. On the way we passed through a number of villages, many occupied by the Hmong people. They are strong believers in the spirit world, have a large thatched overhang at the door to keep out evil spirits, and live their life simply in the mountains. They do have an interesting traditional musical instrument with tuned bamboo pipes and they sell many of these for significant sums to members of the Hmong communities now living in USA.

Some of the steep country we travelled through

Local Hmong man playing their traditional musical instrument

The villagers who inhabit this mountain area rely heavily on agriculture and the passing tourist trade for their income. A few enterprising people have installed western style flushing toilets for tourists, but most are Lao style – stand and squat if you are female. Pay to use 2000 kip, or 50c US – not much really, as they have to cart water.

Back to agriculture, away from the necessities of a travelling lifestyle. The majority of farms rely on a shifting agriculture, slashing and burning in an attempt to maintain soil fertility. They grow rice, corn, pineapples and bananas among other things. The land is extremely steep, and the houses cling precariously to a small area immediately adjacent to the road. Some more affluent families have homes made of concrete, but most are timber, gradually replacing traditional bamboo and thatch homes. Their lifestyle is vastly different from urban dwellers with considerably fewer creature comforts. Many have television, acquired by satellite, and mobile phone coverage is good but I’m unsure how many have phones.

Children carting water during their lunch break from school

Three small girls play pick up sticks, while the eldest looks after her baby brother on her back. Their mother is nearby preparing roof thatch

The road along which the mountain people live is extremely winding and dangerous, inducing a degree of seediness in many of the group. We were very fortunate with our coach driver who did an excellent job. We didn’t dwell too much on the baldness of our tyres though. We passed one vehicle that wasn’t so lucky. A Toyota Hilux had gone down the mountainside and rolled his vehicle, the rescue totally blocking the road for over an hour. Without too much discussion we all agreed it was the most interesting event of the 3 day trip.

Vehicle recovery from the side of a steep hillside

Our reason for undertaking this trip was to see the Plain of Jars, an area which  has hundreds of very old stone jars, some over 3 metres high. Their purpose is not fully understood, but their most likely use was for burials. Many of these jars were destroyed by US bombing in the Indo China War of the 1970s.

In front of the largest jar

Guys fooling around in the jars

Laos became the most heavily bombed country in the world, a situation not fully realised or recognised until recent years. Other buildings bombed at this time include the hospital and the temple in the old city of Phonsavanh.

A very small collection of unexploded ordnance found locally

 

 

Remains of the bombed hospital

Remains of the bombed temple

Bomb relics abound in Laos, and MAG (Mines Advisory Group) is still removing unexploded ordnance. One village which has utilised the bomb debris is the “Spoon Maker’s Village”. Here families smelt aluminium and create spoons and other items. This village also has a whiskey  distillery, but at 35% alcohol it’s a fiery brew.

Spoon maker's village sign

On our return journey we also passed by a small but fairly attractive lake, and visited a cave called “Buddha Cave”, which in typical fashion contained a selection of large and small Buddhas. This cave was also used as a hospital during war time.

Some of the artifacts inside the Buddha Cave

A small local lake, which would have been more attractive if the sun was shining

Our return trip took almost 10 hours and everyone was fairly tired on our return to our lovely Luang Prabang hotel.

Vientiane and surrounding areas

 

Sunday 10^th – Monday 11^th February

Arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos and noticed immediately that the French influence is much more noticeable in both signs and buildings. It looks more affluent than other places we have been.

We had lunch at Joma bakery, owned by the Starbucks chain but not allowed to be named as such by the government, the first truly western meal we have had since we left home.

The Super 7 lunching in Vientiane

After lunch we visited the Golden Stupa, an important freedom monument in Vientiane. A stupa is a place which houses the ashes of ancestors, a bit like a tombstone, but it is usually a lavishly ornate structure. The Golden Stupa used to be covered with gold which was long ago stolen by colonial invaders. Now it’s only painted gold.

The Golden Stupa

Surrounding the Stupa are 2 Buddhist temples and a centre of Buddhist learning which is ornately decorated with scenes from the life of Buddha. It’s a very impressive building and freely available to photograph inside and out.

 

We visited Sisaket Museum  devoted to Buddha, one containing many hundreds of statues from average size to very tiny. Also we were allowed to enter another Buddhist temple, filled with hundreds of people as it was Chinese New Year, and many had a long weekend, the temple was extraordinarily busy. We noticed an interesting example of recycling. People purchased floral offerings to place in the temple; when there were too many one of the officials removed some and returned them to the entrance for re-sale.

Sisaket Museum full of Buddhas

Our next stop was a visit to the Nam Ngum hydro dam, which forms the largest man-made lake in Laos, with over 4 000 islands. Many are unoccupied but some are home to isolated communities, and 2 house prisoners. We had lunch on a cruise boat followed by a tour of the lake.

One the way we stopped at a silk weaving factory which is staffed exclusively by women working manually operated looms. The fabric they produce is excellent and made primarily for the domestic market. All Lao women in public life must wear these distinctive straight wrap-around skirts with a decorative border and sashes. School students also wear the same type of skirt.

Following our cruise we visited a salt factory which employs most of the village. The salt is distilled from artesian water by heating, hot horrible work. After further processing the salt is packaged by the women. The kids of the village flocked around us, and when we gave them some sweets before we left one of the group said it was worse than feeding seagulls.

Salt being distilled

Our final stop of the day was at a small village market. Here the people have little access to protein – obviously they don’t have large animals – so the market sells an array of alternate small animals. These include snakes, rats, hamsters, dried frogs and live small birds. There were chickens are probably a few other unrecognisable items. No-one from our group was inclined to purchase anything.

Snake ready to buy

One peculiarity we noticed was that many of the villages were ”strip settlements” lining the main road. We were told that in order to reduce population growth electricity  (or electric city as pronounced by our guide) was supplied to places along the main road, but not much further. Obviously the government has great confidence in television and other electrical devices as contraceptives.

ATMs in glass cages along the roadside

A typical clothing store displaying waares on the footpath

We finished out tour of Vientiane and surrounding districts with a visit to their most imposing monument, the Arc de Triomphe copycat monument, which was originally intended to be the tomb  of the unknown soldier. It is surrounded by beautiful gardens and fountains.

Patuxai, the Peace Monument

Chinese New Year was an interesting time to be in Vientiane as the streets were full of happy relaxed people – walking the embankment along the Mekong, participating in an open air Zumba class, eating out, prancing the streets with the dragon and accompanying drums, all wearing red, or new clothes.  Buildings were decorated with red lanterns and everywhere there was a great vibe.