Hello Laos

It’s a 10 km ride (funny – it always seems to be a 10km ride) into Huay Xai (pronounced hew way zai) from the Friendship Bridge and I found a nice place to stay – The Little Hostel –  with a really friendly and helpful owner, Nok Saliyavong.  The hostel is small, as its name implies, but it has all you need for a night or two while waiting for the slow boat or preparing to do the Gibbon experience which, I believe, is fantastic.  You stay in tree houses that you only get to by zipline!  Nok will rent you proper shoes for the experience, arrange your tickets and even get you a sim card.   Here’s a picture she took of me in front of her hostel.

Little Hostel – on my way!

It’s a 500 km ride from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang through some seriously big mountains.  The more delightful, and most popular, option is to take the slow boat down the Mekong River.  This was always in my plan and what a lovely experience it is.

Jetty at Huay Xai – the green boat is the one I went on

The first day you’re on the river for about 6 hours, stopping at a little village called Pak Beng for the night.  The slow boat has done the economy of Pak Beng a world of good.  It mostly has accommodation, restaurants and bars.

Pak Beng

The following day you change boats and continue the journey for another 9 hours to Luang Prabang.  Wonderful to spend time on this very long, very wide, fast flowing river meandering through the mountains.

I met such lovely people on the boat  I had a farewell supper with a family from the Dominican Republic, a Chilean, and an Argentinian.

Boat People – the finest kind!

I was befriended by these three delightful ladies who were on the boat and then in the same hostel in Luang Prabang. Such good company. I miss them, their quirky sense of humour, their positive, happy attitude and their zest for life and travel.

Jess, Annie and Rebecca – safe travels ladies – see you in Cape Town one day

From the jetty it is a 10 km ride (again!) into Luang Prabang and what a lovely surprise.  Luang Prabang is so different from any other city I’ve seen.  It lies nestled between the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers and it’s more like a village than a bustling city.  It is quiet and unhurried.  There are even signs in the streets saying “Please be quiet”.  The architecture is French colonial and is well preserved.  Even though it is geared accommodate the tourist trade, somehow it seems to transcend that and still maintain its own character.  As you may have gathered, I really like Luang Prabang.

A Belgian man – Braam – who works at the hostel took a bunch of us down to the “beach” for sunset.

I took a trip to the Kuang Si waterfall and had such a fun time.  It’s very popular with tourists and locals and there is plenty of place to swim at the bottom of the falls.  Not too many people venture up the slippery path to the top but, if you do, the pool is perfect, the water is refreshing and there’s a swing just for fun.  I sat on the rocks dangling my feet in the water and soon had a free “fish-spa” with lots of little fishies nibbling away at my feet.

On a less happy but very important topic.  I went to visit the UXO Museum (unexploded ordinance).  The museum details the colossal number of bombs that were dropped on Laos by the Americans trying to disrupt the supply line of the North Vietnamese who were using the Ho Chi Minh Trail through Laos.  The saddest part is that millions of unexploded bombies (small cluster bombs) litter the entire country and every day the local populous suffer casualties from these devices and from land mines.