Into Laos

Hello everyone,

It hasn't been so long since my last email but it has been very busy and very interesting so I thought I would email again before I forget it all.

Last email I was in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand preparing to travel into Laos with Anett. We had booked the bus to the border and an overnight stay with food and the boat to Luang Prabang for very little money at our guest house and were picked up by the minibus in the morning for the drive to Chiang Khong on the Thai border. The bus ride took a good 4 hours and was easy going. The last 2 hours were especially nice going through the very north of Thailand which is beautiful with large rice farms and big houses in small tidy villages. The people here seemed wealthy and very warm and relaxed with a good lifestyle. The sun was going down as we approached the border and the hills and fields were very pretty with bamboo shelters dotted everywhere. We arrived in Chiang Khong on the Mekong river which seperates Laos and Thailand for a lot of the border. The town was very nice and the people very relaxed. The guesthouse was setup for the border crossing with minivans for Chiang Mai and it's own fuel supply, a small restaurante and rooms on the river bank constructed from bamboo with a terrace overlooking the river. It was nearly 2 months since I was last on the Mekong in Vietnam and it was very nice to be back especially as the Northern end is very different.

We had our meal and looked around town where no-one was pushing to sell us stuff. It was so relaxed and a good sign of things to come. I also had the best bacon baguette ever... it's so long since I had real bacon!!! In the morning we had breakfast on the terrace over the river as dawn broke and then climbed into a pickup truck for the short drive to the immigration point where we filled a form in and walked down the key to get on a boat taxi and make the 5min crossing to Huay Xai on the Laos border. It's funny as it feels like it's just one town with a river running through it but it is 2 countries and 2 towns. The whole process is very friendly and very organised with one official politely guiding you to whatever you need. Not what I expected at all.

After a short tuk tuk ride we were on the key waiting to board our slow boat to Luang Prabang. This was an interesting process as the tickets have numbers on so they know how many people they have but some tourists as in Cambodia are adament that they are seat numbers. Myself and Anett have our own word for this lot, 'Special!'. Again I'm affraid it seemed to be the French but more about that later. Whenever these moments occur we say 'Oh, a little bit special huh!' which amuses us immensely. In the end I pipe up and inform the most 'special' travellers that these are not seat numbers and that if they want to sit in that seat everyone in the boat will have to move probably turning the boat over. I didn't make any new friends but they stopped being a pain in the arse!!! In asia you have to be early and get on the boat, bus, plane and sit and wait if you want a seat. No prancing off for an iced coffee or a leasurely cigarrette.

Anyway the boat became overloaded very quickly with many people complaining but sure enough another boat was quickly provided. I have found that if you wait a bit and let the locals do things their way it generally works out ok and they are very smart, organised and have very ingenious ways of solving problems, but you have to be patient. We depart eventually and head down the mighty Mekong. The trip is 6-7 hours. As we progress the river becomes quite amazing, boiling and bubbling with a strong current as it is low and dry. The surrounding scenery just gets more and more beautiful and after a couple of hours I cannot believe how amazing Laos looks. along the banks of the river river there are big white sandy beaches sometimes with the odd person who has paddled there in a boat to fish or to work in the steep jungle. The banks climb steeply into huge hills covered in dense jungle which are very impressive in scale and climb into more hills growing into the distance. Occasionally a small bamboo village appears often with beautiful vegetable gardens on the river bank above a sandy beach. This is the most beautiful place I have ever seen and I'm affraid a photo or words can't really do it justice.

The river does run fast and into rapids in places and the driver often requests that we sit low or move to even out the weight of the boat. It is quite dangerous and the driver expertly manouvers the long narrow boat through the rapids. It is a little hair raising but great fun. We are often overtaken by the insane speed boats, passengers packed in with helmets and life jackets, eyes wide as they rocket in the very load boats down the river. It is a long journey with a hard seat but there is space to move around. Many 'Special' people are a little fed up though. There is a very sweet lady selling beer on the boat and I can't resist a picture or 10. In the evening after 6 hours we pull into a town and it becomes apparent that I have misunderstood a little. This is a 2 day trip with 2 6-7 hour boats. Pulling in to the town of Pak Beng it's clear many people are not so happy but myself and Anett are enjoying the boat ride so much we are quite happy to go on another day. I have to run up the steep bank to get a room quickly and we get a good guesthouse overlooking the river. On my return I find Anett has done a deal with a couple of kids to carry our bags up which is very welcome. They are brothers, one about 18-20 and the other perhaps 10-12. The little one speaks better english so they work as a team and this little guy carries my bag sometimes breaking into a run with such ease I can't really believe it. Bloody thing is so heavy.

Electricity is a random affair and after 10pm the lights go out with candle light only. We have dinner on a terrace over the river and meet a very nice Dutch couple going the other way. After the best sleep we have had in a long time we wake up and have breakfast as dawn breaks over the steep hills/mountains and the river. Again it's an amazing sight. We go down to the river and get on a different boat for the 2nd leg. Again I'm affraid the French have forgotten their tickets. Now my gripe with the French isn't that they make mistakes. It's that when they do they are so rude and make such little effort to make themselves understood. They seem to think it is implicit that they should be understood and have what they want. They appear to believe it is still a colony. I find it amazing that they behave in this way and it is a constant source of amazement/irritation to me considering what they have done to South East Asia in the past. Whatever happens I find it impossible to be so rude to the local people as they try so hard and are so nice, most of the time ;0). Sometimes you must give as good as you get but it must be in good humour and with some patience.

The 2nd leg is again very beautiful, maybe even more so. The lifestyle of the people is incredible with little wooden boats and small bamboo villages with no road access. We chat to some other tourists and sleep a little. After 5 hours the landscape begins to flatten and we come to larger villages until we eventually reach a beutiful lush area of vegetable gardens on the banks with old French colonial buildings between the palm trees. This is Luang Prabang and it is very beautiful. I am already very impressed with Laos and connot believe that I was originally going to skip it.

I had to devote a whole email to this journey as it was so impressive and easily the highlight up to that point. That was 2 weeks ago now but I'll have to catch up in the next few emails.

Again I hope you're all well and have enjoyed all the news from home so do send more.

Lots of love Kaveh.