Lovely Luang Prabang and Northern Laos

So we arrivied in Luang Prabang.

Having pulled up at the side of the river and climbed the sandy bank to street level we found a tuk tuk and went with a German woman who knew a good guesthouse. We checked in to our 4 dollar room and went out to see a bit of the town. I made a list of good photo opertunities as well for the next day so that I could do some work. On the way we hired bicycles and went to the night market. I had a Lao meal called Orlam with deer which was very tastey and very different to the other asian food I've had so far. The night market is fantastic and is totally hastle free and peaceful with lots of stalls selling local handicrafts. It's lit with naked bulbs cabled to local shops and buildings. Generally the stalls are run by women and are neatly laid out on the ground along the street.

The whole town looks fantastic. It is apparent that tourism has had a big effect and is still on the slow increase. There are many internet cafes but the architecture is very old and mostly from the days of the French colonies. After a not so good sleep from the noise I went out with the camera but as I set up by the river the camera jammed. On closer inspection it was clear that one lens had taken a knock on the boat trip and was now broken. This was very bad as it was my favourite lens for that camera and the landscape lens which was what I wanted in Laos. It would take a few days of calls and emails interupted by power cuts and an 8 hour time difference to arrange another to be sent from London.

In the evening we went to the night market to eat at the food stalls. The grilled mekong fish was delicious and we also had a big noodle soup prepared by a big lady with a small girl of about 8 wealding a knife as big as herself. They start young out here! After a couple of gin and tonics we headed home. Unfortunately the next morning Anett's stomach was not happy and had dissagreed with the Mekong fish. The room was also too noisey to sleep so we moved to the very nice Mano guest house at 8 dollars for a very nice room. We got alot of sleep and Anett got better. She agreed to take a short trip north and come back for the package and so we spent our last day cycling to the grave of Henri Mouhot who is known for descoverig Ankor What and exploring Laos. It was a strange place and a long bike ride.... very long. On the way back we played with some sweet kids. One was very cheeky and about 3 or 4. He kept winking and smiling and then came up and threw a broken bottle at me with a big smile on his face. No damage though.

In the afternoon we got a tourist bus to the local waterfalls. This is a very touristy thing to do but you can swim in them and they are very nice. There is also a rope swing which is good fun. They keep a tiger in a cage there also. He/she is very beautiful and quite docile. It's a real tourist trap and on the way back we stop at a whiskey village where they make the local Lao Lao which is very like vodka. It's not a nice place and the kids are pushy when trying to sell stuff. One girl makes a gesture of cutting my throat when I say no thanks! NICE!

After several days exploring the area it's time to move on though and we get up early for the morning bus to Nong Kiew. It's a 3 hour drive and the bus is packed with sacks of rice and bags are piled high on the roof. The seats all fill and then there are people on the floor and next to the driver. It's uncomfortable but the road is not bad and we get there in good time. Anett has left it till we get on the bus though to tell me she hates busses and her mood slowly deteriorates. Nong Kiew isn't the nicest place in the world until you sample the view of the Nam Ou river from the bridge and watch the locals fishing and washing in the river. We book into a very very basic guest house and get some food and I take a look around leaving Anett to find out where she put her sense of humour ;).

We only stay for one night and the next morning we take the 1 hour boat to Muang Noi Neua having heard it is a beautiful area with no road access and all transport via river or foot. The river journey is nice and in much smaller boats than on the Mekong. Arriving in Muang Noi Neua we find a very quiet town with a lot of bamboo bungalows for hire with hamocks on the balcony. It's a struggle to find one so we head to the end of town and finally get the 2 very last ones on the river bank right at the end with a great view of the river. From this village you can trek to some other villages which can only be reached by foot. A local girl convinces us to go fishing with her instead though and we arrange for her and her brother to take us fishing the following afternoon. There are only a few hours of electricity a day and all lights go out at 10pm which is very nice as candle light is used and so we spent the evening with a german girl and an american man and have a few laughs over some Lao Lao.

Next day I get up early and take some pics of the river valley and then relax in my hammock for most of the morning before we make our way to the river for a few hours fishing and with Noi and Eng. They take us up river in their wooden kayak which we all paddle and then lay the nets. Noi encourages the fish into the net by thumping the water with a large bamboo pole and we get quite a few after laying the nets 3 times. We then prepare a BBQ on the sandy river bank and grill the fish which we eat with sticky rice and some vegetables picked by from the bank. It's a great day and the views are amazing as people pass in kayaks singing away. Lao people love singing. We decided to try the big trek to Ban Phong the next day. This involves leaving Muang Noi very early and trekking into the jungle and rice fields to Ban Na 1 hour away. In Ban Na you rent a bungalow and trek the 3 hours to Ban Phong which is a Mong village in the hills. You have to allow 7 hours for this trip as there is no guaranteed accomodation in Ban Phong so time must be allowed for the trek back to Ban Na in daylight and so we set out early the following morning. Arriving in Ban Na we get a bungalow at Chantanom guest house, one of 2 in the village and after a break we set off for Ban Phong. It's a hard trek and we have decided if we have any problems or get lost we will turn back. After one hour we have crossed the river 4 times and it is looking as if we may have made a wrong turn somewhere. The path forks into 3 ahead and trying each we find they don't match the description and so both feeling apprehensive we turn back. This is no bad thing as 7 hours is hard going and on our return to Ban Na we walk to another village 'Ban Huay Bo' 1 hour away. It's a big village with stilted bamboo houses and naked kids running round asking for pens and sometimes money. The locals are keen for us to spend money and it is clear that they are quite poor but also quite happy. It is like being in a time warp and going back 500 years with pigs and chickens wandering around freely. We speak to one woman and she asks if either of us have children. She tells us she has had 8 babies of which only 3 survived. This is a reminder of how poor Laos is and how poor healthcare is. Also reminders of the American bombardment are everywhere. Bomb casings are used as steps or building materials or ornaments etc and there are many. Earlier in Muang Noi I had seen a man preparing breakfast on a fire where he used shell casings to put his pot on. I wasn't sure and asked him and he happily nodded and then with a stick drew a picture and wrote 105 saying 'boooom boooom' to indicate that they were 105 shells. These casing were from the Indochina war and can also be found everywhere. He was very nice as are most people and very jolly.

We spend 2 nigths at Ban Na and get some very good sleep. The guesthouse is run by a very nice family and though we don't want to leave we have to head back for my package in Luang Prabang. Also the experience is being spoiled by an old Swedish sailer who has decided to stay for a while and also seems to think he is the boss round here. He's a real pratt and adores the sound of his own drunken voice so in the morning we get up for the 1 hour walk starting at 7 am and then catch the 6 hour boat down to Luang Prabang. It's a good trip and we are joined by Inis from germany who we had met a few nights before. We don't waste too much time in Luang Prabang and have to make a new plan as the package has not arrived, deciding to go north west this time towards the Chinese border to Luang Namtha via Oudomxai. This involves a 5 hour bus to Oudomxai followed by another 4 hour bus to Luang Namtha and so we split the journey into 2 halves. The road is very rough and unfinished in places and we get to Oudomxai very tired.

Oudomxai is a weird place and very much a frontier town with travellers remaining unhasstled as they are not of much interest to these locals who trade goods with the Chinese. Unsure what to do we take a look at the Stuppa and get chatting to several monks who are incredibly keen to practise their English and learn more and so we exchange english lessons for lessons in Lao culture for 5 hours as well as having a photo session of poloroids and portraits which is great fun. That evening we get some food and notice a big wedding celebration is going on in the restaurant. The people are very nice in Oudomxai and we are invited in but feering a Lao Lao session we kindly decline and head back for an early night.

Our guest house looks very respectable and we are very comfortable but in the night I'm woken to find Anett standing on my bed shreeking...'It's a rat It's a rat Kaveh!' I think I'm dreaming and go back to sleep but she wakes me again and when I realise what's going on I jump up and stand on the bed too. I can hear it moving. It had been wriggling under her pillow after finding a lolly pop on the table...YUK!!! And it was big! Like a cat. I went downstairs and tried to tell the uninterested staff which involved doing a rat impression that made them wet themselves and the drawing a picture which horrified them and so we swapped rooms. Apparently rats dig holes in the mattresses and hide there...EW! So no sleep after that and a 6 am start to Namtha. I felt like crap. It's a long very hard drive which makes some locals throw up out of the window and when we arrive I'm nackered so we grab the closest guesthouse. I'm now so tired that it's my turn for a sense of humour failure and so I sleep the day away top make it up.

I'm a little unsure of Namtha at first. The place is ugly and the Acka tribes women pester you. One very agressive woman comes up to sell me bracelets. She's about 45 and when I refuse whispers cager cager in an evil voice with an equally evil smile. I don't know what she's on about and look in the bag she's russtling to see a large bundle of Ganga... Oh ganga ganga! No thanks! ...... Opium? No!!! She mimics taking a drag off a joint and says...mmmmhhh good ganga ganga! No no no!! Why no no no!!??? Oh god! I actually find her very amuzing and can't help laughing as the days go by and she keeps trying with her pals. Even the locals hate them and she often pretends to cry.

We manage to find out that a local black Thai village is holding a festival and we cycle there to see it. It's great. Tribal music and dancing with games and plenty of Lao Lao being consumed by very happy people dressed in the tribal costume which they wear normally. It only happens every 3 years and we are very lucky to see it by accident. It's a good day and we cycle many miles and come to many villages. In one particular village they are very much still a traditional tribe and when I get my camera out they run scared. It takes a while to show them that it's a polaroid and I will give them a photo of themselves. Once they realise I have a queue of women with the babies standing waiting for a portrait and realising that I am gonna run out of film we make a quiet exit after taking about 10 pics. It was very funny especially when one baby burst into tears everytime I went near him with the camera. His mother so wanted a picture.

The day is spoiled a little by Anett's agressive attitude. I feel like I'm getting a constant ear bashing and we get on each others nerves a little but I guess that's what happens when you travel with someone for this long. I hope it will subside as we have decided to head back to Ban Na and it's a long trip. Sure enough after the 4 hour bus to Oudomxai it's getting better. We meet some people who are going the same way which is fortunate as we know there is no scheduled transport to Nong Kiew and so we group up and arrange to go by Sawngtheang. These are converted pickups run by the bus stations which ,when enough are travelling, make unscheduled and scheduled journeys between towns. I am surprised how much better they are to travel in than the bus. There is a rack on the back so extra passengers can hang off too and the bags get piled on top. The journey is going well until the driver stops to inspect a large rodent being offered by a tribal woman. It's a type of rat with a beaver like head and it has a noose round it's neck which it wriggles to get free from. He buys it, probably for dinner, and it is not happy. We refuse to have it in the back and so he ties it to the roof but after 10 minutes it pees down the open sides of the truck and all over us which stinks. Then later after dropping some people off he tries to put it in the back and it is very pissed off and ready to bite anyone if it gets free. We ask him to move it as one bite would mean a rabies jab and probably a 3 day trip to Bangkok which the locals don't realise and so they laugh but equally he doesn't want it in the cab and drops it off at his house on the way, then dumps us all into a tuk tuk which takes us the rest of the way. I guess he couldn't wait to stick it on the barby. Another sleepless night in Nong Kiew and the 1 hour boat trip to Muang Noi. While waiting 3 hours for the boat I get roped into helping carry an engine down to the river to be fitted to a speedboat taxi. That'll teach me to stand there taking pictures. Good fun though. On arrival we dump the big bags in a bungalow and trek the 1 hour to Ban Na which we take steadily. I have noticed that we are beginning to walk like Lao people. Small steps at a steady pace carrying fairly large loads and though tired we make it in good time, but we find Alf is still there. Ah well, the family are surprised and happy to see us which is nice.

We get the last 2 bungalows and chill out for the rest of the day with a plan to make the 1 1/4 hour trek to Huoyxen, a neighbouring village, the next day and then have another go at the 7 hours to Ban Phong and back the following day. We make Huoyxen and it's a nice walk passing a 65 to 70 year old woman carrying a tree (I'm not kidding) but both of us have to admit that the travelling has made us too tired to take on Ban Phong. This is also down to the food which is in short supply. You can have sticky rice and vegetables, stick rice and chicken (grisstle), sticky rice and chicken (grisstle) curry, sticky rice and potato curry and the meals are small. Up hear they run out of food quite quickly (especially eggs and bread) as everything is brought from the fields or the villages including bottled water and beer lao for the tourists. This involves Mama at 49 and Peng her daughter in law trekkiing the one hour to Muang Noi and carrying up to 20 kilos each in bamboo back pacs or on bamboo poles on the shoulder. They are a wealthy family. The poorer people carry a lot more and at much older ages. You can see the people from Ban Phong making the 3 hour journey to the Market every week bare foot. They also have to walk an our every day to get water from the river which is used for the toilet and for drinking.

When I started travelling I was about 90-92 kilos. When I left Thailand I was 85 kilos and I have no idea what I weigh now but the loss is very visible in the mirror. I have also become a walking machine and have become much better at walking on the uneven paths from village to village. They are real ankle breakers and so you don't rush. I have done all the trekking in sandles which I find much better than my shoes especially when crossing rivers.

In the evening we have a full moon party Lao style on the river bank and drink a lot of Lao Lao. It's good fun but Alf is spoiling the atmosphere spewing venim about the western world and all this crap he loves talking about. He doesn't realise that like our Lao friends we just want to have a relaxing evening by the river and would really like him to shut up! The following day we make a few trips, in order to get away from Alf, with Craig from Canada and in the evening we are invited to join the village at a wedding which is a huge event. They have a big stereo which they crank up with asian techno music and do they're silly dance which involves boys and girls standing in front of each other in a long line and shoffeling their feet. It's hillarious. The stereo is powered by a generator as it is a special occasion. Normally electricity is supplied by a few propellor powered generators which Papa and others drop into the river when they go down for their evening bath. Each one is at a little damn in the river made from tree branches.

The locals are incredibly generous feeding us and plying us with Lao Lao and inviting us to dance. The children have games to play and we have couple of friends who can't afford to play so we pay. The teenager I pay for insists that I have the sweet he won. His family are very well liked in the village but have no money. They are trying to build a house but can't afford nails and so as Craig has become part of the family they ask him for help which is embarrasing and hard for them to do. Of course he does and they are very grateful. Thong, the eldest can't afford to get married which involves paying a Dawry of 700 dollars. After a lot of Lao Lao Anett and I turn in quietly avoiding Alf and preparing for the Trek and boat ride back to Luang Prabang which we make in the morning after a sad goodbye to the family. Mama gives us a bag of sticky rice and a couple of bananas each for the trip.

And Luang Prabang is where I am now. Anett has gone ahead while I wait for my lens which still has not arrived and I will have to catch her up. It is in Lao and has been promissed for today but who knows. I hope it comes as we only have 9 days left on our visas and have plans for the south and have become a fairly slick travelling team so it would be a shame to part company now. It does however give me a chance to enjoy the fantastic steaks at my guesthouse but my body is not used to the meat and digestion is a little painful. Still good though ;)

Anyway that's the story so far. I know it's a long one but I hope you enjoy it.

Lots of love,

Kaveh