Pakse, the Four Thousand Islands, and in to Cambodia

After five days in Vang Vieng we decided to head south, skipping Vientienne (the capital) and heading straight down to Pakse, a 14+hr bus ride that included a 4hr breakdown in the middle of the night. Pakse wasn't much to speak of, besides hot. When we finally arrived it was boiling and we stopped at the first guest house we came to. Half of the group quickly decided to head out the next morning for the 'Four Thousand Islands' further south. Chris, Vered, and I decided to stick out one full day in Paske and spent the day exploring two nearby waterfalls that were amazing. No one else was there and we hiked and swam the day away.

The day after our waterfall adventure we followed the others down to the 'Four Thousand Islands' which are literally thousands of big and small islands near the Cambodian border in the widest part of the Mekong river. I had been planning to stay in the islands for for several days but the heat was stifling. The first day was spent swimming in the river, which felt like a warm bath, getting fried by the sun and laying in a hammock. Again, the others decided to quickly move on. Not to to be undone Chris and I decided to stay another full day and spent it cruising heavy, vintage bikes around the island and taking a boat ride out to a rock in the middle of the scorching heat in an attempt to catch a sight of the rare fresh water irrawady dolphins that inhabit that part of the Mekong. I can say that we caught glimpses of far off sprays of water but might have been looking at the Loch Ness monster. Despite the oppressive heat we made a full day of it, but early the next day hopped another 14hr bus into Cambodia. After three fun filled weeks of traveling together we split in Penom Penh; Chris heading up to see the magnificent Angkor Wat and I heading down to the coast to spend a few days at the beach before my buddy Clint arrives and he and I hit the Cambodia tourist circuit.

Photos: Pakse, Four Thousand Islands

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a fairly small town that resembles a slice of Bangkok's Khoa San Road that was just dropped in the middle of nowhere...things here seem to largely (entirely?) be driven by tourism (mostly drunken tubing down the river) and the eating and drinking that comes with it. The town/vilalge consists of about 2 main roads full of restaurants that play movies or reruns of friends constantly, a couple of internet cafes and tour operators, and of course guest houses...that's about the extent of it.

On our first day there we got a late start (a disadvantage of such a large group; at this point our group had grown to 8 people), but did get our tubes and hit the water close to 2pm, after a stop at a nearby organic farm for a tasty noon-time breakfast. It didn't take us long (about 200 meters) to find a spot along the bank with a huge rope swing, bar/restaurant, volley ball courts, and places to lounge. We stopped here and spent close to 2 hours enjoying all that was on offer.

The day had been a warm if slightly overcast one but soon after we started rolling again the sky quickly (within 10 mins) turned sinister (before and after). The wind picked up, blowing leaves and dust everywhere, and the next thing we knew we were caught in a freezing, heavy downpour. Thunder and lightening quickly made an appearance at which point we decided it might be worth getting out of the water. We scrambled up a small bank and began a long, cold walk along a small road towards what we hoped would be the main road. Out of nowhere came a tuk-tuk who offered to drive us all back for about $1 each, which we hurriedly agreed to. It was only once we had been driving for a few mins that we realized how far from the main road we really were (about 2km) and how fortuitous the tuk-tuk was. We also noticed that the tuk-tuk was leaking something and so had to pile out and push more than once along the way. We were glad to get back to warm showers.

We ended up spending five days in total in Vang Vieng mostly doing nothing. Our second to last day we had a spontaneous fish bbq, which generally being an organized person I admit I was skeptical of its success, but turned out great. We bought fresh fish and other food (including fake oreos) at a local market, found a small spot on the banks of the river, wrapped the fish in banana leaves, grilled and ate them with some homemade salsa and baguettes. We must have been quite an oddity as lots of locals and kids (one, two, three) came by to watch and offer help (a knife and mats to sit on) and we shared our food with them. What a great day.

Photos: Vang Vieng

Luang Prabong

The city of Luang Prabong had a great atmosphere and pace, with wide streets with lots of restaurants, cafes and shops and most things within walking distance, surprisingly even a bowling alley(!); it was not at all what I expected to find in the middle of Laos.

Chris and I made several friends on the second day's slow boat (who we would end up traveling with for about 10 days) and on our first day in Luang Prabong we all caught a tuk-tuk out to town to explore a series of nearby waterfalls; the color of the water reminded me a lot of the waters at the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia. We did some hiking around and rewarded our efforts with a dip in the brisk water and some fun on a rope-swing.

On the way back to town our tuk-tuk blew its front and back driver-side tires and our driver narrowly avoided rolling us over. Luckily because there were so many of us we were traveling in two tuk-tuks each with a spare...unluckily one of the spares was flat, so we ended up waiting an hour or so for a similar make tuk-tuk to come past with a spare they were willing to part with.

We spent half of day two walking the wide streets, enjoying the atmosphere and seeing some of the city's temples, at this point I was getting pretty templed out and so only went to the few that were free. And then it was time to press on to Vang Vieng.

Photos: Luang Prabong

Slow Boat

We made the cross into Laos without event; made the short boat ride across the river, got my visa and stamps, and walked 20mins down to the dock. By 9am I had navigated the circuitous ticket buying process and had a ticket for Chris and I on the boat leaving at 11am. We boarded by 10am just in time to grab a two of the last bench seats at the back, an hour later people were still loading on with each bench holding two people and the aisle packed. Just when we would think 'surely we are full' they would squeeze on more people. Finally close to noon, in the presence of much grumbling, the powers that be decided to use a second boat as well, docked next to ours. The scramble for the new seats became a free for all with lots of people jumping from one boat over to the next...of course I made the jump, and Chris and I snagged two plastic chairs, a significant upgrade from the wooden bench, however our luggage remained on boat 1.

The ride down the Mekong was nice, but would have been gorgeous had the inversion not been so bad. It was a crazy experience being on a long wooden boat as it was navigated through rapids and around sandbars, with a few narrow misses. Overall it was mostly a good time to catch up on some reading and swap travel stories with other travelers.

We pulled into the small town of Pakbeng around 6pm towards the end of daylight, but waited another 30mins for our bags to show up on the other boat. When the other boat did finally show, grabbing out bags was total chaos; we stood on a small ledge of jagged, crumbly rock waiting for a chance to hop over the small plank and onto the boat for a chance to look for our bags while at the same time people from the boat tried to diembark...all in the dark. Chris finally made it on to the boat for a look around and after 30mins or so of looking I discovered that two locals standing near by were wearing our bags and demanding to carry them up the short hill for money. I'm sorry to admit that after the long, hot day cultural insensitivity overwhelmed me and I lost it and started yelling at this guy who at first remained obstinate but finally dropped the bag. On the 5 min hike up the hill I had to say no to illicit drug offers about every 50ft, a record so far.

Day two on the slow boat saw everyone on one large boat. Unfortunately the inversion continued to be bad, at times to the extent that it was hard to see beyond the banks of the river. Evening found us in Luang Prabong.

Photos: Slow Boat