Lao Walk
Just a short video with a few images taken in Northern Laos.
Let’s meat in the street
Here’s a few photos all taken within 10 minutes of each other.
Yum! Rodent! Why waste your first big science project when you can cook and eat it! Maybe the other rat is not even dead. Maybe he/she is having a little sleep or doing a silent protest but not in the best location me thinks.
Who said you can’t eat a gymnast!?! What is this animal? And the other bit of animal?
OK. Why did this chicken cross the road? You can see that even he is regretting his decision or at least not so sure if he has been invited to dinner or . . . .
3 minutes later when I walked back up the road he had one wrung neck and a sadder expression on his face.
So what does one do after seeing this bounty of animals and their parts? Buy a very tasty sausage! What’s in that delicious savoury treat? No idea! Ignorance is bliss and never think too much about the food you are eating in Asia.
All these photos taken in Laos. I thought Vietnam was the culinary freak show!
Muang Ngoi
Ah! Muang Ngoi! Finally, the idyllic Laos town/village. First step was the 1 hour boat trip upriver from Nong Khiew which was great, actually able to watch local villagers do what they do along and in the river such as harvest river weed off the bottom. They dry it out in thin sheets, add a few tasty things and it is delicious!
Muang Ngoi has no road connection to any other town, it only has electricity from 6pm until 9.30pm although electricity is coming. It has no cars and no bikes and thus almost no noise except for the occasional spitter. Muang Ngoi is built around just one road which is just a wide dirt path with several minor paths running offa it. Muang Ngoi is a little touristy but you hardly notice it and Muang Ngoi is on a beautiful river and surrounded by precipitous mountains one of which is poking out of the morning fog in the above photo.
Monks begging (?) for alms is a normal sight in every town in South East Asia and even little Muang Ngoi. These monks sang a song or was it a chant at each stop. This photo shows well the one main street of Muang Ngoi.
Nong Khiew
Just looking through my photos I have taken here in Nong Khiew and this one is the best I could find. But it ain’t that good! This wonderful little riverside town is in one of those tight tall gorges too big to get in just one photo. Not fair. I am staying in one of the bungalows on the right and I swam in the river just below today. Cold!
Tomorrow I go to the next town up the river for several days. It will be my last main destination in Laos before I go into northern Vietnam. The town is called Muang Ngoi (Mong Noy) and has no road access, you can only get there by boat although I am going to walk along a track that goes to a few small villages and see if I can get right through. Can’t help myself, can I!?! If I can’t get there I’ll walk back and take the boat.
Muang Ngoi has no electricity after 9.30pm so that should be nice and rustic. Maybe no internet for several days thus this slightly rushed post.
I’ve been lucky, a lot of Laos has not been as wonderful as I had hoped and I ended up in this area with too many days up my sleeve but Nong Khiew and Muang Ngoi appear to be the best two places in all of Laos so I am very happy to slow down and linger. Should be able to stay in a small village or two as well.
December is coming . . .
Several days ago I did a two day organised trek to two hill tribe villages. You sort of need to go on organised treks to be able to find the villages and so you don’t blow a leg off stepping on bombs and crap from the Vietnam war. In many ways the trek was a disappointment due to the false promises of the guide company but that is Laos for you.
The first village was just one house. I don’t want to talk about it.
The second village was great although we spent precious little time there. Just being there was a thrill but because it seemed rude to shove my camera in people’s faces I mainly just did some random video (see below) and contented myself knowing I had at least been there. Some of the village people were fine with getting their photo taken while others didn’t care about other bunch of foreigners which is fair enough.
One lady showed me this ornament they wear in the hair, I guess coins were attractive to these people in years gone by. Some of the local people were pleased to educate us about their customs and we were pleased to learn. The coins date back to the French Imperialist Regime of olde.
Here’s some kids in the school, they were really into it and every one of them seemed focused on the job of learning. Times are a changing and this village recently had a small road constructed and had electricity. It is hard to imagine these type of villages remaining unaffected by change some of which they want and deserve but some will not be so good. Even in this village I don’t remember a single man or child dressed in traditional dress, just the women.
The highlight of the trek is the song in the video below.
After visiting the village and walking through the jungle for a while I noticed the man hired to carry some gear (our lunch actually) would sometimes sing to himself what I thought would be a traditional song from the village. I asked the guide to ask if he would sing the song so I could record it using my camera. He agreed so we went away from the group to avoid chatter in the background and we recorded the song.
The footage in the video is nothing special but I think the song is a highlight of my time in Laos. The description of the song told to me by the guide was “December is coming. Should we get married to stay warm?” December being when it gets cold up in the hills of northern Laos. Young man’s attempt at wooing the girl he loves? What a wonderful simple sentiment in those few words.
I didn’t film the man who sung the song. He was 30 years old but 12 years ago he was attacked by a bear and almost killed. He had a large scar on the right side of his face and his eye looked really bad and he had next to no vision. He understandably self conscious about his looks. He was a great man and very generous to sing the song. I wish he could see the video on YouTube.
On the road to “How do you say that?”
I did it again, decided to walk along another road but this time I knew a bus would eventually catch up to me and I certainly couldn’t get lost, maybe.
I started out at 6am from a little place on the Mekong called Pak Beng, it was still dark and nice and cool and still. Most Lao people don’t rush to get the day started too early. I ended up walking 13kms, I know that because I walked past the 13km mark that was beside the road. To confirm that fact I also walked past a second 13km marker further down the road.
There were several very small villages strung out along the side of the road which went up a valley and followed a river. As much as I found the people of great interest it was me who was the spectacle as very few foreigners would bother to walk here and some who ride bikes zip through. A lot of simple interaction with the people including some handshaking and I even had a spot of breakfast with a family in their shack. Unfortunately it was one of those times it seemed inappropriate to stick your camera in peoples faces so I have no photos.
After the two 13km markers I flagged down a small truck and got myself a ride in the back. This was great. Here’s a photo that isn’t as much fun as the ride itself.
Hopefully the video is better. Great to zip along and have a quick look at a lot more small villages and some good scenery. Anyway, I hopped off at a place called Muang Houn and decided I had gotten away with enough for one day and actually had a very good morning. So after buying a CD of Lao pop music (a subject of a future post) I got myself a ride on the bus that left Pak Beng (where I started from remember) and took it all the way to Oudom Xai which was my final destination for the day.
Oudom Xai. Oudom Xai? Seriously, spelling foreign words in our limited alphabet is silly. Oudom Xai is pronounced something like O-doom Sigh but I am sure the locals say it different and of course very correctly. Here’s the inside of the bus to Oudom Xai.
You know a bus is full when people sit on big sacks of stuff in the aisle but there were no chickens or goats so it wasn’t that bad.
The bus driver was playing (over and over) a CD of some yummy young Lao girl (in my mind at least) that sang the most hip and groovy modern songs. There’s something about modern Lao music! Which will be the subject of a future post.
Since the above I have taken a bus to another town called Luang Namtha and tomorrow I FINALLY do something! I’m doing a 2 day trek into the mountains and or hills and will do many and various activities including spending the night in a hill tribe village. I’ll try and post about that very very soon(ish).
Laos Music
This talented man I came across in a street in Vientiane. He was playing a traditional Laos instrument the name of which I should have googles before starting this post. The man was 90 something % blind but I saw him hold the notes people gave him very close to his face so I think he could distinguish the difference between a 1000kip note and a 10,000kip note. (All the notes in Laos look the same even with good eyes).
There’s something mesmerising about Lao music, like what this guy was playing. To me it sounds purely rhythmic, it even sounds groovy and hip. I’ve heard some modern Lao music blaring from CD players that I describe (to people I wish could sell me some) as Modern > Lao > maybe with some traditional instruments > and with a north African sound. Whatever it is it is earthy and rough and ever so good.
Someone just told me the name of the instrument is Bokan. I have no idea of the spelling but he pronounced it “Bow-Carn”
And here is our man playing . . .
Luang Prabang
Here’s a photo of my pleasant guesthouse in Luang Prabang. It’s in a quiet back street with a few other guest houses and a few old building that might be homes. Mostly I can only hear the chatter of people talking. I’m sitting at that first table with the white top. Rustic villages in exotic countries are oh so much better with wi-fi.
This morning I did the flight up from the capital. Genius! Only a 45 minute flight and what little I could see out of a window of northern Laos looked pretty good. I’m sure the best of Laos starts here.
Luang Prabang is probably the number one tourist destination in all of Laos, something to do with its history and monks and setting and overall charm. At this moment, less then 4 hours after arriving, I know basically nothing about the place but it does feel good.
Big Moves. Mostly North.
OK, I’m sorry, I did it again. After my recent adventure from which I learned that blind luck is reliable, dependable and will always save you, I decided to take a shortcut and walk and or hitch rides along another dirt road. But at least this dirt road was actually on the map and not in the wilderness. Not completely out there, honest.
Anyway, from the small provincial dump of a town called Attapeu (pronounced Atta-pur) I caught the world’s slowest bus out of town heading north. I remember reading about this bus service and how slow it was, took 1 hour and 20 minutes to go about 35km. The very first thing it did when it pulled onto the road was to stop for 5 minutes. Makes me uncomfortable thinking about it so I’ll move on.
At the village I got out at I decided to walk and see what happened, the photo above shows the scenery which was a valley of sorts between to plateaus. It was fairly hot out there in the open and the sun bright and the bush harsh, very Australian so I felt at home. After an hour I realised not much traffic passed me by and all of it was two persons on small motorbikes. I had a rest and some water at a very tiny village which amused them for the month then continued on.
Soon after I flagged down a lush new air-conditioned 4WD. I flagged the driver down with a hand motion that suggested not so much that I would like him to stop but more a hand motion that demanded the driver to stop. He was a nice guy and surely worked for a government department and happy to help a wayward white guy.
I’ve added the above photo of reassure you I was safely within the boundaries of civilisation and very safe indeed.
Deary me. This damn dirt road went on forever, I am sure that a Laotian kilometres is 4355 metres long. What a joy to be found alive and well and driven out of my harmless situation. What a relief to be saved for endless hours of trudgery.
I went with the kind man right through to Pakse, a mainish town on the main highway through Laos. I had a brilliant idea, a revelation! Get the hell outa the south of Laos.
I did something I have never done, took an overnight bus north to the capital Vientiane. 10 hours from 8pm to 6am and able to get me 677km further north. The bus was a sleeper bus whereby you could lay down and try to sleep. Boring so won’t explain.
Vientiane is OK. 2 nights here is enough and last night I had another revelation, fly outa here and get even further north! Would you sit on a bus for up to 11 hours on a twisty turny road when you could fly over scenic Laos for maybe an hour and only pay $87.20?
But there’s a good reason (re: excuse) for these revelational acts of massive distance travel. Southern Laos has been a wild ride (thanks only to me) but has its limits, northern Laos is where a lot of the scenic action is. I will now spend 3 weeks travelling slowly and using crap transport to get from H(ere) to H(ell). Let’s see what unfolds . . .
Mekong River
A simple scene on the Mekong river in southern Laos.
1 Year 1 Month 1 Day
1 year I hope this trip lasts for and 1 month into the trip I finally had 1 day of serious travelling. Up until now it has been impossible to get off the backpackers trail which is fine but I have been growing impatient with it and wanting to get anywhere slightly remote. That happened yesterday . . .
From an island called Don Khong in southern Laos (which I should write about) I got a ride in the back of a songthaew (which I need to explain) and headed up highway 13 which runs almost the length of Laos from south to north, maybe north to south. I got out at the turn-off to route 18 which I won’t call a highway and many won’t call a road.
For some reason both Lonely Planet and my fav website TravelFish say nothing but bad things about this road so I had to give it a go. Two river crossings were shown on my map and the road is described as a goat track and impassable outside of the dry season. But I knew there were at least some villages along the way and even poor farmers have to use some transport to get to a town or market.
As soon as I arrived at the junction a guy approached me and offered me a ride, I should not have taken his offer but in a way it helped set up everything that follows. He took me to some sort of resort that had elephants but I didn’t want to go there. I did not accept his price for the short ride, paid him less and walked out to the road. I stood 50 metres from the shelter in the photo above where one of two women waved me to come over. These women were the second important event to happen.
After a short while a ‘Duk Duk’ came along, thats the machine in the above photo, sort of looks like the front of a small tractor with long handlebars and with a cart attached. They are also used for ploughing and I’m sure other purposes. The women flagged it down and we all hopped in with the family who owned it. So the two women quickly taught me what to do about transport. I should also say that this route 18 goes from nowhere to nowhere.
I immediately found out how kind and friendly poor Lao farmers are. These Duk Duks creep along at a slow steady pace when the road conditions allow and except for the heat and dust and discomfort are a great form of transport. We jumped out when the farmers took a side track into the bush, I guess there must be villages scattered throughout the bush all over the place.
The three of us waited for a short while until a second Duk Duk came along and we jumped in.
After Duk Duk No:2 the women started walking. I trotted along behind not knowing what was happening but knew that it was all right. The walk took us to their village where they waved and walked off and I waited under a shady tree for awhile until Duk Duk No:3 came along. This time it was me alone who imposed himself upon the hapless family and away we went.
And this is them. See, plenty of room in the cart for a huge foreigner. At their village they left me at a nice shady spot and there I waited again. Not once did anyone ask for money, they just help each other and strangers too.
Looking at my map I was less than happy with the lack of progress. Oh well. Soon a lush new 4WD came along and I flagged it down pretty much expecting it to stop. Inside were two sisters obviously well off and both very chatty and pleased to pick up a foreigner.
This is them. I have no idea what they were doing out here but they soon stopped by the first river crossing and proceeded to prepare lunch with several men living or working there.
This is the river crossing, a natural rock outcrop that trucks, 4WD and bikes can get across. Beautiful place.
One is compelled to share a beer with the local drunk, it helped that it was stored in the freezer section of the fridge thus very cold. We shared his first beer (the first while I was there) and had a second which he arranged for me to pay for. 90c for a small can.
This was lunch. Beef served in a few tasty forms. The rice was different in that it was very sticky so you used your fingers and had to break pieces off, this worked well. The ‘salad’ was unique even though I’ve seen similar on a smaller scale. At least 10 different greens but most of them are very earthy and basic. almost like eating anything out of your garden that may have the slightest taste of something. Some I liked and I am sure were good for you.
When lunch was over I sensed that the women weren’t going any further so I said some goodbyes and walked across the river.
Only now does the story get interesting. This photo is just a farm of sorts in the dense bush, came across very few signs of habitation in this area, this particular farm (I have doubts anyone lives here fulltime) seemed new and looked attractive.
I knew that the mid section of this road was remote and very isolated and did not expect much traffic at all, I even expected to spend the night out here somewhere either in a village or in my tent. I started walking and after another small river crossing came to a fork in the road, this is not supposed to happen. i went left based on the amount of tyre tracks in the dust. I then decided I would go no further at forks in the road until I met someone and could ask the way (a small town named Attapue was the destination).
Not long after a couple I met briefly at the river crossing came along on the big Honda motorbike. Even though there was no room they half offered half insisted they give me a lift. I half refused and half accepted. At this point none of us knew we were on the wrong road so they half saved my sweet behind. (I was not in any danger but faced many gruelling kilometres in between whatever rides I chanced upon).
At times the road was a joke and many times myself and the Swiss man’s wife had to get off so the bike could be carefully navigated through water, mud and slush and over rocks and logs and many and various hazards. It may be possible that having me along helped to pull and push the bike in very difficult places, at least I am sure people feel better in a ‘team’ during tough times.
In the photo above you can see the shutters that protect my camera’s lens are stuck, easy fixed. The men are some of the few groups we came across and they proved valuable for information, especially to those who don’t know they are on the wrong road in the middle of nowhere. I personally was stunned by the excessive amount of kilometres we were covering, it didn’t work in with the map.
Remember this. If ever you are unknowningly lost in southern Laos and have hitched a ride with a Swiss motorcyclist be sure that his wife is Thai. Thais and the people of Laos speak the same language. This definitely was our salvation or at least saved endless hours and drama. She was able to communicate with these groups we met and they told us how to get to the main road.
It was getting later then we would have liked and very dusty and tiring (I washed my shirt last night but nothing happened, I think it is permanently stained). The road improved a little and soon we came to a village by a river. The village was named Pindon and I want to remember it as it seemed a beautiful place to be if forever lost in the Laos countryside. We had to go further for the river crossing we needed to take.
Due to the difficulty of this epic journey I didn’t always get to take the best photos or enough photos to tell the story, saving the bike from falling over in difficult situations and helping it through rocks and mud was much more important.
So here is the final river crossing. The truck on the other side soon crossed over but the driver must have thought it would be more exciting to cross when the bike was being ferried across (see below). This crossing although a rocky riverbed was knee deep and too deep for the bike but a beautiful place!
Some intrepid local kids earned a few Kip by ferrying across anything that needs assistance, that includes big bikes. Getting the bike on and off this improvised punt was a drama but like all wild places, people do what they have to do so things work out.
This bad photos reminds me that it was truely getting late and although we knew we still had an hour or so of riding to get to Attapeu, we knew that the road would/should be much better. It proved to be an excellent dirt road but a long ride to town in the dark. My thighs had given in by now and I was suffering big time but what do you do? Shut-up and hold on.
Arriving in town is not worth talking about. I have met Fredrick and his wife today and may again tonight. They have a seriously damaged they must get replaced before riding into Vietnam. Seems a difficult problem to solve in remote southern Laos but he told me he has had similar battles in Iran and Afghanistan so I am sure he’ll work it out.
How to sum up such a day? Dramatic? Amazing? Extreme adventure? Crazy? Brilliant? Still working that out. A mixture or combination of all I think.
