SE Asia Holiday Part 6: Cruisin' down the Mekong to Luang Prabang

After the village visit, our tour group hopped into our very own longboat (no more cramped seating!) and headed towards the city of Vang Vieng.  But before reaching there, we stopped here at the Pak Ou Caves.

At the junction of the Mekong and Ou Rivers, a cave exists in the rock cliffs (see the white portion in the upper photo).  Our boat parked here and we climbed some steps into the cave.

What's in the caves, you ask?  Hundreds of Buddhas that people have placed here.  A Buddha shrine.

They have flower arrangements you can purchase and give as an offering to the Buddha.  Here I am, giving my offering.

(Note "bad hair day" bandanna, this is after no shower at the village!)

Buddhas, Buddhas, Buddhas

In addition to heaps of temples and Buddhas, you also see a lot of these around SE Asia.

Often they'll be in yards of homes, or I even saw a few in the parking lots of gas stations!

They are spirit houses.  It's a miniature house or temple, usually on a pillar.  These houses are intended to provide a shelter for spirits which could cause problems for people (residents of the house, customers of the business) if not appeased.  People leave votive offerings to keep the spirits happy.  Which is why very often you'll see half full bottles of water or juice by the spirit house.... people aren't littering, they're just keeping the spirits content!

The Buddha on the left, with left hand down and right hand up, is the "Pacifying the Relatives" pose. (I'm not joking!)   The Buddha on the right, with both hands down, is in the "Calling for Rain" pose.  Rain is needed for rice, Laos' main crop, to grow.  

After the caves and Buddhas, we spent a night in the cruisey town of Vang Vieng.  The best description of this town is "chillaxed".  The main activity there is taking an inner tube and floating down the Nam Song river.  There's several bars along the way with treacherous rope swings and slides, where people die every year.  I decided to steer clear of the loads of alcohol and dangerous toys and just cruise on down with my British mates Vicky and Chris.  We had a lovely float and escaped injury free.  (Sadly no photos to show as my camera isn't waterproof!)

Next stop was Luang Prabang, another city along the Mekong River.

The must-see attraction here are the Kuang Si waterfalls.  So as soon as we checked into our hotel, a bunch us hailed a tuk-tuk (basically a taxi/pickup truck w/seats in the cab) and off to the Falls we went!

(Tourmates L-->R Vicky, Lauren, Chris, Dave, Boxer, and Ash)

At the Waterfalls they also had a Black Bear Rescue Centre.  The bears have been rescued from the illegal wildlife trade.  

Now they get to sit around in treehouses and sleep in hammocks all day...

Or slow dance and growl at each other.... :)

Next up were the absolutely gorgeous Kuang Si Waterfalls!  So refreshing, and great chance for a swim.

Boxer, Dave and I cooling off

Such a gorgeous cascading Falls....

And the mother of all waterfalls--- Probably the prettiest waterfall I've seen in my LIFE!

After our tuk-tuk ride back to town and the hotel, I strolled down the road to catch the sunset over the Mekong River.   

When the sun goes down in Luang Prabang, it's time for the night markets!  Heaps of beautiful fabrics, purses, clothing, you name it.  And LOTS of foods to try!  We hit up a vegetarian smorgasbord.   All you can fit on one plate!  For like, one US dollar :)

There are quite a few temples and monasteries in Luang Prabang.  Another must-do activity here is to witness the ritual of morning alms by the monks.   Each morning, the monks, dressed in their saffron robes, walk through the town collecting their nourishment from the townspeople for the day.  This is the only food they are allowed to eat.

The alms start early (5:30ish, so we woke early, stood to the side to not intrude on this sacred event), and watched from afar.

Since we were up so early, Vicky and I decided to head for a little walk.  Apparently the view is amazing from Phu Si Hill, in the middle of town.  Plus, there's a temple at the top.  We climbed over 300 steps (at 6AM, in the heat/humidity, ugh!) to get to the temple.

The view was worth it!  

Later that morning we boarded our bus to continue our journey, this time on land, down through central Laos.

SE Asia Holiday Part 5: Village Visit!

Probably one of the most special parts of the trip was our visit to one of the Lao Villages.  After our 2nd day of longboat riding, the boat dropped us off at Ban Lad Khammune, a riverside village pretty much in the middle of nowhere.   The village and the tourguide company have an agreement where the group members have a 'homestay' overnight in the villager's houses.

We arrived in the village and were welcomed warmly by the children, all presenting us with a small bouquet of flowers wrapped in a piece of writing paper.  So adorable!

Next up we had a walking tour of the village.

A typical family home.

Jana and I met our hostess for the evening, a lovely lady.  Her house was very basic but impeccably tidy.  She gave us mats to sleep on the floor (and a mosquito net, for later in the evening).

Next up we saw the school.  School was on break at the time, so the kids were all wild and playful around the village.  

Noy, our Lao local guide, gave us a quick crash course in Lao...

The village Temple

This fellow sat on his porch weaving a fishing net.  Yes, WEAVING a FISHING NET.  By hand.  Talk about patience!

Here a man and lady were de-husking the rice, which involves grinding it with this big long pestle then tossing the husks off by flipping the flat basket on the left.  Hard work!

It was such a privilege to be a guest at this village.  However, the language barrier was tough- these folks knew just about no English (just as we knew very little Lao!).  Sign language and charades help some, but I thought the best language to use was through play, with the village children.

They loved to pose for photos with my digital camera!

(and then, of course, immediately want to see the picture on the screen after!)

Some more of the local children.

Being silly!

The little guy in the blue shirt found a basketball, so we started a massive game of "Monkey in the Middle". When that got a little too rowdy, we switched to "Tag".  Then some sort of "Duck Duck Goose" equivalent, which involved hopping on one foot.   They were laughing as I tried desparately to learn the rules (and miserably failed!)

After getting quite sweaty and dirty running around with the local kiddos, it was time to freshen up before dinner.  Yeah, no shower or flush toilets here, so bathing consisted of a nice sponge bath with a bucket of water.    Mmmm squeaky clean.

Next it was "Happy Hour" in the village.  First they offered us a rice wine that needed to be sipped out of tubing in this cauldron.  It was sweet and actually ok tasting.

Next came the infamous lao-lao... a rice whiskey.  Absolutely disgusting!   But we had to be polite and have a shot or two, as it's disrespectful not to.  Blech.

After we were happy from Happy Hour, it was time for the "Baci" Ceremony.  It is a traditional Lao way to celebrate an important event (such as a dozen Western tourists visiting your village!)

The ceremony revolves around "kwan", which are the forces that give breath and life to the body.  Lao belief says that the body is made up of 32 organs and the kwan watch over and protect each one of them.  Wandering kwan is often the cause of illness.  The Baci Ceremony helps to bring back the kwan to re-establish equilibrium.

The ceremony requires a lot of prep work.  It involves a "pha kwan", a silver table, on which is a vase containing flowers and many white cotton threads.  Around the table are foods such as sweets and fruits (symbolizing the coming together of many parts), a bottle of lao-lao (for purification), and a boiled whole chicken, with head and claws (for divination purposes).

At the introduction to the ceremony, everyone needs to touch the pha kwan.

The "maw pawn" (village elder), leads the ceremony and chants some Buddhist mantra, and then calls upon the wandering kwan to return to the participants.  Next up, the villagers all begin to tie the white strings around the participants' wrists, while chanting blessings for health, success, safe travel, and even fertility.  The white symbolizes peace, good fortune, honesty and warmth.  The strings symbolize continuity and brotherhood in the community.  

It was such a neat experience having 15 different people tying strings on your arm at the same time while blessing you in a foreign language.  The room was chaos!

Here with my 32 strings :)

As part of the tradition, the strings need to be left on for 3 days, and need to be untied rather than cut.

Next up we got to eat the food that was given as gifts.

Our tourguide was given the chicken head.  He wasn't a fan.  I said I'd try it!

It was quite crunchy, but not disgusting.  Glad I tried it, but would never order it off a menu.

The evening ended by a large feast, lively music, and dancing with the locals.  And, of course, more lao-lao.

I slept quite well despite a thin mat on a floor-- the food, drink, and dancing wore me out!

The next morning we said farewell and "kob jai lai lai" (thank you very much) to our new Lao friends, young and old.

SE Asia Holiday Part 4: Destination Laos!

After the action packed 2 days in Chiang Mai, it was time to get on the road again--- this time a comfortable van ride to the border of Thailand and Laos.  We stopped along the way to see the famous Wat Rong Kuh, aka the "White Temple".

As you can see, *not* Gold!   This is actually a contemporary Buddhist and Hindu temple, designed by Chalermchai Kositpipat.  It's actually a work in progress- as we were there, workers were still painting and gluing little mirrors to it.  The all white temple is meant to signify the purity of Buddha.  On the inside, the front of the temple looks pretty typical.  However the back wall displays a huge mural depicting current political and pop culture references such as Osama bin Laden, the Twin Towers, George W, Spiderman, and Michael Jackson.  Definitely a comtemporary temple!

The equally amazing reason to visit the White Temple are its Toilets.

Cheeeeck these babies out!

Somewhere these were voted some of the nicest toilets in the WORLD!

The insides are fairly normal, but nice and clean.  It's the outside that's majorly impressive.

Next up was driving to the border.  We spent the night at a small border town called Huay Xai, not much going on there.  The border between Thailand and Laos here (and in several other places too), is the Mekong River.  Apparently there are giant catfish in this river that measure up to 3 meters in length and can weigh up to 300 kg.  They hold the Guinness Record for world's largest freshwater fish.  Dang!  (Note to self-  NOT swimming in *this* river!).  To embrace the local cuisine, I had a catfish soup for dinner in Huay Xai.  It was pretty good.

The next morning it was time to cross the border into Laos!

Thailand up front, Laos on the other side of the river.

The way to cross was to pay a few Baht for a literally 10 minute longboat ride across the river.

Boom!  Welcome to Laos!

Of course, there was a brief immigration/customs portion, but nothing too fierce.  All they really want is about 40 US dollars and to see your passport, then they'll let you in.

Next up was a slow boat ride down the Mekong.   It was the wet season, so the river was plenty full.  Roads often get flooded in the wet season, so boat was the most preferred method of travel for the time of year.

Below are the boats docked up, just waiting for passengers to take down the Mekong.

The mighty, muddy Mekong River.  

It's the 12th largest river in the world, and flows through China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Apparently in years prior, you had to sit on the hard wooden floor of these boats.  (The journey each day is 6 or more hours, by the way).   Which led to sore bums.   Now, for tourist comfort, they've installed seats that look like they were once in a train or van or something.  A little more comfortable (but still a long trip!)

It was a looooong journey, and most of the ride was a lot of nothing, but occasionally there were sights to see along the river bed.

Like these fancy stairs to a temple...

Some remote village huts...

And the occasional water buffalo!

After 6 hours of the loooongboat ride, we reached our nighttime destination, the small town of Pak Beng.

Tourism has helped this tiny town so much.  The town didn't have electricity until 2 years ago, when all the longboats started stopping here overnight and bringing $$ to the town!

Once we got to Laos, a local Lao guy joined our tourgroup to help us out with the language/culture/etc.  His name was Noy.  He was a wealth of knowledge!  I sat next to him at dinner that first night and asked him all about living in Laos.  Oh, and also asked him what to order for dinner.  He recommended this:

It's called "lap".  It's the national food dish of Laos, this version is beef.  Basically it's meat and herbs mixed together into a salad.  And LOTS of chili peppers!  Delicious.  A nice change from all the fried rice/fried noodles I was eating in Thailand.

So, there you have it- a highlight of the first portion of Laos, travelling down the Mighty Mekong.

Stayed tuned for more Laos adventures!