It was quite a shock going from super busy Hanoi to arriving in sleepy Luang Prabang in Laos. Jodie and I exited the airplane ramp on to the tarmac and noticed that there was only one plane at the airport, our plane. I guess that is what you get when you go from a country of 86 million to one of 6 million. It was exactly what we were looking for. Luang Prabang is a small town of maybe 40,000 people. It is nestled securely between the Nam Ou and Mekong rivers on a small scenic peninsula. There are lots of old buildings and temples in the city which is one of the reasons it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. We really need to start keeping track of all the UNESCO sites we have visited, they are starting to add up. Although pretty popular with the tourists, Luang Prabang definitely was alot quieter than many of the cities that we had been to. After being surrounded by the roar of traffic all day everyday, it was weird to have silence again. Also there was hardly anyone trying to sell us stuff as we walked down the wide sidewalks. Every once in a while a tuk tuk driver would ask if we wanted to go to a waterfall, but that was it. The Laos people definitely seemed more easy going and laid back than their neighbors. The first day we were in Luang Prabang we just wandered around the streets and relaxed by the Mekong drinking Beer Lao. My favorite local dish is beef laap. It's a spicy minced meat dish mixed with cilantro, mint, and bean sprouts. Jodie's favorite food is the nutella banana crepes that you can order from any street conrner stand for $1. Their is definitely a French feel to this town as seen in the architecture and scrumptious food selections. The next day we took an elephant trek through the jungle which was amazing. We rode a 40 year old female elephant named Ton Khum or something like that. Each elephant had a handler/caretaker called a Mahout who sat on it's neck and gave verbal commands and foot pokes behind their ears to steer them. Jodie and I rode on a little bench/saddle that was strapped to the back of the elephant. Within about 2 minutes of riding our Mahout motioned to me to switch spots with him so I gladly oblidged. I'm not sure if he wanted to let me drive, or just wanted to sit by Jodie but I didn't argue. After an awkward tango on top of the elephant, the Mahout and I switched positions and I was sitting on the elephants neck, with my legs tucked neatly behind its ears. It was awesome! The first thing I noticed was how rough its skin was, and how coarse the hair was. The elephant was continually flapping its ears against my legs and occasionally blew some fluid out of its trunk misting my legs. Kinda gross but I figured it was a sign of affection. The Mahout thought it was pretty funny. After about 20 minutes of lumbering along through the forest Jodie and I switched positions and she got to steer. I don't think the elephant liked Jodie as much because she didn't get sprayed with snot. Before too long Jodie switched back with the Mahout and we descended down into a river. The elephants seemed to really like this because they got to drink and occasionally spray water on themselves and us. One elephant was particularly unruley and soaked the girl that was riding her. I'm pretty sure the Mahout was telling the elephant to do it, but he acted like the elephant wasn't obeying him. Soon after we strolled back up the river bank and passed a school with children playing soccer and waving. Then we passed by a monastery where we saw some monks in thier orange robes outside sweeping and talking. It felt very Lao. We returned back to the elephant camp, thanked our Mahout and thanked our elephant by feeding her bananas. It was really amazing being so close to them and seeing how agile their trunks were. We even got to feed a 7 year old 'baby' elephant. It was fun to hold your hand out and the baby elephant would grab your hand with the end of its trunk like it was shaking hands. What a wonderful experience. Jodie says she was a bit scared while riding the elephant because right before we got on, one of the other tourists was telling her about a show he just watched called "when animals attack". We were literally walking up to the elephants when he went into detail about some elephants who snapped and went crazy on their trainers. Jodie was like "not cool dude." She loved it despite the scare.
One of the unique things about Luang Pragang is its morning alms procession of the monks. Every morning around sunrise, about 200 Buddhist monks with their shaved heads and orange robes line up and walk down the side walk of the main street and receive alms from the towns people. Each monk has a metal drum-looking container that he carries slung over his shoulder as he walks down the street. The towns people have large containers of rice that they hold out to the monks as they walk by and scoop out their food for the day. It was a really mesmorizing sight. However it was disheartening to see tourists stand 3 feet away from the monks with their huge cameras snapping away right in the faces of the monks. These monks have been doing this for much longer than the tourists have been around and it felt very disrespectful watching this take place. Jodie wanted to punch a girl that was tramping around in a skimpy dress.
The next day we took a mini bus up to a town called Nong Khiaw which was recommended to us by some people we met in Halong Bay. The ride took three hours and was very beautiful. Laos is a very mountainous country and the jungly peaks are incredibly steep. As soon as we arrived in tiny Nong Khiaw we knew we would love it. It straddles a river, connected by a tall bridge and surrounded by beautiful cliffs. The town probably has less than 300 people living there, so it was really quiet. We found a small bamboo hut on the bank over looking the river for 80,000 kip or about 9 dollars. It was pretty basic, but had a small porch and a perfect spot to hang our travel hammock so that was all we needed. It was fun sitting on our porch in the evenings and watching the local kids play in the river as the sun set. It was very scenic. One morning we went out rock climbing with a guide on some local cliffs. Our guide was British, he had been living there for 3 months and was hired to start up some rockclimbing in the area. He and his two assistants, Pet and Wan, had been working hard making trails, clearing brush and bolting climbing routes. All three were a lot of fun and we had a great time climbing in an area that only a handful of people had climbed before. After eating a Lao lunch of fried pork, vegetables and sticky rice, with our new climbing friends, we escaped the hot sun and walked down to the river for a refreshing swim. The water was cool but rejuvenating and it was the perfect way to cool off. Nong Khiaw had strange but predictable weather. In the morning it was always cloudy and quite cool requiring a light jacket. Everyday about 10 AM the clouds would lift and it would rapidly heat up until it was pretty hot. After the sun would set it would cool off and the same exact thing would happen the next day. We spent a little more time in Nong Khiaw than we had planned, but we figured why mess with a good thing. Jodie says she felt privileged to experience a rare "unspoiled" place and we both wonder what it will be like in 10 years from now. She also loved Nong Khiaw not only because of it amazing landscape but also because there seemed to be a puppy around every corner. A little bit of Heaven on Earth for her.
We did need to make our way down to Vientiane and we thought it would be fun to take a boat back to Luang Prabang, then catch a bus. The boat ride took about 7 hours, but it was beautiful the whole way winding through narrow valleys and past jagged peaks. The boat was very long and skinny, maybe 5 feet wide by 40 feet long. We lucked out and got to sit in the front comfy seats but soon found out that the front seats get a little wet from the spray of the boat. It was really cool seeing all of the locals on the river fishing, washing clothes and to see the happy children playing. About 3 hours in the boat, the driver stopped the boat on the bank and told us that the river got really shallow up ahead so we would have to get out and take a taxi for a little ways. Luckily we had a Lao girl on the boat to translate for us or we would have been even more confused. All 15 people got off the boat, walked up to the local village and piled into the back of a truck. There was a little boy in the village who started crying as soon as this big German guy came near him, it was pretty funny. We drove for about 10 minutes then stopped in another little village, walked back down to the river and boarded our boat. About half an hour later, the driver pulled the boat over again and this time we had to walk down the bank of the river for 15 minutes before fording a portion of the river to get back in the boat. Its funny how they didn't mention these little detours when we bought our tickets. We made it back to Luang Prabang safely and were happy to have a good meal and a comfy bed to sleep in because we had another long day of travel ahead of us. We awoke early to catch our 9 hour bus to Vientiane. Shortly after leaving we realized that the shortest distance between two points is NOT a road in Laos. I don't think there was a straight stretch of road for the first 6 hours. Some times it seemed like the road would climb a mountain just for the sake of climbing it, not to actually get anywhere. Luckily I took some dramamine or I'm sure I would have lost my omelette. The Lao girl sitting across the isle was not so lucky. She threw up about every half hour almost the whole way to Vientiane. We felt so bad for her, she seemed miserable. We offered her some dramamine but she said she had already taken some so there wasn't anything we could do.
We arrived in Vientiane with tired butts, turned stomachs, and grumpiness to find a hot city with no available hotel rooms. We wandered with our backpacks for about an hour and the only places we could find were either REALLY sketchy with unthinkable smells and sunken beds or expensive budget blowing rooms. Sweaty, frustrated and fearing catching some hard to pronounce disease, we opted for the last available midrange nicer room. Our spirits quickly lifted as we mellowed out over 2 Beer Lao and some undercooked pizza. There was quite a few mosquitos at our restaurant, so when I asked our waiter if they had mosquito coils, he shook his head yes and then brought out our pizza undercooked. I think he thought I was getting anxious for our pizza. We asked them to cook it some more and when it came back 5 minutes later it seemed a little hotter but just as doughy. We gave up and just decided to eat it. Lost in translation. Jodie says that anytime I ask for something, I am always told "ok ok" and then something completely random is brought out. We always get a good laugh out of it. The next day, our final day in Laos, we mainly just took care of some planning we needed to do before leaving for Nepal. We didn't get out to see the city much, but we got our planning done.
We are now on our long journey to Kathmandu in Nepal. To save some money we bought some round a bout tickets to get to Nepal. We are flying from Vientiane to Kuala Lumpur, six hour layover, then Kuala Lumpur to Delhi, then an overnight layover in the airport, then on to Kathmandu. A good 24 hours of traveling to a country not that far away. This is typical Eli and Jodie. Although we wish we could explore Laos more, we are very excited about Nepal as this is the country we have been most looking forward to on our trip. We are planning on doing a two week trek while we are there in the Everest region if the weather cooperates. Prayers for good weather and safety are appreciated!
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