Excitingly relaxing Laos...
Then the time was come for me to visit Laos, a country I actuelly started to read about in my travelguide on the flight to Vientiane, - the capital...
First thought was that this was HOT! - I could feel meself melting on the runway..., and that pretty much stayed like this rest of the day/week... It was much hotter in Laos than any place I'v been so fare... maybe also the lack of closeness to the sea had something to that feeling?
I met anouther lone traveller on the airplaine, Aaron, and we decided to join forces and share a room in Vientiene, and we got a good room in a very new hotel at the riverside.
I think there is no other capital like Vientiane anywhere in the world (even I only seen a few...) This city is so quiet, that anywhere else it would have been counted as a "dead" city... Barely no activity in the streets, and little traffic...
I was relly impressed on hoe little pressure there was from shops and sellers, it was almost like noone cared to sell anything... it was really a relaxing atmosphere :) , and the sunset at the Mekong River....
Really nice !!!! Really a peaceful town, and maybe a nice place for lovers/couple, ... the town will leave lots of time to enjoy any friendship without to much influence... ;-) Only real strang thing was that there actually were quite a few shemales... :s
next Stop was Vang Vieng, - a real backpackers heaven, especially for those intrrested in pure fun-for-fun-sake, happy pizzas, long hours watching reruns of friends with friends in horisontal chairs, partying and relaxing without any thoughts of the outside world... I certainly want to go back there later, if I'm not travelling alone... But I felt it was not my place to use my traveltime this time (especially while on antibiotics), so I took the first bus out next morning,
leaving Aaron a note... :)
I decided to go to Phonsavanh to the the "Plain of Jars" (Norwegian: Krukkesletta). (
)
Actually there is more than one field of Jars, and in this city we (me and a chech couple) organized a tour the next day with a tourcompany to see the 3 main fields + a Hmong minority village... Very nice tour, and me and an english traveller both took lots of fun photoes at/with/under/in/on top of/becide/over the Jars :) I turned out to be a really nice day at the Jars :)
Luckyly we (again we and the chech couple) got lift with a private car to Luang Prabang the same evening, so we saved one day of travelling (all busses in Laos goes in daytime, so I could not do as in Vietnam, and do the travelling at night, and saving the days...
So we came late to Luang Prabang, and nothing much else to do but going to find a place to stay the night... pretty full the first places, so I basicly took the first offer. Took a stroll around the city, whith looked really nice, and used a couple of hours on the terrace together with the other travellers... sharing stories and fishing for info about what to do in Luang Prabang the next day... I already decided to only sta one day (two nights) here, and then take the 2 days slow boat to the Thai border the next morning.
So next day I used to walk around the city a little, get my 8.74 Gb with files burned on two DVD's, and visit the most impressive temple/wat in the city/town. There was many temples/wats in L/P/, but after soon two months in Asia,
temples is a bit same, same but different for me... But the streets in L.P are really nice and friendly.
The afternoon I used to take a tour to one of the waterfalls outside L.P, whitch was definitly a great decition :), Really a nice experience to walk and swin at/beneat the falls, - really a beautuful place... - I only wish I had someone to travel with at this time,.. some places are just more suited to be visited by more than one alone ;)
I really enjoyed my time there, and wish I had better time to soak in the amazing water.
The last two days in Laos I used to take a SlowBoat to the Thai border northwest in Laos. It was really a peaceful journey, with a beautiful view over the riverside of Mekong all the way... and some crazy FastBoats (speepboats) passing us time after time...
The boattrip was used to reading, playing games, take photoes, eating, study the views, planning ahead, tellig/listening to stories, jokes and so on... Also we were 4 ppl having cardgame, where the looser had to sing a song for the whole boat.... and soon "Oppna landskap" was heard loudly on the Mekong River... ;)
The worst thing in Laos was the ending, - the SlowBoat the second day suddenly for no reason was S L O W E R than usual several hours, so strangely we missed the chance to cross the border to Thailand by a short half hour... :( Next time I take a FastBoat the second day... ;s .... But it did not ruin the impession must, it still was enjoyable the last night... :-)
All in All.... Laos was amazing, and I REALLY want to go back here (with friends) to relax and enjoy, and hike in this beautiful country....
So far Laos is as a country , - on the top of my list over positive adventures :)
Egil,
currently in Thailand
- going to Burma / Myanmar...
