Loving Laos

I made a comment to Kristin that Laos seems to have a time machine built into it.....we just spent 9 days in Laos, traveling to 3 of the cities and it felt like we were only there for a couple of days. Kristin and I loved seeing Laos again and the kids and my mom had a great first time experience. Compared to the prior Asian countries we just visited, Laos is very layed-back. The locals have a saying here that we now use all the time - "Bo-pin Yon". It means no problem, chill, relax, no worries - and they mean it when they say it. I never heard or saw one person in Laos show any negative emotion - worry, hate, yelling, fear. It was nice to experience.

To get to the capital city of Laos called Vientiene, we flew from Bangkok to Udon Thani, Thailand. We then hired a guy with a pick up truck (it had a "decked out" truck bed with seats and air conditioning in the back for the kids) and he drove us about 40 minutes to the border of Laos. He dropped us off at the immigration checkpoint for a pre-negotiated rate of $25. We used an ATM to get some money and then filled out the required paperwork to enter the country. I'm glad we brought several small pictures of each of us - for the visas you are requied to buy to enter Laos, which cost $35 each. Once we "walked" into Laos, we hired another driver to drive us about 15 minutes to our hotel, the Parkview executive suites. This is the same great hotel where we stayed 2 years ago in Vientiene, which had a great pool and breakfast. It's probably a top 2 hotel in this city and cost us about $70 a night.

We were surprised at how Vientiane has changed in the last 2 years. On our last visit it seemed there were more mopeds and motorcycles than cars, but now I would say there are just as many or more cars on the streets. They also constructed a nice sidewalk on both sides of the main street which looks nice. We were also surprised to see a few ATM machines, which didn't exist two years ago in this communist country. Things are cheaper in Laos compared to the other Asian cities we have visited...they have nice French restaurants with dishes ranging from $3 to $5 dollars, fresh fruit shakes for about 70 cents, Lao traditional massages for $3 (they bend you like a pretzel and while it seems painful at times, you feel like a million bucks when you are done......think therapeutic massage......it's best to be a man and bite your pillow while they "work out" all the knots in your calves, lol), and a family of six can get a private tuk-tuk with driver to take you anywhere you want to go all day for $15.

Some of the markets here have probably been operating the same way for hundreds of years. Adam and I enjoyed "muddy market" which is several hundred tents attached together selling food and household items to locals. None of the food is refrigerated as people in Laos shop daily for their meals. The meat market was fascinating because they had live animals and fish for sale (eels, frogs, fish in buckets, turtles, beetles/bugs, etc). The meat section consists of "tents" where meat is being cut up with huge butcher knives (at times straight from the bucket or cage). This is no Albertson's, but I bet the meat is fresher. It was a little much for the girls, so we soon left for the "mall", called morning market. I use the word mall loosely, lol. This market contained everything from silks and clothes to some electronics and furniture. We even saw some flat panel televisions for sale in tents. An interesting combination of the past and present merging.

One of the things we enjoy most is the people we meet along the way. I keep telling the kids that it is not the destination but the journey that is the experience. We were invited to dinner by two couples serving a humanitarian mission here (the Oldhams and the Risers, both from Utah). They are providing the same service Kristin's parents provided two years ago, which involves teaching English and overseeing the construction of fresh water wells and bathrooms in schools (there are schools here with thousands of kids and no running water or bathrooms). There are also many other projects they are responsible for.

One fun thing we did was attend a "handover" which is a type of formal ceremony or presentation when a water well has been completed. We had the unique experience to sit at a head table where we enjoyed singing and dancing from the younger school children, heard speeches from local village leaders, and enjoyed a very traditional Lao meal with the dignitaries. We weren't prepared when they asked our family, including my mom, to sing for the school kids, teachers and village leaders. But we happily sang a song for them and I have to admit it didn't sound too bad. Thank goodness I was surrounded by talent. The many school children were all eyes as they listened to us sing for them.

It was great to visit with these couples serving a mission and we enjoyed the interesting conversations we had with them. They invited us to a nice dinner at their apartment where we enjoyed a great Lao style fish dinner with fried rice and apple crisp for dessert. Yummy! They also invited a gentleman who we met at church in Bangkok (Dustin Roses). He works for the embassy in Bangkok, but since he speaks fluent Lao he often travels to Laos for business. Anyway, we have met so many fun and interesting people and we hope to stay in touch with the new friends we have met along this journey.

One day we visited the Laos national zoo which is always a treat. It's fun to see many different animals, although the animals look a bit hungry. Yes, this is the same zoo that had a little "incident" a few years back. For some reason, they started missing some of the animals in the zoo. When it was further researched, it was discovered that the zookeeper had been taking some of the animals home to eat. As you can guess, he is no longer employed as the zoo keeper and I am happy to report that the zoo seemed to have more animals than during our last visit. :) This is also the zoo where they have one of the only white elephants in the world. You can also take a short ride on an elephant (bareback) for about 60 cents. On the way home, we stopped at a riverside restaurant where we ordered our food and then hopped on a private boat equipped with a table to eat our food. We cruised up a peaceful river for an hour, ate a nice meal and floated back to our restaurant while we lounged in their big pillow beds in the boat. Seems like we paid about $30 for all the food, the driver, the boat and our waitress. We saw them catching fish at the restaurant, so the food was very fresh and delicious.

We hired a mini van driver in Vientiene who said we could call him "Mr. Pon" to take us north through Laos. It was $100 per day, which included his gas, and money for a place for him to stay at night. He drove us north to a fun little "resort" town called Vang Vieng where we stayed right along a river in some bungalows for about $50 a night. You can have a garden view for $25 a night - the rooms are great. Unlike other parts of Asia, this was our first time back among beautiful mountains. It reminded us of Utah a bit, but the mountains here are rounded, tall, green, and have monkeys living in them - although we didn't see them. This is a nature kind of place and great for relaxing. Some people refer to Vang Vieng as a party town because they sell giant bottles of Lao Beer for only 75 cents. People can float down the river stopping at riverside bars along the way equiped with huge rope swings (interesting combination - beer and rope swings). While there are some young backpackers from Europe taking advantage of the cheap beer, we never saw this section of the river in the evening with the kids. We did, however, hire our own longboat and driver to take us up the river in the morning for about $8. It was great to see the people washing their clothes, kids taking baths and water buffalo getting a drink....it really was beautiful. We also walked across the river (warmer water only knee deep with a strong current) and hired a "tractor" tuk to take us for a 20 minute drive into the back country. We stopped at a beautiful mountain river, swam and jumped out of a tree into the water. It also had a rope swing and the kids loved it. There were fish in the river and it had crystal clear water. As we "tuked" back to the bungalow, we also enjoyed all the sites including the homes and seeing first hand how people live in this remote area. We also enjoyed the food of the riverside restaurant at our bungalow in Vang Vieng.

After 4 days in Vientiene, and 1 night in Vang Vieng, we had our driver take us even further north to a city called Luang Probang. This is the place I would recommend for anyone wanting to come to a remote resort type town looking to "Bopin Yon" (chill, relax or as the kids say - chilax). The drive is not good for people who get car sick, as it is six hours of mountain "switch back" driving. Our driver had to step on his brakes several times to avoid hitting cows, chickens, pigs, dogs, goats, water buffalo, and even kids and adults living in the many remote mountain villages along the road. We stopped about 1/2 way along our drive and ate at a small local "restaurant". It was the simplest menu I have ever seen, as they offered one thing - soup for 75 cents. We were surprised when we tasted an absolutely delicious bowl of some form of chicken and vegetable soup with fresh basil and mint. At least we think it was chicken, ha.

We arrived in Luang Probang and found a pretty city nestled between two rivers - the Mekong and the Nahm Kahm river. I laughed because we arrived without a place to stay (which isn't the first time we have done this on this trip). We did some research before we came and used our travel books to find a few places where we walked through the rooms. Some of them were booked, but we received a referral from a guest house for a place called Villa Riverside. It ended up being in a great location with a river view with rooms for three for $50 a night. I would recommend anyone to stay here, especially if you can get the upstairs VIP room with balcony for $60 a night. Luang Probang would be an excellent vacation spot for anyone needing to Bopin Yon or Chilax. The whole town is within walking distance, and has a certain charm to it - superb restaurants (French, Lao, Scandinavian bakeries, American style, etc), spas containing facials, seaweed rubs, massages and very friendly people. In the town each morning we could hear the monks nearby beating their drums about 6:30 am before they lined up in an orderly procession to walk the streets with their rice bowls. The Buddhist religion has a strong belief that in order to reach "Nirvana" or heaven you must be a good person and serve others. When they walk the town in the morning, it gives other people a chance to serve the monks and place a small amount of rice in their bowl while on their knees. The rice they receive is the only food they will eat for 24 hours. Almost all males serve as monks during their life and they select whether they do it for a matter of days, weeks, months or a lifetime. We enjoyed seeing all the monks in their orange robes, who ranged in age from young boys to old men.

One morning, Kristin and I were out jogging and we came to a boat pier. We met a man who told us he had a boat and he offered to take us for a ride. We told him we wanted to take our family to some remote villages where no people or tourists go and he told us he could do that. We arranged to meet the next morning at 9 am and hired him to take all six of us for 1/2 a day for $25. While we enjoy the tourist spots, we have found that the most memorable and interesting things are often "off the beaten path". This proved to be no exception. The first village he took us to was a paper and weaving village. It was so nice to have him as an interpreter so we could ask him questions about the people living there and their customs. We saw how they made paper from bark and elephant dung (no the paper didn't smell).

Our next stop was even better, as it was a very remote Lao village containing 280 people in total. Our boat pulled up to the river bank and our driver threw out his 8 foot wooden plank for us to get to shore. We didn't see anything but a rocky shore and then a jungle of trees about 100 yards from the river. We "hiked" up large boulders and followed him through a path for 1/2 mile until we came to the village. The people were surprised to see us, but were friendly. We spoke to a family which consisted of a mom and 6 kids. They lived in a primitive stick home and made seaweed "paper" (which is used for cooking) to earn an income. Through our interpreted conversation we found out that the dad had died several years ago. They took their seaweed paper into the Luang Probang market in the mornings to sell (the average income in Laos is $50 a month).

We got back into the boat and went further up the river. We stopped and walked about a mile to our last stop which was a very remote village of about 60 people. They were not Lao, but were known as the "Khmu" Hmong or mountain village people. They were very poor people. They had their own language which our guide knew how to speak. They were all eyes when we walked up, but made us feel welcome with their smiles. One woman was breast-feeding her child without a shirt. You could tell they had nothing and had a slight look of desperation in their eyes. The women and children brought us some of their handicraft items they had made. Even though we didn't need anything they had, we happily bought about $40 worth of items from them which made them extremely happy. Our guide told us later he was very glad we bought from them, because now they could buy food. He told us that this village was so poor they would eat "anything" including cats, dogs, bats, and rats. The villagers couldn't believe our ages, especially that my mom was old enough to be my mother. They thought she looked way too young. It was cute and we thoroughly enjoyed our translated conversation asking questions back and forth.

Before we left, we walked up to a small open-windowed building on a hill which was the village school. It had one teacher who taught all the children from ages 5 to 16 years old. The school currently had about 55 children enrolled which came from numerous villages. On the outside of the building we saw in white paint the letters - SCOOL. That might be an indication as to the quality of education which is currently being taught. As we left, Adam mentioned that when he gets home, he would like to help this village with clothes or school supplies for his Eagle project. We thought it was a great idea.

Luang Probang did become one of our favorite places and we were sad to leave this place where time seems to slows down. The markets had fresh fruit and other things for sale, including crispy bats and rats on a stick. I don't think these would sell well in the US, even though I am sure they taste like chicken and contain protein. The last item I will mention is the hike of 400 steps we took to get to the top of a Buddha temple in the middle of the city. At the bottom of the steps we saw these little birds (finches?) in very small straw cages. Two birds to a cage. They were selling them as an offering to Buddha. We bought the kids each a cage of birds for $2 each and they hiked to the top of the temple where they had a chance to release them. Being the animal lovers they are, they loved releasing these birds into the wild.

If you decide to visit Luang Probang, it is also worth your time to visit the local waterfall. We hiked up and saw about 6 mini waterfalls until we came to the largest waterfall at the top. This is another fun place to swim in the crisp and refreshing water.

We were sad to leave Laos and all the great memories which will soon seem like a dream. We bought tickets for $100 each to fly to our next location (which seemed reasonable, as the only other way to get there was by a 2 day river trip). We always look forward to taking our backpacks to our next location, as it is a location where we have never been - the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

DEAL OF THE WEEK: The country of Laos should be named "Deal of the Week" as this was the cheapest place we have been. My number one choice for deal of the week would be the excellent haircuts that Adam and I received in Vientiene. It really was a great cut and fun to see them do all the final trim work with a real razor blade (the kind I used to see Floyd use on Andy Griffith in Mayberry). The price of the haircuts were $2 each and when we tipped 75 cents, they thought we were extremely generous as they gave us huge smiles. In fact, for two haircuts and all the girls getting their fingernails and toe nails painted, the total bill was $9. We also did our fair share of selfless research in the spas, which contain massages ranging from $3 to $9 an hour.

FUNNY STORY OF THE WEEK: It's only fair that my mom contributes to "funny story of the week" before her vacation ended last Friday. When we were in Vang Vieng, I mentioned that we walked across a river and took a tractor tuk into the mountains to go for a swim. Well, it was a very bumpy ride on a rocky and dusty road and it took longer than we remembered...about 25 minutes. My mom had to use a restroom and when our driver stopped the tuk she thought our ride was over. She said she saw a sign that pointed to a toilet. She jumped out of the tuk and asked a lady who didn't speak English where the toilet (the only word they understand for restroom) was located. The Lao woman waved her hands in a way that said "follow me" as she walked quickly towards a Lao style home. My mom walked through their house, across the bedroom/kitchen open room, down a ladder, through a bunch of chickens and then down to a little shack by the river. She had the opportunity to use the type of bathroom here known as a "squatter", which is basically a hole in the ground. On top of the hole is a porcelain lid. Oh, they also supply you with a bucket of water and a wooden ladle which allows one to manually "flush". While all of this was happening, our tuk driver, in broken English, asked us where my mom had gone. We told him she went to the toilet and he said "not here, not toilet" and pointed ahead to our final destination. Come to find out, my mom was using a private toilet in this lady's house. We laughed when my mom got back as she told us about hiking down ladders and past chickens to use her first "squatter". When we arrived at the river where we swam, we saw the public toilet, even though it was no longer needed. Thanks to mom for letting me share this story and for joining us on our adventure in Asia. It was great to have her and we were sad to see her leave. It was probably the fastest 3 weeks of her life.

SPECIAL NOTE: Mom wanted to say hello to Ireland and Kylie and to tell them she misses them and will see them soon. She also wanted to say hello to Walt and Juan and everyone at work.