Well, one more time it's a lot to tell..
I left Vientiane to go to Xaysomboun on the 14th. After dozens of different things heard about the possible-or-not ways to go there, I eventually found a bus in Vientiane and the guy even said "from Vientiane you can go everywhere in Lao". He was right but the bus didn't go by Vang Vien like he thought, and rather by the east of Vientiane, through a nice road I hadn't seen before. After 11 hours of mountains roads, during which a nice Lao guy tried to talk to me half in Lao half in english, I got there. It's really beautiful there, high mountains with a bit of karst on it, and everything is soooo green. The city is not particularly nice or interesting, but the areas arround are, and if you walk 5 minutes you can see Phu Bia, 2800m high :), which is like 2km away from the town.
In short, this place was controlled by the CIA for a long time, and the Hmong people were fighting along with them, against the Lao army. They opened it to public in 2007, and I was apparently the first foreigner to go there. Therefore it was fun but not really easy, and they didn't know how to deal with me (it's not like in a village in the jungle where everything seems so simple).
No guesthouse available (or at least they didn't want me to stay) so I had to go to a hotel were the owner didn't speak a single word of english.. I improved my Lao a little bit. On the day after I met quite a lot of citizens, eather Hmong or Lao people, and I could talk with a couple of them that spoke english, it was very nice. Then I asked about possibilities to trek arround to the Hmong villages, but they were telling it was dangerous. Apparently it was true about the Phu Bia, but it seemed it was OK on the other side, so I took a nice nice nice walk there in the afternoon.
Sorry I can't put any pics from here..
I didn't know whether to try to go the Hmong villages on the days after, or go back to Vientiane, but when the Police came to find me in the restaurant I was eating in for dinner, it fixed my mind. They took my passport and I had to pay them to get it back on the morning after. Fortunately a very nice Hmong guy, english speaker, was with me and could negociate with them. Thus I left to head south of Lao: 11h bus back to Vientiane, 30min waiting there and 16h bus to Pakse in a row, in a bus with a broken battery, so lights were off when the driver were not accelerating.... Next time in Lao, I'll stop on the way though.
Anyway, once in Pakse I took directly another bus to the country side, a place called Tad Lo.
Tad Lo was sooooo relaxed, it was unbeleivable. The owner of the guesthouse is one of the nicest guy I met in my trip. We cooked with him and he showed us everything. We talked with him a lot, we shared meal with his family, rooms were very nice and cheap, etc etc. So I spent 3 nights there, and did walk around to waterfalls, rent a motorbike to visit the Boloven Plateau and enjoyed meals with very nice Lao and western people :) These times are part of the best I spent in Lao.
But since I had decided to go in the south of Lao, I thought I should take a look to other places, and therefore came to Champasak yesterday. I met a surprising Lao man that had lived in the US for 30 years in the bus by the way, but I'm afraid I can't tell about everything here ^^
This morning I went to visit Wat Phu, an Angkor-style temple from the 10th century, it was great as well.
Tomorrow I'll keep going south to the for thousands islands on the Mekong river for my last days in Lao. It's supposed to be even more relaxed than here... if it's true then it's close to a time crack.
Then on Tuesday morning I'll leave there to get back to Paksé and cross the border to Thailand. I'll try to sleep in Ayutaya and spend some time there on Wednesday, and I'll go catch my flight back to Paris at night. I'll be back on Thursday morning!
Saturday 21 August 2010
Friday 13 August 2010
Nong Khiaw - Luang Prabang - Vang Vien - Vientiane
Have to catch up, so I'll summarize a little bit :)
So I left Luang Nam Tha to go to Nong Khiaw, still not sure about my plans, but I met a really nice french guy in the bus. In the beggining I thought he was the exact copy of my brother, but he actally also had a little bit from another guy I know (big up Hugues ^^). Anyway I spent two days with him in Nong Khiaw, very beautiful and soooooo relaxed there! Real Lao people!
We were thinking about going to Mong Ngoi and then Sam Neua, but somehow we totally changed plans and decided to head south to Luang Prabang by boat. Nice boat drive on the Nam Ou, and we reached the old capital. It's a cute and old city, with a lot of temple, a lot of beautiful waterfall arround, and a lot of tourists. Prices and busyness changed from one extreme to another. We spent two nights a nice day there anyway. After this time I was supposed to meet Elsa, and I (and the other french guy too) was teared apart about our plan. I didn't know whether to keep on going on the tourist road: Vang Vien and Vientiane, but then be able to go south before the end of my trip, or to stick in the north of Lao, with nature, relaxed people and ethnic groups. I decided I would come back another time and we went south to Vang Vien.
We succeed to find a guesthouse in a farm, out of this junky-english-teenage city where we spent two other nights. The city got ugly with ***** tourists, but the areas arround are amazing, sorry to repeat myself again :) We rented bicycles for a day, discovered the country side and did quite good caving, nice!
Then I didn't wanna go to Vientiane and instead go to a small town that's open to tourists for only few years, in the east of Vang Vien, called Saisoumboune. Unfortunatly it's quite a mess to there, and everyone told me to go to Vientiane first, and catch a bus from there. So here I am, in the capital for few hours. It's not amazing here, and I'm really keen to leave to the mountains again tomorrow. There is the highest in Lao, and the region is more or less under control of Hmong people apparently. I hope I can go there, and get back by another way, cause I don't wanna come back here, and I wanna take a quick look in the south before heading back to Bangkok. The french guy went directly south to make a long trek in the jungle... well... I'll do a safer version of what he does next time.
So I'll probably won't have the internet in the next days (I had it in the last days though, but time was running, and we didn't wanna stay ages in the cities).
Nong Khiaw, view from a cave...
Boat to Luang Prabang, on the Nam Ou.
Waterfalls arround Luang Prabang.
So I left Luang Nam Tha to go to Nong Khiaw, still not sure about my plans, but I met a really nice french guy in the bus. In the beggining I thought he was the exact copy of my brother, but he actally also had a little bit from another guy I know (big up Hugues ^^). Anyway I spent two days with him in Nong Khiaw, very beautiful and soooooo relaxed there! Real Lao people!
We were thinking about going to Mong Ngoi and then Sam Neua, but somehow we totally changed plans and decided to head south to Luang Prabang by boat. Nice boat drive on the Nam Ou, and we reached the old capital. It's a cute and old city, with a lot of temple, a lot of beautiful waterfall arround, and a lot of tourists. Prices and busyness changed from one extreme to another. We spent two nights a nice day there anyway. After this time I was supposed to meet Elsa, and I (and the other french guy too) was teared apart about our plan. I didn't know whether to keep on going on the tourist road: Vang Vien and Vientiane, but then be able to go south before the end of my trip, or to stick in the north of Lao, with nature, relaxed people and ethnic groups. I decided I would come back another time and we went south to Vang Vien.
We succeed to find a guesthouse in a farm, out of this junky-english-teenage city where we spent two other nights. The city got ugly with ***** tourists, but the areas arround are amazing, sorry to repeat myself again :) We rented bicycles for a day, discovered the country side and did quite good caving, nice!
Then I didn't wanna go to Vientiane and instead go to a small town that's open to tourists for only few years, in the east of Vang Vien, called Saisoumboune. Unfortunatly it's quite a mess to there, and everyone told me to go to Vientiane first, and catch a bus from there. So here I am, in the capital for few hours. It's not amazing here, and I'm really keen to leave to the mountains again tomorrow. There is the highest in Lao, and the region is more or less under control of Hmong people apparently. I hope I can go there, and get back by another way, cause I don't wanna come back here, and I wanna take a quick look in the south before heading back to Bangkok. The french guy went directly south to make a long trek in the jungle... well... I'll do a safer version of what he does next time.
So I'll probably won't have the internet in the next days (I had it in the last days though, but time was running, and we didn't wanna stay ages in the cities).
Nong Khiaw, view from a cave...
Boat to Luang Prabang, on the Nam Ou.
Waterfalls arround Luang Prabang.
Friday 6 August 2010
Muong Sing
Well, first I'm quite angry or sad right now: I somehow lost a lot of pics. I lost all the pics from Hanoi as well as most of the pics from Muong Koua, that is to say one the places I prefered so far...
Whatever, appart from this I just had two really good days.
As I planned I went to Muong Sing, quite a small city, and cheap again. Once I got there I met again an American girl with who I had share dinner a couple of days before. Since we were two, it was enough to book on of this trek organized by eco-tourism association that are so popular here. I was a bit afraid it would turn out like the trek I did in Vietnam, but actually not at all. We did quite a long walk through the jungle first, like 5 hours at a serious rythme. There weren't any snakes there, but I wan tell you that the leeches (sangsues) where quite of a good company up there. We went pass by a couple of villages from different ethnic groups, and we reached an Akha village in the afternoon where we spent the night. First the people were shy, like went to villages on my own before, but then we could really got in touch with them, it was reaaally nice. They killed a chicken that we shared with them for a very good dinner, drank home made whisky, talk a little bit (almost all of them spoke Lao as well, and so they could speak to our guide who translated for us), they made us try their traditional costume (that they don't wear on the everyday life), and the top of this they gave us an Akha massage (strong!). Then we spent the evening together, we sang western songs and they replyed by singing very nice Akha songs... etc etc, in short it was a really magic moment up there, in the middle of these beautiful Lao mountains!
The american girl has got great pics of everything, but she'll send them to me later, so here are two pics I got. You can see at least of the children were happy to play with us, and the view we had from our bamboo house.
I really think that this eco-tourism is the best way to discover and meet these people. It's a bit expensive but it's probably the best compromise between low impact, money that goes to the village without making them dependent, conservation of the traditions without holding from progress, interesting meeting and discovery, etc etc etc so I'm happy to have supported it.
Tonight I'm back in Louang NamTha, but I think I'll leave tomorrow for a place that I can't find on google map right now, but that's next to Pak Bak, I think it's called Nam Khiew.
Whatever, appart from this I just had two really good days.
As I planned I went to Muong Sing, quite a small city, and cheap again. Once I got there I met again an American girl with who I had share dinner a couple of days before. Since we were two, it was enough to book on of this trek organized by eco-tourism association that are so popular here. I was a bit afraid it would turn out like the trek I did in Vietnam, but actually not at all. We did quite a long walk through the jungle first, like 5 hours at a serious rythme. There weren't any snakes there, but I wan tell you that the leeches (sangsues) where quite of a good company up there. We went pass by a couple of villages from different ethnic groups, and we reached an Akha village in the afternoon where we spent the night. First the people were shy, like went to villages on my own before, but then we could really got in touch with them, it was reaaally nice. They killed a chicken that we shared with them for a very good dinner, drank home made whisky, talk a little bit (almost all of them spoke Lao as well, and so they could speak to our guide who translated for us), they made us try their traditional costume (that they don't wear on the everyday life), and the top of this they gave us an Akha massage (strong!). Then we spent the evening together, we sang western songs and they replyed by singing very nice Akha songs... etc etc, in short it was a really magic moment up there, in the middle of these beautiful Lao mountains!
The american girl has got great pics of everything, but she'll send them to me later, so here are two pics I got. You can see at least of the children were happy to play with us, and the view we had from our bamboo house.
I really think that this eco-tourism is the best way to discover and meet these people. It's a bit expensive but it's probably the best compromise between low impact, money that goes to the village without making them dependent, conservation of the traditions without holding from progress, interesting meeting and discovery, etc etc etc so I'm happy to have supported it.
Tonight I'm back in Louang NamTha, but I think I'll leave tomorrow for a place that I can't find on google map right now, but that's next to Pak Bak, I think it's called Nam Khiew.
Tuesday 3 August 2010
Muang Koua - Luang Nam Tha
Even if it was really nice in Muong Koua, I had explored the nearest areas and I wanted to move. I therefore took a bus yesterday morning to Luang Nam Tha, 7 hours, some parts of quite bad road but globally all right and the scenery was quite nce again. However it was properly o-v-e-r-packed, I had to share a small double seat with a guy and girl (so three for 2 small ones), and another child took a nap on my shoulder half of the way! Well, I was so buryed under people, rice or other bags that I felt like being part of lao people for a short while, sort of fun a posteriori :)
Thus I'm there since yesterday afternoon, and I'll probably leave tomorrow. Today I rented a mountain bicycle, and I must have done something like 30km on roads ans dirt roads. I sweated a lot but it felt good to do some exercice after all, and I saw really nice places. I had my packed lunch (bought this morning on the market) next to rice fields where I had the company of three young boys trying to say a couple of english words. I went through cute villages, saw a waterfall, a temple, friendly people.. I'm getting used to it!
I will probably not be able to go on the internet for a while, I don't know how it will be in Muong Sin.
Thus I'm there since yesterday afternoon, and I'll probably leave tomorrow. Today I rented a mountain bicycle, and I must have done something like 30km on roads ans dirt roads. I sweated a lot but it felt good to do some exercice after all, and I saw really nice places. I had my packed lunch (bought this morning on the market) next to rice fields where I had the company of three young boys trying to say a couple of english words. I went through cute villages, saw a waterfall, a temple, friendly people.. I'm getting used to it!
I will probably not be able to go on the internet for a while, I don't know how it will be in Muong Sin.
Monday 2 August 2010
pics again
Muong Koua
Half-stolen pic in on of the village we went to.. They were a minority people but I can't remember the name now.
pics
High mountains after Sapa
Stuck in the red mud, but the landscape was there to make us patient :)
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