First impressions of Laos? Let's just say that never before have we seen such a change in just a few short miles. We kind of got the impression that Laos would be more laid back, when the border crossing into the country was closed for a couple of hours for lunch! But not to worry, we were allowed to stroll part way across the border, to a small restaurant, where one or two of the border guards were also having their lunch. Some chickens clucked around us and we debated whether they were Chinese or Lao chickens. We didn't have any local currency. Not to worry, we could pay in dollars and they were even happy to take a $50 bill and give us the change in Kip (the Lao currency) at a better exchange rate than offered by the bank. We counted our change and realised that we were millionaires - Kip Kip hooray!
We met our new guide Mr Green at the border. Within 30 minutes, he had volunteered more information about himself and his country, than our Chinese guide had in a month. He was a loveable rogue with a nice line in self deprecation: he had married quite late for a Lao man he told us because he was too ugly to get a wife! Later, when he heard that Sue wasn't strong enough to do the 2 day hiking excursion, he disappeared for 10 minutes and came back with 2 friendship bracelets, which he gave to us with elaborate best wishes.
Shortly after the border we stopped for a pit stop at a small village. It was clearly much poorer than anywhere we had been in China, with more basic housing and the people less well dressed. On a back street we found a market, where amongst the fruit and vegetables, we found all sorts of animals laid out, which were presumably today's haul from the surrounding bush: civet cat, squirrel, dog, rat, bats, frogs and assorted insects. All very nutritious we were sure, but tough for our western sensibilities to handle.
At the same village, we bumped into 2 young French guys. They told us that they had met for the first time that morning at the border. What they shared was that they were both cycling solo from France to Australia. Apparently there are lots of people following similar routes along the Silk Road, but we were nevertheless full of awe and suitably humbled.
As we approached our first stop at Luang Namtha (which translates as town on the river Tha), we crossed a river and ahead of us, as far as we could see, was a vast expanse of brilliant green paddy fields. The land here is fertile enough here to get 2 crops a year and the second of these was about to be harvested.
After this early introduction to Laos, Luang Namtha was something of a surprise. As we pulled into the main street, we were suddenly in 'Backpacker Central'. All the signs were in English, advertising western and Lao food, happy hour cocktails and hiking and rafting expeditions into the local national park. After a quick check in to our room, we guiltily lapped it up, with pizza and cocktails at a bar run by an Aussie / Dutch couple. Over this and the next couple of nights, we met some really interesting people and swapped travel stories with them over a beer or two. There are always coincidences in places like this and here we got chatting to Mike, an American from Seattle who now lived in Kunming with his Chinese wife and was good friends with the owner of the Bad Monkey bar who we had met in Dali.
Most of our group had chosen to go on a 2 day expedition into the park, with a full day kayaking and a full day hiking, with the middle night staying in a remote village at the homes of local families. It sounded like it would be an interesting experience, but we decided not to risk Sue's fitness in such a remote area and this was probably just as well, because the second day in particular turned out to be pretty arduous by all accounts.
Instead Sue and I hired bicycles the next day and headed to a waterfall, which passed us through small villages where the locals were out in the fields starting to harvest the rice and the children ran after us waving as we passed. It was fiercely hot and we needed the refuge of the waterfall when we got there and a shaded restaurant for a late lunch on the way back. Towards dusk we crossed over the most fragile of wicker bridges, that apparently gets washed away by the rains most years and was re-built quite recentl. It connects the town to the rice fields on the other side and had a constant stream of users. On the banks of the river, children were splashing around in the water and adults had come down to wash. It was one of those idyllic scenes that will stay in the mind for a long time.
On the second day in Luang Namtha, I went off for a day's kayaking whilst Sue stayed and explored the village further. The backpacker area really only covered a couple of blocks and once away from here, she found some fruit and veg markets where the locals shopped and managed to negotiate an hour's massage for about £4, from a tiny young Lau women.
At round about the time Sue was being pummeled, I was capsizing my kayak half way down a rapid! I was sharing my canoe, with John, the owner of a security business from Brighton. We were doing pretty well until half way down our third rapid, we started paddling in opposite directions and tipped over. We looked back and saw 3 of the 4 other boats in our convoy repeating our mistake! At the bottom of the rapid, I was able to repatriate myself with the canoe and we all continued unscathed. The whole day was hugely enjoyable and a great way to see the national park. The river cut a ravine through dense, uncultivated, tropical forest. Huge trees towered over us and the sounds of the jungle (including monkeys that we could never quite spot) competed with the rush of the water. Butterflies and dragonflies danced around us and we caught the occasional bright blue of kingfishers darting across. At one point, we spotted a python hanging from a branch, but decided on giving this one a wide steer!
Halfway through the day we stopped in a village, where we were cooked a lunch of vegetables and rice and were a huge source of amusement to the local children. The villagers seemed to lead a pretty simple life in wicker houses, built on timber pillars to raise them above the flood waters of the wet season. On the higher ground, the land under the houses were used to keep their animals. I guess that these villagers get kayakers come through pretty often: they were happy to take our money, but the adults seemed more interested in watching a football match on a very crackly old television than in talking with us.
On 4th November, we continued deeper south into Laos heading for the ancient capital of Luang Prabang. It was a long, slow journey, because the roads are pretty basic at times. However, Archie had kept a secret up his sleeve, which he hadn't been able to reveal in China: pull back a couple of hatches and there were 8 seats on the roof! We hadn't used them until now, as they weren't really suitable for Chinese motorways, but perfectly suitable for the smaller, slower Laos roads. I spent most of the day up on the roof, feeling the wind and sun on my face, smelling the air, waving at children as we passed through villages and the whole journey was exhilarating and much more interactive.
Laos remains overwhelmingly agricultural, with very few towns of any size. Our lunchtime stop on this day was a small town with very few dining options. We found a small parade of cafés serving local produce: including hornet grubs, wine containing whole hornets and fermenting nicely in large mineral water bottles, crickets and various other insects that were being deep fried and other animal parts that we didn't even want to try and identify - we settled for steamed rice and fried vegetables.
In the next post, we will tell you about our re-acquaintance with the Mekong at Luang Prabang and further travels deeper into Laos.
Anyone for cricket?
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