The Golden Rock (Mt Kyaiktiyo)

I was a bit worried that the Golden Rock (Mt Kyaiktiyo) would be a bit like the Plain of Jars: an excruciatingly long journey to the middle of nowhere, for an altogether underwhelming sight.

Fortunately, the journey – although long – was not so excruciating and the sight was quite impressive.

We left our hotel in a taxi at 6am and drove to an office on the edge of town. Here we were transferred into a pick up truck along with 20 others and were ferried even further out of town. Finally arriving at the bus station, we settled in for the three hour journey to Kinpun. After lunch in Kipun we climbed onto the back of a huge lorry, sitting on narrow wooden planks that served as benches. We thought the lorry was fully when 30 of us sat waiting, shoulder to shoulder, but more passengers kept on arriving and somehow the Burmese people on the benches seemed to get smaller and smaller, creating space for the new arrivals. For forty minutes we bounced up and down on the back of the lorry, higher and higher up the mountain side, knees wedged firmly together, hanging on for dear life. 

Trucking.

The Golden Rock is a large gilded boulder that balances on the top of a mountain, seemingly defying gravity. According to legend, the boulder balances in its precarious position thanks to a precisely placed hair of the Buddha.

On arriving at the top of the mountain I first noticed the foul smell of rubbish. It was like standing on a landfill. A quick look over the edge of the railings revealed the source; the entire mountainside was a sea of plastic food containers, bottles and carrier bags. A depressing find in such an otherwise beautiful spot.

Kyaiktiyo is one of the most popular religious pilgrimage sites in all of Myanmar and thousands of Buddhists flock here to watch the sunset over the magic rock. We visited during peak pilgrimage season (November to April, the cool months) and the plaza surrounding the shrine was packed with worshippers, whole families, camped out under blankets and bed sheets like kids in pretend fortresses. The pilgrims alone were an unusual enough sight to maintain my attention, especially the children who followed us around giggling and saying hello.

Annoyingly, women aren’t allowed close to the rock, or in certain areas with the better views. As a tourist and a feminist I was mildly disgruntled by this, I can’t imagine how outraged I’d feel if I’d travelled hundreds of miles on a pilgrimage to be told I could only worship this holiest of rocks from within a 50m radius from behind a tree! Gender segregation is not common of Buddhism, I haven’t seen it anywhere else, it’s something the government has imposed.

Kyaiktiyo itself is indeed impressive, glistening in the sun, threatening to fall at any time. The views over the surrounding valleys are also stunning; it’s just a shame about the litter.

Men apply gold leaf to the rock for good luck while women stay behind the railings.

We Stayed At…

Emerald Villa Hotel: Not a villa, just a shabby room full of ants. Convenient location for the bus, terrible attached restaurant. £12/$20 for a double with shared bathroom.

Crowded Beach Time on Pangkor Island

“Gorgeous stretches of beach and hardly any people…the perfect place to hop over to if you’re after some isolated, low-key relaxation.”

That’s what we were expecting, thanks to our four year old guide book, when we arrived on Pangkor Island. It couldn’t have been farther from the truth.

The gorgeous stretch of beach was overshadowed by a long line of grey concrete shops selling the same crap t-shirts: I love Pangkor and Pangkor Hard Rock Café, despite there not being a Hard Rock Café within a 100 mile radius. The narrow stretch of sand remaining was cluttered with jet skis, banana boats, kayaks and an assortment of inflatables for thrill seeking Malaysian tourists.

And by gosh there were a lot of Malaysian tourists. Huge families bathing in the ocean fully clothed, screaming as they were dragged around on big inflatable doughnuts, speeding towards to beach on jet skis almost killing nearby swimmers.

At first glance we were a little disappointed with this supposedly isolated island, we’d unknowingly arrived not only during school holidays, but also on the weekend of a national public holiday.

Once we learned to look beyond the plastic bottles, polystyrene take-away food trays and abandoned flip flops that littered the beautiful white sand, it really was a beautiful island with clear turquoise waters and magnificent wildlife.

Hornbill at our hotel.

What we learned from the bus loads of Chinese tourists in Bangkok remains true for the majority of Asian tourists: they like crowds, safety in numbers. This meant that whilst the main beach near our hotel was shoulder to shoulder with Malaysians, the other nearby beaches were relatively quiet and we enjoyed some peaceful afternoons in the sun.

We were even able to wade out to our own little paradise, Coral Island, about 200m from the shore, which was nice until a speed boat deposited a boat load of screeching children and their parents alongside us.

Although it wasn’t the isolated retreat we envisioned, Pangkor made for a nice stop over on our way back south to Kuala Lumpur, giving us a couple of days to top up our tans before meeting my parents.

Ric wading out to Coral Island

How To Get To…

Pangkor: We travelled from George Town to Pangkor in one day, first taking the passenger ferry over to the mainland, then a bus to Lumut, and then a thirty minute ferry over to Pangkor.

We Stayed At…

Nipah Villas: we had a small but pleasant room in the back corner of the resort, hot shower, TV and wifi for 55 ringit (£11/$14).

Chiang Mai: Cycling to Huay Teung Tao Lake

A friend of a friend recommended that we visit Huay Teung Lake for a peaceful day away from the crowds of tourists in Chiang Mai. It was lovely.

We rented bikes and cycled to the lake from Chiang Mai. The ride there wasn't particularly nice as we had to ride along a major highway, however; there was little traffic and the road followed a canal that had some shaded spots where we could pull into and rehydrate.

The lake is lined with bamboo huts that are served by restaurants. We ordered drinks to our hut and sat to eat our picnic before jumping into the merky water to cool down. It is possible to rent inner tubes of pedalos to take onto the lake too. Beyond the lake are the green slopes of Doi Suthep and Doi Inthanon mountains, the latter boasting Thailand's highest peak. 

Ric reading by the lake.

Even though we visited at weekend, supposedly the busiest time, the lake was peaceful and there wasn't another tourist in sight. Most of the huts were occupied by young Thai couples enjoying a quiet meal, although we had to move away from one group of drunk Thai friends who were playing guitar and singing horribly out of tune! 

Huay Teung Tao

We cycled the complete 5.1km loop around the lake before heading back into town along the highway. There are some hiking trails that leave from the lakeside for the very energetic visitor, but we were happy reading and swimming. It's one of the nicest places we visited during our week in Chiang Mai.

How To Get To...
Huay Teung Tao Lake: 

• Exit the old town on the west side to avoid getting caught up in the one way system that circles the old city walls (clockwise traffic goes outside of the moat, anticlockwise traffic goes on the inside of the moat.) 
• Take the main road that leaves from the north-west corner of the old town ring road (Route 1004). This is a very busy road.
• After approx. 2km take a right at the traffic lights onto Highway 121. This is a quiet road that runs along the canal. 
• After approx. 6km turn off the highway where you see a giant sign for the lake. 
• Follow the road, you'll reach a ticket booth where you pay a 20Baht entrance fee.

It's about 9km in total to get from the old town to the lake, easily ridable. The road climbs ever so slightly in the direction on the lake but there are no real hills. 

We Stayed At...

It's easy to visit the lake as a day trip and there are no hotels in the area. However, I believe it is possible to camp on the lakeside.

The Ancient Kingdom of Ayutthaya

An hour and a half north of Bangkok is the ancient capital of Ayutthaya (pronounced aye-u-taya), a small city dotted with the crumbling ruins of a once powerful empire.

Ayutthaya is a river island at the confluence of the Chao Phraya, Lopburi and Pa Sak rivers. It was from here that the Siamese ruled their kingdom from 1351 to 1767 and it was once one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Today it is a UNESCO World Hertitage Site and popular day trip destination for tourists from Bangkok.

We arrived in a crowded third class train carriage where Ric competed with an elderly Thai women for space on the narrow bench; she apparently did not want to share her seat with a sweating Englishman. To reach the ancient city we crossed the river on a small ferry and set off to find a guest house. As we were travelling north to Chiang Mai anyway, we thought Ayutthaya would make the perfect stop-off en route. 

To our surprise and joy our 300Baht (£6/$10) room came with a swimming pool and we were instantly grateful that we'd decided to spend the night. Despite the fact that we're supposedly entering the "cool season", the temperate hasn't dropped below 30 degrees and the humidity in Bangkok sits at a steady 70%. We happily spent the remainder of the day sitting in the cool swimming pool chatting to a Canadian who was five days into his first ever trip away from North America. His bubbling excitement and astounding ignorance made me feel old and wise - in a good way. The poor boy was surprised to find that there are no beaches in northern Thailand, perhaps he thought he'd arrived on an island?

The next day we hired bicycles and set off to explore the temple ruins. There are dozens of sites to see, both working temples and ruined temples, but we chose only to visit the main ones: Wat Phra Si Sanphet (Three Chedis), Viharn Phra Mongkol Bopit (Restored Temple Next To Three Chedis), Wat Phra Mahathat (Buddha In Tree), Wat Ratchaburana (Empty Hall), Wat Phra Ram (Overlooking Pond). I've appointed the names in brackets as the actual names are impossible for me to remember. The sites mentioned could be explored on foot but we chose bikes for speed and breeze.

Voila les photos:

Wat Phra Mahathat

Wat Phra Mahathat

Wat Phra Mahathat

Wat Ratchaburana

Wat Ratchaburana

Wat Ratchaburana

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

The temples we saw we really nice and we had a pleasant time riding around them. We've already seen more temples in Asia than most people see in a lifetime but these ones were unique enough to impress us for half a day. We had the sites to ourselves until about 11am when the tour buses from Bangkok arrived and we found ourselves surrounded by Indians in matching lime green caps. 

As well as boasting the lovely temple ruins, Ayutthaya also has an impressive night market selling all manner of tasty treats. It sets up by Wat Phra Mahathat at about 5pm and gets very busy very quickly with locals and tourists alike. We ate: sushi in the form of Angry Birds cartoons (Ric, not me); a unusually good combination of sweetcorn, coconut flesh and salt; fried chicken, including some neck that we bought by accident and did not enjoy; an incredibly spicy vegetable green curry that made us both cry; a Thai sausage; and sour bamboo and rice. Every day in Thailand we discover some new tasty delight, it's food heaven.

How To Get To...

The temples: maps are available from all guest houses. It took us about three hours to cycle to and explore the sites we visited, which was enough for us. To visit all the sites including those outside of the ancient city would take a full day.

We Stayed At...

Tony's Place: Great value rooms, nicely decorated, busy restaurant, swimming pool. 300Baht (£6/$10).

Bangkok Revisited

It was our fourth time in Bangkok and we decided to spend our time getting to know some of the areas we’ve previously neglected. We checked into a hotel in China Town, right next door to the hotel we stayed in on our very first visit.

We had three objectives for our two night stopover in the capital: visit the embassy for additional pages to be added to my full passport; visit the Grand Palace; and explore China Town.

As it turns out, British citizens aren’t entitled to extra pages and I’ll have to apply for a new passport instead. So that was crossed off the list easily.

Next was the Grand Palace, Bangkok’s biggest tourist attraction. For an extortionate ticket price of 500Baht (£10!) you get access to the Palace grounds (you unfortunately can’t go inside), the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the textiles museum and an exhibition of old coins. We passed on the latter two subsidiary attractions; I feel they’re added on to the ticket to justify the high price. To put that price into context, Bangkok’s Palace is more expensive than the Taj Mahal (£8), the Great Wall of China (£4) and pretty much any other attraction in Thailand. It was even more than our hotel room.

We went to the Palace on our first trip to Thailand but were put off by the huge crowds and didn’t go inside. This time round the crowds were equally intimidating but we decided to bite the bullet and see what all the fuss is about. To cut a long story short, it was overcrowded, over priced and boring.

First of all, it wasn’t enough that I was wearing long trousers and had a shawl wrapped around my upper body. Ric wasn’t allowed to cover his exposed legs with a sarong because ‘they’re for ladies only’. In a country famous for its gender ambiguity, Ric was forbidden to wear a sarong. We queued to hire the Palace-issued appropriate clothing but didn’t have enough money for the deposit (it was 200Baht/£4 per item). The end result was that I had to wear the sarong, Ric had to wear my trousers and I had to cover my top half with a hideous polyester shirt that made me look like a dinner lady from the 70’s. We entered the Grand Palace looking and feeling ridiculous.

Unstylish, even by our standards.

We entered the complex, arriving first at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, and the heavens opened. Every available sheltered space was suddenly packed with Asian tourists wearing matching tour group caps and badges, the occasional guide waving a flag and shouting to be heard above the crowd. It was hectic, cramped and annoying. I was grateful to be a head and shoulders taller than most of the other visitors as I at least had some breathing space. As in independent traveller I can’t think of anything worse than following 40 other people around all day, piling in and out of a tour bus and following a strict itinerary. I often wonder if the opposite is true; do these Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese busloads look at us and mock us with a our oversized backpacks, guide books and sweaty brows? We pushed our way through the coloured hats to peek inside at the sacred statue of the Emerald Buddha. The statue was discovered in 1434 and was originally covered in plaster. It was mistakenly named the Emerald Buddha by an abbot who noticed the plaster was flaking off to reveal a green stone. It is in fact made of jade.

Around the jade/Emerald Buddha there are many ornately decorated chedis (stupas), gold gilded paintings, carvings, and sculptures of elephants and mythical creatures. This was the most interesting part of the Palace.

Crowd outside the Emerald Buddha Temple.

The actual Royal Residence and throne halls are not spectacular, however; we did see the king in a totally random unrelated incident…

The morning we arrived in Bangkok we were wandering the streets in the early morning heat, tired from the overnight train, waiting to check into our hotel at midday. As we walked around the neighbourhood, half in a daze, we were stopped on a street corner by a soldier. He told us only to stop, we no explanation, and shouted at us when we attempted to continue our stroll. More people arrived and they too had to stop, as did all traffic. As the crowd grew the bystanders motioned for us to stand with our arms by our sides and the soldiers insisted we remove our sunglasses. Then somebody whispered “his highness, his highness”.  A few moments later we glimpsed a balding King Bhumibol Adulyadej speed past in a shiny cream BMW, surrounded by an impressive police convoy.

Last on our concise to-do list was China Town, an endlessly interesting and delicious area of Bangkok. Back in June we visited the gold Buddha at Wat Traimit and popped into China Town for some cheap eats at the night market; after sampling just a tiny portion of the food on offer we knew we had to go back and do some serious eating.  

By day China Town is a bustling market place where you can buy just about anything; from spectacles to sex toys, sunglasses to illegal weapons, iphone speakers to traditional Chinese medicine. The Thieves Market was once the place to go to buy back your possessions that had been stolen on the streets on Bangkok. Today, the sale of stolen goods is frowned upon and the Thieves Market is more what Ric and I call a Shit You (Don't) Need Shop. We love SYDN shops and have enjoyed browsing them around the world. All you need is a sheet of material or a piece of cardboard. You go to that drawer in the house where the whole family dumps the things that have no proper place. Every home has this drawer: batteries, celotape, odd stamps, a screwdriver, a packet of tissues, an old lipstick... random items. Then you arrange them in no particular order, on a sheet, on the floor. Voila, you have a SYDN shop. They're great places to browse and we usually end up buying something that we really don't need but might need, some day.

Monk browsing the SYDN shops; perhaps he'll impulse buy a second-hand saw along with that antique book of Buddhist chants?

In the evening China Town's streets are jammed with steaming food stalls: dim sum, noodle dishes, home-made ice cream, fruit, sea food, fried vegetables, and some more questionable dishes such as shark fin and birds nest soup.

Um, no thanks.

This lady has a huge bowl of our new favourite Thai dish, Khao Kha Moo, ham shank stew. Locals and tourists alike sit at a few plastic tables and stools to eat the melt-in-your-mouth pork, served in a rich soy gravy, with rice and chickpeas. 

Khao Kha Moo

Any other China Town specialty is peking duck and hoi sin gravy. We discovered a corner cafe right near our hotel that served this dish with rice for just 60Baht (£1.20) and we ate there at everyday. The sweetness of the sauce, the saltiness of the skin and the subtle flavors of the meat... I'm drooling just thinking about it. 

Peking duck, China Town.

I love China Town, it has so much character, so many hidden gems, so much food! We enjoyed many an afternoon wandering its narrow markets, its bright shiny shops and its endless food stalls. This was the highlight of our stay in Bangkok. China Town is much less touristy than the Khao San Road area and I'd definitely stay there again. 

Temple squeezed into a row of shops.

How To Get To...
The Grand Palace: The easiest way to get there is on one the river taxis; they're cheap fast and the views along the river are endlessly interesting. Just don't join one of the annoying tour groups!
We Stayed At...
S.K Boutique Hotel: $20/£12 for the cheapest room. Nicely decorated and great location but overpriced really. 

Hitch Hiking To The 4,000 Islands

It was a lot more difficult to leave Champasak than it was to arrive; we were headed south and so had to cross the Mekong.

The journey started in a minivan which picked us up from our bungalow and drove us to the dilapidated boat pier at the northern tip of town. We eased our way down the muddy bank that served as a pier, and on to a narrow, wooden boat with a 12 year old boy at the helm. On the other side of the Mekong we climbed up another mud bank and onto the back of a flat bed truck. Perched on oil cans and bottle crates we bounced along a pot-holed dirt path to the main road. We were told to wait there for a bus which would take us the rest of the way to Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands), our destination.

We waited, and we waited, we ate some breakfast from a street vendor and we waited some more. We chatted to an angry American and we continued to wait. After some time we gave up on the fabled bus and waved down a passing car.

The friendly, English-speaking soldier was going our way and was happy to practice his English with us while speeding down route 13 at 120km/hr. He dropped us at a car ferry terminal on the southern tip of Laos, where we were to take an ancient wooden canoe 100m across the river to Don Khong island. Our new friend’s only request was that we pose for some photos with him before saying goodbye. 

When we alighted on Don Khong we found that we were still 5km away from Muang Khong town, the island’s biggest settlement. We set off walking down the dusty, single track road towards the town in the midday heat but luckily it wasn’t long before a passing pick-up truck stopped and allowed us to climb in the back, all the way into town. Despite travelling by minivan, boat, truck, car, ferry and one more truck, the whole journey took only three hours.

Si Phan Don is a landlocked archipelago carved out by a web of rivulets in the south of Laos, where the Mekong marks the most southerly boarder with Cambodia. It is here that a long length of ferocious rapids cut straight across the river, providing the one and only obstacle for boat travel along the Mekong from Tibet straight through to southern Vietnam.

We spent only one night on Don Khong. Despite being the biggest island it has very little to offer other than a crowded strip of guest houses and a handful of simple Buddhist temples. We spent the afternoon reading and relaxing before heading off early the next day.

Champasak To Wat Phu

From Vientiane we travelled 400km south on a “VIP” night bus to Pakse. We were collected from our guest house at 6:30pm and driven an hour out of town on the back of a tuk-tuk, down dark, residential streets that had me questioning the motives of our driver. We arrived at the long distance bus station with an hour to contemplate the small booth that would be our bed for the night. The bus had two levels, each with several compartments containing beds. Perhaps we were lucky, or perhaps not, for we had the back of the bus on the top level, which was split into five narrow beds. The windows all around us gave the berth a strange conservatory feel, and provided a stunning view of the star filled sky during the sleepless night.

We took one look at Pakse and decided to move swiftly on to Champasak, which was an hour further south on the back of a flat bed truck turned tuk-tuk. Like most towns in Laos, Champasak is a sleepy, dusty town set on two sides of a long road, with a river running parallel.

Life in Laos is slow. It could be the most relaxed country in the world. Most of the day it’s too hot to do very much and where ever you look you’ll find bodies dozing in a hammocks. The country is made up of rivers, with boat travel being the traditional mode of transport. If you ask what time the boat leaves you’ll find yourself facing the bemused smile of a Laotian; the boat leaves when the boat leaves. The people here are used to waiting around. The pace of life here is comparable to the pace of cruising down a river, there is no rush, no stress, it’s laid back.

We’ve adapted well to this pace of life and spent our first day in Chamapasak reading, writing and sketching on the veranda of our riverside bungalow. The only interruption in our day was the need to move to a restaurant to enjoy leisurely meals of coconut curries and fresh vegetables.

Our room, Dokchampa Guest House, Champasak

The next day we dragged ourselves out of our hammocks and cycled out to Wat Phu, a pre-Angkorian temple complex at the foot of a hill. Riding out of Champasak we were faced with an unusual obstacle; a lorry carrying a heavy load had collapsed the bridge that provided the only route south. A crane was presently hoisting the lorry out of the river whilst the bridge lay utterly destroyed. We were informed of a diversion and found that the clever locals had dammed off the river with rock and dirt to create a temporary bridge. Later, on our return to Champasak, we saw that concrete pipes for the river to flow through had been lowered into the river next to the mud dam and a tarmacking truck had arrived to make the bridge a semi-permanent fixture until the real bridge is repaired. We were impressed by how quickly the locals had responded; the lorry was out of the river within a couple of hours and traffic was already moving north and south over the temporary mud bridge. Some cunning Laotians had capitalised on people’s voyeurism by setting up food stalls near the broken bridge, feeding all the hungry onlookers.

Collapsed bridge brings in the crowds.

Wat Phu

 The 8km bike ride to Wat Phu was easy along the paved, flat roads and we arrived in just under an hour. We rode through several small villages where calls of sabaidee (hello) greeted us from roadside houses and shops. Ric even got a kiss blown to him from one cheeky little girl.

We were alone at the Wat Phu apart from a retired French couple who were shocked to find an English girl who spoke French, c’est rare! The temples date back to the sixth century and have only been minimally restored, maintaining their ancient charm. The site is not touristy like the Angkor Wat complex in Cambodia and it was nice to wander around the carved sandstone ruins in peace. A short walk up a crumbling stone stair case, warped by tree roots, led us to huge stone cliff with a ruined temple at its base. From the cliff we had a view down over the surrounding countryside, with the Mekong slicing through the scenery, a brown, winding smear on the lush greenery. 

 How To Get To…

Wat Phu: We hired bikes from Champa Restaurant for 10,000kip ($1.25/£0.75) and followed the road leading south out of town. There are signposts along the way for the temple.

We Stayed At…

Dokchampa Guest House: We had a great river front bungalow for 50,000kip ($6.25/£3.75), although the owners spoke no English and the restaurant was overpriced compared to others in the town.

The Nondescript Capital of Laos

Vientiane is a boring capital. Like the rest of Laos, it is quiet and dusty, with a population of just 200,000. It sits of the Mekong River, which marks the border between Laos and Thailand.

The colonial French architecture of the city is overshadowed by industrialisation, grey concrete buildings and dusty traffic. We spent two nights there and it was probably too many. Compared to the former capital, Luang Prabang, Vientiane lacks charm and character. Even the replica Champs D'Elysées (Lane Xang) and Arc De Triomphe (Patouxai) were lacking in charm. Perhaps we've been spoiled by the beauty found in the north. 

Patouxai, Laos' Champs D'Elysées

That Louang, Laos' most important religious symbol and national monument.

The highlight of our stay was a visit to the Buddha Park (Xieng Khuan). 25km out of the city, sitting on the bank of the river, is a park full of bizarre concrete Buddha sculptures, mythical animals and Hindu Gods. It was created in 1958 by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a rogue monk who built a similar park on the other side of the river, in Thailand. The main attraction of the park is a giant pumpkin which we entered through the mouth of a demon and climbed up through three levels representing Earth, Heaven and Hell. From the top of the pumpkin we had a view down over the park. It was arty, wacky and an interesting spot.

Atop the concrete pumpkin.

How To Get To…

Buddha Park: We took the local bus number 14 from the central bus station (6,000kip), to the Laos-Thailand Friendship Bridge. From the bridge (the border crossing) we took a tuk-tuk to Buddha park for 15,000kip ($2) each. Entrance to the park is 5,000kip ($0.50).

We Stayed At…

Soukchaleun Guest House. Right in the centre, had a balcony. 80,000kip ($10/£6)

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a town stripped of its character and culture. It is a backpacker town, full of bars, drugs and cheap accommodation. It's a funny place. Its reputation precedes it among the backpacker crowd and I had mixed feeling about coming here due to its dubious infamy.

Two to three years ago this small town was the Mecca of Southeast Asia for young backpackers looking for non stop partying, drugs and outdoor fun. The place became famous for its tubing; visitors hired a tractor inner tube and floated along the river, stopping at dozens of bars along the way for free shots and cheap cocktails. So popular was the tubing that the bars continued to multiply and dangerous slides and swings appeared over the jagged rocks along the river banks.  Sadly, drink, drugs and fast flowing rivers don’t mix and 27 travellers died on the river in 2011 alone, with many more injured. International governments pushed for the bars to close and the slides and swings were dismantled, causing a sudden decrease in tourism to the area.

This article by The Guardian paints a vivid picture of the former the party scene in Vang Vieng: 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/07/vang-vieng-laos-party-town

"There are signs asking tourists to respect dress codes, but many ignore them. At peak party-time on the river, there are frequent episodes of boob-flashing, mooning and boys waggling their privates around for the hell of it... couples having sex in inner tubes as they float along the Nam Song is known to happen, too."

Within minutes of checking in to a guest house we over heard conversations of “where is the opium bar?” and “this place is the Ayia Napa of Laos”. The information booklet in our room described happy pizzas (made with magic mushrooms), opium tea and bars that give away free joints and then tip off the local police. It didn’t really sound like our kind of town.

However, once we checked out of the rowdy guest house with the Ayia Napa fans and into a quiet bungalow with huge gardens over looking the river, we found Vang Vieng to be quiet and laid back, if somewhat lacking in character.

View of the sunset over the karsts from our guest house.

Bars line the water front offering views over the karst scenery with Bob Marley playing in the background. At least half of the bars in town have wide screen TVs that play constant videos of Friends, series seven. So much for soaking up the Laos culture.

We gave famous tubing a go and it was great. A tuk-tuk took us a few kilometres out of town to a bar where we were offered our first and last free shots. We then floated tranquilly down the river Nam Xong, taking in the stunning scenery and stopping off at a couple of the bars that have remained open. Far from the scenes of unadulterated debauchery that I've seen on the internet, our trip was quiet, picturesque and relaxing. Among people tubing with us that day was an Irish couple well into their eighties. I'm pleased that the slides have all been removed because I’m sure I’d have had a hard time persuading my adrenaline seeking boyfriend not to go down them.

Tubing!

Another day, another bike ride. My initial enthusiasm for cycling is wearing off but it tends to be the cheapest and safest way to get around in Laos; tuk-tuks are too expensive, taxis non-existent and the only other option is to hire a scooter, which we’re not too keen on. It’s good exercise too I suppose. We set off into the countryside that surrounds Vang Vieng on a bone-shakingly bumpy road. The pot holes and rocks were havoc on my back so I bailed on the bike ride and headed straight for the Blue Lagoon, leaving Ric to complete the 30km loop with a friendly Australian.

The Blue Lagoon is a natural swimming pool surround by karsts and mountain caves. Although an undeniably beautiful place, it has been turned into a major tourist attraction and was bursting with tourists, diving, swinging and jumping into the cool blue water. Crowded or not, it was still a nice place to spend a couple of hours out of the sun.

Rope swings at the Blue Lagoon.

How To Get To...
The Blue Lagoon: Head out of town across the river on the toll bridge, follow the signs for 7km.
We Stayed At...
Phou Bain Guest House. Possibly my favourite place we've stayed in months. We almost walked past this place without checking the prices because it looked too posh for our budget, but for 55,000kip ($7/£4.20) per night it was a bargain. Wooden bungalow, huge gardens, river views. 

The Plain of Jars

The journey to Phonsavan started at the bus station, where the driver and his cronies were attempting to squeeze 13 people into the 12 seats of our mini bus. These seats are made for slight Asian frames, not the big bums and wide shoulders of western tourists, so when the man suggested four of us share three seats, there was outrage. After an hour and 15 minutes of debating, during which nothing was achieved, we set off with the four smallest passengers sharing three seats. For once I was grateful not to be one of the slimmest in the group; they were in for an uncomfortable eight hour ride.

Our minibus whizzed us off around the tight bends of the mountains along highways 13 and 7 to Phonsavan. Even sitting in the front seat I was as green as the surrounding countryside and was grateful for the odd landslide blocking our way, allowing me to stretch my legs and recover from my nausea.

Phonsavan is an ugly, dusty town that lines highway 7; the only reason people go there is to see the mysterious Plain of Jars. The countryside in northern Laos is scattered with these huge megaliths and nobody really knows why they are there.

Craved from a single stone over 2,000 years ago, the jars are thought to have been used as funerary urns by an Iron Age civilisation. Some measure up to 2m in height.

We decided to cycle to the main jar site (site 1), along Phonsavan’s dusty roads. It is possible to visit the jar sites as part of a package tour, but after the horrendous journey from Luang Prabang the previous day, neither of us could face another day as in a minibus. The 7km ride took about 45 minutes and entailed a few hills that took my breath away on my 1950’s style one speed bike.

The jars were interesting enough but in my opinion, not worth the 15 hour detour. What was interesting, however, was the history of the area regarding the Vietnam war. Known as the Secret War as it was never mentioned in US army official documentation until years after, Laos was devastated by US bombs; two million tons of ordnance was dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973, equating to roughly one bomb every 9 minutes for 9 years. The bomb craters are still visible all over the countryside, including several at the Plain of Jars Site 1. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for the people living here; planes from an enemy you’ve never seen dropping bombs around you because your country happens to border Vietnam. It must have been terrifying.

It’s estimated that 30% of the bombs dropped did not explode as they were dropped to low to detonate or simply malfunctioned; that leaves 80 million unexploded ordnance (known as UXO) littering the Laos countryside, buried in farmers’ fields, hidden under houses. Every month more deaths and injuries occur as UXO are discovered: farmers digging their land, children playing in the forest, people searching for scrap metal. The bombs are still killing people 40 years after the war ended.

Phonsavan is the capital of Xiang Khouang province, one of the most heavily bombed areas of Laos and the most bombed province in the world per capita. Today the bomb shells are everywhere; used by the locals as decoration, building material, foundations for houses, water troughs and fire pits, even the key ring to our guest house door was a bomb!

The UXO has hampered the development of this country by rendering so much land unsafe to use. Farmers can’t grow enough food, roads can’t be built and towns can not expand as the land needed is full of ordnance that could explode at any moment.

We visited the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in Phonsavan, an organisation dedicated to finding and clearing UXO in order to make more land available for farming and development. We made a small donation and watched one of the documentaries they have showing.

It seems that where ever we travel in this region we are confronted with the devastating consequences of the Vietnam War, even in the innocent bordering countries, Laos and Cambodia. It’s heartbreaking.

Documentaries about the Secret War in Laos (all available on youtube):

Bomb Harvest

Bombies

The Secret War

How To Get To…

Plain of Jars Site 1 by bike: Follow highway 7 out of town (west) until you reach an intersection with traffic lights and a petrol station on the left hand side. Turn left, continue approximately 4km until you see a sign for the site on the right hand side. Bikes can be rented in town for 20,000kip ($2.50/£1.50) or 40,000kip for a mountain bike.

We Stayed At…

Kong Keo, near the minibus station. A shabby bungalow on a quiet backstreet, with a cosy nightly fire in the communal area. 60,000kip ($7.50/£4.50)