Where are we?

1/5-9/2016

Luang Phrabang was one of the prettiest cities I have seen.The city still has a french feel to it, as Laos had once been a french colony. The architecture, baguettes, pastries and cafes all screamed french. Textiles are also very big in the city.  We were able to visit a village where paper and textiles were made. As you walk down the road in the village you pass women working looms, dye shops, and paper being dried. The fabrics and patters were all breath taking. Every house was a store front with hand made scarves and tapestries.  

Dye shop

If you didn’t want to make the mile walk outside of the city, the village came to you every night. The main strip of the city at 4 o’clock everyday would cut off traffic and within minutes venders had their awnings and goods set up for sale.  They set up so closely together that there is only 2 thin paths on either side of the 1/2 mile long market. Something I noticed about Laos that is interesting is people sell the same things in a clusters. For example, in the market you will pass four to ten women selling scarves next to each other then a set of women selling bags and stuffed animals. During the day, the main street had a strip of women selling sandwiches and crapes all with the exact same menu and prices. We saw this style of business everywhere in Laos. The most intense place we saw this was in the night food market. Down a small alleyway was a pathway of all the food you could desire. The whole alley was full of buffet style food, each with their respective 3 tables you could eat. At each vender there was a table full of large bowls of prepared food, some you recognized and some that was a complete mystery. Since they were all very similar we usually ended up at the one that had the most people standing in front. We would load up a bowl as tall as we could and then top is off with a giant chicken meat stick. We would have to make sure to find our respective venders table and squeeze in with who would soon be our dinner conversation buddies. Every night we tried a new vender and every night we found the food to be equally awesome. I felt like we ate more food in this city in a few days than we did in our entire stay in Tonsai. 

Fresh Paper

During the daytime, Luang Phrabang had endless sights to see. We stayed busy visiting the museum in the city center that once was the home to the King of Luang Phrabang. One of the oldest temples in Laos was within walking distance, although we did not go into it because costing to many kips. One day we rented bikes and road 24 kilometers one way to Kuang Si waterfall. This was one of the coolest places we have visited so far. The water fall was on a preserve that was also used for rescued moon bears. We bought tickets to enter and got to walk through a huge fenced off area with the funniest looking bears playing about. Moon bears are relatively small compared to the black bear. They also have a huge main of fur around their necks that hang in such a way that it looks like they have cheeks full of food. In some cases the bile from moon bear stomachs are extracted via large uncleaned needles and used in traditional medicine. They are captured by poachers and kept in small cages to harvest this medicinal ingredient. Most of the bears in the reserve were rescued from this process and the horrible treatment. Unfortunately many had identifying scars from their past. The path continues on to an almost unnaturally blue river. The crowd gets thicker and thicker as you get closer to the waterfall and for good reason. The sight was breath taking. The waterfall was very tall with many tiers and glowing blue, we sat and took it in. If we had not biked there and had a long ride back we would of hiked to the very top. It was very uncharacteristic of us to not make the trek up but after talking about it for a good long while we decided we really should do our sour knees a favor. On the ride back to town we high fived local kids on their cruiser bikes coming home from school. We even saw an elephant walking down the main road! 

Kuang Si waterfall

After almost two weeks off from climbing, we were both starting to get antsy. We had to make it down south to what we heard was a climbing mecca waiting for us in Thakhek. We booked a night bus to the capital which was an eleven hour ride. If you ever have an opportunity to take a night bus, do it! You will only do it once. My only advice is travel with a buddy and make sure you don’t get assigned the back of the bus. How a night bus works is you are assigned a numbered position in the bus (each bed equals two numbers), you remove your shoes, store your gear in small bins and do the best to get to sleep. The beds are a bit smaller than a twin sized bed that you share with your bunk buddy which is a funny amount of space to share with a stranger. The back of the bus sleeps 5 people on one big mattress. It was pretty comfortable for us because we were fine with cuddling. The bus filled up quick and at the last minute before leaving they stuffed 3 more people in who got a spot on the floor to sleep. Going to the bathroom was quite a mission because of the people along the floor.

In the morning we arrived to the capital and took a tuk tuk to the southern station where we connected with another bus and headed south to Thakhek. This was a local bus which was another interesting experience yet again. Six hours, as promised, quickly turned into eight as we had one flat tire and a lot of stops to make. These stops ranged from cigarette and bathroom breaks for the driver to stops for local food vendors to hop on and sell their bags of food. We eventually made it to Thakhek where we found a room and started looking up our beta for climbing at the Green Climbers home crags.

Same Same but VERY Different

1/2-5/2016

Wow same same but very different. As we made our way closer to the lonely patch of cement surrounded by dried rice fields in the short flight to Vientiane, we realized that Laos was way less developed than Thailand. After a short line in Immigrations and 35 US dollars, we were through with a one month visa stamp in our passports. The adventure of Laos had begun! We found an ATM that worked for our foreign cards (harder then it sounds) and instantly became “millionaires” (8000 kip to the US dollar).  We were able to connect up with some girls from the states and we all split a private van with air-condition to make our slow but exciting journey north to Vang Vieng. 

We rode through the capital on roads that were once paved but are now covered in table-sized potholes. A few near misses on mountain roads and many bumps later, we found ourselves in “city center” of Vang Vieng. We said our good byes to our new friends we had gotten to know through out the four hour van ride and off into the streets we went to find a place to stay. We soon realized finding a place to stay during the holiday season is near impossible. Hostels and guest houses made it easy for us and put “full” signs outside their door. One hour later our packs began to feel heavier and heavier. We reached the edge of town and found a place with only one room left that we were quick to take it.

We walked around and found some good street food and did some investigation into the climbing in the area which was the main reason of our visit. We soon found out that it may be harder to get to the crags than we had originally anticipated. All the crags required lots of fees due to private land crossings and getting to the other side of the river via bridges or boats. So, instead of climbing our first day we decided that tubing was a much easier and fun option. 

Tubing was a wild experience not because of the river itself but what surrounded the banks of this slow flowing waterway. Locals were out fishing the eddies with nets and spears but even more interesting were the locals out fishing for customers. As we floated by, they threw throw-bags made from a soda bottle and string out to us and pulled us into their bank side bar. Yes, we were reeled in via a bottle on a rope to a bar where we were encouraged to enjoy a nice strong mixed drink before continuing our float. We had no idea that this is what we signed up for but we embraced it.  We floated down and found a few more river side bars, some bars were actually in the river. There were even more closed down shacks on the way. We learned later on that Vang Vieng used to be famous for its party seen. The locals got fed up with westerners coming in and getting out of hand. There were quite a few deaths from drunk people drowning or making bad decisions as well. The government came in and started cleaning up the town. Local businesses started pushing for more ecotourism in the area and clearing out the party culture. I believe this push only began in 2013 so there are still remnants of the old ways.

The rest of our time was spent sleeping in, walking around rice fields, avoiding fees, and trying to figure out why so many Koreans were in this small town in the middle of Laos. We succeeded in all of these activities. We slept a lot, never payed to cross a river or a private piece of property and solved the mystery of so many Koreans. First, I must explain the Korean invasion in the town. It all stemmed from a reality tv show in Korea were they visited the local lagoon.  Fans of the show made it a goal to travel here and take a dip in the very same water as their beloved tv heroes.  We never did climb, not out of laziness or even sore muscles but due to access problems. We got mixed information on how to get to the crag without a guide or how to avoid local kids from trying to take your gear.  Four days in Vang Vieng was enough and we were ready to head North to Luang Phrabang.