Laos - Getting there is half the fun!

Hello from Laos!

Well, it turned out that our journey to Laos was one of the more interesting ones we've had on this trip. Things are pretty organised in this part of the world and it's possible to buy one ticket that gets you from point A to point B even though it involves a series of transport changes. The ticket we bought from our last stop in Cambodia involved taking us to the Laos border, then picking us up on the other side in a different vehicle, then taking us to the Mekong where we would be put on a boat to our island destination.

Apart from the fact that I had my first stomach bug for the whole trip, the journey started well. The ticket seller was the nephew of our lodge owner, so the bus drove a few kms out of its way up a dirt track to pick us up directly from our hotel! Ten of us travelled in relative comfort in a mini van to the border. We made a few friends during the trip. The border crossing was fairly straightforward - except at every stage there were $1 or $2 'extras' added onto the visa fees - and we crossed into Laos. Everything was so casual that I felt comfortable taking a photo of the border crossing.

Once through, we waited for our transport. And we waited, And we waited. Meanwhile, our Cambodian minivan driver was whizzing between the two borders on a motorbike (where did that come from?) assuring us that we were just waiting for another group. An hour or more later, the other group crossed the border and our transport miraculously turned up. Our transport was a songtaew, an open-sided truck with a bench seat on on both sides in the back. There were 19 of us and it only fitted about 14. The new group were French and they were all smoking so our new Kiwi friends, a German guy and John and I climbed up onto the roof with the bags. We had an awesome, and very windswept, ride to our destination. We were facing backwards so I turned around to be on lookout duty for low-hanging powerlines! It was such fun!

We shared the roof with everyone's packs.

The company was so well organised that they pulled up outside some ATMs so we could all get local currency. The area we were driving through looked quite poor. These kids made toys out of whatever they could get.

By now we were running about 1.5 hours late and the sun had set. We pulled up at a boat dock and saw one of the most beautiful post-sunset skies I've ever seen. It was magic.

This area is called "Four Thousand Islands". The Mekong spreads out here and there literally are thousands of islands surrounded by the Mekong. The Kiwis and us were the only ones going to Don Khone island so we had a longtail boat to ourselves. We had to wade through the Mekong water to get to the boat and we passed a dead puppy on the way! Needless to say, we all washed our feet that night. We had a sensational boat ride, motoring along in the almost-dark. The boat had no lights and there were trees, branches and small islands sticking up everywhere, but there was just enough light left in the sky to see.

Once on the island we had to hire a tuk tuk to take us the last 5 kms to our accommodation. The tuk tuks here are a little different than in Cambodia and we were squiched into a tiny seat with our bags perched precariously in front and behind us. A kid, who looked about 14, drove and his mate climbed on behind. We don't know why his mate came but we were glad he did. About halfway along this very rough track, in the pitch dark, the motorbike's headlight stopped working! The mate had the bright idea to hold up the torch on his phone so John did the same and we made our way - at no different speed than before! - to our accommodation just using the faint light from the phones. Awesome!

We were shown to our room. It was actually a bungalow and we had a deck overlooking the water which was beautiful. We watched the sunrise from it the next day.

One of the atractions of these islands it that they're great for cycling. The downside was that we could only hire simple Chinese-made bikes with dragstar-style handles and no gears but at least they had comfy seats!

We had a great time exploring various parts of the island. The Buddhist temples here are quite colourful. 

This building housed two large gongs. Cool!

At times we rode through dry rice paddies.

Our plans were hampered a couple of times when broken bridges prevented us travelling along those roads.

The cows were very friendly. This one loved a scratch!

Boats at the jetty.

We met a lovely German couple, frank and Bettina, at our accommodation and we hired a boat together to see the famous dolphins that live in the Mekong. We saw them but it was almost impossible to get a photo.

We had only gone about 200 metres from the port when our propellor fell off! Our young boat driver managed to call out to someone and, in only about 10 minutes, another boat came scooting out with a new propellor. The amazing thing was that they tied it on with what looked like string! And it worked!

We saw another beautiful sunset.

We continued our rides. Water buffalo are everywhere.

There are some impressive waterfalls too.

They do ziplining here and we found a tower so thought we'd climb up it to check out the view. The stairs were very rickety and I was very glad we hadn't booked any ziplining. We got to the top and I was immediately bitten by one of those big red ants. Then I got bitten again. And again (luckily they don't hurt much). To our horror we realised the handrails were absolutely covered in ants. We then realised they were running along the zipline cable that tretched over the waterfall. They were using the cable to cross the waterfall! There were thousands of them. Amazing.

Some of the bike riding took us through beautiful forest. Note the gorgeous bike!

I don't know why the sunrises and sunsets here are so amazing. It's probably due to all the dust and smoke in the air!

Our accommodation was slap bang in the middle of  fishing village. We were kept awake at night by howling dogs, yowling cats and sleepless roosters. Music from Cambodia, which was just acrss the water, blared loudly. We're so glad we've discovered good earplugs!

The "main street" of our village.

We were up early each morning and were priveleged to witness monks collecting alms. All over Laos, and other Buddhist countries, monks collect food from people in return for blessings. The only food that these monks eat is food given to them. They have no choice about what food they want to eat.

The monks made their way barefoot along the main dirt track leading through the village each morning. People who wanted a blessing would lay a mat on the track, wear their best clothes and would kneel on the mat in readiness for the monks' visit. When the monks arrived the people would hand food over from a special gold bowl. The monk would chant his blessing.

Yet another amazing sunrise.

Our house was built entirely out of timber and had a thatch roof. I loved the bathroom - it just had a slatted floor. When we had a shower, the water just ran through the floor and onto the sandy soil!

A bamboo fence kept stock out. This was our "gate".

Cheers!

Heather and John