Laos PDR

Location: Louang Phabang
Weather: Warm

I am now in Laos or more correctly the People's Democratic Republic of Laos for all you evil capitalists out there! I got here two days ago with my friend Dominic and an English girl called Anne-Marie whom we met on the bus to Chiang Rai.

Laos is a lot more modern than I expected and not hugely different from rurual Thailand. The money situation is a bit different, interestingly you can pay for everything here in Laos KIP, US Dollars or Thai Baht! The people ARE reasonably friendly, but hard barginers and they attempt to short-change you all the time.

We got here by going to Chiang Khong, which is on the Thai border and near-by the Mekong River. One of THE things to do in Asia is to ride down the Mekong on a slow boat for 2 days...So we spent 6 hours packed in a slowboat(a bit like a barge) on the river, cramped in awful seats to get to the 'town' of Pakbang where we spent a night in a rat infested room. Somebody had actually grafettied a warning about the rats in our room, which was lucky, else our bags would've been gnawed in half if we'd left them on the floor, like some folk did. I didn't mind the constant scuttling of the rats much, but most other people did, apparently one couple paid $10 to move guesthouses that night! This 5 star luxury accommodation was also accessed by extremely steep near-vertical stairs, had a bathroom area with a ceiling lower than one Bilbo Baggins would use in Hobbit-land and was hosted by a fine man who tried to sell us dope, opium and coke the second we stepped in the door. Even better Pakbang only has electricity from a generator and this turned off at 10pm, candles have to do after that. Amazing, considering it's a major travellers hub due to the river. Us three couldn't face another 7 hours on the slow boat, so we took a speedboat to the next stop - Louang Phabang - that only took 3 hours and was vastly better - not only was it majorly faster at 50mph, but it had no roof and you saw much more scenary. Interestingly the slowboat behind us the previous day took 12 hours and 99% of those nutters still wanted the slowboat because of the numerous rumours about how dangerous these speedboats were and how bumpy the ride was. If you ask me this is coblers, we had no troubles at all, our driver was excellent and the ride mostly felt like we were gliding on glass.

Anyways, Louang Phabang is quite a big town and surprisingly modern, very picturesque and quite interesting. We went to a big waterfall today, had a bit of a swim and saw a local village. Tomorrow Dominic and I are heading to the Plain of Jars, where there are ancient jars sitting on a landscape, I've read about these back home as they are a bit of a mystery - a kind of Laos Stonehenge - so it should be interesting.

By JamesReed on 15.03.05 @ 04:37 AM GMT