Laos: “same same, but different”

Slow Boat
A trip to Laos would not be complete without a two day slow boat ride down the Mekong River. We took six hour bus from Chiang Mai to the border town of Chang Khong, where we spent one night. In the morning we painlessly crossed the border into our eighteenth country. We were some of the last ones on the boat because we had been relaxing at the riverside restaurant with a group of people from our bus the day before, who we continued to run into throughout the country. The boat was completely packed even before the fifteen of us got on. There were small wooden benches in two rows running along the length of the boat. We got the one and only seat without a cushion, so we basically sat on a wooden plank for seven hours straight!

There was a wide variety of people on our boat, ranging from the locals to crazy travlers in the back. We sat somewhere in between and spent the next two days journaling, reading, and talking to fellow travelers. The Mekong River was large and muddy with random whirlpools sucking in tree branches. The scenery was amazing and we had a constant view of the jungle covered mountains. We spent the night in a small village in the worst room yet. There was a community bathroom that didn’t have any running water in the sink, mold everywhere, and littered with trash. We shared a room with Esther, from Holland, that didn’t have any AC or a fan, so we slept with the windows open, but were terrified that someone would climb in. The three beds were pushed together in the center of the room, but the hanging mosquito netting was offset and therefore somewhat pointless. We had a big group dinner with about half of the people from the slow boat and waited over an hour for our spring rolls. We were told our second day on the boat would take approximately eleven hours, so we were relieved when we arrived in Luang Prabang after only seven hours.

Luang Prabang
We loved Luang Prabang and it reminded us of a small European village. There were streets were lined with plants, it was extremely clean, and there were cute wooden signs advertising every building, We stayed at a guesthouse with Esther and this time it was the nicest room yet! Amy and Tamsyn from England stayed there as well and the five of us spent all of our time together. It was nice to have a group of girlfriends and we are hoping to meet up with them again along the way. The Laotians use the phrase, “same same, but different” all the time. We don’t really know what it means or how it is ever relevant, but we love it! On our way to dinner, we walked through the night market, which was set up down the middle of main street. It was such a nice break from the hectic night markets we have experienced in other parts of Asia. Nobody hassled us, everyone was happy and smiled as we passed, and the items were much more unique. We made our first big purchase and we absolutely love the bed comforters we bought and for only $20, we couldn’t pass them up! We had lasagna and pizza, which after gifts for ourselves was a little gift to our taste buds. It was so nice to not eat rice for a change!

One cultural experience that is a must see in Luang Prabang is waking up at 6:00 am to watch as the monks collect their daily offerings. The streets were eerily silent as the orange robed monks walked quietly in a single file line, while locals sitting on the side of the street placed sticky rice, flowers, and money in their baskets. It was like watching moving artwork! The five of us along with Otto and Taryn from Australia spent the day at a massive waterfall and a bear rescue center. Otto and Taryn had volunteered at a sister reserve in Cambodia, so we got a special tour of the center including the baby bears and the nursery. They were mostly Asiatic Black Bears, but they also had one baby Sun Bear that had been rescued and was being nursed back to health. The bears are protected against poachers, who use their paws for bear paw soup and drain their bile to be used in food as well. The center has only been open for six years, but is already making a lot of progress.

At first we were a little apprehensive to go to ‘yet another waterfall’… we are becoming so spoiled! However, this waterfall surpassed our expectations due to its multiple small waterfalls with swimming pools that led to a gigantic waterfall. We entered one of the natural pools via a large rope swing. The water was cold, the current was strong, and we received a free fish massage while swimming in the water. We ate dinner with a large group of travelers at an outdoor vegetarian buffet for only 5,000 kip. We feel really rich using the local currency and laugh every time we say an amount. For example, our hotel was 35,000 kip a night, which is about $3.00. We prefer to use kip denominations, purely for our own enjoyment!