Vientiane: 19 al 20 de Noviembre de 2008

Despues de pasar la noche y la mayor parte del dia en el bus, llegamos a Vientiane sobre las 4:30 de la tarde. Bastante cansaditos, deambulamos por las calles hasta encontrar un hostal. Muy basico y barato, como la mayoria de los sitios en los que hemos dormido estos ultimos 14 meses...

Aunque sea la capital de Laos, Vientiane es muy tranquilo. Casi diria que es agradable que se respire este aire relajado. Supongo que es lo mata a los expatriados aqui, la falta de actividad. Para nosotros nos vino bien ya que teniamos todo mas o menos a mano. Despues de un buen desayuno en un sitio para turistas (Joma, en la calle Setthathirat), fuimos al local de al lado donde alquilan motos. Estas estan expuestas en la calle y se nos ocurrio preguntar el precio del alquiler para una semana. A fin de cuento, Luang Prabang esta a unos 400km de Vientiane asi que podiamos ir y volver en 7 dias sin problemas. Nos acercamos y nos recibio Thierry, un Frances que lleva 6 años ahi, dueño de Jules's Classic rental asi como el supermercado ubicado en el mismo sitio, en el que uno puede encontrar una seleccion diversa de productos imposibles de encontar en Asia normalmente. (Para los posibles interesados, la web es www.bike-rental-laos.com). Despues de unas negociaciones, ya teniamos medio de transporte para nuestra semana en Laos. Fiajamos la salida para el dia siguiente, todavia teniamos que ir a la embajada de India para solicitar nuestros visados. Alquilamos unas bicis y fuimos hasta ahi. Normalmente hace falta una semana para que te den el visado asi que les suplicamos a ver si podian hacerlo en 6 dias en vez de 7, sino teniamos un serio problema. Accedieron pero como ya eran las 11 pasadas, teniamos que volver a la mañana siguiente. Al menos, ya liberados de esta preocupacion, fuimos a visitar el monumento nacional de Pha That Luang en el cual nos encontramos a bastante peña que estaban en nuestro bus desde Hanoi. Fuimos a por la moto sobre las 6 de la tarde y aprovechamos para ir al mercado de noche con ella. Pillamos un Pad Thai buenisimo en la calle y nos volvimos hacia nuestra guesthouse. De camino me lleve una patada en la pierna de un tio que pasaba con su motillo. Que agraddable! Sera porque llevamos una moto mas grande que la suya? O porque hay reglas de corculacion diferentes aqui y le he hecho la pua sin darme cuenta?

A la mañana siguiente fuimos a la embajada de India a primera hora y luego cargamos la mochila en la moto para empezar nuestra aventurrilla en moto. Pillamos la mochila grande de Annemarie con las cosas basicas que ibamos a necesitar, todo el resto en mi macuto que dejamos donde alquilamos las motos. Hora de salir, tenemos nuestra Honda Baja de 250cc, nuestros dos cascos blancos con visera supersonica (y sobre todo super rallada!) y ganas de ir a descubrir Laos.

Vientiane: 19 -20 November 2008

We had heard stories about the bus from Hanoi in Vietnam to Vientiane in Laos being a complete nightmare. Even in our guide book it said to avoid doing the trip by bus and take a flight if possible. However given that the flights cost 140 dollars each and the bus only 23 dollars we decided to chance our luck in the bus. The length of time it would take was'nt clear either as we had heard everything from 22 to 24 to over 30 hours! So open minded about the next 24 hours to come we got the bus in Hanoi and prepared ourselves for the adventure ahead. Once we arrived at the bus station and saw the state of the bus we started to think that the nightmare stories might have been true. The bus was an old crock of a thing and was amost full of locals by the time we arrived. Antoine took charge of the bags and I got on the bus to get us a seat, however I soon found out that most of the seats were taken except for a couple of doubles near the back. When I tried to sit in one of the available doubles near the back the guy from the bus company started shouting at me and pointed to the very back row of the bus. I was adament that we were not going to sit in the high back seats of the bus for 24 hours so I paid no attention to him and stayed where I was. However I didnt get away with it and getting more aggressive by the second he literally pulled me out of the seat and pushed me down the back! Eventhough I shouted (and it takes alot to make me shout!) I was no match for him and found myself sitting in the very back of the bus with my tail between my legs. I couldnt even put my feet on the ground as the bus was full of big black bags of stuff which they were carrying to Laos and two of them were at the feet of our seats. When Antoine got on the bus I told him the story but there was nothing we could do as the bus was full and they were already putting down small plastic seats in the middle aisle and making people sit there. Once we saw that we realised the seats at the back were'nt too bad afterall!!!!  We saw the funny side of it all and got ourselves as comfy as possible for the trip which I was sure was going to drag on forever! However I was wrong as we had two really sound girls sitting in the back row beside us and in the end the four of us chattered non stop from when the bus took off around 6pm until it made a dinner stop after midnight. Then at around 3am we arrived at the Laos border, which was closed, so the bus parked up and we all slept in the bus til the border opened at 7am. Why we couldn't have left Hanoi later and arrived at the border when it was open nobody seems to know?! The rest went smoothly though, we crossed immigration, entered in to Laos and another 9 hours later we arrived in to the capital of Laos, Vientiane. In the end the whole journey took us around 22 hours, which was fast apparently compared to other times. We were glad in the end that we hadnt forked out money for a flight as the bus experience was'nt that bad at all and we got to meet some really lovely people. Our first evening in Vientiane was spent resting up and going for dinner. Then after a good sleep that night we got up fresh the next morning ready to explore Laos. The first thing that hit us about Vientiane was how calm it was. All the other Asian capital cities that we had visited were mad chaotic places with scooters everywhere and horns beeping non stop, but Vientiane is nothing like that. It is a really relaxed, chilled out city, where it even feels wrong to walk fast down the street or be in a hurry. Keeping with the easy going atmosphere we spotted a nice bakery for breakfast on our first morning called Joma. Strong Lao coffee and yummy banana cake got the day off to a good start. However what we didnt realise was that having breakfast there was going to change our whole Lao trip. As we were having breakfast Antoine spotted a motorbike rental place right next door and made the suggestion of checking the prices and perhaps renting a bike to go exploring the northern part of the country. Given the excitment in his eyes I couldnt really say no and I also thought it would be a fun way to travel. So to cut a long story short Antoine went and spoke to the owner, who turned out to be French, and that same night we picked up our motorbike which we rented for seven days. Vientiane isn't very big and a day is enough to see the main sights, so for the rest of that day we rented some bicycles and toured around the city. They have a very impressive momument which looks like a similar but different version of the Arc de Triomphe, and numerous temples around town. We also spent some of the day talking to different people who had been on our bus from Hanoi, it is a small town so you run in to people very easily. As well as that we had to make a trip to the Indian Embassy in town to apply for our visas for India. We hadnt even thought about getting visas for India until Celine (one of our friends from the bus) asked us if we had one yet and alarm bells went off in our heads!!!!! Thankfully she mentioned it as if not we would have arrived in India with no visa and got sent back again! Luckily it only took 7 days to process, the exact time we had left in Laos, so we left our passports and arranged to pick them up again on the 27th, the day when we would come back from our roadtrip and get the bus down to Bangkok for our flight to India! Yes it was a close call! The following morning we left most of our things with the bike rental agency and headed off on our motorbike with just a small bag for our roadtrip.  We were so excited setting off on the motorbike, we were like two little kids!

Roadtrip 21 de Noviembre: Vientane a Vang Vieng

Dejando atras el centro de la ciudad, nos aventuramos por la ruta 10 hacia el Norte. La carretera principal para ir hacia el Norte es la ruta 13 pero nos habian recomendado ir por la 10 para disfrutar de mas tranquilidad por la carretera, mejores vistas y pasar por pequeños pueblos. Asi que seguimos el consejo y aprovechamos de la libertad que da una moto para emboracharnos con los paisajes, olores, gente que saluda desde la carretera. Cielo azul, sol presente, fuimos recorriendo los kilometros entre pueblo y pueblo, parandonos de vez en cuando para estirar las piernas y beber agua. La moto va bien pero sigue siendo una moto de enduro circulando por carretera. Los tacos de las ruedas hacen bastante ruido y el asiento no es de lo mas comodo. No pasamos de los 70 km/h por hora, siendo mas bien 50 km/h la velocidad de cruzero. Hay tanta gente al borde de la carretera, andando o en bici, animales cruzando la calzada, que resulta peligroso ir mas rapido. De todos modos estamos encantados de poder asimilar tan bien todo desde la moto. Es mucho mas estimulante que el bus y no paramos de sorprendernos con detalles de la vida de la gene aqui. Despues de para para comer en Talat, un pueblo situado en la ruta 10, llegamos a la interseccion con la 13 y aceleramos un poco el ritmo. Tardamos casi todo el dia para recorrer los 170km que separan Vientiane de Vang Vieng. Busccamos un hostel y lo primero que hicimos fue darnos una buena ducha. Como hay bastantes partes de la calzada que no estan asfaltadas, es inevitable pasar a traves de nubes de polvo. Despues de una vueltecilla rapida por la ciudad, elegimos un sitio para cenar y de vuelta a la guesthouse, caimos muertos en menos que canta un gallo. A la mañana siguiente tomamos un buen desayuno reconstituyente y discutimos de nuestras opciones. Vang Vieng tiene fama de ser un sitio para hacer tubbing (basicamente, unas camaras de aire de camion en la que uno se arrima para bajar por una parte del rio) y pararse a los bares que tienen montados en una parte del rio. La gente se pone hasta arriba, no solo de alcool, y luego se tiran de las tirolinas que segun hemos oido llegan hasta los 10m, no es de sorprender que en las pocas horas que llevemos aqui hayamos visto bastante gente con muletas, escayolas y tiritas... Fuimos a preguntar precios de esto y otras actividades con el fin de ir hasta Luang Prabang y decidir ahi como gastar los pocos dias que teniamos. Teniamos que volver a pasar por Vang Vieng en el camino de vuelta asi que siempre podiamos reservarnos un dia para ir a hacer el borracho-tubbing.  

Roadtrip: Vientiane - Vang Vieng: 21st November 2008 

The main road heading north is called route 13, however Thierry who rented us the motorbike advised us to take route 10 as far as it went as it was less busy, less touristy and more picturesque than 13. We were very glad we took his advice as we passed the morning riding through lovely scenary and through many small Lao villages. Being on the motorbike is way better than being in the bus as you get such a closer view of everything. Plus we had the freedom to go exploring where we wanted and stop at villages to try to talk to people. We spent the morning at our ease traveling slowly and taking in all the sights. Around lunch time we arrived to the town of Talat where we had a walk around the food market before finding a local restaurant for lunch. The people in the country are known to eat ANYTHING with meat on it, including rats, but thankfully we didnt see any for sale in the market as I think that would have spoiled my appetite for lunch! Although in saying that we did eat a noodle soup with meat for lunch without ever finding out which type of meat it was exactly...perhaps it is better not to know! After lunch we continued on route 10 until it ended and joined route 13 on towards Vang Vieng. We stopped at Vang Vieng at around 5pm found a hotel, took a much needed shower and spent the night there. We had travelled 130km from Vientiane so we were pretty wrecked. Vang Vieng is a real party stop for tourists in Laos and there is no shortage of bars, cheap drink promotions and drunk tourists. It is actually hilarious to watch the drunk state of people singing and shouting around town! It almost made us feel like we were in the touristy part of Ibiza or the Costa del Sol! One of the most famous things to do in Vang Vieng is to go tubing down the river, apparently it is full of swings, jumps, tirolina etc and the river is also lined with bars to make things more interesting and messy! The amount of people you see around town with bandages, crutches, cuts and bruises is proof of that. However we didn't partake in any of that mayhem and instead we left the following morning for Luang Prabang. We did however say that we would reserve a day on the way back to try out the tubing....when in Laos!

Road Trip 22 de Noviembre: Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang

Despues de darnos una vuelta andando por la ciudad y a orillas del lago, salimos de V.V. sobre las 11:30 con destino a Luang Prabang. Poco despues de salir, en una zona de poco trafico, alcanzamos a ver algo moverse a lado derecho de la carretera. A medida que nos acercabamos se fue retirando pero nos dio tiempo a ver bastante de cerca a una serpiente negra con cuello ancho, deslizarse en direccion opuesta (menos mal!) a donde ibamos nosotros. Diria que media al menos 3 metritos...Que pasada. Nos paramos unas decenas de kilometros mas adelante para ver a la gente trabajando en el campo. Como os podeis imaginar el trabajo agrario es lo que da trabajo a la mayoria de la gente en Laos, sobre todo en las zonas fuera de las grandes ciudades (aqui gran ciudad significa mas de 15.000 habitantes...Vientiane son apenas 250 mil.). Aun asi la mecanizacion es escasa, casi todo se hace a mano. Nos paramos en el borde de la carretera donde una quincena de personas gravitaban al reddedor de un camion del periodo de la segunda guerra mundial, que habian transformado en maquina para separarar el trigo de la paja. Aun asi todo se habia hecho a mano y alimentaban la maquina a mano, con gente sujetando el saco trenzado para recuperar los granos. Una labor de titanes, aun asi nos sonreian y parecian felices. Mas adelante, pasamos unos puestecillos en el borde de la carretera en la que vendian todo tipo de carne y animales. Vimos, colgadas de unas cuerdas, unas ardillas que habian pasado a mejor vida, un puercoespin tieso, cangrejos...de todo.

Una vez pasado el pueblo de Kasi, nos adentramos en las montañas. La carretera va pasando por varios puertos, ofrenciendo unas vistas increibles.

Road Trip: Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang 22nd November 2008

There are 270km between Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang so that was our goal for the day. Once again we took it in our stride and enjoyed as much of the countryside as possible. We stopped in a few villages to see the people go about their daily lives and were amazed by the countryside especially from a town called Kasi on to Luang Prabang. It really is one of the most beautiful landscapes we have seen, the road followed a trail through the mountains and we had views which were out of this world. Plus on random little mountain peaks you would see small villages with perhaps 20 straw houses and people queuing up to use the one communal outdoor shower in the village. It was like going back in time. Around mid morning we spotted a huge snake on the side of the road, it seemed like he was contemplating crossing the road but thankfully the sound of the motorbike seemed to put him off and he went scurring back into the hedge. We got a good upclose look at him and he was a scary thing, he was around 3m long, pure black with a wide python like neck. Definitely wouldnt want to get any closer to him than where we were! We made a few stops along the way, one of which was to go into a field and see some farmers at work. They were using a parked basic version of a combine harvester to separate the barley grain from the straw. They had to cut the barley by hand and then feed it manually into the machine. When you think on the fast machinery we have nowadays in Europe it is hard to believe that people still do that type of work by hand. Worse still was further up the road when we saw more farmers also separating the barley grain from the straw but this time with no machine involved at all, they were literally shaking the straw by hand until the grains fell off! You wouldnt want to have too many fields at that rate of working!Around lunchtime we arrived in a larger village where we stopped for something to eat. We had the unexpected surprise of running in to a lovely French couple who were travelling Laos on bicycle, and another French guy who was also travelling by bike, so we all had lunch together and chatted for ages. The couple (Armelle and Gerald) had in fact left France 16 months ago and were doing a world tour on bike, while Guillaume had bought a crappy bike in Vientiane and made a bet with some friends to cross Laos with it and enter China. It was a really nice lunch and we almost felt sad when it was time to leave, as if we were saying goodbye to friends we had known all our lives. Needless to say we also felt lazy shooting off on our motorbike as they got on their bicycles!!! Although hopefully within 6 months we will be doing the same as them but in Easern Europe. After having an extra long lunch we were actually late in getting on the road again and ended up having to travel over an hour by night. In the end we didnt arrive to Luang Prabang until after 7pm. Still the lunch was worth it and whatever scenary we missed we would see on the return journey. The first thing we did when we arrived was try to find a hotel but we were surprised by how expensive it was. We had paid 6 dollars in Vientiane and here we couldnt find anything cheaper than 12. In the end we gave up trying to find something in the center of town and found a more reasonable place just outside of town for 7 dollars. Just as well we had the motorbike! After having spent over 6 hours on the bike that day we were pretty tired that night. However we did get enough energy up to go to a nice Indian for dinner and celebrate our arrival with a BeerLao!

Luang Prabang: 23 al 25 de Noviembre de 2008

Nada mas llegar a la ciudad de Luang Prabang, me quede captivado por el aire apaziguador que flota en por las calles. Durante el dia los paseos por los diferentes templos que estan integrados dentro del centro de la ciudad, son muy agradables y por la noche algunas calles se transforman en mercadillos en el que se puede encontrar joyas, telas, ropa y souvenirs. Siempre manteniendo un aire de tranquilidad poco comun para el Sud Este Asiatico.

Un dia nos fuimos con la moto al “All Lao Elephant camp” que esta a unos kilometros fuera del centro, por una pista sin asfaltar, y reservamos para ir dos dias despues. Estuvimos un par de horas por la zona, en el pueblo situado al lado, jugando con lo niños de la escuela y bebiendo el agua que unas mujeres nos ofrecieron cuando estabamos sentados en el porche de su casa. Es gracioso como incluso si no podiamos hablar el mismo idioma, mas o menos eramos capaces de dialogar y entender a grandes rasgos lo que nos querian preguntar o decir. Fue una buena experiencia.

Tambien aprovechamos de la moto para recorrer los 32km hasta las cascadas de Tat Kuang Si (ahi la llaman Sai me parece). Una vez llegado ahi, aprovechamos para comer en un chiringuito en la orilla del lago. Pillamos un pescado a la brasa y arroz super sticky. Rico rico. Luego pagamos al tio de la canoa para que nos llevara al parque donde se encuentran las cascadas. En realidad son unos saltos de agua de un metro más o menos, en diferentes piscinas formadas por el depósito de minerales. Es realmente precioso y ademas el color del agua es de un azul turquesa muy bonito.

Cuando estabamos ahi a punto de meternos en el agua, aparecieron 4 elefantes con sus maestros. Despues de un buen baño les hicieron hacer un pequeño espectaculo y tuvimos la suerte de tenerlos a un metro de nosotros. Una pasada! Al dia siguiente ya fuimos nosotros los que nos subimos a espaldas de los elefantes. Primero en una especia de silla, los dos en el mismo elefante para ir a dar un rulo de una hora por la jungla. Luego nos subimos directamente a pelo sobre el elefante y nos fuimos a bañarlos al rio. Fue realmente una experiencia exepcional, Annemarie estaba como una loca, gozando de la presencia de estos animales tan emblematicos y que transmiten tanta tranquilidad e incluso me atrveria a decir sabiduria. Es eso posible? Nos metimos en el agua con ellos y estabamos empapados pero no nos importaba ni lo mas minimo. Pillaban agua con sus trompas para echarsela a la espalda. Y nosotros ahi subidos, riendonos y gozando del momento. Estamos a finales de Noviembre y en nuestros paises debe de hacer un frio de muerte, mientras tanto estamos aqui en subidos sobre unos elefantes, felices los dos y con el sentimiento de estar viviendo nuestras vidas al maximo. Os dejamos algunas fotos del paseo con los paquidermos.

Luang Prabang: 23 - 25 November 2008

Luang Prabang is a gorgeous town, no Im not exaggerating with the word gorgeous. It really has something special that many Asian towns just dont have. It is along the Mekong River so that immediately gives it some charm, it has an amazing old quarter with tiny little intersecting streets, it is full of brightly clothed monks and there are almost as many temples there as people! Plus it is really clean, full of nice places to eat and has an excellent night market. Without a doubt it is one of my favourite towns in the whole of South East Asia. During our first day there we explored the town, with all the temples etc there is more than enough to see to keep you busy for a day. We also ran in to Celine, the French girl who we had travelled from Hanoi to Vientiane with, so we enjoyed catching up with her too. On our second day we took the motorbike and went out of town. First we checkec out some silver making in a nearby village before checking out the price of elephant rides etc at the All Lao elephant camp. We went for a walk around the elephant camp which was in the middle of the countryside and we visited a small village by foot. Visiting the village was fun as we played with some of the local children before attempting a chat with some women outside their house. The converstaion wasnt easy as it was more hang signals than words but they offered us a drink and we stayed for around 30 minutes with them. After that we travelled further south to another small village called Ban Aen where we had lunch along the river front before getting a boat to the Tat Sae falls. We were more than impressed with the waterfalls, they are beautiful with clear transparent water. Plus we got lucky to arrive just for the elephant bathing show, Antoine was actually in the water with the elephants for most of the show! Eventhough we were on the go all day we were still bursting with energy that night so we made a trip to the night market and bought some jewllery. Bargaining is such fun! Then we randomly ran in to Armelle and Gerald (the French couple who are travelling the world by bicycle) so we went for some beers with them. The perfect end to a really great day. However the highlight of our time in Luang Prabang was without a doubt for me day three. We returned to the elephant camp but this time we did an elephant ride. First of all we had an elephant ride where we were seated in a seat on top of the elephant but then afterwards we got an elephant each and got to ride them bareback! It was so much fun, but let me tell you, it is way harder to balance up there on top of the elephant's head than it looks! We both loved every minute of it, however the best part was when we got to go in to the river and bath the elephants. They loved the fresh water to cool themselves down, not surprising as it must have been around 30 degrees, and needless to say we got very wet. They are such incredible animals, certainly an experience I wont forget.

Fotos del Elephant Camp:

On the 26th we took 4 hours 10 minutes to travel the 270km back from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. Once again we enjoyed every second of it, the scenary is just amazing there. We arrived to Vang Vieng around 4pm so we took it easy for the afternoon. They had badminton and a pet baby monkey at our hotel so that amused us for a while. In the end we didnt do the tubing there as the day we have reserved to come back down was the day we did the elephant ride. We were both happy that we did the elephant ride instead of the tubing, there is no way a blown up bit of rubber could complete with an elephant! Then on the 27th we did the last 2 hours of our roadtrip and arrived back in Vientiane. We arrived around early as we had to leave the motorbike back and go to the Indian Embassy to get our visa. In the end everything ran smoothly and our visa was waiting for us when we arrived. It was a close call! When we went to leave the motorbike back Antoine ran spotted an old school friend of his from Madrid, Olivia and her boyfriend, so we ended up sitting in an outdoor cafe and having the craic with them for the day. It is such a small world! Then at 5pm we said goodbye and jumped on the bus to Bangkok, yet another nightbus!!! This one was more comfy though than the last and dinner was even included! Both of us loved Laos, we felt that it was almost too late to visit Vietnam and perhaps even Thailand (the tourism industry in both is so over developed already) but in Laos you still get to experience the real thing. Of all the South East Asian countries we have visited I think Id come back to Laos before any of the others. Although another trip to the beaches in Thailand (even if they are super touristy) wouldnt be bad either :-)  One night bus, one day in Bangkok airport and India here we come.....or so we thought!!!!!! No things didnt turn out exactly like we had planned in Bangkok!