Laos, part one...

I know that I've been increadibly bad at updating my blog lately, it's been over a month. I'm so sorry, but traveling is just too busy! It's a hard life. Seeing interesting culture, astonishing nature, talking with nice people, eating tasty food and reading good books. Who has time to keep a blog? During one month in Laos I never felt like writing, but now I'm back in Thailand and I want to do an update. I just realized that it's going to have to be two updates...

Let me introduce Laos, a country that seems to be made out of waterfalls and caves, inhabited by the friendliest people you can imagine eating the stickiest rice in the world. Do I have to tell you I loved the place? Parts of Laos are sadly destroyed by tourism, though. But if you're adventurous enough to go to other places, you'll be rewarded.

The trip to Laos began with a two day boat trip from the border to Luang Prabang, the second biggest city and cultural center of the country. It is also the intellectual center, I read that in the Lao soaps, the doctors and lawyers always speak with a Luang Prabang accent (I didn't manage to distinguish the accent though). The boat trip was really nice and relaxed and it was also the place where I met Erik and Julie from France and Will from New Orleans. These three became my new travelling friends for a few weeks. Erik and Julie also became my french teachers. I hadn't expected that I'd practise so much french on my trip to Asia, but I have to say that my french now is much better than it was half a year ago.


On the two day boat ride, I encountered the third catagory of "travellers I don't like to meet", a kind that I unfortunately would meet alot of in Laos (and probably will meet in Thailand as well); the party people. The party people on the boat were sitting in the front of the boat smoking cigarettes (so that everybody in the boat could benefit by inhaling the fumes) and drinking beer lao non stop for two days. When they arrived in Luang Prabang, they soon decided to move on, since the pubs aren't open after 11 pm in Luang Prabang. And, as they explained it to us: "we don't give a shit about temples, we've seen enough". At first I thought that all of this was entirely their own business, but when I later went to Vang Vieng (the party capital) I realized how much that has been destroyed by the huge amount of european teenagers (yes, teenagers!) being recklessly drunk and stoned listening to terrible pumping music all day and night all year round. I can't even beging to think how it must be for the locals living there. 15 years ago it was a quiet town in a beautiful surrounding and now they have to live with the stupid party people wether they want it or not. This is all so sad to me and makes me ashamed for being a tourist. It's also hard to understand how all of that can be some peoples dream. The party people stay in Vang Vieng for weeks doing the same thing over and over: drinking, smoking weed and trying to get laid. That brings me to another thing I don't like about this group. Many times the guys will talk to a girl at first, but as soon as he understands that he's not gonna get sex from her, he doesn't bother anymore, but starts talking to someone else instead. I even heard some guys saying out loud: "oh, that's the girls who have boyfriends at home, there's no use talking to them". I could probably go on writing about this for a while, but I just don't feel like it and I'm sure you're thankful for that.


There's actually a fourth category as well, one that makes me so upset that I want to cry. That's the old, ugly, nerdy, white men who come to Thailand and suddenly find young, beautiful thai women. They're EVERYWHERE! If I start writing about this it will take all day, so therefor I will spare you. This time.







After Luang Prabang, I traveled north with my new friends to a small village called Muong Sing. The town itself is nothing spectacular, but around it is a large number of hill tribe villages. In Muong Sing we organized a three day trek to see the small villages around. Luckily we got a great guide called Mai, who new so much about all the different tribes we visited. We even got to stay with two families and felt genuinely welcomed by both. The kids in the villages were very curious about their guest and all wanted to touch my hair.

A funny thing about the trek was that we were walking in the jungle, with Mai in front to clear the path with a machete. Afterwards we found out that there was an easy way as well, but I guess the trek was going through the jungle so that the tourists (us) would feel like they were on a "real adventure". I felt so silly when we found that out. I even feel a little embarrassed now that I've been on an organized thing like that. But at the same time, we learned alot about the hill tribes and we all had a great time.

After trekking, we said goodbye to our Louisiana boy Will and took a bus 150 km east (this took 7 hours!), a tuk-tuk for another hour and then a boat for 1,5 hours to the small, wonderful paradise Muong Noi. Muong Noi is a village without roads, right by the Nam Ou river. The landscape around is truly beautiful, and the atmosphere totally relaxed. There were only a few tourists every day, so everybody talked with everybody and after a few days I felt like a small town girl, everytime the boat came in, I'd be curious at who would come visit the village today. Despite the relaxed atmosphere, there were plenty of things to do in Muong Noi, two really cool caves to explore and tubing down the river in slow motion.

One day it rained very heavely from 6 in the morning until late afternoon. As soon as the rain stopped, my new argentinan friend Gregorio and I thought it would be a great idea to walk to the nearby village Banna. What we hadn't considered was that the whole way was a mud path, and we had mud up to our ancles the whole way. Wet mud is very slippery, that's what I learned. I also learned that it takes a long time to walk in mud. The walk to Banna took two hours instead of one and I fell twice. For some reason Gregorio didn't fall, although it looked like he would at least 100 times.

When we arrived in Banna we were rewarded with yet another paradise. The village only has 100 inhabitants, all of who work at the huge rice fields you have to cross to go there. There is, however, a small, very basic and cheap guest house hosted by the friendliest woman I met in all of Laos: Mama Kham. Gregorio and I soon realized that the sun was about to set, so we had to say goodbye to our new mama, but decided to go back to stay one night the following day.

In Banna everybody lives in bamboo houses on stilts, work on the rice fields and wear traditional clothes. Everybody exept for Mama Khams son, the rocker. This guy walks around the tiny village in baggy jeans, black rock t-shirts, a rocky kind of hair cut and piercings. Gregorio and I were both very surprised to find him here, he looked like he might as well belong in any European big city. When we came back to Banna the following day to spend the night, the rocker was glowing with happiness to see us again. I don't think he gets a chance too often to practice his english and hang out with other cool kids. :)

Leaving Muong Noi after a week was not easy, but luckily I met this guy, Julius, who took me on his amazing motor bike from 1955 down towards Luang Prabang again. I was supposed to go all the way ther with him, but as the bike lacked a footrest for the left foot, my leg was cramping after one hour. The motor bike also broke down once, and I realized how hard it must be to travel by motor bike. And Julius had done it all through Vietnam! With the old bike and all our bags in the back, we sure got a lot of attention on the roads through the villages. Everywhere people were waving, yelling "falang!" (tourist). Yes, that's what I am: falang.