18 October 2009
The Elephant Kingdom
Posted by oulin under: travel .
A long-tail (a slim shaped boat that’s popular in South East Aisa mainly for transportation) took us from Chiangkhong, the Thai border, to cross the Mekong and arrive in Huayxai, the Laos border. It took literally only 3 minutes to cross the river. After a quick and simple immigration procedure, we were in Laos! Kacey and I were debating whether we should take the common 2 day slow boat or a 10 hour bus to Luang Prabang. Since time was limited for Kacey, the bus seemed to be a better option. The first encounter with the Lao people was with the aggressive tuktuk drivers at the border. They were like a gang that controlled the tuktuk business around the border. They were asking for 20,000 kip/person to the bus station. We protested. The head of the gang with a pad in his hand refused to bargain with us and stopped some hesitated drivers to take us. I raged and marched away even though I had no idea which direction to go and how to find another tuktuk. Fortunately 200 meters down the street, we stopped a passing by tuktuk and he agreed to take us there only 8000kip/person. It was the most “painful” bus ride I’d had since travelling though. We were on a dirt road full of holes and bumps most of the time, and the bus was running barely 30km per hour. The 10 hour ride turned into 14 hours. When we arrived in Luang Prabang, it was almost 4am. 
Although with the constant frustration dealing with money oriented guest house owners, tourist agents and un-flexible café staff, I adored Luang Prabang. The waterfall in light turquoise color, the monks in their red-orange robes, the beautiful temples, the cafés and restaurants in colonial style buildings concurred the exotic and romantic feeling of this country. The smile of the local people just melted my heart. We got up at 5am to attend the giving to the monks. In the blue dawn light, sincere Buddhists sat on the straw mats they laid on the side of the streets, with food and flowers next to them patiently waiting for the monks to arrive. Groups of monks showed up in line quietly from different directions around 5:30am. It’s so quiet around. All we could hear was the sound of the flapping of the monks’ bare feet on the floor and the clicking of the tourists’ cameras. I was fascinated by the beauty of this peaceful scene. People were still holding up their faith although they had been suffering from wars and poverty. 
Communication was a big headache during my stay in Laos though. People barely spoke in English. I took a pretty good practice of sign language. As days passing by, I got used to this way of communication and felt much less frustrated. I deliberately skipped Vang Vieng where people mostly go there to indulge themselves with tubing on the Mekong and get drunk while doing that. I wasn’t that intrigued by the idea of meeting drunken silly western travelers. I went east after Kacey flew down to Siem Reap. Ever since I heard about Laos’ painful history of the Secret War and watched some of the documentary, I meant to visit one of the most heavily bombed areas by the Vietnam border. In Phosanvan, I was lucky to be received by the Provincial Coordinator of the UXO Lao center there. I was shown to a bomb field they were working on and witness the explosion. It was an incredible experience and I was astounded to learn some of the facts about UXO. I put this in another context with more details.
On the way to Phosanvan, I met two fun Scottish girls, Selina and Iona. We enjoyed each other’s company very much and travelled down to Vientiane together. It’s a lovely former colonial city with many cute cafés scatter around the center. The city was wrapped in an enthusiastic festive atmosphere. The biggest festival of the year was coming. The boats were getting ready for the big races, loads of observation booths were set up along the river, carnival facilities were set next to the market, ear-splitting cheesy pop music was hovering in the air. All the guesthouses were organizing parties. We were definitely influenced by festive scene. We wandered around the market among thousands of people, enjoyed the delicious grilled fish and cockles by the river, and even had a little sophisticating cocktail moment at the Spirit House. Unfortunately, because of the miscommunication of the boat racing’s actual schedule, seemed everybody had a different answer, I bought the bus ticket to Pakse on the evening of 4th. The boat racing was on 5th. I only got the chance to join the locals to send a candle boat down the Mekong hoping it’d help realize my good wishes. Salina, Iona and I hugged and kissed each other goodbye in the busy night market. Then I boarded my sleeper bus sharing a bed with my next travel buddy Lena.
Lena and Jessica were so amusing. We traveled together from Pakse to Dondet and later into Cambodia. We laughed and made fun of the situations that frustrated us. We shared our experience and stories, starting with traveling then soon extended to family and relationships. We also made fun of each other’s funny habits. It was a lot of fun traveling with these two girls. We created a system making announcement of the day declaring the moment we felt happy or upset. But mostly we announced when we felt happy.
Laos, once was called the Elephant Kingdom, and now maybe more known as the most bombed country in the world. I expected to experience poverty and harsh reality of its struggle from the shadow of the cruel Secret War. But after a short visit of 20 days, I found I was more touched by its spectacular nature, people’s warm smile and their determination of developing the country.
For more photos, please go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/37833026@N06/sets/72157622485174875/”
