We arrived in Bangkok with some trepidation of Intrepid, our first group tour. We spent 8.5
weeks in Japan and South Korea and it isn’t hyperbole to say that we fell in love. There are a bunch of love letters (ahem, content) on the blog about how special we believe Japan and South Korea are, so I will save you from our indulgence, but in short, while touring Bangkok the trip felt regrettable from day one. We chose to do a guided group tour with Intrepid in order have some relief from the grind of planning. I know, you are thinking, "Heather, stop the madness! How can planning a once in a lifetime trip be a grind?” Well, I’ve learned that too much of anything can be exhausting...even sleeping! #pries :) When we landed in Thailand to begin our tour through SEA (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia) we were excited by the fact that for 30 days, our only real responsibility would be to show up to scheduled activities on-time. No accommodations to select, transit to organize, or tours to book. Just sit back, relax, and tip our guide. Unfortunately, 18hrs later, as we poured out of a minibus with 15 sorta strangers, to the most touristed temple, at the most touristed time (for the 2nd time!)...Jackie and I look at each other and telepathically question “Lord almighty, what have we done?!” The next day doesn’t get much better. The aforementioned minibus takes us to Chiang Mai, and on the way, it pulls into a rest stop, joining ~20 other mini (and not so mini) buses. We enter the throngs of similarly kept tourists wandering though the parking lot toward the Wat Rong Khun...where even more people are on shore leave from their bus. I am already dying inside when Jackie twists the knife when she innocently says, “We should be back at the food court by noon before more buses arrive.” It’s official, I'm in my Bad Place.
Neither of is are having much fun and think we have made a terrible, horrible, no good mistake, but Jackie is able to muster up some optimism and keeps me from abandoning the trip. That was a good thing. While we wouldn't book another group tour (in fact, we have canceled the 48 day tour we booked with Intrepid in Africa #foolmeonce), we are glad we did it. There were lowlights for sure, but there were valuable learning moments, friendships to be made and yes, some truly wonderful highlights. Over the next couple of posts, we will share our stories of Laos, Vietnam and Thailand.
Laos: Anything but Laosy
Neither of us was particularly educated about Laos before arriving via boat to Pak Beng. We knew it was a communist, landlocked country and regrettably, that is where our knowledge ended. During a relaxing and beautiful (albeit chilly) 6hr slow boat cruise down the Mekong River, we learned much about Laos history and culture of the Lao people, in part because of the world wide web (thanks again GoogleFi) and in part because of our guide Tui (a former monk) who enthusiastically shared his personal take on the past, present and future of Laos. The crash course in Laos helped contextualize the experiences that were to follow over the next six days in this uniquely charming and often overlooked country. (Spoiler Alert...we highly recommend a trip to Laos). To paraphrase the Bard, “brevity is the soul of blog writing” and will do my best to honor this advice..
Pak Beng
You won’t find a Marriott or Hilton here. This riverbank village is a classic backpackers stop where one rests their weary head at a guesthouse or hostel. We only spent a night here, but were immersed in traditional Laotian way of life. Small markets, outdoor cooking, Buddhist temples, communist flags, garbage burning, free range everything and gracious people. Ending our evening with a glorious sunset and waking up to bathing elephants only added to our experience. Laos was off to a great start.
(^Tip: Photos above are actually on a slide reel. Click to the right to find the Elephants and other sexy Pak Beng photos.)
Luang Prabang Luang Prabang is Laos’ poster city. Gorgeous French colonial buildings evoke comparisons to New Orleans sans grenades, hurricanes and bare breasts. Now defunct royal palaces sit upon manicured lawns and are lovingly cared for. A mountain top Buddhist temple seduced us to get up at 5AM to pay sunrise visit. This is high praise because by then, we were “so over temples!”
We frolicked in a stunning set of waterfalls, strolled the city, enjoyed long massages, ate at delicious vegetarian restaurants, and sipped cold brew coffee at some of the roadside cafes that abound. It’s kind of a hipster's paradise and as a former Portlander, it was hard not to supremely enjoy Luang Prabang.
Vang Vieng The town had a bit of a bad-boy reputation for drugs, debauchery and drunken water sports on the Nam Song River (several backpackers were killed every year). This has been reigned in by the government because of international pressure and now the town, in a sublimely gorgeous limestone region, beckons tourists with less dangerous adventures (though one can still buy plenty of “happy” foods without looking too hard).
Despite the disapproval of our tour guide, we chose to rent a dune buggy and explore the countryside and Blue Lagoons by ourselves. It was a freaking blast. While the “Blue” Lagoons themselves were underwhelming largely because of tourist pollution, the dusty roads, incredible views, and a sense of lawlessness made it a great adventure.
Vientiane Vientiane is the capital of Laos, and as capitals go, it is uber laid-back. Like all of Laos, the vibe is warm and welcoming. French colonial architecture dances with Buddhist temples, but both receive a little less TLC than in Luang Prabang. It also seems as though the city is quickly investing in the future, building beyond current demand. On the waterfront (again, the mighty Mekong) several recently built western style shopping strips & eateries line the street, juxtaposed next to a very noisy and fragrant wet market.
What’s a bit off putting is that the newly developed area is devoid of life. It’s expansive and clean, but only a handful of people are in the mall (empty malls are sandwiched between a Waffle House at 2AM and Sihanoukville, Cambodia on the "Most Depressing Places to Be" scale.) There is sidewalk (a rare luxury in SEA) but nary a pedestrian not named Heather or Jackie. It's as if the Vientiane government got windfall of cash and had to spend it by year-end or lose it. I had that problem in Corporate America and would buy something like a research study; Vientiane built a promenade.
There aren't a ton of tourist attractions in town (save for the COPE mentioned below), but we kept ourselves entertained by walking the city, drinking good coffee, imbibing cheap cocktails (high quality craft cocktails for $7? #goodplace) and pet more cats.
Overall, a good, inexpensive and worthwhile stop on any SEA itinerary, particularly for a visit to COPE--short for the Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise— a small museum and charity for the victims of the unrelenting bombing that still kills or maims dozens of Lao people each year.
It’s appallingly unknown that Laos holds the dubious honor of being the most heavily bombed country in the world, per capital. If you are like me, I bet you have questions...like:
Q: Who bombed them? Lemme guess, The United States?
A: Yep, the U.S. was all up in Asia from 1944-1975 and between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped more than two million tons of explosives on Laos. (That is nine years of bombing a country.)
Q: Why did we bomb Laos? Was the U.S at war with them?
A: Nope, the U.S. was never at war with Laos and the bombings were largely carried out in secrecy. The goal was to destroy the Viet Cong trading routes, but the strategy was largely unsuccessful. (That is nine years of bombing a country you're not at war with.)
Q: Was it really that bad?
A: Totally. There were over 580,000 bombing missions—equal to a planeload of bombs every 8 minutes, 24-hours a day, for 9 years – Up to 35% of the bombs dropped did not explode, leaving Laos contaminated with vast quantities of unexploded ordnance (UXO). Over 20,000 people have been killed or injured by UXO in Laos since the bombing ceased.
Q: Okay, but the U.S. has made reparations right? Tell me they made it right?
A: Eh, not really. The U.S. has paid for some UXO clean-up, but the spend is shockingly minuscule compared to the money spent bombing the country for 9 years (The U.S spent $13M/day bombing Laos and spends <$5M/year cleaning up the UXO). Nearly 40 years on, less than 1% of these munitions have been destroyed in the clean up! The U.S. also rejected the UN Treaty ending the use of cluster bombs citing their strategic necessity in war.
To any foreign visitors, and particularly Americans, the COPE is jarring but a must-do. Portraits and stories of the victims, disturbing facts about the bombings and even the COPE sign--created from used prosthetic feet--remind visitors of the terrible human cost of war. Sadly, all the countries we've visited have a war museum extolling the ravages of war and yet, it is an absolute certainty that war will continue.
Stray Observations
While in Laos, we saw more than a dozen amputees, a daily reminder of the terrible bombings the Lao people have and continue to endure.
All institutions have a dark side and Buddhism is no exception. We learned from our guide Tui that most young boys "choose" to be monks because there are no other options for them, their family's don't have enough money to support them or give them an education. These very young boys live a hard life removed from their family. In fact, they are not permitted to return to a secular life until one of their parents die. (This was the case for Tui, who joined a monastery at age 11, actually had to flee to live among a Karen tribe due to conflicts in the region, and lived as a monk for 18+ years until his own father died at the age of 54. Tui found his body floating in the river with the fishing rope still secured to his wrist. Tui is now married with five children and loves the little things he once missed like hair, drinking, smoking, and his wife.)
Everyone seems to have beef with the Chinese. In Laos, they are particularly concerned about the dams the Chinese have bought the rights to build on the Mekong. Based on the impact the Chinese have had on the regions I’ve seen, the Lao people have every right to be worried.
Every country has their national beer. Laos has Beer Lao and I personally believe it’s the best in South East Asia. A crisp Japanese rice lager that is crazy cheap at $1 and wonderfully drinkable.
Laos, like almost everywhere we visited in SEA, seemed very safe. While petty theft is always a risk, we were never particularly worried for our belongings or our bodies. Embarrassingly, I felt less safe in Portland than I have thus far on our trip.
Soda Lao/Singha Soda tastes almost as good as the hallowed Topo Chico. At $0.20 a bottle, it guts me to say, but ultimately is better than Topo Chico.
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