Hue

After a chaotic crossing into Vietnam we landed in Hue after dark, in the pouring rain and without a hotel room. The bus dropped us off along the side of the road about three to four km out of town. Soaked to the bone 5 of us flagged down a mini Kia taxi and crammed into it, packs and all. Not a great start to our stay in Vietnam but we found a very nice hotel, The Sport Hotel, and once again a good story.

Hue, an old capital of Vietnam is a World Heritage city located along the Perfume River and has lots of things to see. We visited the Citadel (the old moated city built in the early 1800)-fantastic, and the Imperial Enclosure museum. Along with wondering the streets for hours on end, we enjoyed a tea and coffee at one of the many small stalls, I think we saw as a lot the city had to offer, and to my delight that included a few Christmas decorations.

Unfortunately, after a small mishap in the washroom, where my camera fell into the toilet and then decided to quit working, I will be forced to look for another somewhere along the way (maybe a late Christmas present) for now the iPad will have to do. What a crappy thing to happen!

We have been traveling with Eloisa, from Brazil, off and on since entering Lao and from Hue she decided to head north for a while and we made plans to catch a local bus for a long 4 hour 135 km ride to Hoi An.

Great shopping in the local market...everything and more that you would ever need for your kitchen.

Checking out the grounds of the Citadel.

Tourist boats on the Perfume River..."only one dollar for hour, Mister"

Russian designed Meg 21, used by the Vietnamese Airforce to attack the Americian B52 Bombers.

One of the gates at the entrance to the Citadel.

Noodle soup anyone?  Eloisa enjoyed a bowl.

The Bus

The sleeper bus we took (during the day) from Pakse, Lao to Hue, Vietnam. The buses are built for short people, Ken that to sit with his knees just about up to to ears for our 12 hour bus ride.

The Farm

What a great experience, to have the chance to go to a coffee farm and work for a day along side the farmers. To see first hand how they live and work in their own community and as a family unit. Those are the reasons we decided to do exactly that. Unfortunately for us, the coffee harvest had just finished so when we arrived at the farm and said "put us to work, where do we start?" the work was all done. The farm director set Eloisa, Roger, Ken and I up with accommodations in a guesthouse on the property and told us lunch would be at 12 then we could relax for a few hours and later that day he would give us a tour of the 67sq hect farm, after which we could relax a little before dinner, at 6, and then we would have time to relax a little that evening. I guess there isn't too much work to do after the harvest! We ended up spending the day mingling with the locals, Ken and Roger played a little volleyball, Eloisa took some amazing photos of the kids and I played a game something like pickup sticks with one of the small girls. It was great. The tour of the farm was very informative and the walk around the fields was great, seeing as the farm is at about 1000 mts the temperature was much cooler than that in Pakse and didn't seem a humid. Our meals were basic but good, the same as the Lao people, rice with vegetables and little meat and more rice. It was an early evening (after such a hard day) and we spent it playing 10,000 (a dice game, Ken and I taught Eloisa and Roger). Ken and Roger played a little chess and later we kicked up our heels a little to some tunes Eloisa had on her iPad. The next morning it was up early for breakfast at 7am...eggs and rice, before our return trip into Pakse, but not before I had a chance to help setup a little for Christmas. The majority of people here are Buddhist but there are some Christians, either way they take the opportunity to get together and celebrate their good luck.

Later, back in Pakse the four of us were all smiles and enjoyed the experience, (however it turned out) we still had dirt on our shoes but maybe not so much under our fingernails!

Bolaven coffee, the name of the cafe and coffee coffee farm that we visited in Pakse.  It is good coffee!

Roger, Eloise, Me and Ken hanging out in the coffee field.

Ken and my digs at the farm.  We were very happy to be using a tent because we had the BIGGEST spider in our room that night!

A happy family of farmers riding in a farm truck...tracker?  After three years of working a plot of about 1.5 sq hect on the farm each farmer gets the chance to buy a small parcel of land for themselves, a great opportunity for them.  Most of the farmers working at the Bolavan farm are from the north around Luang Prabang. 

After the harvest the work slows down so the farmers have a chance to enjoy a slower place of life, like this get together.

Life on the farm is busy so they don't have time to drive the 75 km to Pakse to go shopping..so the store comes to them!

Four Thousand Islands

In Laos, near the end of the Mekong River and around 4300 km from its origin, is the archipelago called Four Thousand Islands. Here the river starts to dump some of the silt it has collected along its journey, creating dots of islands surrounded by fingers of water. Many of the islands are inhabited by locals with only a generator for power but a few are set up for tourists. We chose the island of Don Khon for our stay, it has only a dozen or so guesthouses and restaurants with not much more to do than relax, read, rent a bike for a day ride (we rented bikes and circumvented both the island of Don Khon and Don Det) and visit a waterfall or two. We stayed 4 nights and enjoyed the island life. Just a reminder to anyone who is on their way, there are no ATMs or banks so bring all the money you will need! and be prepared to stay longer than you planned!

One of the many fingers of the Mekong River as it flows by the island of Don Khon.

Ken sits on the verandah of Pan's Guesthouse,  120,000 kip/night (a little more expensive than some but worth it!)

A fisherman paddling his long boat.  Behind him you can see the bridge that joins Don Khon to Don Det islands.  The bridge is an old railway bridge that was built by the French when they were running boats up the Mekong river.  Because the Tat Somphamit waterfall was impassable by boat, they dismantled the boats, put them on a train and transported them upriver safely past the waterfall where they were put back together and put back in the water to continue upstream.

The Laos children are adorable and mostly very happy, but this little girl caught my eye because she was very shy.  Notice that the toy she is playing with is a syringe???not my idea of a great educational tool.

Tat Somphamit waterfall, one of the largest in volume in Southeast Asia.

Four Thousand Islands, how many can you count in this picture?

It's just not complete without a sunset over the Mekhong!

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng, known for its crazy party scene by thirty backpackers, was decidedly not on our list of must sees in Laos but after talking to two couples who said it was not to be missed we changed our minds and booked a stop on our way down to Vientiane. One couple said "The Blue Lagoon" was a must see and the other recommended a guest house called Jammees that they stayed at and didn't want to leave. Both couples verified that the bars lining the Nam Song river were gone, washed away in the rainy season last year, and the hoards of drunk tubers doing the drunkin' party thing were gone along with them.
First off, the ride into Vang Vieng was incredibly scenic with dense foliage covered mountains jetting straight upward out of the earth and small villages sitting amongst rice fields lining the not so great but passable road. We found Jammees upon arrival in town and got a large bright room with a view of the mountains and both a single and king size bed for 100 kip ($12) a night including a menu breakfast...this was going to be hard to leave! Apparently the town was much quieter than before with many restaurants and bars empty, only a few party animals looking for a happenin' place.
We booked a tour which included tubing half a km up an unground stream into a cave, lunch, and kayaking for a couple hours on the Nam Song river. The day was too much fun. Of course we had to check out the Blue Lagoon so the next day we rented mountain bikes and rode the 7 km (on a very rocky and bumpy road) to spot in a small creek where the water was aquamarine blue (from minerals) and quite deep. There were ropes rigged up to trees that you could swing off of, out over the water (fun but once or twice was enough for me). The place was a little bit of a disappoint to me, I guess I envisioned something much grander. A pleasant surprise though was the cave that was located above the pools, quite deep and pitch black without a headlamp...we keep saying that there are things to do here, as tourist, that you would never be able to do in Canada because of safety regulations and this is one. Can you imagine wandering around in huge caves with drop-offs, sink holes, and no lights or indicators as to which way was out. I don't think so!
After four nights in Vang Vieng it was time to head south again, destination-Four Thousand Islands near the very end of the Mekong River. Not wanting to take a night bus we decided to breakup the trip stopping in Vientiane, Thakhek (our cheapest room yet, only $6, but believe me you get what you pay for) and Pakse, where we would catch the final bus to the boat out to the islands. And that is where I am writing this entry, unable to sleep I thought I might as well do something constructive with my time. The roosters are crowing so I doubt sleep is an option now...I guess I will try to sleep on the bus today.

A Laos gardener, checking out the grounds of a hotel.

Kids playing in a creek, seen from the bus on the road to Vang Vieng.

On the way out of town on our bike ride to the Blue Lagoon we crossed a bridge, what only 2000 kip each?

In Vientiane we stopped for a drink at a nice restaurant beside the "Thatdam", what a fitting name.

Another  beautiful view from the bus .

A tuktuk picked 12 of us up from the bus staion north of town in Pakse.  He was loaded to the max. but made a killing, charging each of us 20,000 kip (2.50).

The whole gang on the kayaking tour, a fun bunch and a great tourguide.

Inside the cave as we paddle our way up the underground creek.

A large load for our tuktuk.

The Blue Lagoon, pretty but a little disappointing somehow I was expecting something grander. 

Looking across the Nam Song river from Vang Vieng.

Phonsavan

Keeping with our original travel plan, we have no travel plan.  Wondering what we should see in Laos, I asked Dick and Tita, (who have been to Laos several times) if they could suggest anything that we should see.  Tita mentioned the "Plain of Jars" located near Phonsavan in between Luang Prabang and Ventiane.  Ken and I decided that a stop there would break up the trip nicely so we took the local bus from Luang Pragang to Phonsavan, 7 hours and  $12 each  took us through some of the twistiest mountain roads we have been on in a bus.  Only 6 of us tourists were on the bus, the rest were Laos an I don't think many had been on a long trip before this one.  Half and hour after starting, the bus staff were handing out barf-bags and within the hour people were puking, left, right and center:(  We were lucky enough to get seats in the middle of the bus and (touch wood) didn't have a problem.

In the town of Phonsavan itself there is really not much to see but during the two nights we spent there a fair was in town so Ken, I and Gary ( a fellow traveller from the Shuswup) walked around checking it out.  The fair mostly consisted of a few rides, dart games (break a balloon, get a price), bingo, and a roulette type of game, I guess the Laos like to gamble.  Really, the only reason we were in Phonsavan was to see the Plain of Jars, so as soon as we arrived we booked a tour for the next day. The tour consisted of 5 stops, one being to visit the site with the jars but the remaining 4 stops were relating to the Secret War.

There are 8 sites containing jars or vessels in the Phonsavan area, of these 8 we visited site one of the three that are open to tourists.  Site one has close to 350 vessels of all sizes, the largest being about 3 metres high, and all were carved from single stones not hand made from clay.  The purpose of the vessels is still unclear but the main theory is that they were used to put bodily remains in after being cremated.  Some have lids, some don't.  Another theory was that they were used to store things i.e. salt (a precious commodity) back in the day.  Similar sites are also found in Malaysia, India, and Vietnam and date back to 500 B.C.  

The second part of the tour taught us a little about The Secret War (something I had no idea about), Ken had to explain a lot of it to me as we went along, even though he didn't know everything about it.    Everyone knows abut the war in Vietnam but during the same tie, from the mid 60's to mid 70's, there was also a "Secret War" going on in Laos, directed by the CIA.  More bombs were dropped on Laos, in that time, than in all the bombing done by the Americans in the Japan and Germany combined.  Estimates are, over 1 million people were killed in this time and most people, even the American government, didn't know it was going on.  For more info go to http://thediplomat.com/2011/02/25/the-cia’s-secret-war/ or google "The Secret War Laos".  We visited a short airstrip used by the American military, the main airstrip is out of bounds to tourists (it was the busiest airstrip in the world, at the time).  We also visited a cave that was used as a hospital and to house doctors during the war.  It was impossible to imagine the conditions they worked in, there where small morphine bottles covering the floor.  The last stop on the tour was at a farm where our guide took us for a walk out in a field and pointed out UXOs (unexploded ordinances...shells and bombs that didn't explode on contact when dropped).  Some were laying on the ground and others were half buried, unseen without looking for them.  He had walked the path many times with a metal detector to insure our safety??? Still today over 100 people are killed every year by UXOs, and many more are injured.

On the lighter side, during the tour we stopped in a village to visit some of the locals and they showed   us how they make lao lao, moonshine made from rice.  We tasted it but didn't purchase any, she wanted only 10,000 kip a litre, about $1.25.  One kg. of rice makes around one litre of lao lao and rice costs approximately 5000 kip/kg, so she could double her money in two weeks.  Not bad money for them.

 After a full day on tour, we left feeling drained from all that we had ween and learned.  The stop in Phonsavan was not a fun stop but it did help us understand the Lao people a little better.

Everyone looks happy on the local bus, it's all fun and games until the locals start to throw-up!

Site one on the Plain of Jars, over 300 vessels are located here, all sizes, some buried, some square, some round, some with lids nearby???

Do not venture far from the path!  Unexploded ordinences are everywhere.  Stay between the white markers.

Our guide show us  part of a bomb (UXO) buried in a field.  Who is crazier him for digging around it or us for watching him?

Thousands of small jars which, had at one time, contained morphine line the floor of the Hospital Cave.

I am standing beside the largest vessel on the Plain of Jars.

On the bus to Phonsavan we passed through many villages with locals living, working and walking along side the road.

You can barely see Ken, but he is standing beside a crater made from one of the many bombs that were dropped in this area in the late 1960's to early 1970's.

A very old stuppa built as a grave for the wealthy.

Nearby homes are utilizing the casings from the unexploded American bombs.

Asian Black Bear

Isn't he cute?  One of the Asian Black Bears in Luang Prabang.

Around Luang Prabang

Laos, a new country for us and we are excited about that.  The slowboat into Luang Prabang was a great introduction.  As the boat pulled up to the shore more than a few tuktuk drivers waited to whisk us away to one of the many guesthouses.  We didn't have anything booked and didn't really know where to start so we took the first one in line.  To make a long story short, we found a room for the night and in the daylight the next day we found something a little more comfortable...the Sengphet Guesthouse, we would highly recommend it.  We took their most expensive room, $19 for a large very clean room with t.v., internet, free tea and coffee, and all the bananas you could eat!  The guesthouse also had a nice sitting area where we met a couple around our age from Canada and doing a simular trip as us, Guylaine and Greg,  and Victor with his wife and kids from Hungary

We spent 8 days in Luang Prabang and as usual the time went very fast, before writing this I really had to sit down and think about what we did there.  The highlight for me was the four day film festival, films from around Southeast Asia were shown at different venues around town including the town square, a tourist information centre and a FANCY resort (the most expensive in L.P...$1700 a night...the place to be seen in Laos).  We took in at least one film a day, these are the films we saw and what we thought of them;

1. Six Degrees of Separation from Lilia Cuntapay, 2011, Philippines, 4/5*'s
2. Mindfulness and Murder, 2011, Thailand, 4.5/5*'s
3. It Gets Better, 2011, Thailand, 5/5*'s
4. With or Without Me, 2011, Vietnam, 4/5*'s
along with a few shorts the best being
1. Mom...I..., 9 minutes, Laos

All the movies we saw had English subtitles and we enjoyed the whole experience.

We rented mountian bikes, one day, and went in search of some waterfalls we had heard about but we didn't bring a map so we ended up on a wrong road that took us approximately 11 km out of town the last 5 km up into the mountians (we kept pedaling thinking the waterfalls could be just around the next corner).  Instead of waterfalls we arrived at a small village where we stopped for a break and had a chance to interact with some of the locals.  Everyone we saw gave us a big smile and a "Sawiadee" (hello in Laos).  The ride downhill was much easier than up, Ken got a strange look and a smile as he passed a guy on a moped!

After not finding the waterfalls on the mountian bikes we decided to rent a moped the next day and try again, choosing a faster form of transportation.  We found 2 waterfalls, the Tat Sae Waterfall, small but with next to no tourists, and the Kuang Si Waterfall, very busy but impressive there they had a sanctuary for 6 asian bears.  The asian bears are about same size a our black bears but with big heads like a grizzly and round fuzzy ears like a teddy bear.  We hiked around both waterfalls and found ourselves dripping with sweat from the humidity, the temperature was around 28 degrees and the humidity close to 90 percent.  Drink lots of water!!!we told ourselves.

On other days, we did lots of walking in town, visiting the National Museum (the old royal palace) and many Wats, and enjoyed drinks and the view at a restaurant overlooking the river.   We found a great restaurant  called "Delilahs" where we, quite often, had the "Laos farmer breakfast"-an omlette with onion/tomato/and dill, sticky rice, steamed vegies and a dip made from eggplant and garlic, yummy! and all for under $3.  I think it would be very easy to be a vegetarian here, with all the veggies and fresh fruit shakes.  

For the first couple of days in L.P. we ran into many of the same people from the slowboat but as the days went by we saw fewer and fewer,  it was our clue...time to move on.

Kuang Si Waterfall.  Look closely Ken is standing in the middle.

The countryside around Luang Pragang, farmland mixed in with dense foliage.  The diet in Laos is fairly healthy, lots of vegetables, but unfortunately a lot of the food is fried.  You will not see a McDonalds anywhere though!  

The view out of a window of one of the many wats.  This one has a nice view of the national museum(formerly the royal palace), and the surrounding gardens.

A monk at a temple, contemplating life or ???

Froggies on a stick.

Luang Prabang and the Khan River as seen fromThat Chomsi on Phousi Hill, located in the middle of the old town area..

Apprentice Monks say a prayer for the people on Luang Prabang.  Alms is given each morning from around six a.m. The Monks walk the streets collecting food from the people and in return they pray for them.

On a bike trip up into a mountain village we met the locals and had a great time with them.  

On several evenings we walked down to the town square and watched a film on a large screen they had put up.

For Alm, an offering of rice and flowers left for the Monks sits outside a house on the gate.