Pakse and the 4000 Islands

10/04The night was not too bad. The bus had double beds, still a bit short in length but we've managed to sleep, even without earplugs for Val!!! The Laotian man behind us doesn't like the trip and keeps being sick, just behind us, the road is not too bumpy but it seems many people again here are car sick!!! We arrive in Pakse very early and book straight a tour from our guesthouse to visit the Bolaven Plateau. It's 8am, quick shower, quick breakfast (even for Val!) and we jump in the van, we're only seven of us, two guys from Latvia, a young Italian woman and a nice French couple on a short holiday. We visit a tea plantation, and the Lao tea tastes good, a coffee plantation, and the Lao coffee tastes very good. The plateau has an average altitude of 600 metres, hilly, lush and very fertile terrain. The plantations were developed by the French during colonial times, but it is again very successful now.
We go to see some waterfalls, Tad Fane waterfalls, very high in the middle of a jungle, one of the highests in Laos. Then drive to some animist tribe villages. The first village Ban Kandone we visit is not spoiled with tourism yet and we meet some women weaving traditional skirts, children running around naked. On and off it will take them three months to complete one skirt. The village is composed of two tribes. the Katu and the Nge cohabiting very well in the same community. Only the ceremonial place, a community house on stilts, has two different stairs to get on the ceremony platform. One is a proper staircase made of different elements, the other one on the other side is a tree trunk where the steps have been carved in (the nge people). All the houses in the village present the same characteristics depending on the tribe. We reflect on old age existence and how people still live here.
The second village Ban Kokphoung, of the Alak people is much more used to tourists and the kids attitude doesn't lie. Children are insistingly saying 'Hello' and showing the palm of their hand muttering 'pen' or 'bonbons'. We give a kid one and she instantly frown her eyebrows, tilting her head to the side now asking for 'bonbon' with a very angry look. We feel a bit lost and puzzled...so much anger. Interesting place here, the tribe people make their coffins when they are alive and store it under their houses, we can see many under the wooden huts. People smoke tobbacco here from a very young age (small children too) and I try it in their bamboo water pipes! There is a party going on and we can see many men and women dancing, some seem drunk or merry, already celebrating new year!!
On the way back we stop at some waterfalls. Tad Lo where I have a swim. The current is very strong and it takes lots of effort before I manage to reach the foot of the waterfall before letting go, drifting back to where I came from. Amusing!
We drive back to Pakse, go to book our tickets for Si Phan Don, the 4000 islands, and, most importantly, to Ubon Ratchathani as next week is Pi Mai Lao, the Lao New Year and we're a bit concerned that, if we wait more, we won't have any seats in any buses to catch our flight to Singapore. Thailand is starting to have few political problems and tensions again...Hopefully we can cross the border! Pi Mai is also celebrated in the neighbouring countries, lasting for a week, everybody travels back to the families or simply for tourism. We come back after a short walk in the town and have dinner with Virginie, a French girl travelling alone, who stays at the same guesthouse we met briefly this morning. Val stays up late, talking about India, spirituality, life in France when I go to bed early as we're travelling early again tomorrow.

11/4
We take a mini bus to the harbour to reach the 4000 islands. We meet up again with the French couple, Philippe and Elizabeth, we met during the bolaven trip, nice to see friendly faces. After two hours drive, and a great example of decerebrated babble from a retarded teenager who spent far too long drinking in Vang Vieng, we arrive in Hat Xai Khoun, the ferry harbour to Don Khong, our destination. They're not really ferries but more small narrow river boats crossing the 500m wide branch of the Mekong to Muang Khong, the village where we're going to stay. First impressions are great, many small islands and islets, the river, lush vegetation...We start walking around carrying our bags under high heat, looking for a guesthouse. It is very hot and the few hundreds metres we walk make us loose an amazing amount of water, so much sweat!! Our pick is finally a hotel to the north of the village, the Souksun Guesthouse, nice huge room with two beds, a nice balcony. We enjoy a short cold but welcome shower before having lunch over the Mekong River. The restaurant is not so good but the terrace is located above the water. We watch the river, rural life revolving around it, the fishermen, the little flooded forests, the banks. Here the Mekong concludes its journey through Laos, before going to Cambodia. There, we meet Beatrice and Oliver, a French-German couple who are cycling all over South-East Asia. They started their trip in August and are still going...brave and admirable people!!! We chat a lot, get on well as we share some similar issues, travelling, life, where to go, what to do...We then go for a walk on the Mekong river heading south, the views and the scenery are fabulous. We go back, rest for a while, go eat in a crappy restaurant, the village is small and we have very few options to eat, then bed time! The room is unbearable as it is so hot and the fan doesn't cool it at all. Maybe one of the hottest nights since we are in Asia, it is really excruciatingly hot as we have been told, before the rain comes.

12/4
It's an early morning for us as we are going cycling today to explore the South of the island. It's a 20km ride but we only have a short time to do it. By noon the heat and sun are such that cycling will become rather challenging, if not impossi­­ble. So we set off on our small bikes (it feels that I'm riding my younger sister's bike when she was eight)on a narrow path tucked between the Mekong River and the village houses. It is very scenic and a fantastic way to experience life on the island, passing traditional wooden houses on stilts to more modern houses, also on stilts, made of cement and concrete, but more or less preserving the local style. We visit Wat Thepasoulin temple, some parts dating back to 1883, teak-plank wall monk quarters, with terracota tile roof and a really pleasant sight added to the bright colours of the temple. A bit further away, we stop at Wat Silananthalangsi, with its derelict monk school house. Around 11am we make our way back on a tremendously hot road through the rice fields, the cultivated lands. But there is not one tree and it might be around 45 degres here and even the small breeze has turned hot. Eight kilometres of pain, making us feel like we're crossing some kind of saharian portion of desert. It's so hot that it takes us around 45 minutes and two litres of boiling water to reach our guesthouse. We run to the shop and buy some cold water to quench our thirst! After a quick lunch and a cold shower, we spend the afternoon in our room as the heat makes any activity impossible. We've been really hot in some places in other parts of the world, but this is uncommon. Early evening we try to book a boat with our guesthouse as a couple staying here is also planning to go tomorrow to visit the small islands around. It's a bit of an odd encounter but we go and speak to them to enquire about their plan. Ingrid and Wolfgang, both German, have finally booked their narrow boat somewhere else, cheaper, and Wolfgang offers straight away to come with me to speak to the man and try to negotiate a better price (more people on the boat), which we actually manage to obtain. Around a beer we agree to have dinner together. We talk about their life, our life. They lived in Nepal 30 years ago, went back to Germany to raise the kids and now that they are grown ups, they are travelling again. Ingrid is currently under contract with an NGO in northern Laos where her role is to improve the hill tribes quality of life (health but also agriculture). She works mainly with Akas. Wolfgang is an architect and an expert in buddhist architecture in Nepal, he has worked for many years in the preservation-protection of the Kathmandu buildings and temples. We exchange a lot about travels and experiences abroad, about Ingrid's difficult work and the harsh issues inherent to any developping countries work.
After an excellent dinner (honey chicken) and beautiful lightnings on the Mekong's horizon, we're back in our room when a violent thunderstorm breaks. Thunderbolts are tearing the dark skies in long and powerful strikes and the rain now pours down heavily, pounding on the building roof. There is half a metre of water in the coumpound. But the air cools down rapidily and we slowly fall asleep, listening to the falling rain...

13/4
The entire night has been very wet, rain flooding the garden. The thunder has been striking until this morning. Luckily enough it's not raining anymore even if the sky is overcast with threatening black clouds. We're up early to get the boat that will take us to see the waterfalls and the southern islands, Don Det and Don Khon. We go with Ingrid and Wolfgang. As we set off with the boat sailing down the Mekong, rays of sunshine pierce the big puffy clouds. Few local boats are sailing up and down the river, fishing, transporting goods, but not so many carrying tourist passengers. The Mekong River is quite wide here, sometimes shallow, and it takes all the ability of our young captain to avoid the submerged rocks, the flooded plants. After an hour and a half of beautiful sights and interesting conversations with our two companions, we reach Ban Nakasang where we take a tired van (it may explain why we paid our boat quite cheap!) to reach the Khon Phapheng waterfalls, the largest of South East Asia. They're only 15m high but nearly 1km wide at the largest point. This place is very busy with tourists, mainly Asian, lined up with small souvenir shops. We climb the rocks to get away from the crowd and after a couple of tree trunks or bamboo made passerelles, we sit down for a long moment to look at the falls. Impressive sight and the water is roaring loudly. We go back to get our boat and sail to Don Khon and its little harbour, Ban Khon, where we stop for lunch. It's a smaller island than where we stay but it's busy with cheap bungalows and youth arriving from Vang Vieng!! Quite the opposite to our little village. However the island looks nice and we could have also come here. The electricity has just arrived permanently last week, a change to the previous two hour time per day. We can already feel that the island is going to change in no time. We have a chatty lunch on the river and then walk through the inner island to try to see Irriwady dolphins. When we reach the boat departure area down river after the falls, we realise that we won't have enough time to see the dolphins. It's such a shame, as they're critically endangered. A wildlife organisation is trying to protect them, but the nets and even the dynamite of the Cambodian fishermen are a great threat. The only other part they can be seen is in the Irrawaddy River in Burma (Myanmar). We walk back, still talking with our friends about our lives. On the way, we first stop at the smaller Somphamit waterfalls that all of us like better. They are accesible and more diverse as the water escapes the falls through an interesting canyon. It is much quieter here and we can have a look and enjoy the view without the crowd running and shouting all around to take family pictures. We set off again as our conversations tend to slow down our rythm a lot. We admire some French vestiges, a school, the locomotive that used to run between Don khon and Don Det on a specially built railway and bridge by the French. At that time boats were unloaded from their goods at Don Khon southern harbour, goods were then put on the train to the northern point of Don Det over the bridge in order to go over the falls. Different boats would eventually transport the goods upriver to Vientiane or Luang Prabang. We get back on our boat an hour late, and we start a very slow return to Dong Khong, against the current. We enjoy the beautiful landscape, scenery and the evening activities of the Mekong River. Fishermen are gracefully throwing their circular nets high in the air. This is so graceful that I cannot get tired of seeing this and photographing it. Kids running naked, enjoing splashing ythemselves in the river, women washing in their sarongs, doing the family laundry, men washing the bikes, the boats, the Mekong is now a very sociable place, neigbhours washing and chatting, monks bathing too... At the same crowling pace as our boat the sun declines gently over the Mekong and the sky starts dressing up into its flaming robe. This is such an amazing and magical moment that discussions are now stopped and four pairs of eyes just look at the burning sky. We're only distracted by the young captain friend who falls asleep in an uncomfortable position at the front of the boat, but in great style: the sunglasses will stay on until the boat pier!!! As we come back it's dark. The day was full of various interests, in the nature but also in ourselves. We part with Ingrid and Wolfgang to meet up again with Oliver and Beatrice, our cyclists friends for dinner. We eat local fish hotpot and talk. These guys left everything for a trip of an unknown length through South East Asia on bicycle. They left Europe, France in August (starting their cycling trip around Europe for a month in July) and have been to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. They are not sure where to settle next...We're completely admirative, such a physical effort but they both seem relaxed about it! Impressive. We carry on our conversation until midnight, chat, laugh, think, reflect. We head back to our room in the complete darkness, the village is fast asleep, only the moon guides our steps...

14/4
The breakfast is quite busy this morning. We're all here, with Ingrid, Wolfgang, Oliver and Beatrice. Ingrid and Wolfgang are leaving this morning. It's been another very interesting and rich encounter. After breakfast we hire a motorbike and we're off to the northern part of the island which makes a 35km loop. Cycling would be far to difficult with the heat, we are not as brave as our friends here. We see the small villages, the North East town getting ready for celebrations of Pi mai, the Lao new year. Rice fields, shacks, villages, water buffalos. Heat. We go to see a temple in the middle of the countryside, with many black rock formations in the fields, nothing much but there are dogs barking that scare Val so much. Back to our village, we walk to try find the celebrations and to see people washing the buddhas, one of the ritual for new year. The village is sleepy, as dead, no adults around, everyone hidding from the heat!!! then an ambush in front of us, we get soaked on the way by the water thrown by the kids, squirting water guns and emptying buckets on people's heads. It is part of the Lao new year festive moment:throw water at people to wish them happy new year! Very joyful and fun! We retaliate to their surprise, I run around the little kids, throwing water at them! We laugh. Lunch at our guesthouse, relax. Around 4pm we leave the guesthouse to the nearby temple to see a very important ritual of the Pi Mai celebrations. Villagers gather around to take all the buddhas out of the temple and wash them with lotus leaves and rinsing them with plenty of water. We're invited to join in and Val lowers herself to the ground to help the girls wash a small buddha figure. So nice to join in, the be partb of the celebrations. We stand out as we are the only farang (westerners) in the temple, people look at us, kids smile, say hello, we sit with people in the shade. Today the women, girls and kids look after the statues and men are supporting them by bringing the water and carrying the heavy buddhas. The entire process goes on with laughter and a jolly mood of happiness and joy. Later there will be parties, huge amount of lao-lao (rice whisky) drank, games, music (blastying from stereos as they like it here), dancing...
The buddhas are then placed on a big table, some sort of temporary altar, where a head monk presides the prayer. He then blesses the buddhas with more holy water. Pi Mai is also thecelebration where all the kids and teenagers throw water at everything, or everyone should I say, that moves, big water battles start now. But this time we leave at the right moment and do not get soaked again...
We come back and get ready for dinner with Beatrice and Oliver who are still around. We chat until late at night and Val and I come back through the little alleyways, the night is pitch black, our path only lit up by tremendous thunderbolts...

15/04
A bit late for our breakfast, we miss our friends who left to go up north with their bikes, good luck guys!! Enjoy the cycling! We go for a last stroll around the banks of the river, a little stray dog comes along, we watch the village life, it is quiet today as it is the holiday, people with their family, we take some photos, relax before leaving the island. A truly scenic place, we both loved it, so much to see, a relaxing stunning place: wooden houses, small villages, riverbanks, lush forets, the magical river, a labyrinth of islets, rocks, beautiful tropical islands. After a short ride on the boat, we ait for a bus to come, we wait then we have to put up with a bad smell in the bus, a young traveller forgot to wash..for a very long time..I sit next to him, nice, Val hates the smell, but laughs about it, we are bohemian but not that hippish...Dirty clothes, sweat, dirt...We laugh and listen to some REALLY cheesy old 80s music (Europe: the final countdown, so appropriate right now!!)Only two and a half hours, could be much worse!!The German couple behind us hates it so much and she feels sick so they spray some deodorants in the van, even nicer!!! Another funny encounter: when we jump in the van, Val recognises a girl from a previous school Science Po, she is living in Vientiane and works in Laos since 2 years, amazing to meet here!! We agree to meet her and her partner for a coffee at the end of the day. We finally reach Pakse at 3pm, go for a shower, browse the net, we are off to thailand tomorrow and needs to sort out some admin stuff. The all town is celebrating, and we get soaked every 5 minutes, ambushed by kids and adults, nice to get soaked as it is so hot, water battles in every street, music blasting, people drinking and dancing! We meet with Elsa, the Scpo girl and her boyfriend for a drink, chat about life, development work, Europe, nice for Val to see her here, they then exchange emails and they have to leave to take their night bus. we have a quick Indian meal (preparing ourselves!), then back to our guesthouse...we want to get to bed as tomorrow we ae leaving the country for Thailand early and want to get up to celebrate at 7am with the family from the guesthouse, they are holding a family celebration and the guests are all invited!!Our last night in Laos, soon the chapter Asia will be closed.

Vang Vieng and Vientiane

4/04 (Fab)
We leave Luang Prabang for a 6 hours journey to Vang Vieng which we have chosen as a stopover on the road to Vientiane. The journey is ok, Val manages to get a bit of sleep, I don't but I do enjoy the landscape rolling down. This part of Northern Laos is made of mountains and valleys. It's beautiful but a slight haze hangs everywhere. This is due to all the uncontrolable and non-ecological slash-and-burn foret exploitations (answering the Chinese and Thai demand for precious wood). The sun is bright but we can only guess its shape throught the smog. The road is very windy, sometimes quite spectacular. Unlike Vietnam, Laos is very peaceful and the driving also. This makes the trip a bit more comfortable. We get to Viang Vieng northern bus station. Sharing a tuk-tuk with an Aussie guy, we make it to the town centre. My first impressions are very mixed. I spot already a high number of late teenagers, early 20's. It looks like a seaside resort coupled with a theme park. We manage to find a cheap guesthouse (paper thin walls!), exposed electrical cables. There is even a note explaining that to avoid electric shocks, power should be switched off at all times!!! And the bathroom power/light switch is the least protected!!!!!!!! We settle down anyway and moments later we are discovering the town.
One thing that strikes us the most is that numerous bars, sometimes one next to each other, play DVDs of Friends in loop. If one's willing to, I'm sure it might be possible to watch the entire collection in one day!!! Young Western people are lying on bamboo beds around a little table where they sip beer and do not talk to each other from early morning (ok lunch time as they're hangover) until late afternoon when they go tubing, then start again in a different bar or restaurant over a movie (cheap american blockbuster that is, no Woody Allen or Cassavetes here). We are baffled!!! Van Vieng seems to have lost its soul to mass youth tourism...But the nature is beautiful around here and because we've already seen Friends many times (!!), we go and explore around, try to get to a cave (it's closed) but we enjoy the walk in the rice fields. In town, we are lucky to witness a Baci celebration, this is a traditional ceremony to restore family and community cohesion. All members start with a prayer and offerings. Then a meal is prepared by all and few drinks shared until late at night. I guess this ritual has even more sense here than anywhere else in the country! Meanwhile we make the decision to leave tomorrow for Vientiane. We also realise that the Lao new year's celebrations will shut all the country administrations for a week but we absolutely need to get our Indian visas done here.
Dinner in town over the Nam Song river and Val gets a crepe with Nutella from one of the trolley in the street. Whomever has seen crepes being made would have laughed as much as we did (discreetly!) when the guy took a little ball of paste or batter, flattening it like a pizza base and fried the thing with chocolate in a table spoon of margarine and oil in a wok-like pan!!!!!! Val gets the fat dripping thing and we taste it: a little fishy, a little gamey, very fat and a vague taste of chocolate in the background...We just laugh!!! We manage to sleep despite the music blasting from bars around the hotel!

5/04
We get up early and get ready for a boat trip up the Nam Song river for our first and last morning in Vang Vieng. The nature is stunning, the small river (very low water) overlooked by limestone peaks, a beautiful countryside. It feels like the Halong Bay on land. We wish we had a bit more time to explore the back country on a bike, but the trip on a small narrow river boat makes our day. The river is also used for fishing and collecting waterweed by the locals, cows and buffalos grazzing around, kids are playing in the water. It's a bit of a naive landscape and nothing seems to trouble the serenity of the place...until we see a stream of 18 years old going down the river on their tractor inner tubes, some of them obviously very drunk if not more (it's 10.30am!), and around a river bend, I experience a day time revival of a scene from Apocalypse Now. Our boat goes under thin bamboo bridges connecting one bank to another with a dozen of 'River Bars' providing booze by the barrel to hords of drunks, very high and dangerous swings over shallow water (below are some very sharp rocks) and the music is blasting our eardrums in a complete cacophony. I CANNOT believe what I see and try to think of what the locals make of Westerners. Most of them have never left their village and have obviously not met other tourists than these ones. I feel very depressed when I see what the world is sometimes and even a bit horrified...There is no sense whatsoever of respect to local traditions (discretion, reserve and moral behaviour especially in a Buddhist place). But I don't blame the people from here. They only answer a demand that's probably growing, more and more since Van Vieng is on the backpacking map. In one of the poorest country on earth, every dollar is a step to hopefully a better future.
Back in town we pack and get a quick lunch and take our bus to Vientiane. It's a bit of an experience, a crammed small bus, no air con as promised but all windows and doors opened, no leg room at all...a bendy road most of the time but we made it!! 5 hours later we're in the Lao capital city, sweaty and tired. We walk around town with our heavy backpacks in the heat, to find an hotel, most of the guesthouses are full and we are wondering where we are going to sleep...finally we find a big guesthouse on the Mekong river, a noisy overpriced room full of mosquitoes...We go for a walk around, watch the sunset on the Mekong, eat, dicover briefly that Vientiane is a sleepy town, somehow a small city which feels provincial...surprising...We were expecting another one of those big busy South East Asian capitals, polluted, busy and full of touts and hassles!!! Here, the public pavement is often in a bad state, no light in many streets at night, some sewers opened, some dirt roads, no hasslers or people shouting at you in the streets: indeed puzzling for a capital city.

6/04
We decide to change accommodation but we need to go first thing to the Indian Embassy (two different locations, the first one now being the Ambassador private residence!). We go with a tuk-tuk, afrte walking in the ehat for few kilometres as the proper visa section is far out of town. We might be lucky and get our visa in few days before the holidays...tricky timing! We have to stay few days here waiting...Few hours later on the Lao/Indian rythm we check in the new hotel, the Saysouly guesthouse which we saw the night before and found the balconies very attractive. It is set on a side street near to the town centre. The room is very spacious and quiet, exactly what we need on the last floor with a big balcony overtlooking some shops and restaurants!! In the afternoon, we spend some time at the internet cafe in order to avoid the heat and to prepare our trip to southern Laos. On the way back, we discover that a few single ladies well dressed up are waiting for something at the corner of the street...and obviously not the bus!! We look at each other and smile... The city feels very suburban and quiet, somehow our little street seems to be the seedy centre!!!Cars, tuks tuks, clients, ladies and even young men dressed in woman's clothes all standing at the corner!!
We have dinner on a foodstall, a noodle soup, reminding us so much of our Hanoian time...Once in the hotel room, we spend a bit of time watching the sexy lady in red across the road waiting for her next sugar daddy, soaking the quiet ut hot atmosphere from our balcony, observing the shops owners closing down, people eating out, life at night. A languish female singing voice escapes the night bar next door...

7/04
After breakie in our local patisserie (oh, French croissants and pains au chocolat every morning here, not good for Val's waist), it's the start of a sightseeing day. Ventiane centre has few temples quite close one to each other. Our first destination is Wat Inpeng, a small temple, quite recent. Next, Wat Ong Teu, also recent. Not too interesting. We cross through the grounds of Wat Mixay where a primary school is. Visiting during a school day is a refreshing experience! The temple is closed but loads of guarlands decorate surrounding fence, and the stupas are all drapped in different vivid colours. Kids line up before leaving school and dispersing in an army salute. As most of the monuments are not opened during lunch time we go shopping a bit in the morning market Talat Sao. There is a modern mall in the middle of bamboo huts and stalls. You can find everything here. Clothes, shoes, mobile phones, washing machines, air con units etc. It is rather eclectic! Nice experience to watch people go about their daily business.
We walk to Wat Sisaket, the marvel of Vientiane. It contains a copy of the Prabang Buddha. Wat Sisaket dates back from the early 19th century and is the only temple that survived the Siam invasion of Lao in the early 1800's. The temple is surrounded by a roof-tiled cloister containing thousands of Buddha of different shapes and sizes in the wall niches.
The place breathes serenity. It is very quiet despite the big road nearby and at the time of visit, only a handful of tourists were present. Across the road, Haw Pha Keaw museum is in the former royal buddhist temple of the Presidential Palace. This place retains beautiful examples of relics of wood, stone, bronze, silver and gold buddhas but also holy fragments of doors and others. To emphasise on the holyness of the place, people still use the Wat to pray and make offerings (money). A bit like if the sacred objects in the British Museum where covered in notes and coins...It's a bit strange but very interesting. The brown color of the temple associated with the colours of the well maintained garden makes the visit enjoyable.
We have a late salad lunch, I have a Tam Maak Hung (green papaya salad). Well, never again! I can resist most of the spices but this is definitely HOT. And combined with the cuttlefish sauce (who has ever complained about the Nuoc Mam?) I'm blown...
It's now 4.30pm and we go hide in the A/C of our hotel room. The heat is now really present, maybe aeounds 38-39 degres (not so humid though) and we relax for a moment before going to watch the sunset on the Mekong River. It's beautiful to see the sun descending on the horizon, in a flaming red and light pink. Loads of local are here too, and they keep stopping on their motorbike to watch this. It is a romantic activity here. Some kids play down and the sandy strip that forms a sort of island in the middle of the river. On the other bank, Thailand feels as close as a stone throw (going to the beach is sooo tempting!). But the Mekong is very wide here, five hundred metres, maybe more... We have dinner across the street of a student residence (understand dormitories of dozens of boys in one building, girls in the other). They are all outside, chating up, relaxing. The meal tonight is Thai and not spicy! Phat Thai is 'de rigueur'! Bed time after another short walk.

8/04
We carry on visiting today. We want to see more temples and the main destination for buddhist celebration is That Luang. To get around we hire some bicycles. It is hot today but the light breeze cools us down when pedalling. Val is a bit uncomfortable at first but soon after she gains confidence and enjoys the ride. We make it safe to the temple (the city traffic in Vientiane is nothing compared to Vietnam!) which is also the residence of the Lao buddhist patriarch and is made of several buildings. None of them are old. We visit the only accessible part which is the main stupa, surrounded by smaller other stupas, witin a cloister, slightly Chinese in inspired. The whole monument is painted in gold, which is absolutely colourful under a bright sun and blue sky, but honestly, it is not very beautiful...However it is the most important religious monument in Laos and a national symbol (it is on every Lao official papers and seal) and where takes place the That Luang Festival (religious) where the place is completely decorated and filled with decorations, lights and candles.
We ride again to Wat Simuang. This place is very kitsch but extremely interesting. Here takes place a tradition of pagan rites alongside traditional rituals. This place is heavily frequented by devotees seeking answers...Worshippers attempt to lift a baby-size crude image three times over their head, success is an auspicious sign. Devotees whose wishes are granted must later return and appease the guardian spirit with offerings, like flowers, coconut or bananas. It is a real pleasure to observe them from our little corner and to enjoy some spirituality. The sacredness of the place, its busyness, the fervour is somehow pleasant and touching.Outside, the temple is surrounded by extremely colourful statues of animals, divinities and mythical figures.
We go for lunch in a trendy cafe, over cooled by the air con, where we have a salad and a sandwich...noodles are nice but once in a while a dear old club sandwich is a joy! We kill the afternoon relaxing as it's too hot to go anywhere. A[ril is the hottest month here and the heat is difficult! Val is deeply caught in a book, I nap, write. Late afternoon we cycle to a temple quite far out of town, Wat Sok Pa Luang, famous for its Lao herbal saunas. The temple is rather run down and does not offer any excitment. We are only lucky to witness a nun praying session and a few monks walking under the trees that surround the temple. The saunas are in huts in the middle of the woods and few garbage lay around...we head back to town, but the traffic is denser now and we're not having a great moment as nobody cares about cycles and we are not as powerful as motorbikes to go with the flow. Val is getting scared and I am getting quite nervous, fearing an accident. But we make it just safely to watch the sunset over the Mekong. It's different from last night and quite sublime. The sun is bright red and the reflections on the river are absolutely stunning. We both loved this ealk along the Mekong, dirt road, shops, food stalls, people around, the mighty river.
Dinner time at a foodstall in town, another walk around the sleepy town (except in our street cornber which is very busy tonight) and we have to pack as we're leaving tomorrow evening for the South.

9/04
Today is our last day in Vientiane: we relax, go for breakfast in our little cafe, (ah the little croissants), do some shopping, visit some bookshops, get new books, novels but also some books on Hmong culture, as we want to find out more abot those hill tribes. We walk along the Mekong and in the streets of the capital, wach people, women in their traditionnal skirts but still very modern in their ways of being, students chilling out, businessmen, shops keepers... The heat is becoming more and more unbearable, even at 10 am, it is such a harsh sun, it is going to be difficult in the South!!! After lunch, we go to sit in a nice air con cafe, eat some bananas cakes, do some web research and emails, reflect on our experience here...no culture shock really, no massive challenge, a slow pace, but for both of us the connection is less deeper here than in other places in South East Asia, we both feel a bit far away today, distant, as if disconnected from it all...maybe a certain tiredness as well in the trip? Who knows? We then go to the Indian embassy to get our visa...

Luang Prabang

01/04 (Fab)
New day, new month, new country, new town. We sadly leave Hanoi early in the morning to get our flight to Luang Prabang. It's a misty morning and a bit damp amd cold, like our hearts. We have truly and purely loved Hanoi and we could have spent more days here. But beautiful and peaceful is waiting for us, arms wide opened. We embrace and leave Hanoi full of images and memories. The sky is overcast today and we don't see Hanoi fading away behind us...maybe it's a sign...
A 50min flights takes us above the North eastern mountains of Laos. The sky is blue and we can already appreciate the beauty of the place. Hills and mountains connected by small dirt roads and windy rivers at their foot uncover underneath the small plane. We land safely in Luang Prabang where a Tuk-Tuk is waiting for us to take us to the hotel. A little cloud in the sky though, Val's mum should have been there with us for this journey. She had to cancel. Another time Marie-Jose, another place, we're thinking of you.
We arrive in the beautiful old and historic town of Luang Prabang, declared a World Heritage area by the UNESCO in the early 90's. Funny enough the ressemblance with Hoi An is striking. Mustard yellow houses and dark wood. The only major difference being that the French colonial influence is more visible in nearly every building. We arrive at our hotel, a bit tired but above all really hot. There might be 15 degrees difference with Hanoi and the sky is blue. We check in to get to our lovely room on the first floor of a very nice French colonial house, with a balcony overlooking an active temple, Wat Sene, where we relax for a moment with a tea...We sleep a bit as the overwelming temperature makes us feel sleepy.
When we wake up we go for a walk around town, it is indeed beautiful and very clean. Scores of Buddhist temples are tucked amongst towering palms, in this small peninsula, where the Mekong River meets the Nam Khan River. There are many 19th century colonial French villas on the main roads, some small cobbled alleyways and little back streets. We visit the most important temple, Wat Xieng Thong, a masterpiece of Buddhist architecture from the 16th century, amazing with its golden facades and mural paintings. The temple was used for the highest royal ceremonies and to temporarily house the bodies of deceased kings. Young monks walk around, vacating to their daily duties. We walk along the Mekong river and the Nam Khan, it feels nice. No wonder this spectacular little town is the main tourism destination in Laos, so many nice places and you can feel it...
Lunch, little break at the hotel, then we go out for dinner, walk a bit more. There is an interesting night market every day in Sakkarine Rd. The road is cut to traffic in those hours and you can buy many stuff from hill tribes and local handicrafts. We go for dinner then back...The city is lovely at night, a nice pace, peaceful...but our first impressions of Laos are mixed. Lao are not so welcoming compared to all the good things we've heard from fellow travellers: they are supposed to be extremely welcoming, friendly and easy going....not that much here!!! The only main difference with Vietnam is that there is no touts and if you say no they don't come back to insist. The city is really touristy to the point that sometimes it feels artificial despite its amazing beauty and stunning architectures and sights...Val compares it with Hoi An which was touristy but a bit more messy, chaotic somehow more alive...

02/04 (Fab)
Bing bong bang, it's 4am: the monks get up to start their daily routine. Right across the street from the guesthouse, our temple is one of the working temples where monks receive their religious teachings and singing. We manage to get back to sleep, the night has been a bit uncomfortable. The A/C has not been working and there is no fan. At 6am, some agitation takes place in the street. The monks are getting ready to gather and leave the temple to walk in silent to receive the morning alms. This ritual has been taking place since the beginning of buddhism and it is amazing to see the monks line up on the pavement and get the food donations from the local people, kneeling in front of them and generously donating in the little jar the monks carry. It is only a little spoiled by ever so stupid organised Western groups who talk, laugh, snap the monks with their camera right under their nose. The morning is grey but this is a beautiful ritual to be witnessed and so colourful thanks to the saffron of 250 robes highly contrasting with the white temple walls.
After an hour or so, and the last monks gone we decide to go back to sleep for a bit longer, it was a great moment, silents in our bacony, observing the religious fervor.
Wake up, we start organising our trip in Laos. We cannot do the whole country so decide to go South, we will see the North another time. The south is supposed to be less touristy and wilder, that suits us. we book some bus journeys with travel agents, have lunch on the Mekong river. We watch the villagers, the boats and fishermen, we both enjoy the natural beauty of the Mekong river banks, it is stunning. We walk to see more temples, exlore the alleyways, admire the distinctive colonial architecture and dazzling temples. Then after a nutella crepe for Val, we climb the Phousi hill, hill right at the centre of the old town, there is a temple and the view is simply breathtaking. From here, you can get an almost 360º view of Luang Prabang!! On the north side, you can see the Mekong River. In a small monastery, there is a Buddha footprint, such Buddha "footprints" are found in all Southeast Asian Buddhist countries. Usually they are richly decorated ornaments with the approximate outline of a footprint, here it is simple. There are too many tourists at the top but we go down a little and find a nice spot to watch the sunset, over the Mekong and hills. The scenery during sunset is truly magical, with the monks chanting in the background, amazing!
A litle walk in the night market, a stop in a temple to listen to the chantings of the monks, a nice dinner then it is time to go back to the hotel. Here is the relaxed pace of life in Luang Prabang! We write a bit then bedtime!

03/04 (Val)
I wake up again at 6am to watch the monks from our small balcomy, Fab stays in bed. For five minutes it is very quiet, few people in the streets getting ready, the monks preparing to exit the temples...They emerge from the back entrance of the temple, joining the tail end of the line formed by their neighbours...so many temples in the street and many monks here...:This ritual of saffron-clad monks collecting offerings of Alms (often in the form of sticky rice) from the faithful residents really touches me, simplicity and beauty, quietness in the streets. This tradition is very unique in Laos, being the only Buddhist nation still preserving the ritual. Buddhism is really central to life in this lush World Heritage-listed city and the daily alms-giving ceremony is a major attraction in itself,drawing hordes of tourists...suddenly few groups of Asian and Western tourists appear and they start giving alms too...They try to do it nicely but mosdt of tem aren't robably buddhists...I admire the monks then reflect on the tourism here...the city is beautiful but I feel a bit spoiled by the mass effect. Though World Heritage status and tourism have probably brought economic benefits to Luang Prabang, they have brought change that could ultimately alter the very character that made this Lao city the historical and cultural gem that it is. Already, many buildings have been converted into hotels, shops, restaurants...The town is beautiful but sometimes feels artificial as so perfectly refurbished, preserved with so many cafes, restaurants, shops for tourists...
I go back to bed for an hour then we get ready to embark on a cruise upstream on the Mekong River to reach some buddha caves. The cruise is nice, only 6 people on the slow boat and the driver and his kid, we see breathtaking views of the tranquil countryside, small villages and the Mekong, fascinating river...Along the way, we stop at the village of Ban Xanghai, where they make the local rice wine, the village is now full of tourists shops, very spoiled by tourism, people selling wine and scarves, jewellery....eels very artificial. We ten reach the mysterious Pak Ou Caves, two linked caves crammed with thousands of gold lacquered Buddha statues of various shapes and sizes left by pilgrims. There are approximately 4000 Buddha figurines, inside we find many little Buddha statues as well as offerings, it is really nice.
After a cruise back to the town, we rush to have lunch in half an hour before going to Kuang Si Waterfall, a beautiful multi-tiered waterfall located 30 km outside Luang Prabang. The ride is bumpy and bendy, the waterfalls are nice but with many tourists swimming and chilling out...at some placs, it even feels like a giant swimming pool full of Westerners!!! again it is beautiful but it feels a bit too touristy for us...Again we feel the negative effects of tourism...more here than in Vietnam!
Back to our hotel to chill out and listen to the monks chanting in the temple opposite. Their chanting is mesmerizing, very constant melodius rythm...beautiful.