A semester in Southeast Asia: Northern Thailand, The Mekong, and Laos-- Part 2 of 2

The customs place was probably the most chaotic experience ever. No lines, tons of people, and a very strange system. We had to make it up to the front of the crowd of people to get papers to fill out, then go back to the end and fill out the information, then go back through the crowd of people to hand in the papers and give the passport, then wait huddled around hundreds of people for about 20 minutes until someone in the office held up your passport, then pay for the visa, and finally leave. My first impression of Laos was not very good, but the mysterious Mekong that laid ahead quicky erased my memory of customs.

We booked a two day, one night trip down the Mekong River by slowboat that went from the border and all the way into Luang Prabang, which is the "northenrn capital" of Laos. The boat fit about 60 people total, but as we arrived on the boat, there appeared to be over 80. There were no seats left and people were either sitting on the floor, cramped in the engine room, or sitting ontop of all the luggage. We thought that the next two days might be the worst of our lives... but luckily a second boat arrived about 30 seconds before we were going to take off. We transfered boats, actually got a seat, and were off down the Mekong.

The best way to describe the ride is that it's an amazing experience with great scenery and a chance to take a look at the real life of Northern Laos, but it's something that you could never do twice. By the second day and a full 14 hours of cruising down the river, I was definately ready to move on. The first day, we left the dock around noon and heades straight down the river for about 6 hours until stopping in a small town called Pakbeng for the night. The scenery around the river was great- lush mountains with tiny walkways leading up to small Laos villages. Every once in a while you'd see kids swimming in the river, or Laos fisherman crusing along in longtail boats. It was a very, very remote area. The villages were really interesting to see as well. They had anywhere from 5-25 bamboo huts surrounding the village, and in some you could see different parts of the village where they raised livestock, grew plants and vegetables, etc. There is no roads or cars or anything, the villages only use boats as transportation for trading and getting goods. And they live their days along the Mekong, away from all other civilization or modern day appliances.

As the sun began to set over the mountains, we pulled into Pakbeng where we would spend the night. Pakbeng was a very small town, just one road leading up to the Mekong where the boat dock was. I don't think that there was anything here before the boat service started, because all there is on the road is guesthouses and restauraunts. We ended up staying in a decent place and made friends with the guesthouse owner, Orn. He was about 25 and had grown up in Luang Prabang, and now ran the guesthouse with his family in Pakbeng. We ended up eating dinner with him and his family, it was a really fun night. We had a local Laos speciality for dinner, minced buffallo meat and spices with sticky rice. The way you eat it is to roll the sticky rice up in a ball, and grab some of the buffallo and just eat it all together- basically, really yummy stuff. The best part, though, was dessert: crickets. And they really do taste good, I was surprised. The weird part was that I saw Orn's little sister running around when we first got there and grabbing crickets and putting them in a bottle. Next thing I knew, Orn came out of the kitchen after dinner with a plate of them all fried up. I had to try one, and after having one I had to have another. They're kind of like Laos pringles.

By the way, the bugs in Laos are abslutely enormous. Literally the biggest things I have ever seen. I have no idea why, but the crickets, bees, grasshoppers, centipides, everything- are so much bigger here than anywhere else in the world. At one point a centipede about a foot long was walking across the patio, and Orn scooped it up and dropped it into a local bottle of Thai whiskey. The next morning he gave it to us as a gift, saying that the centipede is good for your body and makes you stronger. We ended up trying a sip later in the day, it was not good.

The next morning we cruised for another 8 hours down the river until finally reaching Luang Prabang about an hour before sunset. It was a really fun second day on the boat, we ended up meeting a group of people from australia and italy, and spent the ride at the back of the boat just hanging out and exchanging stories. You meet a lot of really intersting people when traveling and can really learn alot about yourself from meeting new people all the time.After arriving, we had some time to walk around and check out the small town, and it was a really nice place. Very cultural, lots of temples and just a slow feel to the pace of life. Not many people make it all the way up here when traveling Laos, so the town didn't seem too bombarded by tourism. I felt like I was in a place from the early 1900's or something, everything just seemed older and quieter and more peaceful than current day towns and cities. It was a nice afternoon, followed by a great sunset as we sat along the river bank and watched the sun set between two mountains in the distance.

The next morning we got up early and spent the day at a famous waterfall about half an hour outside of the town. It took about 2 hours to hike the entire waterfall, and we were ready for a swim by the time we reached the top. The colors from the waterfall were so vivid and clear- a perfect blue surrounded by all the greens of the jungle. After the waterfall, we headed back into town and caught the local bus to Vang Vieng, about a 6 hour journey. It was by far the worst ride I have ever experienced in my life. First of all, we booked our ticket from a travel agency, where we paid about 15 dollars for the ride, whereas all of the locals paid about $1 at the bus window. The bus, of course, was completely overbooked. There were people sprawled out across the floor, and every seat for 2 we had to squeeze 3 people. I was sitting next to two people who were both carsick the entire time, and the roads were bumpy, curvy, and crazy. Not too much fun. However, we made it to vang vieng somehow. I did manage to catch a glimpse of some of the stuff out the window on the ride over. Every house or anythign that I saw was just constructed from bamboo, there was never any cement or other type of housing. The country is so big yet there really is not much around except jungle. Besides the few touristy towns like Vang Vieng and Vientiane, it's like life in the Laos jungle has been untouched by the outside world forever.

We finally made it to Vang Vieng at around 2 a.m and headed to bed for a full day of tubing ahead. Vang Vieng is crazy, the ultimate backpackers hangout spot. Basically, its a lazy town along a river in Laos. The highlight activity is tubing, which I will attempt to explain but in reality will not even come close to the experience or the atmosphere of the place. Picture hundreds of backpackers renting tubes and tubing down the river, with massive mountains stretched out on both sides and just incredible scenery all around. As you tube down, people will throw ropes and pull you in to one of the tens of bars that are lined up along both sides of the river. Here, people are drinking, hanging out along the decks that line the river, and the music is bumping. There's all of these crazy ropeswings where you fly about 50 feet off of the ground and can launch yourself into the river. You just spend the day going from place to place, meeting people and hanging out along the river. It was an experience, but not a place where I could stay for more than a few days.

On our last day in Vang Vieng, I ended up getting up early and taking a hike to some of the famous caves on the outskirts of town. It was a really nice walk through the rice fields and out away from all the craziness of Vang Vieng. I ended up reaching the cave and hiked about 20 minutes up the side of the rock formation to where you coudl enter and descend down. It was a great view from that point overlooking Vang Vieng, the rice fields, and dark mountains on the horizon. The cave was dark, but it was fun to walk around with a flashlight and check it out.

We took a bus back later that night which went directly to Bangkok and through customs. It took about 20 hours total, but luckily it was a nice bus and nothing like the previous experience. It was nice to finally be back in the apartment the following day, and surprisingly I missed Thai food alot. It's weird- I crave it now instead of other things from home. Instead of craving pizza or a cheeseburger, it's padthai or tomyum soup.

It was a quick 3 days in Bangkok, and then I was off to Bali for an unforgettable week of surfing and scuba diving in paradise.