In love with Laos

After one month of traveling through Thailand, I have finally left its sunny shores and crossed over into Laos. In Thailand I met many travellers who exolled the virtues of Laos to me; the people, the landscape and in general it being a bit of a paradise. I was dubious, how could one little country be impress so many people?

I arrived via a northern border after a seven hour bus journey with seats so upright and narrow that not one of us could sleep. Dumped at a little guesthouse in the middle of nowhere at 5 am we all sat sleepily awaiting our tuk tuk to the border. After many hours we were rushed onto the vehicle and ferried to the river. It took us about two minutes to cross over the river into Laos though many of us were unaware that we had actually switched countries. Another three hours later we were through with the beauracracy and driven to our next port of call- the infamous slow boat down the Mekong.

In Laos everyone operates on 'island time', that is, things  happen when they happen not according to anything as ridiculous as a timetable (something I know understand and enjoy, but after such a long journey with random pitstops in 38 degree temperatures 'Island time' was not to my liking).

We had all purchased pillows as we knew the seats were wooden. But when the boat finally chugged off down the Mekong, we began to realise this journey would be painful. The seats were rigid and uncomfortable after an hour, but this trip would be spaced over two days, six hours a day with a stop halfway in a little town that would rip me off with my ignorance of a new currency whose smallest denomination is 500 kip and withdrawing two million kip from an ATM is quite normal. All those zeros would lose me a lot of money.

But enough complaining. A story. A stop at a small village to unload sacks of rice brought the local children running to the boat. A young boy stood along the sandy rivers edge and did backflips into the water and each time looking to the boat filled with 'falang' to recieve his applause. Two sisters perched on a boat alongside mine and politely asked my name, I replied and she then told me hers, it was a lovely sounding name which I cannot remember. They were both so beautiful, she reminded me of the children in 'The Dark Crystal'. She and her sister sat their serenely smiling as the tourists cameras came out, she smiled at me and allowed me to take her picture each time looking at the photos and giggling and with a start I realised that this was the heart of Lao and it was beautiful. Since then I have not been disappointed.

Cruising down the Mekong was amazing (after a delicious Beer Lao). Some of the highlights: The many Laos fisherman along the rivers edge fishing for the catch of the day, one happy man proudly lifting a large silver fish for all who cared to notice his good fortune. The sun glistening off the bodies of young village children swimming along the rivers edge. The working elephant, slowly dragging logs from the forest to the water, mahout sitting gracefully upon his head.  And so much more that the photos will show when I find my card reader.

Now I am in Laung Prabang. A very picturesque town with THE most amazing markets I have ever seen. I want to buy everything. It is hard to resist. Once again, the pictures...

I met a local Laos guy on the slow boat and he has been showing me around the area and teaching me Laos customs like how to eat sticky rice (wth fingers you roll it into a ball and dip it into the soup or dipping sauce- yum). As well as teaching me the language.

Today I spent the day at some nearby waterfalls which were truly...amazing. Beautiful torquise waters cascading over so many different levels and all winding through a beautiful tropical forest. Paradise. I also partook in what one brochure called 'monkey jumping', which is just jumping of the cliffs into the water, but scary like bungy jumping and I nearly crashed into the rocks on my last jump, the rocks were slippery. But I'm fine. On the way back to town a heavy tropical rain drenched us all and as we drove along the windy road down the hill, the children still played in the rain, laughing happily, locals waved cheerfully at us and many times we drove past people who were dancing in the rain.