Off to Laos

I take the air conditioned bus out of Chiang Mai, the beautiful mountain scenery it passes through is well worth the 145 Baht (£3!) fare by itself.  After three hours I'm in Chiang Rai, a pleasant little place, there is a noticeable French influence here.  The night bazaar has a sign 'marche de nuit', and there is even an hourly son et lumière show at the gold clock tower that is the town's major landmark.  I end up eating some highly spiced pork followed by a much needed ice cream sundae at the night bazaar, while a series of musical acts perform and go through fabulous costume changes.  Is awesome.  I could spend longer in Chiang Rai, but next day it's time for another bus, this time a whole 65 Baht to get to Chiang Khong on the Mekong river.  In fact it turns out that it goes all the way to the border post by the new bridge, for another 35 Baht anyway.  Then after a degree of queuing and bureaucratic hassle I'm in Laos!  Also I am now a multi-millionaire, turns out you get quite a few Kip for your Baht, and my pocket is stuffed with a wad of 50,000 Kip notes.

The mighty Mekong.

From the border I get a quick tuktuk to Huay Xai, a one horse town where I nonetheless find a decent hotel and a nice meal overlooking the river, service is a bit lacking here mind.  I get a beer in one restaurant, wait some time for the dirty plates from previous diners to be removed, and eventually give up on getting food, never mind.  Is very hard to spend money here, my room is 100,000 Kip (£8), a big beer 12,000 Kip, dinner 45,000...  Next day, the adventure continues by boat.  I have a ticket for the two day slow boat to Luang Prabang, former capital of Laos and one of the highlights by all accounts.  I mess up a little by getting the wrong bus to the pier, apparently I didn't buy a ticket as such, and only the right tuktuk driver will convert what I do have into a ticket.  It is sorted easily enough... shame about the ninety minute wait on the sweltering and increasingly packed boat before it leaves.  When at last it does we get a bit of a breeze, and the journey is never dull thanks to the incredible views from the mighty Mekong river, Thailand to one side and Laos the other.  Turns out the best thing is to abandon my cramped seat and head for the back, either the engine room or the 'smoking section'.  They even sell beer!

Bamboo bridge at Luang Prabang.

If Huay Xai has one horse, then Pak Baeng, halfway stop for the slow boat, maybe merits a donkey.  Still I find another 100,000 Kip room, eat buffalo curry, drink some Beer Lao and have a nice chat with a couple of Thai tour guides.  Then back on the boat in the morning, this one is smaller, and the engine room is closed to tourists, and at regular intervals we stop at random bits of shore to let more locals onto the already crowded boat.  It is at least cooler today, and the views remain fine.  Luang Prabang is not a big place either, more than one street maybe, but pretty much only one with restaurants.  Classy cuisine though, that French influence I guess.  I go to La Casa Lao and eat Laos style tapas while rain hammers down outside.  Blue sticky rice!  Next day I have a good wander around, cross a bamboo bridge over one of the bigger tributaries of the Mekong - Luang Prabang is built on a peninsula between the two rivers.  I visit a couple of temples and ascend Mount Phousi at the heart of the city.  Then time to head to the current capital, Vientiane, on the 'VIP sleeper bus'.  At least the Swedish guy I end up sharing a bed with is slim...  and I have a bottle of Lao whisky (15,000 Kip!), with the help of which I sleep well enough.

On Mount Phousi.

Vientiane!  The bus drops us off a few miles from the centre, so I have an interesting walk in.  The road is terrible, vehicles weave right across it to avoid the massive potholes.  At least it has some tarmac, every side street I pass is just packed earth.  There is clearly some money here, I see new houses going up, still in the French colonial style... noticeable that the scaffolding is just sticks tied together though.  Eventually I reach the centre, seems to be mainly palatial government buildings and embassies, and there are red flags with the hammer and sickle everywhere - even the apple store.  There are enough sights to fill my day or so here, and even a little tourist area with some nice French restaurants, and some music, although Chiang Rai it is not.  I read about the terrible events in Paris, seems particularly poignant here in this former French colonial capital.  Time for me to leave Laos though, turns out not to be easy what with the huge queue at the immigration point.  Then another night train, much like the first, and one day to recover a bit in Bangkok.  And then off to even further afield...

I saw a lot of the Buddha this week.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.