Luang Prabang, Laos
After an exhausting day on the plane, we landed in our first destination- Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a city with deep roots in Buddhism. Inhabited since 8000 BC, the city got its current name during the first Laos Kingdom, when King Fa Ngum accepted a golden Buddha image called the Pha Bang as a gift from the Khmer monarchy. The town is a web of narrow alleys filled with color and life and dotted with beautiful temples and young Buddhists at worship. Beyond temples, the town is flanked by 2 rivers bringing in trade and supporting the local fishing industry.
The town feels old and new simultaneously- a harmony of old colonial style houses and the natural environment that encases it. After a day of wandering the streets, we started a new day with the hotel breakfast. It was then I realized just how little I prepared for this trip- not knowing a single Lao word. I sat down on the outdoor patio waiting for Alex to arrive and thought I would talk to the hotel staff that spoke broken English to learn a thing or two. I asked about how to say basic things: coffee, bathroom, beer- all of which I have since forgotten. They asked my name, which I said was Ben and I asked if Ben meant anything in the Lao language. I got some blank stares- I tried to illustrate better my question citing that “ben” in Chinese loosely translates to idiot. They made affirmative noises like they understood now, but didn’t answer the original question. So I decided to drop it. They then asked, “would Idiot like some breakfast?” I thought at first they were messing with me, but he continued straight faced to the other, “ please get idiot coffee.” Alex seemed to like my new name.
The elephant we rode was Mae-mun Quo. She was well mannered, but her older sister kept picking on her during the trip- running her off the path, blocking her way, kicking dirt at her, etc- just like a certain older sister of mine.... Each elephant had a designated handler (aka mahout). None spoke English, so it was hard to ask questions while walking the trails with Mae-Mun.
When we got back to the stables we fed Mae-Mun, who was considerably better at tug-a-war with the banana leave than the little baby calf was.
Next stop on the trip was the amazing Kuang Si falls. The water was a milky turquoise and covered rock and root with a brilliant layer of calcium- a mineral deposit picked up from running through the limestone mountains above.
It was an amazing sight to see and the steep unmarked trails meandered into the lush mountain rain-forest, which we followed until we realized that we were about the miss the bus back home and ran full speed back down the trails.
Back in LP, with sunset approaching, we climbed the Phu Si hill in the center of town to see the sunset (as the tourbook suggested), but we were met with throngs of tourists who had read the same and whom completely choked out any view of the setting sun. We played around in the hilltop temple and adjacent antiaircraft gun and headed back into town for the infamous night market.
The streets of 3 city blocks are closed to traffic nightly and filled to the brim with tents of venders hawking a wide assortment of colorful gifts. It was abustle' with bartering.
Trek & Homestay
Our guide, a boisterous 24 year old, grew up in one of the villages we passed through. The stark contrast to Luang Prabang was amazing. Villages were without any modern amenity, with gaggles of pigs and chickens swarming through the dirt streets. There was no electricity (except for a lucky few houses with a solar panel or generator), and a single central well- the sole source of water (where you would bath, wash clothes, etc).
We stopped at each village, and a handful of women/kids would lay out woven goods for sale, one of the main sources of revenue outside farming for the towns. As everything was only a buck of 2, we tried to buy at least one thing from each person.
Yeiah (our guide saw us taking pictures and insisted he and I take pictures with the cows. He was really serious about it, and I still not quite sure why. Here we are chilling with the cows.
We ran into another hiker going the opposite direction who had lost her shoe and asked us to bring it back to town if we found it. Being a cute girl, Yeiah was excited to find it, and we asked if he knew about the Cinderella story. When you explain Cinderella to a foreigner it sounds really, really strange. “yo, the magic fairies make the pumpkin into a carriage, and she has to be back by midnight, because the magic fairies said so- cause she wants to go to this dance, see- and all of the magic will wear off- except for the shoes for some reason…” I could see the look of 'westerners are weird' on his face as we continued describing to him how he would be Prince charming with this lady’s shoe (which we did eventually find). That part at least he liked.
The homestay was an authentic experience- we stayed in an empty hut, ate only food we could purchase from the villagers, and woke up at 4am with the barrage of crowing roosters. Yeiah made us dinner: “what kind of vegetable is that?” “Normal vegetable”
“And what is the name of the soup you’re making?” “ Normal soup”
Beyond Normal soup, he made sticky rice and a special portion of rat and banana flower stew for me (per my request). Rat is a normal food out here 1) Because its edible, and 2) the rats here fatten up on rice and veggies- not trash like the ones we all know and love- so they are like any other small game that we find “normal” to eat (i.e. rabbit).
Nonetheless, rat is not very good- lots of bones and very chewy. Squirrel is much better.
The next day, we passed through Yeiah’s “hometown” – 5 or 6 huts on top of a bamboo covered hill, where his grandpa still lives (and he brings grandpa lunch when guiding tours). He smoked cigarettes out of a water pipe and we watched the neighbor winnow the most recent batch of rice (separation of the husk/bran from the white rice). They stated that whole rice would give stomach aches, so they would winnow all rice and let the pigs, roosters, and dogs fight of the bran that sifted out in the wind.
We finished up the last day of hiking and visited the nearby Tad Sae waterfalls, which was touristy and not really worthy of mention/pictures relative to the beautiful Kuang Si falls we saw only 2 days prior. We bid farewell to Yeaih (and Kip- the Aussie hiking with us) and headed back into Luang Prabang for some street food. We found an alley that was all you could eat stewed vegetables for 2 bucks (meat on stick was extra) and we imbibed.
The next day, our last in LP, we crossed to the river into the town of Chompet, where a meandering dirt path passes Buddhist monasteries and secret paths led to statutes seemingly randomly placed in the woods.
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| Fishing guy would smack water with the oar- not sure why- perhaps has a net set and is startling fish that direction |
We took a tuk-tuk to our bus and headed out of town to our next stop 6 hours south of Luang Prabang. As the sun set, the bus stopped and Al told me to go to the bathroom here. It was literally a toilet on the Cliffside with no window, facing the vast expanse of winding mountains dimming in the fading light- best. bathroom. ever. Next stop, the party town of Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng, Laos
We arrived in Vang Vieng at about 10 at night. As we tuk-tuk'd into town, the street filled up with florescent signs, pulsating house music, and throngs of young twenties- much like I would imagine Cancun would be like during spring break. I disliked Vang Vieng immediately. Upon our arrival to Laos, we had been asked if we came to Laos because it was the "party country"- which we didn't understand knowing only the serene Buddhist-filled paradise of Luang Prabang. Vang Vieng is why Laos has that reputation.
Mobs of Europeans/Australians have flocked to VV over the last decade for the sole purpose of getting drunk off of $1 drinks and floating, pickled in their own juices, down the river past the beautiful hillsides. In 2012, the government closed down all the riverside bars to stem the tide of drunken-tart related deaths that had become an annual occurrence. As bad as it was now, I can only image the pure unbridled carnage that pre-2012 VV would have been.
Sadly, there were no listed hiking trails and all tour companies only brought tourists to the same 3-4 places- making them completely undesirably crowded and yuppified. Luckily, Al and I decided to wander aimlessly and found that a meager 1/2 mile out of town few tourists would venture and you can be alone surrounded by rice fields and dramatic limestone cliffs.
We wandered through a web of unmarked paths and stumbled upon a cave system. Over the hour or so we wandered with maybe only 4 other people crossing our paths. There were no signs, lights, or walkways- only the muffled sound of our muffled footsteps and the occasional "Hey Al, check out this cool spider/rock/thingy."
After caving, we wandered in search of pond we had seen on a map somewhere out in the jungle (as it was very hot out and we wanted to cool off), but gave up when we stumbled upon the Phakhem water caves. We first stopped in the floating pool- a darkened single cave chamber half filled with crystal clear water- where we sat in inner-tubes and drifted silently in the darkness.
Next, we ascending a near vertical hike on the jagged remains if razor sharp limestone ridges and wandered, without interruption, through another cave system until the sun began to set.
We stumbled upon a cabana/restaurant in the middle of nowhere where we were treated to glass upon glass of the owners mother's rice liquor moonshine (scorpion flavored).
Having our fill of Vang Vieng, we headed out the next morning on a bus to the nation's capital and and arrived at the airport at 4am only to discover it was closed. As mosquitoes started to close in on us, we set up the bug-net in a nearby tree filled with Christmas lights and whittled the hours away in bliss until the concrete buildings once again started to hum with life with the break of the dawning light. A short 1 hour later we were in Vietnam.
Saigon, Vietnam
Saigon is formally called Ho Chi Minh City. The north renamed it after the "American War." The south really appeared to resent that and residents would refuse to patronize any store that used the Ho Chi Minh name instead of Saigon on its name or products. As such, only government building have the HCM name on it. Saigon was incredibly busy with every square inch jammed with a scooter, person, or vender.
Scooters clog the streets, there are no traffic laws, and you had to cross the street by slowly shuffling through the flood of scooterist. They somehow flow around you like a swarm of minnows around a cruising marlin- the cars however would just straight run you over.
We spent 2 days in the bustling metropolis, eating street food and walking around without a cause- absorbing the radiating energy of the city. Next stop- a coastal town halfway up the coast- Hoi An.
Hoi An
Hoi An was the Luang Prabang of Vietnam: with a lively enchanting old town, romantic canals, and white sand beaches. The quiet town fills up at night with crowds of enthralled tourists and venders selling street food, boat rides, and paper candle floats that light up the canal.
After turning down dozens of boat peddlers we passed an old lady and thought we'd give her some business. Turns out, since we didn't haggle on the price ($5 for a 10 minute float), she spent most of the ride trying to sell us other things at ridiculous mark-ups (like 50x above the average price) and slowly offering less and less only to start over again with another product- despite our plea to simply enjoy the boat ride.
Later we biked to the other side of the peninsula to the beach, the home of round bamboo and tar rafts and fisherman navigating the awkward crafts with their drop-nets. On a side note, when they came back to shore, I never saw them bring back any fish- guess it wasn't very good fishing grounds
Dotting the riverside were large nets hanging over the water that they lowered and raised using these giant pinwheels like a reclining bike.
Hue (pronounce hway)
On our trip continuing north, we stopped at the imperial city, Hue. Hue is a city with a large square citadel at it's heart. The citadel was the home to the Emperor of Vietnam. Once a splendor of ornate buildings and Confucian architecture, subsequent wars with the French, Americans, Cambodians, and Chinese had decimated the majority of the complex. Most of the buildings now were reconstructions of what they imagined it was like back in its heyday. Evidence of war, bullet and mortar holes, riddled the surviving walls.
Phong Nha National park
After spending the day in Hue, we caught a bus to Phong Nha- a town and national park 2/3 up central Vietnam. Phong Nha was put on the map in 2009 by the discovery (rather the publication- local hunters knew of it for many years) of the world's largest cave- with caverns big enough to drive a 737 through. Son Doong (the cave), however, costs $3000 per person to visit. Luckily, the area was also home to several other large caves, some of which we did visit for a much more reasonable price. The Phong Nha caverns was another water cave (like in Vang Vieng), but much larger, which we rented a boat to float through.
That night, while trying to decide what to do over dinner, the restaurant owner sweet-talked us into going on his tour. Hai, who owns both a successful cafe and hostel, also runs a guided hike through an animal rescue center and botanical gardens. Hai hires ex-hunters and loggers from the villages in order to convince them to protect the rainforest (as a source of income and pride) rather than exploit it to the communal detriment. After a day of hiking, the guides barbecued up an amazing lunch from a cave where Viet Cong used to hid men and ammunition.
That night we took the overnight bus to Ninh Binh. It was a less than pleasant experience. I started on a top bunk, but the bus swayed so heavily that it made me sick and I had to move to the lower level. The bus was barreling down pot-hole riddled roads, passing cars left and right. The sleeping beds were made for people a foot smaller than me, so it was just small enough to keep you uncomfortable the entire ride. There was a bathroom in the back, but the bus swayed so much that people were falling over in the stall and the urine would slosh over the sides. Truly a romantic occasion, but it got the job done and we arrived in Ninh Binh in one piece.
Nimh Binh
We arrived in the wee early hours of the morning and were fortunate that our homestay was able to take us in so early. The homestay was located 7 miles out of the city in a small village with terrific views of limestone spires from its giant bay windows.
The aptly named "limestone view homestay"was owned and run by an intoxicatingly kind man named Zung and his wife Dep. He would exclaim "the best____ in Vietnam" with everything he served (home-cooked meals as no restaurants in town), and for the most part, he was right: it was down-right delightful there. His father had fought in the war and had brain damage resulting from being bombed in the tunnels and his sister was special needs. Despite the direct impact the war had on them, they were the most terrific people we met the whole time.
He gave us bicycles to explore the countryside with, drew us maps, helped resolved travel plans/issues; like when the bus company took our money in advance, but refused to honor the tickets later.
We biked to the giant Buddhist temple- Bai Dinh. The Buddhist complex came complete with giant tower, giant Buddha statute, and a mile long hallway filled with over 500 life-sized stone statutes of holy men (Guinness book record for longest hallway-per them). It was a weird contrast to the plan huts of the villages that surrounded it.
We also biked to the Mua caves and hiked the 500 stairs to the dragon overlook of the Tam Coc river.
Hanoi
After Ninh Binh was our last stop, Vietnam's capital in the north- Hanoi. Although not quite as bustling as Saigon, it was host to lonely planets claim of the "best coffee in Vietnam." The secret little cafe mentioned was damn good by the way. Hanoi is also home to the Hoan Kiem Lake. We watched a water puppet show that played out the fable that when the emperor won a decisive battle due to his magic sword and was (for some reason, boating on the lake with it afterward), a giant turtle arose from the depths of the lake and took the magic sword back down to the depths. Per some of the locals, there was some species of giant turtle that did dwell there, but the lake seem pretty polluted, so I had a hard time imagining that a population of large turtles still lived there.
Among multiple sites, we also visited the Hoa Lu Prison (also called the Hilton Hotel by theAmerican POWs- as guards made inmates pose for propaganda pictures to make it seem like club med) where John McCain was kept as prisoner of war. The prison was originally built by the french and housed Vietnamese inmates. Half of the remaining structure was dedicated to showing the horrors of the prison, the mal-nourishment, mistreatment, and misinformation by the french. They cited that the prisoners kept their solidarity and fighting spirit, etc, etc. After the French were kicked out of Vietnam, the Viet Cong took control of the prison where they housed political dissidents and American POWs. The other part of the museum was bedazzled with pictures of Americans playing basketball, writing poems in support of Ho Chi Minh, drawing Santa Clauses, gambling with real money and jewels, and raising Chickens- all while smiling contently. The museum kept up the current party line that American Prisoners were apparently treated like royalty- with no misdeeds or mistreatment. The juxtaposition between the 2 halves of the museum was hilarious. One side was how the french lied about the living conditions in the prison- then the Vietnamese, using the same prision and inhumane rooms/shackles have the gall to claim nothing bad transpired there in their custody despite overwhelming evidence otherwise. You would think they would try to make it a little more believable. Regardless, the people of Vietnam were kind and full of smiles. they distrusted and disliked their government as much (if not more) than we do and are always willing to give a hand to strangers- even offer to have them join a lunch of picnic.
Dotting the riverside were large nets hanging over the water that they lowered and raised using these giant pinwheels like a reclining bike.
Hue (pronounce hway)
On our trip continuing north, we stopped at the imperial city, Hue. Hue is a city with a large square citadel at it's heart. The citadel was the home to the Emperor of Vietnam. Once a splendor of ornate buildings and Confucian architecture, subsequent wars with the French, Americans, Cambodians, and Chinese had decimated the majority of the complex. Most of the buildings now were reconstructions of what they imagined it was like back in its heyday. Evidence of war, bullet and mortar holes, riddled the surviving walls.
Phong Nha National park
After spending the day in Hue, we caught a bus to Phong Nha- a town and national park 2/3 up central Vietnam. Phong Nha was put on the map in 2009 by the discovery (rather the publication- local hunters knew of it for many years) of the world's largest cave- with caverns big enough to drive a 737 through. Son Doong (the cave), however, costs $3000 per person to visit. Luckily, the area was also home to several other large caves, some of which we did visit for a much more reasonable price. The Phong Nha caverns was another water cave (like in Vang Vieng), but much larger, which we rented a boat to float through.
That night, while trying to decide what to do over dinner, the restaurant owner sweet-talked us into going on his tour. Hai, who owns both a successful cafe and hostel, also runs a guided hike through an animal rescue center and botanical gardens. Hai hires ex-hunters and loggers from the villages in order to convince them to protect the rainforest (as a source of income and pride) rather than exploit it to the communal detriment. After a day of hiking, the guides barbecued up an amazing lunch from a cave where Viet Cong used to hid men and ammunition.
In the woods we found an unexploded ordinance, bomb craters all over the place, and anti-aircraft artillery shells- leftovers from the war.
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| the town of Phong Nha |
That night we took the overnight bus to Ninh Binh. It was a less than pleasant experience. I started on a top bunk, but the bus swayed so heavily that it made me sick and I had to move to the lower level. The bus was barreling down pot-hole riddled roads, passing cars left and right. The sleeping beds were made for people a foot smaller than me, so it was just small enough to keep you uncomfortable the entire ride. There was a bathroom in the back, but the bus swayed so much that people were falling over in the stall and the urine would slosh over the sides. Truly a romantic occasion, but it got the job done and we arrived in Ninh Binh in one piece.
Nimh Binh
We arrived in the wee early hours of the morning and were fortunate that our homestay was able to take us in so early. The homestay was located 7 miles out of the city in a small village with terrific views of limestone spires from its giant bay windows.
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| view from window |
The aptly named "limestone view homestay"was owned and run by an intoxicatingly kind man named Zung and his wife Dep. He would exclaim "the best____ in Vietnam" with everything he served (home-cooked meals as no restaurants in town), and for the most part, he was right: it was down-right delightful there. His father had fought in the war and had brain damage resulting from being bombed in the tunnels and his sister was special needs. Despite the direct impact the war had on them, they were the most terrific people we met the whole time.
He gave us bicycles to explore the countryside with, drew us maps, helped resolved travel plans/issues; like when the bus company took our money in advance, but refused to honor the tickets later.
We biked to the giant Buddhist temple- Bai Dinh. The Buddhist complex came complete with giant tower, giant Buddha statute, and a mile long hallway filled with over 500 life-sized stone statutes of holy men (Guinness book record for longest hallway-per them). It was a weird contrast to the plan huts of the villages that surrounded it.
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| giant hornet |
We also biked to the Mua caves and hiked the 500 stairs to the dragon overlook of the Tam Coc river.
We trekked along the Cuc Phuong National park (which came equipped with a swimming pool mid-jungle) and took a boat ride with the "wrong" Tran An Boat company (I guess there were 2 companies and this was a shorter less exciting boat tour. We did get an awesome CD though, but it's in broken english and rambles on incoherently for 30 minutes).
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| bomb crater in the woods |
Hanoi
After Ninh Binh was our last stop, Vietnam's capital in the north- Hanoi. Although not quite as bustling as Saigon, it was host to lonely planets claim of the "best coffee in Vietnam." The secret little cafe mentioned was damn good by the way. Hanoi is also home to the Hoan Kiem Lake. We watched a water puppet show that played out the fable that when the emperor won a decisive battle due to his magic sword and was (for some reason, boating on the lake with it afterward), a giant turtle arose from the depths of the lake and took the magic sword back down to the depths. Per some of the locals, there was some species of giant turtle that did dwell there, but the lake seem pretty polluted, so I had a hard time imagining that a population of large turtles still lived there.
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The turtle snatching the magic sword from the victorious emperor |
Among multiple sites, we also visited the Hoa Lu Prison (also called the Hilton Hotel by theAmerican POWs- as guards made inmates pose for propaganda pictures to make it seem like club med) where John McCain was kept as prisoner of war. The prison was originally built by the french and housed Vietnamese inmates. Half of the remaining structure was dedicated to showing the horrors of the prison, the mal-nourishment, mistreatment, and misinformation by the french. They cited that the prisoners kept their solidarity and fighting spirit, etc, etc. After the French were kicked out of Vietnam, the Viet Cong took control of the prison where they housed political dissidents and American POWs. The other part of the museum was bedazzled with pictures of Americans playing basketball, writing poems in support of Ho Chi Minh, drawing Santa Clauses, gambling with real money and jewels, and raising Chickens- all while smiling contently. The museum kept up the current party line that American Prisoners were apparently treated like royalty- with no misdeeds or mistreatment. The juxtaposition between the 2 halves of the museum was hilarious. One side was how the french lied about the living conditions in the prison- then the Vietnamese, using the same prision and inhumane rooms/shackles have the gall to claim nothing bad transpired there in their custody despite overwhelming evidence otherwise. You would think they would try to make it a little more believable. Regardless, the people of Vietnam were kind and full of smiles. they distrusted and disliked their government as much (if not more) than we do and are always willing to give a hand to strangers- even offer to have them join a lunch of picnic.
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| Ben drinking Bia Hoy- $0.25 beer that the guidebooks make it sound as brewed fresh local beer, but in reality is just a keg of really back cheap beer |
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| happy fun time in the Hoa Lo Prison |
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| Happy American POWs in Hoa Lo prision- playing games all day and smoking cigars |
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| Vietnamese Hoa Lo prisoners proud and unbroken despite French aggression and mistreatment |
2 comments:
Hi Ben and Alex
Let's talk about these photos......I was wondering about what affects the war had on the people and this country...
Greta travel log Ben. Can't wait to talk to you guys about it. Well... I can wait enough not to call you immediately.. or in the enxt 3-10 weeks. Hey, I'm a Hobson!
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