Since my last blog, I've left Laos and entered Cambodia. I left you in Luang Prabang (amazing town on the Mekong) and after that took an overnight bus to the capital, Vientiane. After asking what the difference between a VIP and Express bus, I was informed the VIP had a toilet. When I was squatting down outside the bus in the middle of the night, I reflected on this...Met a lovely American girl (Cascade) and we had a giggle over the journey. We met up later for drinks too. Vientiane is a bussling capital city although tiny compared to Bangkok and Phnom Penh with less than a quarter of a million people.There was little to do in terms of places to visit but it has some great restaurants, a mixture of traditional Laos, French and International, cafes and shops. I spent a few days just wandering the city (there is a Pagoda and the Laos version of the Arc de Triomphe), sampling the lovely food and had two days just relaxing by the pool of a very posh colonial era hotel, the Settha Palace.(see attached pictures). I felt I needed to recharge my batteries and this was a perfect way to do that. I met up with the English girls, Gemma and Mary, for dinner one evening and they too joined me at the pool on the second day.... From Vientiane my next destination was 4000 Islands, towards the Cambodian border where the Mekong is at its widest.The journey was not without incident as usual (the coach- an overnight sleeper- with actual double bunkbeds) ended up leaving slightly later than the planned 8pm departure. Settled in with my bedmate (!) for the night (yes, you are expected to sleep next to a random stranger!), a German girl who is also travelling alone. The original bus could not be fixed so 4 hours or so after we had got on, we were moved to another sleeper bus. However, an hour or so later we had still to move. We were then moved onto a third bus which had ordinary seats. No one seemed to know why this had happened until two Israeli guys informed us that the company were refusing to pay for the sleeper bus. A mutiny ensued with everyone getting back on the sleeper (as this is what we had paid for) and finally, 6 and a half hours later, we finally left Vientiane! The transfer to 4000 Islands is from a town called Pakse. We were understandibly many hours late and had missed the connection, so had an unplanned night in the town. It was pleasant, not too many visitors, and despite the torrential monsoon rain for most of the afternoon evening, I had a nice time. The cafe where we had dinner was busy and one of the staff informed us that in taking over 2 million kip (about 200USD), it was their most successful day since opening...
An early start the next day for the 3 hour minibus following by boat transfer to the tropical island, Don Det Despite the weather (still raining) you couldn't help be amazed by this place. Totally slow paced, stunning countryside, driving on the back of a motor scooter through emerald green rice fields passing doe-eyed water buffalo and not alot else, you get the picture..There was little to do other than laze in hammocks (we did- picture attached) and explore the beauty of the place.You really felt that you saw the locals in their natural habitat, mainly farming, and the small amount of tourism there is (although I think that will change now the island has 24 hour electricity, and I saw a number of building projects underway). Wherever we walked children would follow and everyone wanted to say hello.There is a dark side too, as you see real poverty at close quarters. Laos is one of the worlds' 20 poorest countries although it is well on is way to escaping this status in the next few years. This has come at a price, by being China's new best friend, it muscles in on Laos'natural resources in return for building roads and stadiums. A huge area of land in Vientiane has been leased to China to allow 50,000 migrant workers to to come and settle a satellite town.
I spent two days and nights on Don Det and would have loved to have stayed longer but after two weeks in Laos, Cambodia is beckoning....
The pictures I have used are: the kidney-shaped pool at the Settha Hotel, Vientiane; a common sight in Don Det,a water buffalo and bicycle; the hammocks outside our room at Mekong Dream (we were the only ones staying there so had their exclusive use!); a view from the boat and some of the many Laos children happy to pose for a photo.
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