Laos

Our time in Laos has ended. Unfortunately, between Kevin coming down sick, then Amy getting sick, and our timidness to leave the main areas due to malaria risk, our time in Laos was probably not as thorough as it could have been. But what an amazing experience it was to visit a country so far removed from our own. You can check out all of our Laos pictures (which includes pics from Vientiane, Vang Vieng, and Luang Prabang) at this link.

What We Did: We spent a little over a week traveling directly north from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, with a stopover in the middle in Vieng Vang (not on map). We spent 3 nights in Vientiane, 2 nights in Vieng Vang, and 3 more nights in Luang Prabang.

Overall Impression: Laos perhaps does not have the same extent or quality of traditional sightseeing as in other countries. But this is perhaps what makes Laos so unique and noteworthy. Without the hordes of tourism and having fallen way behind many of its neighbors over the years, visiting Laos almost feels like stepping back in time. Life is so simple and relaxed here, it’s hard not to be charmed and fascinated.

How We Traveled: The three areas we visited are about four to six hours apart by vehicle. We travelled this distance by a so-called “VIP” passenger bus (although there was definitely nothing VIP about them). Generally these buses cost $5 per person (though on our second leg we upgraded to what we thought was a luxury bus for $10/person – not so much!). These buses were run-down, very old, and had no air-conditioning (though they both advertised as having such). The road between the three cities is also very narrow and winding – and on the bus to Luang Prabang a poor girl behind us kept getting sick. Yuck.

Activities: In Laos, one of the more popular activities is visiting and touring “wats” – ancient or very old buddhist temples. They are everywhere! Our guidebook’s 3.5k walking tour in Luang Prabang, for instance, had us visit nine different wats. While often gorgeous and fascinating , by the end we were skipping them – one can only see so many wats in a day before they all start to look the same. Other activities we participated in included inner tubing, visiting and swimming by a waterfall, partaking in the rich culture of massage, hanging out in cafes, and absolutely relishing the Laos food. Laos also has wonderful outdoor markets that sell everything from food, slippers, purses, clothing, toiletries, jewelry, you name it. And they are extremely tranquil and non-aggressive (unlike the KL markets where you are constantly haggled).

Costs: Laos is incredibly affordable. The current exchange rate was $1 US = 85,000 Kip. We stayed in above-average hotels (which included air-conditioning, attached bath, and nice linens) for around $35 US/night. Meals were incredibly cheap – most entrees were between $1 - $3 US. On average, we never left a meal owing more than $10 US total, which included two entrees, bottled water, and beverages for us both. Usually it was even less. And breakfast was always included in our hotel stay. One hour massages generally ran between $4 and $8 US.

Currency: Laos only has paper money (no coins) in HUGE denominations. The smallest bill is 500 kip (about five cents) and most transactions involve tens of thousands of kips. In fact, when we went to the ATM the first time, we withdrew 1 million kip (roughly 100 dollars).

Our Lonely Planet guide scared us by indicating that the country had almost no working ATMs (and only in Vientiane) and rarely accepted credit cards. The latter was true but we found plenty of working ATMs in Luang Prabang and Vientiane and one in Vang Vieng. (We brought a bunch of U.S. currency that we could take to money exchangers---but ended up not needed it.) Then again, we met a traveller in Vang Vieng who said he had been there ten days… and couldn’t pay the hotel bill until the ATM was fixed. (He was shocked when we told him that it had worked fine for us that day.)

Language Barrier: Even though very few people we met know much English, the language barrier is not difficult. Nearly every menu and sign was written in both Lao and English. And most people in service careers seem to know enough words in English to make it fairly easy to order food or buy items. (We read that English is now often learned by Lao schoolchildren since parents believe that knowing English pretty much guarantees their future employment.)

The People. The people here are incredibly friendly and polite. We had read that the Lao people are known as being very relaxed and laid-back, and it definitely shows. People seemed to consistently have a ‘no worries’ attitude, which we loved. And it was incredible how eager people were to greet you with a smile and a “sabai-di” (meaning ‘hello’). If there was any lingering animosity toward the U.S. for its bombing of Laos during the Vietnam War, it didn’t show in the people we met. Big smiles and cheerful demeanor would always follow when we told locals that we were from the U.S. (The only animosity we encountered was from a drunken Irishman who had some choice words directed at us about U.S. foreign policy of late.)

Most Annoying. The most annoying feature of Laos was the smoky haze that lingered in every city we were in, the result of agricultural fires that burned throughout the country. Apparently, every year from January through April in Laos, the farmers (mostly rice farmers) practice slash-and-burn agriculture. They rarely grow rice on the same land more than once and just clear forested land elsewhere (via fires) for their next crop. (We read in the newspaper that the Lao government will seek to stop this practice soon.)

The Food. We found the food to be consistently good. Laos food seems to be a bit of a fusion between Vietnamese and Thai food, and both of those types of food are also regularly available. Laos dishes traditionally come with sticky rice, which is delicious.

Nearly every restaurant or café we went to had an ENOURMOUS menu, featuring Lao, Vietnamese, Thai, and Western dishes. Very few restaurants seemed to specialize in a particular type of cuisine. And even if it did (such as “Luang Prabang Pizza”), its menu would still be many, many pages long with a wide array of Lao, Vietnamese, Thai, and Western dishes.

Next Stop: Our initial plan was to fly from Luang Prabang to Hanoi and spend several weeks in Vietnam. At the last minute, however, we decided to fly to the beaches of Thailand instead. Kevin has a friend from college who is currently travelling in Thailand, and—after struggling to stay healthy lately—we both decided that we could use some R&R on the beach. We therefore flew to Krabi, Thailand and took a ferry to the island of Koh Lanta, which is in the Andaman Sea off the western coast of Thailand. More on that soon!

I have now had the pleasure of two massages while is Laos. This has to be my favorite thing about this country! The Laos people are famous for their style of massage – they call it the Laos Traditional Massage, although I’m not sure they’re the originals for this style (it is highly similar to the Thai- style massage). But, in any fashion, it is amazing and very cheap. And, had I not gotten sick during part of our stay in Laos, I would have had one every day!

My first massage was in Vientiane. Kevin was down sick during this day, so I decided this might be the right time for me to wander off to try a massage. I did some research, and found the highest rated spa in the city– just several blocks from our hotel. It was called The Papaya Spa. It was beautiful! It was an open-air building made out of a beautiful dark wood. Straw fans were rotating on the ceiling, creating a wonderfully comfortable cool breeze. All of the furnishings appeared to be traditional Laos style, very old, but regal. The room that I was taken to for my massage was just as tranquil – with soft music playing to add to the peacefulness. You could hear the birds outside gently chirping. First, they had me change into some cotton shorts and a sarong top. Then they had me lay down on a mattress on the floor – no raised tables for these masseuses.

The massage started out familiar enough – with the masseuse working on my back. But that’s where the familiarity ended. Then she started moving my legs into different positions, using her body to gain leverage and add resistance against my own. By the time my hour was done, she had twisted, contorted, bent, flexed, and moved my body into positions even my gymnastics instructor would have been proud of. While there were times that I had to clench my teeth – some of the stretches were quite intense -- they would only last for a second before either the position would end or I’d feel my muscles relax. Overall, the hour-long massage was amazing – I felt fantastic and I left with my body feeling so much stronger and limber than when I entered. The price for this? $12. In Vientienne you could get massages for as cheap as $5, but it was worth the extra to have it in such a beautiful place. I was definitely hooked! [Note from Kevin: In all of Laos, we never saw another 60-minute massage offered for more than six dollars. Leave it to Amy, of course, to find easily the most expensive spa in the country…]

When we arrived in Luang Prabang, Kevin was feeling much better so we both decided to get a massage. We wandered the streets to pick our location (massage is such a popular activity here there are many, many places that offer it. Which is great beacuase it also means price competitition – so much less money for us). We finally settled on a place and decided on a package option – it included a 1 hour traditional Laos massage and 30 minutes of a hot tea bag treatment (the pictures showed giant tea bags being applied to a person’s back). The price -- $8/person.

The initial Laos-style massage itself was generally very similar to the one I had in Vientiane with even more body work. Again, it felt great to have your body stretched out and the muscles rubbed through. The hour went by too quickly, of course, and now it was time for the hot tea bag treatment. They left a towel for us and asked us to remove the shorts and shirt and instead drape the towel over us as we lay down on our stomachs. When they returned, they removed these large pouches from a tub and placed them on our backs. They were quite hot – so much so that when they first placed them on my back, I had to hold back a squeal from the shock. But they only touched the pouches to our skin for a second and then quickly removed it and placed it on a different part of our back for a quick second. They repeated this motion over and over, gradually lengthening the time that they left the bag on our skin as it cooled down. When it had cooled down considerably, they would start the process over with a new hot bag. The scent from the pouches smelled of a fragrant tea. After about 30 – 40 minutes, they told us our massage was over. We felt refreshed and relaxed. What a great way to spend $8!

The next day, however, we discovered a side effect from the massage. We woke up feeling quite sore, as if we had spent the previous day running and lifting weights. Every muscle ached a little (but seriously...what better way to get your daily exercise?!?). But, of course, the experience was definitely worth it. I told Kevin that my new objective will be to try a traditional massage in every country we visit – to see the similarities and differences. He just asked “even in Europe?” Yes, even in Europe...definitely in Europe. Gotta run...it's time for my next massage!

Laos is bloody hot, with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees. And with that heat comes humidity, which makes it even worse. We have never gone through our clothes so fast as we have in Laos – it would be unthinkable in this heat to wear something more than one time (and usually we can’t even get through one day without going through at least a couple pairs of clothing). Considering how little clothes we are travelling with, we needed to do our laundry... and fast.

I checked into the laundry service offered by our hotel – even though we were paying only $35 a night for our room, by Laos standards, it was a pretty upscale place. So, yes, they did offer laundry, but shockingly it came with a steep price – even at US standards. Each piece of clothing – no matter how tiny –would be charged at $1 - $3 a piece! Since we were needing to clean practically our entire wardrobe, this would add up very quickly. I had recalled places in town advertising laundry at 10,000 kip per kilogram (that’s just over $1 US). When I had passed these places previously, I just noticed them as yet another example of life in Laos – never did I consider that I might actually take my clothes to these places. But now that was exactly what I was going to do!

Since Kevin was feeling ill at this time, I gathered up all our dirty laundry into my pillowcase and set out on my way. It was a bit of a walk (several blocks) that, even without carrying a large bundle over my shoulder, would be been exhausting due to the humidity. So that, along with being a bit embarrassed about what it would look like as I take to the streets with this huge load, I decided to catch a tuk-tuk (their motorcycle taxis). I paid $1 to have him drop me off at a street not far from where I remember seeing many of these laundry places.

As I’m walking down the street with my bundle, I finally come upon the laundry row. There are many – in fact, there’s more laundry shops on one street than coffee shops in Seattle. I try to find the one that looks the nicest – yet my search is useless. Each one is very small – like a shop turned out from an old garage – and very dirty looking. Clothes are generally found drying on clotheslines out front. If it wasn’t for the sign’s out front “1 kg – 10,000 kip” you would think these were somebody’s very humble home. I finally decided ‘what the heck’ and approached one – a little card table was setup outside with a few Laos people hanging out front. They looked at my bundle and gestured me to place it on the kitchen scale that was setup on the table. My laundry weighed in at 3.5 kg. They wrote a slip out that showed I owed 35,000 kip (less than four U.S. dollars). I paid and asked when I could pick it up – they clearly spoke very little English and so I gestured at my watch. They replied in broken English: “tomorrow – 5pm”. And that was that.

The next day I walked back to laundry shop to get our clothes. As soon as they saw me, they handed me the sleeping bag full of folded clothes – which they immediately knew it was mine. (Do they have many customers? Or perhaps they deal with mostly locals, and clearly being a Westerner, I was easily remembered?) When I got back to our hotel, I dumped out the clothes – I was feeling a little guilty over how skeptical I was at whether they would truly be clean – but, alas, everything appeared very clean. And the clothes even smelled great. I don’t know whether they use washing machines or whether the clothes are hand-washed, but whatever their method, our clothes had been refreshed! I was definitely pleased with my decision to do it “the local way” and hike to one of the laundry houses...

Vientiane is the capital and largest city of Laos (population: 235,000), but life still feels utterly simple and basic here. It’s almost as if we’ve somehow stepped back in time—which I suppose makes sense. Laos was not open for foreign tourism until 1989 (after the fall of the Soviet Union), and private enterprise wasn’t really allowed until the years thereafter. (Laos was and remains under communist rule, although capitalism now prevails.) As a result, Laos has very little of the modern development of even its Asian neighbors, making it seem like life has changed very slowly in the past few decades. Vientiane is not particularly charming or pretty in the traditional sense; but it definitely has charm in its own way. Its simplicity and laid-back feeling is quite appealing, and we ended up staying a day longer than we had planned. As stated by our Lonely Planet guidebook: Vientiane might just be “the most relaxed capital city on earth.”

Laos is cheap, cheap, cheap. A typical sit-down meal is $2-3 and a bottle of BeerLao is a $1 or less. Even in a fancy restaurant (or as fancy as Lao gets), a dish of any ethnicity will almost never go beyond $5 or so. Amy and I, for instance, went out to a more upscale French restaurant recommended by our guidebook and—after a steak, pork chop, and wine—our bill was still only $12. Our biggest expense so far (other than lodging) was using the swimming pool at the fanciest hotel in town ($6 each).

Other notable costs: a one-hour massage: $5; fruit smoothie: $0.50; glass of wine: $1.50; anything from an on-street food vendor: $0.50-$1; mid-range hotel: $30 per night (with breakfast); ride in the tuk-tuk taxis (picture below) $1-2.

Vietnamese and Thai food is very common here, but Laos has its own take on that style of cuisine. Our favorite dish is chicken laap, a spicy Lao-style dish of minced chicken, garlic, lime, and onions--and served with sticky rice. Tasty. Despite appearances, we also had the best Vietnamese crispy spring rolls at the place below (we went there twice)... which, yes, also rents out motorcycles from the restaurant. (Uh...)

The Lao people are known for being very relaxed and friendly…. and we definitely agree. Everyone seems to smile and say “sabai-di” (hello) as you walk by. And the market vendors are extremely laid-back and reasonable; much different than the loud, aggressive, and hard-bargaining street vendors that I’ve seen in other Asian countries.

After a few days in Vientiane, we took a hot and humid bus ride to Vang Vieng (which is basically a stop-over point on the way to another city, Luang Prabang). The town of Vang Vieng is very small and overly-touristy (and a bit on the dirty side), but the surrounding landscape is flat-out gorgeous. Huge limestone cliffs tower over the town.

The most popular activity in Vang Vieng is to take an inner tube down the Nam Song river. The 3.5 km trip is so popular that various “bars” have been set up on the beaches along the route, with operators that hold out bamboo poles to bring you in to their bar. Definitely a 'college spring break' vibe. (They’ve also set up various rope swings and water slides to further entice you.) Amy wasn’t feeling well that day, so she wasn’t able to give it a try. I, of course, was inclined to stay back and take care of her, but she insisted that my duties as a blogger demanded I float down the river (with a Beerlao in my hand). The things I have to do for our readers!

Anyway, we’ve now left Vang Vieng and just arrived in the city of Luang Prabang. More soon....