BeerLao

Apologies for that state of the next few posts. I probably need to rework this but am just giving to you as it stands. I’ve moved on a lot so just need to get myself up to date fast. This is about Laos which is a weeks journey I took prior to reaching Hillsy and Katrina in Bangkok.

Laos was excellent. I only allowed myself a week there which wasn’t enough. I’ve heard the southern parts are beautiful and further north I’d have liked to stuck around longer for some exploring through the country side, the only place that didn’t grab me was the capital, Vientiane. The Mekong aside, one of the first things you’ll notice about this place is BeerLao. Apparently (I, of course, didn't try it)it’s great because they can’t regulate the percentage of alcohol in each can, so your first drink may be quite weak, but the second could floor you (well it’s probably not that bad). Anyway, it’s everywhere and sponsors just about everything, even the BeerLao t-shirt was practically uniform, mostly with tourists but a fair amount of locals and their toddlers too wore them too.

After the yellow and green branding anywhere there’s life, the next thing I noticed were the monks. There’s been lots around these parts but nothing like the army of saffron orange robes that I’ve seen here, particulary in Louang Phabang. And to house these peaceful troops was a ‘Wat’ on nearly every street. Such sights really enhanced the character of Louang Phabang (the final stop on my slowboat voyage) along with the strong French influence that was still evident allowing a relaxed, traditional village and coffee shop culture to shine through. To set it all off finally, the main, and oldest part of town is positioned on a slice of land where the both the Mekong and Khan rivers run nearly parallell either side, hemming it in before finally meeting and joining at the end.

So in Louang Phabang, the mornings are colourful monk-style, and the days are relaxed, but the evenings were my favourite. There’s one main street that comes alive with a night market selling everything but the usual Weston based tat found nearly everywhere else. Chilled people wonder around in the hot evening and get their meals from one of the ‘village fete’ style street buffets, where I too did get my fix of rice and noodles, but mostly I developed a dependency on the fresh fruit smoothies that are readily available all around for next to nothing. The bars are lovely too, really mellow outdoor spaces that suffer one downside. At midnight everything has to shut down and literally the only place left to go is the bowling ally on the outskirts of town where drinks and music continues. And speaking of layed back, I’ll mention my unnecessary transfer to a boat that came in the form of a girl smaller than me peddling up the road on her bicycle with me on the back. I did feel guilty but couldn’t work out what was happening, but I don’t think this is normal anyway, people were laughing at us the whole way.

Next stop Vang Viang. Five hours on a very bumpy, windy and in places, unstable bus journey on one of Laos few main roads, I arrived in at 3am by the local airstrip.. Knowing that everything here in this tiny town also closes by midnight. Accommodation on my trip is nearly always a guesthouse these days, but between the hours of 11pm and 7am they close, many locking right up for the night. In the small hours of the night I’m a tad unsure how I’m going to find myself a bed. But strangely, Western stragglers are appearing out of the woodwork as I wonder through and all seem pleased to see new arrivals and all have a place to suggest. I’m reluctant to trust any of their ideas as the only reason I can only think they’re still wondering the streets is because they’re either locked-out themselves or have forgotten altogether where they belong. One guy says he knows the place we‘re aiming for, Pan‘s Place, and apparently Pan himself so urges us to follow him. It’s 3.30am now and he leads us down the road until he prises open a gate and guides us round the back and into the building. “Yo Pan, wake up! I’ve people to see you” he shouts. I’m thinking this isn’t a good situation. I already feel like I’m breaking and entering and am not keen on pissing off the owner. It all ends ok, a dazed and confused Pan’s wife appears and guy breaks into Thai language. They’ve no rooms anyway and our new friend doesn’t want to help anymore, but luckily a new straggler appears and thinks we should go to Tony’s. Well Tony didn’t look like a Tony but did foolishly leave a sign on his bedroom door inviting us knock if arriving late at night, which we did and all was good.

Anyway, Vang Viang. It’s famous for one thing really, and any traveller in Laos has to try it. Tubing. Tubing basically consists of floating down a 4km stretch of the river in a tractor inner tube, and for a very small section at the beginning, visiting as many of the riverside bars as you desire. The weather is gorgeous and when you’re ready, you cool off as you drift down the river before being pulled to the next bamboo bar a few meters along and welcomed with a shot of whisky and free bananas. Admittedly it sounds kind of dangerous, copious amounts of alcohol combined with extreme sun and carelessly floating unsupervised in potentially fast and rocky waters, but all the bars have gone to the effort to make things just a little more death defying. Each establishment has built, pretty high up, either a trapeze swing or zip wire to help you with your re-entry to the river. The drunker people get, the worse they land, and next day bruises are compared. I did my falls into the water early on whilst I was certain to still have my wits about me. No bruises here! Most don’t make it beyond the first few bars but I was determined to complete the whole 4km back into town, so I bought myself a whiskey bucket for the journey and set off. The majority of the route is actually just scenery with locals, animals and the odd kayaker along the way, and I reckon that was the most relaxing couple of hours I’ve ever had. At the end some chilled out bars begin to appear to tempt you back on dry land in hammock for a while. Although this really does sound like a boozy day out, I think it‘s not necessary so, anyone would really enjoy this, alcohol or not. All attitude’s are good and the atmosphere is amazing, everyone should try it once.

The next morning the perfect hangover cure for the worse for wear (not I) is some time in one of the many TV bars. There are no upright chairs but bed styled lounger seats for you to lay back and waste the day eating fry-ups and watching either Friends, Family Guy or The Simpsons (that’s all any of them ever played). I however had better plans involving cycling around in flipflops with a smoothie in one hand and a little basket at the front for my stuff whilst looking for a local cave without a care in the world, not even for other road users. That was happiness, I’ll have to do more of it when I’m home, but I doubt it’ll be the same. Anyway, in the cave, in the darkest corner of the cave in fact, I found this spider thing. It has long atenies and reckon probably had no eyes, because eyes are pointless in the dark.

My final stop was Vientiane, but as I already mentioned, didn’t make me feel I wanted to stay. I think after all that time in the countryside, probably as much 3 weeks if I count South China, Northern Thailand and all Laos, I just wasn’t interested in being in a city with not too much to offer. I left for Bangkok the very next day which was great because for the first time in a while I could take an overnight train again (busses are normally annoyingly cheaper and easier). Brilliant!