Farewell to Laos

Entry 28:

When travelling through S.E. Asia, it is always wise to expect the unexpected and not be too discouraged when things don't go as planned. Many cities in this part of the world do not have bus stations in the center of town. Therefore, when you purchase a bus ticket, it often includes a pickup at your hotel. Sometimes this process can be painless, but at other times extremely painful. Even though we were picked up on time, it took nearly 90 minutes just to collect the remaining passengers and finally depart Luang Prabang. Add to this the extremely loud Laotian pop music blaring through the minivan speakers. Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and remind yourself - You're in Asia.

At this point in our trip, we were faced with the decision to take the slow boat up the Mekong River to the Thai border or visit a few more towns in Northern Laos. We chose the latter as we still had several days left on our visa and had enjoyed our stay thus far and were hungry for more. Our next stop was a small town in the mountains callled Nong Kiaew. The views were spectacular, but otherwise, the town had little to offer.

We walked about one hour outside of town to see Pathok Cave. During Lao's troubled past, this site was transformed into a hidden village complete with a hospital.

In the guidebook, we had read about a national park close to the town of Luang Nam Tha that offered visitors a wide variety of wildlife and tropical vegetation. This sounded great to us, and we headed there the following day. Unfortunately, there were no direct buses and we were forced to spend the night in Udom Xai, a small dusty town that sees many Chinese businessmen passing through. The book describes it as an ideal stopping point for truckers and not much more than that. For once, the book was right on. We did manage to find a sauna and spent the afternoon sweating with the locals.

When we finally arrived in Luang Nam Tha, we discovered that it is not possible to enter the national park without a guide. We shopped around for a guided trek, but realized the terrain would be difficult to climb and the prices were just as steep. We took the time to catch up on some internet and, of course, found time for one last sauna. There, we met a young local village woman who told us about her experience studying in the country's capital. Her yearly rental for an apartment in Vientienne cost her the equivalent of about $200, a steep sum for Laotians, which somehow she managed to pay.

It seemed as if our time in Laos was nearing its conclusion so we boarded a minibus to Huay Xai to cross the border into Thailand. We grabbed some pad thai to go as we had no idea what to expect on the other side of the border. We changed our remaining Kip into Thai Bat, passed through immigration, and jumped into a longtail boat for the 5-minute ride across the river. Lao will remain one of our favorite places to visit in S.E. Asia (if not for its disfunctional ATMs then for its charm, beauty, and down-to-earth nature).

You can see more of our photos at: grossmintblog.shutterfly.com