After landing back in Luang Prabang from our river boat trip, we picked up last minute overnight tickets on the “VIP” bus heading to the Capital city of Vientiane. Every bus company seemed to be advertising different departure and arrival times, although the pictures of the bus were certainly identical. We had previously met a travel company operator who had spent some of his youth in Toronto and so we placed our faith and bus fare in his trust – despite the fact that he thought we’d be arriving at 3:30am. Ouch. At least we got to take a tuk-tuk to the bus terminal, fun!
The bus ride turned into a completely hilarious experience. The most that can be said in defence of the experience is that at least we had reserved seats and didn’t have to battle to maintain our positions. As with a lot of transport in Laos they like to use the A/C when people are loading up and then promptly turn it off upon departure, opening the front folding doors and allowing the steamy evening air in as some sort of consolation prize. Despite connecting the two most important cities in Laos, the road was horrible, twisting and turning, and the bus staff seemed to need overnight entertainment in the form of blaring Laos rock music. To cap it all off, stops of any nature (bathroom breaks, chats, food, pickups, drop-offs, deliveries…) were made all night long.
Not the best of sleeps, but on the upside, the slow progress allowed us to arrive in Vientiane at a much more reasonable 6:30am. We were quite tired and after checking out one budget option with a dead cockroach in the room, we decided to splurge a bit on a clean hotel in the centre of town. For us, the capital city was simply a place to break up the journey to the south, so we spent our day without much of a schedule, wandering through some of the monuments and Buddhist sights in town.
In front of the famous golden Pha That Luang, the most important national monument in Laos, we found a statue that people were taking turns to approach and give offerings. Looked like the thing to do, so Ben gave a donation and tried his turn at lighting some incense sticks in front of the unknown likeness. He approached humbly and conducted his audience with due humility, but noticed some scornful stares when making his exit past the rows of…removed…footwear. Oooops! He had just disrespected what’s-his-name terribly...oh well, it's the thought that counts, right?
We arranged our next bus journey for the following morning to make our way to Konglor village, jump off point to one of SE Asia’s most amazing cave experiences. This bus ride was miles apart from our earlier overnight-mare – clean, comfy and direct. It appeared to us that the government must be making a targeted effort to get more tourists and development into this part of Laos. We arrived and found a quaint town with rice fields and typical stilt-house construction. Meeting an interesting traveler from Ecuador, we resolved to hit the cave together the following morning.
We walked through the village and into a forested area leading to the small river where boats were waiting for us to make the 7.5km journey through the dark cave. As we approached, we could tell this was going to be REALLY fun (and a bit nerve racking)!
The young boat drivers and their spotters perched on the bow of the small wooden boat wore powerful headlamps to help illuminate the total darkness of the cave. We also brought along our lights to catch a glimpse of the contours of the great, natural tunnel. Unbelievably, the waterway wound through the base of the limestone mountain in twists and turns, sometimes with the ceiling so tight you felt you could reach up and touch it and at other times opening into cathedral-like cavernous chambers that could be the home of dwarf kings from the Lord of the Rings.
Our boat slowed midway through the journey and pulled over to a sandy embankment. We all jumped out and as we groped around to get our bearings in the darkness, the spotter dashed off to the wall of the cave and with the flip of a switch, illuminated the path forward. We walked along, amazed at the shapes of stalagtites and stalagmites lit up in different colours by the creative display. This walking portion was quite extensive and gave us an opportunity to get up close and personal with the creepy cave.
We went back on the board the boat for some yelling and echo testing, until we began to see the light, the one at the end of the tunnel. We eventually emerged into bright sunshine on the other side and were greeted with the amazing sight of another similar boat headed into the cave we had just departed, filled with about 20 locals and a cow! Really. What for us was an amazing tourist attraction is simply a practical commuting option for the villagers on the other side of the mountain.
We spent a few moments checking out the other side of the cave and then spun around for the return journey. This time we decided that some music was in order to liven up the atmosphere and settled on Bohemian Rhapsody for its great opportunities to yell nonsense at the top of our lungs. We won over our Laos guides with this performance and they began making requests fore more. Ben tried to turn the tables on them by requesting some Laos music, but after seeing that they were too shy to comply he launched into his own version of Laos pop using all of the words he had learned on the trip so far. The guides found this hilarious, despite the fact that to their ears he surely sang like a three year old: “Helloooo, delicious, Beer Lao, thank you, I like, goodbye….”
Upon arriving back at the forested embankment and now obviously the best of friends, Ben was invited to join the Laos crew in a favourite national game of kick volleyball. We can’t remember the name exactly, but we can remember that it is quite difficult! Each team gets three hits to make it over the net and the game is played with a softball sized sphere made traditionally of rattan wound together, but now usually made of plastic. It does hurt a bit when making contact but the hollow centre seems to help in absorbing most of the impact. The Laoations were really nice and gave Ben lots of opportunities to make some plays and occasionally he even managed a good effort. Great fun!
Unfortunately we couldn’t stick around long as we had to rush back to jump in the 11am truck taxi taking us from the village back to the main north-south highway where we hoped to find a bus and make the very long journey south to the city of Pakse where we could again chase our dreams of kayaking along the rushing Mekong.
We smiled as we ran towards our ride, knowing that this day would likely involve almost every mode of transportation imaginable – boat, truck, bus and motorcycle. Onwards!
We also learned something very important through the Konglor experience: The cliché that “the journey IS the destination” is startlingly true in Laos. By getting off the beaten track between Luang Prabang and Vientiane and heading into the less-frequented south, we started to feel a deeper connection with the Laos people. We were beginning to understand the Laos way. They have a different mentality from their neighbours in Vietnam and Thailand, who are more business oriented – taking it easy and slow to the point where a half hour wait for meals or difficulty with arranging an activity for eager tourists is not uncommon. With this new frame of reference, we began to accept that our fate was no longer in our hands and enjoyed the experience all the more.
No comments:
Post a Comment