Sabadee!!!

Arggg! I can't believe I'm more than a month behind in my blog! Things are going from bad to worse on that front...

I arrived in Laos a little more than a month ago, not at all sure what to expect. Laos is one those countries like Bhutan or Albania that most people, including myself until last year, couldn't even place on the map. No disrespect meant to Bhutanese or Albanians, it's just a fact that a lot of Canadians don't now much about them. The same can be said for Laos, so imagine my surprise when I get on the small Laos Airlines flight and end up sitting in the same row as 3 other Quebecois!

It turns out that Laos is quite a popular destination for the French (and maybe spilling over to Quebecois), being an ex-French colony and all. Supposedly, many Laos still speak French, although I certainly can't vouch for that. I only heard one Laos speak French in all of my time there, and this was a quite affluent lady who had worked and lived for years in Paris. As for speaking English, it is almost as rare as French it seems. I spent my time in Laos using hand signals, very basic English and making the most of the 2 Laos words I know: Sabadee!!! (Hello) and Kawp Jai (Thank you). It makes for very interesting conversations.

My first stop in Laos was Luang Prabang, a very pretty city in the north, on the shores of the mighty Mekong river. It was back to budget living for me, after having indulged in my way-too-expensive-yet-still-shabby-and-depressing hotel room in Bangkok for so long. It was also my first foray in completely winging it, i.e. not researching and booking a room before hand. I usually like to read reviews and find a room that is supposedly clean and safe before showing up somewhere, but the reviews on Laos accommodation being limited, it was time to start winging it. I was a bit surprised however to find that rooms in Luang Prabang were not as cheap as I expected (damn you, outdated Lonely Planet!), and quite full, to boot. I ended up staying in a 9-bed dorm room in the basement of a guesthouse. For the 4 nights I ended up sleeping there, it was me and 8 Asian tourists (mostly Korean and Japanese). They were all very nice, and I even managed to follow some of the Japanese conversations. How, I don't know, but I managed!

I quickly realised that travel in Laos would be much sloooooower than my previous destinations. My first hint was when I tried to book a sawngtwe (converted pick-up truck with benches in the back) to go to a nearby waterfall one afternoon. All the trucks advertise if they go to the waterfall, but it's not as simple as flagging one down. They need to have a minimum number of people for the 1-hour trip to be worthwhile for them. After asking around for a while, I finally found one that said he had enough people, and would be leaving in 20 minutes. So I park my butt on the back of his truck and wait. And wait. And wait some more. It seems that the people who'd said they'd go with him bailed, so we were back to where we started. By this time, 1 other guy joined me in the waiting game, and we starting riding up and down the street trying to pick-up more customers. Felt vaguely like prostitution, but whatever works. Lo and behold, almost 2 hours after I started out on this quest, we are packed to the gills and ready to go! And all's well that ends well, since we got to the waterfall at the end of the afternoon, when the masses were all heading back to town. We had the place almost to ourselves, so it was great. Got a few nice pictures, that, one day when I'll have a passable Internet connection, I'll be able to upload. Until then, use your imagination ;-)

Another example of the slow pace in Laos was when I tried to book a trip to my next destination. I'd read about an archaeological site called the Plain of Jars and was curious to go there. I could go either by public bus to the city of Phonsavanh where the Plains are located, and then book a day-tour to visit the Plains themselves, or book a private mini-bus and tour from Luang Prabang. Since the public buses are supposed to be much slower than the mini-buses, and not being a fan of buses in general, I chose the 2nd option. The problem is, they logically work on the same principle as the earlier trip to the waterfall, i.e. have to have a minimum number of people for a tour to happen. And since there were 15 or so travel agencies in town offering the tour, each of them seemed to only have 1 or 2 names down for the next trip, and had no settled date. I spent half a day just going to every one of them and leaving my name, hoping for the best. I did the same thing the next day, and hit the jackpot at the 5th travel agency. I ended up leaving 2 days later than I'd hoped, but it wasn't really a hardship to be "stuck" in Luang Prabang.

Among the highlights in LP: beautiful sunset view along the Mekong, with all the slow boats traveling to and fro; the daily 'alms' ceremony, where hundreds of orange-robe clad monks walk down the street to collect their daily food from villagers and tourists alike; the view from atop Phu Si (mountain temple) and last, but not least, the bakeries ;-D Thanks to the French, bakeries are more popular in Laos than the other Asian countries I've been to. And while I've surprisingly (for me) enjoyed the food since I've been in South East Asia, it was nice to be able to eat something other than rice or noodles for a change.

And I'm happy to report that while sad to have seen my sister go, I'm comfortably back to my solo travel ways. I think I needed a little time and a change of scenery to get me back on track...