Huay Xai To Vientiane Part 1 of 2.....Laos

  I left Chiang Mai, Thailand on a bus to head towards the north west corner of Laos; the first mistake I made was boarding a bus to Nan which was a 7 hour trip. After about 3 hours on the bus I studied the map a bit closer and realized that going to Nan was of no use to me; so I got off the bus at Payoa, and was just in time to catch a different bus to Chiang Rai. The bus weaved through a lot of mountain passes but my view was not good; in part to the haze, it had been 40 degrees for a few days; and the locals always get on the bus, pull down the blinds to block the sun, and sleep (most Asian locals do this). I usually try to get a window seat but this time I was just lucky to get any seat on the bus. From the city of Chiang Rai I loaded yet another sweat bus to the boarder town of Chiang Khong; this was a 2.5 hour trip, it was a long day of travel. There was such a cute boy on this bus who was assisting his mom and dad as the conductor, he was about 8 or so and had such a bright and happy face.

   That week there was a water festival in Thailand so the kids lined the highway with buckets of water to throw at the vehicles. The old bus I was in had pieces of plywood for windows, all the locals had their windows down but would slip them up if they saw a kid with water at the ready. I was playing along and the kids were so happy to get the foreigner wet, that was so much fun. As I taunted some kids up the road they readied themselves with two big buckets of water, so much came in the bus that it soaked everyone 5 rows back; some local women were not very happy about that.

                                        

  I crossed the Mekong River to Huay Xai, Laos and found a room for 160 Baht. It seemed that western Laos accepts Baht and Kip (Laos currency); the customs charged me $30 US for my visa and a 50 Baht charge for overtime (or tip would be more accurate). After finding a room I went for a walk and found a temple that had the common serpent staircase that climbed the mountain to the temple. The locals did not seem very friendly (what I gathered from the looks on their faces) and the visibility was poor from all of the burning going on in the mountains. There are two ways out of Huay Xai, one can either take a boat down the Mekong or travel to Luang Nam Tha by road (reputed to be a long, bouncy, grueling, and dusty affair). I bought a ticket for the boat ride to Luang Prabang the next morning from a lady in a shop, she told me that the locals do not need my money to survive like she does so they do not have to be friendly to tourists,

    There are actually 2 types of boat one can take down the Mekong; the slow boat which is a two day trip on a roomy vessel with a stop in a village or a fast boat (that I took) which is a 6 hour ride. After a poor sleep (dogs barking at 1, 3,and 5am) I headed to the shop where I bought the boat ticket, from there I was supposed to get a ride with others who were on the same boat. The tuk tuk driver wanted 50 Baht each and the lady had said that the ride was included in the ticket, I did not pay so she had to. As I crammed on to this small boat, sitting on a cushion kissing my knees, I wondered how a tall person would manage.

                        

  I was so happy to leave Huay Xai and I had no inclination that this trip down the Mekong would be my best experience of the trip (thus far). I wrote incredible in my journal twice which give hint to my complete satisfaction with the journey. Although the smoke and ash were heavy at times and the boat motor was excessively loud my mind was occupied with the sites. Since the Mekong is the lifeline for locals there were many villages along the way. It is also a marine highway so longboats of all sizes bring supplies and passengers up and down the river. There were many water buffalo laying by waters edge; 2 times there were elephants standing in the water. The rock formations and the ever changing scenery were breath taking (so was the smoke). I could not get enough of that experience, one would have to be there to fathom the Mekong River world.

                            

                           


                           


                            


                         
  We stopped for lunch and to switch boats, drivers from Huay Xai only travel the 3 hours and then another boat with driver takes over to complete the trip to Luang Prabang. There was an instance of developing country syndrome where we stopped for lunch. The boat docked at a village that had a platform suspended over the muddy waters on bamboo poles.

                            
Passengers disembarked and went up a ramp to sit at tables on the platform. Behind where locals were preparing a basic meal was a washroom that had a less than one metre high bamboo partition, you could see a persons upper body when they were going to the loo. Human excrement just dropped into the river from the platform and it wasn't until I loaded the second boat that I noticed a local worker lowering buckets to get water for washing the plates we had eaten off, right about where the human waste dropped.

   The continuation of the boat trip was great; when our boat arrived at it's stop I wondered where Luang Prabang was, turns out that although the Mekong goes right through the city we were dropped off 12 kms away which meant we had to take a long tuk tuk ride to get into the city.

                                

First thing I noticed was all of the long boats dropping people off along the river, seems maybe our boat driver got some kick back cash (common occurrence for those that need to survive). Once I got settled on a place to sleep I walked and walked searching for photo's. As usual I covered so much territory speed walking; witnessing new terrain always keeps me highly motivated. Luang Prabang is a Unesco site so there was plenty of historic architecture to witness, again the smoke diminished the experience slightly. After a sleepless night (it was far too hot); I woke up at 2:30am, I had closed the window because of the noise, I just laid there with my head 6 inches from the fan until 6am. I went out speed walking; climbed up a small mountain to the temple where there was a good view from the top.



                                


                              





   I caught a 100,000 Kip air-con bus ride in the morning to the capital Vientiane. I found the trip amazing as the bus twisted and turned it's way through the mountains. This road #13 was very rough and it made me think back to what I was told about the condition of the road #3 from Huay Xai-Luang Nam Tha. We passed through so many poor mountain villages where the poverty was evident.

                                  
 It is here that I saw so many beautiful young women with the look of living a hard life; like many Asian countries a 5 year old girl may be carrying a 1 year old sibling on her back.  If one can turn a blind eye to that fact of local hardship then the scenery was tremendous; on a clear day during the rainy season this journey would have been just incredible. Around many tight corners there would be a small herd of cattle or goats taking up the road; the driver would have to crawl past them. Besides passing so many children in these mountain villages we also passed many guys squatting by the roadside with guns. The terror of some bus rides is well documented, particularly on this #13 road. Government run buses get ambushed; as of late 2 such ambushes killed 10 people and injured 30; on this day nothing happened, but those men were waiting for something. When I scanned the bus there was a serious looking man at the back of the bus with a rifle. I am not sure what these anti-government extremists consider a government bus....guess I should have tried to find that out.