Sunday November 18th, 6pm. I left Momo and Hanoï in Vietnam. I am in the bus station, ready for 24 hours on the road, in a sleeping bus. It seems like it was the most horrible hours of my life! I had to be patient… we travelled during the night in Vietnam to the South to across the border to Laos in the morning. After some administrative papers to leave Vietnam and enter in Laos, $30 + $1 for a donation to the Ministry of Culture (obligatory donation between 7am and 9am, it’s 7.30am…). I discover my first Laotian landscape behind the bus window in the mid-seated/mid-reclining position (after 12 hours in the bus it starts to be very uncomfortable). And after some breaks, it is 7.10pm when we arrive in Luang Prabang. I still need to take a tuk-tuk to go to the centre and my hostel. I enjoy my shower, and I was starving, so I enjoy also my noodles tonight – and my beer because, finally, my trip in Laos can start!
Luang Prabang
And after a real night in a real bed, I walk in Luang Prabang. To avoid the crowd, I visit early in the morning the Royal Palace. The centre of Luang Prabang is a big avenue and in the middle there is the Royal Palace with the Haw Pha Bang Vat. [Vat come from wat = school. A wat is a monastery and a Buddhist school with monks. It is specify of the Cambodia, Laos and Thailand – Vat is only for Laos]. I continue to the TAEC (Traditional Arts & Ethnology centre) who shows the four main ethnies of Laos (Akha, (H)mong, Tai Dam, and Kmhmu). And the sun is coming up at the same time than I climb the Phou Si Mountain – 100 meters on the top of the city with a view on Luang Prabang along the Mekong River. At noon, it is very hot, and like my stomach, I need a break. I go to the end of the peninsula to eat a “Khao piak sen” a noodles soup which is a traditional Laotian meal. And I want to imitate a Laotian, I add a little thing in my soup … big mistake … it was chilli pepper!! I sweat! After that, I continue under the sun to walk around the peninsula. I visit the more famous Vat of Luang Prabang, Xieng Thong Vat, with beautiful ornaments and mosaics. I finish this day along the Mekong with the sunset and just a look in the night market where there are nice creations and handmade fabrics.
The next day I see the market, but this time it’s vegetables, fish, meat, etc. And I spend the day in the Tad Kuang Si waterfall (one hour on a bad road from Luang Prabang). Because it is very hot, I am not the only one to have this idea. But even if there are lot of people, this place looks still a little paradise with the sunshine on the amazing turquoise water. Lots of pools and waterfalls until the end: a big waterfall. Nice and fresh day. And this night in Luang Prabang, I did shopping in the night market.
Before to leave Luang Prabang, I can’t miss the Tak Bat, the procession of the monks to collect the alms, I have to get up around 5.30am to see that. This day will be very long. Because at 7am, I take a bus to Luang Namtha, and now, the adventure starts. First, there are 8 hours in the bus, on dented roads (like every road in Laos). So it is not possible to read or sleep to make the time quicker, and it’s hot! Like the three others French and the Polonaise couple with me, I am coming to Luang Namtha to find a trek for 2 or 3 days. It’s famous for. But the woman Polonaise, Jeanette, wants to go to Muang Sing, 60km North of Luang Namtha, apparently the treks are better and more authentically. It is already 4pm when we arrive in Luang Namtha and there are no more bus to Muang Sing. Stubborn, Jeannette negotiates a tuk-tuk for six of us. So let’s go for two more hours in the tuk-tuk – to complete our buttocks. And at 7.30pm, we have to find somewhere to sleep for the night. And we are disillusioned, there is a festival today, all the room were book by the Chinese. Finally after lot of “Sorry, no vacancy”, we find beds. We have a diner in the night market but we haven’t more information for the trek…
Trek in Muang Sing
The next morning, at 8am the information centre opens. It’s always Jeannette who negotiates the trek and the price. I learn of my travel’s mistake: it’s better to have cash with me than count on my credit card – in Muang Sing, the ATM don’t want my card. Lucky, Nathan, one of the French guys, advance me money. At 9.30am, the trek starts… hum… in a tuk-tuk. Because we start late, we don’t walk now (neither all the morning…). We do different stops in different villages. 1st stop: discovering of a homemade rice leaf factory (+ tasting); 2nd stop: discovering of a homemade Laotian whiskey brewery, lao-lao (+tasting); 3rd stop: weaving workshop, but nobody is here to show us; 4th stop: souvenir shopping.
So, in the beginning of the afternoon, the trek starts really. We cross school, Akha’s villages [the Akhas are mountain people from China and emigrated in the middle of XIXe century in Vietnam and Laos and after Thailand and Myanmar. Their houses are building on stilt, with bamboo and lot of time with terrace to dry the rice. And always at the end of the village, there is a swing for official marriage proposal].We also cross some sugarcane fields, rice fields, rivers, rubber plantation (it smells so bad!!) and we are in Houayla, the village where we spend our first night. Before diner, we walk in the village. Mong (our guide) invite us to share a lao-lao close to the fire with some men of the village. “Tomaté” (I don’t know to spell it) = cheers in Akha. For diner, we all seat around a round table, cross-legged, we peck rice, vegetables, pork. Then, our hut is filling up, young people or not young come to see us and there is ambiance. Akha massage and some little girls come to sing with traditional Akha costume.
2nd day of trek, this time we start early the hiking. Our guide doesn’t know the way to the next village, Amé and his machete accompanies us. During the morning we walk mostly in the forest, easy walk, we listen the jokes of Mong. At lunch, we eat on leafs, sticky rice, pork and can of mackerel. And after, the trouble is starting: the red ground in the forest is slippery; and after a tropical forest without a really track, we climb between brambles and shrubs (some people lost their smile). The view from the top is beautiful (we can almost see the border with china). Little break to take off the leeches. Then we lost Amé and Mong lost us. Due to the Laotian phone (a shout), we find Amé and the right way. We go down, now the track is steep and slippery again. Everybody tumble! But everything ends well and before the night, at 5pm we are in the village, more isolated. It’s time for “apero”, no lao-lao but wire rack spider harvest by Mong and Amé this morning. Another good evening between big diner, massage and lao-lao with the chief of the village but sadly we didn’t try the opium with the father of the family (we are in the old road of the opium).
3rd day of trek, this morning it’s little bit difficult for my intestines… No choice, let’s go again for few hours to walk, but much easier, it’s going down! It is very hot, so we really appreciate our beer at the end! We are all very happy of this trek, for the beautiful moment sharing six of us. So we continue together until the night, come back to Luang Namtha where we spend a night in a guesthouse. We really enjoy the shower and the bed! We have diner in the night market, try to find something different than sticky rice. I leave the guys here, there are going to the South, North-East for me. Very happy to have done this trek with them, they make me laugh during these three days.
Nong Khiaw
On the Monday morning, I take the road to Nong Khiaw – “only” 6 hours and half on the bus. At 2.30pm, quickly I book my room in the only hostel of this city, and I go outside to enjoy the sun. I wander in the city that is separate by the Nam Ou River and enclosing by karsts mountains (looks like Ninh Binh in Vietnam). I eat one of the best meals in Laos: a laop with chicken and sticky rice. I hadn’t enough to walk, so the next day, I climb to the “woman asleep” viewpoint: 400m height difference, at 10am, I have the view of Nong Khiaw and the karsts peak just for me. I hear the roosters, kids and motorbike but far of the bustle of the city, the landscape is amazing. At twelve, I come back to the city, and after three hours – time to regain strength – climb another viewpoint (400m height difference on 1.8km). Famous for the sunset, I am not alone in the summit of Pha Daeng. But I have to say than the 360 view with the worm colour of the sunset, it’s perfect. I meet two French girls at the summit who’s Clara who was with me in the morning in the bus. We finish the night together in a restaurant.
Muang Ngoi Neua
After a second night in this hostel, I take a canoe, colourful, on the Nam Ou River to go to Muang Ngoi Neua, a smaller village accessible only by boat. Lot of French with me! I never met so much French than in Laos. We visit quickly the only street of the village. And four of us go for a promenade along tracks, rice fields and streams to see smaller villages in the land like Ban Na. The houses are in wood and bamboo. When we come back to Muang Ngoi Neua, we have diner between Frenchys. The day after, I have a busy morning with Clara: beach bum. After that, we leave to come back in Nong Khiaw by kayaking. Slowly, we have time to enjoy the view. We break up the next day, she is going to Luang Prabang, I am going to Vientiane. I take a night bus, less comfortable than the Vietnamese bus.
Vientiane
We arrive in the morning in the capital. I don’t know if it is the city, the big days that accumulate or the end of the trip, but I am not motivated to visit Vientiane. I wander in the city, cross some beautiful building (vats, Presidential Palace, Si Muang temple, Patuxai a triumphal arch), a little bit of shopping (spend my last Kip). I visit the museum of the COPE (Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Entreprise) who helps people with mobility-related disabilities. We learn about prosthetics but also about the bombs still present in Laos after the Vietnam War. Sadly, lots are not cleared. Finally, the day was busy and I finish along the Mekong River to see my last sunset in Laos, the sun sets on the Thaïland, in the opposite of the river. In the morning, I take a French breakfast (nice bread) and it is time to take my bag. I am leaving with a tuk-tuk with other tourists to the Thanalang train station to cross the Laotian immigration. We cross the border by train and 15 minutes later, we are in Thaïland. I take again a bus by night (very very comfortable) to arrive after 12 hours in Bangkok. It is here this beautiful and wonderful trip in Asia finish. I stay two nights before to take a flight to New Zealand and achieve 2018 there.
