Posted: Aug.2010, Written: Oct.2008I've decided Laos could be a Disney World theme park. From what I've seen of the fine cuisine and colonial buildings of Luang Prabang (where at the top of a hill, a temple lit up every night looked like the castle from Magic Kingdom), to the water adventure capital of Vang Vieng (where boozing on an inner tube is considered fine sport), and now Vientiane, where I've come just in time to celebrate the end of the 3 month Buddhist Lent, making it a free for all for partying, carnivals, and boat racing along the Mekong.... It's been surreal so far to say the least.
Vang Vieng was a trip...literally...It's a small town bordering two small rivers and its main attraction is for tourists to come and go drinking while you're inner tubing. You plop yourself into a tube for 2-3 hours (6-7 hrs. if you stop at EVERY bar) and let yourself get fished out of the water by bar boys along the river. If the bar boys can't reach you by throwing you a rope or a stick long enough to hold on to, they will come swimming out to get you and drag you into their bar. Each bar is themed: Reggae, Dance, Hip Hop, Mud Wrestling...They've even set up swings and zip lines at least 30 meters high that snap and throw you into the water below...I was lucky enough to watch one man zip line into the middle of the river, let go, and drop directly onto two innocent by-tubers...thank god no one got hurt seriously!
I never went tubing. Instead I rented a kayak and started at the northern most point of the river, and white water kayaked for the first time ever! So much fun when you're cutting through the rapids! (Only baby rapids...I'm crazy, not stupid.) The scenery was incredible, paddy fields, mountains, streams, waterfalls, and I had the entire river to myself. Eventually I came across the inner tubing starting point and it was absolute chaos to say the least. The quiet was suddenly drowned out by bar after bar competing to out play each others' music. I felt like I was back in Gainesville; Vang Vieng is the epitome of a typical college town in the USA! OK OK I admit, I stopped to play a little too. After a morning of caving, hiking, and kayaking for a few hours I figured it would only be best to check out this party scene in person. I was fished out of the water at the first bar which had a swing 15 meters high. Feeling brave, feeling courageous, feeling the effects of Beer Lao, I went for it! I got all the way out to the middle of the lake, managed to swing my legs up over my head for a beautiful flip! ...however, somehow my feet never made it back all the way around, and my awesome flip turned into an awesome belly flop...I'm still bearing a bruise now 3 days later... Everyone at the bar had a good laugh, and more than a few offered to buy me drinks to nurse my broken spirit.
After that I hopped back into my kayak and headed over to the next bar. This was the bar that held all my new friends. It turns out, Laos is a small enough country where you meet the same people, and everyone follows the same exact travel routes. Reason for that being that Laos, the most heavily bombed country in the world, has a high number of land mines still yet to be found! Wandering off the beaten path is not something recommended in our Lonely Planet guidebook... At the next bar, I had a really good time chatting with my new friends. This was also the bar where I watched the man plow into the innocent by-tubers...hard to miss as the girls were screaming their heads off! Having had my fill already, I declined the offer to zip again and that's when I noticed the mud pit. Slimy, drunk, muddy tourists were all running over each other in the mud-pit attempting to play a game of volleyball...the ball was never returned, not even once since they were all too drunk to see straight. That was my cue to get the hell out of there.
I kayaked back on the river, fighting the bar boys off with my paddles, and continued on to the end of the river. I spent days in Vang Vieng, and am proud to say I never went tubing. Friends of mine did it 3 or 4 days in a row! Queenie and I had an amazing time, renting a motorbike and checking out the countryside. We went through a lot of caves using our cell phones for light! We discovered springs and hidden lagoons for swimming, trekked up mountains to get a view over the landscape...and all this we had to ourselves since everyone else was tubing! Even the town itself was absolute perfect for lounging in, since everyone was on the river I had nearly all the cafes to myself for reading and writing.
Now I'm in Vientiane. We got in yesterday afternoon and checked into a guest house right in the center of town. The room's got a double bed and a fan and barely enough room to fit by backpack... all I need for $5/night. Vientiane has got incredible energy right now! This week marks the end of the rainy season and the end of Buddhist Lent here in Laos.
For the past 3 months or so, all the monks and novices have been confined to their temples, and now Laos-wide they all get to go home, go travel, or go anywhere they want. The monks are confined to their temples, so that they can spend all their time and energy focused on deep meditation and practicing Buddha's teachings. Even if you're not a monk, it's common for Buddhists to give up things and meditate during this time (similar to the Christian version of Lent) and so the day that Lent is over is one big excuse to go out and celebrate.
The lent officially ends tomorrow, so I'm going to be at the temples all day watching the monks and novices de-robe, and watch the thousands of Laotians from all the nearby provinces make offerings for the monks and temples. Meanwhile, along the Mekong River there's been a carnival set up for the locals to enjoy every night: great food, games, rides, music, markets selling everything from laundry detergent to Gucci knock offs...They have barges (boats) decorated like temples and mythical creatures and lit up with Christmas lights, cruising along the banks of the river...Imagine the Disney night-time parade, on the water, with dragons and snakes instead of cartoon characters. I was at a roof top bar with some friends last night, watching the boats go by, and we were all impressed. 'In a country where you can't charge your phone and turn on the fan at the same time since it takes too much electricity, I'm super impressed all these boats stay lit up!'...JUST as I said that, one of the boats went out. The lights continued to flicker on and off for some time, but it was still a really good show.
Today I went to a temple called That Luang. This temple's the most important in the entire country, and is even pictured on the national flag and all of the currency here. I started the morning by hitting the ATM and taking out 1 million kip (about $100) and the machine gave it all to me in bills of 20,000s...the wad coming out of the machine was pretty impressive. Laos currency comes in notes of 1000, 2000, 5000, 10000, 20000, and 50000...problem is they're all the same damn colors, either red or blue!
The temple was absolute mayhem! Monks in the hundreds were everywhere! Women and children were planted on mats under trees cooking sticky rice, then wrapping them with sweet bananas and folding them into banana leaves. The perfect dessert! They were making tons of food getting ready for tomorrow's offerings. The music blaring from the speakers was a mix of traditional Thai and Lao hip-hop...it worked. The actual stupa I wanted to see was impressive, but didn't compare to the excitement running through the temple grounds.
Since then I've just taken to a self-guided walking tour of the city. Walking in and out of temples, in and out of shops, and checking out all the interesting alleyways. I'm going to stay here for another couple days to make sure I see the boat racing. The day after tomorrow, in honor of the end of Lent, tons of boats and rowing teams take to the river in a giant competition. Teams come from every province, and even from Thailand, Vietnam and China to compete internationally. It's a huge annual event, and I'm told can not be missed (which is awesome since I was working during the festival in Thailand last month.)
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