Travel report: Laos

Country ranking by area: #83
Country ranking by population: #107

Date of visit: December 2012

Laos was the highlight of a 3.5-week journey through Southeast Asia. It was the third country I’ve visited on that trip. The other ones were Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.

I had high expectations in Laos. A friend of mine just returned from there and he loved it. Laos was a bit the trend destination back then just before Myanmar took over that honour. My plan was to travel from Vientiane to Vang Vieng and end the tour in Luang Prabang before taking a flight to Bangkok

Arrival in Vientiane

After spending a night in Kuala Lumpur with no sleep, I had a flight from Malaysia’s capital to Vientiane at 7 AM. I slept a little bit on this 4 hours flight, but was more or less a wreck when I arrived in the capital city of Laos. Anyway, stuff like that are part of travelling when you’re in your twenties. 🙂 I wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. When I arrived at my hotel, I immediately fell asleep and woke up in the early afternoon. As I was only in Vientiane for one day, I didn’t hesitate to explore the city.

What I saw was underwhelming. Vientiane is one of the most unspectacular capitals in the world in my opinion. It’s more like a boring village with little attractions and I’m glad that I only spent one day there before heading to Vang Vieng the next day.

I was still tired from the last night with almost no sleep, but I couldn’t afford to have a good sleep. Departure time was 7.30 AM. That was early and I did not hear the alarm clock and woke up two hours late. I went straight down to the lobby and told the front desk guy that I needed a new transfer. Usually, you have more than one bus driving between the two cities every day but luckily, I was in Southeast Asia… the first bus had not even departed yet.

Viva Vang Vieng!

Vang Vieng got infamous between 2010 and 2012. Backpackers from all over the world headed to the fisher village, things naturally got worse. Vang Vieng became one of the wildest party places in the world with alcohol, drugs and tubing on the Nam Song River as the main attraction. The small village was Asia’s answer to European party destinations like El Arenal or Aya Napa, just way more excessive.

Consequently, people got hurt by jumping from slides into the river, breaking their bones on rocks in the water. People died too. Some of them drowned while they were too stoned or they just couldn’t swim but went tubing anyway. Some died from drug overdose. And we are not talking about 7-8 incidents but dozens of them. There is no accurate number about the fatalities, as many heavily hurt people got transported to Vientiane and they don’t show up in official statistics.

Finally, authorities had enough. They shut down most of the bars and defined clear rules for tubing. That was a few months before I arrived. Tourism decreased by 60-70% after the new regulations have been introduced. Of course, guesthouse bar owners weren’t happy. It’s a double-edged sword. Villages like Vang Vieng lose their soul but make massive income when they transform to hardcore party locations. Which one is more important? I think there is no clear answer to that. The owners of guest houses and bars had their opinion though. They were missing the good old party times.

Vang Vieng was still great and one of the best places I’ve visited in Southeast Asia actually. It is surrounded by beautiful nature and has such a laid-back atmosphere. There are also cool activities to do: climbing, going to caves, canoeing, tubing et cetera. You could easily spend a week there and enjoy every day. However, I didn’t do that, my time was limited.

Noi, Louise, Herman… making friends in Laos

Noi, the owner of the guesthouse I was staying at, was a pretty cool guy too. He organized a lot of things, took me to the Blue Lagoon by car and was generally a great guy to hang out with. Interestingly, he did not want to talk politics when I was asking a question about their government. He just said “we don’t discuss politics here.” Laos is not like Thailand, as it just opened to tourism and is still conservative compared to its big neighbour. Talking about certain subjects should be avoided.

The first night in Laos was awesome! Although authorities defined stricter rules, there were still a few bars packed with tourists. I sat at the bar and next to a blonde guy who was probably 10 years older than me. “What are you having? I will get us something,” I said. “Let’s have zome Jägermeister,” he answered and I was like “Oh well, let’s speak German then.” That guy – I forgot his name, let’s call him Herman – was a construction worker from Stuttgart. Herman had sort of a deal with his boss: every winter his boss fires him so that he can get unemployment benefit and travel a few month through Southeast Asia. Vang Vieng was his last stop in Laos and he wanted to go to Cambodia two days later.

I had funny conversations with Herman and met some other people too. One of them was Louise from London and her friends. I lost Herman during that night and went with Louise and her squad to another bar. Louise is such a lovely person, always happy and in good mood (at least when I met her) and I met her again one week later in Thailand and a few years later in London. This is one of the best things travelling has to offer: you meet people from all over the world and sometimes even keep in touch. Louise and I text from time to time and she just got a baby in times of writing.

Outdoor activities in Vang Vieng

The next day I joined a tour. As I mentioned, Vang Vieng has a lot to offer. When we were passing the neighboring village, our tour guide told us that these people are another ethnic group. Even though the two villages are not far from each other, one group couldn’t communicate with the other one, as both speak a different language.

They also have other customs or traditions. Our tour guide explained some kind of ritual from the other village: men can propose to a woman and her family during a certain period of every year. However, it’s a bit different than how we are proposing in the Western world. If a man wants to marry a woman, he has to catch and abduct her. Yes, abduct her. He has to hide her somewhere and her family has a few hours in order to find her. If they don’t, marriage is official.

The tour was cool, we have seen beautiful caves and rivers. I was back in the early evening and wanted to go out again. Unfortunately, a power outage did not want me to. There was no electricity in the whole village. It lasted a few hours and everything worked again just before midnight. However, there weren’t many people in town. I met an Aussie couple that was on the same tour that afternoon. We socialised a bit, before he suddenly felt pretty sick from his magic mushroom shake. The Aussies went back to their guesthouse and I joined a group of Americans. It was a fun night as well, but did not bring as much as action as the first.

A disappointing farewell

The next morning I met Herman from the first night again! He was sitting in a travel agency, booking his 40 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh. “Hey, how did your night end two days ago?” – “Well, it was crazy…” he said. I will not go into details, but he met two girls in a bar, drunk a lot with them and took one of them to his guesthouse, where he realized that she… or he… you know how this played out. He was telling it shameless, even proud. A story for the ages.

When I got back to Noi’s guesthouse, an uncomfortable situation happened. The day before he offered to drive me to Luang Prabang, my next destination. I thought he was saying that it will cost me $20 and I agreed. I mean, the bus ticket was $12, so why not pay $8 more for a much more comfortable ride in a car with a nice guy? He told everyone in the hotel that he will be away for the next two days. I could see how thrilled he was. Sometimes, I tend to forget that people in the undeveloped world have not seen anything else than their village. He told me it would be his second trip to Luang Prabang. He hasn’t been to another city yet, not even to the capital Vientiane.

We were almost ready to go, when we had the following  conversation:

Me: “You have been a good host to me; I will give you even $30.”
He (confused): “What do you mean? $30?”
Me: “You said $20?”
He: “The gas alone will cost $80! I was thinking about $160 for everything.”

Shit, it was a misunderstanding. It was a bit naive from my side to think he will drive five hours to Luang Prabang, spend two days with me and then drive five hours back to Vang Vieng for only $20. However, this country had been so cheap, I wasn’t questioning the low prices. I was not travelling on a very tight budget, but $160 instead of $20 was a bit too much for me. Anyway, Noi was a great guy and it would have been fun to have him with me…

Me: “Okay, how about $80? I would like to spend more time with you and you could leave Vang Vieng for a couple of days. How does that sound?”

I still thought that it’s a ridiculous price, but was willing to pay him that as a nice gesture. He first agreed, but after a few moments, he said he couldn’t do it. He could have paid the gas with 80 Dollars, but he wouldn’t earned anything in two days. I could see how disappointed he was. Fortunately, the bus to Luang Prabang has not left yet. Noi took me to the bus station and we did not speak a word for the next 15 minutes. It was a strange situation. He really looked forward to this trip, but was miserable when he knew that it would not happen. I felt sorry, I really did. I destroyed someone’s joy.

A trip straight to hell: Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang

The trip from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang has been the worst ride in my entire life. We were about twelve people in a minivan and the driver was driving like a maniac. The curvy streets went up and down; it was like a nightmare rollercoaster ride that lasted six hours. I thought I would throw up any minute. However, there were people who felt much worse.

Do you remember the Aussie couple, which I met the night before? They were in the same minivan. He was ok again after taking the magic mushroom shake, but his girlfriend had food poisoning and threw up ten times or even more. After three hours, the minivan had to stop every 10 minutes because someone had to vomit. Some of the passengers even threw up in the minivan. I felt better, but the ride was just pure horror.

Luang Prabang is in Northern Laos and the country’s cultural most interesting city. When I was exploring the city, I met three British girls who were on the same tour in Vang Vieng. “Merry Christmas” one of them said. It was December 25 and the first time I didn’t spend Christmas with my family. Anyway, it felt strange, we had almost 30 degrees and the last thing that would come to my mind was Christmas. I stayed a couple of days in Luang Prabang, went to the famous Kuang Si Falls, one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, and then my trip to Laos ended.

My travel experience in Laos

I really liked Laos. A lot. It was a cheap trip; I didn’t spend more than $200 and lived like a king. I also met so many nice people like Louise or Noi and also strange ones like Herman. 🙂

Laos is my favorite country in Southeast Asia. It’s still untouched compared to its neighbors like Thailand and Vietnam (or even Cambodia). The fast modernization in these countries, especially in Thailand, had a big and negative influence to the mentality of the people. In Laos people generally leave you alone and don’t treat you like a walking ATM. I enjoyed that relaxed vibe.

However, tourism worldwide is rapidly growing and it’s a matter of time before Laos turns into a country like Thailand. Therefore, I am more than happy that I visited this country before its transformation. I wonder how Laos is nowadays. It has been a long time since and I haven’t heard people I know travelling there recently. Perhaps, the country has already changed for good, who knows. Sometimes, it doesn’t take a lot of time to transform a country in something new… most of the time in something worse. I don’t have Laos on my agenda again anytime soon, but it will be very interesting to see how the country will be when I visit it the next time.

 

Find the travel reports of the other countries I’ve visited here!