Laid Back Laos

Laos is full of cheerful people. As we emerged from our hotel on our first morning in the country, we ventured out onto the streets of the historic town of Luang Prabang to bustling crowds of smiling faces. On the prop plane we had read in an airline magazine that we would be arriving on the eve of a large festival but we were not prepared for the hoards of people roaming the streets. The main streets in town were shutdown as Laos families wandered from stall to stall buying everything from meat on a stick to toy guns and helium filled balloons. Lucky for us, most of those in town for the festival were staying with friends and relatives so the guesthouses and restaurants remained relatively uncrowded.

The mighty Mekong River ran along the edge of town and the highlight of the festival is the boat races taking place on a neighboring tributary. We had our morning run on a backstreet to avoid the crowds, grabbed a Vietnamese style sandwich from a street vendor and headed to the races. It turned out to be a family event with children everywhere (all the boys playing with realistic looking toy guns) interspersed with a handful of tourists. We grabbed a table and a large Beer Lao and took in the atmosphere. Laos people are naturally pleasant and the festival brought it out with kids playing, parents eating and drinking and everyone cheering for their favorite boat. The races themselves consisted of long wooden boats comprising of 50-60 rowers per boat rowing on command. Two boats would race head-to-head down stream over a quarter mile course with the winners returning upstream to race again. Most of the boats were from a particular village and sections of the sidelines would erupt as boats past. The enthusiasm the communities had for their individual boas was something to witness. That evening we wandered the streets of town, browsing the night markets as the winning boats were loaded on trailers and paraded through town. The night markets of Luang Prabang are said to be some of the best in southeast Asia and contained everything from t-shirts to pillow covers, wood carvings, sandals, bowls, jewelry, purses and paintings. The festival and the night market, along with the Buddhist monks and temples that the town is known for (it is a UNESCO world heritage city), made Luang Probing a highlight of our trip. On our final day there, we were able to meet up with an English couple from our Halong Bay boat cruise, Ollie and Kim. We all headed out to a local waterfall and bear sanctuary and it was nice to spend a day we some familiar faces.

A trip to Laos is not complete without a day in an intertube floating down a river. If you have ever talked to a person that visited Laos, this is likely the first thing they will tell you about. The small town of Vang Vieng is the capital of this phenomenon and was the next stop on our 9 day tour of the country. We arrived to an array of overpriced and under-cleaned guest houses. After touring about a dozen places we settled on a cheap option (better to be cheap and dirty than expensive and dirty) and booked 3 nights. Now a slight digression to the second phenomenon of Vang Vieng, reruns of ‘Friends’ episodes in every café and bar. Walking down the street you are constantly barraged with the echoing chorus of the ‘Friends’ theme song and the familiar cast voices. If I was mayor of town I would push for ‘Seinfeld’ or ‘.Cheers’ but ‘Friends’ it was and we got our full of no less than 10 episodes during our three day stay. Day two brought with it clouds and overcast weather so we placed all our chips on day three for our tubing adventure.

Day 3 was blue skies scattered with puffy clouds. We got in a morning run, grabbed a bite to eat and caught a ’Friends’ episode and headed out. First stop was the tube rental shack. The total cost for transport to the river and tube was around $14, $7 of which you were refunded if you brought the tube back by 6PM. From there it was into the back of a small pickup truck with 8 others, tubes and all. A 10 minute ride had us outside town and at the rivers edge. It was noon and we were the first group of the day. All seemed calm and there were 3 bars welcoming us at the start of the float. We headed down to bar #3 and ordered up a bucket to drink. On a previous trip to Thailand I had engaged in the wonderful experience of drinking a bucket but for Colleen it was something knew. We picked our poison (a 375 ml bottle local Laos whiskey) paid a small amount ($4). The whiskey was they dumped into a plastic bucket (the type kids use to build sand castles…I recall ours being pink in color) with ice and topped off with a can of Coke and a can of Redbull. This was essentially our jumpstart to the day, the equivalent to taking a beer bong at the start of an Iowa tailgater.


It was not long before I was eyeing the rope swing hanging out the front of the bar. With some caution from Colleen I climbed the 20 foot ladder to the launching pad, grabbed ahold of the bar attached to the end of the rope, and launched myself some 30 ft up and out and into the river. Amazing. I came to slightly dazed with a local boy throwing a rope to me to pull me back into shore. Colleen had a good laugh and we grabbed our tubes and entered the water. We only made it about 50 meters downstream and we were out of the water at bar #4. This time we passed on the bucket and opted for a large Beer Laos and then it was Colleen’s turn. This bar favored the zip line over the rope swing and after some initial hesitation, Colleen was speeding down the line and flinging herself into the river. This trend continued the rest of the day. Any time we wanted a break from floating, a local would launch a rope into the river and pull us over to their makeshift bar. We would float a little, drink a little, and then take our risk on the rope/zipline/waterslide that each given bar had constructed. Most of these contraptions looked like they were the creation of some ill advised freshman engineering class but this added to our excitement. We met another American couple from NYC, vacationing and in between jobs, and the four of us spent the rest of the afternoon comparing stories of home and travels and enjoying ourselves immensely. As night fell and we rounded a bend in the river, Vang Vieng came into site and we exited the river, returned our tubes just in time to collect our deposit, ordered a bucket and a pizza and called it a night.

The Laos capital of Vientiane was our final stop. We dubbed it the sleepiest capital city yet of our trip. All around a very pleasant place but very quiet and uneventful. We had a look at a couple points of interest, visited the expat supermarket that seems to accompany every capitol city abroad, and headed out on an overnight bus to Bangkok.