February 8th - 16th: Cycling Laos' Northern Wonders

Modes of transportation: Bike.

Places visited: Kiewkacham (puke-a-cham), Bor-Nam-Oon, Vang Vieng, Ponghong.

Costs of things: Beer ( $1), Meals ($2 to $6), hotel ($4 - $7)

From Luang Phrabang, we decided to cycle 390 km to Vientiane through some of the most remote mountainous regions in all of Laos. We cycled down route 13, once considered a dangerous road as some tourists were kidnapped and killed in bus attacks on this highway. However, we were more likely to die from a bus accident than from any attacks and felt much safer on our bikes.

On the first day out, we decided to try and ride 130kms to the closest town we thought had accommodation. However, by 11:30 am, we had only cycled 35 kms and were already exhausted from the uphill ride. Were told by an expat living in the mountains with his Laotian wife that there was no way we would reach that destination in one day- and told us of another closer destination, called Kiewkacham (although, as you will soon see why, I call it puke-a-cham) that we may be able to reach that day. So off we went, and after numerous exhausting climbs, including a 25km 10% grade straight uphill climb, we finally reached Kiewkacham with 30 minutes of daylight left - both Adam and I crying with joy. The town was nothing but a string of restaurants catering to bus travellers and a few shacks for homes. Our room was basically a cell, with shared squat toilets and a rotting head of a goat as the only ornament. As luck would have it, I got the most sick yet on this trip - spending the most of my time alternating between squatting on the toilet or looking down into it's dark ominous abyss - hours later finally collapsing on the hard bed exhausted. We ended up having to stay one extra night as I needed to recover my strength for the next day's ride. The one saving grace was the children we spent time with. We had bought some Laotian books and colouring books which attracted quite a crowd of screeching happy children.

The ride to Bor-Nam-Oon was one of the hardest and best rides of my life. My legs felt like jello, I could barely move, and we had one 5km climb and another 10 km climb to do. The scenery however made it all worth it. We rode very slowly through some of the most amazing jungles and remote tribal villages. People literally build their houses on overhanging cliffs with steep drops, sitting on stilts sometimes as high as 10 feet. The people were soooo friendly, coming out to greet us and calling "Sabaidee!!!" (hello). After a gruelling 12% grade climb for 2 kms, we finally stumbled upon a paradise in the mountains. Bor-Nam-Oon is a little tourist getaway with five cute little, very clean, bungalows looking over a hot spring in the shadow of an immense karst. It is very new and almost all tourists who stop there are cyclists. Adam and I bathed in the hot spring (literally a shallow stream running out of the mountains) for 2 hours while sipping on Beer Lao. Then we had a delicious dinner at the only restaurant with some very nice local people.

With regret, the next morning we set out for Vang Vieng - a nice mostly downhill and flat ride into town. We were sad to be leaving the mountains although looking forward to some warmer weather. Vang Vieng is a small town surrounded by karst mountains and rivers, catering to stoner backpackers. It has many western comforts such as pizza, nightly movies and showings of Friends and best of all - shepherd's pie! The first night Adam and I gorged ourselves on these western delicacies - especially watching movies. After days being in remote northern villages, it was nice to have these comforts. We went rock climbing outdoors the next day and met tons of tourists as they travelled down the river on their rented tubes. We left two days later by kayak to Ponghong - another small town. The next morning we cycled an easy flat ride to Vientiane - ready for our next adventure.

February 25th - March 1st - Paradise in Southern Laos

Modes of transportation: bus, bike, elephant!

Places visited: Pakse, Paksong, Tad Lo

Costs of things: Beer ($0.80-$1.00), Meals ($1 to $5), hotel ($7 to $13)

With limited amount of time left in Laos, we decided that the best course of action was to get on an overnight bus from Vientiane to Pakse. The bus was nice, but we got stuck in the back with three other people, instead of in one of the double-wide bunks bunks built for two. As bad as it was for us, we felt worse for the one local who had to share the back bunk with four Falangs.

Since the construction of a bridge over the Mekong (built with Japanese aid), allowing road traffic with Ubon Ratchathani in Thailand, Pakse has become the commercial centre of southern Laos. Most tourists tend to pass through en route to Si Phan Don (The Four Thousand Islands), a very relaxing area at the southern tip of Laos, bordering Cambodia, but we opted to take a trip onto the Bolaven plateau instead. Famous for it's coffee plantations and numerous waterfalls, not to mention it's elevation, we looked forward to once again getting into a more remote part of Laos.

The first day of our ride was spent climbing up onto the plateau. At the very least it was an extremely gradual climb, but it was about 55km of climbing, so by the end, we were glad to have finished. On the way up we stopped for lunch at an incredible waterfall called Tad Fan where we hoped to stay, as our guidebook had terrible things to say about the upcoming town and accommodations therein. Fortunately for us, the guesthouse at the falls was way overpriced, as were about to be pleasantly surprised.

When we arrived in Paksong, we discovered that the single, repugnant guesthouse described in our guidebook, was not only not the only one in town, but it had been given a number of upgrades and additions. We ended up staying at the newer one next door, but met a great guy staying at the older place who was actually from Ottawa! Adam was especially excited to hang out with him because they followed the same pro-sports. Aside from the sports talks, he also helped us a lot with speaking in Laos, as he had been to the area a number of times and had a handle on the language.

The next day we left for Tad Lo, another waterfall in the area. On the way, we stopped at a totally randomly placed "cafe," which was part of a coffee plantation. We had stopped briefly when a local stuck his head out the door and yelled "Come in! Good Laos coffee!" Michelle had her first taste of really good coffee since being in Vietnam and Adam actually drank and enjoyed a cup of coffee for the first time in his life. The ride brought us to the Tad Lo area and we rented a nice rustic bungalow up on a hill a stone's throw from the falls.

While there, we enjoyed bathing in the river water, relaxing in the jungle like environment and a great bonfire, as it did get a little chilly up there at night. One attraction in the area are the elephant rides. There are two elephants there, each with her own Mahout (traditional Burmese name for elephant handler) who seemed care a great deal for his companion. We enjoyed a nearly 1.5 hour long stroll through the jungle on the back of the elephant, then got to help feed them bananas. A real highlight was watching the Mahouts bathe the elephants later in the day in the very same waters in which we swam. Another nice animal experience came from a negative situation. Our guesthouse happened to have a few captive monkeys, but while observing them for a little while, a female macaque began "grooming" Adam's arm hair (no bugs to be found!).

After two nights in Tad Lo, we headed back to Pakse for one night, then hit the road the next morning for a rather long ride that would bring us back into Thailand. We absolutely loved our time in Laos and were very sad to leave. We're still undecided as to which country we enjoyed more, Laos or Cambodia. Beautiful mountains, rivers and jungles, some of the friendliest people in the world and an incredibly relaxed feel contributed to the amazing experience we had there. While they seemingly have more than the Khmer people of Cambodia, they are still very poor in general, but now that the government has started opening the doors more, perhaps there are better things to come for these endearing people. Sadly, with so many recent memories of wars still haunting them, it will take a good deal of outside aid to bring Laos out of it's current third world state.

February 16th - 24th - Feeling at Home in Vientiane

Modes of transportation: bike

Places visited: Vientiane

Costs of things: Beer ($1), Meals ($3 to $6), hotel ($14)

After leaving the little town of Phonghong, we cycled into the booming metropolis of Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Ok, so the city itself only has a population of 200,000, but for Laos that's massive! It is situated on a bend of the Mekong river, which forms the border with Thailand at this point. Most historians believe Vientiane was an early Khmer settlement centered around a Hindu temple. The romanized spelling is of French origin, and reflects the difficulty the French had in pronouncing the hard "ch" syllable of the Lao word; a common English-based spelling is "Viangchan", or occasionally "Wiangchan"...hooray for French corruption of Southeast Asia.

The day after we arrived, we went for a run on the dried riverbed of the Mekong, then set off sightseeing, taking in Wat Si Saket (the only temple in the city to survive the Siamese sacking of 1827), Haw Phra Kaew (a former temple turned museum of various buddhist knick-knacks that once housed a jade Buddha now found in Bangkok, Thailand), Patuxai (a sort of bland copy of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, ironically built to commemorate those who fought in the struggle for independence from France) and Pha That Luang (a Buddhist stupa with architecture that includes many references to Lao culture and identity, and so has become a symbol of Lao nationalism). Our guest house also happened to be right beside That Dam (Black Stupa translated directly), which many Laotians believe to be inhabited by a seven headed dragon who tried to protect them from the armies of Siam, who invaded in 1827.

On a sad note, as we returned from our sightseeing sojourn, we came across the results of a horrific accident. Seeing a large group of people crowded around an intersection, we went to investigate and saw that a truck had run over someone on a bicycle. As events unfolded, it became obvious that the person was a tourist on a rented bike, especially difficult for us to see, for obvious reasons. We felt terrible for what he must have went through, for what his family would have to go through and what might have then happened to the driver of the truck that ran over him and his family, who rely on his income to live. That was definitely the most heartbreaking event we experienced on this trip and it is something we will never forget.

Back to the positive, you may recall from way back in our blog about Cambodia, we mentioned a company called Digital Divide Data (www.digitaldividedata.com). They are a digital data entry company with an eye to social development in Southeast Asia. After being so impressed with the Phnom Penh office, we decided to visit the branch in Vientiane and subsequently chose to spend the week there volunteering. We performed quality assurance work on a particular project and ended up learning a ton about MS Word, but that wasn't the point of volunteering, really. It felt great to be able to give feedback on the workings of their contracts and what we viewed as needs for the company. We made many new friends and have continued to spread the word about the positive impact that company is making, both to locals looking for work and other travelers looking for volunteering opportunities.

Other cool things we did in Vientiane include running in our first Hash House Harrier run (an international running group that combines exercise with socialization), going to work out at a really nice fitness facility that included plenty of free weights, a pool, massage and an herbal sauna all for about $6 each for the day and going to a couple of cool bars and seeing a pretty good concert including a band from Japan and an excellent house band. With all it's government buildings, the Mekong running along one side and the laid back feel, Vientiane gave us true feel of Ottawa. Maybe it was because we had a routine for about a week, but we loved having a feeling of being at home even though we were still so far away.

January 31st - February 8th: Meandering in the mountains of northeast Laos

Modes of transportation: Sangthaew, bus, bike.

Places visited: Xam Nua, Phonsavanh, Luang Phrabang

Costs of things: Beer (65 cents - $1), Meals ($1 to $8), hotel ($6 to $25)

As Adam and I rode up to the border, the familiar butterflies in my stomach began to flutter. Even though all of our papers were in order and there was nothing to worry about, somehow, I always feel like I've done something wrong. As usual, it was fine except we had to pay $2 each extra for "administration fees". Can't really blame the border guy, he barely makes enough to live on and must "supplement" his income just to feed his family. Still, corruption sucks!

As it was still really cold and wet, Adam and I decided to behave like "real" tourists and take local motorized transportation throughout our journey towards Luang Prabang. We managed to get a ride in a sangthaew (a pick-up truck modified to transport people in the truckbed) to Xam Nua, the largest town from the border with accommodation - only 75km away but a 3 hour, gruelling, freezing your ass-off, heavily nauseating (I barely kept my lunch) and cramped ride. The route drove along winding roads high up in the mountains that left us praying the bus wasn't going to slide over the edge. What a blast! While we didn't do much in Xam Nua, we were introduced to the local rice whisky - Lao Lao - wow -wow! Only 40 cents for a bottle and packs quite a punch.

Next, on to Phonsavanh where we arrived safely - despite the "little" incident where our bus was forced into a ditch by another motorist (luckily not off the cliff). All passengers ganged together to push the bus out of the ditch. It was great to stretch our legs. While a nondescript town, Phonsavanh is the home base for the famous "Plain of Jars". This site holds clusters of large stone containers (4000 in all), carved in one piece from limestone, atmospherically located at the top of a small hill with lovely surrounding views. The area is also famous for being one of the most heavily bombed areas on the planet. Between 1964 through 1973, the United States government was waging a "Secret War" in the neutral country of Laos (while denying it to the American people and the international community), dropping an estimated 2 million tons of bombs (including napalm and white phosphorous) in a relentless bombing campaign against the suspected North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao. During our stay here, we met other cold tourists in the popular falang restaurant which had a nice dry fire in a bucket (I don't think fireplaces exhist in SE Asia) which was keeping us all warm and sane.

From there, we took another gruelling but heated bus ride to Luang Phrabang, and this time, I was prepared with Gravol (what a miracle drug that is, yeehaw!). As we disembarked the bus, we were struck by a sight we hadn't seen in almost a month - sun! And they call this the dry season. By far the crown jewels of north Laos, the former royal capital of Luang Prabang remains one of the most charming and romantic cities in all of Asia and also notable as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After much searching, we found a decent guesthouse with hot showers and colour satellite TV which was great for Adam as he was able to watch the superbowl, at 6 in the morning! He was very happy - except for the fact that he got sick - again - for most of our stay in the city. I, in the meantime, got some laundry done, fixed our bikes and did a little sightseeing. The best part of Luang Phrabang was going to the Red Cross for an herbal sauna (a secret blend of herbs are used, perhaps the Colonel learned a thing or two from Laos) and massage (where you can also give blood!) - all for $3.50! We also took a wonderful cooking course where we were introduced to the secrets ingredients used in Lao cooking, and we were even introduced to some tasty insects. Fried larvae taste just like egg whites - yum! On our last day, we went swimming at the local waterfall - Kuang Xi - bathing and relaxing by the turquoise pools. We also visited Phet, the orphaned tiger and young bears living just by the entrance gate.

Our first impression of Laos was a laid-back feel amongst gorgeous albeit cold and wet scenery and a lovely people. What a difference from Vietnam!

January 23rd - January 31st - Hanoi and the Escape from Vietnam

Modes of transportation: bike

Places visited: Hanoi, Hoa Binh, Mai Chau, Quan Hoa, Na Meo

Costs of things: Beer (65 cents), Meals ($1 to $10), hotel ($8 to $12)

Hanoi - city of frustration and the beginning of the end. After our not-so-enjoyable overnight bus ride, we awoke to the typical hordes of touts pulling us this way and that, telling us how much better their crappy guesthouse was than the next guy's crappy guesthouse. Michelle was not in the best of spirits after having endured the overnight bus with a flu and let loose a torrent of fury against the unsuspecting fools. We finally arrived at the guesthouse which we had previously booked, only to discover the wonders of Photoshop and then proceeded to search the city for a decent place (of which there were few in our price range).

What did we do in Hanoi? Hmmm, well among other things we got turned away for food and other various items for which we wanted to give currency. We were actually told to "disappear" when attempting to make these purchases. Aside from that, we bought sweaters, scarves and mitts, as it FREAKIN' cold in Hanoi!! An interesting point about the old part of Hanoi is that every street is named after the the particular item you can buy there, i.e. you ONLY buy balloons on balloon street. The only saving grace of Hanoi was the incredible bakery we discovered around the block from our hotel. We pigged out on pastries one night for under $2! Good thing we're riding on this trip.

As the capital of Vietnam for almost a thousand years, Hanoi is considered to be the cultural centre of Vietnam and we saw many examples of such, including The Temple of Literature (home of the oldest university in Vietnam), the Ngoc Son Temple on Hoan Kiem Lake (featuring a stuffed giant tortoise, said to be of a legendary species specific to the lake), the One Pillar Pagoda (more like a big treehouse), Flag Tower of Hanoi (it's a really tall flagpole and a really big flag), Hoa Lo Prison (AKA The Hanoi Hilton famous for housing American pilot turned Republican Presidential Candidate, John McCain), The Ho Chi Minh Museum (featuring the waxy-looking corpse of Uncle Ho himself, as well as a tour of his home), Water Puppet Theatre (sort of like aqua Muppets).

(Sorry no pictures of Hanoi, hopefully we can recover our lost data)

After much deliberation on how to get out of Hanoi and Vietnam altogether, we finally decided to take a four day ride through the mountains in the northwest. So we gathered our winter attire and rain gear and headed for the hills and on to the greener pastures of Laos. Our four days of riding consisted of many steep, long climbs and lots of cold, wet rain. As the border we were targeting was not commonly used by tourists and the use of which is actually discouraged by guide books (if it's mentioned at all), there were almost no other tourists in the towns in which we stopped. This was of course the best part of it for us and our second favorite part of trip to Vietnam after the Mekong Delta. We were once again given the opportunity to meet locals who were unjaded by the pervasive tourism industry. In fact, one morning, as we finished our breakfast, a group of men sitting a table near us invited us to join them for a drink!

So, after a few shots of some sort of local "vodka" we had made new friends and were ready for one of the most remote and offroad legs of our trip. Having read about a supposed shortcut on someone else's blog, we thought it would be good idea, as it would save us about 20km. As this blog pointed out, the shortcut was on a dirt road, but we really had no idea what we were in for. Let's just say that knobby tires and full suspension were in order, but an amazing day. As we rode deeper into the jungle and away from the paved roads, the dirt road became a narrow dirt track, with steep inclines and declines, river crossings and brought us through many hill tribe villages. It was amazing to see the looks on many of the elders' faces as two falangs rode by them, though not everyone was totally shocked, as we ended up being joined for lunch on the side of the road by two locals passing by.

Finally we made it to the border and were happily on our way out of Vietnam, albeit with mixed feelings. Vietnam provided us with many positive memories, as the riding was spectacular for the most part. The historical sites were many and the foods were varied and inexpensive. When given a chance to meet people off the beaten track, they proved to be warm and inviting, as opposed to those encountered in the main tourist areas between Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi who were anything but. If we were to visit this part of the world again, we probably would not return to Vietnam, but we could certainly recommend many amazing things to do and see for someone interested in traveling there.