The Goodacre's: Laos March 2009

We had a week off in March and decided to go to Laos. This country was only opened to tourists in 1989, so it is fairly untouched, in comparison to other places.
Luang Probang, the town that we stayed in, was made a World Heritage site in 1995. Many people know Laos as the most bombed countries in the world, during the Vietnam war, because if it’s location, the US bombed northern Laos very heavily. It is said that
Laos was hit by an average of one B-52 bomb-load every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, between 1964 and 1973. US bombers dropped more bombs on Laos in this period than was dropped during the whole of the Second World War. This has left a horrifying scene behind, many land mines are still in tact, waiting, hiding in the grass, to be stepped on, by some unassuming farmer or child. Studies have also said that in Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka there are an estimated 60 to 70 million landmines remaining, causing around 15,000 to 20,000 new casualties each year.
We knew all of this before we went, so we expected a very different place than we saw. Luang Probang is a quiet, beautiful place, filled with kind, lovely people.
We arrived mid day and checked into our very basic accommodation and then took a stroll down the main street…well our first impression was “what are we going to do here for 7 days!?” But it did not take long for us to slow right down and truly enjoy Laos life.
We spent the first day wandering around, getting our bearings, taking it all in. the next morning we went out on a walking tour, seeing many temples and stopping in at a book donation place, you buy books and then donate them and the shop keepers take them out to rural villages where kids are learning to read. Madi had a great time picking out books and dropping them in the box.
It was really nice walking around the streets, but it was a bit hot, so we stopped at a great little café called Joma. Well, we fell in love with Joma and visited almost daily! It was air conditioned, had fabulous food and everyone loved Madi! So we would order and play cards and hang out for a while.
After our afternoon nap we would find a spot for dinner and then shop at the night market, a fabulous market, jam packed with great stuff at great prices! We went almost every night!The next day we walked up to the temples at the top of the hill, 312 steps, holding Madi…on a very hot morning…but it was fun. We saw many different Budhas in our way up and enjoyed the view once we got to the top. Madi let a bird go out of it’s cage…good luck.
Then back down we went, headed straight for Joma!More walking, more naps, dinner at a FABULOUS restaurant called L’elephant. We went there three times!
The next day we took a bus to Vang Vieng. It took something like 6 hours, but the ride was beautiful! Madi did a great job!
Vang Vieng is a town for either adventure tourism, like rafting or caving, or a town for doing loads of drugs…or doing both if you want. So with a 2 and a half year old, we were doing neither of those activities. So we soberly walked the streets and checked things out. We soon realized why people do drugs in this town! It was a pretty shabby little place, we were thankful we were only staying one night. As the sun went down we had a banana chocolate pancake and played cards again.
The next day we took the 6 hour bus ride back, stopping in a very small village for lunch.
When we arrived back in Luang Probang we went for dinner at L-elephant again.
The next morning I got up at the crack of dawn to witness the Monks receive their alms. It was very cool, many men, of varying ages, walking in their orange robes and their rice pots, quietly accepting their rice for the day.
You are not supposed to take flash photographs, so my photos are not great, but it was very cool watching this timeless ritual.
That day we were invited to a Laos wedding. The place where we stayed invited us to the wedding of one of the employees. We were honoured to be invited and excited to take part in a traditional Laos wedding. We drove out to a village, which was surrounded by beautiful scenery! Everyone was very kind to us, offering as much food and beer as we could consume. I think I drank an entire Beer Laos…Steve obviously had a few more!
Madi was a hit, as usual! She found friends immediately, two little girls from the village, who we think were three and half and four. It was so neat to see them play, leading such different lives and having such different opportunities, and yet, when it came to playing, it didn’t matter. Madi was almost bigger than both girls, even the four year old and the two Laos girls had rotting teeth or no teeth and had no shoes, but they all had a blast playing with a broken box and jumping off a slab of concrete.
We then went to the waterfalls. We took one of the sons of the guests at the wedding, he was adorable and so glad to be swimming.
The waterfalls were beautiful and it was so nice to swim on such a hot day.
The next day we went on a slow boat ride to see a whiskey village and a few caves. It was nice to be on the water and see the rural side of life on the water. The whiskey village was pretty touristy, but nobody was there really. The making of the whiskey is pretty rustic.
Then on to the caves, which were interesting to see.
When we returned we went to Joma, so lovely, had a nap, bought some art, had dinner at L’elephant.
It was our last night in Laos and by this point we loved it and we were so surprised at how fast the time went by.
The next morning we had time to have breakfast at Joma and then catch our flight to Bangkok.
We arrived in Bangkok mid day, checked into our hotel and headed straight to Chatuchak Market. Not sure what there is left to buy there that we don’t have already, but sure enough we found a few things!We had a nice Thai dinner and enjoyed the hotel.
The next morning we found a spot for breakfast and caught our plane back to Singapore.
A fabulous week away. We loved slowing down and enjoying each other’s company. Laos is a beautiful and serene place.