Laos: Baguettes, croissants and scooter adventures!

It’s 8.00 AM and I’m chilling in a hammock in front of our little bungalow overviewing the Mekong River at Don Det, one of the four thousand Islands of Si Phan Don in Laos. Fishermen are taking their freshly caught fish out of the nets, naked children splashing water over each other, women washing clothes in the river and long tail boats whizzing past me every 5 minutes. The sun is already shining bright while it’s still so early. Don Det is by far the nicest and most relaxing place I’ve been in Laos so far and I could easily spend a few days hanging around the island.

My last post ended in Chiang Rai, in the North of Thailand just before we went off to Laos. The trip from Chiang Rai to our first stop in Laos, Luang Nam Tha, went almost smoothly. We woke up very early to catch a bus to Chiang Khong. From there we had to take a tuk-tuk that dropped us at the border. It was quite busy at the border crossing so we handed over our passports, waited about half an hour till it was our turn to pay for the visas and got our passports back…ready for Laos! After the scam and rip offs with transportation in Myanmar I was a bit skeptical about what was coming now. The plan was to get straight from the border to the bus station to catch a bus to Luang Nam Tha so we had to take a bus, taxi, tuk-tuk or whatever to drop us there. After a lot of confusing discussions about the price and trying to bargain down we finally decided to take a direct minivan from the border to the center of Luang Nam Tha for 100.000 kip per person. It sounded like a reasonable deal compared to the prices of bus tickets I saw online and it sure would be a lot less hassle than changing busses 3 times so we decided to go for it.
When the driver said we had to change vans at the bus station my suspicion started growing and saw some kind of scam coming up. When I told we would not go by van stuffed with people and that we would pay on arrival for some reason we suddenly had to move to our own private van with huge luxurious leather seats. Perfect!
Luang Nam Tha is a small town with little excitement. We decided to rent bicycles and cycle to a waterfall passing little villages on the way. I rented a normal city bike because those were cheaper than the mountain bikes but how I wished I had paid those extra few euros. The road was extremely rocky and steep as well and with the sun burning on my head I was sweating like a little pig. After hours of struggling and getting lost several of times I was hoping to find something spectacular at the waterfall but it was a big disappointment. The waterfall was very small and surrounded by plastic bottles and other trash so it wasn’t really worth the trouble but the scenery on the route was amazing and I sure enjoyed the whole cycling day.

After a few days we decided to take the bus to Luang Prabang. This whole town is built in a French style, has all signs on the roads in French as well as in Lao and real French bakeries with delicious butter croissants. So totally different from what we had seen in Luang Nam Tha. As most cities and towns in Asia, Luang Prabang has a night market with delicious food as well with stalls where we filled up a huge bowl of food for only 10.000 kip(€1,15). Luang Prabang was the first place where drugs were offered openly on the street. “Tuk-tuk drivers” offered us tuk-tuk rides and when we said no they asked if we were interested in something else (weed I guess but possibly also other stuff, not sure). I wasn’t expecting to see this in Asia at all since the laws about drugs are so strict around here.
There were some things to see out of the town so we rented a scooter and went to a waterfall that was suppose to be kind of famous around there. At every waterfall of cave we visited we had to pay a little entrance fee as well as pay for the parking for the scooter or bicycles (which we never did cuz we always parked just outside of the fence of the parking) but this was the first time I didn’t mind paying. The waterfall had a whole park build around it including a bears rescue center with cute black bears. The waterfall and the cascade were amazing. The water was greyish blue and looked very clean. There were also areas to swim but the water was freezing cold so I wasn’t really in for that. On the way back to town we were starving and were looking for one of the nice barbecue places on the side of the roads. A lot of people just set up a grill in front of their houses or shops where you can get huge freshly grilled fishes, meat skewers and a lot of other delicious grilled meat. So we found a place that was looking nice. We ordered a whole fish, some pork skewers and sticky rice. I believe it was the best fish I ever tasted in my life and we didn’t even paid 4 euro for all of it! On the way we crossed a supermarket that wasn’t a little convenience shop but actually looked like a real supermarket. And yes I know…we were super excited about going to a supermarket haha. I was not expecting to find all my favorite sweets but I was hoping to find some things to remind me of Holland (I miss the Dutch food and supermarkets a lot). We left the store satisfied: me with a box of Fruit Loops (which was my everyday breakfast in Honduras) and Lucas with a pack of Chips Ahoy chocolate cookies. After all that excitement we went off to Vang Vieng, a six hour bus drive from Luang Prabang.

Vang Vieng has such a nice and relaxed backpackers vibe: people walking around barefooted and in swimwear on the streets and loads of young people. The streets are filled with food stalls that all offer exactly the same: roti pancakes with fruits, Nutella, condensed milk or whatever you want, baguettes with meat, tuna, cheese and vegetables and freshly made fruit shakes. So my breakfast for those days was a huge baguette with tuna and a delicious fresh banana shake.

Vang Vieng has a lot of caves around it. I also read about a blue lagoon. This made me very curious of course. After getting a hard ass of spending hours on a scooter at Luang Prabang we decided to rent mountain bikes this time. The road was supposed to be quite rocky but we were in for a challenge. The road was actually very rocky but I had a lot of fun on my mountain bike. We stopped at the first cave we saw on the way… a huge mistake. We found a few schoolgirls sitting at the entrance with a hand written sign: 10.000 kip per person. Ok…we already got used to the fact that we had to pay for every little thing in Laos (even disgusting and dirty public toilets which nobody cleans) so we didn’t really mind paying. When we walked towards the entrance of the cave itself, one of the girls followed us and started a conversation. At the cave she showed us the way inside. The cave was quite small and not very spectacular. As we didn’t asked her for any of this I assumed her service was for free and including in the entrance fee. Once we were done with the “tour” she asked us for ‘money for the guide’. I told her I was very sorry for her but that we didn’t asked her to come with us, that we already paid an entrance fee and that she should have told us before that she was expecting to get some money for coming with us. Her face said she wasn’t too happy about that but that wasn’t really my problem. So we went off to the Blue Lagoon. It was about 7 kilometer and the burning sun and rocky road didn’t make the drive any easier. The Blue Lagoon was more like an open-air swimming pool full of tourists, expensive food and water slides. Nice place to cool off after the long cycling trip and to hang out for an afternoon but nothing tropical like in the movie. The place also had a huge cave. This on the other hand was quite impressive. The cave had a small Buddha statue inside of it.
On the way back “home” we were starving and found the cutest place to have a bite. I can describe it best as floating open bamboo bungalows on the Nam Xong River. Each little bungalow had a low table so we had to sit on the bamboo floor. A few wooden planks were used as a 2-meter long bridge to cross the water from and to the bungalows. Bamboo rafts were floating next to the bungalows so it really looked like a place to chill out and have a few drinks. And as a cherry on top of the cake I found my favorite South African drink: Savanna Dry. It was so weird for me to see it there. After an extra day of relaxing and planning the rest of our Asia trip we went off to the capital of Laos, Vientiane.

Vientiane is quite a boring city. There is really not much more to do than drinking, eating and strolling on the boulevard overviewing the Mekong River. We figured we might as well already get our visas for Cambodia so we wouldn’t have to do it on arrival at the border and we wanted some information about the application for the Australian visas as well so we planned to go to the Cambodian and the Australian embassies in Vientiane. The French bakery in Luang Prabang, Le Banneton, where we got the delicious butter croissants had a branch in Vientiane as well. So we got up early, got ourselves a real French breakfast and went off to the Cambodian embassy. Since the walk took us about 45 minutes and the visa application desk would close at 10 AM we were kind of in a rush. Luckily we arrived at the embassy 9.50 AM till we saw a little note on the entrance gate: Because of a national day the embassy will be closed today. Yes…lucky us! Got up early and rushed my buttocks of for nothing. We were already close to the Australian embassy so we decided to give it a shot, but unfortunately without luck. Ok…what else could we do… Instead of booking bus tickets at guesthouses or travel agencies around town and pay a few extra bucks we always try to arrange our own transport. So we walked to the bus station to get some information about our bus for the next day when we found a little hidden gem: a street full of baguette stalls which had huge baguettes with paté, pork, chicken salad and sauce for 5000 kip (jup, jup…€0,55). In Vang Vieng the baguettes were double that price and since we hadn’t found a lot of cheap eateries in Vientiane so far we were happily surprised. The only option for the rest of the day was to get some beers, find a spot on the boulevard and watch the sunset.

We sat in the grass enjoying our beers when a few guys in army outfits and with huge guns started to walk up and down looking at us. We were not sure if it was even allowed to drink alcohol on the streets and I saw a note in one of the guesthouses saying that tourists should not stroll around the boulevard after sunset because soldiers could just come up with a reason to give you a ridiculous high fine. It was about an hour before sunset but I still started to panic a bit. Then the soldiers walked up to another couple sitting a few meters away from us, said something to them and after that the couple immediately got up and left. So we figured it was wise to do the same and find another spot to finish our drinks. I’m still not sure what was up exactly but I sure didn’t wanted to stick around to find out.

Before we left for Laos I read about a 3-day motorbike route. And since I know Lucas misses his motorbike a lot I figured it could be nice to rent one and do this route called ‘The Loop’. We went to Tha Khaek and from there we could rent a motorbike and store our big backpacks in the guesthouse for the days we would be on the road. The plan was to rent a dirt bike but the bike shop told us that it was a 1-person bike. Ok…so scooter then. Far less adventures and not the plan at all but we were sure it would be a fun trip. So the first day we were suppose to see a lot of caves along the route and at the end of the day we would reach a guesthouse where we could spend the night.  Before we knew it we already reached the guesthouse. So that meant we missed all the caves on the way. We felt so lame afterwards but all signs on the road were written in Lao so we had no idea which turn we had to take. The guesthouse was very nice and chilled. We had a small private bamboo bungalow and in the evening they organized a barbeque and a bonfire.

On day 2 of The Loop we were suppose to visit a waterfall, cool springs and the famous Tham Phu Kham cave which was suppose to be kind of the highlight of the whole trip. After driving for a while it started to rain and because it was about 30 degrees the day we left we didn’t really brought any warm clothes. It started raining harder and harder and we were getting colder and colder. After hours on the scooter we decided to look for a place to spend the night and skip the activities for the day. We found a very nice but cheap room with a huge comfy bed. That, in combination with the hot shower, was exactly what we needed. After a nap and a shower we went out to have dinner but the town looked like a ghost town. No streetlights and almost all restaurants were closed. Then we saw a little guesthouse/ restaurant where we found some other lost travellers. We decided to join them for a nice dinner and a beer. The food was so good we went back the next morning for a super sandwich and French toast for breakfast. We woke up a bit late and we wanted to be back at Tha Kheak on time to catch the bus to our last stop in Laos so day 3 of The Loop didn’t brought too much excitement either. Overall it was a very nice trip and we had a lot of fun.

So that evening we took the night bus to our last destination in Laos: Don Det. The bus would drop us at Ban Nakasan where we had to take the ferry to go to the island.  We arrived at the island at about 6 AM. It looked absolutely lovely. It’s a very small island with a laidback vibe. It’s surrounded by the Mekong River and reminded me a lot of Bocas del Toro, an island where I’ve been in Panama. We walked around on search of a place to stay. We found the cheapest room ever for 20.000 kip per night (€2,30). This made everything even more perfect. Our little bungalow had a balcony with hammock overlooking the Mekong River. We still had the whole day to explore the island so we decided to rent bicycles and cycle to the neighboring island Don Khon and go to a waterfall there. The surroundings of both islands are so nice. We found a small beach where we took a nap and played pool. In the evening we found out that the island has several “coffee shops”, bars where you can buy weed and space cake and it looks totally legal. The days here we’ve spent relaxing, enjoying the island vibe, drinking rum and eating a lot of samosas.

Tomorrow it’s already time for the fourth country of our trip: Cambodia! Yes…time flies when you’re having fun! So next blog post will be from a new country…