Laos

Not much of a half term holiday, have to be back for staff training days on Thursday and Friday, so decided to go to Laos (don't pronounce the 's'). Here's what the Lonely Planet says about Laos:

Laos Aviation run one flight a day from Bangkok to Vientiene (capital of Laos). It's got big fans on the outside to keep you cool.

In Thai cities there are people everywhere, some going places, others just hanging out. My memories of French villages were just the opposite. Not many people ... and shutters on all the buildings. Vientiene was a cross between the two. There is still a very strong French influence here and it's really strange to see the street vendors selling traditional Asian items alongside baguettes.

Checked into Hotel ... given a suite .. though a bit sparse and tatty. Went straight out to eat. I must now wholeheartedly endorse the Côte D'Azur Restaurant (Specialities of Provence, 63-34 Fagoum Road Tel: 217252) as being the best French restaurant I've ever eaten in. The escallope of pork in a mustard cream sauce was excellent.

Ate lunch in a traditional Lao restaurant. We had a number of dishes to share but by far the best was the Lao sausage. A big thing, diagonally sliced, deep fried and fairly spicy. I decided that I wanted to bring some home. Chatting with the staff it became clear that the restaurant got the sausage from a travelling vendor who only came around every other day. As we were leaving for Luan Prabang that afternoon we ordered 2kg of sausage which we arranged to pick up when we came back through Vientiene on the return journey, or so we thought!

This 'city' is just barely waking from a long slumber brought on by decades of war and revolution. Luang Prabang has only 16,000 residents and few concessions to 20th-century living, save for infrequent electricity and a few cars and trucks. Rush hour occurs when school students are let out and the streets fill with bicycles.

Slight panic over finding a hotel room. There weren't that many hotels and there was "no room at the inn". Finally got a place with noisy ac and no hot water.

Luang Prabang sits on the mighty Mekong River. For thousands of years the river has been the focus of life in this region. Today it is still used by the local people in ways that have remained unchanged for centuries.

The long thin power boats ply back and forth providing the only means of crossing the river and navigating deeper into this region.

Should we rent one of these boats and a driver?

Here is the latest news (from the Lonely planet web site):

Mekong River speedboats: during early March there were two separate accidents involving some six fatalities in the Pak Beng area. The drivers sit low in the water of these thin hulled six seater boats and so are unable to read the surface for hidden rocks and even floating debris, both of which can cause the hulls to twist around their long-tail axes and capsize.
Travellers to Laos should be advised against taking a speedboat on the Mekong. On 18 January my wife and I were in a speedboat that hit a wave and broke in two a short distance south of Pakbeng. Fortunately all on board survived with some minor injuries and shock. We had many of our possessions ruined as a result of immersion.
While travelling up the Mekhong by speed boat from Luang Prabang to Pak Beng, the boat hit a 'standing wave' at 50km an hour and snapped in half. Later we heard that six months ago there was a head on collision between two of these boats, killing five people. I advise travellers to avoid these boats
We met an English trio (one a Lao speaker) at Pakbeng who had an unfortunate experience. They were travelling north up the river and had caught a slow boat. They advised that when they had travelled about an hour from Luang Prabang the driver stopped the boat in the middle of the river and demanded more money. They had no option but to pay. In addition it took them one and a half days to travel from Luang Prabang to Pakbeng.

Only read the news reports after I'd returned, so ....Spent the time here seeing the local sights courtesy of Suk and his family. Suk was the power boat driver and his wife and kids came along for the ride. Really had a very good time seeing the natural wonders as well as village life. Hoping that the two rolls of film I took today will do justice to the area.... haven't had them developed yet but here are some of the digital pictures:

First village specialised in making clay pots. This boys job was to nead(?) the clay by treading in it.

The pots were fired in huge underground ovens. This girl was working in this dark pit picking out the unburned lumps of charcole.

On Monday we began the return journey from Luan Prabang. The flight was at 10:10. It was a very small airport quite close to the small town with only half a dozen flights leaving each day. We arrived at the airport at 9:30 and to my horror, they'd done a Simon Foley on us. The flight was full! Instantly I saw scenes from that Airport programme and wondered what type of irate passenger I should be. I had tickets but the flight had closed 40 minutes before take off and it was full, what could I do? To add insult to injury the Lao staff were so nice and accommodating but that didn't give me a seat on the plane! They though there might be spaces on the 2:30 flight but wouldn't know until 12:30 when the lists arrived. The plane was the only realistic way out of this remote little town. It was 48 hours by dangerous road or three days by boat down the equally dangerous Mekong river.

To kill the time til1 12:30 we walked out of the airport, into the forest and found a fascinating village. A real gem of unspoiled rural life, close to the airport but way off the tourist track.

It was Scout day at the school and all the children were doing Scouty type things. One of the activities we witnessed was, what we would call, backwoods cooking. The children would look for large lizards in the trees then catch them using a noose at the end of a stick. The lizard would then be bashed on the ground to kill it then roasted over a fire. I was offered a taste of the right rear leg, but politely refused.

This village specialised in making and repairing metal tools. Little family businesses were going on next to people's houses. Here the husband is at the anvil while the wife operates the pair of bellows, connected to the sticks in the pipes on the left of the picture.

After two very interesting hours in this village we made our way back to the airport and were given seats on the 2:30 flight. This left less than an hour to change planes in Vientiene and to cut a long story short (although it's a bit late to say that now) we missed our sausages!

If any one is reading this in Laos, there are 2kg of delicious sausage going free. They are currently sweating behind the reception desk in the Lane Xang Hotel.