Laos

Slow Boat: After crossing the Friendship Bridge from Thailand into Laos, we were dropped off at the border to get our Laos visas. Even though we were with a tour group who should have been able to help us understand the process, we were all sort of left on our own to figure it out. Eventually we figured it out after some back and forth (and some very intense requirements about the quality of the US dollars we had to pay with) and we got our visas stamped into our passports and were good to go! We were then dropped off at our guesthouse in Houayxay and quickly ran out to grab dinner (featuring our first Beerlao) and snacks for our boat ride the next morning. In the morning, we weren't exactly sure when we were getting picked up to head to the dock (a common theme on this trip- just got with it) but our guide came and brought egg sandwiches and we headed to the docks. We boarded the wooden long boat and there weren't too many people on board compared to the other boat next to ours. Our boat eventually filled up but we were lucky and had a table to sit at and spread some of our things. The boat next to ours only had old car seats and no tables, so we felt like we had gotten the newer model. The slow boat then started to head down the Mekong River toward Pak Beng. As we slowly cruised down the slow, wide, brown river, we were gifted with beautiful green jungle mountain views and bypassed many small villages and farmland along the waters edge. The river had some strange currents but our boat was not affected. We occasionally noticed bamboo poles wedged between rocks along the shore and Carson realized they were fishing poles (he recalled seeing an episode of River Monsters that used this technique lol). There was a small cafe on board for snacks and drinks, but we came prepared for a lunch of instant noodles- we just had to pay a small fee for them to add boiling water to our cups! After six peaceful hours and plenty of reading and card games, we arrived in Pak Beng. We grabbed our bags, jumped into the back of a truck with some other travelers, and were dropped off at our guesthouse where we took in a beautiful sunset from the balcony overlooking the river and mountains (with another Beerlao). Mel wasn't feeling great that night, so Carson ran off to find a quick takeout meal that we ate in the guesthouse before calling it an early night.

Luckily Mel felt better the next morning, and after some breakfast at our guesthouse we jumped back in the truck and were dropped back off at the dock where the foggy river greeted us. While we were waiting to board, Melissa spotted an elephant on the river shore across from us. The elephant was part of a local elephant sanctuary, but it was still fun to see and a great start to the day! We didn't get our "luxury" boat with tables this time, but the one with old car seats throughout. Luckily, they were still relatively comfortable, and we began our slow cruise to Luang Prabang. The second day had similar relaxing views as the first day but the views as we approached Luang Prabang were even more beautiful with local fishing boats and massive mountains. We did skirt past the massive new damn that is being built just north of Luang Prabang and wondered how it would impact future slow boat tours. When we got to LP we were still a ways away from the city and had to take a tuk tuk that was cramped full of people from our boat with our bags on top. The tuk tuk drove us into the city and dropped us off luckily only 10 min walk to our hostel. We grabbed dinner at an Indian restaurant, walked thru the night market which reminded us of Pai, and headed back to the hostel to play pool and call it a night.

Luang Prabang: The next day, we enjoyed a tasty breakfast at our hostel's outdoor terrace overlooking the Nam Khan river. After breakfast, we walked around the city and followed the Nam Khan to where it joins up with the Mekong River. We stopped to explore Wat Xiengthong (Temple of the Golden City) which is one of the most important Laos monasteries and built around 1560. The main temple had a large golden Buddha and the black walls had gold stencil drawings. The smaller temples in the complex had mosaics inside and outside depicting life of plants, animals, and people. The mosaics were some of the most unique and beautiful we had seen since St Mark's Basilica in Venice, and we spent a while walking around and admiring them all. As we left the temple, we tried new fruit called longan from a woman's stand that looked like a hard brown grape, but once the brown skin was peeled away it revealed a clear small fruit that was tasty. As we walked, we stumbled upon The Boutique by Ock Pop Tok. This was a clothing and art store showcasing items made from weavers and craftswomen from local villages. As we looked around the store, one of the workers asked if we wanted to go to their workshop village to see weaving taking place. They even offered a free (very cute and pink) tuk tuk to take us there, so we happily accepted. When we arrived at their beautiful open air workshop along the river, we observed women who have achieved the rank of master weavers working on clothing, scarfs, and wall decorations. We were in awe from how complex the loom set up was and how quickly they could weave! We took our pink tuk tuk back to the city and went back to the hostel to hangout with some new friends. We all decided to hike up to Phouis Hill for sunset which was packed but had a great overview of the city. We grabbed a Beerlao with our friends and then headed off to our dinner reservation. We wanted to try some Lao dishes instead of taking a cooking class this time, so we had a multi-course meal at Tamarind. At dinner, we tried a Lao spirit, chunky bamboo and vegetable soup, Luang Prabang sausage, dips (that were like a salsa) that we did our best to eat with the sticky rice (Still getting the hang of using the sticky rice AS the utensil), herbed fish steamed in banana leaf, lemongrass stuffed chicken, stir fried pumpkin with kaffir lime and ginger. To top it off, dessert was purple sticky rice with mango and dragon fruit, followed by a lemongrass and ginger tea. It was all delicious! After dinner we met back up with our hostel friends to go bowling - apparently a big attraction in Luang Prabang. We grabbed a tuk tuk out front of our hostel and when we arrived to a random building outside the city a while later, there was a party going on inside the bowling alley. The bowling alley was packed with other tourists, but we got a lane fairly quickly. We started to bowl and it seemed like there were no rules. People had their drinks everywhere, some were running down the lane throwing the balls; just picture a bachelor party with a private bowling alley, and you get the idea. We had a great time hanging with friends, even though Mel bowled the worst game of her life.

We took it easy the next morning and enjoyed the great breakfast at the hostel. We met another couple from Ireland who had been on our slow boat tour, and we decided to share a tuk tuk and head to Kuang Si Waterfall. It was a pretty bumpy hour ride there, but the waterfall was stunning. It was massive and tiered with lots of smaller waterfalls that looked like small lakes similar to Mammoth Springs in Yellowstone but with clear blue water flowing past. We hiked around the right side of the falls all the way to the top. This trail was nice because there was a lot less tourists on this side of the waterfall. Once we were at the top we jumped into the spring that feeds the waterfall for a swim. The water was pretty cold but felt good in the hot sun. We dried off and hiked back down the falls on the other side and got our last look at the falls before taking a tuk tuk back to the hostel. For lunch we walked around a less touristy neighborhood and had lunch at a hidden small restaurant. An elderly woman took our order, and brought us water and bananas in a cherry glaze. Our meals were holy basil and a chicken and pumpkin dish. The food was amazing and gave the perfect amount of heat. That evening we played cards and watched the sun go down from our hostel terrace and played pool. We met some other travelers from France and all decided we needed to try the Coca Cola Oreos we had seen at the shop next door. They weren't bad, but they weren't good either; they tasted a bit like those coke candy gummies you had as a kid. Later that evening, our other friends who we had been hanging out with the last few days came back, and two of the guys decided they needed a challenge. They had both bought the spiciest ramen they could find, and were going to see who could eat the most. It was pretty entertaining to watch, and somehow they managed to eat their whole bowls (though they didn't have a good time doing it). Mel tried a bite and confirmed it was HOT. Safe to say they probably didn't have a good time the next morning.

The next morning we woke up excited because we had booked a full day weaving class at Ock Pop Tok! We had breakfast at the hostel and walked to The Boutique by Ock Pop Tok for our pink tuk tuk ride to the workshop for our weaving class. We checked in and were the only students that day weaving. We were each assigned a master weaver to help us make a scarf. Carson had Mrs. T and Melissa had Lin. Both ladies were from small villages outside of the big city of Luang Prabang, but now work at Ock Pop Tock as master weavers selling their designs and teaching others. There was another staff member who also acted as a translator to assist if needed since Mrs. T and Lin didn't speak English, but we mostly got by with gestures and smiles. We started by choosing the colors and design of our scarves. The thread was silk and all of the coloring was from natural dyes. Mel ended up going with a dark blue base with silver designs, and Carson chose a red base with gold designs (go Iowa State). Mel also chose the design option that incorporated the Naga (a mythological water serpent) for protection, and Carson chose a motif with a key lock for good luck. After choosing our colors and design, we assisted the master weavers with spooling our thread. This looked easy when they did it, but was actually a difficult task of spinning a wheel and carefully moving the thread back and forth on the spool until it was at the right width. After we made about four spools, the master weavers took over and made about ten more in less time than it took us to make our four. Next we were moved over to the loom for the real challenge! The master weavers showed us the technique, and soon enough we were sitting at the loom and trying it out. It was pretty complicated to remember when to pass the yarn through and which foot pedal we needed to push! There was also some technique involved with slamming the piece down onto the yarn we had just threaded, and it was easy for things to get a little uneven. Luckily, Mrs. T and Lin were there to help us and correct any mistakes! We soon got the hang of it, and had a great day working our scarves up. We even got to try rearranging the loom for the more detailed parts of the design. This was really difficult and actually took some strength! We learned that it can take weeks for a master weaver to set a loom up for a specific design! And most of them learn these designs from memory and not from writing anything down. It's mind-blowing, and truly gave us a special appreciation for this craft and all the intricate and beautiful pieces they can make. We finally reached the end of the scarf, and our teachers helped us tie off the ends and make tassels; even knotting the thread was difficult for us, and Mrs. T was doing it one handed! At this point, Mrs. T's toddler daughter had come over, and we enjoyed playing with her for a few minutes. Feeling accomplished, we hopped in the pink tuk tuks with our scarves and headed back to town. We couldn't resist buying a beautiful wall tapestry from the Ock Pop Tok store that was made by another one of the master weavers employed there. That night, we grabbed a simple chicken dinner at the night market and called it an early night since we were leaving to Nong Khiaw the next morning.

Nong Khiaw: We arranged a bus transfer to Nong Khiaw through our hostel. Nong Khiaw is a small town further north in Laos in the mountains that is known for having beautiful hiking. We thought we would be picked up in a van based on the images of the service, but instead a large tuk tuk picked us up with about 15 others (not sure how we all fit- two girls were sitting on the floor) and then dropped us off at the bus station. We handed over our luggage that was then throw on top of the bus and strapped down and the mini-bus was on its way to Nong Khiaw. It wasn't a fancy bus, but we were glad to have seats; the guy who boarded last had some sort of wooden stool thrown next to a seat row (the joys of budget travel in Asia!). The drive was through pretty scenery, but the road itself was very rough with massive pots holes and sometimes small streams running through the main roadway (this didn't stop motorbikes from passing). We also passed a very large dam that appeared to have been built by the Chinese based on the colors and symbols on the bridge; China has been investing a lot in Laos, including in a train network, so we weren't too surprised to see this. After about four hours of driving we made it to Nong Khiaw where we walked from the bus station to our guesthouse. We checked into our guesthouse that was situated along the river and walked around town. We grabbed lunch nearby at a family owned restaurant called MaMa's which we return to many times. Melissa had some delicious pumpkin soup and Carson had fried rice. The town had few tourists and especially on the side of the river we were staying on we felt like we were some of the only non-locals around. We were also staying near a local school, so a couple of times a day the streets were filled with kids in uniform laughing, playing, and biking around. We went out onto the main bridge across the Nam Ou River for a beautiful sunset over the river surrounded by jungle-covered mountains. On our walk home we found a quick dinner before calling it an early night.

In the morning, our guest house gave us breakfast that we ate on a balcony looking out at the river and mountains. After breakfast we packed our day packs and walked through town to the trailhead for Phadeng Peak just across the river. We paid to access the trail where the man told us to stay on the marked trail since there are still a lot of UXO's (unexploded bombs) from the Secret War time (more on this later) in this part of Laos. The hike up was difficult and very steep and humid. It was also relatively dark due to how dense the jungle canopy was. There were a lot of spiders and insects along the sides of the trial and loud birds that were difficult to see. The mosquitos weren't too bad and we really only saw them at certain points of the trail. Once we were at the top of Phadeng Peak, we had a panoramic view and we were in awe at how beautiful Nong Khiaw and the surrounding jungle mountains were. There was a small shelter and a Laos flag where you could sit and enjoy the stunning views. We stayed a while taking in the landscape before heading back down the trail to town. Once we were out of the jungle and at the edge of town, a small puppy greeted us and started attacking Carson's shoes. It was adorable and we wanted to take it with us. We stopped for lunch at a restaurant near the trailhead where Mel got stir fried tofu and veggies and Carson ordered amazing red curry that was portioned for one but large enough for two. We sat outside and enjoyed watching people and animals (mostly dogs and chickens) and the occasional motorbike or car come down the gravel road. We went back to our guesthouse and relaxed that afternoon since we were planning to hike again the following day. We ventured out one more time that night for dinner where we got yummy green and yellow curries.

The next day was Thanksgiving, but it didn't feel like our typical Thanksgiving since we weren't around family and we were pretty far from a turkey dinner and typical American side dishes. We decided to do another hike in the town since the weather was good. We walked through town to the trailhead which was near the trail we hiked yesterday. This hike was up to Pha Kao which was one of the mountains we saw just south of the viewpoint from Phadeng Peak, and is one of the tallest peaks in the area. On the trail up we passed many butterflies, ferns, and plants and trees with HUGE leaves, some were even larger than us! This trail was much steeper and longer and gave new jungle views. At the top of Pha Kao, there was broken bamboo bench and rocks where we sat and took in the scenery. The views were stunning, and it was cool seeing the town and surrounding mountains and jungle from a slightly different vantage point. We hiked back down, had fried rice and papaya salad for lunch (where Mel realized she much prefers the sweetness of the Thai papaya salad; the Laotian version is very heavy on the fish sauce), and called our families to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. Since it was Thanksgiving, we wanted some American food which was hard to find in this small Laotian town, and turkey was going to be impossible to find. We ended up finding a French-owned restaurant that made American style burgers so we ended up there and had some celebratory beers and chocolate cake as well. It wasn't quite up to our Thanksgiving standards, but it was nice to pig out as American as we could for the holiday.

We were exhausted after two fairly steep back to back hikes since we had not been hiking much during our time in Thailand and Indonesia. We spent the next day relaxing at the guesthouse, reading, blogging, and planning our time after Laos. We wanted to get out of our place so we grabbed lunch (more curry and fried rice!) and walked around town to see what was going on. On our walk we found a spot that did Lao massages so we decided to get a massage to help our bodies recover. Carson had done a Thai massage prior so he had a pretty good idea about what this massage was going to entail but Melissa had not. We changed into the loose shorts they provided and laid down on the mats on the floor. Similar to a Thai massage, the Lao massage was more like a stretch and massage with no oil. We were getting twisted and turned all over the mats! In the end, Melissa really enjoyed her first massage of that type, especially the end where the woman cracked her entire back in one move (Carson is less of a fan of this move). Feeling relaxed, we stopped at a tour agency to inquire about a day trip where we had a great conversation with the owner Tony and booked a day trip for later in our stay. We then chilled back at our guesthouse and watched the sunset over the river until it was time to venture out for dinner (at MaMa's) then called it a day.

We woke up with the sunrise to a pretty fog over the river on Saturday. We had gotten up early to make our way over to the weekly Nong Khiaw morning market. We had read something about this market, but couldn't find any information about where/when it was online; luckily, Tony, a local who we had met yesterday, told us the details and suggested we try to go to. We had a quick 10 minute walk through the sleepy town to the market grounds on the outskirts of town. As we approached the market, the sleepiness of town quickly subsided and we encountered a bustling market full of stands and people that were buying and selling produce, dried peppers, rice, fish, meats, clothes, food, and other items. We were literally the only tourists walking around and getting lots of smiles from the locals (especially the kids). We learned that people come from all the different small remote villages around Nong Khiaw for this particular market, so it was really busy. We tried donuts and other small snacks and breakfast items. We also saw familiar faces like Tony and the restaurant owners of MaMa's as we walked around and said hello. At the end, we grabbed a bag of bright pink liquid. We tried to use translate to ask the woman selling it what it was, but it didn't really work so we just went for it (they seemed to be a popular purchase). We took this back to our guesthouse and asked the family who ran the guesthouse how to eat/drink it. They thought it was pretty fun that we had gone to the market, and they gave us a bowl and spoon for the mystery pink snack. It turned out to be a fruity liquid with clear jelly pieces that were sort of similar to boba in boba tea. After eating our pink snack and breakfast we sadly had to swap to a different guesthouse due to availability. We waited until we could check in at the new guesthouse (also on the river) and dropped off our things. Then we crossed the bridge and walked about an hour to a small neighboring village of Ban Had Sao. The walk was pretty along the river and valley of the mountains. The town was extremely small and quiet, with only dirt roads, houses, and lots of animals. As we walked through the town, we were called to stop by some young girls (maybe 8-9 years old) that wanted to talk to us. They were full of energy and smiles, but they didn't speak much English. Melissa gave the girls two beaded bracelets she had found in Thailand, and in return the girls traded us a walking stick, pink flowers, and some fruit. At some point, another younger girl came over (we think a younger sister). Melissa played Paddy cake and took a few pictures with them before we said our goodbyes. They were so sweet, and it was such a fun encounter to play with them for a little while. We walked back to our guesthouse for the evening and relaxed on our nice patio overlooking the river before grabbing pasta for dinner (needing a quick break from Laotian food).

The next morning, we walked over to Tony's tour agency for our day tour to Muang Ngoy, a small scenic town north of Nong Khiaw along the river. The tour started with a small slowboat ride to Phanoi Cave and Phanoi Viewpoint. The cave on the outside looked just like a small slot but once you were inside, the cave went very deep into the hillside and opened up. We learned that during the Secret War villagers hid in this cave to protect themselves from bombings. This was a very common practice in the area, as there are many caves around. We then walked through the village of Muang Ngoy to head back to the slow boat to visit Tad Mok Waterfall. We got off the boat and started our hike to the waterfall. We had heard great things about the Organic Farm along the hike, but unfortunately it was closed that day because it was Sunday. Instead, we stopped for lunch at a small picnic area near the village. Our lunch was rice, egg, and veggies that was wrapped in a banana leaf. The banana leaf kept the food warm and moist, and also easily portable. To get to the Tad Mok Waterfall, we hiked through rice fields and then through the forest. The waterfall was beautiful, with a nice pool at the base where some people were swimming. The water was very cold and the outside temperature wasn't that hot, so we elected to just get our feet wet instead of our whole bodies. After chilling at the falls, we walked back out of the jungle and to the river where we hopped back on our slow boat. The slow boat stopped at a small beach were we got into kayaks. In our two person kayak, we kayaked all the way back to Nong Khiaw. This was amazing since we were surrounded by the jungle and mountains as the sun was setting. It was pretty difficult to paddle with a slight current in the water, but we did make it to the end and had a great day on the tour.

The next day we relaxed and enjoyed spending time on our nice patio looking at the river. We ventured out to go to a coffee shop but when we stopped at the town's one ATM along the way it wasn't working. On top of that, it was apparently a national holiday, so our hopes of the ATM getting fixed anytime soon seemed very thin. With very little cash left, we weren't sure how we were going to purchase our bus tickets back to Laung Prabang (or dinner). We went to talk to Tony since we knew he had a credit card reader to see if he could help in any way. Fortunately, he allowed us to charge our credit card in exchange for cash for a small fee so we were now set to get dinner and purchase our bus tickets. Now stress free, we went back to our guesthouse and relaxed while appreciating our final sunset in Nong Khiaw.

Back in Luang Prabang: the next morning we were picked up at our guesthouse and brought to the Nong Khaiw bus station. This station was an organized mess and remained us of the Balkans. We got to the front of the line and were able to board one of the four buses in the lot. After another bumpy ride, we arrived near Laung Prabang, where we were dropped off at a bus station really far from the city which was different than the bus station we left from when we went to Nong Khiaw. We were confused, but there was nothing we could do, so we had to get into a tuk tuk, negotiate the price, and they took us to the city center so we could get to our guesthouse. We walked to our guesthouse which was near the Wat Xiengthong temple and stopped along the way to get some cash out of an ATM (we were paranoid now!). We chilled at our new place and then headed to volunteer at Big Brother Mouse.

Big Brother Mouse is a really cool organization that we had heard about and were interested in volunteering at. It's a Lao-owned project that aims to provide books and increase literacy in Laos, which has historically been low. It also works to help Lao children and adults learn English, and this is where our volunteering came in. Every day, they have open hours where volunteers who speak English come in and talk with students who are learning English for about 2 hours. During our shift, we got to talk with groups of Laotian children between the ages of 10-18 in English to help them learn. Many of the students come to this program multiple times a week after a full day of school as another way to supplement their education. We also learned that on top of English, many of them were also learning Chinese since China has exerted a lot of influence and development in Laos and there are good job opportunities for them with Chinese companies. It was really fun learning about the kids' lives and where they were from. Many had left their families to attend school in Laung Prabang for the semester and would travel back to their village at the end of the term; kind of like college for the U.S. but at a way way younger age. Many of them were also currently or had been novice monks, a common custom for young boys in Laos, whether they continue in the monastery long-term or not. Despite these differences in culture, they were still kids and loved talking about soccer, Youtube videos, and instruments that they played. The kids were hilarious and had lots of questions for us as we did for them. At the end of the session, we couldn't figure out who had gotten more out of it, us or them.

Our final day full day in Luang Prabang we woke up very early before sunrise to watch the alms giving ceremony that takes place each morning. The alms giving is the practice of donating food (often sticky rice) to monks as they walk along the street to the temples. This ceremony has been performed or centuries, and is done all across Laos, but is very large in Luang Prabang due to the number of monks and monasteries in the city. We didn't partake in handing out donations, but we observed from a respectful distance and were rather shocked by the groups of tourists we saw that were getting very close to the monks for photos and giving them the wrong food. This ceremony has clearly become a tourist attraction and we were disappointed with how others behaved to the monks.

After getting back to our guesthouse we relaxed and then headed back to Big Brother Mouse for one more volunteering session. This time, since it was morning during a weekday, we weren't working with school kids, but instead with adults. Most of the people we spoke to were employed and were learning English to help with their jobs (for example, hotel receptionist, teachers, etc.). The adults we spoke with had a lower level of English than the kids, and were a little more shy with speaking, but they were all very sweet and clearly eager to learn. This time, we focused more on playing learning games to help that were facilitated by the employees and teachers of BBM. After volunteering, we were out to lunch where we hit our favorite local lunch spot with the sweet old woman. She was excited to see us again and once again the food didn't disappoint.

After lunch we walked through town to visit the UXO Museum. This museum was dedicated to the research and movement to find and recover UXOs (unexploded ordnances) that are still plentiful in Laos. We learned that to this day, Laos is the most bombed country in the world per capita. This bombing took place during the Secret War in Laos which was a covert US military campaign to combat communism in Laos during the Vietnam War. To put it in perspective, according to the BBC: "between 1964 and 1973, America dropped over two million tonnes of ordnance on neutral Laos: on average, a planeload of bombs was released every eight minutes, 24 hours a day. This is more than was dropped on Germany and Japan in the entire Second World War." To make matters worse, many of these UXOs are still killing and maiming people, often children, across the country. There is a large effort to find and remove these UXOs, but it is time consuming and expensive. After learning about the sadness of UXO's and the impact on Laos we walked back in reflection and watched sunset at Buddha's Footprint which was on Phousi Hill. We grabbed a final Beerlao at a bar, had a nicer dinner at Little Lao Culture Bar to try some last Laotian food. We tried Ork Lam and Pang Gai Curry which were two dishes that the locals had mentioned we should try but it was difficult to find! The food was delicious and we were satisfied with our final dish in Laos.

The next day we decided to see the alms giving one more time so we woke early to watch the monks in our more local neighborhood street instead of the busy tourist street. We observed a local woman handing out scoops of sticky rice to each monk that walked by. There were dozens of monks in the procession, and they ranged in ages from children of maybe 10 years old to old men. It was really beautiful and peaceful to observe this tradition this time. We had lunch and then flagged down a tuk tuk to the airport. While waiting for our flight, the gate attendant told us we could fill out forms for a Cambodia visa, so we filled out our E-visas for Cambodia and it took about 15 minutes for approval. We then remembered that we also needed to get our visas straight for our upcoming trip to Vietnam so we rushed to get them completed and submitted online at the airport. We completed them and were off to Cambodia to explore our next country.

Laos was a country that really stole our hearts. Often skipped or overlooked in the Southeast Asia backpackers circuit, or prioritized just for the party scene in places like Vang Vieng, we found that Laos had much more to offer. The people were some of the warmest we found in our entire year of travel, the nature is stunning, and the food is delicious. We easily could have spent more time here and would love to come back some day.