We set off early in the morning on the 80K ride to our destination, Tad Lo. The ride was a long straight road littered with broken down vehicles, nonchalantly wandering cattle and lined with the occasional tiny settlement. But what was quite heart-warming was that, whenever we passed a group of young Laotian kids they would grin and wave frantically, shouting ‘Sabaidee!’(hello) as soon as they saw we we were Westerners. No strings attached, it was just a genuine friendliness.

Tad Lo

After stopping at another waterfall on the way for a spot of lunch, we arrived at Tad Lo around midday. Tad Lo is basically a group of picturesque waterfalls that have proved so popular that a resort of sorts has sprung up around them. We found a local guesthouse in which we had our own bungalow right on the falls, and then went off to explore.
That night we crossed a vertiginous bamboo bridge and stumbled across a kind of hippy-esque village. We sat and ate in a tiny little restaurant whilst dreadlocked Caucasians strummed guitars and cooked their dinner over the heat of candles. One bloke was even juggling with fire! It was good entertainment. Afterwards we went back to the bungalow and were lulled to sleep by the sound of the cascading water.

On the ride back the next morning we narrowly avoided a petrol disaster. The fuel guage was becoming increasingly low but there were just no petrol stations to be seen. Cursing the developing world, we had no choice but to keep going and then perhaps enlist the help of a passing truck or tuk-tuk. The gauge had been on empty for miles (or kilometres they’re called out here) and we literally had metres left when we suddenly twigged that the little wooden huts with 2 cylinders that looked like they were full of orange juice, which we’d been passing all the way, were in fact petrol stations. There had been at least 2 in every town! So we filled up and made our merry way back home.

Next stop: Four Thousand Islands.

Still pretty sober at this point…

Possibly the sole reason for the town’s existence – and definitely the sole reason for its prosperity – is tubing. What this entails is as follows: each person rents a rubber tube and is taken by tuk-tuk about 2k upriver to a bar. Participants then have a drink in the bar whilst staff hand out free shots of Lao-Lao whiskey (rice whiskey) to anyone who wants it. Next, they get in the tubes and float downstream. Every 20 yards or so there is another gigantic bar, each one replete with more free whiskey, a massive rope swing, zip line or a giant slide, which the increasingly drunk participants can play with to their heart’s content. Dangerous? You betcha! It is absolute carnage.Great fun though! The idea is that you make it back to where you start but we spent 6 hours getting about halfway!

Vientiane is just another big, unfeasibly hot city and doesn’t deserve an entry in it’s own right. We stayed one night in an expensive hotel (11 pounds a night doncha know!) and have booked an overnight bus down south to Pakse (on which we get our own bed!)

On the first day we visited a nearby waterfall, forget the name now, but it was a 30k tuk-tuk ride outside of town. the journey gave us a chance to take in some of the countryside. The people here live much more pastoral, or traditional, lives than in Thailand. They live in wooden shacks with thatched rooves; chickens, buffalo and goats roam freely, often with their young in tow; firewood is piled up on the roadside; and verdant rice paddies stretch as far as the base of the gigantic mountains in the background.

The waterfall itself was amazing. We trekked to the very top, climbing an almost vertical cliff face, to be rewarded with a magnificent view. At each level there was a sparkling azure lagoon that you could swim in – we’d never seen water so blue, it was as if we were at a water park!

So becalmed were we by the whole Luang Prabang experience that we decided to have an hour-long Laos massage. It was very therapeutic and we came out feeling even more relaxed, had a cup of tea, and went to bed.

Aaah Luang Prabang

We arose at 5am for the journey to Vang Vieng. It was undoubtedly our worst journey yet, involving a 7-hour public bus journey along treacherously winding mountain roads. It was OK when we were high in the mountains, looking down on valleys enveigled in the morning mist; but when we descended into the mist things became a little…uncertain (Amy was in tears!). We passed another bus that had broken down and inherited its passengers (they were given little stools to sit on in the aisles!). They included a bag of live chickens and, of course, a screaming baby (well, what nightmareish journey would be complete without one!?) and without the air-con we were promised, it made for a sweaty ride.

Fun on the slow boat

We arrived at the pier early and were pleasantly surprised at how much space we would have; we had a whole bench to ourselves. That surprise soon turned to consternation as the boat began to fill with more and more people. There seemed to be a constant stream of backpackers trailing down the hill! By the time we set adrift (2 hours later) the only floor space left was a narrow walkway that allowed access to the toilets and refreshments.

Although it sounds like a hellish way to spend 9 hours, it was actually quite entertaining. The alcohol was flowing – we even had to stop to re-stock it – and the passengers were in an ebullient mood as we edged our way along the tranquil brown waters of the meandering Mekong, through misty mountains bearded with trees, past the occasional elephant, waterfall, or hill tribe village.

All the travellers aboard the boat were swapping stories, and we found quite a few drinking buddies. We particularly got on with a Canadian couple, Derek and Jill, who we are still hanging around with now.

One drunk Canadian even fell overboard. It was hilarious! He’d already fallen into the boat and given himself a black eye, so when we heard a huge splash the whole boat guessed what had happened straight away. Most of the passengers rushed to one side in concern, but Amy and I were doubled up in stitches as we watched him floundering; we were still giggling about it a couple of hours later! (We actually met the Canadian in question at a bowling alley in Laos (don’t ask why we were at a bowling alley) and he turned out be a nice guy, just got a little carried away!)

Our ‘room’ in Pak Beng

We stopped overnight in a place called Pakbeng. It was less of a town a more a collection of hutments wedged into the side of a cliff. We had dinner in a wooden shack with a corrugated iron roof, that had no electricity – it was lit entirely by candelight; and our room was more of a shed. We’d heard bad things about Pakbeng but we loved it’s authenticity (much more so than Thailand) and had a pleasant stay.

The next day was another 7 hours of plain sailing and we arrived at our destination, Luang Prabang, a couple of days ago. As usual we love it so far, Laos is so laid back…

It would be fair to say we were a little disappointed with Si Phan Don. Admittedly we were both suffering from ailments and afflictions (we’ll spare you the grisly details!), and that can taint your opinion of a place. But it was far from the unspoilt elysian setting, lit by rosy candelight, that we were expecting. Instead we found a swelteringly hot town of identikit bungalows and Western-themed restaurants staffed by unusually sullen locals; the amount of bugs and insects was just Biblical, and the novelty of no electricity wears off as soon as you need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night!

Amy was feeling particularly queasy on the first night, so we splashed out on a deluxe room; with glazed windows and a tiled floor, and an amazing sunset view. The next day we moved into a cheap bungalow which we had to share with a lizard and a cockroach.

That said, when we hired out bikes and explored further afield, the scenery was as beautiful as we’d hoped. We found a huge waterfall (you might think we’d be bored of waterfalls by now but not so, each one is unique and they’re not exactly abundant back home are they?) and a beach with blisteringly hot sand.

We now leave Laos and head to Cambodia. We’ve had a wonderful fortnight here though. There can’t be many countries left in the world – at least that are safe to visit – which have no motorways, no high-rise buildings, no out-of-town industrial areas, no McDonald’s! It will of course all change, in the inevitable course of ‘progress’, but we were just glad we had the chance to visit it as it is now.