Ban Khoun Souk and Ban Chantan @ Phong Sa Ly

In the mountains around Phong Sa Ly are various minority villages which attract people to endure the long bus ride from civilization to get here. To get to the best ones you'll need to hire a local guide for about 30-60 USD and make a trekking day trip out of it, but if you end up here and just want to explore the area alone there is still some stuff to see.

On the north side of town right next to the Phoufa Hotel, lies a dirt road heading northeast out of town toward the village of Ban Khoun Souk. The walk is pretty much flat and dry with the exception of a couple of puddles here and there and you won't see much along the way other than a couple villagers going back and forth between Phong Sa Ly on a motorbike. You'll know you're in the right place when on your right-hand side you see a bunch of people showering in plain sight on the side of the road. I guess one of the local traditions which still survives here is that each village has one communal shower where everyone baths together. Walking around here everyone is pretty much exuberantly excited to see a visitor, one lady actually called her kids to come out of the house so they could wave hello to me. The economy here appears to be driven by tea, outside of most huts were little areas designated for drying tea leaves and a couple families were all out together performing some sort of processing of the tea leaves in what looked like large cooking walks. There aren't any designated shops here, however, if you get thirsty just keep saying "Beer Lao" to people and they will eventually direct you to a lady at the main road with a fridge full of beer.

The beginning of the path

Phong Sa Ly

Sitting at the bus station at Dien Bien Phu at 7am after my day of exploration, I had a little decision to make. Only two more busses would leave on this day, and both in the next thirty minutes, one to Phong Sa Ly and the other Luang Prabang. Without too much thought about it, and very little information to go on I decided I would get the ticket to Phong Sa Ly.

After the border crossing at Tay Tang, there were about fifteen hours of windy mountain roads through northern Laos, including stopping for an hour behind a crash on the road and unloading cement bricks for an hour at a random town along the way. By the time I was dropped off at the bus station it was dark, foggy and there wasn't another person in sight, I walked with my backpack along the road for about thirty minutes before finding a restaurant that was open for business. I was able to order noodles by pointing, but my cell phone was not working in Laos and nobody understood a word of English, I decided to try my luck with Chinese, and before I knew it the people next to me were helping to describe exactly where I could find a hotel and offering their help to get me there.

Tay Tang border crossing

View out the bus window in Laos

Dien Bien Phu

Dien Bien Phu is located about thirty kilometers from the Tay Tang boarder passing and is basically the last stop going west before crossing into Laos, on my way over to Laos I decided to spend one day here in order to break up the twenty hours of bus rides involved.

My exploration here started on the south side of town where the jungle is dotted with several French Military relics from the first Indochina War. There aren't really any signs describing where to go around here so you can kind of just wander around the jungle until you bump into something important. One of the pieces of artillery which I found was surrounded by piles of mud and getting up to it to take a picture was a bit of a challenge, I'm not sure if it was even meant to be on display however it added a bit of adventure to the morning.

French tank

Beer Lao Brewery @ Vientiane

After pinning down a hotel on Francois Ngen to stay for the night, I worked quickly to locate an ATM and then a rickshaw. If I accomplished only one thing today I wanted it to be the Beer Lao Brewery. The rickshaw driver knew what I was talking about right away and 20 minutes later I was approaching the guard post outside the factory. The guard ended up having to communicate with the rickshaw driver in order to determine my purpose, but after filling out a line on the sign in sheet I was handed my Beerlao visitor badge.

Streets of Vientiane

Beerlao headquarters

Tham Phu Kham Cave @ Vang Vieng

While in Vietnam I got a couple massages throughout my trip in order to alleviate the back pain which comes on after days of lugging around a heavy backpack. I've been starting to feel that pain again on this trip so I figured I'd try and solve it the same way here in Laos. I located a massage place by my hotel the other night and got a full body massage however the result turned out to be a major disappointment, not wanting to let a single experience form my opinion I sought out another masseuse last night. The similarities between the two massages were that they were both very soft, they used their finger nails to scratch the skin all over my body and they both left me feeling no better. The differences were that the second girl had the skill of being able to text with one hand while scratching me with the other.

 Due to my back pain, a simple day like today becomes much more stressful, but since I probably wont be back in Vang Vieng for a while I've got to use my time wisely while I'm here. Tham Phu Kham Cave was my point of interest today and after drinking some Beerlao to medicate for the pain, I caught a rickshaw out of town heading west. After 15 minutes I arrived at the Blue Lagoon, a pool filled with bright aqua marine spring water at the base of the cave attraction. A short walk past the lagoon I purchased tickets and hiked up a steep dirt and stone path to find the entrance.

Blue Lagoon

Pathway to cave

Tham Sang Triangle @ Vang Vieng

With a new day at hand and a bit less of a hangover then my average this week, I joined some other tourists to go see the Elephant Cave north of Vang Vieng. The ride by rickshaw took about 20 minutes and landed us at the ticket salesman for the cave. Our guide asked us whether we'd like to see the Tham Hoi Cave first.  Without knowing exactly what we were getting into, we agreed to check it out.

Riding in the rickshaw

Walking bridge 

Mushrooms, Ladyboys and Whopping Burger @ Vang Vieng

A night out in Vang Vieng has left me with the impression that maybe this place could be the setting for the next installment of the Hangover franchise. Binge drinking is heavily encouraged and if your not participating someone's sure to give you a free shot of Lao Lao to loosen you up, several of the bars I visited also showed me their special menu, these contained a variety of weed or opium laced items including everything from smoothies to pizzas, some also offered mushroom dishes to serve the more adventurous. The tourists are from all over the world and were interesting to meet but the people who choose to make Vang Vieng their home proved to be a truly special breed. I met several prodigal half brained beings who'd taken a break from their home countries for a life of passing out bar fliers by day and conducting drinking games by night, the majority of these type appeared to have had there soul melted down and trampled over by years of drug use. One less zombie-fied exception I met had come from Ohio to work here as a DJ, but when he arrived he was convinced he'd discovered a utopia here, absent the greed and inequality of the West, he said that as soon as his Laos citizenship was approved he planned to renounce his citizenship in the US all together and start his own business here. There were also the sadder cases like the towns local homeless that were scouring the bar street at 3am looking for a dropped coin or dollar, the immigrant ladyboys from Thailand that littered the bars in search of sex tourists, and the Laotian girl who could only speak in bird chirps and had become the subject of a bet between a group of drunk Aussies. All of these factors loaded into my brain somewhere behind the Beer and Lao Lao and caused my perspective of this town to skew dramatically throughout the duration of the night.

This morning, having lost the ability to speak in complete sentences and now suffering from small hand tremors, I figured maybe today I shouldn't try to attempt to much physical or mental activity. A herd of cows happened to be passing through town so I did a walk over the river to join them for a while, I followed them for about a quarter of a mile before veering into the riverside shack which serves as a bar to the sun bathers. Soon I found myself sitting on one of the riverside lounges drinking Beerlao as the cows walked past one by one.

Friendly cows

Lusi & Pha Poak Caves @ Vang Vieng

After my introduction to drinking "black russians" during my first Vang Vieng bar excursion last night, I awoke this morning with a throbbing hangover and no urge to deal with a rickshaw driver. A little asking around proved there was a cave within walking distance to the west of town, so I loaded my backpack with Beerlao, threw on the cheap sandals I'd purchased the night before and started walking.

Starting my journey @ Vang Vieng

The Winding Road to Vang Vieng

After my third complete day in Luang Prabang, I decided to venture south toward Vang Vieng. I woke too late to take the morning bus, leaving me the options of taking the night time bus or the van. Having survived two van experiences in Vietnam I decided to go for it. This van experience was more tourist oriented, no rolling around town picking up birds and random locals. The road south goes for 6 hours of curvy road through mountainous terrain, so be prepared to be rocking back and forth the whole time if you ever take this trip.

Loading up

Sakkaline Road Dining @ Luang Prabang

Sakkaline is the main road which runs through the center of Luang Prabang, the same one where they set up the night market. The majority of the places along here are European in style however offer traditional Laotian food also. Here's a couple I stopped into in search of a WiFi connection and bite to eat.

 I'm not sure how smooth of  name "Restaurant Luang Prabang Bakery & Guesthouse" is, but they had the most blatant advertising on the street, with signs hanging down with  'PIZZA' and 'HAMBURGER' typed in shiny gold lettering. Sadly, It was enough to tempt me to try their burger out.

Outside @ Restaurant Luang Prabang Bakery & Guesthouse 

Random Photos of Luang Prabang

Here's some random photos I've taken in and around Luang Prabang over the duration of my stay:

Chomphet District @ Luang Prabang

I read a couple blog posts mentioning a hike across the river from Luang Prabang in the Chomphet District, it looked much more interesting to me then checking out the temples in town so I decided to go for it. I hopped on a ferry right down the street from my hotel, and within a couple minutes I was on my way to hunt down temples.

Ferry across the river

Elephant that road the ferry

Ton Kham Wan @ Luang Prabang

After one of my hikes I ate on the east side of town at Ton Kham Wan on the edge of the Nam Khan River. Unlike the neighboring restaurants along this river, Ton Kham Wan offers the same low priced drinks and food you can find in town and provides the same beautiful water front view. While I feasted on pork basil, fried spring rolls and a dark Beerlao; I watched other tourists float past me toward the Mekong in rented inter-tubes.

Ton Khan Wan

Mount Phousi @ Luang Prabang

Nearing the end of the day today I decided to check out Mount Phousi, the mountain top temple which Luang Prabang is built around. It was nearing sun down so I rushed to see if I could get up in time to see the sunset. Apparently I was only one of like 500 people who had the same idea, because by the time I hit the top a large crowd of camera wielding tourists had already amassed on the south western side of the temple. After the sunset I looked around from all angles down onto Luang Prabang and I I have to say that visiting this temple is a must. I talked with tourists earlier in the day who shrugged off the idea of going up here like they were above this type of touristy shit, but after seeing the view myself I think that going up here really ties together the whole experience of visiting this city.

Big Tree Cafe @ Luang Prabang

One of the places I checked out yesterday was Big Tree Cafe, its an art gallery and a restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating on the edge of the Mekong. This could be a cool place to kill time if you ended up spending an extended stay in Luang Prabang and you don't want a distracting atmosphere ruining your focus. I ate their fish burger which felt more like a fish salad in a bun then the greasy fried fish I was expecting.

Bar Hopping on Kingkitsarath @ Luang Prabang

Since most of my time in Luang Prabang so far has been spent west of Phousi Mounain, I walked over to the east side of town last night to see what type of dining/drinking was available on Kingkitsarath Street. I was drawn into Aussie Sports Bar in hopes that I might find a VB or Coopers there, my dreams of drinking an Australian beer fell apart quickly, however the menu didn't disappoint. The combo I got of beer battered fish, chicken wings and meatball soup was a pleasant reminder of my time in Sydney, as were the 70s music videos playing on the TV in the corner.

Outside Aussie Sports Bar

Some Laotian Food @ Luang Prabang

Heres a couple of dishes Ive eaten here in Luang Prabang over the past day or two, so far I have no complaints about the food. The Lao coffee is great also, somewhat similar to vietnamese coffee it seams.

Heres another riverside place I ate at, I got the Laeb Pet which is a spiced lamb dish and a Lao Lao orange juice with it. Be cafefull with lao lao mixed drinks, its cheep as hell so they poor heavy.

Kuang Si @ Luang Prabang

This morning for the first time in a long time, I was awoken by the sound of a rooster crowing.  I ended up in this guest house near the edge of the Mekong river after walking the several blocks last  night asking for each guest houses rate. Due to the chinese new year, something like a billion people have decided to travel around asia this week making it more difficult then normal to nail down a good deal. The wifi at this guest house is dodgy as hell, so for breakfast I located a restaurant on the mekong offering free wifi in order to research my options for the day. While eating a dish of something called Oklam Pork, I zeroed in on some ideas and got some price ranges to work with for transportation.