Journey - (Thai) Bangkok- Ubon Ratchathani - (Laos) Pakse - Ban Nakasang - Si Pan Don - Don Det - Don Khone - Ban Nakasang - Champasak - Pakse - The Bolaven Plateau - Pakxong - Tad Lo - Pakse
Where to begin?? We have only been in Laos for 15 days but I feel like we've lived here for years. Every place and its people welcome us with open arms, warm hearts and inviting smiles. Sash and I both feel as tho we've been here before, as if lived or visited in a past life...
This country is a kind reminder to any traveler of the beauty of living simply and in peace. During the years of the Vietnam war, Laos became a hideaway for many Vietkong attempting to escape US attack, as well as a "secret" location to hide and transport war weapons. Unfortunately because of this, Laos was bombed to pieces and became the country most bombed in the entire world, per capita. You'd never know it, the people never talk about it, nor show any hostility, anger or resentment for being unfairly pushed into a war. They are incredibly peaceful and seem to be happy with what little they have, and are willing to share their homes, their lives and their hearts with eachother and the many tourists that pass by each year. The children are also so lovely. They smile, laugh and play everywhere, having a seemingly normal and happy childhood, which is so nice to see.
We began our journey to Laos via 12 hour sleeper train from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchthani. We had to endure the south east asia travel craze by making our way on foot, motorbike, songtao and bus to the Southern tip of Laos. Destination Si Pan Don, the four thousand islands. 12 modes of transportation, 3 currencies, 2 countries and 24 hours later we finally reached our destination, confused and a little lost but happy to arrive.
Si Pan Don is home to many islands which have a unique culture unto themselves, with waterfalls, friendly locals, irrawaddy dolphins, bathing water buffalos and virtually untouched beauty. We stayed in a fantastic bungalow overlooking the Mekong river, huge balcony, running water, and mozi net, all for 2 USD a night! We spent 6 days in Don Khone Island exploring, relaxing, hangin out with the locals and trying to spot dolphins near the Cambodian border. Mission accomplished and minds settled from our 24 hour travel fiasco, we left Don Khone and moved a little north.
Champasak was the old capitol city of Laos. We couldn't figure out why... There were supposed to be over 200,000 locals but we couldn't figure out where they all went! When the sun went down, so did everyone in town, the town was so deserted, it was eerie. Sasha endured her first dose of food poisoning, I tried my first Laos coffee and began my addiction, and we saw Wat Po, part of the Anchor Temples... That was pretty much our experience in the old capitol.
One car ferry, a songtao, and tuk tuk later we reached Pakse, determined to head north but once again changed our plans when we realized the beauty surrounding this area. Sash and I began a mission to see if we could do the Bolaven Plateau with just our day packs for 6 days (mainly for me because I need to prove to myself that I dont need all the "stuff" I carry with me.) We left on the 10th and took a local "bus" along with 19 locals, chickens, live fish and 4 gas tanks to reach our first destination, Pakxong. We stopped at two spectacular waterfalls along the way and hitchhiked the rest of the way. Arriving at Dusk, we hunted for dinner and found it at the town coffee festival where we ate the spiciest papaya salad and I gambled away 10 cents, convinced I could win, hahaha. We then checked into the only guesthouse for miles, the Pakxong hotel, which reminded us of The Shining, but decided to endure it for the night.
The next day, bodies still intact, we hitched to Tad Lo (said to be the foreigner or "farang" hangout of the area.) This little town, situated around the largest waterfall in the area, was a fantastic place to get stuck during Buddhist new year. Tim, the local tour guide and farang co-ordinator, organized the new year festival (in Thai known as Song Kran - Song = watering, Kran = time.) Its been 2050 years since the birth of Buddha, and the Lao people celebrate by spending time with friends and family watering and cleaning their buddha statues, and eachother to ask for and give good wishes, good luck, clean the slates and start over new. This involves an incredible amount of H2O and lots of happy, drunk Lao locals. We took part in the celebration preparation in Tad Lo and enjoyed the waterfalls, as well as hiking to nearby villages, where we were confronted with locals shocked to see foreigners, as well as evil turkeys that traveled in packs and attacked/drove us out of the village... Not kidding!
Today actually, we left Tad Lo in hopes to move to the north but once again plans have changed when we realized the impossibility of traveling during the new year festival. So we surrendered to this reality and are enjoying getting soaked to the bone with water flying in every direction! When we left Tad Lo we grabbed a ride with local transport but his little bus broke down... So we decided to walk along the country roads until we were invited to a local party on someone's front lawn, where they soaked us, covered us in baby powder and insisted on us drinking Lao Lao and Beer Lao with them while we all danced to very Karaoke sounding Lao music. Although enjoyable, we had to bid fairwell when our driver spotted us, surely amused, and picked us up. We got half way back to Pakse when he wasnt going any further, so we had to change transportation. Hitchhiking in this country has proven to be not only very safe but incredibly entertaining. Our next ride came from two pickup trucks full of Chinese men who let us take over the water buckets in the back. We would drive for a while, then slow down to soak the locals who happened to be unfortunate enough to be standing at the side of the road when we drove past. Needless to say we didn't make it to our guesthouse in Pakse with a single dry patch of skin or clothing or our bodies.
Ahh Laos, such a fabulous place to be, especially at this time. We shall continue to the north and in about 3 weeks we're onto China. Will write again in the meantime. Please check out my Laos Pix, best ones yet in my opinion, and not to be missed :) Comments, suggestions and Q's can be posted here or sent to kusumatiffany@gmail.com.
Love, peace and happiness to you all,
Tiff aka Kusuma xox
Where to begin?? We have only been in Laos for 15 days but I feel like we've lived here for years. Every place and its people welcome us with open arms, warm hearts and inviting smiles. Sash and I both feel as tho we've been here before, as if lived or visited in a past life...
This country is a kind reminder to any traveler of the beauty of living simply and in peace. During the years of the Vietnam war, Laos became a hideaway for many Vietkong attempting to escape US attack, as well as a "secret" location to hide and transport war weapons. Unfortunately because of this, Laos was bombed to pieces and became the country most bombed in the entire world, per capita. You'd never know it, the people never talk about it, nor show any hostility, anger or resentment for being unfairly pushed into a war. They are incredibly peaceful and seem to be happy with what little they have, and are willing to share their homes, their lives and their hearts with eachother and the many tourists that pass by each year. The children are also so lovely. They smile, laugh and play everywhere, having a seemingly normal and happy childhood, which is so nice to see.
We began our journey to Laos via 12 hour sleeper train from Bangkok to Ubon Ratchthani. We had to endure the south east asia travel craze by making our way on foot, motorbike, songtao and bus to the Southern tip of Laos. Destination Si Pan Don, the four thousand islands. 12 modes of transportation, 3 currencies, 2 countries and 24 hours later we finally reached our destination, confused and a little lost but happy to arrive.
Si Pan Don is home to many islands which have a unique culture unto themselves, with waterfalls, friendly locals, irrawaddy dolphins, bathing water buffalos and virtually untouched beauty. We stayed in a fantastic bungalow overlooking the Mekong river, huge balcony, running water, and mozi net, all for 2 USD a night! We spent 6 days in Don Khone Island exploring, relaxing, hangin out with the locals and trying to spot dolphins near the Cambodian border. Mission accomplished and minds settled from our 24 hour travel fiasco, we left Don Khone and moved a little north.
Champasak was the old capitol city of Laos. We couldn't figure out why... There were supposed to be over 200,000 locals but we couldn't figure out where they all went! When the sun went down, so did everyone in town, the town was so deserted, it was eerie. Sasha endured her first dose of food poisoning, I tried my first Laos coffee and began my addiction, and we saw Wat Po, part of the Anchor Temples... That was pretty much our experience in the old capitol.
One car ferry, a songtao, and tuk tuk later we reached Pakse, determined to head north but once again changed our plans when we realized the beauty surrounding this area. Sash and I began a mission to see if we could do the Bolaven Plateau with just our day packs for 6 days (mainly for me because I need to prove to myself that I dont need all the "stuff" I carry with me.) We left on the 10th and took a local "bus" along with 19 locals, chickens, live fish and 4 gas tanks to reach our first destination, Pakxong. We stopped at two spectacular waterfalls along the way and hitchhiked the rest of the way. Arriving at Dusk, we hunted for dinner and found it at the town coffee festival where we ate the spiciest papaya salad and I gambled away 10 cents, convinced I could win, hahaha. We then checked into the only guesthouse for miles, the Pakxong hotel, which reminded us of The Shining, but decided to endure it for the night.
The next day, bodies still intact, we hitched to Tad Lo (said to be the foreigner or "farang" hangout of the area.) This little town, situated around the largest waterfall in the area, was a fantastic place to get stuck during Buddhist new year. Tim, the local tour guide and farang co-ordinator, organized the new year festival (in Thai known as Song Kran - Song = watering, Kran = time.) Its been 2050 years since the birth of Buddha, and the Lao people celebrate by spending time with friends and family watering and cleaning their buddha statues, and eachother to ask for and give good wishes, good luck, clean the slates and start over new. This involves an incredible amount of H2O and lots of happy, drunk Lao locals. We took part in the celebration preparation in Tad Lo and enjoyed the waterfalls, as well as hiking to nearby villages, where we were confronted with locals shocked to see foreigners, as well as evil turkeys that traveled in packs and attacked/drove us out of the village... Not kidding!
Today actually, we left Tad Lo in hopes to move to the north but once again plans have changed when we realized the impossibility of traveling during the new year festival. So we surrendered to this reality and are enjoying getting soaked to the bone with water flying in every direction! When we left Tad Lo we grabbed a ride with local transport but his little bus broke down... So we decided to walk along the country roads until we were invited to a local party on someone's front lawn, where they soaked us, covered us in baby powder and insisted on us drinking Lao Lao and Beer Lao with them while we all danced to very Karaoke sounding Lao music. Although enjoyable, we had to bid fairwell when our driver spotted us, surely amused, and picked us up. We got half way back to Pakse when he wasnt going any further, so we had to change transportation. Hitchhiking in this country has proven to be not only very safe but incredibly entertaining. Our next ride came from two pickup trucks full of Chinese men who let us take over the water buckets in the back. We would drive for a while, then slow down to soak the locals who happened to be unfortunate enough to be standing at the side of the road when we drove past. Needless to say we didn't make it to our guesthouse in Pakse with a single dry patch of skin or clothing or our bodies.
Ahh Laos, such a fabulous place to be, especially at this time. We shall continue to the north and in about 3 weeks we're onto China. Will write again in the meantime. Please check out my Laos Pix, best ones yet in my opinion, and not to be missed :) Comments, suggestions and Q's can be posted here or sent to kusumatiffany@gmail.com.
Love, peace and happiness to you all,
Tiff aka Kusuma xox
