EN - Laos
Door: Lars van Lier
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Lars
09 Januari 2015 | Laos, Vientiane
It took me a while but here's my blog on Laos. As promised shorter than the previous one!
After a short flight from Hanoi I arrived in Luang Prabang in Laos in the evening of 23 December. There I immediately met some people and I found company for the next morning.
Luang Prabang is a town with a rich history and culture, and religion is very important too. Every morning around 6 o’clock, the monks leave their temples to walk through town and collect food. For this Tak Bat, many locals and even more tourists are standing along the road to hand the monks food. We decided to go see it, so we woke up early, but unfortunately it wasn’t more exciting than I just described. So after all I should have stayed in bed. I spent the rest of the day exploring the town, and I spent a while relaxing with a beer at the point when the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers join. In the evening I met a nice group of people with whom I spent the next couple of days. On Thursday I visited the Pak Ou Caves and Tat Sae waterfall with them, and at night we went to the bowling alley together. This is where everyone goes when all bars are forced to close at 11.30 PM to continue partying.
The two consecutive days I did a tracking through the mountains, countryside and a bit of jungle. On the first day we were dropped off in a small village and from there we hiked our way up to the village of Ban Long Lao, where people of different ethnic tribes live together. It was very interesting to see how those people live there! On the second day a couple of people joined and together we hiked to the beautful Kuang Si waterfall in a couple of hours. From here we were transported back to Luang Prabang, where I directly booked a bus to Vang Vieng for later that afternoon.
On Sunday I didn’t really do much. I did hire a scooter in the afternoon to visit several caves, and I climbed up a hill from where I had a beautiful view over the valley. In the evening I met up with a couple I met earlier in Luang Prabang and together we had some food and drinks. With them I would be spending the rest of my time in Laos.
On Monday we went ‘tubing’, because we couldn’t leave Vang Vieng without going tubing. This basically means that you float down the river in a rubber tube, back to town. Along the river there are some bars where you can stop and have a drink. On a normal day, a lot of people join in, and most of them arrive back in town completely shitfaced, but apparently we picked a bad day and didn’t get to experience the “real” tubing. However, in the evening I went out and in that way I did get in the partying mood.
On Tuesday we took the bus to the capital Vientiane. Here we arrived in the afternoon, but since I was a bit hungover and the others had some discomfort from their food the day earlier, we didn’t end up doing that much. We walked around town a bit, and visited the night market, and after that went to bed to charge ourselves for new year’s eve, which I would celebrate in Bangkok. So on Wednesday I took the plane back to where my journey started!
Laos is the country in which I probably got to relax the most so far. Laos is not really a country to go sight seeing, but is a sight of its own. The nature is beautiful and since there is plenty of nature, outdoor activities are a better way to explore the country.
In my next blog I will cover my stay in North-Thailand, and this one will be short and sweet as usual. See you then!
After a short flight from Hanoi I arrived in Luang Prabang in Laos in the evening of 23 December. There I immediately met some people and I found company for the next morning.
Luang Prabang is a town with a rich history and culture, and religion is very important too. Every morning around 6 o’clock, the monks leave their temples to walk through town and collect food. For this Tak Bat, many locals and even more tourists are standing along the road to hand the monks food. We decided to go see it, so we woke up early, but unfortunately it wasn’t more exciting than I just described. So after all I should have stayed in bed. I spent the rest of the day exploring the town, and I spent a while relaxing with a beer at the point when the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers join. In the evening I met a nice group of people with whom I spent the next couple of days. On Thursday I visited the Pak Ou Caves and Tat Sae waterfall with them, and at night we went to the bowling alley together. This is where everyone goes when all bars are forced to close at 11.30 PM to continue partying.
The two consecutive days I did a tracking through the mountains, countryside and a bit of jungle. On the first day we were dropped off in a small village and from there we hiked our way up to the village of Ban Long Lao, where people of different ethnic tribes live together. It was very interesting to see how those people live there! On the second day a couple of people joined and together we hiked to the beautful Kuang Si waterfall in a couple of hours. From here we were transported back to Luang Prabang, where I directly booked a bus to Vang Vieng for later that afternoon.
On Sunday I didn’t really do much. I did hire a scooter in the afternoon to visit several caves, and I climbed up a hill from where I had a beautiful view over the valley. In the evening I met up with a couple I met earlier in Luang Prabang and together we had some food and drinks. With them I would be spending the rest of my time in Laos.
On Monday we went ‘tubing’, because we couldn’t leave Vang Vieng without going tubing. This basically means that you float down the river in a rubber tube, back to town. Along the river there are some bars where you can stop and have a drink. On a normal day, a lot of people join in, and most of them arrive back in town completely shitfaced, but apparently we picked a bad day and didn’t get to experience the “real” tubing. However, in the evening I went out and in that way I did get in the partying mood.
On Tuesday we took the bus to the capital Vientiane. Here we arrived in the afternoon, but since I was a bit hungover and the others had some discomfort from their food the day earlier, we didn’t end up doing that much. We walked around town a bit, and visited the night market, and after that went to bed to charge ourselves for new year’s eve, which I would celebrate in Bangkok. So on Wednesday I took the plane back to where my journey started!
Laos is the country in which I probably got to relax the most so far. Laos is not really a country to go sight seeing, but is a sight of its own. The nature is beautiful and since there is plenty of nature, outdoor activities are a better way to explore the country.
In my next blog I will cover my stay in North-Thailand, and this one will be short and sweet as usual. See you then!
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Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
