Magical Laos

I have never heard of Laos until I moved to Singapore and even after that it remained a mystery, as it is not a popular tourist destination, it is not developed at all and there is not much buzz about it in the media either. Seems to be a very isolated country. It is not that easy to reach from Singapore, therefore not many of my friends have been there (actually none I can recall). So I was really excited to discover the mysteries of this country.

There is no direct flight to Laos from Singapore, therefore I needed to change in Bangkok, so stopped by there for a nice Thai massage and for a short walk in Khao San Road, to remember the hecticness of this place, eat some nice pancake and kebabs:):):)
The good old famuous Khao San Road:
Besides the stop over in Bangkok, some other challenges had to be overcome before entering the magical land of Laos. As I can’t get a multiple entry visa to Thailand, but I had to come back to the country on my way back, I needed a re-entry visa. I supposed to get this at the exit border, but in the evening when I got to the Thai-Laos border to the Friendship Bridge, they told me that I can get it only during business hours. So was stuck at the border for a night and could enter Laos only the next day morning.

But all the challenges worth it. Besides some arguments with tuc –tuc drivers in Vientiane, the whole experience was very relaxing, magical, spiritual, fulfilling. The capital city of Laos is not really a capital, it is more like a small provincial town, therefore decided to visit it only on the way back as we could enter Laos only with some delay. Therefore we took a local bus to Luang Prabang, a city which is part of the UNESCO world heritage.

Riding a local bus is a great experience; it gives you the sense of the real life. Laos is a very laid back and relaxed country and so were the bus schedule and the whole trip. The bus stopped randomly where there were passengers on the road or where people needed to go to the toilet (I mean pee in a bush). It took 10 hours or so the ride and by the time we got to Luang Prabang, already had a good feel of the country. The nature is just simply magical (this is the repeating world in this blog entry I guess), with nice mountains, green forests, rice fields, small little cottage villages alongside the road. The road itself, which is the main road, it is hardly enough for two cars and you can find everything on it: cars, cows, people, children, motorcycles, biking tourists, and ambulant sales people. No wonder that our average speed was around 50 km/hour.

Besides the untouched nature, one can see the poverty this country is. Most of the houses are just small cottages made of bamboo or some other similar material. Passing by you can see the building that supposed to be schools and you wonder how they can have good education there. But fortunately you see lots of children in those schools and talking to some of them you realize that they actually can speak some English, as they learn it in the school. It is a country ravaged by a war that nobody talked about in the western world, but apparently it has more landmines then Cambodia. It is said that it is behind Cambodia in terms of development and I can believe this, after being in both countries. Some signs of development you can see in these villages, some people have mobile phones and in some of these really bad cottages, you can see color TV and satellite dish near it. It is interesting to see how the value or wealth means different things in Laos or in Europe for example. After the communism in Romania, people wanted to have a nice house and you were poor or rich based on how your house was. Mobile phone and color TV was important, but way behind the house. Here having a mobile phone or a satellite dish and color TV is higher on the priority list then a decent house or even a decent cottage. Or maybe these are already considered basic needs in 2007, while in the era when I was poor, these were still luxury items.

Luang Prabang is not like the rest of the places I have seen in Laos and it is very different from Vientiane. The city is the former capital of the kingdom and it is a very relaxing place. It is a mix of very old temples and French influenced houses and buildings, beautiful mountains all around and the impressive Mekong River. I liked its whole atmosphere, because it offers what a big city never can offer, spirituality and nature. I guess these are the most important things that I can’t find in the big cities I have lived in so far and it is always refreshing for me to be close to the Gods and Nature. I guess I also have an affinity to Buddhism in a way, because all the Buddhist temples just gave me a nice and positive feeling. I feel good being in them and being around them. Luang Prabang, which has the size of my home city, has 30 plus temples. The most famous one is Wat Xieng Thong built in 1560. It is very simple, but very nice, with gold decoration here and there. You can see a lot of pictures below with it. It just amazes me, but I guess there might be people who are not much of fans of these.

In true French Style, there is a promenade near the Mekong River and it is a nice sight to walk around there, admire how the locals go with their small little boats and admire the green hills around it. Very peaceful.

The king’s palace is transformed into a museum and even if though there is communist rule in Laos, there is much respect here for the king, for the kingdom as a form of state and locals are talking with lots of respect about there king. Comparing this castle to the castles of the kings in Europe, you can see a huge difference. The one in Laos would probably not match even the summer provincial residence of a king from Europe. But I guess Laos was always a bit behind other places in terms of wealth. What was interesting in this palace, that I could see a gift from the US government to Laos, which contained the Laotian flag that was on the moon in the spaceship of the first moon landing and some small pieces of moon soil. 10 cm is the closest that I could get so far to the moon, if we assume that if we get close to the parts of an object, we can get close to the object itself. :):):):)

Another impressive experience was listening to the drums of the monks as they called people to the temple. It was nice to be in that peaceful place, inhale the fresh mountain air, feel a nice breeze but enjoy the warm sun in the same time and feel the spirituality all around and listen to the drums. It is magical :)

In the middle of the city there is a hill with some temples on it. This place called Phu Si (yeah, not to pronounce pussy), offers a fantastic view from above to the town, the mountains and the Mekong river. All the tourists come here to see the sunset, so it might be a bit crowded and noisy, but it is still stunning. As the sun goes down, the Mekong turns red and offers a magical view. You feel like being on the top of the world and close to the nature. Ah…… so good feeling thinking back to this while writing it down. Feels like writing it down again and again, just to re-live the moment again.

Some streets get closed in the evening and the night market tries to charm the tourists. It is nice to walk around, however very few original things are there. I guess they were commercially influenced by Thailand, because you can see most of the things that you can find in any Thai tourist city. But still you can get some nice stuff if you are in shopping mood and you have enough patience to look for authentic local stuff.

We went to the local theater to see a local show. It was prepared for tourists, lots of French people, and it gave a glimpse of the local dances and mythology. I have seen something similar in Cambodia, and these shows are always a nice window to the nation’s soul. No need to mention that the Lao girls were so beautiful and so graceful…. I guess one of her look is enough to fall in love with them, and then the way they dance so gently it is the cherry on the cake.

No country description can be without the description of the local food. Lots of French influence in Luang Prabang, so you can find a bakery with nice bakery products at every corner. It is nice to have a very good breakfast with some good bread, some choco pancake…. Yum…. Yum…. Food from the street was also delicious and of course very cheap. The bread there is just like bread ad home.

However the highlight for me was a dinner at a Laotian restaurant with some magical food. The pumpkin soup was the best soup I ate in a very long time. It was so delicious that I just could not stop eating. The chef was in the team of chefs that was once cooking for the king of Laos and had been in Europe as well. So that explained the royal tastes of the food. I guess it worth going back there just for that pumpkin soup :). The bonus point of that restaurant was that they had Hungarian text in the menu. They were writing in Hungarian “Koszonjuk Szepen es Viszontlatasra” and they had written “Forralt Bor” as a specialty. I was so happy to find this in a place so hidden and so far from home. I also tried the sticky rice wine, a very fruity drink. It has no wine taste, more like liquor, but it made the evening more enjoyable. Worth trying if you are around there.

Laos is a very laid back country and everybody seems to be very chilled and relaxed. The whole place is inspiring relaxation, calmness. So was the whole airport in Luang Prabang, they did not even know when the flight departs: “Just wait for the plain sir, should be here around 12, did not arrive yet, when it comes then just hopp on it.” Instead of the local bus we flew back to Vientiane with Lao Airlines. Again, an experience in itself. IF during bungee jumping you get excited because of the danger only 4 seconds or so, here the excitement lasted for over 40 minutes. Quiet nice service and food on the plane, however flying with a small old plane is very different then flying with the jumbo jets that I am used to. You feel everything much more… Good thing that Laos is so beautiful from above as well that you can’t take off your eyes from the window and you keep yourself busy with looking to the mountains and the greenery.

In Vientiane we have visited the famous Patuxai. It seems the French built one of this everywhere they went. However this Arch de Triumphs is with local design. I like this picture with the Tuc-Tuc, it really gives the Asian flavor to it: “The Arch de Triumph with a Tuc-Tuc”

Vientiane seems to be a city without much charm, except the center and some of the old temples, like the Wat Si Saket (pictures below). Probably I did not stay enough there to discover its charm. But sometimes you know if you like a city or not from the first moment that you see it. And I guess after Luang Prabang it is not as exciting to visit it.
Some victims of the wars... decapitated Buddha statues:

Wah, this became one of my longest entries. Maybe this is an indicator that I enjoyed Laos so much. I liked the place and I could relate to it so much. I really hope that it will develop as a country fast, but without loosing its charm and its spirit. Capitalism is at the corner and the country is opening up. There are foreign companies and as the picture below shows, the American influence is still/already here (after screwing the country during the Vietnam War). God bless Laos.