As some of you may know, I spent my summer travelling through South East Asia, visiting Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Bali. The first 5 weeks I spent with my school friend Tasha and her family friend Neha. My first stop was Laos. This is a small developing country with a population of fewer than 7 million people. After 24 hours of travelling via 3 flights, I met Tasha and Neha in Luang Prabang. I spent my first day walking around Luang Prabang: visiting some temples, the national museum and the night market.
First impressions of Laos
My first impressions of Laos were that it was very rural and everything was low-key. The plane from Bangkok to Luang Prabang was the smallest plane I’d ever been on. Luang Prabang’s airport was tiny, and the taxi ride to my accommodation was the shortest airport transfer I’d ever done! Even Vientiane felt small despite being a capital city. There were lots of motorbikes. This was something that took me a while to get used to. This essentially characterises traffic across SE Asia, alongside bad driving (we passed by two accident sites during some of our bus journeys in Laos).
Luang Prabang
On my first morning, we woke up very early (at 5 am!) to watch the Alms Giving Ceremony. This happens every day. The Alms Giving consists of a procession of Buddhist monks around the streets. They do this to collect breakfast (mainly rice parcels) from both locals and tourists. It was interesting to witness a small but special tradition, integral to local Laos and Buddhist culture.
Later on, we went to Kuang Si Falls (the largest waterfall in the Luang Prabang area). We visited the Moon Bear Sanctuary first, where most of the bears were just lazing around. I don’t blame them – it was so hot outside. After this, we started the long and sweaty hike to the top of the waterfall. It was so pretty and the views were unreal. The water was really cold, so wasn’t that inviting in terms of swimming.
Vang Vieng
Our next stop in Laos was Vang Vieng. We had another 5am start to get our bus transfer. Although the drive was a bit treacherous at times, there were some amazing views as we drove through a mountain range (the drop off the side was no joke!). Our first day here was not that successful mainly due to the rain.
Vang Vieng was a small town with mainly outdoor-based activities. Nevertheless, for dinner we met up with some friends from school who we had bumped into in Luang Prabang coincidentally. The weather was much better the next day. We took the opportunity to go tubing (you sit on a rubber ring whilst floating down a river and stopping at some bars along the way).
After collecting our tubes from the tubing office, we were taken to the first bar. Some of the reps got the whole group involved in a competitive game of flippy cup and musical tubes. I actually managed to get through quite a few rounds before it got very scrappy. We then tubed to the second bar, which had more music, table tennis and a basketball hoop. After playing around, we tubed the final 2km. The views were incredible – all around us there were mountains and trees. It was almost like the world had stopped, and we were just enjoying nature. Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any photos as didn’t want to risk losing my phone in the river, but I can assure you it was beautiful.
Vientiane
On the following day, we travelled to Vientiane. On arrival, we played or attempted to play some pool. To put it lightly, we weren’t very good. Nevertheless, I somehow scored the final two winning shots of the first game, but that may have been just beginners’ luck.
We spent most of our time over the next two days walking around Vientiane. We went to the COPE Centre. Here, we learnt about the ‘Secret War’, in which the US dropped cluster bombs in Laos, of which roughly 1/3 did not detonate. It was crazy to learn that Laos is the most bombed country per capita in history. The US dropped 580,000 bombs over 9 years – that’s a bomb every 8 minutes – absolutely shocking! Apparently, the aim of this was to drive the communists out of Laos. But it seems like a ridiculous and unnecessary use of force on such a small country. Unexploded ordinance still plagues the country today. I am glad that I had the opportunity to learn some more about this little-known period of history.
After visiting the COPE centre, we walked to the promenade and the night market, passing by a few temples and the presidential palace. Before dinner, we watched sunset over the Mekong river.
On the next day, we went on a mini excursion to Buddha Park. The first building gave off an Indiana Jones vibe, but the other statues were of varying sizes and actually pretty cool.
All in all, my first week in SE Asia was extremely exciting. This wet my appetite for all the travelling yet to come!
Next Up: Vietnam