Chiang Mai

After 3 days in transit, it was a welcome relief to be able to stay in one spot for a few days. Chiang Mai is an old capital of the Lanna empire, and has an old town defined by a remnant moat and defensive walls. Inside, there is a huge collection of temples which we spent some time exploring, different yet again from the other places we had been. Decorations were brighter and there was a lot more gold, reinforcing our impression of the relative wealth in Thailand. One new feature was the presence of (inanimate) famous monks sitting in the temples, as objects of veneration. Being the first time we encountered this it is was a bit disconcerting, as the figure was in a glass case and it wasn't clear if it was a well preserved body or a wax figure. Thankfully, further investigation across other temples revealed that there is extensive use of (very realistic) wax replicas of famous monks. Despite hot and humid weather, wandering through the old town was quite pleasant, aided by the availability of many coffee shops which all provided various forms of caffeinated icy cold drinks.

Just outside of town is a mountain, and a collection of yet more temples, with What Phra That Doi Suthep sitting at the top. The site was chosen by one of the kings, who placed relics of Buddha on an elephant and let it walk up the mountain, waiting until it stopped to rest. Said elephant picked a scenic spot right at the top of the hill, where the temple was then constructed... There is a walking path up the mountain, known as the Monk's Trail, which follows an old route taken to worship at various temple sites, finishing at Doi Suthep. We decided that this would be a good combination of exercise and sightseeing, so grabbed a tuk-tuk to take us to the start of the path. Due to either a miscommunication, or some more deliberate misunderstanding, we were taken to the wrong start point where there was a collection of more high powered vehicles to take us up the hill. This resulted in a long walk past the zoo and through the local university to finally arrive, one hour later, at the proper starting point.   

The walk is pretty steep and we wound our way up to Wat Phra Lat, which is set on the side of a stream and cut into the side of the hill. The recent rain (there had been enough that we saw flood warnings for Chiang Mai), meant that sections of the path had turned into a stream themselves, making us glad we had worn our boots, rather than joggers. The little complex at Wat Phra Lat was very picturesque, incorporating a temple located in a rock overhang, and making use of the water as a feature throughout the site. 

The next part of the walking trail was considerably steeper, and slowed our progress considerably. Short distances on the map were exacerbated by tricky clambering up the damp trail, with frequent rest breaks. Less than 1km from the finish, the temperature dropped and it started raining. Then it started really pouring - in the great tradition of monsoonal rain. We found ourselves basically walking up a stream bed, and within minutes were completely soaked through. By the time we emerged onto the road for the last few hundred metres, the main game was to get back home and dried off. An opportunistic tuk-tuk driver was coming down the hill and charged us somewhat more than usual to take us back to where we were staying, where we were grateful to have an apartment with a washing machine! 

After stopping to visit the Lanna Folklife Museum, we had ourselves driven back to the top the next day (we had gotten really close...), and explored the temple in more favourable weather, stunned by the amount of gold leaf employed and enjoying the views. The 300 steps up to the temple were looked upon with less enthusiasm, with sore legs from the day before... 

The afternoon saw us wandering back through the old city and with a quick visit to the Museum of Broken Relationships, which was surprisingly interesting. It was started in Zagreb, and opened a second branch in Chiang Mai with a collection of poignant stories, highlighted with a variety of different objects left over from the aforementioned broken relationships. It also has travelling temporary exhibits, James vaguely recalled visiting one in Sydney or Melbourne at some point. It was a slightly offbeat way to end our time in the city (apart from the local restaurant for dinner and a quick wander the next morning), but we enjoyed our time in Chiang Mai, notwithstanding the solid soaking on the hike.

 

Boat, Boat, Bus

To head to Thailand, we decided to take the slow boat up the Mekong River from Luang Prabang. It is a two day journey, broken up by an over night stay in Pak Beng, and seemed like a nice way to relax and slow down a little. There were two options - local and cheap, or expensive and fancy - and we took the cheap, local option. This meant that the boat acted as transport for people from Luang Prabang to a variety of villages along the river, along with various supply deliveries. An 8.00am start (much earlier pickup from our accommodation) saw us on the boat with a mix of locals and tourists - most of whom were younger backpackers. It was slow, as advertised, and seats were a mix of hard wooden benches and recycled minivan seats. The scenery was pretty, including a shrine set in a cave overlooking the river, but after 10 hours on the boat we were pretty happy to see Pak Beng, even if it was pouring with rain. There is not much there, but we had booked a nice room close to the boat landing and managed to get there, and to our last dinner in Lao and back, without getting too wet. 

Day 2 was just wash, rinse and repeat. On the boat at 8.30am and then sit and watch the world go by. It was a different boat this time, although still with the converted car seats, but with sense of camaraderie with our young backpacking companions, who hailed from China, Japan, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany and Australia (of course), and who we had interacted with only intermittently the day before. We were joined by a group of young Thai travellers, who had clearly been on some big adventure, and formed a third group on the boat, in addition to the locals. The Thais decided it was party time and at 10am bought all the beer on the boat and proceeded to claim an area in which they could have a big party. They were moderately obnoxious, but the advantage of starting at 10am meant that after a couple of drinks they all went pretty quiet for the middle part of the day, before firing up again for the last part of the journey. The other foreigners, and the Lao locals, exchanged sympathetic looks... 

Our border crossing point was the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge No. 4, which we passed under on the boat a good 40 minutes before we stopped and were let off some way upstream. It joins the towns of Houayxay (Lao) and Chiang Khong (Thailand), and most of the backpacker-types were headed to Chiang Khong for the night. We shared a tuk-tuk back down the river with our new Chinese and Japanese friends, and had a race to the border with the other backpacking group, winning only narrowly thanks to a petrol stop along the way. 

It was at the border where our pretensions of being young and cool were rudely stripped away. Having done our research (strictly, Gillian having done our research), we knew that there would be a late fee for crossing after 4pm, and another charge for the shuttle bus to take us from the Lao to the Thai side. This was not the case for some of our travelling companions, who did not have any Lao cash left. Parent mode, activated! We started handing out cash to those who didn't have any so that we could all get across, and the process was then repeated on the other side where there was only one very expensive ATM available to obtain Thai baht to catch the one tuk-tuk into town. Gratitude was extreme (one poor 20 year old was in tears), with promises of beers if we crossed paths again. Any final thoughts we had of being fellow "backpackers" were punctured by the exclamations of how nice our hotel looked when we were the first ones dropped off. The $5 a night hostel was not going to be nearly as flash. The whole exercise cost about $10AUD and all our delusions about roughing it.

After a good nights sleep in a lovely hotel room (😀), we were on a bus to Chiang Mai the next morning. The only notable thing about the journey, really, was the very great contrast between the road quality in Thailand versus Lao, emphasising the economic disparity between the two countries. A six hour bus trip left us glad to be stopping in one place for a few days. No regrets for the slow boat, but it is not a journey we're likely to repeat.

Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang was the next stop on our big adventure, and it was quite different to any of the other places we had been. We stayed in the old town, which has very western style architecture and is located on a "peninsula" between the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. The town is full of temples, to a degree that is surprising really, and it is a very "walkable" with cafes, bars and restaurants dotted at very convenient intervals.

The most exciting thing about getting there was having a house with a washing machine, which was sorely needed by that stage. Travelling out of a single backpack between two people is definitely convenient for mobility, but has its drawbacks in terms of quantity of clothes... We also found ourselves in need of some quieter days, after having been on the move constantly for two months. Luang Prabang was really the perfect spot for this, as most things were close and we could pick and choose what we felt up for each day. 

The highlight spot in town is Phousi Hill, which houses a stupa and temple on the top and has a commanding view over the town and the rivers and beyond. It provides a spectacular point to watch the sunset, with the only downside being a large number of stairs to get up there. We duly marched up and were impressed by the various shrines and temples on the way up, as well as the fabled view. 

At the bottom of the hill were markets, which are an interesting way to spend the evening, although we skipped the street food in favour of a drink at one of the many bars in the main street and local ice cream for dinner. 

We visited the local museum, housed in an old palace, which was only moderately interesting. More intriguing was the strict adherence to the dress code (James had to rent some long pants to wear over his shorts), which was almost the first time we had been caught out - and it wasn't even a temple! They had a range of bossy personnel, one of whom insisted on checking Gillian's phone to make sure she hadn't taken any photos, and they kicked us out strictly at 11.30 to close the museum for their 2 hour lunch break. It was the least relaxed situation we had struck throughout our trip to that point!

Other highlights of the visit included going to the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, which gave a rundown of many of the different local crafts from around the country. It also plays a strong role in trying to establish and defend ownership rights over cultural techniques and designs - a difficult process when faced with appropriation by major European fashion houses. We were reminded of similar battles being fought over the ownership of Aboriginal cultural heritage. This was also the place that Gillian cracked and bought a handmade shrug, the first proper souvenir of the trip (refer to previous comments about the single backpack...). We also found our way into many temples and lots of nice little places to stop and eat and drink, including the Kahiphaen restaurant, run by the previously mentioned Friends organisation (hospitality training for at-risk kids). James is considering returning at some point to run the Luang Prabang half-marathon, which raises money for a local (free) kids hospital - the only one of its kind in Lao. 

Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a town that used to be famous for its free flowing backpacker scene, and wild party atmosphere. After one too many incidents (there were some pretty bad ones), things cracked down significantly and while there is still a fair backpacker scene, it's not as loose and crazy as it once was. The locals told us that mid-September should be when the tourism numbers start to pick up again after the low season, but it was still pretty quiet when we arrived. The Nam Song river runs through town and is at the heart of the tourist trade, with large mountains rising starkly from the surrounding valley. One of the big activities is floating down the river on old tyre tubes, and visiting the bars dotted along the side - now all groups have to have a guide, limiting how many drinks can be had - one of the controls put into place to curb the worst of the incidents (who would have thought that activity could lead to trouble!). 

We decided against the river-based activities for the one full day we had there, and instead booked a hike in an area out of town, visiting some caves and local villages along the way. Our guide, On, was great and we started by hiking through a Hmong village, which included a transit across the schoolyard. The kids were very funny, with only the bravest coming up to say "hello". We got some smiles by replying in the (recently acquired) local "yoyong". Being close to the foot of the mountains, the walk showed off some of the spectacular scenery in the area, and we walked along a stream (co-opted to provide irrigation for the rice fields), to get to our first cave for the day. 

This was a water cave, which is to say it was full of water and the source of the stream we had been walking along. It was time to strip off, jump on some old tyre tubes and explore the cave, through means of a rope system you can pull yourself along. The most confronting part was getting inside, as the entrance was very low to the water level, but once inside it opened out, with head torches providing enough illumination to see what you were doing. And to scare off some of the small bats clinging to the ceiling. We weren't game to take phones inside while floating on the tubes, so no photos, but it was a lot of fun and interesting to explore the cave this way. After a transit of about 400 metres, we could turn around and float back down with the current - taking care not to bang heads on the low points or cave walls. Perhaps the most remarkable part of it all was that we were the only ones inside, with the second group of visitors for the day only arriving as we exited back out into the sunlight. 

It was then on to the next couple of cave visits, which first required tickets. Naturally, the ticket seller was a friend and neighbour of our guide, and immediately offered some of his home made rice whiskey. We managed to politely refuse, although it was a close run thing! These caves were a bit different from others we had visited, with a lack of infrastructure which resulted in scrambling through the cave rocks and floors "au naturelle". The first had a spectacular cavern, even in the dimly lit headtorch light. The effect was definitely enhanced by the lack of any paths or walkways. Gillian was less impressed when we spotted a giant cave spider, but it wasn't so interested in us as we scurried past. Both caves had Buddhist shrines, and are still active worship sites, even with high tourist activity (although we were fortunate enough to have them to ourselves).

Lunch was next on the agenda, and we had requested local food when we booked the trip. This excited our guide enough to rope in his wife to cook for us, and we had one of our best meals in Laos as a result, with a whole grilled fish, laab, (super hot!) papaya salad and omelette. And also sticky rice, of course. It wasn't clear that the amount of exercise we had done justified the sumptuous feast, but we ate it all anyway. Sep lai. Lunch was at one of the "blue lagoons" that dot the area around Van Vieng, and it was spectacular setting, as well as a great place to have a dip and cool off a bit after lunch. It came complete with plenty of fish, who would nibble on you if you stayed motionless for too long. With few tourists, we felt fortunate to experience without a big crowd - although it got busier as we got ready to leave. 

The final part of the day took us to another local village, with a temple set up in a cave. It is famous for its "elephant rock", which does look remarkably like an elephant. The effect was ruined somewhat when our guide explained the trunk was added with concrete to cement the effect. Gillian was excited to cross another rickety suspension bridge to get back to the car and drive back into town, and after relaxing for the rest of the afternoon (and packing) we found a quiet little local place for another tasty dinner.

Plain of Jars

The next stop was Phonsavan, 350km from Vientiane. After investigating the options, we decided to fly from Pakse to Vientiane, then on to Phonsavan. The second flight was about 30 mintues vs 10 hours or so (not a typo!) for a van, so it was an easy choice. Phonsavan is in Xieng Khouang province, which was astride a central trade route through South East Asia in the past, and the central hub of the Siamese/Thai kingdom for a while. Phonsavan itself is a provincial town, although with a population of over 250,000 people, and did not have a lot of immediate tourist amenity, especially in the off season. However, it is the jumping off point to explore the Plain of Jars. 

We had arranged a day tour with a very engaging guide - Souk - to go and explore some of the local Plain of Jars sites. There are over 100 scattered across the central mountain region of Laos, and sites 1, 2 and 3 were in the immediate vicinity. The days started with a drive to visit a local rice noodle making family, who supply restaurants all the way to Vientiane - the climate makes for particularly good sticky rice apparently, which then translates to in demand noodles. The whole process is still done by hand, with up to 100 kg a day of noodles being produced (per family). There was an obligatory taste test of some of the products, including giant (sweet) rice crackers. We also visited Muang Khoun, which was a capital of the Lao kingdom, right up to the French colonisation, and was also a centre for the resistance during the Indochina wars, against the French and then the Americans. As a result, there has been an enormous amount of damage from bombs (and more direct willful destruction), with just the remains of an old Buddha statue that miraculously avoided destruction in a bombing raid, as well as a stupa said to contain relics of Buddha. It was a sobering reminder/education about the long difficulties with Western hegemony in that part of the world. The damage is still being felt, in a very real way, to this day. Not least through the vast amount of unexploded ordinance that remains scattered throughout the landscape.

The main attraction, though, was the Plain of Jars sites. These are megalithic stone jars, that have been carved in one piece from remote quarries and moved to various different sites. They date from 2,500 to 1,500 years ago, and the purpose to this day remains uncertain. There are some other similar sites in the sub-continent and Indonesia, but Lao has by far the largest collection, scattered throughout the mountain region. The first site we went to had about 70 jars located on the top of a hill, which is the most common siting. The ranged up to 2.5m tall, and mostly were about 1 metre in diameter. Archeological study over the last 100 or so years has found associated skeletons, ceramics and some jewelry buried around and under the jars, which leads to speculation that they were part of some funerary practises. But no one knows for sure. Local legend says that the were for storing alcohol in celebration of a great victory of the local king 2000 years ago, and there are also legends of giants using them as cups. Regardless, the site was awe-inspiring and mesmerising as we wandered through the arrangement of jars on the hill. 

The second site we visited included a walk through local rice fields and amongst grazing water buffalo up to the jars themselves. It was sobering to see signs warning people to keep on the designated path to avoid getting blown up by unexploded bombs (cluster bombs in particular have left a brutal legacy). Thankfully, at this and the other sites we visited, the signs are now outdated and the whole area has been cleared. Other parts of the country are not so lucky. The jars at the second site we visited were from the same quarry as the first, but differed somewhat in shape and size. There was a large bomb crater in the middle of the site, but mostly the jars have been undamaged, other than by the ravages of time. they were no less awe-inspiring than the previous location.

The final site we visited was close to Phonsavan itself, and contains the biggest single collection of Jars. They are mostly made from different material - the first two we visited were mostly sandstone, while the site near the town has jars mostly made of granite. It also contains the biggest diameter jar in the whole collection, of over 2 metres. Many of the jars at this site were broken apart by Chinese bandits in the 1800s, who had come raiding into the area, but it was no less amazing to wander through the site. There is also a cave, which is used as a local Buddhist shrine, and contains two man made holes in the roof. Speculation is that it was a cremation site for remains that were subsequently buried with the jars.  

All in all, it was amazing to explore this lesser known attraction in Laos, and we gained an appreciation of the whole region. Once we had spent some time exploring, it was clear that you could come back for a week or more to spend some time looking through the area, visiting some of the other natural attractions, as well as more of the Plain of Jars sites. As we left, we already had ideas for a future visit... 

Ancient temple and a big waterfall

One of the big attractions in Champasak is the ancient temple of Vat Phou. This is one of the oldest places of worship in South East Asia, having been significant to many religions over a long period of time. Naturally, having seen many temples during the course of getting to Lao, we weren't completely sure how novel this one would be, but it turned out to be one of the most spectacular. The site is located beneath a prominent mountain with a peak shaped like a lingar (think phallic...). This being a prominent symbol of Shiva, it was a natural place to site a temple in the Angkor period. Previously, it had been a site for local animistic worship for pretty much as long as people have been in the area. There was a road that connected the site to Angkor Wat almost 1000 years ago, and a close relationship between the two sites. 

A natural spring flows all year round and exits relatively close to the base of the mountain. As the water runs from the linga, there is a yoni receptacle, mirroring the arrangements we first encountered in My Son. Again, the water flowing from the yoni is said to bring good fortune and the temple remains an active site of worship (currently Buddhist). 

Being part way up the mountain, the setting is spectacular and the highest of the seven levels gives a glorious view back over the Mekong River. The site is under restoration/preservation and includes the remains of the initial men's and women's prayer halls at the bottom of the site (along with the large ponds for ritual bathing), with a series of stairways climbing up to the main temple and spring. There is a Buddha statue in the crumbling temple, as well as the remains of much bigger structures that used to exist there. 

They include carvings on the rocks of an elephant, crocodile and snakes, with a local legend that the crocodile carving was also used for human sacrifice (of a virgin girl, of course). Further research suggests that this is likely apocryphal. Even after visiting a huge variety of temples across Asia, this one was well worth visiting. There is also a pretty good museum at the entrance to the site, with a range of old artefacts from this site, and others.

Further south, at the border between Lao and Cambodia on the Mekong River, is a huge section of rapids, or waterfalls (how big does a rapid have to be to qualify?), known as the 4000 islands. This is an awe-inspiring demonstration of the huge flows in the Mekong, especially visiting at the end of the wet season. This section of the river is not navigable (the thought alone is terrifying), and was the major barrier to the French using the river as a major source of commerce throughout the region, when they were the dominant colonial power in that part of the world. We visited two of the biggest sections of the falls, which run through a series of large, inhabited, islands in that section of the river. First were the Li Phi falls, next to the island of Don Khong. These were wide, with a large volume of water flowing through. The level was high enough that we were unfortunately cut off from one of the viewing platforms, which had the bridge washed away. 

The second falls were the Khone Phapheng falls, which we could visit from the Eastern bank of the river. We arrived at what must be close to the peak flow, and the volume of water through here was astounding, up to 11,000 cubic metres a second. They were a potent demonstration of why the French (or anyone else) gave up on the project of making the river navigable along its length. As well as yet another demonstration of the importance of the Mekong to life and agriculture throughout South East Asia. 

Jungle and Canoeing

From Vientiane we headed south, almost to the Cambodian border, to Pakse in Champasak province. Although, to be fair, the resort we stayed at was about 1.5 hours further south. The trip included a very rough dirt road for the last 30 minutes, which we got to know quite well over the next few days as we got out and about... The place we had chosen to stay (Kingfisher Eco Lodge) was on the edge of a wetland, which in turn was at the edge of the Xe-Pian National Biodiversity Conservation Area. We found ourselves housed in a bungalow built over the top of the water (at least at the end of the wet season), and we were the sole occupants of the entire place for most of our stay. This did put the pressure on when we went for meals to have the two waitresses, the waiter/guide who spoke English, the manager and the driver/general handyman all waiting for us.

There were a selection of activities to chose from and we picked a day long jungle trek with a local villager, which finished in a visit to an old temple. The day started out a little drizzly, but dried up pretty quickly, and the walk through the edge of the national park was a fascinating experience. Our local guide showed us a huge variety of different plants and described their uses (through our trusty guide/translator, Wong), which included taste testing a range of different edible plants. He also had a wicked sense of humour, cutting a branch of a plant whose sap is used to help prevent/treat malaria and giving us a taste. It was outrageously bitter, leaving a taste in our mouths for hours. After grinning at us he shared that they mix it with hot water and honey to drink - which makes a lot more sense! We also were able to sample water from a water vine that he cut open - this was much more palatable, and a key source of hydration in the dry season when walking through the jungle.

We happened upon a couple of (small) snakes, one of which hunts worms, as well as coming across a trap that hadn't been checked, but contained a big, dead lion snake. The locals hunt them for food, and so our guide took the snake, beheaded it and stuffed the rest in his backpack to take back to the village for dinner. It had only been slightly nibbled on by some freaky looking centipede... All-in-all the trek was great, and we were able to add mud from Lao jungle to the decent layer of Cambodia jungle mud from previously. We spent some time afterwards looking for scrubbing brushes that would allow us to clean the boots before returning to Australia.

The trek finished at an old temple call Vat Phou Asa, which is located on a hill overlooking the wetlands and above Ban Kiet Ngong, the village close to the resort. It is an ancient Buddhist temple, although little remains apart from some overgrown ruins and a stupa, as well as 108 stone pillars which defined the boundary of the precinct. It was also once used as a fortress in the area. It was a spectacular end to the hike, with great views over the wetlands and including a place to remount elephants - up until recently one of the attractions was an elephant ride up the hill to see the ruins. At the edge of the site, under a small ledge on the side of the hill, is a Buddhist shrine the remains a place of worship for the local people. 

Another small tour was canoeing over the wetlands early in the morning in wooden canoes, poled around by some men from the local village. It was really spectacular, although James spent the first half of the ride clutching for dear life to the sides of the narrow canoe feeling like he was about to be tipped out. After a rest stop halfway, a couple of seat adjustments made the balance less precarious... We were treated to spectacular views over the mirror flat water, and saw some of the local birds and a couple of local villagers trying their luck with fishing. Gillian was quite taken with the water buffalo, swimming around and eating the plants.