How mekong river got us again – viantine

Posted on March 13, 2010 by bettertogether

sprzedawcy mango

Viantine. Straszne miasto. Brudne, duszne, pelne watow ( buddyjskich swiatyn), ktorych po trochu mamy juz dosc, a za wstep do ktorych do tego – nalezy tu placic! Nic wiecej nie ma do zobaczenia – nie w miescie. Albo przynajmniej nam sie tego nie udalo znalezc. Mekong? Udalo nam sie go zobaczyc gdzies w oddali – struzka wody schowana za polem budowy. Ponoc buduja tam park – maja skonczyc pod koniec tego roku – wiec kto wie – moze jeszcze bedzie ladnie. Ale my na ten czas nie trafilismy.

Viantiene

Po luang prabang, ktore nam sie bardzo spodobalo bylismy bardzo zawiedzeni. Po wioskach, ktore widzielismy po drodze do luang prabang – bylismy bardzo zawiedzeni. Ale trudno. Takie bywaja stolice. Jednakze chcielismy zobaczyc jeszcze wiecej laosu. Bylismy tu, wiec chcielismy go lepiej poczuc. Ponoc okolice viantine mialy byc przepiekne. Mimo, ze zostalo nam juz niewiele czasu, postanowilismy nastepnego dnia wynajac skuter i zwiedzic park budd i okolice. Zgubic sie w okolicznych wioskach. Tak jednak sie nie mialo stac…

widok na mekong

13.03.2010 sobota

Local bus story – on the way to viantine

Posted on March 12, 2010 by bettertogether

Slonce chylilo sie juz ku zachodowi, gdy dotarlismy na stacje autobusowa. W kasie biletowej kupilismy bilety na pierwszy lepszy autobus do viantine – stolicy laosu. Mielismy do niego jeszcze 20minut. Autobus mial jechac od 18.30 i dotrzec na miejsce o 5 rano. To dawalo nam mozliwosc przespania sie w autobusie po czym jeszcze przed switem, swiezy i rzescy moglibysmy zaczac nasze zwiedzanie. Czas zaczynal nas gonic, wiec w miare mozliwosci staralismy sie go oszczedzac.

stacja autobusowa

Autobus nasz wygladal nie inaczej jak zwykle autokary w polsce, nie mial coprawda nawiewu juz nie mowiac o klatyzacji, ale okna mozna bylo bez problemu otwierac i zamykac jak i kiedy sie chcialo. Poza tym nie byl przeladowany (slyszelismy juz rozne historie o takich autobusach). Co ciekawe na dachu przymocowane mial dwa motory i pelen byl laotanczykow. I mam na mysli tylko laotanczykow – ani jednego turysty…

Gdzie sie podziali turysci?? Zastanawialismy sie… Ostatecznie doszlismy do wniosku, ze inni wybieraja szybsze i drozsze opcje. Byly wiec rowniez do wyboru samoloty (przez niektorych uwazane za niezbyt bezpieczne), miniwany i autobusy VIP – bodajz z kliatyzacja. Nasze przypuszcznia potwierdzily sie gdy minal nas jeden z tych ostatnich – przepelniony po brzegi turystami. Ale nam nie zalezalo na szybciej – 5 rano juz i tak bylo wczesnie, a taniej zawsze bylo mile widziane.

Tak tez ruszylismy w nasza podroz. Byla okolo 6.30. Wkrotce zrobilo sie ciemno. Zupelnie ciemno. W autobusie nie palilo sie chocby najmniejsze swiatelko. Wszyscy zasypiali. Autobus stawal sie cichy. Nie przyzwyczjeni do tak wczesnej godziny chodzenia spac skorzystalismy z jednej z funkci i-poda – obejrzelismy film. Droga byla duzo lepsza niz ta z granicy do luang prabang, ale i tak pojedyncze osoby dostawaly choroby lokomocyjnej. Czasem autobus musial piac sie tak pod gore, ze caly jeczal i trzeszczal, i dyszal, i syczal i wydawalo nam sie, ze jeszcze chwila i stanie, ze nie da rady. Ale ostatecznie zawsze udawalo mu sie wdrapac i jechalismy dalej.

Czasem bylismy tak wysoko, ze gdy drzewa sie troche przerzedzaly na sasiednich wzgorzach moglismy zobaczyc pozary. Czasem bardzo duze. jest to ponoc problem w tej czesci laosu. Lokalni wypalaja roslinnosc. Jest duzo dymu i widocznosc nie jest zbyt dobra o tej porze roku.

W koncu autobus zatrzymal sie i wszyscy zaczeli wysypywac sie na siusiu. Ale… Bylismy na srodku drogi, po bokach krzaki…

Gdy ruszylismy ponownie, uslyszelismy glosne ‘ssssssssssssssss’. Stanelismy. Zlapalismy pane i kolejne minuty spedzilismy na staniu i czekaniu az panowie zmienia kolo.

Wycieczka ta, w zupelnej ciemnosci, z podobnymi niespodziankami, a jednak bardzo spokojna trwala 11 godzin. Dotarlismy o 5.30 rano (zaledwie 30 minut spoznienia, z ktorego i tak bylismy zadowoleni). wschodu jeszcze nie bylo. Bylismy bardzo zadowoleni z tej podrozy. Zaoszczedzilismy czas, pieniadze i mielismy calusienki dzien przed soba w stolicy laosu – Viantiene.

nasz autobus

Luang prabang, day 2

Posted on March 12, 2010 by bettertogether

Smaki, zapachy, zmysly… W luang prabang wszystko jest inne niz w tajlandii… Jakie? Powietrze przesycone tu jest zapachem swiezo parzonej kawy (w tajlandii trudno o dobra kawe), pieczonych bagietek… Czas tu plynie wolniej… Podroznik, ktory sie nie potrafi zatrzymac. Wziac glebokiego oddechu. Spojrzec na innosc i pieknosc tego miejsca. Wiele straci. Straci wszystko, bo wlasnie to jest urokiem luang prabang. Male domki stojace jeden przy drugim rozniace sie miedzy soba stylem architektonicznym, a kazdy z nich piekny. Zgubic sie w tych uliczkach, co jakis czas ze zdziwieniem odnajdujac sie przy brzegu mekongu. Luang prabang bardzo nam sie spodobalo. Ale dzis postanowilismy zobaczyc cos dalej…

mekong

W naszym hostelu panuje niezwykla atmosfera. Jak juz pisalismy w angielskiej czesci znalezlismy sie tu przypadkiem. Do luang prabang, nasza 9-osobowa grupa dojechalismy bardzo pozno. Duzo pozniej niz by sie tego ktokolwiek spodziewal. Nikt tez nie mial zarezerwowanego noclegu, a o tej godzinie ciezko bylo by cos znalezc. Ale zostalismy uratowani. Jeden z naszych wspoltowazyszy podrozy znal laotanke prowadzaco guesthouse. Gdy nasz kierowca chcial nas wyrzucic na srodku drogi na przedmiesciach sam nie znajac miasta i bojac sie go, w miejscu gdzie poza klubem nocnym 300metrow dalej ne bylo absolutnie nic, Roger zadzwonil do swojej znajomej. Ta skuterem przyjechala po nas i caly minibus poprowadzila do siebie. Tu, nie majac wystarczajaco miejsca w pokojach dla naszej calej 9tki rozlozyla namioty, tak aby kazdy mial gdzie spac. Ciekawe jest to, ze jak dojechalismy czekali na nas inni lokatorzy hostelu. Atmosfera byla niemal rodzinna – przywitani wszyscy zostalismy jak dawno niewidziani przyjaciele. To wlasnie jeden z lokatorow poradzil nam zebysmy, poza zwiedzaniem samego luang prabang zobaczyli tez wodospad. I to wlasnie zaplanowalismy na dzis. Potem, wieczorem chcielismy wsiasc w nocny autobus do viantine – stolicy laosu.

Mnie osobiscie bardzo spodobaly sie wioski, ktore mijalismy po drodze z granicy. Droga ta, czesto zwykla, bita byla czerwona i czerwonawy pyl okrywal wszystko. Okryte strzecha domy i umorusane dzieci. Wszystko wygladajaco bardzo prosto z okna mini-vana.

Gdy dowiedzielismy sie, ze jadac na wodospad mozna sie w wiosce zatrzymac bardzo sie ucieszylismy.

tuk tuk

Rano wynegocjowalismy sobie na prawde dobra cene z tuk tukarzem i ruszylismy w droge. Nie zdawalismy sobie jednak sprawy z tego, ze bedziemy jechac az 40minut. Powiedzielismy naszemu kierowcy, ze wrocimy za mniej wiecej godzine – no bo ile moglo by zabrac ogladanie wodospadu, prawda?

wodospady

Ale gdy weszlismy do parku okazalo sie, ze miejsce nie jest takie zwykle jak nam sie moglo wydawac. Las przecinaly dobrze zadbane kreski sciezek i zanim doszlismy do wody znalezlismy sie przy klatkach z niedzwiedziami. Misie te byly ponoc odratowane i bylo ich sporo. Wszystkie byly ciemno brunatne i kazdy zajety swoimi sprawami… Albo raczej zabawami, bo misie na wybiegu mialy prawdziwy plac zabaw. Kazdy z nich bawil sie sam. Niektore sie wspinaly inne przenosily liscie… Nam najkbardziej spodobal sie jedem chlapiacy sie w sadzawce. Bawil sie pilka, ale z wody wystawaly tylko 4 lapy i leb. Wydawac by sie moglo, ze byl tu prawdziwy misiowy raj.

niedzwiedz

Kawalek dalej natknelismy sie na maly wodospad, a pod nim sadzawka z najbardziej niebieska slodka woda jaka zdarzylo nam sie widziec. Bylismy dosyc wczesnie, nie bylo innych turystow. Miejsce bylo spokojne, czyste, niezwykle… “swimming area” brzmial napis na tabliczce. Od razu pozalowalismy, ze nie dowiedzielismy sie o tym miejscu wiecej lub chociaz nie pomyslelismy zeby wziac stroje kapielowe. Chlod wody kusil…

wodospad

Gdy poszlismy kawalek dalej w gore strumienia znalezlsmy podobne miejsce. Tym razem na jednym z drzew wisiala lina do skakania do wody. Potem bylo jeszcze jedno miejsce z malym wodospadem i sadzawka az wreszcie doszlismy do wodospadu. To jest prawdziwego. Wysokiego na kilkadzoesiat metrow. Dookola roztaczal sie park. Miejsce bylo piekne.

park

wodospad

Po chwilowym odpoczynku i wielu zdjeciach ruszylismy sciezka po gore. Sciezka byla torche stroma, dluga… Ale gdy weszlismy na gore znalezlismy sie w sadzawce. To tu przyplywala woda strumieniami i to stad z hukiem spadala w przepasc.

las na gorze

W drodze powrotnej, przy sadzawkach spotkalismy juz tlumek turystow. Zabawa trwala. Plywanie, smiechy, chlapanie i skakanie do wody… Bylo goraco. Woda kusila… W koncu bartek zrzucil ubranie i w majtkach dolaczyl do bawiacych sie ludzi.

dziewczynka z wioski

Tak jak to bylo w planie, w drodze powrotnej nasz tuk tuk zatrzymal sie przy wiosce. Wyszlismy. Jakiz byl nasz zal gdy zorientowalismy sie, ze ci ludzie, te dzieci i kobiety sa tylko nastaieni na turystow. Sprzedawali tu swoje wyroby, niemal probujac wymusic ich kupno. Zycia wioski jaki takiej nie dane nam bylo zobaczyc. Ucieklsmy stad jak najszybciej! Czy to dobrze czy zle gdy wioski staja sie tak zalezne od turystow? Czy potrafia sie jeszcze wowczas utrzymac same?

wioska

kobieta myjaca dziecko

Gdy wrocilismy do luang prabang mielismy jeszcze chwile czasu zeby isc na gore w srodku miasta. Stala na niej buddyjska swiatynia. Widok byl piekny i ponoc zachody slonca stad wygladaja pieknie, ale my do tego czasu nie moglismy czekac.

wat na wzgorzu

Przed wyjazdem jeszcze wypilismy sok z trzciny cukrowej i zjedlismy potrawke z bambusa (pracujaca w naszym hostelu pani swietnoe gotowala)- ku naszemu zdziwieniu bambus taki ma posmak grzybow, i ruszylismy w dalasza droge.

nowicjusz z listem

Luang Prabang, day 1

Posted on March 11, 2010 by bettertogether

Finally, we got to Luang Prabang – a town located on a small penisula in the serpents of Mekong river which in spite of western influences managed to conserve its colonial-age character. We did not know much about this place, but now we could explore it on our own.

When we woke up some of our travel-mates were already having breakfeast. Quickly, we brushed our teeth, left our loundry, packed our bags and joined the rest. Once we sat at the table we were offered strong Lao coffee, which was far better than coffee we drank in Thailand. From a menu which was clearly oriented at European tastes we chose Shakschuka, which is actually an Israeli dish made from eggs, tomatoes, onions and something which tasted like mushrooms, but was probably bamboo. The dish was delicious, but the best of all was a grilled baguette accompanying the dish. Baguette are uncommon in Thailand, but because Laos used to be a French colony, there are quite popular in Luang Prabang. We really missed a piece of bread in Thailand, where every dish consists of rice, and the crispy baguette was much more than we hoped for.

kosze

Other guests of the guest house recommended us things to see in Luang Prabang. There are not many monuments in the city – several Buddhist temples and a museum. However, we were told that the best way to feel the atmosphere of this place is to have a stroll along the Mekong river and get lost in the narrow streets at the riverside. That’s what we did.

stragan z shakeami

The first thing we noticed was that Luang Prabang was much more quiet than other cities we knew in Southeast Asia – because of UNESCO regulations the trucks are banned within the old town. It made the impression that the town is frozen in time, yet it was full of life: people lived their normal life without noticing the tourists passing by. Above all, the were no annoying tuk-tuk s stopping, ringing at you, and asking if you need a ride. What a relief after staying in Chiang Mai. We read the Lao people are more lazy than Thais and you actually you have to force them to help you.

swiatynia

The impression of being lost in time was amplified by the colonial architecture of the small houses with large balconies. On the balconies there was a plenty of flowers which made the streets colorful in contrast to gray streets of Bangkok, Chiang Mai or Krabi. Each street was different – the architecture of the houses, the flower compositions and people made each of them unique. In between the streets there were tens of gold-decorated temples inhabited by orange-robed monks who vastly enriched the picture. Gradually, we started to be enchanted by the atmosphere of Luang Prabang and if not lack of time we could stay there a week just exploring the small streets, temples, pubs or simply looking at the river.

studiujacy mnich

mekong river

On the other side of the river, there were several temples and a village. You could get there by means of a 100 m long bamboo bridge raising about 12 m above the water. The bridge did not look very stable and started shaking when we walked across, but we got safe to the other end.

bamboo bridge

fishing

novices swimming in the river

The speciality of the village was paper and silk weaving. Both were still manufactured by hand and we could watch the process even breeding the silk worms. We were especially amazed with women patiently weaving fabrics with intricate patterns from silk threads. We spent about an hour watching the hand-made materials in an adjacent shop.

paper weaving

silk weaving

silk worms

At the end of the day we decided to take a romantic trip on Mekong river. Just before the sunset we hired a small boat only for ourselves. We enjoyed it very much: the slow flow of the river, people working on the river banks, monks having a bath, fishermen pulling out the nets, the sun sinking behind the hills whose light filtered by the dust tinted everything in red, but above all we enjoyed being there together…

mekong river

When we were back on a solid ground it was already dark. We walked back towards our guest house stopping at night market. The assortiments included mainly local products, many of which were hand-made: silk, t-shirts, funny slippers. We even foun (and tried) various spirits sold in bottles with real cobras and scorpions. There was also a food departmemt where we ate delicious papaya salad and grilled chicken. We wished we could stay there longer, but we had to get early enough to our tent to get some sleep before another exciting day…

On the road – Heading to laos

Posted on March 9, 2010 by bettertogether

Believe it or not one of the greatest river of the world – Mekong – is dry. It does not happen very often. There are many theories how it could happen – the most widespread is that the Chinese blocked the dam and only little amount of water flow into the downstream river.

No matter what the reason is, it destroyed our plans of going with a slow boat on Mekong from the Thai-Lao border to the beutiful city of Luang Prabang. The bus option did not seem appealing to us because it was not nearly as romantic as going through the serpents of Mekong and the Lao roads had very bad reputation. Nevertheless, we decided to go by bus and bought a package including 2-day bus trip, dinner and one-night accomodation. It proved out to have its up- and down-sides, but lets start from the begining.

First, we took a mini-van from Chiang Mai to a town located at Lao border called Chiang Khong. We shared the bus with a guy from London Roger, who plays a very important role in our story, a middle-aged Canadian, a teenager from Holland, a couple from Switzerland heading for rock climbing in Vang Vieng and three english girls whom we already knew from our trekking trip.

white temple

During the 4 hours long drive to Chiang Khong, we stopped at White Temple in Chiang Rai ( Wat Rong Khun). It is a very unconventional conterporary temple made completely in white. The temple is still under construction, but it is already very impressive. The paintings inside the temple feature scenes from Matrix, Star Wars and other sci-fi motives.

sculpture in white temple

When we arrived at Chiang Khong we filled in the Lao visa application and paid 100 baht to a lady, who was supposed to take care of our visas. We ate dinner and talked to our travel mates. We were interested if it is necessary to take Malaria pills in Laos. Some people said that in Laos in contrast to Thailand there is a danger of getting malaria from mosquito bite. Most of the people took some pills but complained about the side effects, the most common being aweful nightmares. Since we were not going to travel in rural areas we decided not to take any antimalarial drugs, but we had some Malarone in our first-aid kit as an emergency medication.

After dinner we went for a walk along Mekong. Since Chiang Khong is a small village there is not much to see, so we had shakes and went back to our room.

mekong

On the next day we crossed Mekong with a small ferry. We got our passports back from the visa-lady, but we had still to apply for our visas – she did suprisingly little for the money we gave her. Another suprise waited for ous at the border. A Lao guide told us that we were supposed to take local bus to Luang Prabang, which takes 14 hours to reach the destination not 9 as we were told. Moreover, the morning bus was already full and we had to wait 3 hours for the next one. All in all we would not arrive at Luang Prabang in the evening, but early in the morning on the next day.

There was an alternative option: if we paid 200 baht each we could get a mini-van which would take as to Luang Prabang in 9 hours. It raised the costs of our trip to almost 2000 baht, but everyone agreed to pay it.

After a short while, we all had our visas and we got on a small mini-van. The road to Luang Prabang offered nice scenery: first it we went along the Mekong valley and then up to the hills, where it made thousands of curve.Unfortunately my stomach was protesting very badly with each curve. To make it worse, the road was very bumpy. There were intervals where the ride was quite smooth, but they were interleaved with periods of rodeo style ride. The further we went, the worse the road became. At times it was only a dirt road hardly to be recognised in the clouds of dust left by passing cars.

road to luang prabang

The slow ride towards Luang Prabang left us plenty of time to watch the Lao countryside. The scenery was much different from what we saw in Thailand. Most of the houses were made from bamboo or wood and they did not seem to contain modern facilities. The people inhabitting them differed much from Thais both in the facial characteristics and clothing. The landscape was dominated by hills, but the views were hidden behind thick smoke produced by the numerous fires in the woods normal for the dry season. We stopped twice to eat in villages, but the food we were served in a sort of motorway restaurant was rather raw and expensive.

The trip to Luang Prabang proved to take longer than expected – altogether it took 12 hours instead of promised 9 hours. We tried to kill the time by watching the first season of “how I met your mother” on my ipod and we almost saw all of the episodes.

As a result of the delay we arrived at Luang Prabang at midnight. We still did not have any accommodation booked and at this time it would be hard to find anything in a foreign city. Our driver did not know the city either and wanted to drop us somewhere at the outskirts. Fortunately enough, one of our travel mates Roger, knew a lady who owned a guest house and gave her phone call. Quickly she came on her motor bike and led the driver to her place. The rooms were full already so she offered us a tent in the garden. After 2-day trip we hoped for something better, but better this than nothing.

We had Lao beer and talked with other guests about the highlights of Luang Prabang, after which we went to long-awaited sleep.

09.03.2010

Better Together

Travel Blog of Maja and Bartek

Category Archives: laos

How mekong river got us again – viantine

Local bus story – on the way to viantine

Luang prabang, day 2

Luang Prabang, day 1

On the road – Heading to laos