So. It is about time to continue where we left in My Memoir. I had a little bit of a ‘time off’ here for about a year. My aim now is to actually make My Memoir look like how my travels were, from this day. As many of you already know, I did travel quite a lot in the past few years. And I really want it all to be documented, in some specific place. So here I am. Again. 😀 This time, I’ll do it.
[Take #2]
After Northern Thailand we headed off to Laos. Some travelers choose the slow boat that goes down Mekong River and takes couple of days, but we decided to go for the bus. First of all, a mistake, second of all, don’t do it. Haha. Just go for the boat and enjoy the beautiful, peaceful views of Mekong surroundings.
Our wee bus drive was not a safe way to travel, at all. We were all horrified at one point. First it was fun and exotic. There were some cute local little kids running outside, next to our bus, waving at us. I also have a dim recollection of seeing someone naked running around… There were also cows on the roads, obviously, as everywhere in Asia there is. It was a night bus so as the sun went down it got dark pretty soon. The headlights of the bus would light up the surroundings and we could see the passing bamboo cottage villages, the conditions where the local tribes live. We would drive the mountain side, a narrow road which had pretty damn deep turns. At one point a cow jumped on to the road from like a bush or something, just out of nowhere. The bus had to put the breaks down and everyone woke up (or at least the lucky ones who were asleep) and started screaming as the bus felt like it was only on one side’s wheels. A bit before that we saw a truck in the bush (half of it on the road, half of it in the bush) and at least three times all together during the journey we witnessed some road accident. Thankfully it wasn’t us there.
But we survived.
And here’s what we experienced in Laos.
Laos has so much to offer for a backpacker. You can rent a motorcycle and drive around the country, you can stay at hostels or even with the locals! It’s such a beautiful country. Up north there is lots of mountains and little villages, down south it’s more flat. Our way went to Luang Prabang, then to Vang Vieng, quickly through Vientiane and finally to 4000-islands all the way down south, close to the border with Cambodia.
The bus journeys were awfully long (even though the distances don’t seem that long in the map), and I suggest you to take it in consideration when planning your trip! I met two guys who went only to Laos (from Canada) just for a little holiday of less than two weeks, and they wanted to explore the whole country by that. It’s not gonna happen, not if you want to chill at the same time – Laos, and Asia in general, is the best place to chill. So take it easy and do yourself a favor; plan your trip so that you’ll have time to get to know the culture as well, and not just the bus stops.
Bus tickets are easy to buy, either from the bus stations or even some hostels. Buses are quite well equipped, you might even have “a bed” there if it’s a night bus. If you need to pee, you might have a toilet break somewhere in the middle of the road, just go outside and do your things on the side of the road. Often though you don’t have to do that, because everywhere in Southeast Asia there’s a pretty good filling/service station-system, where you can buy food and you’ll have decent toilets and a decent break. Especially if you’ve got a long bus journey ahead.
If I can recommend you something in Laos, I would recommend you to go to Luang Prabang and eat the most-delicious-baguettes EVER and take a trip to the beautiful waterfalls close-by! Also Vang Vieng is a stunning place, even though the local life is unfortunately been ruined by drunk tourists. The place is now much better than it used to be in the last century, when the drugs arrived in Vang Vieng. But if you like tubing or for example rock climbing, it’s the ultimate place to do that.
Kop chai lai lai!
(Thank you, a lot!)
Remember to memorize some of their sayings, like thank you, and you’ll get better service and lots of smiles back. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Here’s the map and some magical photos of magical places in Laos!
About 4000-islands (southern Laos) I will make a whole another blog post, because I have so many photos of it. 😀
Kop chai lai lai!
Bye bye, and see you later (alligator)!
P.S. If you’d like to see more of my photos, from any of my trips in Southeast Asia, you can find them from our Facebook page “Mymmelit Matkassa”. 🙂
❤ Jena
wild world - my route 