Last Week in Laos (for now)

Wat Phu

Elephant trekking

We are back in Vientiane packing our clothes and presents ready for our departure for the airport and our flight to the UK. It is quite surreal realising Christmas is less than 2 weeks away, but we have not heard a Christmas Carol, there are no Christmas decorations, the shops are trading normally and the temperature is 30 degrees. The south of Laos is fascinating as it shares more of its history with Cambodia and the south east near the Vietnam border is very poor. Highlights of the last week have included a visit to Wat Pho - an Ankor era temple which was founded prior to Ankor Wat in the sixth century. Much smaller than its famous southern neighbour it occupies a beautiful position climbing up a hillside to a sacred spring which emanates from a sacred mountain and overlooks the Mighty Mekong River. Very old Frangipani trees with roots wrapped round and between the stones of the buildings were in full flower.
A short drive across the river took us to the Kingfisher Resort, styled like an African game lodge along the side of some wetland. We took a basic hut with a view across the wetland and were rewarded with one of the local elephants wading through the swamp, pulling vegetation then washing it before eating. We were privileged as the owner had not seen any since the end of the wet season. In the village we met a group returning from an elephant trek to a local stupa and watched as they dismounted and the mahouts took the elephants through the village to their quarters.

River Crossing on way to Attapeu

We cut east towards Attapeu along a road only passable in the dry season, and we could see why. There are no bridges or ferries so rivers have to be forded. We just made it across a couple where the water reached the floor of the van, but no higher. Attapeu (the major town in the area) has only had a surfaced road for 15 years and was the poorest province in Laos. The market reflected this with a lot of bush meat on sale including rats, squirrels, small deer, mice, frogs and various caterpillars.
Just outside Attapeu we bumped into a Swiss couple who crossed into China at the same time as we did and who we had briefly met before. It was good to exchange experiences before going our separate and opposite ways.

Ho Chi Minh Trail

SAM Missile

Tank Turret

North from Attapeu we followed around 60kms of the infamous Ho Chi Minh Trail which supplied the communist Vietnamese army in the south during the Vietnam War. Relics of the war are still evident including a Russian made SAM missile and the remains of a tank. The area is peppered with Unexploded ordnance from the war which still inhibits the clearing and development of more farmland. Along this road we came across some of the poorest villages we had seen in Laos. To get back to civilisation we had to use a basic ferry to cross a major river (they are now building a bridge), quite an experience.

Village Children

Heading back to Vientiane to leave the van here for Christmas we camped by a waterfall in another protected area, but saw no wildlife, just many hundreds of beautiful butterflies.
We return from the UK in the middle of January so there will be no more news of our travels until towards he end of January 2017. Have a great Christmas.




Ferry back to Civilisation

Waterfall by campsite

Mekong sunset

Lovely Laos Part 2

Back in Laos and have collected the camper from the garage. The temperature has eased from when we left for Japan, and is now a warm 20 degrees in the day and a pleasant 20 degrees at night.


Flooded Forest

Camping by the Meking

With two weeks to explore before we head home for Christmas we have headed east and south, initially along the main road to Cambodia - route 13, before cutting east through more stunning limestone scenery. Vertical cliffs rise from the flat paddy fields with jagged eroded summits etched against the sky. The whole area is riddled with caves, many only recently explored. We took a boat trip 7kms through the Khonglor  river cave passing a cavern of illuminated stalagmites and Stalagtites, the rest of the journey being in complete darkness with the boatman only using a torch to identify the route. As it is the dry season we had to get out a few times to east the boat over shallow rapids. A fascinating experience. Following the road east then south we drove alongside a newly created reservoir, and saw the dramatic effect is has - thousands of bare tree trunks stood forlornly in the water where the jungle had been flooded. Laos is building many new dams, mainly to generate hydroelectric power which is used to service Laos ever expanding population, but also to export to Thailand and Cambodia.


Road across the Bolaven Plateau

Village on Minor road

Heading south we spent a night camped on the banks of the Mekong, and were visited by the local military who wanted to know what we were doing there, but did let us stay, before cutting east again along a more minor dirt road. This started well, but after a couple of villages the road deteriorated dramatically, leaving us to weave our way past car sized pot-holes created during the wet season. Thankfully we are now in the dry season and the road is passable with care. Villages were spaced regularly along the 60kms of road and it made us appreciate the difficulty the locals must have transporting their goods out to market.
Further south the underlying rock is sandstone creating beautiful waterfalls which surround the Bolaven Plateau, an area around 1300m high which is famous for its high quality coffee. We took the opportunity to visit a few of the waterfalls, where we met a group of students from the local college who were learning English so were very keen to practice on us. Eventually extricating ourselves (we would have been there all day) we also drove across the Bolaven Plateau to see the coffee being grown. The road here was even worst than the previous day despite it being the main artery to several large coffee plantations. We had read about an NGO which is working with local small scale farmers to train them to grow, process and roast their own coffee. The not for profit organisation then sells the coffee, both in its café in Paksan and to buyers abroad giving the farmers a better than Fair Trade price, thus improving their incomes. Any profits the NGO makes are used to provide education on sanitation, and clean water to schools in the area. The coffee was fantastic and we spent a long time chatting to the couple who run the scheme, and also learning about the coffee production process.

Coffee Beans on the plant

Students studying English

Now we are back at the Mekong at Champasak with just one more week here before returning to the UK for Christmas. It is strange to think it is 7th December and we have not heard a Christmas Carol nor seen much in the way of Christmas goods, only a couple of Christmas trees in Vientiane.