February 2018 Laos and Cambodia

As mine and Morgans Thai visa expired on the 17 Feb we needed to get out of Thailand to renew our visas, so we decided to go visit Laos and Cambodia while we’re in this neck of the woods.

Valentine’s Day in Vientiane

We flew into Vientiane  (Laos)and stayed there for a couple of nights. We met Nigel an old mining friend of Warrens who had lived in Laos for 20 years. He kindly took us for a bit of a tour around and we went and saw his plot of land about 50 km out of the city on the banks of the Mekong. From here we hired a driver and mini van for a few days to drive us north over the mountains to Luang Prabang.  The first night we stayed in Vang Vieng ,a town north of Vien Tiane on the banks of the Nam Song River filled with backpackers and Chinese tourists.

Tubing

The highlight of this stay was tubing down the Nam Song River in big tire tubes. About 3 hours in the water with the chance to stop at lots of rave bars filled with semi naked youthful partygoers. Probably not great bars for Morgan to visit………………or Warren. I think we felt our age a bit so we opted to stay in the water all the way down. A few years ago there were as many as 20 bars lining the river with pulsating music, drugs and drink, which when combined with river activities proved to be quite fatal. 27 tourists died on the river in 2011 alone so the authorities clamped down and now only allow a handful or bars to operate.

 The next day we visited some of the enormous cave systems in the area and the aqua mountain pool. This was beautiful. A large natural pool with a zip line and swinging ropes where Morg had a ball. Only a few tourists here so a nice retreat from the maddening crowds. In the afternoon we continued our journey high into the mountains. Tiny villages dotted all the way up with houses hanging precariously over cliff edges. The scenery is spectacular up at 1400m, steep limestone mountains and deep valleys all veiled by a bluish haze. Probably from burning rubbish.

Laos Mountains

We stayed at a wee town called Phou Khoun, which is located at the intersection of the two main mountain passes. Not a lot of travellers about but we managed to find nice accommodation and a meal was available at a local restaurant after 6pm when the towns electricity would be turned on. A bit cooler up here too so the innkeeper supplied us with a few extra duvets. Not a lot happening in town so in bed by 9pm ready for an early start in the morning.

The next day was the downhill run to Luang Prabang, a world heritage site located at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. Very picturesque town with old French architecture, loads of Buddhist temples and lots of natural beauty. Here we did the mandatory tourist things, ride on the river in one of the narrow boats, visited one of the many temples and bathed with a few elephants in the Mekong-that was really special. Much as I don’t like the use of baby elephants as bridesmaids (you can hire a baby elephant for your wedding in Thailand) and always get the feeling that those poor creatures just aren’t happy performing for peanuts, my conscience was eased a little at the elephant sanctuary in Luang Prabang. These were rescued elephants, all had their own mahouts and a huge outdoor enclave was under construction so that eventually they could all roam free. Riding and bathing with them would soon be a thing of the past. Well, so we were told.

After three days here, we flew onto Siem Reap, Cambodia to have a squiz at the famous temple ruins of Ankor Wat. Built about a 1000yrs ago and surrounded completely by a man-made moat it is one of the largest religious monuments ever constructed. It gets you wondering how the heck something this complex and ornate could have been constructed without today’s technology.  Makes the pyramids look easy. For example, to create the moat around the temple, 1.5 million cubic meters of sand and silt were moved, a task that would have required thousands of people working at one time. No unions in those days I guess.

Ankor Wat

I wondered how long this structure would last though with 3 million tourists a year clambering over the ruins. No signs of the authorities trying to preserve it at all. The experience was spoiled a little by the sheer number of people visiting the site all vying for the best pictures and Chinese tour groups complete with guides shouting into loud halers. We spoke with friends who had visited here 20 years ago when they could wander around the site in silence with only a few hundred other tourists. Sadly, those days are gone. It makes me hanker for an isolated anchorage in some remote island or bay free of the maddening crowds, as we experienced in Flores.

Waterfalls at Phomn Kulen

We also drove to Phnom Kulen (literally Mountain of the Lychees) about an hour out of SR. The main attraction is the waterfalls at the top of Kulen Mount where Morg enjoyed a refreshing swim.  Kampong Phluk, a floating village built on stilts on the Tonlé Sap (largest freshwater lake in SE Asia)  was also fun. Hired a local boat to take us down the river where colourful houses  balanced on really high stilts to avoid flooding during the wet season. Once out on the lake we were hustled into little canoes paddled by the local women for a jaunt through the mangroves where we got ambushed by more ladies selling us their wares. Again I have an image in my mind of how this all was before the onslaught of mass tourism. Can’t blame them for making the most out of us tourists, but at what cost.

Trip finished and its back to Phuket for a few days before home to NZ and the big mine move.