Category: Laos

How do we get by this one?

We were among the lucky ones.

We’d heard of the landslides in Laos. The horror stories and pained, annoyed faces from backpackers who recalled their treacherous journeys had us ready for any landslides in Laos that came our way. Trekking one hour with a 10-kilogram backpack past a landslide in the mountaintops of who-knows-where, Laos,was something we started mentally preparing ourselves for before we left Luang Prabang on the morning on the 9th.
The roads in Laos are not roads at all; they’re sporadic strips of mud weaving around potholes. You would think our driver was incredibly intoxicated with the swerves he was making. I felt like a rag doll, and sitting in the backseat of our ‘luxurious’ minivan wasn’t making the situation any easier, even though Molly and I had room to spare. Everyone else was packed in the rows in front of us.
The trip like the one from Luang Prabang, Laos, to Vang Vieng, Laos, is the perfect example why it’s best to backpack Asia when you’re young. The journey should take about 6 hours, but by Laos time that means it really takes about 2 days. Not only are the people incredibly slow paced and laid back, but the la landslides along the way don’t make traveling through Laos any easier.
We left at about 2 p.m., and the whole drive was trhough windy mountainy roads. We made it about an hour or so before we pulled over. It wasn’t for any bathroom stops or scenic picture taking. No, no – this was for the landslide that was in the process of being cleaned up. We braced ourselves for the worst, preparing for about 3 hours waiting out the landslide until we could continue driving, as mod backpackers told us they were stopped anywhere from 3 hours to 10 hours on the side of the road.
This was like a free-for-all. The second the landslide was cleaned up, drivers were rounding up their cars with the English equivalent of “go, go, go!”. It was like a mad dash to the van, and our driver started driving before most people were in the car and properly seated. The two locals we picked up along the way were jumping in as we were on the move. Everyone is just driving like mad, cutting one another off to make through as little bits of rubble and tree and mud and everything else rolled down the mountain on our right hand side, our left was just a drop off.
It was one of the most entertaining yet terrifying minutes of my life, but we made it through safe and sound.
The entire drive will be forever etched into my memory. Laos is just beyond comprehension incredible. As tired as I was for waking up at 4:45 to watch the alms giving (the monks collecting their daily rations of food for the day), I couldn’t bring myself to close my eyes. Laos is lucious, endless rolling green hills unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. It was and will be one of the most memorable rides of my life. If you have ever read the Alchemist, there’s a quote somewhere in the book where the author says something along the lines of, if you’ve ever taken a moment to contemplate one grain of sand, you with see it in all the marvels of the universe
That is all I kept thinking of the entire drive through Laos. It was mind blowing to me that I was just one person in this huge world, and it just felt endless.
There were tons of mountainside villages along the side of the road, their huts situated with a backdrop that made you wonder whether they ever take it for granted. People were bathing and showering in the little ditches alongside the road, this little pipe extending out and bringing them fresh water from the mountaintops. There were 10 people at a time huddled around the pipe. The men kept on their underwear and the women were master at showering with a towel on. Kids were playing in the dirt, and I found myself wondering whether they ever get bored and how they keep themselves entertained. The backdrop was incredible beyond belief, but I couldn’t imagine growing up that way. It was the first time in my life I felt like I saw extreme poverty, these little one room shacks filled with people and a huge satelite dish next to them. Crazy, no?
I am on someone else’s computer, so I am going to cut this short. I watched Mikey’s game yesterday from an Aussie bar in Vang Vieng – a backpacker’s heaven and rite of passage. This is probably my favorite place of all time, because at the start of each day of tubing down the Mekong river, lined with bars on each be side, you get different color rope bracelets. So, yeah, let’s just say a few more days here and my arm won’t be visible anymore.
Published from Vang Vieng, Laos. (my location button won’t work at the moment so I wrote it in myself.)

Alms giving at around 6:30 a.m. in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Laos is a place of unsurpassable beauty. There is such a tangible energy in this small town that makes it even more enchanting than the do beautiful, crumbling and faded temples peeking out amongst the greenery. Molly best described it this morning as we climbed down from a temple situated at the top of a hill: raw. Laos still seems and feels incredibly unknown, and you can tell just by looking out onto the neverending vastness that there is so much to see and to touch and to discover. This is a place I’d love to come back to and get lost in.
It is our last morning here in the city of Luang Prabang, a particularly short visit making it a better reason to return.
We woke up this morning before the sun was out and sleepily drifted through the streets to see the giving of the alms. Every morning at around dawn, the monks walk through this little town to collect their daily rations from the local townspeople who come out to give them food (mainly rice). It is a sacred ritual, one that is quiet in the moment but loud as it passes by. I felt a bit guilty taking pictures of something so intimate, but I did want to capture it all. What was most surprising – or, maybe the better word is fascinating – is how young somr of these monks were; some were little boys no older than 10 years old. I’m not quite sure what the story is behind the younger monks, whether it is a rite of passage and every boy participates at so e point, or if it is just an early calling.
Yesterday was a day spent in dreams – a beautiful waterfall, cool water and a rope swing to make us feel like we were in the wild. Climbing up the tree to get to the rope swing was a bit nerve-racking, as I tend to have a fear of falling or slipping off of things. But, with my hands gripping around it and my heart beating fast, I jumped and went swinging through the air, landing in the water without a belly flop. Quite the success I think.
I’m headed to Vang Vieng in just a few short hours, a place all backpackers find themselves lured to and trapped in for longer than they intended to stay. I will be watching my brother, Michael, in his USA rugby game on September 11th, with the lives of those lost on that day in my heart, cheering for him and his teammates. I hope you will, too.
Must go get myself a Lao special sandwich for breakfast now – the closest thing I’ve had to Italian bread in a long time.