Unlucky in Laos

After Chiang Mai I headed to Pai, also in the North of Thailand. This little place is extremely laid back and hippie - like. Everyone walks around in these chilling pants and batik shirts on no one is in a hurry. I loved this place. Most guest houses were just bamboo huts and after sleeping in a dorm a bit outside of town I decided to move a bit closer to town and I got my own bamboo hut, including a hammock on the balcony. It was so lovely and the view was great. In the first hostel I met an American girl and when we were walking the streets we run into to other travelers (guys) and the four of us have been best friends during our stay there. We did a 9 to 9 cooking class (we all cooked 5 delicious Thai dishes during a quite chaotic course with a bit of a crazy but friendly teacher, a great experience), we had some amazing breakfasts and refreshing beers together, and that's about all we did during a couple of days. Oh, not to forget the reggae festival we went to! I was there only the first of three nights and the weather was quite bad, but we were all happily dancing in the rain with our ponchos.

But the second day of the festival I was leaving Pai. Almost at the end of my travels, I still had to see some new places and although I really enjoyed being in Pai, I decided to go somewhere else. I was doubting, either to go to South thailand (and a full moon party) or North Laos (to Luang Prabang with the slow boat). I decided to do the latter. The two day trip with the slow boat on the Mekong river is listed by many travelers in the top 3 of most beautiful thing they've ever seen so I was really excited to do this. On the other hand I had read some negative reviews as well, by people who got really bored on this boat. I can easily enjoy myself without a lot of entertainment so I didn't think this would be really a problem for me.

I booked a package in Pai which included a trip in the minivan to the border, one night accommodation and breakfast, and the two days on the boat. Our minivan trip was crazy again, with a driver who raced through all the curves, killed a snake and almost a dog as well. The girl sitting next to me was so terrified during this trip! But we all were a bit scared. By the way, suddenly there were so many Dutch! I had never seen so many Dutch people at the same time during my trip. We were supposed to arrive at the border town at midnight, but despite of the driver's drive style we only arrived at the accommodation at 3 am, to find out that the accommodation was full. Luckily the driver brought us somewhere else (and I didn't mind since the guesthouse where we were supposed to stay had really bad reviews) and we could still sleep for 4 hours before we had to go again. Crossing the border, getting visa etc took a while, but was fine. But when it was time to get on the slow boat it started to rain. Not just rain, it was pouring like hell! So everyone got soaked before we reached the boat, we had to go through the mud at the river side and were all cold when we entered the boat. The rest of the day the rain didn't stop, in stead we experienced a thunderstorm as well with strong (and cold!) wind. The boat was open but we could close a kind of plastic curtains to protect us against the rain and wind, but because of this we couldn't see the (apparently beautiful) view anymore all day.

So, this wasn't really a success. At the end of the day (it was pitch dark already) we were dropped off in pak beng. We booked accommodation from a guy who promised us tuktuks to bring us there from the harbor, but there were only trucks wanting us to bring to pakbeng for 100 baht each (which is 2,50 euro), way to much if you consider the fact that we were loaded in the back of a truck like cattle with around 12 people, but we had no choice since it turned out that pakbeng was still a couple of kilometers away. We were afraid that the guy who offered us the accommodation had been lying to us (but he seemed so nice!) and that maybe the guesthouse didn't even exist. Luckily this wasn't the case and we found the accommodation and had a really nice hot shower (hot water is not standard here in South East Asia). It turned out that the town of pakbeng itself also had a harbor, from which we would depart the next day, so probably the captain of the boat just dropped us off too early (to force us to pay the tuktuk service from his friends?).

The positive thing of this day was that we were with so many travelers, all having this disappointing experience together, which created a nice bond between us (and now I'm still spending my time in luang prabang with friends from the boat).

We were so happy the next day when it was not raining anymore! It was still cold and cloudy, but at least this day we could keep the curtains open and enjoy the view. It was indeed beautiful, but less beautiful than I thought it would be, although this was probably because of the grey weather. When the boat stopped at a really small pier (well it wasn't even a pier) the whole group off travelers refused to get off. This was not Luang Prabang! We don't want to be forced to take tuktuks again to the city, we bought tickets to Luang Prabang city, not Luang Prabang province. After a lot of discussion (there was one Thai person who could spreek to the Lao people because the language is similar who translated most of it), even as a group, we lost. Apparently since 8 months this was the new harbor (yeah right) and no boats were going to the city anymore. The captain left the boat and we had no choice but to get off and take the tuktuk. I still don't know of the story of the changed harbor was true or not, but I haven't seen a harbor with those slow boats in the city...

Luang Prabang is a lovely place, though. It's quite small, laid back, has some french colonial influences (nice bakeries, and wine served in the restaurants) and enjoyable markets. I don't regret my decision just to stay here before flying back to Bangkok, in stead of traveling south to vang vieng and vientiane (a popular itinerary) in a hurry. We're unlucky with the weather though. It's nice during the day, although a bit chilly, but at night it gets really cold. So cold you can see your breath. You dutchies will probably laugh at me, being used to the winter cold already, but the thing is I don't have proper clothes with me, I don't even have a jacket!

I'm spending my days here with an Austrian boy (again an Austrian, now I get the feeling that all Austrians are really nice) and we have enjoyed our days walking around, eating really good food, renting bicycles and ending up being invited to volunteer at an English school for Lao students (where we indeed taught some English) and at a random party of coworkers of the forestry of luang prabang, of which we don't know what they are celebrating but it involves a lot of beer. With full moon we had to party of course, being in South East Asia, but because all bars here close at midnight, we end up at the only place open after twelve: the bowling club! It was hilarious.

We returned by tuktuk (because the place was in the middle of nowhere) so next morning I had to pick up my bike where I left it. But misfortune strikes again. The bike that I rented got stolen! The bicycle renting place wants me to pay 100 US dollars for the bike, which was in fact quite crappy and old so in no way worth this amount of money, but they have my passport as a deposit so I have no choice but pay. Though, after some bargaining and using the police as translator I paid with "all the money I have" (at least in my wallet, I was smart enough to tuck some of my other cash away earlier) and ended up paying about 50 euro, which is still way too much, but I was happy that I could have a normal conversation with them (with the handsome policeman as a translator) and nobody was getting angry. Within an hour I had my passport back.

But today me and my Austrian friend wanted to see the waterfall about 30 kilometers from here, and decided to rent bikes again to go there. This time, though, we chose proper mountainbikes. I really enjoyed the view on our way and also having some exercise, until on a downhill road going quite fast...

A huge hole in the road which I saw too late. I flew over my bicycle, ended up on the road with the bicycle on top of me. I was bleeding, but from where? It wasn't my arms which had only minor scratches, but it didn't take me long to find out it was my head! Oh my god, what to do next?
We stopped a car driving in the opposite direction and asked the driver to bring me to the hospital in Luang Prabang, and he was nice enough to do so. He couldn't really speak English but spoke a little French so I have been using the few words I still know in French on my way to the hospital.

Don't worry, I'm fine. Got two stitches in my head and some disinfectant on my other wounds, antibiotics to take to prevent my wounds from getting infected, but I'm feeling fine.
All in all, I haven't been so lucky here in Laos. Guess it's about time to go home.

(By the way, I was planning to do a bicycle tour on my last day in Bangkok, but I'm not sure if I'm still willing to.Bicycles don't seem to like me that much over here... )