Often when I meet people who have been travelling through Southeast Asia I get some very similiar responses about different places:
“How was Thailand?”
“Oh, it was nice. The beaches and islands were fun.”
“Did you like Cambodia?”
“Yeah, of course, Angkor Wat was amazing, but that drive really sucked.”
Pretty much the same stories from everyone…quiet enthusiasm for places that are a bit the same. But then you ask, “Did you go to Laos?” and you see a very different reaction. People get this calm look on their face, their eyes focus off on serenity in the distance, and this little grin breaks out, “Lao, yeah Lao amazing.” (To people who’ve been, the “s” stands for silent)
After just a couple of days here I can completely understand how they feel. Laos seems to be at a very special time in it’s development where it’s still relatively quiet and undisturbed, but there is just enough infrastructure to make it easily accessible to people (much more accessible than even the latest guidebooks make it out to be). The country itself is beautiful, the people are extremeley friendly, and it’s a very calm and laid back place.
We are currently in Vang Vieng, which is a stopover on the long from from Vientiane (the modern capital) to Luang Prabong (the ancient capital). This waypoint has become a bit of an adventure destination in it’s own right, with a cottage industry for kayaking/tubing/rafting down the river, climbing the massive limestone crags, and spelunking through some enormous underground caverns. The down itself is no more than a couple of main streets surrounded by some outling farms; it reminds me quite a bit of my home town actually… Around this, a handful of guesthouses, restaraunts, and of course, internet cafes have sprung up to cater to the Farang travellers in search of a little adrenaline.
We’re probably going to stay here for a couple of days (at $2-$8/night for a nice room, how can you go wrong), then we will either make the long journey north to LP or we might try to stop off at a smaller town up north which supposedly has larger/less explored caves. But first we have to try to usual traveller information source, chatting with people around town.
