Pictures: more of Laos....

Pictures: Laos 1

Transport in Laos

I told you....soon more to read and here I am.

I told you before that Laos is lazy...well they really are. I want to share some travel experiences with you.
My trip from Tad Lo to Tha Kaek was more or less like this: Expecting departure time 9.30am, and arrival time 5pm. I left Tad Lo in a non aircon local bus on time, buses normally do during early morning hours. To get to Pakse it took me for 80 km, 2 hours driving which was still fine. They stop everywhere a long the road to let more people in. 12am we left from the southern busterminal in Pakse. Bus was almost empty, only some locals and 2 tourists, I'm one of them. To stop for people is fine with me, but to stop without knowing why we are stopping somewhere in the middle of nowhere, not really. They do this all the time. Sometimes to pick up rice...onions...a lot of onions (see pictures)...or just nothing and waiting. We arrived in Savannakhet around 6pm and still some more hours to go. In this town we stopped, everyone had to get out of the bus and we waited on the side of the street....the bus dissapeared behind a big gate and we were just waiting. After 30 min. the bus came back....filled with of course...more rice and onions ;-) We drove 5 min and there was the busstation of Savannakhet....we stayed here for 1 hour! Question....why couldn't they do this whole loading thing at the busstation??? Well after the busstation nothing changed...more stops...more onions...and finally around 10.30pm we arrived in Tha Kaek.

One more: Vientiene to Vang Vieng....3 hours :-)

We left around 10am, around 12am lunch....it started to rain, not much just a bit. After lunch the road was steeper...we drove really slow...we slipped...we stopped...we slipped again...we were slipping backwards...everyone out of the bus as soon as possible. We waited for a hour...we decided to walk to they next village...we hitchhiked whole the way to Vang Vieng and arrived there around 3pm! Enjoy the pictures :-)

Last one: Vang Viang to Luang Prabang, departure 2pm, 6-7 hours trip, minivan
Together with 9 other tourists in a minivan we left around 2.30pm....and nothing went slow everything went fast....faster...fastest. Which resulted in one time all most over the edge, one time almost a collision with a bus, one time almost a dog under the car, one time I literally flew trough the bus and bumped my head to the top of the bus, thousand times being shaked from left to right. And this all with an amazing view! We really asked the driver to drive slower, because we wanted to get save to Luang Prabang. We made it! We arrived at 9 pm, including 2 longer breaks...probably he had been trying to improve his recordtime ;-) 

This whole is Laos pure :-) and why I had to extend my visa, and why I like this country....

whatelse happened:
- I went with Tyler and Johnny to Vientiene
- Vientiane is such a sleepy city...the most quiet capital I will probably ever visit
- I got a valentine rose
- I went with Johnny to Vang Viang, where I met Mariia again...now together with Amelie
- Vang Vieng is like Kuta Beach in december
- 2 euro for 20 teabags, 2 euro for a cappuchino, 2 euro for a deodorant, 7.5 euro for sunscreen....
- hardly disabled people....we are still wondering why
- Luang Prabang, world heritage city number one? can I life here...a huge YES!
- I won't discribe Luang Prabang...this is something you have to experience yourself.

I will stay a couple more days in Luang Prabang and definitely do some shopping. Afterwards more to the north for less city but more nature.

I'm still looking for a motorbike to buy and do the rest of Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia on a motorbike....so if you know or hear something, please let me know!

Although I'm having a lot of fun and I'm really blessed to be here...I do miss you that's for sure..

love carry

Laoooosssss: the first!

No I didn't forget to write, I haven't been ill, there was just no internet access or I was having to much fun...

Well what happened: I started on DonDet one of the 4000 islands in the south of Laos, which is an island where you can do nothing else than relax, eat and meet other tourists. I met a lovely indian-english couple and stayed a couple of days on this island. Our favorite place to eat was a 'restaurant' (Janine: read...warung) with one big table and 8 chairs. Everyone eating together like one big family. I loved it! Here I met Johnny the first time. I made more or less a travel plan for Laos, because I wanted to see as much as possible in 30 days (visa) of this lovely country. Because of my schedule I wasn't able to visit many more islands. In Cambodia they play Beachvolleyball in Laos they play petangue (jue de boules). Champaksak was the next stop. On the way to Champaksak I met a very nice swiss couple from Schaffhausen and hope to see them again when I'm back in Switzerland. In Champaksak is not much to do, except for visiting the amazing ruins of a Wat...and drinking Coffee Latte :-) Pakse next stop, one of the bases to explore the Bolaven Plateau. Here I met my sweet Mariia (finnisch girl) the first time. Together with the swiss couple we did a day of Waterfalls on a motorbike. And I saw Johnny again... After Pakse I decided to go to Tad Lo and to leave 'my friends'. Tad Lo is a sweet little town with not that many tourists but a relaxed atmosphere and...Mam's pap! (restaurant) and I spent here, like anyone else, more time than expected. Have to tell you that I already new in Tad Lo that I had to extent my visa....Laos is lazy...and so am I! In Tad Lo I was really lucky to find a bungalow in Palamei's Guesthouse. The owner is such a treasure. He and his family had with Austrian money the possibility to build up their little paradise with one secret place to stay called 'the bamboo hut' The day I wanted to leave there was a ceremony for 2 bungalows, one of them was mine :-). 

Short description of the ceremony:

- 7 am wake up 'call' they started to prepare the terrace of the bungalows.

- 7.30 am first alcohol: laolao, kind of whiskey and beer. A glass of beer goes around, you empty almost the whole glass and the last part you throw away.

- praying, singing, with the Monks and giving them food

- more beer....more laolao....

- 9 am first time food

- more beer...more laolao
- 11 am second time food

- and so on... I left around 1pm and ALL women were drunk, getting a bit rude, but still dancing, laughing, eating and drinking....I was back around 5pm and the party was over and the lao people were a sleep :-)

This was a whole experience...the funny thing was. When I saw some of these women, I had been eating, dancing and singing with the other day, they pretended not to know me anymore...  In Tad Lo I met Johnny again, together with some other guys. We decided to do 'the loop' together. The loop means nothing else then renting a motorbike for a couple of days and cruising around!

The loop starts in Tha Kaek. Summary of the loop:

- Just outside Tha Kaek the landscape is filled with beautiful limestone mountains, they will be  our friends for the next couple of days

- Johnny got in total: 2 flat tires, he lost his key. This problem was solved by Mc Gyver with a lighter and a plastic bag! and...his chain fell off. and the others??? NOTHING :-)

- we had to do an emergency home stay, due to a flat tire and a search for an almost impossible to finding cave (we were no longer on the traditional route of the loop anymore ;-)) The home stay was sleeping with 6 person on 3 mattresses on one side of the roof terrace and the locals in one row on the otherside. Loud lao soap television and the lights turned on during the whole night.

- 80 KM of dirty road...with a beautiful scenery 

- Konglor Cave 7 km long...just amazing

- speeding....speeding and having great fun! 

We made it all save and without big accidents back to Tha Kaek.

soon more....:-)