Oliver’s Loops

Thursday 28 October 1999 - Thursday 4 November 1999                                              

Another of Oliver’s suggestions had been a two day trip out into the mountains to some of the more remote areas in adjacent Xayabury province, with a particular hope of seeing some of the many elephants Lao villagers use as working animals out in the jungle.  Given how slow travel upriver can be, we opted to take a speedboat.  We had already heard them tearing up and down the river on our previous excursion and wondered how people could possibly stand the noise they made; we soon realised that it’s a small price to pay to whack the journey time by half ... especially if you take the precaution of wearing ear plugs!

We arrived in the village of Ta Sueng not having a clue how to get from there to our overnight stop miles away in Pakbeng.  Presumably we looked as if we hadn’t a clue as one of the guys who had been travelling with us offered us a lift.  We gladly clambered into the back of his four-wheel drive and a few hours (and a few hundred pot holes) later arrived at our destination.  The only hotel in town left a lot to be desired but for a few dollars a night and cold running water, it was a bargain.  The next morning we met up with a friendly Swiss guy, Etienne, who had also been given Oliver’s tip, and the three of us headed to the market to try and acquire transportation to Muang Ngoen, which we had been told was home to more than a hundred domesticated elephants used for logging and agriculture.  Animal activists, rest easy.  These people hold their elephants in high regard; so much so that there is an annual ceremony held solely on their behalf!

By now, we were totally off the radar screen of even the guidebook and negotiations proved somewhat arduous as none of us spoke any Lao, but after a couple of false starts, we finally got on the right track and were in Muang Ngoen by early afternoon.  The village is situated very close to the Thai border and appeared to be more of a trading point than anything else but it was a pleasant place to spend the day and take in some rural Lao culture.  After finding ourselves somewhere to get a bowl of noodles, we wandered  through the neighbouring fields and visited their beautiful Wat Ban Kon, a traditional Thai-Lu (Green Thai) style temple where the monks still use palm leaves to preserve their Buddhist texts.  And we were not disappointed on the elephant front either.  Not that we saw a hundred but enough to realise why these animals are so important to the people in rural areas.

The following day, we made our way back to Ta Sueng, this time by local transportation – over twenty people in the back of a covered truck, not counting those either sitting on top or hanging on for dear life at the back.  At Ta Sueng we parted company with Etienne; he was heading upstream to cross over into Thailand; we were heading back to Luang Prabang before branching out on another 'off the beaten track' adventure on our way back to Vientiane.

The boat trip back down river was hysterical.  Not at  all comfortable and seemingly endless but in between the local ladies drying their river weed (presumably they were taking it down to Luang Prabang to sell), locals dragging livestock aboard to ship to market and meeting a few new faces, there was quite a lot to keep us entertained.

Back in Luang Prabang, we headed for the nearest restaurant and filled up on laap (the best dish we had on our entire trip, consisting of minced lamb, fresh herbs and chilies) and many other local delicacies we had missed after two days on noodles and inedible-looking vegetables wrapped up in plant leaves.  With only a day's stop over, we had just enough time to say our goodbyes to Oliver and Bonnie before we were back on the road again.

From Luang Prabang we took a local bus back to Xayabury, but this time towards the provincial capital.  Local buses tend to leave when they’re full as opposed to on schedule so we got there early to claim our seats rather than be the last two to make up the numbers and have to hang off the back!  From experience, we had learned that there didn’t seem to be a limit to the maximum number of people you could fit into a vehicle regardless of how big or small, and it always amused us to see how many more people the driver would  squeeze on board once it was already full to overflowing.

Our journey was interrupted by a river crossing and by the time we had reached the other side, the rain was teeming down and we were the last people to the trucks, being offered “seats” standing on the rear bumper and hanging onto the roof.  We politely declined.  Instead, we hitched a lift with a Korean businessman who presumably took pity on us given the state of the weather.  He was in Laos looking for five elephants to buy and ship back to Korea to a game park he and his company were developing there.  We had no idea what the price of an elephant was, but we did find out that it costs over $15,000 to fly them to Korea.  Good luck to him!

Despite its proximity to the nation’s capital and its location bordering Thailand, Xayabury is one of the most remote provinces in Laos.  It’s extremely mountainous and as we were to find out, devoid of vehicle roads  except for one north-south route.  The provincial capital had little of interest but there were a couple of wats to explore complete with monks keen to practice their English.  The next day, we were on the move again, packed into the back of yet another local 'bus' to Pak Lai where we hoped to be able to pick up a boat all the way down the Mekong to Vientiane.  As there were no other people wanting to travel downriver, we were left with the option of waiting a day or hiring the whole speedboat to take us there.  We dug deep into our pockets and opted for the latter, and over pasta and wine in the capitol that night it seemed a brilliant decision. 

Our next stop was to be Vietnam.  We booked our flights and had a day in Vientiane to take another look around, this time with a primary focus on the souvenir shops.  One of our greatest finds was a textile shop owned and run by Carol Cassidy, a Yankee who has devoted her life to textile design and weaving.  She now lives in Laos and, using local weavers, takes traditional Lao designs and creates first-class contemporary weavings.  We have just received the wall hanging she designed for us, and it is exquisite.

The following day, with bags packed and two hours to our flight, we saw on CNN that Vietnam was suffering from heavy rainfall and parts of it were under 3 metres (10 feet) of water.  Not having brought wellies, we decided to re-route and feeling in need of some sun and relaxation, opted for a flight to Bangkok and then on to Phuket.  Just what the doctor ordered.  Or so we thought . . .