After Vientiane, Jill and I took a bus five hours north to Vang Vieng, Laos, a scenic little resort town in the north of the country. It reminded me of northern Vietnam–limestone peaks and lush vegetaion crowding up against the Mekong River.
Our highlight (or lowlight?) for this portion of the trip was surely an ill-fated kayaking/trekking trip we took with a group of other tourists. The outfit was fly-by-night; they weren’t prepared to guide us along the Nam Song river, which had swolen due to overnight rains.
We put in–Jill and I in one kayak–and things went downhill fast. We ran into an overhanging thorn bush and then lost control of our vessel. We made our way to the riverbank and clung to some nearby trees; our kayak was long gong. Our guide went further downstream to rescue some similarly unlucky kayakers (and our abandoned ship) before returning to us and telling us to forget the rest of the river journey. We all got out and went to a nearby lodge to have lunch.
The day got worse from there. After lunch, Jill went to use the nearby outhouse and was stung on the ass by a centipede. Ever the trooper, she wasn’t too worried about her wound, but upon hearing about the sting, our guide, an old Laotian guy, insisted on applying a topical antibiotic directly to the affected area. (I’m quite certain he had no ulterior motives, and I monitored the application process to be sure.)
We continued with our tour–which involved more kayaking and some encounters, while trekking, with some quicksand-esque mud–and then returned to town content that we were still alive. (And, sadly, I discovered that the tour operators had lost my beloved University of South Carolina baseball cap, which I’ve had for nearly 10 tears and stupidly left in their truck after assurances that they’d look after it.) This folly-filled foray, mind you, didn’t cloud our feelings about Vang Vieng–it’s truly a beautiful place and I recommend a visit if you’re ever in the area.
We left the next day and bussed five more hours north to Luang Prabang, which is one of the most captivating cities I’ve ever visited. The gorgeous city center is situated on a peninsula between the Mekong and it’s tributary, the Kahn river; verdant hills cloister the city in a serene valley. A sense of calm pervades the place–young Buddhist monks in their saffron robes stroll down the streets; narrow longboats float by on the rivers; not much happens (like Vientiane, but more so). Luang Prabang’s a UNESCO World Heritage site, and for good reason.
One afternoon, we took a taxi to the nearby Kuang Si falls. We hiked to the top and then swam in the wading pools near the bottom. Really quite beautiful. (Side note: On the way back, our taxi driver stopped at an overlook for us to snap some photos. A truck carrying some tourists had also stopped there, and I overheard an Asian tourist–perhaps from Japan–telling some British travelers that a couple years ago he’d visited Cambodia and had witnessed a German pay money to shoot a Cambodian for fun. He claimed the German had paid US $400 to pull the trigger, while he’d paid 100 to watch.)
After a few more days lazing about Luang Prabang, we took a flight back to Vientiane, where we stayed overnight. From there, we flew back here, to Taiwan, via Bangkok. It was, overall, a fabulous trip. I’m hoping to post photos here soon.
One final thing: the trip lasted three weeks; we were largely without TV and the Web, so we had lots of downtime. Here’s what I read; as I look back on the journey, these items occupy an important part of my memories of the trip:
—“The Ultimate Good Luck,” an excellent novel by one of my favorite living writers, Richard Ford;
–The New Yorker Summer Fiction issue (I agree with Dana on Alice Munro’s three stories: “Enough with the steadfast midcentury Canadian matrons already”);
–A recent issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review, which had a special feature on knowledge management systems, which appealed to my techie side;
–The delightful novel “Life of Pi,” by Jann Martel;
–One half of Michael Crichton’s memoir/travelogue compendium, “Travels” (Why only half? Because let’s just say this: Mike should stick to fiction);
–One half of the incomparable Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” which is sort of a hard sciences-version of Jared Diamond’s brilliant “Guns, Germs, and Steel.” (Why only half? Because it’s really really long, and I’m still working on it.)