The old French colonial city of luang prabang

First I'd have to tell you that Luang Prabang is beautifull.  The old French colonial style which is still noticeable and part of their own culture now. A good thing about this is that we are able to eat baguette with La vache qui rit, the French cream cheese. Ohh so good. And amazing noodle soups for breakfast , lunch and dinner haha. 

One day we rent a simple town bike with no gears as Luang Prabang is quite flat. Of course we were not planning on staying in the city and went outside to visit an amazing waterfall. We knew this particular waterfall was 30 kms outside the city. What we did not know was that the road through there was mountains going up and down... This basically meant: we had to walk the mountains up and roll down and repeat this course several times. But In the end it was so worth it! We could swim in the waterfall there and we left so early that we were nearly the only ones. Just us and 4 Australians. In the so welcoming cold water, a real treat after the "not so fun" bike ride. But yet again, this waterfall is so amazing, I would not have wanted to miss it.

 

The other days we planned our Vietnam trips and visited the Vietnam embassy for our Visum. Another page filled in our passports! Every night we  visited the nice night markets of the city and enjoyed delicious Lao food! 

Hidden in the ocean of ricefields: Luang namtha

After china, like two months ago, we have been two lazy people. The hardest activity was searching food and riding scooters haha. While riding a scooter is quite exhausting In Asia it was nothing physical. We thought we needed a change and go to the part of Laos that most travelers skip. The north. We were looking forward for a not so long ride to the north, not even 300 kilometer, WRONG. It took us 12 hours to get there, and the driver was in such a hurry that he sadly even killed a dog. He filled a 11 person minivan with 16 people and even another tourist got  his shoes stolen. You could say, a hellish ride.

Here we went kayaking for the first time in our lives, a total failure!! We could not keep the boat straight and it was so damm heavy as we did not know what we were doing. And the worst part was, it was a 7 hour trip with just 1 hour brake!! After a first real rapid we almost capsized and feared for our lives. Time to change some passengers. Nina went with one of the guides and Tom with a other tourist. This was better, now we could also look a littlebit around as the surroundings are stunning. Between the big mountains and wildlife. Nina even noticed a snake eating a bird, talking about wildlife! Also while having a break we learned why there are not so many street dogs in Laos. We had lunch in a small minority town and there was a puppy. However, the children were not really playing with it. More like kicking around, why?? Well apparently it's for on the barbecue. Tom's jaw dropping open in disbelief. Eating puppies? A Girl who was kayaking with us tried to explain that puppies are for cuddling like babies. But they simply did not understand. It's just like chicken and pork, dinner.

Partytown Vang Vieng

A few years back when someone said opium, they would say Laos. Especially vang vieng. Several years back this small one street town was overrun by backpackers our age. What they did here was as followed: get in a tube (the inside of a tractor band) and flow down the river while hopping from bar to bar smoking opium and getting totally wasted. After to many Australians and English died (who else?) the government destroyed the opium bars. But still, this is the party town of Laos.

As we had to wait 4 days for our Visa (for Vietnam) we decided to head to this nearby town and see what all the fuzz was about. So we as well would go tubing and drink a beer or two(ish). Arriving at the first bar was like arriving at the zoo. Everyone was already drunk, playing drinking games or doing other things. Well, we had some time to catch up and started with the first beer. We could only imagine how it has been a couple years ago but today it's still crazy. A guy wearing a my little pony shirt flossing a condom through his nose and mouth. Needless to say, a diffrent crowd from what we experienced in the last few months. Tubing from bar to bar and from beer to beers was actually fun and beautiful. It reminds us of Guilin/yangshuo in China. And well beer Lao is definitely the best beer in Asia! The Party crowd was a bit young though (yes, even here you start to feel old!) Shit we are getting old!!! Nevertheless a blast. 

Furthermore, Laos is so laid back! A perfect holiday destination I'd say. Hammocks next to river and at nearly all the hotels.  A Wide variety of food and cafe's. We did not expect this to be so nice. Once again, not everything on the internet is true, better expierence it yourself!

Vipassana meditation - Enlightment, free state of mind

As some may have seen on Facebook we stayed in a monastery for a couple of days to practice vipassana meditation. We got this wild idea first in Myanmar but it was not doable with our planning. When riding our scooter to Mae Hong Son we noticed the sign and later we met someone who stayed there a week. So we were convinced, why not!

A short intro, it's hard! Buddha created vipassana and it's more than bringing your mind at ease as Samatha meditation or yoga does. Samatha is the first step of vipassana but when you learn and excell the first level you will learn about your body and how to control it. You will live and think in the now and not the future nor past which Buddha states useless. Our mind is always full of thoughts and vipassana helps you to stop these thoughts and get a clear mind.

The temple is surrounded by mountains and in the middle of the jungle. The closest town in atleast 30 kilometers away. And the nearest road around 2 kilometer away. Other words, total silence of civilization.  We got to the monastery by hitch hiking. Our first time, it was a blast haha.  After 15 minutes and no success we were almost about to give up (really: no patience at all!). Somehow our Thai sighn was unreadable and we didn't even know if our hotel owner wrote the correct name. Anyway, after waiting for around 20 minutes until a family stopped with a brand new pick-up truck and threw us in the back. We just imagined how this guy was giving his children lessons not to do this in the future haha. He drove like a complete maniac through the mountains. What is 4 hours by bus he did in 90 minutes.. But we got a free ride haha. And he even dropped us off right in front of the temple.

Arriving at the temple and being amazed by its beauty we read the rules and agenda for everyday. But at first sight it looked like a rehab or psychological clinic, everyone is dressed in white clothes, silent and a bit out of the ordinary. See picture below, we were in for a fun time... We got our own little Kuti, a small hut (men and women separate!). No beds, you had to sleep so .... Somber.... Like the monks straight on the floor. Still. The bungalows were new and quite nice. In the morning we had breakfast at 6:30 after giving the monks their rice. A very nice buddies routine. And no talking haha, Nina wanted to leave after a day. Silence does her no good (and she had to fight with cockroaches in her room the night before). Everyone there took the whole thing very serious and nobody was Ever talking to each other. After we got our morning meditation, we both liked this one most. No bugs, cold and not so tired yet.  We started with the walking meditation, walk slow with feet and breathing in sync. Breathing in, buuuuuu, and left foot up. Breathing out, doooooo, right foot down. This is everything that is supposed to be in your mind. Quite hard as the mind drifts of a lot to see the waterfall at the right, the big lizard on the left and so on. Which is ok, if you won't go into details, know it's there and go on, no details is key! Next: sitting meditation. Sitting Crosslegged for 40 minutes with the eyes closed and breathing in sync with buuuuuu doooo again. Very very hard, as I (Tom) can't sit like that with stupid painful knees and such. After that comes the laying meditation. Which seems to be the hardest since you hear people snore peacefully after 10 minutes. But ohh so nice.

This went on for a couple of days until I thought my knees would not take it no more. And then in the evening meditation I had a breakthrough! I was not only able to sit for 40 minutes straight. But also to forget the pain in the knees, feel at ease, putting thoughts out and concentrate on a single thing I wanted to feel the body part by part. Which was working, somehow. After this I could always sit this way, turn off the pain and go away. 

After 5 days we had enough, Nina had a few cockroaches as roommates (which she couldn't get rid of) and I had 2 huge, huge lizards. First time I saw one in my room I thought huh I don't have this color of towel, until I saw the towel had eyes. But better than the snake an other girl had in front of her Kuti. Reminder: the middle of the real jungle!

We hitchhiked back to Pai, which now took a lot longer and more than 1 ride. But fun! Up to the next: Laos.

Downstream the prestige Mekong river - Thailand to Laos

After our (extended) stay in Thailand with an unforgettable ending experience in the temple we decided to head to Laos. The way was a long and rough one. Starting from Pai to Chiang Kong with a small stop in Chiang Rai, the old opium empire. A quite disturbing temple that place has, but frankly beautiful. See the white temple pictures below. After a 12 hour ride we arrived in a the small village Chiang Kong only to leave the other day. Getting our last Thai curry, I will miss this dearly! 

 

 

 

The next day we got to the border, paid the fees, got our next stamp and headed to the boat on the calking  Mekong river. A small long boat filled with old car chairs and lots of tourists. The trip was 2 days with around 18 hours on the boat. The views were stunning and the river is crazy strong. The Rhine is childsplay when you compare the two. In the late afternoon we arrived in Pak Beng a small transit town. The next morning, we decided to go to the boat early and found some nice seats. We noticed that the boat was quite smaller then the day before, we knew we were lucky right away. And we were! A lot of people had no seat and had to stand for like 8 hours. They started a small riot wanting a new boat. these people seem to forget we are in Asia, but they got friendly reminded by a Lao guy who yelled: "Welcome to Lao!!". The faces ohh man, I wish I could show them. My day was Already made. In the afternoon we arrived in the old capital of Laos and former colonial city of the French, Luang Prabang.

 

The escape of the "hippies" - Mae Hong Son

As Nina wrote about her love/hate relationship with Pai we discussed that we had to find another place in northern Thailand but it had to be reachable by scooter. We met a Belgium couple before and they showed some nice pictures on Facebook of Mae Hong Son. About 130 km from pai. It looked beautiful so we decided to move on.

In two days Tom drove 350 km and 1862 mountain bends from Chiang Mai to Pai and from Pai to Mae Hong Son. A super ride through mountains with stunning scenery, Ricefields, mountains, rainforest, normal forest and small local villages. Awesome!

Once we arrived at the destination, Mae Hong Son, we loved it instantly. It may not be as beautiful as Pai. But there were almost no tourists! No wannabe drunk/stoned hippies or chinese tourist. Just nature and some long lost Europeans. 

We drove around and ended up at the Myanmar border, in the mid 90s you were not able to get there because there were no roads at this time and you would get shot due to the cocaine business of the north. But this is all gone and the opium fields were turned into rice fields. The roads were again curved which makes the ride through it a lot more fun. Also there were some sort of bridges under water. Meaning that there was water flowing over the road were you have to drive, even whole corners under water. It was a sight of the real Thailand as you can see people living their normal days and not set-up for the tourist. 

We went to a Spa and got a Mudd Mask for the face. HAHAHA

One day we will come back and rent a motorcycle and drive all of the north. It's simply stunning.