I found a cheap round-trip flight from Las Vegas (my home at the time) to Singapore. Within Asia, a plethora of low-cost airlines has made air travel insanely cheap. Bangkok is a convenient hub for SE Asia and airlines like Thai Air Asia offer flights as low as $25-40.
I arrived in Singapore at night and slept on the floor of the airport before leaving very early the next morning for Bangkok. I spent a few hours in the city before making my way to Bangkok's domestic airport and flying to Chiang Rai in the north of Thailand. From here I took a bus to Chiang Khong, a town on the Mekong River opposite Laos. I spent the night here at a hostel and took a stroll along the riverfront. The Lao town of Huay Xai was directly across the river - barely half a mile away - and I could see cars on the other side, driving on the right side of the road. On the Thai side, cars drive on the left. Early in the morning, as I made my way to Laos, I saw monks out early collecting alms and giving blessings. It was a serene scene that must be repeated all over Asia each morning.
Unfortunately, they do not make the crossing easy, and like other towns who locate the bus stations far outside of town, I have a feeling this is done to create employment opportunities for locals because the journey requires multiple steps. Even though my destination was half a mile away, there is no bridge in the town nor ferries to take you across. I had to take a tuk tuk 10 km south of town to the Friendship Bridge, take a bus to cross the bridge (after clearning customs, the bus crossed from driving on the left to driving on the right!), and then find transportation to get from the Lao side 10 km back up to Huay Xai. I was traveling with a Dutch couple I had met and on the Lao side the taxis were demanding ridiculous fares, so we hitchhiked, which worked until the guy who picked us up could not figure out where we were going. He eventually dropped us off halfway there and we found a tuk tuk who took us the rest of the way.
At a shop in Huay Xai, Laos
From Huay Xai you can head for "the Gibbon Experience" - a multi-day excursion living high in the trees and ziplining between canopy shelters, but given the price and the multi-day trip it involved, I chose not to do that. I did opt for a 2-day Mekong River boat journey from here to the city of Luang Prabang. For centuries the Mekong has been the lifeblood of all of SE Asia, and along the shores we saw several settlements, children playing, fish traps, washing laundry, etc. We stopped in the town of Pakbeng for the night, where locals will accost you with offers of a room, which can be had for about $5.
(Left) The boats we spent 2 days on along the mighty Mekong River
The next day, we arrived in Luang Prabang. This is a tourist hotspot filled with guesthouses and beautiful temples. I hiked to a nearby waterfall and watched the sun set from a hill above town.
Around Luang Prabang:
A heavy load? Laos is a one-party communist state Monks
Rice cakes drying in the sun
Haw Pha Bang
From Luang Prabang I took a 7-hour bus ride to Phonsavan. Only 76 miles away as the crow flies, roads in Laos are narrow and poor, so buses travel very slowly and must stop if there's an accident a wide load coming the other way. Phonsavan is known for a rather grim reason - it is where the United States bombed relentlessly during the Vietnam War. For 9 years, 24 hours a day, Laos was bombed roughly every 8 minutes and remains the world's most bombed country. Even worse, tons of unexploded ordinance (UXO) litter the countryside, only to explode when farmers are working their fields or children are playing. They continue to kill and maim to this day. So, what is there to see today?
The land is pock-marked with bomb craters. Medal from bombs are collected, melted, and re-shaped into utensils, trinkets, and other useful items. There is a small museum in the city center that explains challenges of UXO, show examples of "bombies" that litter the countryside, and also has a store where UXO victims make handcrafts. I bought a few things to bring back to my family.
I rented a motorbike to better explore the area and set out. (It took me a short while to figure out the manual transmission on the motorbike!) I also found a cave where people took shelter from the US bombing, only to take a direct hit and be killed.
Some of the many craters created from relentless bombing in the 1960's and 70's
On one road, I saw a sign advertising bomb handicrafts. Intrigued, I went to the workshed where the lady working showed me some war materiel along with the oven she uses to melt it and wooden blocks she pours the molten metal into in order to mold them into more useful items.
The area is also where you'll find the Plain of Jars - large prehistoric stone jars that may have served a burial purpose and can still be seen today. Fortunately, many of these survived the bombing campaign during the war.
Plain of Jars, Laos They could fit me, too!
Phonsavan is not well developed for tourists, though you can still find people who speak some English. At night, however, I went for a stroll and found a local restaurant where the menu was entirely in Lao. I had to use the prices to guess where the appetizers and entrees were, and without any clue what I was ordering (apart from a Beerlao), I pointed to a couple items on the menu and braced myself for what would arrive. Fortunately, it was pretty good!
That night, I took an overnight bus to the capital of Laos, Vientiane. It was only about 200 miles but took 10 hours, because again, Lao roads suck. It was a "sleeper bus", but before you get your hopes up, the berths were only about 5 feet long not very wide. Oh, and 2 people were expected to share them - even if you were complete strangers! (In this picture, my body is all the way to the left of the compartment so you can see how narrow it is for 2 people. And my head is at the end, so I couldn't stretch my legs.) Thank goodness, nobody ever showed up to claim the spot next to me, and with my legs bent, I was able to get a few hours of sleep. Except for the part in the night where we had to get off the bus to lighten the load so the bus could cross a temporary pontoon bridge while we walked behind it. Asian travel is never boring!
Vientiane is the capital of a one-party communist state and I saw a few propaganda signs and the requisite massive and empty paved square that every Communist capital seems to have. I also stumbled across Pyongyang, the international chain of restaurants run by the North Korean government to bring in hard currency. They also had an Arc de Triomphe called the Patuxay Monument (taller than the Parisian one, of course) and some Buddhist shrines. The most notable of these was the golden stupa of Pha That Luang. Next to this was a temple where I went inside and chatted with a couple of monks who were eager to practice their English and ask me about America.
Around Vientiane:
Presidential Palace with propaganda slogan Putaxay Monument Bad English is funny!
The golden stupa of Pha That Luang (left) and the temple next door (center). My meeting with the monks (right)
At night the riverfront came alive as thousands of people and motorbikes thronged the food stalls and promenade for a fun night out. In the morning, I headed to the airport and flew to Cambodia.
