Northern Thailand and Laos

Resume du second episode asiatique:

Apres pres de trois semaines en Thailande, il etait temps de s'attaquer au Nord du pays. Sukhothai d'abord, ou l'on peut visiter les tres belles ruines d'un ancien royaume dechu, puis Chiang Mai, pres des montagnes. Entre Muay Thai, massages, cours de cuisine Thai, marches, temples, tour de trois jours en scooter dans les villages montagneux avoisinants, reserve d'elephant, il me fallut une bonne semaine avant de me diriger vers le Laos. Au Laos, je passai trois jours dans la jungle, alternant trek, tyroliennes et nuits dans des cabanes perchees entre cinquante et cent cinquante metres au dessus du sol. Apres cela, deux jours en bateau sur le Mekong me permirent de rejoindre la charmante ville de Luang Prabang, ou entre glandouille aquatique, croissants frais, et soirees bowling totalement absurdes je passai trois jours et trois nuits. Enfin, je me dirigeai vers Vientiane, capitale du pays, afin de prendre un vol pour Hanoi au nord du Vietnam.

After two weeks and a half on the islands in the South, it was time to get back to Bangkok. I left Koh Phangan with Saga, since I had to be in Bangkok to get my missing vaccination on the day she was flying back to Helsinki. We had to take a few taxis, a ferry, a bus and finally a night train, the kind of travel days that are usually terribly long and annoying when you are on your own but much more bearable when traveling with a friend.

I didn't stay long in Bangkok, simply did my Myanmar visa and went to the hospital before beading to Sukhothai.

Bangkok - view from the top

The hospital experience was quite interesting though. By far, it was the best and most luxurious hospital I have seen in my life, everything was so modern, clean and efficient. I knew Bangkok was a big healthcare hub, especially for expats in Southeast Asia, but not to that extent! And of course, cheaper than anything you'd get in Western Europe...

Bangkok National Hospital

So I took a night bus to Sukhothai, where I wanted to visit what is left of the capital of the fallen Sukhothai kingdom, who used to rule a big part of Thailand during the 13th and 14th centuries. I arrived at Sukhothai bus terminal at 5:30am and took a tuk-tuk to the old town. I spent the whole morning touring this UNESCO world heritage historical park on a rented bike. But because it was still so early, I could enjoy the whole park by myself, and most importantly watch the beautiful sunrise on these ancient ruins.

Sukhothai historical park (1)

Sukhothai historical park (2) 

Sukhothai historical park (3)

I finished visiting the whole site (and its many surrounding temples) before lunch, and managed to get into a bus to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second biggest city, located in the north close to the mountains.

In Chiang Mai, I was staying in this small guesthouse managed by a Thai lady and an Italian guy called Pepe. Every morning, he would spend twenty minutes upside down using some kind of swing to do stretching and yoga. Very surprising at first when you get out of your bed and see him floating with his feet in the air...

Unlike the islands, the north of Thailand is  more traditional and cultural, it feels like finally seeing true Thai life. And this is reflected as well in the type of people traveling here, fewer of them are on short holidays only to get some sun in February.

Old temple in Chiang Mai

Modern Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai 

One day, I decided to take a Thai cuisine lesson with six other persons. After a tour of the market to discover all the different ingredients we would be using in our lesson, we went to an open-air kitchen and started to cook our first Thai meal ever. I decided to go for a spicy coconut soup, some pad Thai, a local sort of curry (northern Thai food is influenced by Burmese tradition and slightly different than what you'd get in the South) and some vegetarian spring rolls. Judge by yourself, it looked, smelled and actually was really good!

Spicy coconut soup and Pad Thai

Khao Soi curry and veggie spring rolls

In Chiang Mai, I could enjoy a very simple and relaxed life. The city centre is full of healthy veggie restaurants, there are a few very popular street markets every week and (legit) Thai massages are incredibly cheap... Muay Thai stadium and a few decent bars also make the night life quite fun.

But I also wanted to see the countryside around, so I rented a scooter and went to Pai, a small town in the mountains, started as a hippie refuge and now a necessary stop for any backpacker in northern Thailand. The road to Pai being very curvy, it can be a very enjoyable ride in the mountains.

Waterfalls on my way to Pai

At dinner, I met a German couple of real ex-hippies in their sixties, who were living in Nepal training ex-soldiers from the civil war so that they could get a job and start a new life, staying away from weapons and violence. They were working for a German development agency hired by the UN to do the job. They started to tell me more about their life, and our dinner went on and on for hours. It turns out that she used to be a trampoline champion, while he had stopped uni to travel across Africa. He had then been recruited by this German agency to build improved ovens in several African countries, so he first went to Oregon to learn about these ovens, ended up discovering the hippie capital of the world there, playing guitar and swimming naked in hotsprings under the snow (it was wintertime) and then left for Africa. Long story short, after she had to stop her sport career after a bad accident, they both started to work together on ex-soldiers rehabilitation in different African countries. And with all the different civil wars happening on that continent, they have been quite busy. But when four years ago, the UN offered them a new mission in Nepal, it didn't take long for them to accept: both had great memories of Katmandu from their hippie twenties!

They had both traveled extensively all over the world, but of course they started a few decades ago, and thus we had a lot to talk about. Some places I have seen this year seem to have changed a lot, in particular his description of Had Rin on Koh Phangan thirty years ago as a nearly virgin bay, whereas it has now become a world-famous institution of massive beach parties, sounded unreal.

Anyway, on the following day, I went back on my scooter and first visited a Chinese village a few kilometres away from Pai centre. There are many Chinese communities in the north of Thailand, and interestingly local residents in Pai are a mix between them, Muslim, western hippies and Thai rastas. Entering the village feels like arriving in some small town in Yunnan. Or at least, that's how I imagine Yunnan to be. First, forget about Thai spaghetti-like alphabet, you're surrounded by Chinese characters. Then, look around you and you'll see red and gold Chinese decorations everywhere, both colours being a symbol of luck and other good things in Chinese culture. And finally, listen carefully and you'll probably hear someone spitting on the floor in the street. Welcome to China!

Somewhere in the Chinese village, Pai

Back on my scooter, I met Sebastian, a German guy on holiday who was also doing the Mae Hong Son loop on a scooter, so we decided to hit the road together. Just outside of Pai, we went to some hotsprings mainly used by local Thai kids, and I managed to fall from the scooter in some very sandy and sloppy curve... Nothing to bad though, since I was driving very slow I only ended up with a few minor bruises and scratches. Thus, like many other tourists here, I had to clean and band my wounds for a few days until it got better... Falling from your scooter must be by far the most common sort of accidents with tourists in Thailand!

Hotsprings outside of Pai

We then drove to Mae Hong Son, a more typical Thai town in the mountain where we stayed for the night.

On the way to Mae hong Son, Myanmar in the background

Mae Hong Son, sunset time

Mae Hong Son at night

On the following day, we woke up early since we had a long way back to Chiang Mai. Overall, we drove about six hundred kilometres in three days, on roads of very uneven quality, surrounded by beautiful landscapes and passed more than three thousands curves. Exhausting but definitely worth it!

Rice paddies outside of Mae Hong Son

That way bro!

From this...

...to that!

Back in Chiang Mai, I spent a day at the elephant nature park, a sanctuary for abused elephants in Thailand, were currently thirty seven of them live a peaceful and happy life. The reserve is really big, with about seventy full-time employees and dozens of tourists visiting the place everyday.

Feeding my big baby

Elephants play an important role in Thai culture, religion and history. But it is now an endangered species, and Lek, who founded the reserve, has devoted her life to rescue abused or sick elephants. For instance, many of them are blind, because of mistreatment from their previous owners who would hit their eyes, sometimes with pointy weapons, to punish them. During your day there, you'll learn about the elephants, their stories, feed them, bath them and play with them for the whole day. Now I really know how a happy elephant look like!

Elephant Nature Park (1)

Elephant Nature Park (2)

Next stop on my route was Huay Xai, in Laos. Actually, I had to spend a night on the Thai shore of the Mekong river, since I arrived too late to pass the border control. 

I desperately wanted to arrive early in Laos, to get on a three-day tour I had booked a week earlier and which was my main reason to visit Northern Laos. But of course, passing a border can take time, a lot of time, and that's what happened to me! I rushed to the agency but arrived after the other tourists had left. Luckily, an employee kindly drove me to my group in his car.

Our tour was called 'The Gibbon Experience', a three-day adventure into Laos jungle, in the Bokeo natural park, home of a few black crested gibbons families, an endangered species of monkey, and consisted in some trekking, a big amount of zip-lining above massive trees and most importantly, two nights in amazing tree houses, the first one forty or fifty metres above ground level, and the second about three times that.

Living/sleeping room in our first tree house

Bathroom in our first tree house

My group was made of a German couple, Annette and Konrad, and then a French couple and three French guys from Franche Comté. Plus our local guides who could barely speak English.

Overall, it was a great experience and the very relaxed atmosphere within our group made it even better. Even if we never saw any gibbon, zip lining between valleys, flying a hundred metres above canopy in the middle of this stunning jungle made it for a great adventure.

I'm going on an adventure!

Next, I went back for a night in Huay Xai, before getting on a slow boat navigating on the Mekong river to Luang Prabang.

Huay Xai post office

Sunset on the Mekong river (1)

Slow boats can carry between sixty to seventy passengers (broadly speaking) and take two days to reach Luang Prabang from Huay Xai, with an overnight stay in Pakbeng. As someone not so unfairly put it on Wikitravel, "To call Pakbeng sleepy is an understatement. It's quiet to the point of being dead". This very small village literally consists in one unique street packed with guesthouses and restaurants to cater for the daily inflow of tourists, and it seems that every local boy over thirteen wants to sell you weed or opium.

Our slow boat

Overall, slow boats make good memories if you don't expect too much from the landscape. This last one doesn't change that much to say the least, but it is way more comfortable than a long bus ride. And with a third or half of the passengers in their twenties, you can expect a good vibe on board: being able to walk, change seat, meet your travel friends, make new ones and most importantly, buy cold beers at the bar to share with them help make the ride feel shorter.

Sunset on the Mekong river (2)

And that's how I got to beautiful UNESCO protected Luang Prabang, a beautiful example of colonial influence on a very traditional Lao town perched above the Mekong river.

But to better understand Luang Prabang, some perspectives on Laos may come in helpful.

One of the few remaining communists countries, the "Lao People's Democratic Republic" remains one of the least developed countries in the world, with its very weak economy, a mostly rural and poor population, but at the same time offers a very unique cultural mix between its centuries-old oriental, Buddhist tradition, its French cultural heritage (at least in the cities), inherited from his past status of French protectorate, and the very strong influence of Thai modern culture.

Buddhist temple in Luang Prabang

Laos produces locally only a few basic goods, and import everything else from nearby Thailand or China. Which makes life as a traveller sometimes paradoxally more expensive than in Thailand, even if local people leave on less. Laos economy seem so dependent on Thailand's that Bahts (Thai currency) is widely accepted, at the least in the North.

Plenty of hammer and sickle flags on official buildings and around cities remind you that Laos is a socialist republic, but more strikingly a few unusual laws show it even more.

For example, hotels and guesthouses all state clearly that it is against the law to have sex with local people, unless you marry them. And boxes around the city allow you to anonymously denounce your badly behaving neighbour. But the most surprising one is the government-imposed midnight curfew, which forces restaurants and bars to close at 11.30pm. Weirdly enough, the only exception in Luang Prabang is the bowling alley. Because it is the only place legally serving alcohol after 11.30pm, it literally gets taken over every single night by a crowd of thirsty foreigners, getting there on overloaded tuk-tuks once bars in the centre close.

On top of our tuk-tuk

While I can hardly emphasise enough how much I enjoyed Luang Prabang restaurants and very laid back bars, their tamed lights and good music, great food and atmosphere, it is difficult to overstate my disdain and (dislike synonym) for the bowling place.

Enjoying the riverview at Utopia, a bar which made it to my personal top five easily

Don't get me wrong, it is a funny place to go to on your first night there if you want to socialise, watching people getting worse as they down more and more Lao beers, and realising how absurd this whole scene is, but once is clearly enough. The place is so ugly and impersonal, white wall and bright lights makes you feel you're spending the night in a supermarket, and the overall contrast with Luang Prabang lovely bars remains way too strong.

Luang prabang bowling

But it is quite an experience, trust me.

Other than that, spent a day at "La Pistoche", a swimming pool most likely opened by a french given its name, given the petanque playing court and maybe even more tellingly, given that pastis was on the drink menu... A cool place to chill, and some local kids come there every afternoon for a break dance show, so you even get some free entertainment! 

Lao break dancers

Just chillin'

A strange fact in northern Laos was that we had some kind of mist or haze every day. Very rarely could we see any blue sky, but the sun was always not so far and temperatures still very hot. But all these layers of clouds also meant that the sun was starting changing colour, turning more orange/red more than an hour and a half before the actual sunset.

We spent another day at Kuang Si waterfalls, where beautiful natural swimming pools and great waterfalls are definitely enough to retain you for at least half a day. And if that is not enough, there is a black Asian bear rescue centre, where these animals are living the ultimate relaxed life, getting fed effortless and chilling all day long in massive bear-hammocks.

Random dude found a good funambulism spot

Kuang Si waterfalls

Another great aspect abouLuang Prabang is its French colonial heritage. Not only will you find beautiful colonial architecure everywhere in the old town, but also it is fukll of small cafes, restaurants and French bakeries offering Fresh croissants and today's edition of "Le Monde" which will definitely make you feel at home. By the way, the pineapple/banana jam from Le Cafe Bat Vat Sene is to die for.

Am I really in Laos?

But I also had my dose of local experiences, starting with an introduction to Laos traditional food at Tanmarind restaurant with the following dipping platter. 

Please don't ask me what it is

But if you now plan to visit Luang Prabang, hurry up! China is building a massive highway that will connect its territory to more places in Southeast Asia, and it will pass close to Luang Prabang... possibly bringing in a huge inflow of Chinese investment and tourists which could change it forever.

After that, I took a sleeping bus to Vientiane, Loas capital. I did on purpose to book a proper sleeping bus, thinking it would be more comfortable than normal VIP bus, but ended up sharing a single bed with a stranger, stuck in a small compartment for twelve hours. Basically, if you're taller than 1.60 metre, it will be too small, but that's part of the fun involved in traveling!

Vientiane felt pretty useless, but luckily I was only spending the day there, taking a flight to Hanoi in the evening. Even if Vienitane is Laos capital, it really feels like a small countryside town. I had seen most of the city centre in a few hours, from its presidential palace to the oldest Buddhist temple in town and its impressive buddha statues collection, passing in front of wine shops selling any kind of bordeaux wine you could think of (told you, Laos feels like being back in France!), so I ended up looking for a good French bakery with a decent wifi connection, to write this blog post.

And to buy my dinner.

"Pate de Sanglier Cepes - Cognac" This and a freshly baked baguette. What else?

Buddha statue collection surrounding Vientiane oldest temple

So as you can guess... That's it for today!

Much love from rainy Hanoi.

Sabaidee!

Riton