Dodgy Airlines and Flour Bombed Tourists
Chiang Mai -> Luang Prabang, 14th April 2002
My entry into Laos from via a short flight from the Northern Thai
town of Chiang Mai. The advantage of the flight, is that it makes it
easy to avoid a large amount of laborious land back tracking. By
flying into Luang Prabang, I could do a ground loop of northern Lao,
back to Luang Prabang, then head south with no backtracking. (See my
route for more details). Perfect! Except for one thing...My flight was with the ubiquitous 'Lao Aviation'. A few steps down
from BA, in fact an Everest of a fall below them. Lao Aviation
seemed to have a bit of a reputation for...um...losing planes
without trace. However, seeing as this hadn't happened for about 8
years, I though I'd take my chances.
As I was bit worried about travelling with this Lao plane, every bit
of turbulence put me on the edge of my seat. But generally it was
absolutely fine. The crew were friendly and they were at ease. They
must do it almost every day and they're still alive!
The plane flew quite low, and I had some amazing views of the
unspoilt, rolling green terrain of North-Eastern Thailand &
North-Western Lao.
The flight was only an hour long, but we still got lunch, which was
great. In fact, it was just as good as BA, just a fraction of the
price! In no time at all, the plane was descending between some
stunning scenery. Green hills and forests surrounded us, the Mekong
river could be seen stretching into the distance, there was so much
unadulterated, beautiful land around this main city. We came in
REALLY low over Luang Prabang, my destination city, so again I was a
little on edge, convinced the pilot had come too low. But at the
last minute, I saw the grey tarmac of a tiny runway, just before we
touched down.
Stepping off the plane, I placed my first step on Lao soil. I looked
around, the airport was miniscule! Just one main building and a
single runway, no wonder I hadn't seen it until the last minute.
I walked across the tarmac to the lone building and peeked inside.
Luckily, because I'd already got my visa sorted, I could skip he
crowds at the 'Visa On Arrival' desk, and got through quickly. It
took a while for the bags to come through on the single conveyor
belt, but eventually I spotted my bag, grabbed it, and moved on.
My next task was to get some Lao money from the bank in the airport.
You can't get Lao Kip outside of Lao, and also you can't get rid of
Kip outside Lao. The Lao Kip is so weak, that no banks or money
changers outside of Lao want it, so I've got to make sure I spend it
all before leaving the country. Hmm. Spending money. That's going to
be tough!
I had taken out a large amount of Thai Baht while in Chiang Mai
because there are no ATMs in Lao. Generally speaking, Thai Baht is
as acceptable in Lao as it is in Thailand, about half of the money
circulating in Lao is Baht! However, it's good to have Kip for
smaller transactions & eating. I got about $50 worth of Kip, just
under 750,000 Kip. However, as is standard here, I got it in 5000
Kip notes. This meant I ended up with a couple of brick sized wedges
of cash. A little large to put in my wallet! After finding somewhere
safe to stash it, I went out to find a tuk-tuk to get to the town
centre.
Concerned about my limited Laotian, not extending beyond hello,
thank you and basic numbers, I wasn't sure how I was going to
communicate to the driver. Luckily it turned out they spoke English.
However, it turned out that they didn't know where the guesthouse I
wanted was. After some explaining, pointing to maps and naming of
nearby landmarks, they seemed confident and I was the pushed into a
tuk-tuk with 7 other people and off we went.
Of course, this time of year, is Lao New Year, the time of
celebration, cheering, fun and lots & lots of water throwing. Just
like Songkran in Thailand. So, as we drove towards the main town,
there were kids on the streets armed with water pistols & buckets.
Luckily, they're not as...um...over-zealous, as the Thai people, so
we reached town with only a slight soaking, and our bags remaining
dry.
For the first time since I came to Asia, I had trouble finding
accommodation. Because of New Year, everywhere was full or charging
extortionate rates. So, I managed to leave my bag safely stored at
one (full) guesthouse and I went hunting. A French guy travelling on
his own who didn't have a guide book or map joined me on the search.
30 minutes later, after scouting out the nearby regions of Luang
Prabang, we found a place with a vacancy. They were charging US$10
per room, not loads, but still above average. But we took a twin
room between us, glad to have found a room. However, by the time we
were sorted, we'd experienced the true extent of the Lao kid's New
Year fun. In Chiang Mai, I'd just got really, really soaked. But
here, they'd taken to throwing talcum powder bombs which stuck to
our wet clothes in a brilliant manner. Walking around town seeing
all the people covered in white powder was very amusing!
Now with a place to spend the nights and store our bags more safely,
we took a longer walk around Luang Prabang. It's a lovely little
town, its still got the old French colonial style and it has loads
of character. It's an amazing little city, with the Mekong river
running by it giving some stunning views. It's hard to describe the
sheer beauty of this little town, but rest assured I will return.
And I rarely pay this compliment to anywhere...
As the sun began to set, we decided to have a drink at a riverside
restaurant. Ahhhh, drinking Lao Beer in Luang Prabang while watching
out over the magnificent Mekong Rive, without a problem in the
world. It's one of those idyllic times.
We chatted for a while and I was surprised to learn that he lived in
Paris and worked with computers. That wasn't the surprising bit, the
interesting bit was that he had done a Masters in Physics at a top
Parisian University. I'm going to be studying Physics at uni and
I'll be spending a year at a French university. So, of course, I
questioned him about student life in France.
After a few beers, it soon got dark and the mozzies came out in
force. After rushing back to the hotel to get some DEET, we went
hunting for an internet cafe & somewhere to eat. I needed to mail
home to let my parents know that I'd survived the Lao flight, and my
stomach was demanding attention simultaneously.
There were a few net cafes, and although they were very cheap,
6000Kip (about 40p) per hour, they were painfully slow. I eventually
gave up and we went to eat in one of the many restaurants. It might
be just because it's new year, but the town was full of falangs
(foreigners) and all of the restaurants were packed with them.
Hello! Are there any Laotian people here?
After a nice meal watching some French TV (the French left a very
evident mark from their time ruling Lao) we headed back to the hotel
to get some sleep.
As the rooms are expensive and everywhere is packed with tourists, I
made a decision to move on to quieter parts of Laos tomorrow, do the
loop of north Laos, then return to Luang Prabang when prices & life
is back to normal. I found our the time for the slow boat up the
Mekong tomorrow, and of course it turned out to be an early start!
Night night!
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