Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vientiane (Laos): Waterfall, tubing and excellent food

Here I am, in the country where my parents were born and where they lived half of their lives, Laos. It has always been a special country to me.

I came here the first time around 15 years ago but only went to 2 main cities, Vientiane and Pakse. This time I decided to go from North to South and to go to all the places my parents went to.

I started with one night at Luam Nam Tha, close to the chinese border. There I met Maja, Michal from Poland, Tomas from Germany and some other Lao people.

With Maja and Michal, we, together went to Luang Prabang. The trip was awful, maybe the worst bus ride ever. Almost 10 hours of horrible roads, tiny seats and dust dust and dust. It was really hard to breath...

Anyway, after this terrible journey, we finally arrived in Luand Prabang. But it was already dark and most of the guesthouses were full. So we took the first one who still had availbilities. Terrible mistake. My room was opposite the kitchen... that means cockroaches... besides, it stank and it was dirty. So next day we all decided to move to another guesthouse, without cockroach. Much better!

Luang Prabang is well known for its numerous temples and monasteries.

We also went to a beautiful waterfall. We could even swim in it, wonderful feeling!

I spent 3 days in Luang Prabang, having a great time with my polish friends and having great food ;o)

After Luang Prabang, I headed South to Vang Vieng, by myself. And again, 8 hours bus...

Vang Vieng is per definition the city of farniente. People can stay there for ever and do nothing. That's is exactly what I did the first day :o)

My room had a balcony and a view on the mountains, what else could I ask for?

Oh yeah, good food, not an issue, food was excellent in Vang Vieng.

Well besides enjoying doing nothing, the main activity in Vang Vieng is tubing. Basically you ride an inner tube (bouee gonflable) on the river. But the funny part is to stop at every bar, get drunk and do some slides. Then again you take your inner tube and continue to float on the river. It takes about 5 hours to float 3 kms...

I started tubing with one Irish and one Japanese guys and ended up with 2 German and 3 Dutch guys...

Even if I wasn't drunk, i tried all kind of alcohol (put in buckets). Nice experience.

Time to move to Vientiane, capital of Laos, where i spent 3 days with some relatives.

It was the biggest festival of Laos, Boun Ok Phansa, that marks the end of the monks' 3-months-fast and retreat during the rainy season. The biggest event is a boat race on the Mekong river. Very interesting but with 250.000 people, under 35 degres and with all my mosquitoes friends, it was hard to stay for a long time...

Still Vientiane was a cool city.

After getting bitten 18 times in Vientiane by mosquitoes, I decided that it was enough and that mosquitoes from Savannakhet could also enjoy my fresh european flesh...

Next stop: Savannakhet, Pakse, Champassak (Laos)

Xishuangbanna and Yuanyang (China): Sun, rice-paddy terracing and diet

My cousin Maly went back to Shanghai after 2 weeks with me in Yunnan. I continued the trip by myself and went to the South of Yunnan province, in Xishuangbanna and Yuanyang.

Xishuangbanna is very close to the Lao border. I only spent 2 days there but it was nice to have the sun back after such a cold weather in Shangri-La. Average of 30 degrees, that's what i called "holidays". I rented a bike and went to another village famous for the hot springs. Well, it's not the best idea to go the hot springs during summer time but it felt so good to be in a swimming pool. Even though the water was around 35 degrees. Anyway, as I was the only crazy girl going to hot springs during noon time, i had the 8 pools all by myself. Nice feeling...









Then I decided to go to Yuanyang well known for its spectacular rice-paddy terracing. The detail I underestimated was that to get there, I needed to take 3 different buses. In total, 18 hours bus. My longest ride in bus ever. And a great experience. Chinese sleeper bus. When the driver saw my touristy face, he immediately understood that it was my first time in such bus... So he warned me that some thieves could steal my stuff during the night and I had to be carefull. I observed the other passengers of the bus and I did the same. Put my shoes in a plastic bag, attach it to my "bed", put my luggage under my bed making sure that the locks are inaccessible and finally sleep with my small backpack as a teddy bear. I had the most awful night ever... but I had all my belongings.
After 18 hours and 3 buses, I finally arrived in Yuanyang. And it was definitely worth it. The landscapes are unique and amazing.

For those who are concerned about my diet, I tried hard to eat the minimum when i was by myself and I was quite proud of myself... I even walked down the mountain, 25km, a record for me... Except that I didn't loose any weight, so depressing :o(
Let's see in Laos if I can do better...

Next stop: Luam nam Tha and Luang Prabang, Laos

Dali, Lijiang & Shangri-La (China): Rain, cold and beautiful landscapes

Yunnan province is one of the most beautiful provinces of China, located in the South-West of the country. Unfortunately, the rainy season was not over yet when I was there with my cousin Maly...

Still landscapes are beautiful. So after visiting Kunming, we took the train to Dali, thinking that it would be more confortable for Maly and the baby but we were wrong... Trains in China are not very comfortable if you are seating for the whole trip.Anyway, here we are in Dali. Very cute old city. With pedestrian areas. Guesthouse was nice, the Bird Bar where the owners were partying every night with their friends (artists, full of tattoos) and smoking marijuana... I thought marijuana was illegal in China.

After Dali, we went to Lijiang. Unfortunately, it was during Chinese national day holidays. That means 1.3 billion people traveling all at the same time. Well, besides the fact that hotels were 2-3times more expensive, there were a lot of people everywhere. Maly and I expected to rest and see some nice quite landscapes but it was not counting on all those Chinese people. But still, the region is beautiful.

For the first time in my life i did a trek, well a mini trek of 5 hours but it was so exciting. To see the Tiger Leaping Gorge (see picture). Legend says that in order to escape from a hunter, a tiger jumped across the river at the narrowest point (still 25 metres wide), hence the name.
Anyway, great experience. Going down the mountain, 5.2km in total, 200 m down. To go up, we had to take a ladder, vertical one, 85 degrees. Scary. My legs still remember that experience.

After the Tiger Leaping Gorge, I decided to go to Lugu Lake, maybe the most beautiful lake I have ever seen so far. 8 hours bus to get there and to stay one night and the next morning 8 hours bus to get back to Lijiang. But the trip was definitely worth the painful trip.
And during the trip, I almost found my future husband. The bus driver, who kept on asking me to go for a beer at night. He was tall, skinny and with no hair BUT definitely not my type. Around 40 years old, dark skin, smoking like hell and already having 5 kids at home. No thanks :o)

Having seen Lijiang, we continued to go North of Yunnan Province, to Shangri-La. Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. In the book, "Shangri-La" is a mystical, harmonious valley. It's also really close to the Tibet border. We attended to a Tibetan show with Tibetan food like real tourists. Show was entertaining but food really not good, except the Yak meat, yummie...





So it was supposed to be great but the weather was so cold that we didn't really enjoy it. Average temperature was 10 degrees with rain all day long... We were so cold that we wore all the clothes we had in our backpack, t-shirt, sweater, rain coat and sometimes even our pyjamas... Hopefully we discovered a nice coffee house where we had a nice cordon bleu and burger to compensate the cold and the rain.
Food, always the biggest and best comfort...

Next stop: Xishuangbanna and Yuanyang, Yunnan Province, China

Kuming (China): Max, 4 stars hotel and no good food

Here I am. Back to China and to Chinese people.
Kunming is the capital of Yunnan province, one of the most beautiful in China.

There I'm meeting Max. I met Max 10 years ago in Beijing where we studied chinese together at Peking University. Since then, we meet up as soon as possible to chat about China and chinese people and their weird habits.

Max is supposed to be in a business trip so he booked a very nice hotel for us. So nice to be in a 4 stars hotel. Thanks Max!

Kunming is another big city from China. Not the nicest one. And besides, it was raining so no, i definitely don't like Kunming. And It was probably the first and last time I went there.

Ok, I have to admit that there are nice things to see around the city like the Stone Forrest, the minorities village...

Luckilly, my French cousin Maly joined me for 2 weeks. Maly is pregnant, 4.5 months and guess what? She needs to eat a lot, so I had no choice than following her. How could I let her eat by herself?

2 days later, we ran away from Kunming and move towards the North of Yunnan province, Dali. 6 hours by train. Chinese train of course, sitting on a bed with 3 other people, not very confortable. But those who know me very well know that I can sleep anywhere, under any circumstances...

The most important was to leave Kunming as soon as possible :o)

Next stop: Dali, Lijiang and Shangri-La, Province of Yunnan, China.

Hong Kong (China): Mid-Autumn festival, bubble tea and excellent food

I just stayed 2 nights in Hong Kong after Taiwan but i had a great time. I stayed at my friends father s place. A real chinese dad. Evertime we got back home, food was ready on the table. And it was excellent food, like my mum s cooking.

It was very hot in Hong Kong so lucky I only stayed for 2 nights.

And of course I had Yam Cha, cantonese breakfast. Ok, it s a quite heavy breakfast but it s the best. Yummy!

One more kilo added ;o)

Thanks again A Vah for everything.

Next stop: Kunming, Province of Yunnan, China.