Laos needs to be on your Bucketlist

Our trip to Viantien, Luang Prabang, and Vang Vieng, Laos was filled with many memorable experiences: Riding elephants, visiting mountain top temples, tubing down a river through beautiful landscapes while child monks swam and dove off bridges nearby, bike riding through the city, seeing a landmine museum and rehab facility, waking at dawn to give alms to monks, swimming in beautiful waterfalls the color of the sky, taking a sinking boat filled with water to a nearby restaurant because the bridges were washed out, exploring caves carved into a mountain filled with thousands of Buddha statues, taking scenic tuk-tuk rides through the countryside, swimming in the Blue Lagoon, and visiting night markets. 

COPE Center
Laos is full of untouched natural beauty with the exception of the landmines we learned about at the COPE Center.  Many have fallen victim to US landmines that dot Laos and Cambodia leftover from the Vienam War's "Secret war".  We watched film about the impact on the people and got some good American guilt that we tried to assuage through donations and public awareness. The food was a bit bland and basic, but it was available at cheap prices from street vendors and stalls, lots of noodles with vegetables and baguettes with chicken or tuna.  The people a friendly, soft-spoken, and many speak little to no English.  I was a bit intimidated at first by it's being a communist country, but as one could possibly expect, no one anywhere was acting out of formation, everything was immaculate, and there was also very little panhandling.  Before we went tubing, I saw a sign geared to Western Tourists that was titled something like, "Don't be these people" and had a half-naked couple, the man was a white guy with dreadlocks smoking a giant spliff and yelling profanity.  Hopefully that wasn't us...

Getting there
When we first arrived in Laos by swiftboat through the Mekong River, we transferred to a bus that wound high through the mountains. It gaveway to the most beautiful view I have ever seen, but I was too busy vomiting to fully enjoy it. Do you know how miserable it is to be totally sick and have to use an outhouse without toilet paper in the middle of nowhere? I do. I called it "the view to shit by." Seeing the pictures always makes me laugh.

Temples, Night Markets, and Snake Whisky
While in Luang Prabang we climbed a mountain at dusk to see the Buddhist temple that sits atop it. There were many stairs and I was very ill from some crazy virus I caught in Thailand (likely from having a Tiger's tail in my mouth). We took many breaks as we wound our way to the top. Our trip coordinator was insanely into fitness and she ran up and down the mountain lapping us several times while we huffed and puffed our way to the top. Once we got there, we had this amazing view through the trees. We shared a kiss at the summit. When we climbed our way down through the winding stairs in the dark we got lost. We ended up coming out at a night bazaar filled with street artists and beautiful jewelry and colorful scarves. We purchased some colorful paintings of monks of parchment paper by the artist who made them.  I bought some amazing hand crafted earrings, necklaces, and hair pins, a beaded tapestry of an elephant, chopsticks made out of landmine metal captioned, "Buy back your landmines," and gifts for my whole family.  Most of our tour group, including Chris, drank snake whiskey out of a vat that had about 50 dead snakes marinating. It was supposed to good for your health. Thankfully, it didn't taste much like anything other than whiskey.

Blue Lagoon
While in Vang Vieng we found a tuk-tuk driver to take us to a remote village in Laos to see the Blue lagoon. The ride was extraordinarily rough as half the road was washed out. Along the way we passed several villages and spotted little kids driving oxen, babies with chickens, biking backpackers, tourists riding dunebuggies, and motorcycles struggling to find dry land. In one picture you see a makeshift bridge built to pass over the giant mass of water covering the road at sunset. I didn’t think we would make it through. Those drivers are amazing!  We arrived at the Blue Lagoon close to sundown when few tourists were left. This left room for Chris to be practically the only one in the water as we had most of the lagoon to ourselves. The water was blue and covered with various wooden and rope bridges and ladders. Despite the fan fair, the lagoon was not nearly as memorable as the trek there.

Elephant Rides
The elephant sanctuary we visited in Laos gave us the opportunity to ride the elephant "Li" bareback through the wilderness and wade through a river. Afterward we fed the elephants and talked to our guide about all the efforts to preserve the elephants and their families in Laos. Having encountered the elephants in Bangkok whose ears were shredded from bullhooks, it was easy to see the difference in the quality of life these fellas had here. Our elephant caretaker "Pong" was nice enough to take lots of photos for us. 

Morning Alms w/monks
Giving morning alms to monks in Laos was a trippy experience. The weirdest part was my conflict as a feminist and wanting to be respectful of their culture, but being told women were not to look at them in the eye or touch them. My feminist self wondered where respect for culture and religion ended and respect for women began. We rarely get up at dawn, but this experience was worth it. We read the controversy about the event being staged for tourists, but we saw plenty of locals partaking in the experience too offering bowls of fresh rice to the passing monks.

Scenic Waterfalls
On one of the most amazing days ever, we stopped to swim in the beautiful waterfall with layered plateaus of pools. Some brake souls swung from rope of jumped off of cliffs. Since most of Laos has been closed to foreigners until more recently, the water was clean and pure. The colors will dance in your dreams for a lifetime. 

The trip to Laos was unlike anything we have ever seen before and blew our minds. If Laos is not on you bucketlist, you are missing out. If you are not convinced yet, check out our gallery below.

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