Bangkok, Thailand, Day 3

Our flight to Laos was not until the afternoon, so we had a good fours hours to kill before we departed. Time for some combat tourism. After a quick bite of breakfast, we jumped the first taxi and sped to the Golden Mount temple complex. Well, sped was perhaps a bit of an exaggeration. The traffic was noticeably heavier since the weekend was over and so was the new year festivities.

The temple is a man made mound that used to tower over the entire city. The local area has been preserved form development, so it does still tower over the local building and the grand palace, but the sky scrapers from the 20th century have dwarfed the structure long ago.


The mound has a set of stairs winding up it twice. One to go up and a separate set to go down. All the way up are bells, statues and other assorted religious paraphernalia. It's the view from the top, however, that is the main draw card. The hill is surprisingly high for a man made mound and the view is great. The hill is quite near the grand palace, with the down time high rises a short distance away. Atop the mount is a big gold bell dome, which in itself is impressively large and shiny.

Also spectacular from the top was the thunder storm that was approaching. We could see it rapidly sweeping towards us. The rain was absolutely bucketing down. As the rain approached, whole suburbs and high rises disappeared from view. The lightning also started to kick off. Being on top of the tallest object around with a big pointy uppy metal object on top was perhaps not such a good idea. After pausing just long enough to get some good pics of the closing storm, be quickly pulled our shoes on and bolted down the hill. The rain started to splatter down as we neared the bottom, so we thought we had been quite clever and missed the worst affects. it was then that we remembered that our umbrellas were back at the hotel...

Thinking we would miss the worst of the rain, I paused to take a few photos of some tombs. A local guy was not real impressed though. He pointed at my camera and kept saying "that is dirty. you are dirty". I guess taking photos of tombs is a no-no. Whatever. :-)

Soon after, the rain really started to pick up. We started to head out of the complex for the main road which was not too far away. Before we could get far, however, it started absolutely tipping down. We retreated to a covered awning near the main road and thought we'd just wait for a taxi. Luckily, some other tourists turned up in a tuk-tuk. After he dumped them out, he pulled up in front of us and we started negotiating. His asking price was 300 baht. Yes, that's right, he was trying to massively rip us off. The previous day, we had paid 60 for a half day trip. 300 for a quick ride back to the hotel was just stupid, so we told him so. The negotiations continued for a while and he dropped his price to 220. I then pointed out to the dude that the tourist map says in big letters that the maximum tuk-tuk price should never exceed 200 baht. He then just stopped talking, jumped into his machine and drove off, leaving us spluttering and cursing him. Fucking bastard.

The rain then decided to get a little bit heavier and we discovered we were now on a little island of dry land inside an ever expanding lake. Just when we thought we'd have to swim for our lives, another dopey tourist turned up, so we car jacked them and knicked their taxi. Or something. :-)

We then headed for the airport, stopping for a really yummy chicken and cashews from the airport cafeteria, the excessive Thai exit fee and we were off to Laos. On a plane. With propellers. A Russian plane with propellers. An OLD Russian plane with propellers...

The flight actually wasn't too bad. The plane was REALLY slow and didn't fly above the clouds, so it was a bumpy old ride, but at least we didn't fall out of the sky. Not even once. There was only about 6 other people on the plane, so we cleared customs and immigration pretty quick. After paying US$20 for our visa, we then were slugged another US$5 for the taxi ride to our hotel. Before we realised, we were in Laos.

We pulled up outside our colonial era French mansion and I saw by the look on Gav's face that he was impressed. It was as we expected, a lovely old building, full of oriental charm and religious junk - buddhas inside wall to wall. The only slight bummer was that we were given a room in one of the out houses. Still, it was very cute. It was getting late, so we had a quick shower and headed out on the town.

Our first stop was the river bank. The mighty Mekong. Although, at this time of year, just at the end of dry season, it looked a bit more like a swirling brown drain than one of the world's longest rivers. The river bank was very atmospheric. There were restaurants along the length of the river. We sat by the rode and took photos as the sun went down. Very special. Apart from all the drunk, smelly, hippy tourists, but you get that. :-)

We then continued on wandering down the road by the river till we found a super nice cafe where we stopped for dinner, had a terrific meal and paid about $3 for the lot. We were going to like Luang Prabang.

We then headed off back to the hotel, this time via the central road. That was one of the quaint charms of Luang Prabang. It is not a big place. It is built on a peninsular above 9 metres above the river level, where the Mekong river meets the Nam Khan river. The peninsula is split by three main roads that run parallel to the Mekong. All our days in Luang Prabang involved walking out of the hotel, down one of the streets, then back one of the other streets, with a break for lunch. It's that relaxed.

Tonight, the Laos new year festivities were continuing. Unlike Thailand, where Songkran runs for 3 days, the Laos new year goes for 7 days. We had missed the water splashing phase, but we were still in the washing buddha phase. The tradition is for everyone to head down to their local temple and wash the buddhas. The water washing off is considered especially auspicious for who knows what.

We came across the main temple complex, where in all it's glory was THE Luang Prabang. This is an especially revered buddha image that gave the town its name. There was quite a throng of people gathered around to douse the buddha with water. Rather than just walking up and tipping the water on top, they have devised a series of pipes, tunnels, ladders and platforms so that the worshipers climb up some stairs, pour their water into a naga's head. The water then flows down a pipe and trickles majestically over the buddha, before exiting the complex at the back. Very organised. There was also a huge group of musicians pumping out some traditional Laos tunes. Music or noise? Not quite sure on that...

Thinking ourselves brave adventurers in this distant land, we then headed back towards the hotel, via the huge night market. That was a bit of a laugh. Sure, there were about 300 different stall holders, but there was only about 20 things for sale. They all looked like they'd only recently had the "Made in China" sticker removed. Some of the trinkets we bought a few years ago in a Vietnamese department store were also for sale. I suspect nothing is actually made locally and all the stalls are probably owned by about 3 Thai business men. It was a spectacle, however and well worth a look.

It was at this point, that we started to make comparisons between ourselves and the other travelers. We proudly wore the sticker of "tourist" on this trip. After all, we'd just flown inb direct from Bangkok and were staying at a posh hotel. I suspect the other western visitors would object mightily to the "tourist" label. The "proper" way of seeing Laos involved traipsing around for at least a month, traveling from town to town by boat and not washing, as far as I could tell. The Laos people were always immaculately dressed, very neat, very tidy and very friendly. The "travelers" on the other hand were generally unkempt, smelly and surly. It was only westerners that were in arguments about being charged $1 too much for a piece of silk. The locals were much calmer. We tried to set an example for the others by being neat, tidy, groomed and polite. The other people in comparison seemed to be holding "who can stink the most" competitions or "who has the grottiest dread locks". Whilst we wandered about in our latest designer apparel, the closest they came to designer was the Diesel smeared on their pants and not Diesel branded clothing. Does that make me a snob? Probably, but they smelt bad.