Patrick and Mary Go Round

We’re taking a bit of a day off today after three awesome, fun-filled days spent rock climbing. The combination of a fantastic crew (3 Brits and 3 ‘Mericans), top notch guides and good walls made it a great time for all. We signed up for the three day course in Luang Prubang through Green Discovery and arrived in Vang Vieng to find that 4 others had joined up, too. We started on Sunday morning at 9ish, gathered shoes and harnesses from the shop and rode out the the river. The beginner climbing walls were just off the river not far from the “Last Bar Last Swing” restaurant, which also served us lunch and stocked cold Beerlao for post-climb celebrations. Our guides, Hoi and Gau, taught knots, top roping and basic climbing techniques before lunch. Afterwards, we practiced belays and were able to have three teams climbing/belaying at once. We rounded out the day with a blindfolded climb which improved everyones’ confidence and general team trust.

Mary climbing blindfolded with Patrick on belay

On Monday and Tuesday we learned about lead climbing and were able to practice to our hearts’ content. Lead climbing differs from top-roping in that there is no rope above you to stop a fall. Rather, the rope is below you on a lead climb and requires clipping into successive bolts that have been drilled into the rock face. This technique was a real breakthrough from any of our prior experiences and was also a tad scarier in practice. My fear was focussed on the part where you untie yourself from the safety of the rope in order to loop it through the top ring prior to descending.

Mary is lead climbing up through this crevassed wall.

After some practice, I really enjoyed the lead climbing and Hoi (our trusty guide) kept pushing me to try more and more technical climbs. Mary and I are very excited to keep learning more about the sport and REALLY enjoyed climbing outdoors for 3 days in a row. We both have improved our techniques and our bodies need a rest after getting all banged up against the Laos limestone.

I want to be a rock-climber, if only for all the cool gear!

Coincidentally, we finished our course on St. Patrick’s Day and went out for a double celebration with everyone. Corned Beef and Cabbage seemed very challenging to find last night, so I ordered green curry with chicken, instead. In addition to my green shirt, I thought the green curry might lend a festive air to the day.

My best attempt at dinner befitting a St. Patty’s Day in Laos

We just got done with four great days in Luang Prubang – the spiritual capitol of Laos. It is a beautiful little city snuggled along the banks of the Mekong River.  The incredible haze that has hung over everywhere we’ve been so far (from the heat, and the farmers in the hillsides burning the underbrush) finally wasn’t a nuisance here, but added to the overall charm and mystical quality of the city. We were never outside the sights of at least one temple and lots of little novice monks were scurrying everywhere.

A monk contemplates among Luang Prubang's haze

One of the best activities was to rent bicycles and check out the sites. It’s definitely the smallest city we’ve visited thus far in South East Asia and the streets are a lot less congested. One day we crossed the Mekong River by water taxi with our bikes and checked out a series of temples that line the opposite side of the river. The temples were exactly the way I would want a temple to be – nestled in the woods, overlooking the lazy river, and quiet enough to block out any noise of civilization. Each temple was really different. One was actually a cave where they put old statues of the buddha. We were led around by flashlight by a little novice monk who pointed out to us “where buddha sits”. Another was a more typical monastery-temple complex we have seen, but really old and beautiful. Wat Chompet was a really old temple on top of a hill and seemed almost deserted, with sweeping, misty views of Luang Prubang.

The Buddha in old Wat Chompet

Over in the main part of Luang Prubang we checked out the temples on the Phousi Mountain, which is a forested hill that juts up in the middle of the city. It is an amazing complex with little treasures tucked all over the hillside, including one side of the hill being like a grotto with lots of different buddha statues situated in the trees and a small cave dedicated to what is supposed to be a footprint of the buddha. We seemed to have shared the hillside with as many monks on pilgrimage as other tourists, which made the experience really unique.

Atop Mount Phousi

After hearing tuk tuk drivers ask us if we wanted to go to “the waterfall” for three days, we finally took them up on it on the fourth day. We headed out to the Kong Si waterfall on our last day in town.  It was a beautiful series of waterfalls with deep green bluish pools that you could jump into from on top of the waterfall or from a rope swing.

Swingin' into the waterfall

I don’t think I can recommend enough a visit to Luang Prubang. It is exactly what I want South East Asia to be – bicycles, temples, markets, the Mekong, temples, monks – with far less tourists and people in general than we encountered anywhere in Thailand. It was a great entering point for Laos and I think we are really going to like it here.

We stepped off the slow boat onto to dry land last night in Luang Prubang, Loas. We left Huay Xai at about noon on Saturday, sped downstream for 6 hours, 20 minutes and spent the night ashore in Pak Beng. We woke up to a snappy breakfast and grabbed our pre-ordered bag-o-sammies on the way back down to the boat. The 9AM boat pulled out promptly at 10 and floated downstream for 8 hours, 25 minutes of additional Me Kong glory. All told the trip took just under 15 hours, which is considerably shorter than the 18 hour prediction from the guy selling ‘upgrades’ for the direct mini-van — shocking.

"Two tickets on the slow boat please!"

The boat ride was interesting — the crowd was a bit much, but the scenery made it spectacular voyage. Starting from Huay Xai, the sand dunes turn into hills, which grew upwards into limestone rock faces. Making the trip even more breathtaking, the boulders and rock-outcroppings along the shores and mid-stream required occasionally intricate slaloming. The river rapids were not overly intense for a rubber boat, but seemed just wild enough for our over sized canoe. I’ll attempt to describe our craft: two sets of benches go down either side of the boat and are separated by an aisle way wide enough for two people to lay down, shoulder to shoulder. In the front is the windshield and navigations with about 20 feet of flat room for lounging. Next is room for ~100 people to sit on the benches, followed by the snack bar, engine, family’s living quarters and bathroom. All told, the boat was maybe 200 feet long and maybe 15 feet wide. The engine looked like a v12 diesel that had been pulled out of a tractor trailer and hooked up to the long tailed prop.

There was no reverse.

While docked, the boat would point up stream and then swing around slowly with the help of some long bamboo poles. The crew appeared well trained — to the point that we’d suspected they’d never spent more than a day off the Me Kong.

The Mighty Mekong (and the infamous slow boat)