We think of ourselves as quite organised travellers. We pretty much have each day planned out for our time in South East Asia. There is so much to do that if you get caught in a place for longer than you intended, you can miss out on better things later on.
However, flexibility is also a quality a traveller needs and we have had to turn our plan on its head for the simple reason that Gem has been walking around for the last 2 weeks with what can only be described as a tree in her foot.
Sabaidee from Laos (it means Hello!!)
Our overnight train from Bangkok to the border with Laos was a much more comfortable affair than our previous train journey. We arrived at Nong Kai around 8am and completed the border crossing formalities without issue. The next train took us over the border into Laos where we bought our visas and headed to the capital city – Vientiane.
Ells relaxing in his bunk on the way to Laos
Vientiane is a very chilled out place where the French influence on the country truly tells. There are cafés all over the place selling crêpes and baguettes. We just enjoyed relaxing here, taking in the unbelievable sunsets and getting fully acquainted with Beerlao, the Lao’s answer to a fantastic tasting beer!!!
The fabulous sunset in Vientiane
We visited a Buddhist temple (of which there are hundreds here) and also the city’s bustling market, where Gem bought herself a tailor-made skirt to wear at school (when she gets a job!!).
They like a golden Buddha in Laos!!
This wat has 10,000 of them!!!
Vang Vieng – anyone for an episode of Friends?
After a couple of days in the capital, we got a bus a few hours north to the town of Vang Vieng, famous for its tubing adventure along the Nam Song River – basically a “bar crawl” of sorts, except instead of staggering from bar to bar, you float down the river in a rubber ring until the next bar throws you a rope and you pull yourself in. Or so we’re told!!!
We didn’t get to experience it as Gem’s foot had got slightly worse over the past few days, with more puss, blood and a few tiny splinters coming out of her wound. It was clearly infected, something we decided to rectify when we headed back to Thailand in a week’s time.
A local fisherman throwing his net in the Nam Song
So to fill our time in Vang Vieng, we watched Friends!! Sounds weird, but the locals have used the Western popularity for the show by creating “video bars” – bars where you lie down on a bed, drink Beerlao and watch Friends from dawn til dusk. It’s odd how you can just sit there for hours watching Friends, but hey, it’s a great show!!! And did we mention the beer’s great too!!!
Our room was pretty cool too. We slept in a hut on stilts next to the river with a mattress on the floor and a mozzy net!! The biggest cockroach on the planet lived there but we battled through that and enjoyed the authentic experience!!
Our hut in Vang Vieng
Luang Prabang – cookery schools.....
After another long drive through some spectacular scenery, we arrived in Luang Prabang. We were hot, sweaty and without anywhere to stay but we landed on a jackpot as the owner of a small guesthouse persuaded us to stay there. It was a lovely little place with AC and an amazing shower. Well, we’re allowed a little luxury every now and again – and for £7 a night, it’s a bargain!!
We booked ourselves on a cookery course and headed to the school early the next day. We met our chef teachers, Phia and Leng, then headed off to the market to buy our ingredients. That was an experience in itself. As a poor nation, the Lao eat almost everything they can to survive. This includes buffalo skin, congealed blood and even ground limestone as a flour. Unbelievable!!!
Anyone for chilli paste?!!
We got back to the school and watched Leng and Phia cook numerous dishes (fortunately not using any of the ingredients mentioned above!!) until we had to go back to our workstations and copy them. It was a fantastic day.
Gem making Laos-style mayonnaise
Ells frying up a storm
We cooked 5 dishes in total, learning new ways to cook certain ingredients that we wouldn’t have thought when used together would create such fantastic flavours. Then we got to eat them all. They were all lovely and we are looking forward to recreating this fabulous cuisine for anyone willing to try it when we get back.
Yum yum - some of our finished dishes
Us with Phia and Leng
...and hospitals!!
The next day we had planned to visit the many wats (temples) in the area, however, Gem’s foot had become excruciatingly painful, such that we had booked flights to Bangkok for the next day to head back to the hospital there to get it sorted for good.
Ells did manage to see a few wats while Gem was laid up in bed!!
Any research we had done regarding Laos medical facilities ended with the same message – if you want good medical care, then get yourself to Thailand as there isn’t any in Laos. So we called our travel insurance provider (which cost us a bloody fortune by the way) to get the OK for the flight down to Bangkok, however they were adamant that the care available in Laos was good enough.
Words that describe insurance providers begin with F and C and B. They simply cannot be repeated on this blog as Nan reads it!!
Regardless we needed to sort this out so we headed to the local hospital. We drove in a tuk-tuk out of the town passed some very poor neighbourhoods until we reached the Laos-China Friendship Hospital. Gem limped through the entrance and into the consultant’s room...with 3 other patients all being seen to at the same time. This wasn’t looking good...damn insurance tight asses!!
A colourful tuk-tuk and its smily driver
The doc consulted another guy whose English was equally rubbish (confidence is ebbing away and Gem is looking terrified at this point!!). He summons her to the “SURGSERY ROOM” as it was spelt on the door. Should we do a runner? Damn, Gem can’t run!!
So she lies on the bed and the doc starts dosing her foot in iodine. By this point Gem is petrified and when the 1st injection goes in, with 3 nurses holding her leg down, the screams must have been heard in the UK!! To cut a long story short, he extracted 2 more splinters from the wound, one of which was over an inch long!!!
Not really a splinter, more a plank of wood!!
God only knows how someone can walk around for 2 weeks with a tree in their foot, but Gem managed it with a rucksack on her back!!
What now?
Our plan is to head back to Bangkok for a week or so anyway, just to rest Gem’s foot. We will also be close to a world class hospital in the event that we need it.
So, Laos was unfortunately not the experience we had wanted and our plans to head into northern Thailand and visit the tribal villages, do another cooking class and visit the Bridge over the River Kwai have regrettably been sent to the scrap heap. Oh well, we’ll just have to return one day!!
Love Ells and Gem xxx
