Kuang Si Waterfalls

Over the weekend in Luang Prabang, we (Nick, his aunt and uncle, and myself) decided to visit Kuang Si waterfall (which is one of the main tourist waterfalls, besides Tad Sae aka the elephant waterfall). Kuang Si is about a 40 minute tuk tuk ride outside of LP, and we "negotiated" a price of 230,000kip (or $30) for the tuk tuk driver to bring us out to the waterfall, wait two hours for us to explore the waterfall and the newly opened Kuang Si Butterfly Park, and drive us back. (The tuk tuk driver's starting price was 250,000kip so we could definitely have gotten him down to an even lower price, but an additional $10 means way more to a tuk tuk driver than to us, and that way we have a better relationship/ experience with the driver anyway.)

The ride out of the city was really beautiful- lots of rice paddies and little villages. 

Arriving at Kuang Si, there's a little village set up around the entrance selling T-shirts, drinks and food, along with a parking lot that is primarily filled with tuk tuks. The entrance fee is 20,000kip ($2.50) per person, and it's totally worth it. 

When you get inside the park, there's a Bear Rescue Center where these tiny Asian bears (so much smaller than North American bears! but still pretty big) are in these large enclosures. There were signs posted everywhere describing the sun bears and the moon bears, and why they need protection in Asia... Traditional Eastern medicine believes there are medicinal properties in bear bile, so these bears are often held captive, or captured on a regular basis, for bile extraction. It's really sad, but it's nice to see the bears that have been rescued playing on their play-scapes or swinging in hammocks.

Past the Bear Rescue Center is the cascading pools from the waterfalls. We got there around 9:30am, so there weren't a lot of people when we arrived, but by 10:30am it was pretty busy.

The waterfalls were beautiful, with small cascading pools that seemed to go on forever. The Kuang Si waterfall is rated a "Top 10 Natural Pool" by Tripadvisor (see the list here).

Nick and his Aunt Jan

Nick and I also got a picture (though it wasn't nearly as cute)

The top waterfall.
You can hike to the top, and it's a wonderful hike (a bit risky in the flip flops I was wearing, but no damage done).
(For anyone choosing to hike to the top: there are hiking trails on either side and you can cross the stream at the top. It's much easier to hike down on the left, as the left side [left when facing the waterfall, that is] has a staircase at the steepest part. The right side is a rough climb to the top when going up, but looked near impossible when going down. There are few safety measures in place and a lot of places that could've been really rough, with small kids or older people. We passed a man in his late 70's, early 80's though, so it might not be too too bad.)

Another thing to note: every once in a while we would stumble upon these areas that smelled awful! It took us a while to figure out why, but now I think it was monkey poop. There were some areas along the trail where it looked as if monkeys had gathered specifically to poop. It was gross.

The view from the top of the waterfall

After the hike (which was pretty strenuous, plus it was hot, so by the end I was all sweaty) I popped in the Kuang Si pools for a bit. The water was really cold, but it felt great. There were a bunch of European long-term backpackers (read: 20-somethings who have been traveling on a budget for a really long time; especially girls with sleeve tattoos and guys with ridiculously long dreads) and Asian tourists that had arrived at the pool by this time, but it was fun watching some of the tricks the guys were doing off the mini waterfalls.

Sunset cruise in Luang Prabang

Nick's aunt and uncle met us in Luang Prabang for a really nice weekend of exploring, eating and relaxing. We stayed at a beautiful hotel called the "Belle Rive", and included in our stay was a nightly sunset cruise (out on the Mekong). 

Nick admiring the staircase in our room 

It had some great views (and pretty good wine :)) 

Ock pop tok

In Luang Prabang, next to the "3 Nagas Hotel/ Restaurant", there is a weavings shop called "Ock Pop Tok" (or "East meets West"). If you request it, they will call their tuk tuk to come take you to their workshop, which is a 35 min walk outside the city (it was too hot and dirty for a walk). They do free tours every half hour and explain silk making, natural dyes, weaving processes and different Lao patterns/ styles. It was very nifty. 

The workshop there has about ten women working on weavings- they also do classes for anywhere from one to three days. It seemed pretty cool, but not necessarily something I'd be too keen on (I get really really impatient and weaving seems like it takes a lot of patience)

They also have four rooms in their guesthouse and a restaurant. In their restaurant you can order "Silkworm Poo Tea".

It tastes like an herb-y green tea. And I don't like green tea, so I didn't really like Silkworm Poo tea.

Jet Skiing at the Blue Lagoon Resort

Three hours North of Vientiane (and 25 km from Vang Vieng) the Blue Lagoon Resort is tucked away on the Nga Ngum lake. Nick and I spent a night there on Feb 15th - super relaxing and very little going on :)

View from the VIP Bungalow ($40 a night felt like a lot for this place)

BUT there were jet skis you could rent for $60 /hr and it was awesome put-putting (and racing) around the little islands. We saw some weird stuff, including a mini island with four cows. No idea how they got there.

Nick on a Wednesday

Today, Nick and I went downtown for lunch on the scooter. Since I left my helmet at home, Nick insisted I wear his helmet. 

It was pretty sunny, though, and he left his sunglasses at the office, so he got to wear my sunglasses.

The sunglasses / windswept hair combination is all sorts of amazing.

He should be a model. 

Later, after we got home from a massive going-away party for our friend and co-worker, Nick wanted a dessert.

Which was white cake batter.

Not the cake, just the batter.

He judged me for not wanting some, and I judged him for eating cake batter out of a bowl... With a spoon.

The Pizza Co has weird ideas on love

This was a Valentines Day promotion done by the Pizza Company (which I think is the biggest Western-style pizza chain in Asia)

Why dancing shrimp?

Also why so much nasty seafood on pizza? Why is that a thing here?

Vientiane is not an easy place to do Valentine's Day

Nick and I have been dating for over two years now, so we just "celebrated" Valentine's Day (as much as you can celebrate a holiday which pretty much only exists to (a) make single people feel crappy, and (b) sell a lot of stuff) for the third time. This was, however, the first time we were in the same city- usually he was in North Dakota doing recruiting trips and sent me flowers (the first year) or chocolates (the second year; he got to know my preferences more over time and now knows that chocolates trump flowers). (He did get me roses this year but to be fair there aren't as many V-Day gift options in Vientiane)

But we got to celebrate Valentines Day in Vientiane. We didn't really make plans, assuming that since we're in Laos, most restaurants would still have space. Decided last minute I wanted the Valentine's Day Special at Pimenton (which came with duck AND TWO DESSERTS). Tried to call and make reservations day-of. Got denied ("already booked"). (Turns out later a couple of coworkers were able to get in without a reservation, no problem, so I'm still kind of kicking myself.)

So as a back up I called La Signature, the nicest/ most expensive restaurant in Vientiane (French), and made a reservation for 8pm.

En route to the restaurant, 7:50pm, we got pulled over by cops at a checkpoint. After a long time of trying to communicate with the police officer, we found out our crappy Kia's headlight was bust so we had to pay a 50,000 kip ($6) "ticket" (but really it's paying off the police officer) (#laoslife). 

Then we arrived at the restaurant. La Signature has a really pretty outside area, with white table clothes and candles and Christmas lights. You can sit there... if you have a reservation. But they lost our reservation. So we had to sit in the upstairs area which is noisy and way less romantic. "Fine," we said. "This will work."

They left us with the menus, a single red rose (sweet) and took our wine order pretty quickly. 

The Valentine's Day Special at La Signature (for $45)

They left us with the wine and the menus for a really, really long time. 

Which means I drank a lot of wine before ordering, and then more wine while we were waiting for our food. 

Nick was really entertained.

(This is a joke. He was driving later so he couldn't drink as much... and I was probably getting really grouchy waiting for the food. I get "hangry" pretty easily ("hangry" = anger caused by hunger))

On the plus side I got to wear my Wreck-It Ralph dress. (From Chhing Chhing in Siem Reap)

And I got to celebrate Valentine's Day with my awesome boyfriend....

Who takes me to really nice restaurants...

And doesn't mind when I get class-ily tipsy at a fancy restaurant.

Images of Vang Vieng

We go to the Vang Vieng area a lot. It's 3 hours North of Vientiane and oh so much prettier. 

Biggest piece of advice for anyone heading there is to pick up a "Hobo Map". They're 25,000 kip ($3) and mark every major attraction, restaurant, hotel, etc. And apparently they're updated pretty regularly, which is good because Vang Vieng, like everywhere in Laos, is in a state of constant change. 

Wats, pedestrian-friendly streets, and picturesque mountains. 

Lots of dirt roads. Thank God we have a truck- other options are tuk tuks, walking, biking, dune buggies or scooters. I'd be nervous taking our super crappy Kias. 

Also they have hot air balloons. And a river. 

Pretty pretty pretty.

Friday breakfast: Roti

As mentioned in previous posts, every Friday our office provides us with breakfast. This Friday was the best ever: we got roti!

This guy came with his cart on the back of a scooter with enough to make 100 rotis- with egg, banana, lime, chocolate and/ or condensed milk. 

'Roti' is also called 'lotee' , paratha, Lao pancake or Lao crepe. 

I got mine with chocolate, banana, egg and condensed milk- the egg was to make it healthy...

But it wasn't healthy at all, it was just delicious.

News in Laos

I have Google Alerts set up for both “Vientiane” and “Laos”, so every day I get any news articles relevant to either of them. Usually there are three or four each.

Here’s a sample of the three I got yesterday:

Radio Free Asia: Media Watchdog Says Press Controls on the Increase in Asia

“Myanmar's ranking rose seven notches to 145 in the global index, but Reporters Without Borders said the country's reform process is nonetheless being watched with great interest elsewhere, especially in neighboring countries such as Laos, where the situation of freedom of information has "stagnated alarmingly;" in Cambodia, "where the authorities are on edge;" and in Vietnam, which is "still in the grip of authoritarian single party rule.

The governments and population of these countries are following the development of a new regional model of governance in Burma [Myanmar], a model that is still far from proving itself.

The ranking of Laos fell to 171 from 168 “

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/vietnam/press-freedom-02112014182732.html

The Daily Star: Entrepreneurship key in growing jobs, fighting poverty

ACROSS South and Southeast Asia, nations are doing what they can to better prepare their businesses and their citizens to compete in an increasingly interconnected world. The challenges are vast and varied.
From top-ranked Singapore to lowly-ranked Laos, the ease of doing business is all across the board

While Singapore held on to the No. 1 ranking for ease of doing business, Bangladesh was ranked No. 130. That meant doing business in Bangladesh was even more difficult than in Pakistan (110), but easier than in India (134).
Rounding out the “Top 5” for worst in Asia in the World Bank 2014 Doing Business report -- the latest annual assessment of the ease of doing business in economies around the world -- are Timor-Leste (179), Afghanistan (164), Laos (159) and the Marshall Islands (156).

http://www.thedailystar.net/entrepreneurship-key-in-growing-jobs-fighting-poverty-10898

Asia Times: Silence over missing activist in Laos

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/SEA-01-120214.html

Planking in the Office

Work has a fitness challenge every month, January thru May. This month is lunges (500 in February) but Mays challenge is a five minute plank so we're training early :)

New Laos National Stadium

This blog should have been posted a while ago (2 weeks that is) but I forgot to publish the post... but this is about the "National Stadium of Laos". And it is possibly the weirdest, creepiest, and most random thing in Laos.

It all started with an Aussie Rules Football tournament that a friend invited us to: there was a Lao team, a Falang team (made up of falang / Western guys who were mostly in Laos for mining jobs) and a team of Falang from Thailand that came up for the tournament. 

The team we were cheering for was the "Pink Elephants" (Lao/ Falang team). 

In addition to pink T-shirts, they also had boxers with the words "Phants Pants" on them.

(This is a picture of the friend we came to watch. He is definitely aware that I am taking a picture of his behind, so the picture is far less creepy than it seems.)

The tournament was fun: I knew nothing about Aussie Rules Football, but between all the Aussies who were willing to explain what was going on, I got pretty into it. The Thai / Falang team won, with the Lao/ Falang team coming in second. 

But about two hours into the tournament (between the beers everyone was drinking and the pretty sad hot dogs that were available), Nick suggested we explore the National Stadium grounds. (The games were being played on a practice field next to some MASSIVE buildings.)  So off we went exploring. 

The main structure is the Stadium. It is ENORMOUS. Nick said it would fit 20,000 people but it felt bigger than that.

There was a benefit concert going on that night that people were setting up for, and a bunch of police hanging around, but they seemed fine with us coming in and taking pictures.

What's super weird about the National Stadium grounds, though, is how overgrown everything is.

Some background: Laos hosted the Southeast Asian Games in 2009 (this is kind of like Asia's regional Olympics, from what I gather). They (or another country, likely China?) spent TONS of money building these state-of-the-art buildings: a shooting range, a bunch of tennis courts, the stadium, a huge pool facility, and the largest parking lot I've seen in Laos (still pretty small, but hey, it's Laos).

And then after the games finished? Empty. Unused. It's a ghost town, except for the police that patrol it, the random events they hold there, and people who apparently live in the old locker rooms and other buildings. (I would have taken pictures of them, but it already felt like the set-up to a horror film where a young couple goes missing, never to be seen again... I didn't want to provoke anyone by taking pictures).

This is one of the main entrances to the New Lao National Stadium (above picture)

And a lot of the buildings were closed, but not locked. This looked like a building that would hold wrestling matches, but I seriously have no idea. (and that's Nick)

Gorgeous tennis court (there were a bunch, but this was the only one in a stadium). This gate is locked, but about 10 feet away was a stairwell leading to the seat area, and it's super easy to just climb onto the court. WHY LOCK IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?

This was the weirdest part. This is a MASSIVE, super deep pool that they used for diving and races and such. And after the games they DIDNT EVEN EMPTY THE POOL. They just let the water sit there and accumulate algae. It's so gross!!

YOU COULDN'T EVEN DRAIN THE POOL BEFORE YOU ABANDONED IT?!

So that's the New Lao National Stadium. It has a big stadium (used for concerts and soccer matches), a practice field that's kept in pretty good condition, a couple families randomly living in the department and planning offices, and a bunch of athletic facilities that nature is slowly but surely reclaiming as its own.

The place seriously gave me goosebumps, it was so creepily random.

On the other hand this would be the BEST PLACE FOR A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN PARTY EVER.

For more on the stadium: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Southeast_Asian_Games#Venues