The border crossing between Thailand and Laos consisted of two shack like buildings on either side of the mighty Mekong river. The sun was scorching on a blisteringly hot afternoon as we boarded a long tail boat to take us on the two minute journey from Thailand to Laos. Arriving in Laos, we completed the necessary paperwork to obtain our visas, walked past a security guard who took a passing glance at our passports and found a cheap hotel within a couple of minutes where we dumped our bags and had our first taste of the backpackers favourite, Beer Lao, a beer not yet available in England, but I‘m sure it‘s only a matter of time. Everyone enjoys a cold beer on a hot day, but a cold beer on a REALLY hot day is nothing short of heavenly! We had a walk down the one street town and came across a restaurant with a wonderful veranda overlooking the banks of the river. We ordered a Lao BBQ, not really knowing what to expect and after a few minutes, the waitress returned with a bucket of red hot coal and placed it in the hole in the middle of our table. DIY BBQ is something we are huge fans of after our time in Korea and our wonderful experiences of Korean BBQ. Next to arrive were some long green beans, fried aubergine, a tangy, fruity sauce and assorted salad leaves which we assumed were to wrap our meat in. What came next was more unexpected, a metal steamboat pot with an area for grilling meat on the top. How it all worked was you cooked the meat on the elevated middle section of the pot, the meat juices slid down into the bowl like edges of the pot where you placed your leaves and vegetables. We were also given a bucket of light stock and a couple of eggs which we could crack into the bowl. So effectively you have a meaty soup and a BBQ in one. It’s a novel way of cooking and we had a great time trying to figure it all out! All in all, a brilliant first meal in Laos.
We were up really early the next morning for an eight hour bus journey to Luang Nam Tha, a small town in Northern Laos, not too far from the Chinese border. We were some of the first people on the old, dilapidated bus and we put our bags on the back seat and took our seats nearer the front. The bus left the station half empty but started picking up random people along with their cargo. Before we knew it, the bus was full of people and lots of sacks of rice, food, drums of oil, bags of cement, and other various objects. People had to clamber over the items to get on and off the bus and the driver would wait for no man which meant people were falling all over the place. The roads were in the process of being built and we had to stop several times as bulldozers cleared sections of debris for us to pass. Needless to say the journey was bumpy and a tad uncomfortable. Still, it was our first insight into the wonderful world of Laos, a simple land where many people still live in bamboo huts without electricity. Tourism is in its infancy but the road building would lead one to suggest that the infrastructure is starting to take place and it will only be a matter of time before Laos catches up with the rest of Southeast Asia. Still, we felt very lucky to be able to see a country with such a timeless air about it and the eight uncomfortable hours on the bus passed relatively quickly as we were amazed by the simple, very picturesque villages we were passing through. The toilet break on the bus was another eye opener, it was a case of get off the bus and pee where you want, even the girls!! Needless to say Melissa found it difficult to do as the locals did and had to find a spot far away from the bus to do her business. It was quite a sight seeing old ladies hitch up their skirts to go for a pee on the side of the road! Another thing we learnt was that Lao people suffer with motion sickness. The roads were very windy and bumpy and we quite often heard excruciating rawking, gurgling, heaving, wretching and spitting noises coming from the other passengers. We just had to try and look away because the sounds alone were making us feel queasy. Now I understand what the small plastic bags were for that they gave us at the start of the journey!
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