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Weaving through the mountains in Northern Laos to Phonsavanh

Phonsavanh Travel Blog › entry 38 of 77 › view all entries

My Backpacking Journey through Southeast Asia at the end of 2006 and into 2007. The ups and downs of my trip and the many beautiful places I visited. Trully an Experience of a lifetime!

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Weaving through the mountains in Northern Laos to Phonsavanh

December 6, 2006

Villagers, up on the mountains

The bus ride from Luang Prabang to Phonsavanh was a very daunting experience. First off, upon arrival to the bus stop, I saw the locals loading up lots of luggage on a very old and rundown bus, long past its use by date.

I of course blatantly refused to leave my luggage ontop of the bus, and was fortunate enough to fit my luggage on the overhead compartments inside the bus. As we waited we heard hard thumping sounds on the top of the bus. (We, being the group of foreigners loaded up on a local bus) We all turned out heads to witness them loading a good 5+ spare tyres onto the roof. We gave each other a puzzled look and had our fingers crossed hehehe.

A moment later a local fella came onto the bus with an AK-47, we had no idea what was happening.

A view I could wake up with Everyday

It was only later (in Pakse) that I was informed that for all local travel around the Northern region of Laos, the bus company hired a local with an AK-47 just in case the bus got hijacked by the local Hmong Rebels.... Eeep

The road to Phonsavanh was a nightmare as it had many tight turns along the mountainside :S:S:S:S:S:S However the view was absolutely breathtaking, and I envied the villages living there as they wake up every morning with the most fabulous views!

Phonsavanh was a very dead city, not much to do or see. The Old city was blown to smitherines by the damn American's during the Vietnam War. A group of us from the bus stayed at the same guesthouse, owned by Mr Khong (Can't remember what the Guesthouse was called LOL, its in my notebook).

Locals invited us for a round of Lao Lao

We were talked into booking a tour with Mr Khong's Guesthouse, there was Option A and Option B, about the same price, but Option A was a whole day at the 3 sites of the Plane of Jars, whilst Option B consisted of a variety of sites, and all of us opted for Option B.

That night we headed out for dinner at an Indian owned restaurant, can't remember what the name of the place was but it was a nice little local place with some nice food. Upon our return we were invited by a few locals sitting around the table on the streets to have a few rounds of Lao Lao. Lao Lao is the Laotian rice whisky! hehe and boy was it strong.... After a few rounds we said our thanks and cheered them a goodnight and headed back towards the guesthouse to call it an early night.

Natalie and I stayed in a room and shared the expenses of a whopping $1US each for the night. As we laid there shivering we both jumped at every little racket outside or rustle of bags and what not. Because we heard from some other travellers around the bon-fire that others have encounted HUGE rats jumping on their beds LOL LOL.... Lucky we survived the night without seeing any rats....