Ciao Laos

After Vang Vieng, I made tyre treads towards the capital city, Vientiane.  You will remember that I met the lovely, enthusiastic, happy and energietic Vietnamese cyclist,  Châu Bảo on the way!

The main road entering Vientiane is pretty.

It is also a city that has retained the character of the French but not quite so much charm.  It has a lovely promenade along the Mekong River where you can cycle, walk the dog or join in a free public gym class.

 

You can wander through the night market which, unusually, does not sell food.  It is pretty much a clothing and electronic accessories market.  But you can stop in at any of the restaurants just across the road and sip a drink while watching the world go by.

There not many tourist attractions in Vientiane, the top two being the Buddha Park and the Cope Museum.  The latter is much like the UXO museum in Luang Prabang which I  described in my “Hello Laos” post.  The Buddha park (known as Xieng Khuan which means Spirit City) is most unusual.  It was built in 1958 by a priest who studied both Hinduism and Buddhism.  There are more than 200 statues of both Hindu and Buddha origin.

The most interesting is a big ball-shaped construction that you enter through the mouth of a demon.

Inside are three levels, Hell below, Earth in the centre and Heaven above.  Each level has a central core within which are statues depicting life in the three regions.  They are quite crudely finished but that lends character.

You can only get to Hell from Earth but there are multiple entrances to Heaven and Earth – most comforting.

All in all, I followed the Mekong for 1358 kilometres the whole way down from Huay Xai to the very southernmost point of Laos – The 4000 Islands.  It was fitting to say a very fond farewell to Laos on the small island of Don Det in the middle of this glorious river.  Accordingly , I spent my time as much on the river as I could.  First of all a ferry from Nakasong to Don Det. The first picture gives you an idea of the layout and relative size of the islands and just how massive the river is at this point. (More on that later)

Don Det is a really small village on a very small quarter-moon shaped island (about 5km x 1.5km at its widest).  The businesses all cater for tourists.  There are hotels and guest houses and hostels, restaurants and bars and a variety of activities on sale for tourists.

I chose to go fishing and booked with a real character who’s name is Jay but eveyrone knows him as “Mr Whisky”.  Two lovely English lasses, Ellie and Katherine, from Bristol also booked so I had good company.  We went about 30 minutes upstream to an even smaller island that has a few families living on it.  While we tried our hand at fishing, Mr Whisky prepared lunch.  He lit a fire in a portable brazier and cooked us the most delicious chicken and vegetable kebabs and grilled salted fish.  This fine repast was washed down with Laos Whisky and Coke!

The next day I went kayaking.  It was a full day out. Lots of fun paddling sometimes with the current, sometimes across the current and occasionally, with much effort, upstream, all the while dodging the whirlpools.  The river is always in flux and movement, currents and whirlpools come and go all the time.  The whirlpools are mostly surface eddies but they make paddling difficult so you avoid them if you can – much like potholes in the roads!  We were 3 kayaks, the tour leader and one of three Spaniards from Barcelona, the other two Spaniards and last but definitely not least, a lass from Texas, Alex, and me in the third kayak.

After lunch we paddled for about 30 minutes  to a spot on Don Phapeng where we beached our kayaks and were transported to see the world’s largest waterfall, the mind-boggling, unbelievably powerful and huge Khonepapeng Falls.

“What makes it the world’s largest?”, I hear you ask.  “After all, the world’s highest are the Angel Falls in Venezuela”, you say.  (On a side note – the second highest waterfall in the world are the Tugela Falls in Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa)

“Well, I am glad you asked”, I reply, “it is the world’s largest waterfall because it is the world’s widest waterfall at nearly 11 kilometres across”.  I’ve been constantly amazed at the size of the Mekong and this is just incredible.  Look at the map of the 4000-islands below.  I have marked the location of the falls.  Now see how small that 11 kms width looks when compared to the rest of the river.  This Mekong is one seriously big river!!

It was with a touch of sadness that I packed my bags for the last time in Laos and prepared to catch the ferry to Nakasong and to cycle the 18 kms to the Cambodian border.  I enjoyed Laos immensely and will always remember it and all the lovely people I met on the way, both the locals and the tourists.   But of course, ahead of me I had another country and other adventures to be experienced and that is always exciting.

Editors Note: Within minutes of publishing this, I had a message from a doubting Thomasina questioning the validity of the claim that this is the largest waterfall in the world. Can you credit that? Would I lie to you? I was stunned speechless!  After a vigorous debate, Ms Thomasina finally agreed and sent me this link – see Number 1.

10 Biggest, Largest Waterfalls In The World

My honour is restored.