The last week has been interesting to say the least. I left off posting in Vang Vieng a small town in one of the most scenic parts of Laos. Earlier before I put out that post I was walking around shooting when I sneezed. I’ve noticed that the older I get the easier it is to tell when a cold is coming on, and it usually starts with an odd sneeze. I wasn’t wrong on this one.
My hotel, as nice as it was, was isolated from what you would call downtown Vang Vieng. Knowing a cold was probably coming on I decided it was best make my way to Luang Prabang and fast. I’ll get into the details later but first I think the trip to Luang Prabang is worth a mention.
The next day after the precursor sneeze I had to make my way to the bus station. I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. I had this though that the place I had been dropped off 5 days earlier was where I needed to go, big mistake. I walked to the same spot and asked around. At that point I was about 2 kilometers into a walk with 95 pounds of gear. The people told me that station was another 3 kilos down the road and I quickly realized the stop the bus driver made was intended to get the money out of everyone before he stopped at the actual bus station. I told the story in the last post if you missed it.
I looked around and it was obvious I was in a pickle; I was in the middle of nowhere. The night I was dropped off there were tuk-tuks everywhere – as it turns out it was because of the bars NOT the phantom bus station. The tuk-tuks had since retreated to their day time haunts and left this place dry. I started walking towards the bus station knowing that I had a 10 o’clock bus to catch and no other options.
I bumped into some other travelers along the way that were looking to catch the same bus to Luang Prabang. We all had the same thought that a tuk-tuk would drive by on the way to the bus station and give us a lift. They joined me for what turned out to be a brutal hike because the tuk-tuks never came. To add injury to insult we were one block away when the bus we needed pulled out of the station and left.
Another shirt and two hours later we managed to hop on a VIP bus (an extra $2) for what turned out to be a harrowing ride through the Laos equivalent of Peru’s “death road”. It was 6 hours of white knuckle riding as the bus careened around a serpentine road – tilting over barren vertical drops at every corner. When I say barren, we are talking no guard rails, no trees, no rocks – a slingshot to the bottom. It seems that if you are in a double-decker bus you get a little extra tilt at the higher speeds giving you the perfect view of your death.
Another particular oddity was that right before we started on the nasty part of the road one of the bus handlers opened all the emergency hatches on the roof – I think it as a precaution because the air conditioning worked fine.
I wish I would have taken pictures, but I was in no mood at the time. I took these screenshots from google earth to try and give some insight into the road. Unfortunately the contours don’t show you how steep it really was and how ridiculously sharp the hair pins were, you’ll just have to take my word on that one.
A little insight into the bus environment. As we are barreling along there was the equivalent of Thai love/drama karaoke music playing on the TV along with a few of the Lao people singing along oblivious to the precarious ride. I don’t know what they were singing but I see a common trend of music involving a girl playing with her cell phone and crying while she thinks about a guy as another guy is dreaming of her. Every video involves some love triangle and a fixation on cell phones.
So 6 hours later I arrived at the bus station, happy to be alive. I was welcomed by the usual gauntlet of guest house hawkers, tuk-tuks, and 15 minutes of negotiating a price for 8 people to get downtown.
By the time I got to my guest house I was pushing 7/10 on the cold scale and knew I was in for a big one. By the next morning I was at 10/10 and dreading life. Ironically enough the first day being officially sick there was a special on H1N1 that showed on CNN. Long story short I’m about 99% sure it was H1N1 and if you do your research, there isn’t much you can do other then let your body fight it.
After the fever broke I landed myself into a sinus infection, joy. I should mention that if you plan on getting sick in Laos it’s a good idea to bring medicine (Dayquill/Nyquill) with you because you won’t find it here, or in the case of the particular drug store I visited, you won’t find ANY suppressants. This is the first time I have broke a cold without anything and I can vouch for it being extremely painful/uncomfortable and just about impossible to sleep.
On a good note you can get anything you want from the pharmacy without a prescription – as long as they have it. When I say anything, I mean anything, when I was there a girl got valium without a single question – she was looking for a lighter sleep aid, I gave her a little back story on valium, she didn’t seem to know much – she was also given the extra option of 10mg or 5mg, she went for 5. I had to ask if I could get some oxycotin just to see. I could, I didn’t, but just in case now I know.
I should note that I was able to get a full prescription of amoxicillin (14 pills) for about $13 US. If you know anything about amoxicillin you will now know how bad US rapes you on drug costs – I think it sells for around $70 – $120 uninsured. The girl got valium for $2 per 8 pills – I could be wrong, all I heard was 20,000 kip and saw the lady give her a grip of pills. It is also worth noting that knowing what drugs you want is helpful because describing your symptoms is a lot harder than just saying the drug name. I tried explaining a sinus infection and wasn’t getting anywhere, but the second I said amoxicillin it was sitting in front of me along with a book explaining the dosage, bingo.
I took another day and a half off to break the sinus infection before I managed to get out and shoot some photos, and this is what I got.
I’m going to break it into 3 parts:
Part 1: People
Part 2: Architecture
Part 3: Miscellaneous
Part 1: People
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/160 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 3:48:34 PM
This shot could have been even better had I been there 10 minutes earlier when she was sitting on the bench. She wasn’t just sitting on the bench, she was perfectly positioned in relation to the red banner, the length of the bench, the side she was holding the child, the opening of the door – it was golden. I was bummed out to say the least. She started moving as I approached and I had to fire off the shot as fast as I could. I still couldn’t quite compose it like I wanted. I’ve been checking every day since hoping she would be back out, unfortunately it hasn’t happened.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/320 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 3:24:12 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/200 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 3:25:46 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/125 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 26, 2009, 4:37:37 PM
I shot these three images from my guest house window. If it’s not obvious from the images, they have a small woodworking operation going. When I saw them they were hand making boat oars for dragon boat racing.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/2000 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 22, 2009, 4:47:42 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/320 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 4:13:53 PM
I shot this while I was waiting for my $1 foot long Lao sandwich – about 10 times better then a Subway sandwich for 1/6th the price.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/40 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 4:49:49 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/250 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 175 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 4:46:54 PM
Part 2: Architecture
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/160 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 98 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 4:37:37 PM
Laos is worth experiencing just for the old buildings alone. In Luang Prabang especially, there are these extremely narrow alleys flanked on both sides by historic French influenced buildings mixed in with traditional Lao style homes.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 second
Aperture: F/3.2
Focal Length: 150 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 22, 2009, 5:00:31 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/640 second
Aperture: F/3.2
Focal Length: 50 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 22, 2009, 5:20:58 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/40 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 4:45:27 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/125 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 26, 2009, 9:57:13 AM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/125 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 170 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 4:53:48 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/500 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 5:00:50 PM
Some of the authenticity of Laos has been lost by the widespread translation of restaurants and guest houses into English, it’s convenient but I think you end up paying for those conveniences.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/800 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 14 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 5:07:23 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/5000 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 21 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 5:35:01 PM
I’m not going to go into the details of Luang Prabang but it is my understanding that it is the cradle of Laos culture – and what is still standing, is very old.
Part 3: Miscellaneous
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/80 second
Aperture: F/14.0
Focal Length: 130 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 9:35:34 AM
A funny thing happened yesterday, it was early in the morning and I was watching TV when I heard children cheering outside. I thought they were cheering a sports game as that seems to be a regular occurrence with open air homes and the way noise carries. Either way I eventually made my way out to get breakfast when it became obvious that there was a cycle race going on and my guest house was on the race course. The best part was that it was a loop course and I was able to see them go past another 5 times before it was over. The race for those interested was the “Tour Du Laos 2009,” start training. The banner is below.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/1250 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 9:15:00 AM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/100 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 4:03:33 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/40 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 25, 2009, 4:33:37 PM
There is a lot of weaving here; this was shot off one of the old looms they use.
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/250 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 200 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 4:59:50 PM
Make: NIKON CORPORATION
Model: NIKON D3X
Shutter Speed: 1/60 second
Aperture: F/2.8
Focal Length: 135 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Date Taken: Sep 27, 2009, 5:50:46 PM
There is also a HUGE separation in wealth, this was an old, painfully well kept Mercedes one of the high end guest houses uses to ferry people around – they had two.
NIKON CORPORATION
NIKON D3X
1/40 second
F/4.0
135 mm
100
Sep 27, 2009, 5:41:08 PM
I’ll end on this fence put together out of old scrap.
So with the broken bridge, automatic rifles, crazy bus ride, and H1N1 I think I am around 4 or 5 Laos lives left out of 9 – give or take some other incidentals.
The plan is to take off for Phonsavan (another world heritage site – The Plain of Jars) tomorrow via a mini bus. I’ve been asking around and it sounds like the road there is a lot like the Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang nightmare. I’ve been told it is best to take the van ($2 extra dollars) to avoid the nausea and stress.
Judging by the news I might be in for a little bit of weather the next couple of days, we’ll see. It looks like where I am and where I am going is on the north edge of the typhoon. Let’s hope anyway, it looks nasty on the radar, the weather lady said 100cm of rain for some parts of Vietnam – but that can’t be right.
