Author: Elly Veazey

The way I feel about Laos after having spent nearly three weeks traveling throughout the country is completely the opposite of how I felt when I first arrived.  Obviously, I was so wrapped up in traveling that I did not even make time to blog about it.  Now that I am settling back down in Thailand, I want to document all the incredible adventures I had, the amazing food I ate, and the memories I made.  Yet I am having a hard time putting it all into words.

After exiting the slow boat in Luang Prabang, I went straight for Central Backpackers.  I was still emotionally exhausted from the previous days of travel.  So I was very grateful that Kristy, whom I met in Chiang Mai at Mojito Garden, arrived a day before me and sent me a Facebook message to let me know where she was staying.  Upon getting to the hostel, I quickly put my bag away and made a cup of Earl Grey tea.

As I sat there sipping my tea, I spent some time relaxing and appreciating the journey I took to get to this quaint city.  I met a fellow traveler that had been in Luang Prabang for a week already.  I was googling things to do and asking her what she recommended.  Just as I came across a website about volunteering, she mentioned she would be going to Big Brother Mouse the following evening to help young adults practice English.  I excitedly agreed to go with her around five o’clock.  That night I unfortunately had some trouble withdrawing money from the ATMs.  I just accepted that I would have to sort it out in the morning, even if that meant having my mom Western Union me some money.  Interestingly enough there were many Western Unions around, along with shops that would give cash advances on credit cards. Now it does not seem so odd because I have learned that ATMs have only recently become available throughout Laos.

Friday I woke up and had my free breakfast, then set out to try the ATMs again.  Finally after selecting “current account”, I was able to withdraw some kip.  I quickly went back to the hostel because Kristy had told me about a day trip I could take to see a breathtaking waterfall around 11am.  I asked the owner of the hostel about a trip to the waterfalls, but another backpacker overheard me.  He invited me to go with him and three of his friends as they were leaving at 10am and going to two waterfalls.  I graciously accepted and within thirty minutes we were on a tuk-tuk towards Tad Sae Waterfalls.  After a short ride on a long boat, we arrived at the entrance of what appeared to be a park.

These stepped waterfalls were like none I had ever seen.  It was slightly commercialized with elephants available for rides throughout the surrounding area, a platform zip line that crossed over the water, and a restaurant.  We found a pool of water to swim in, it was cold but refreshing.  We also took a short walk through the surrounding jungle to see more of the scenery.  It was very quiet and butterflies were everywhere.  After an hour or so here, we piled back into the tuk-tuk and drove another 45km to Kuang Si falls.  These waterfalls were filled with other tourists snapping photos, jumping off rope swings, and wadding in the pools.  It was hard to appreciate the beauty of the waterfall and the landscape around it.  Yet, I was still glad to have visited and enjoyed another swim in the cool, turquoise water.The drive back through the streets of Laos into the city of Luang Prabang was eye opening.  Along the way I saw many young children walking down long dirt roads, presumably from school to home.  Some roads were being dug up by large machinery, perhaps in the hopes of having them paved.  Of course there were endless Laotians riding motorbikes, covering their faces from the dust as they drove along behind us.  It was a great day of sightseeing, but I was anxious to return to the hostel so I could go to Big Brother Mouse.

When we returned, I quickly rushed out the door and walked to meet up with Kristy and a few other backpackers that were volunteering that night.  I had the opportunity to have a conversation with a Laotian male who was around the age of 20.  He works as a tour guide and together over the course of two hours we talked about this history of America and Laos.  I helped him by listening to him explain certain important events in Lao history.  I then helped him construct meaningful sentences with simple words.  After he felt we had created a simple explanation of an event, he recorded me saying it on his phone.  He let me know that it was most helpful to listen to the words and my pronunciation so he could practice it on his own.  I was grateful to help him and also impressed by his knowledge of history and the English language.  After leaving that night feeling invigorated, I spent some time researching all he had told me.  I enjoyed learning more about Laos through my conversation with him.

I literally spent the next three days (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday) riding a bike around Luang Prabang, relaxing in Utopia, sleeping in, watching Breaking Bad, getting massages, playing cards, and exploring the market.

All the while, I spent time getting to know Kristy and two other travelers, Rosie and Kris.  As the days went on, I shared my plans to travel south over the next three weeks with Kristy.  We agreed to travel together for as long as it made sense and worked as she was heading to Cambodia after Laos.  Kris had planned on going south to at least the capital, Vientiane, and Rosie was not sure what her plans were in Laos as she was already off her earlier travel itinerary.  So the groundwork was laid for us to spend some more time together as we all moved south along the “backpacker path.”One evening I climbed a hill called Phou Si, where I had beautiful views of the surrounding city and watched the sun set over the Mekong.  I went up early in the evening and secured a nice spot to watch the sun set.  It was beautiful and as the sun sunk behind the clouds, I felt myself beginning to appreciate the slow way of life in Laos.  When I originally mapped out my journey south, I planned to leave Luang Prabang Monday morning.  However Kristy suggested staying one more night and I eagerly agreed.  We both acknowledged that if we wanted to travel to the 4000 islands, we would have to leave the next day.  Yet neither of us really wanted to leave the calmness we had found within ourselves.  I will not lie, as I write about my five days in Luang Prabang, I yearn to wake up and take a leisurely bike ride along the Mekong… to eat the extremely cheap vegetarian buffet dinner in the night market… and to play cards around the table with my newfound friends.

Here’s the dorm room at Mojito Garden 2 that we crashed in after our 12 hour bus ride.  Around 11am Ansel, John, Nicole, and I were ready to explore the city.  We were perfectly placed right in the heart of the old city square and after our first walk, we realized the square is very small and easy to navigate.  The main attractions in the city square are the numerous wats.  However, women have to have their shoulders and knees covered to enter these places of worship.  We headed back to the hostel to change.  Photographs and even video do not do justice to the beauty and serenity of these temples.  We visited Wat Phan Tao, Wat Chedi Luang, and Wat Chiang Man.  It was difficult to chose which ones to visit, but I made my decisions based on the Buddha statues that were contained in each one.

Wat Chedi Luang was initially constructed in the 14th century and some restoration happened in the 1990s.  It once housed the Emerald Buddha before it was moved to Luang Prabang.  We entered the temple and some type of ceremony was happening.  It was mesmerizing.

Thai people were sitting in rows and there were strings hanging down from the ceiling.  I believe these strings all connect to the Buddha at the front.  There was a table filled with monks and it appeared as if some new monks were being welcomed into monkhood.  We stood for a while just observing and taking it all in.  Behind the temple the old ruins of Chedi Luang are evident.  Most interesting was seeing the elephants along the side of the structure, although they were reconstructed and not the original stone.  After some more wandering and awe-inspiring buddhas, I ventured on to find a wat containing two sacred buddhas: Phra Sae Tang Kamani (Crystal Buddha) and Phra Sila Buddha (Marble Buddha).  They were very small and in a case, but it was still impressive to see such old relics.  Elephants around chedis (pagodas) must be a common feature of Lanna (Northern Thailand) architecture.

   I wrapped up the night with a few beers and a game of pool with Ansel.  The next day we packed up and grabbed two songteaws to take us up to Doi Suthep, which is a national park and has an amazingly large wat.  The wat was breathtaking, but hard to appreciate because of all the tourists.  One interesting thing about it is the legend of the white elephant.  The story goes that the elephant trumpeted, circled three times, then laid down and died in this spot.  This led the king to build the temple there because he took it as a sign.

After spending some time walking around, observing, rubbing a fat buddha’s belly, and getting blessed by a monk we decided to head back down the large staircase.  John’s friend that has been living in Chiang Mai for over a year met us and brought us to a waterfall.  Unfortunately, none of us caught the name of it… but it was a hidden jewel.  He walked us down a path towards the bottom of the waterfall.  At one point, he stopped at a rock that overlooked the waterfall and said “Right, this is where we jump.”  We all thought he was joking, but he wasn’t.  After a few false countdowns and watching everyone else jump, I took a leap.  It was quite an adrenaline rush.  

I remember one of the pieces of advice I received at a Meet-Plan-Go conference was to do what scared me.  Whatever it was.  Whatever I was most scared of, just do it.  So I jumped.

It was insane and with my fear of heights, the adrenaline rush was intensified.  Looking back I’m so glad I did it!  After a few more jumps and watching a local Thai man use the rocks as a water slide, we walked up the side to check out more of the waterfall.  We were able to go under the water and enjoy a nice, high pressure shower.  The best moment was when we were just sitting on the edge of the rocks looking up at the water as it poured down.  It was beautiful and serene.  Ironically I began singing Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This” in my head.  Over and over I just kept thinking about how people wait a lifetime for a moment just like this.  And I was living it.

And going to continue living it for the next 11 months.  The rest of the night was pretty low key.  I visited Wat Phra Singh, again I chose this one because there was an interesting story about the buddha statue there.  The walls in one of the murals on tapestry showing the history of something significant in Buddhist history.  Another aspect of this temple that I really enjoyed was that it had quotes from the Dharma posted on trees all throughout the grounds.  It was refreshing to take some time to read them and remind myself of the quote that I left the states with… “If you are depressed you are living in the past.  If you are anxious you are living in the future.  If you are at peace you are living in the present.”  Not surprisingly I have found out this is a quote from Lao Tzu, who was the author of the Dao De Jing.  And wouldn’t you know that as I was deciding which of my philosophy books to keep and potentially bring on this trip with me, it was the Dao De Jing.  I did not end up brining it along with me, but clearly it is staying with me.

                       Friday we ventured out to Wat Umong, a wat in the forest, that I really wanted to visit.  It was much more secluded than the other temples I had visited and there were only a few other tourists there.  There was one area where we could go into tunnels to pray at buddha statues.  There was also a place where there were numerous old buddhas, many whose heads were cut off and poorly reattached.

For the remainder of the day, we ate at Dada Kafe which had avocados and cheese!  It was great to have the luxury of these flavors.  Then John and Ansel rented scooters.  After some practice runs, Ansel took me on the back of his and we all went off to find food in the markets.  We came across the flower market, Ton Lamyai, along the river.

The sights and scents of stalls upon stalls of flowers was marvelous.  Of course I was specifically drawn to checking out all the orchids.  They are everywhere in Thailand.  That night we went to a local Reggie bar with Annie who works at Mojito Garden 2.  She is a lot of fun and we danced the night away together.

Jemima and Nathan arrived early Saturday morning and after some rest and negotiating, we all agreed to venture out to find an old quarry that is perfect for cliff jumping.  We heard it was not well known by tourists and somewhere off the beaten path.  Chris and Kamila, a couple we met the night before, came with us.  On three motorbikes, off we went to follow some general directions to Nam Phrae.  Luckily Annie gave us a piece of paper with the quarry’s name written down in Thai and it was a lifesaver after some off-roading through mud puddles and dirt trails.   Finally after getting the help of some locals, we pulled up to this red mud quarry with preistene green-blue water.  The cliffs were perfect for jumping, but I psyched myself out.  I was okay with that because I had jumped at the waterfall.  I still enjoyed the tranquility of swimming and relaxing in the warm water under the hot sun.

Saturday night we went to the Saturday Market Street.  It was insane.  The street was filled on either side, elbow-to-elbow, with Thai people.  It was a nice change of pace to be in a market geared towards Thai people rather than tourists, but it was also very claustrophobic at times.  Sunday was my last full day in Chiang Mai and I was so glad to have Chris and Kamila.  They wanted to go to the highest point in Thailand, just as I did, and so we rented a car.  Chris drove and off we went to Doi Inthanon National Park.  It was a long drive and I snuck in a nap, but it was completely worth it.  We stopped off at Siribhum Waterfall and with some encouragement from Chris, Kamila and I went in the water.  It was quite slippery and not exactly a calm pool to swim in, but the view looking up into the waterfall was one of a kind.

After some photos, splashing around, and getting thoroughly cold we piled back into the car.  After another 45 minutes we were at the summit of Doi Inthanon.  Due to the clouds and mist, we could not see the amazing view of Chiang Mai we had heard about.  So reaching the highest point in Thailand was not as exciting as I thought it might be, but now I can at least say I did it.

On the way down, we stopped at two wats.  They had stunning architecture, beautiful gardens, and large buddha statues.  Here we were also able to catch a few glimpses of the city below.

I really enjoyed my time in Chiang Mai.  I appreciated it for it’s history and also for it’s vibrant community of young farangs.  It was a great transition between Hua Hin with my XploreAsia crew and the solo journey I was about to embark on into Laos. 

After completing two days of teaching at the camp, we were rewarded with an incredible Wednesday afternoon.  We started the day off with a few hours in the classroom, then we all boarded a large songthaew and traveled see The King’s Cup 2013 Dragon Boat Races at Khao Tao Reservoir.  It was a fun time and one of the last times we were all together in a group.  The boats were extremely large, some holding 55 Thai men.  It was exciting to watch them take off from the starting line, counting in Thai and stroking quickly in a rhythm.  We all found a restaurant and chatted with Jaco and one another.  I even played a game of checkers with Zain.  After spending a few hours there, Kanchan and I went to one of the night markets.  We were both determined to find some skirts or dresses appropriate for work (covering knees and shoulders).  I had absolutely no luck.  Nothing would fit over my thighs and dresses were very tight on my top.  I had heard that I would not find clothes that fit me in Thailand, but I didn’t realize even “one-size” skirts with elastic waists would not fit.  As Kanchan kept saying, we are too “pom” (big).  Luckily my mom has already sent me a package with 3 long skirts I ordered from Amazon. This was fortunate as I received the final information about my placement.  It is in Southern Thailand which has a higher Muslim population.  Therefore woman teachers are expected to wear skirts, and I only packed pants.  My school is in the 4th largest city of Thailand:  Hat Yai City in the Songkhla Province.  I will be teaching at Songsaeng Technological College.  Yes, you read that right.  It is a secondary school, so I will be teaching students that are 13-19 years old.  After a few hours… okay days… of panicking, I accepted that I came on this trip to challenge myself.  What better challenge than to teach high school students?  I must admit, my heart did break a little when I found out how many of my peers are placed in kindergarten classrooms.  Of course I wanted nothing more than to teach young children. Thursday and Friday concluded with our final lectures, lesson plans, and obligatory beers by the pool.  The reality that on Saturday some of us would be going our separate ways was setting in.  To celebrate our time together with XploreAsia, we went out to a club called Hi4 with some of the staff.  It was a local Thai club and there were no farangs (foreigners)  Our whole group came and we danced the night away. Saturday Kanchan, Jared, and I wandered to a beach in the late afternoon.  The sun was just right and the water a cooling temperature.  It was so peaceful splashing around in the water and laying on the beach reading.  I was grateful to have some time to unwind.  Saturday night, Marcel and Nisha were boarding a bus to Phuket to start their teaching placement.  We had a ceremonial goodbye on the beach complete with fireworks, sparklers, and traditional Thai sky lanterns.  It was very symbolic and moving as we all stood on the beach watching the lanterns float away into the night sky.  This marked the end of an incredible three weeks together and the start of our new adventures.  We finished off the night with a short visit to Cicada market, the weekend market.

The best part about it was the fresh garlic bread on a stick.  It was warm, buttery, and amazing.  The market had many stalls with artwork and crafts that are not available in other markets in Hua Hin.

Monday was the conclusion of the TESOL course and I received my certificate.  In the end, I am really glad I decided to stay on for the course.  I learned some new skills and methodologies, fined tuned them at the camp, and really connected with a group of interesting and exciting people from around the world.  Also now I have another little resume booster!

Monday night the remaining people in our group played games by the pool and reminisced about our short time together. Tuesday was filled with packing and more goodbyes.  As much as I did not realize how hard it was going to be to say goodbye to everyone at home, I similarly did not realize how difficult it would be to say goodbye to my new friends.                                       

Early on Kanchan and I adopted a street cat.  We call her Storm and visited her almost every day.  She was precious and began to run to greet us.  It was even sad saying goodbye to her!  I’m going to miss everyone and although we all hope to see one another again, we realize it may not be a possibility as time goes on.  Meeting people, quickly bonding, then saying goodbye is something I know is going to happen a lot this next year.  I hope to make some life long friends through it all though.

By six pm we were on our way to Chiang Mai via a comfortable and air conditioned bus.  Exactly twelve hours later, we arrived in Chiang Mai, bright and early before the sun had even risen.  We stumbled to Mojito Garden 2 and a worker gestured for us to sleep on the beds until we could check in later in the morning.  We did just that before we ventured out to wander around the city and see what it had to offer.