Off The Beaten Track

I hope you’re having a great Monday, if you’re listening to this just as it’s released. I hope you’re having a great day, whenever you’re listening to this podcast. It’s been a great Monday for us at Kated. Today we’ve published a new country, so we’re now offering trips and experiences in a new country and that country is Laos.

So let me today take you on a short journey into the country of Laos. Laos — as you may know if you’ve seen it on a map — is a country in Southeast Asia, bordering Thailand and Vietnam. A country of smiles, of spiritual atmosphere, of some of the best nature — untouched nature — in Asia, and some of the best opportunities to go off the beaten track, especially to experience village life.

Also, a country with quite a horrific history. Laos remains the most bombed country in the history of the world. Can you believe that? What was it involved in? Well, it wasn’t actually at war with anyone. Laos, during the US-Vietnam war, during the US bombing campaigns, the US aircraft would drop their bombs on Laos when they returned to their base, because they couldn’t land safely with that bomb. So they dropped them in the jungle, in the North of Laos.

Laos was also where some of the Vietcong went to hide. So the jungle and forest was napalmed and bombed. And more bombs have been dropped on Laos than anywhere ever.

A Changing Country

After the US-Vietnam war, around 15 years ago, the first time I had the opportunity to visit Laos, there was still some instability. So parts of the country were not safe. There was guerrilla activity in the South and certainly south of Luan Prabang and Vientiane it wasn’t really, or it wasn’t considered, safe to travel because there were bandits holding up buses, there were not the conditions really to have a safe and enjoyable trip.

But 15 years later, 2020, Lao is really coming out from being this backwater to this really safe, welcoming, vibrant, and increasingly actually luxurious, destination.

Luang Prabang is the great highlight. Luan Prabang for me is one of the Asia destinations, especially when it’s compared to some of the cities. Asian cities are usually quite big, quite intense, quite in your face. And Luang Prabang, you can sit on a plastic stool at a cafe and watch monks in red robes, walking barefoot past you. You can hear the temple bells rather than the traffic noise. You can visit an immense collection of temples where you find ornate carvings, mosaics, gold leaf. You can climb 380 steps to Mount Phousi where you’ll get wonderful views over the city.

Thousands And Thousands Of Buddhas

It’s a great place. If you’re on a longer Asia trip, and you need some R&R when you want to escape the noise, but you still want the culture, the feeling of spirituality that can be offered in Southeast Asia, then Luang Prabang is where to hole up. And they’ve got fabulous spas as well. Luang Prabang is along the Mekong river, and pretty much everything in Laos spills out from the Mekong river.

And from Luang Prabang, you can take a boat north along the river, and depending on how far you want to go, you can actually go by river all the way North and all the way through the jungle to the border, with Vietnam to the East, or if you want Thailand to the West. A journey by boat, if you don’t go by the really fast, scary speedboat, it will take a few days and you can visit these villages that are completely cut-off by road. They’re only accessible by the rivers.

And as you go along, you pass these villages where children are playing and women are washing the clothes and men are fishing, and everybody’s waving. The accommodation along the way is pretty rustic, but it’s a great experience to see that kind of life and village still exist.

Even if you just go for the day from Luang Prabang, if you go North, you’ll find some wonderful caves, the Pak Ou Caves, and inside you’ll just see all the scenes playing out — thousands and thousands of Buddhas inside, some of them as big as your fingernail, others bigger than you.

And then as you go past, you’ll see how the locals experts paddle through the shallows, how the wooden villages are raised on stilts, how they cheer and wave hello as you cruise past.

From Luang Prabang, consider going south to Vientiane, the country capital, which feels more like a village. Certainly a place of charms, took down backstreets rather than a big city vibe. Another place where you find thousands of miniature Buddhist statues, where you’ll find great collections of Laos Khmer artwork, where you’ll find great coffee shops, something you’ll find all over Laos.

Community Projects, Dolphins and Caves

Also, some great community projects, if you want to see the transformation that the country has made, what happened before and what happened now. Like especially some around helping landmine victims. I mean, if you go to the North and the jungle around Laos, you’ll find that they use bombshells as ornaments or as fence posts, which is funny, and it’s brilliant and it’s creative to see. But at the same time, there’s the other side of that, which is, there are parts of that jungle still laden with landmines after 45 years.

Further South in Laos it’s more — there’s more nature. I mean, there’s nature all over the country, but there’s not really any towns, it’s really quite small places. So you can really go on an expedition-style adventure. So a couple of things I’d recommend, the Irrawaddy dolphins, which you can see around the 4,000 islands, and also the Kong Lo caves, some of the longest caves in the world. Popular now, tourist destinations — but especially compared to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand, they don’t have this crowdedness, they still feel somewhat undiscovered.

There’s a lot to do in Laos. There’s a lot of surprises and it’s easy to just stop in Luang Prabang and leave, which I think is a bit of a shame. I think Laos, you can really make it a centerpiece of a trip rather than just a little stop, especially if you’ve got someone from Laos who knows about the country’s past, who knows about what’s happening in the country now, and can alert you to some of the great accommodations they’re now building, especially the spas and the heritage accommodations they have in the cities.

So yes, very happy Monday for us at Kated, because Laos is now something we’re able to offer. Something that we can showcase to people interested in seeing something different, something very authentic in Southeast Asia.