We had an amazing time in Phongsali and stayed there for more than a few days. It was really untouched by tourism. With no attractions to see, we spent most of our time strolling the city and eating, drinking, and conversing with local Lao people as well as trekking the surrounding hillsides.
After not too long we yearned to get back to civilization and decided to save ourselves 3 days of back tracking and a traitorous bus ride through Oudomsai and Luang Prabang by purchasing a plane ticket out of this remote city. It sounded simple enough but, it tuned out to be not even the slight bit simple.
We asked the local townsfolk where we could purchase plane tickets and they directed us to the Phongsali Hotel. We went into this eroding building and saw a small empty booth just big enough for one person with a homemade 'Lao Air' sign scotch-taped to the top.
We hollered for service and after some time a man with strong alcohol on his breath emerged from a back room with loud thumping music. He asked us if we wanted a room. We told him we're looking for tickets back to the capital Vientiane. He immediately turned from hotel receptionist to tour agent and walked from the front desk to the homemade 'Lao Air' booth. In his best effort to hide his slurring speech he explained that there are only two flights a week out of this province- one on Wednesday and the other Saturday. We booked two tickets out of here for Wednesday and he took our passports, money, and personal information. He told us that the bus driver would pick us up from our guesthouse early that day.
On Wednesday morning we woke up to some of the thickest fog we've ever seen. There is no way our plane could navigate through mountain peeks onto some small unpaved runway, we thought.
On Wednesday morning we woke up to some of the thickest fog we've ever seen. There is no way our plane could navigate through mountain peeks onto some small unpaved runway, we thought.
Out of the fog emerged the bus driver, the same man who packed our bags into the minivan 'bus'. Slowly the 'bus' took off into blanketing fog on our way to the airport in the nearby town of Boun Neua. The road was absolutely horrible, so we had to pop some pills to calm our motion sickness. Finally we arrived at the airport, which by all means did not resemble an airport at all. It was a small empty building about the size of a convenient store with two signs outside barely separate from each other that read 'Arivals' and 'Departures'.
We grabbed our bags and waited for our flight. The same man that sold us our tickets and drove the 'bus' was also the person responsible for weighing and labelling our baggage. He checked us in and directed us to a small waiting room.
We met two Philippinos that would be flying to Vientiane with us. We all anticipated leaving this small town and getting some fresh coffee from the capital but wondered how the airplane would ever take off.
We were all so happy to get out of this place. Our happy faces were all shot down in a second as the man with so many jobs, the man we were so convinced was going to be our pilot, walked into the room and looked out the window and mumbled "the flight is cancelled" before walking away.
We all looked at each other and said, "What did he say?"
Matt replied, "The flight is cancelled?"
The Philippinos commented, "No, it can't be!"
Alissa cried, "I'm not staying here! I'm going to kill someone, this place is making me crazy!"
The Philippinos went to the front desk to confirm the message, then they were quickly organizing a way out. We also over heard a Taiwanese business man make some plans over the phone. We got our tickets refunded by the multi job man and he told us that there are no busses out of the province until tomorrow morning. This was not going to work for us. We managed to arrange two outs. One was Taiwan and the other was the Philippinos.
Because the take-charge Taiwanese businessman wanted to take 3 days to reach the capital and the Philippinos wanted to get there as fast as they could, we sided with the impatient Philippinos. The Philippinos filled us in on why they are in Laos. Remember how we mentioned how Laos is a charity case, well, they both are International Accountants who run their own business auditing aid projects for international charities and governments. Interesting work. Interesting people. We shared many of the same opinions about Lao and had many laugh-out-loud moments with those two down-to-earth accountants.
We spent a few hours in the town of Boun Neua watching in awe of Taiwan who went to the back kitchen of an apparently empty restaurant and made himself "special recipe fried rice" from the ingredients found in the abandon kitchen. We were also blown away by the pageantry of different hill tribe women and their elaborate and wildly elegant traditional costumes. You might notice the lack of people photos on this blog. This is partly because we find picturing people quite intrusive and a bit rude. We know this from firsthand experience in Korea. Actually the sight urged us to ask for permission but ALL tribe women responded with a terrifying "NO!"
In these areas they hold the belief that if you take their picture you are taking their soul. Some will allow you to take their pictures but ONLY if you send them the picture, you know, so they can get their soul back.
Actually, a few times in Phongsali province we ran into tribes women that ran in completeand utter terror away from us. This is really untouched land! Oh.... sorry back to the story...
The accountants got a hold of a shinny new 2009 Laos government Toyota Pathfinder (I think) along with a government driver. And we cruised in style back to Luang Prabang. This ride made those painful roads as smooth as Laos silk. This was the swankiest we've traveled thus far and we didn't take that A/C and extra leg room for granted, that's for sure. It didn't take long before we dozed off. Actually, we slept most of the trip after the darkness of night drowned out the beautiful virgin landscape.
In the middle of the night, on some rural back road in the middle of nowhere we awoke to AK47s pointed at our heads and ready to fire!!!
Two vigilantes had barricaded the road. Our cool-as-can-be government driver said something in Laos to these militant looking men and we passed through no problem. We looked like ghosts but we were safe.
The government driver said they just wanted money and that these roads are a bit dangerous at night if you're traveling alone. Cue Alissa: "No Shit Sherlock!"
In these areas they hold the belief that if you take their picture you are taking their soul. Some will allow you to take their pictures but ONLY if you send them the picture, you know, so they can get their soul back.
Actually, a few times in Phongsali province we ran into tribes women that ran in completeand utter terror away from us. This is really untouched land! Oh.... sorry back to the story...
The accountants got a hold of a shinny new 2009 Laos government Toyota Pathfinder (I think) along with a government driver. And we cruised in style back to Luang Prabang. This ride made those painful roads as smooth as Laos silk. This was the swankiest we've traveled thus far and we didn't take that A/C and extra leg room for granted, that's for sure. It didn't take long before we dozed off. Actually, we slept most of the trip after the darkness of night drowned out the beautiful virgin landscape.
In the middle of the night, on some rural back road in the middle of nowhere we awoke to AK47s pointed at our heads and ready to fire!!!
Two vigilantes had barricaded the road. Our cool-as-can-be government driver said something in Laos to these militant looking men and we passed through no problem. We looked like ghosts but we were safe.
The government driver said they just wanted money and that these roads are a bit dangerous at night if you're traveling alone. Cue Alissa: "No Shit Sherlock!"
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