Rick & Ann's Indochina delivers everything they had hoped for

Our two day trip along the Mekong on the ‘Luang Say’ was everything Nick had promised, as was the Luang Say Lodge with it’s breathtaking views of the river valley. Our room was at the front affording us one of the best views from a hotel window we have ever had. We really rated this place. Ann thought it quite wonderful and called it marshmallow land due to the kapok filled mega-duvets and pillows and the mosquito nets. She said it was just like sleeping in a huge marshmallow. The trip was splendid, and a great way to start our journey through Laos. <br>
We found Selective Asia through Google. A little apprehensive at first, my qualms were soon calmed by our consultant, Nick, who shoe-horned all our requests into a great package. His advice was invaluable and the ‘Luang Say’ trip was on his strong recommendation. Much of the success of the holiday depended on Nick and he didn’t let us down.

Following our tours of Luang Prabang and Vientiane in the north we picked up our guide, Soun and driver, Si and headed east to begin with then south through this intriguing country of which no one, especially the Lao people, can agree the pronunciation - Lao or Laos? With or without the ‘s’? Blame the French - they named it. Our journey roughly followed the course of the Mekong River, with a few detours. The drive became more and more fascinating as we journeyed south. One detour was into the Lao mountains to Hin Boun and the 7.5k Kong Lor cave. A small fantail boat took us along the Hin Boun river and then through the cave which proved a white knuckle ride for Ann. In the pitch black cave only head lights attached to the two boatmen lit our way with a painfully dim glow. Repeated disembarking and paddling in the blackness as the boat was hauled over the shoals due to the shallowness of the water added to her nerves and when the return journey was about to begin we discovered the captain was well pissed on local brew. We had no option to make the trip and hope for the best. It was fine in the end but Ann never recovered from this trauma and all our following boat trips were made with trepidation. For myself, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment; it was all part of the adventure.
The following day we had a trek, rather unexpected as it was 12k, but Ann thought this day was the best day of the whole holiday. We had a local guide and his ‘sister’ for the day and a village guide for the trek. There were many caves to explore along the way, some requiring advanced pot holing techniques it seemed, others requiring nerves of steel as we crossed deep chasms along a length of 4 by 2. This trek also crossed part of the old Ho Chi Minh trail. We ate fish cooked by a stream, bamboo shoots, chicken innards of indeterminate identification, chilli pickle, and sticky rice all laid out on a tablecloth of leaves. Delicious. The highlight of this trip was the Buddha Cave with its 229 Buddhas (some in solid gold) undisturbed for 300 plus years, only discovered in 2004. This place was very special. And hardly visited or exploited at all. I could just imagine what would be the fate of a find like this anywhere else in the world. On the way back from the caves we got caught in a tremendous electrical storm and got saturated. We made it back to a village and cowered under the stilts of a local house before our two hour trip along muddy, winding dirt roads by tuk tuk back to civilisation. What a great day.

Pressing on south, passing forever changing landscapes, we visited waterfalls and villages, temples and towns, pigged out on sticky rice and laap, bowls of noodle soup with wonderful vegetable dishes, lush salads with superb mint leaves and drank Lao beer. Great. There were few tourists along the way (very good) and there was plenty of opportunity to see local village life and get a few views on the communist Lao PDR government. (Not universally popular)
Laos and its people was the most laid back place we have ever been. Nothing worries them unduly and they always seem cheerful and everything gets done in it’s own time. As fans of Indochina we love this part of the world and Laos simply reinforced that view.
Back on the Mekong for another boat trip, this time around the 4000 Islands, our time was up all to soon.
We had chosen correctly, driving through the country with a guide and driver was the way to do it. They were both super guys and enhanced our experience greatly. Considering the time of year – well into the dry season, the scenery was magnificent especially up in the mountains.

Goodbye Laos, however you pronounce it, hello again Cambodia. From a deserted emigration to an an equally deserted immigration, this time with the temperature gun. What happens if you fail this health test I dread to think.
We’d had a week in Cambodia in 2005, looked at the Ankor Temples and Phnom Penh, bought two suitcases from the Russian Market for $30 which had fallen apart by Heathrow, loved it and decided to return and explore one of the more undeveloped areas, the NE. Nick again was invaluable, He pointed us in the direction of Ratanakiri and we weren’t disappointed.

We had an early start on our first day, visiting Yeak Lom crater lake then into the wilds along dirt roads in a Toyota Camry. Averaging 10kph most of the way due to the road condition we eventually found ourselves in a Jarai village. Our brilliant guide, Sam, was able to converse with these Animist people and helped us gain a real insight into their lives. We were able to watch the women and children joyfully washing themselves, and their clothes, under a waterfall without any embarrassment on either side. Sam, incidentally was the guide for the journalists who came out here a couple of years ago when the ‘wild girl’ was found in the jungle after going missing 18 years before. He worked at the Terres Rouge hotel in Banlung as his full time job and seemed to run the place single handedly. (Nick, if you need an agent/rep out here this is your man). We then visited a Jarai cemetery with its intriguing wooden carvings, especially the carving of a pregnant woman to mark the resting place of a pregnant Jarai. This place was magical. It was too. And another superb river trip, I can’t get enough of them. This was the best day of the holiday for me.
On the way out there we also saw the gem mines, Ann never swears but this place made her curse. What an awful existence, the menfolk digging 45 foot deep holes barely wide enough to admit a man, hauling out the soil and the family sifting through it looking for the odd piece of Zircon which would then be sold to a dealer for a pittance. I bought a stone they found while I was there for $10. You would have thought they had won the lottery by the way they greeted the notes. . What hell holes they were. What a way to earn a living.

Even the good roads were bad in the north of Cambodia. Due to road widening policies, seemingly world wide, traffic was restricted to an even rougher dirt ‘road’ on the side of the normal dirt road which carried huge road building machines and tons of stone of various sizes. This looked a never ending process and many houses have been swept away to make way for the new highway. Our progress was pretty slow in the Toyota but we enjoyed every minute. Even punctures were fun. We stayed at the Terres Rouge in Banlung, an exquisite lodge style hotel offering top food and accommodation. It was our pleasure here, in the late afternoon, to walk into town to a little bar and take in a beer or two. We speak no Khmer and they spoke no English so it all worked by sign language. We were plied with plates of nuts with our beers and spent an enjoyable hour or two watching the sunsets. Some things you cannot put a price on. After Ratanakiri nothing would be the same but the road south was under the widening process so it was similar.
The Irrawaddy dolphins at Kratie were delightfully unexpected. 3 pm was the best time they said, and, luckily, we were afloat at that time and sure enough the dolphins appeared. Wonderful.
A swim in the Mekong at Chhlong was most refreshing, but I couldn’t figure out whether Sam joined me because he fancied a swim or because he didn’t want a drowned client on his hands. Either way it was great fun.

Kampong Cham and deep fried tarantula with garlic was next on the menu. There were thousands of them along with every kind of fried beetle you could imagine. I drew the line at beetles and rats but I did enjoy, or I should say eat, a tarantula. Tasted crap. Having said that the food in Cambodia is fantastic. I love fish, sea fish, but here I ate the most wonderful river fish dishes I’ve ever had. Big juicy shrimps and boneless fish fillets cooked many different ways, with a variety of sauces. What a feast the country is.
Our week in Cambodia was up almost as soon as it started and we barely noticed our two days in our favourite capitol city, Phnom Penh. I stocked up on laser printed copies of the Burma guide and four books on the Khmer Rouge/Pol Pot period from a young lad in the city. We had fun in the markets and enjoyed the bars and restaurants. An Ankor beer in the Foreign Correspondents Club was most civilised.

Our gamble with Nick and Selective Asia had paid off. We wanted something different and we got it. It was a great insight into Laos and a bit of an expedition into northern Cambodia. Great guides and drivers, fantastic scenery, great weather, bloody hot weather, great countries. Great everything. Such super, friendly people have endured such heavy histories which are still casting a shadow over them. In Cambodia the disquietening posters of the 3 ruling party leaders were everywhere. They reminded me of something dark and ominous. I sent Sam, our terrific guide, copies of George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984.
Rich and Ann.