Laos (cont. Spanish & English)

No se como me he podido saltar los dos dias que pase en Nang Kio, un pueblecito a la orilla del rio Nam Ou, rodeado de unas montanas espectaculares, bueno, no tanto como las de Nepal, pero vaya, un pueblo de postal!
En Laos un dia tuve la suerte increible de llegar a la estacion de autobuses para ir de Vang Vieng a Luang Prabang y encontrarme con una furgoneta que iba en esa direccion, me cobraron lo mismo que un bus local y solamente ibamos 3. Una furgoneta de lujo eh! con asientos reclinables, asi que el viaje que normalmente dura unas 7 horas duro solamente 4 o 5. Pienso que es la mejor carretera de Laos porque el paisaje quita el hipo y verlo tumbada dentro del minibus, ya os lo podeis imaginar, como ver una pelicula y bueno, la historia viene al caso porque justo en ese trayecto vi a mi primer elefante!! Lo llevaba un campesino por la carretera, los utilizan para acarrear troncos pesados de arboles. He visto mas elefantes en Tailandia y en Camboya, pero normalmente estan en zonas turisticas (Ayutthaya y Angkor Wat) para pasear a los turistas, o sea que en Laos me emocione mucho porque fue en el unico sitio donde vi que los utilizaban todavia de manera tradicional...
No me quede mas tiempo en Laos porque no tengo!! En principio mi vuelo de Singapur a Darwin salia el 26 de enero y en Saigon lo pospuse hasta el 26 de febrero y la verdad es que ya estoy dudando si cambiar la fecha de nuevo.. porque quiero ir a Malasia!

I only spent 20 days in Laos and so far I have already a favorite country in SE Asia, what a country! the nature is so beautiful, so is the scenery and the people, of course, so kind and gentle, they don't harass you at all like in Vietnam, for example, but if you ask them a question or have a problem they are right there for you. The day I arrived from Dien Bien Phu I had traveled for 15 hours, I got to Luang Prabang (most beautiful city!!) at night and I hadn't changed currency yet, so a young man offered me to share his dinner in the bus and then from the bus station he took me to the center of town to look for a guest house, eventhough it was very late for him and he had to carry some huge bags of rice to his family, he left the bags at the station only to help me out! The day after he invited me to eat with his family so it was my first proper Lao dinner and it was yummy!: sticky rice, bbq fish, Lao salad and vegetables and Lao beer.
I only went to the north of Laos, Vientiane being the southest town I visited. My favorite town was Luang Prabang, so pretty, with the old colonial French houses and the peaceful Mekong in one side and the scenic Nam Ou river on the other side, and in the middle the Phoussi Hill with the big stupa at the top (one night I saw a guy "fishing" bats up there, seriously, and the day after I saw how they were sold at the street market!!).
Vang Vieng was nice because the mountains in the background but too touristy, perhaps a better town to relax is Nang Kio, or even better Muang Ngoi by the river Nam Ou, very tiny and so cool, I stayed in a bamboo bungalow, very basic but I felt like I was in paradise..
Lao is amazing because it so backwards, very genuine and primitive compared to the rest of the countries, but people seem so happy and relaxed. Only 6 or 7 millions people live in Laos so the nature takes over the country: many forests, jungles still untouched, little villages with wooden huts, semi-naked children running around with chicken and pigs, ladies sewing in the village while men working in the fields, amazing street markets with the most extraordinary food: from squirrels to bats, from rats to frogs, from clementines to durians and the omnipresence of the national food: the mighty (and yummy, I couldn't have enough of it!) sticky rice, sticky rice with everything: green papaya salad, roasted pork, spicy vegetables, etc.