Laos: Yulala - Waterfalls - Flying like a bird

Our itinerary through Laos
(03/12/2015 - 14/01/2016; 2700km)

Laos has the shape of a starlet. Or a palm tree. Whatever you see from far, it is absolutely fascinating to come closer and dive into this green, friendly and warm land. We fell in love with Laos. After travelling for four weeks we decided to extend our visa for two more weeks and enjoy some more time. What a strange situation: I did not know anything about this country when we entered Laos and after four weeks we didn't want to leave. This must be love on first sight. :-))
And here is our Lao love story:

Oudomxay, a little town is our first stop. There are no sights, but as it is our first town in Laos, we can't stop watching. People look very different to Chinese, darker skin, nice smile and very friendly. No phones, no pictures, no touching, no shouting at us anymore. We are very relieved and enjoy. There is good food and within ten minutes we buy a new SIM card and have fast and unblocked Internet on our pad. After five weeks in slow-internet-and-Google-blocked-China this feels great! Crazy, isn't it, Laos is one of the poorest and undeveloped countries in the world, in comparison to China a little piece of wood in a huge river, but, ha! Internet here is fast and available even in small towns and villages...

And all the sudden we see several European looking faces, we are not alone anymore, there are other tourists, wow! Three of them happen to be young men from Germany, on bikes! We admire their braveness and with their wind- blown hair and sun burned faces, they have this air of real adventurers around them. Matthias and Christian biked China and will go on for several months in south east Asia, Anselm has been on the road for two years already, biking from South Africa. Very impressing. They tell us that they used their journey to collect money for a water filtering project in Laos.
We will meet them again several times, while we travel in Laos and every time it's the warm and nice chats that are really wonderful. Maybe we meet again in Cambodia, it's on our route.

Oudomxay: Meeting bikers cycling trough Laos to visit their
project (Flyer, Facebook). It was not the last time we met ;)

Oudomxay: Checking out Laos cuisine. Delicious and spicy.

One thing you can enjoy best in Laos is the nature: gorgeous mountains, deep jungle woods, stunning waterfalls, wonderful rivers, wild animals, they have it all. And as we will see, most of the tourist attractions are developed together with the people living around them. That means, that for every waterfall we have to pay some Kip, one or two Euros, but it is always the people of the village next to the attraction collecting it. On signs there are explanations on how the money will be used. The total opposite to tourism organisation in China.

Laos is not as crowded as the rest of Asia and that probably is part of the difference.

We start our first nature experience: we swim in waterfall "at km 11". :-)) There are not many roads in Laos... :-) Here we see the first sign of "welcome to community based attraction, please pay in the village before you enter" and enjoy the crystal clear water in the middle of a wood with banana palms and bamboo trees. What a welcome, fantastic!

Near Oudomxay: Enjoying the waterfall ...

... and cooling down.

Pauli loved it.

One thing you can enjoy best in Laos is the nature: gorgeous mountains, deep jungle woods, stunning waterfalls, wonderful rivers, wild animals, they have it all. And as we will see, most of the tourist attractions are developed together with the people living around them. That means, that for every waterfall we have to pay some Kip, one or two Euros, but it is always the people of the village next to the attraction collecting it. On signs there are explanations on how the money will be used. The total opposite to tourism organisation in China.

Laos is not as crowded as the rest of Asia and that probably is part of the difference.

We start our first nature experience: we swim in waterfall "at km 11". :-)) There are not many roads in Laos... :-) Here we see the first sign of "welcome to community based attraction, please pay in the village before you enter" and enjoy the crystal clear water in the middle of a wood with banana palms and bamboo trees. What a welcome, fantastic!

Near Oudomxay: artificial platteaus obviously in preparation
for some road construction serve as perfect paces to stay for
the night.

Near Oudomxay:Bananas!!!!

Near Oudomxay: typical wooden houses standing on poles.

Near Oudomxay: Kids palying on their way
to school in the morning ...

... some had to hurry up ...

... and some certainly did not make in time.

Morning-Selfie

Leftovers of a common ingridient in our food: Chilli

On our way to Nong Khiauw: Dangerous Roads!
Not all manage the curves on the narrow streets.

We are one day drive away from our first relaxing- hanging- out station. We choose Nong Khiao, a little village at the river Nam Ou in northern Laos, in the middle of green Jungle and surrounded by sharp mountains. And it keeps what it has been promising. We have a great time in this little village an we stay longer. We write the China blog, do homework, hike around, take a long boat, rent a motor bike, really wonderful. Most of the time we hang out in a wonderful little guesthouse. The owner is Harps, a Kiwi from New Zealand and we meet a lot of backpackers from all over the world. It is so nice to have people around to talk to, we have a lot of fun. Some even volunteer and help the kids with their homework.:-))

Sebastian from Switzerland together with his wife from Laos owns the local restaurant "Coco home" around the corner. She used to be a restaurant chef in Luang Prabang and that we can see on our plates: wonderful red chilli, served with sticky rice in little baskets. And most important for the little ones in our crew: they have the best Spaghetti Carbonara with extra Parmesan in town ... ;-)) We have a great time with Sebastian, he explains a lot about life in Laos. Paul asks already in the afternoon: "Mama, Coco esse?":-)))

Nong Khiauw: After a stressful driving day
we enjoy some delicious fruit shake and ...

... a cool beer (was very rare in China).

Nong Khiauw: Beautiful nature!

Nong Khiauw: Beautiful nature!

Nong Khiauw: Long boat on the Nam Ou river.

Nong Khiauw: Johann exploring the inside
of an scrapped electric engine.

Near Nong Khiauw: Johann & me hiking the 100 waterfalls.

We had so much ...

... FUN!

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Impressions.

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Impressions.

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Impressions.

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Impressions.

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Guides cut some
'bowls' from banana leaves.

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Lunchtime

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Delicious!

100-waterfalls-hike near Nong Khiauw: Enjoying some
Lao-Lao (distilled spirit from rice) in a bamboo 'glas'.

Near Nong Khiauw: It's sunday and many
kids need to leave their village for the week
to go to secondary school somewhere down the river.

Near Nong Khiauw: watching the construction of
traditional long boats.

Near Nong Khiauw: visiting a village,
where our hiking guide comes from.

Near Nong Khiauw: Entrance to the primary school of the village.

Antonia is sometimes far away ... ;)

Nong Khiauw: Homework-time ...

... but 'luckily' Pauli wants to play.

Nong Khiauw: renting a motorbike.
3 easy riders
2 helmets
1 bike
no drivers license

Near Nong Khiauw: speaking of danagerous roads.

Near Nong Khiauw: Sunset impressions along the road.

Near Nong Khiauw: Sunset impressions along the road.

Near Nong Khiauw: on our way to explore ...

... a cave, used during the CIA war ...

... to hide from the attacking planes.

Back in Nong Khiauw: some of us are pretty tired.

Laos with its socialist government structure of today was founded on the 2nd of December in 1975, after the Americans stopped bombing the country and had left the region. Now, in 2015 celebrations are going on in the whole country: 40 years of Lao People's Democratic Republic!

One evening Sebastian tells us that in Nong Khiao there will also be a celebration for the 40 years: tomorrow at 6 o clock in the morning there will be held a parade on the local football square. Yes, 6 o'clock. And no one knows why so early. When we ask Lao people they only smile and shrug. Harps has cancelled a trip to Luang Prabang for the parade, so we are all excited and want to see the parade. Both are convinced that there won't be anything happening before seven in the morning though...

Next morning I wake up by loud patriotic music played via loud speakers that hang all over town. That is one of the similarities to China. :-) It is still totally dark, it seems to be in the middle of the night. As I cant fall a sleep again I decide to get up and have a look, I am just too curious. When I find a phone in the dark of the van it tells me that it is 4:30 h in the morning. Oef, that is early.

On the streets I see that the whole village is up already. People doing morning sports waving arms and legs, garage doors open, behind whole families gather their beds and start breakfast, at the market they set up stands. I walk through the dark with the village people towards the football place. In the light of some motor bikes I see shiny military medals attached to army uniforms, every one is dressed up, despite the mud from the rain I see women in high heels.

People gather before the parading place and stand in lines, holding flags and carrying banners with the picture of Kaysone Phomvihane, the founder of socialist Laos in their hands. It is five in the morning in the meantime, there is a short fire work and more people coming. The atmosphere is excited and cheerful: this parade is something special for the village. And most interesting, there are no cameras, no phones, no pictures taken, just people standing, chatting, waiting and preparing. All this in almost total dark, there is only one street light, which is going on and off, light comes from some motor bikes.

Sometimes I hear a gentle "Sabaidee!" (Hallo!) towards me, but usually people are busy preparing and don't take notice of me. Kids clap their hands and sing rhythmic songs to warm up, some cheering is being practiced, some fists hit the sky. On the back side of the football field there is a huge pavilion, the only place with lights working. There are flowers to decorate and the official delegations in front of which the parade has to take place sit there.

And pretty quickly I realise: I am the only western tourist at the place. Everyone else is still asleep.

To not disturb anyone I hide in the shade of the walls or walk in the dark, avoiding places where people are waiting. But of course officials have spotted me. Two officers in highly decorated uniforms approach me and make very clear that I have to leave the area of the festivities. One speaks some words of English, the other makes sounds of a sizzling snake and waves hands to make intentions clear. It is a bit unexpected, since the day before everyone was excited about the parade, inviting to come, but maybe we haven't understood right. So I end up at the far end of the football place, where they let me stay, after some friendly discussions. And suddenly there is a civil policeman at my side. He keeps asking me if I am alone, or if other foreigners have come with me, in which guest house I stay, what my name is and so on. As I am not willing to follow this questioning I tell him that I have forgotten my name, forgotten the name of the guest house and don't know if there are other foreigners. After a while he understands that having a nice conversations with me is much more fun than firing questions without getting answers. I ask all my questions about the parade though and eventually he even explains who is passing by and what is written on the banners.

Ten minutes after six in the early morning lights the parade starts. It is a short walking- the- mud-trying-to-avoid-the big-puddles-waving-banners-parade. The different groups enter the football field, pass in front of the pavilion shouting speeches, or sing, and then they stand in rows to await long speeches. It is a bit scary, actually me and the policeman we are the only ones watching the parade. There is no one standing at the road side waving, or clapping. The whole parade is made for the officials in the pavilion.

What a strange morning. At seven daylight is there, clouds of mist hide the wonderful mountains and I ask myself if I have dreamed all that. What was that? Why do they hide their festivities? Do they want this to happen without tourists, is that the reason? Are they embarrassed, since all the socialist symbolism has become a bit old fashioned even in Laos? Why are they usually so friendly and open and proud to show their country, but here most clearly foreigners were not wanted? I will never know. Neither know Harps or Sebastian who join the festivities around seven.

Nong Khiauw: Parrade early in the morning ...

... to celebrate 40 years of Laos.

We did not find out why foreigners were not welcome.

We think it should be something to be proud of, not?

After the parade was over men preparing themselves
for traditional dances to celebrate.

With a long boat we take a tour on the Nam Ou river north. What a great day. Tan a young Lao tour guide is with us and explains whatever we want to know. He used to be a monk in a Buddhist temple and has taken some time off, to "see more of the world" as he says. In Muang Ngoy a little fishing village, where tourism is arriving in the form of new bungalow at the river we start a hike to a cave, that used to be a hiding place during the war in the sixties. On our way, we pass by a school. Tan knows most of the kids and teachers and we are allowed to take a look. It is around eleven in the morning but a lot of kids are just playing around on the yard. We see class rooms where Math and English are taught. The teachers little daughter plays in the class room. Antonia notes that only the kids in the first row seem to really participate, in the last rows there are even kids not having pencil or paper in front of them. Children live in the school during the week and we are allowed to take a look into their dormitories, where  in one room six children sleep and cook their meals.

The cave is very impressing and we get a first impression of what will keep us busy the next week: learning about the secret CIA war in Laos in the sixties and seventies. What a frightening story and hard to believe today, since all is so quiet and green.

Tan brought lunch for us, it is sticky rice in a banana leave and it is really delicious. We sit at a table in a little village and the village people around us. They are very nice and curious, so it's ok to have lunch " in public"...  Tan leads us through rice fields and wood to a wonderful waterfall. On the way he shows us how to shoot giant grapefruits in 10 m height from a tree with a simple wooden stick. We are really impressed by his precise shooting abilities... :-))) Hiking the river upwards, we reach the waterfall: time to refresh and it's really fantastic!!! Some nasty leeches (bloodsuckers) have taken the opportunity of our visit and stick to our feet. Nothing serious, but it can be a real mess, since the wound does not stop bleeding for a long while when you take them off.

In the sun set we drive home in the long boat on the river, through the jungle and feel like heaven, what a great nature, what a great day

On our way to Muang Ngoy:
Enjoying the longboat-ride.

Waterbuffalows on an island in Nam Ou River.

On our way to Muang Ngoy: Impressions.

On our way to Muang Ngoy: Impressions.

On our way to Muang Ngoy: Impressions.

Muang Ngoy: Impressions.

Muang Ngoy: Visiting a school. Dorms.

Muang Ngoy: Visiting a school. Classroom.

Muang Ngoy: Visiting a school. Find the mistake;)

Muang Ngoy: Visiting a school. Beautiful Schoolyard.

Muang Ngoy: Visiting a cave used to hide during the CIA war.

Muang Ngoy: Cave inhabitants.

Muang Ngoy: Marvellous reflections in the cave water.

Muang Ngoy: Playtime near the cave.

Muang Ngoy: Kids love it!

Muang Ngoy: Local carrying crop bak to the village.

On our way back to the waterfalls:
Kids getting addicted to longboat-rides.

Time for fun and ...

... chill-out.

In a village between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy:
Having some food before the waterfall-hike and ...

.... the village is watching us with curiosity.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Walking up the waterfalls.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Enjoying the waterfalls.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Enjoying the waterfalls.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Enjoying the waterfalls.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Enjoying the waterfalls.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Pauli feeling comfortable with our guide Tang.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Walking over rice fields ...

... enjoying the sunset.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: No ot's not photoshopped

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Time to go back and ...

... enjoy the last sun beams on the longboat.

Pauli is a little worn out ...

... hungry and ...

... is ready for a nap. Tang helps him ;)

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: 

Sunset impressions on the Nam ou River.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: Sunset impressions on the Nam ou River.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: 

Sunset impressions on the Nam ou River.

Somewhere between Nong Khiauw and Muang Ngoy: 
Sunset impressions on the Nam ou River.

Arriving back in Nong Khiauw:
Bridge over Nam Ou River in Twilight. 

Besides all the leisure time there are still some things we have to take care of. Since our almost-accident in China we have been driving around without a spare tire, the spare rim can not be used anymore, since the holes for the bolts are too big from driving loose. And roads in Laos don't invite to drive without the spare parts: holes everywhere and only every 100 km a bigger village where we could get some help.

There is one repair shop for cars in town and the day we arrive, we ask to drill new wholes in our broken wheel. The mechanical says " no problem", but from the beginning we are not very convinced. The shop is not more then a little shed next to the street, but we have spotted a bigger drilling machine inside and hope this might do. After four days nothing has happened and we decide to join the works. The project is: drilling new holes in the rim, next to the worn out ones. This needs to be done on a precise spot, so the rim can fit back on the car and last but not least, the steel of the rim is very hard and thick. So far, so good. (I love direct translations from German.....;-))) There are no instruments around in the shop to measure precisely, so we get everything we have in the car and mark the right points. Then the mechanic takes over. We later learn, that the drilling machine was used with the biggest drill they could find in the shed and then first started to smoke and soon gave up. When we come back the mechanic has started instead to weld all the worn out holes. Ok. People explain us that it would be better to go to Luang Prabang to get the holes drilled. Problem not solved, we drive on without a spare tire.

Nong Khiauw: Meassuring the points for
the new holes in our wheel and ...

... setting the marks with old valve
transformed in a prick punch.

Looking up into the sky.

Nong Khiauw: Local mecanics trying to drill
new holes in our wheel.

Nong Khiauw: Antonia playing games with co-travellers
Matthijs & Ezra.

Nong Khiauw: Guys are trying hard,
but no progress with our wheel;

Nong Khiauw: Last supper @CoCo Home with other travellers
after one week of relaxing in the village.

Kids drawing while waiting for ...

... the delicious food.

Nong Khiauw: Nam Ou River in the dawn.

Nong Khiauw: Hiking up the mountain
with Ezra and Matthijs and ...

... reaching the summit. All cloudy, but we are happy;)

Nong Khiauw: When going down a bit we break through the clouds and enjoy the panormic view over the village

Nong Khiauw: Some more playtime with Ezra.

Nong Khiauw: Antonia stepped on this scorpion,
who did not survive it.

Nong Khiauw: We buckle up our wheel
after an unsuccessful attempt to fix our wheel

We decide to drive on North to see more of the wonderful countryside. We will take a loop towards Luang Prabang, not the direct way. The road is a again a "knitted one" as we call it: on the map it looks like a knitting pattern, winding back and forth through the mountains. We can't drive faster than 30 km/h. We meet a couple from Stuttgart driving motor bikes and taking a loop through northern Laos. We have a nice chat, but a couple of km we see them again right after a little accident. One of the motor bikes slipped in the mud. We get our medical stuff and put plasters on wounds. A bit frightening to see that, nothing serious happened but there is still the shock. And Torsten has been trying to convince me to ride motor bikes....hm, I will think about that again.

The landscape is breathtaking, mountains, jungle, little villages. Houses sit on the side of the road on high poles, so during the wet season belongings stay dry. Chickens, dogs, cats, cows, pigs, children walk and run on the street, sometimes it's slalom around every one. Pauli loves all the animals and loves to see them running, that makes him think of his experience from our boat trip to Muang Ngoy the other day, where he had wanted to pet some little chickens, but mama-chicken got really mad at him and chased him away. He ran faster than her, luckily.  An experience never to forget for Paul.... :-)))

And in almost every village we see a sign: We are proud to have tigers and a big picture of a tiger underneath. We didn't see one, besides Torsten, Paul and Johann hearing some strange noises in the wood when going for a walk one evening.

"Sabaidee." I love that word, it means "hallo" and Lao say it in a way, we will never be able to copy. Lao say a wide, relaxed, "no rush, life is great": Saabaaaiideeeee. Even trying hard, our Sabaidee always sounds dry compared to Lao...:-))) We hear it everywhere, everywhere we go we are greated, sometimes with the hands folded in front of the breast.

Laos has been shut off from any foreigners until around 1990, when they started to open some zones for tourism around Vientiane. Only in the late nineties tourism reached the rest of the country. Despite this isolation people are very open and friendly, totally different to China, for example, where strangers in remote areas rather lead to feelings of averseness.

People seem very relaxed, even when working hard on the fields or carrying big baskets with fruits to their homes. Often we see them sitting around fires in their villages. They even have a word for this life style: Yulala. Yulala means roughly translated: just being here. Wouldn't that be something to take home? Yulala: don't rush, be happy!

To conclude the lists of words we learn very quickly in this wonderful country, there is: Koptai lai lai. Thanks a lot. We use it all the time, there is so much to be thankful for here.

In the villages there are almost no cars, we only see some motorbikes, sometimes tok- toks (not tuk-tuks!), a sort slow tractor, with open engine, the weeks are taken off for ploughing shovels, but most people walk between the villages, even very long distances. Sometimes we see people far away from villages walk on the street carrying some harvest.

Needless to say that between bigger provincial towns there is no internet, nor phone, northern Laos is still a very remote country.

On our way to Vieng Xay:
Beautiful mountain rage in the sunset.

On our way to Vieng Xay: We find another artifical platteau
with a marvellous panaromic view to stay for the night.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Who says, Laos has no sea?

Above the clouds the mountains appear like islands in
and ocean.

Playtime in the morning.

;)

View over the clouds from our window.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Small turbines in
the river ...

... generate electrical power for the village.

On our way to Vieng Xay: some of the platteaus
are noteasy to access. But Emma climbs it up and
we have quiet placefor the night.

Oh brother! Johann lifted Pauli up.
And now what?

Pauli ready to go.

Boys going for a walk.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Villagers wearing traditional dresses.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Rice fields.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Traditional houses in the country side.

After two days of mountains passing we arrive at Xam Neua, a little northern province town, but the biggest we have seen for a while. There are restaurants and markets and gas stations, time to do a little refill. On the way out of town we see several repair shops for cars and trucks and try our luck to repair the rim again. And this time we are lucky, we find a big garage, run by Vietnamese, where they have the necessary equipment tot help us. We are really relieved, driving without a spare tire is over. The repair takes some time thought, so we stay over night at the repair garage, the people living and working there are very friendly.

On our way to Vieng Xay:
Lao Coffee in Xam Neua with
quite a portion of sweet milk. 

On our way to Vieng Xay: Pauli checks out turbines on the
market in in Xam Neua.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Salad on the market in Xam Neua.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Bats for sale on the market
in Xam Neua. Apparently also used in Laos cuisine ...

... as well as these poor guys.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Pauli chasing birds
on the market in Xam Neua.

On our way to Vieng Xay: Filling up our fruit storrage
on the market in Xam Neua.

Banana blossom for sale on the market
(can be substituted with couscous).

Xam Neua: Another attempt to fix our wheel.

Xam Neua: Negotiating schedule and budget.

Xam Neua: Decoration at the garage.

Looks much better!

Giving it a try, whether the holes are at the right position.

Meanwhile: Boys checking out old cars.

Job is done. New holes drilled inbetween the old ones.

Standard ensemble at the restaurant.
Fish sauce, beer, spicy chilli, cola.

;)

In Xam Neua we meet Andre from Berlin. He bought a motor bike in Vietnam, as many travellers do here and travels Laos. We decide to meet up again in Luang Prabang in two weeks to celebrate Christmas together. I still have a book in the car for Sebastian from the Coco home restaurant in Nong Kiao, Andre takes it with him, as he is travelling that direction. Funny detail, before we meet Andre in Luang Prabang we will know that the book has reached the right address, since we meet some Swiss travellers before him, who were in the restaurant, when Andre brought the book... :-) Laos is small.

Xam Neua: Meeting Andre from Berlin traveling
by motor bike through South East Asia. We shall meet again later.

When the job on the rim is done next morning we search for a garage that changes truck wheels and find one. And that is quite some work: putting tires on rims. After all this working on the car, I am convinced we can do a wheel change on the road ourselves next time, I have lost fear of that, but changing a rim, I don't want to think about doing this on our own... We are very relieved, every tire has its right place again and the rim is repaired. We can drive on.

Xam Neua: Since the rim is fixed. It's time to change all tyres
to the right rim.

Heavy work going.

Changing tyres around to get the best configuration.

Buckling up the spare tyres again.

Locals amazed by our spare tyre lift.

Securing the tyres.

From Xam Neua it is a short drive to Vieng Xay. But before reaching the "city of victory", we are distracted by a sign on the street that invites to kayak a huge underground cave. There is a lonely kayak tied to the river bank at the entrance of the cave and after Torsten has found the switch for the three lightbulb so in the cave, Torsten and Johann give it a try and paddle into the dark.
Sometime later a young man arrives and collects some kip for the rent of the boat. That is so nice about tourism in Laos, it's fantastic attractions can be reached by a very low level tourism infrastructure: a cave, a boat, a little entrance fee, some light bulbs, that's it. No concrete parking place, no visitor center, no ticket printers, all quiet, just nice village people, us and nature.

Close to Vieng Xay:
Crossing a bridge on our way to ...

... hidden cave.

In the dark huge butterflies sticking to the cave walls.

Climbing down to the main entrance of the cave.

Boats are available to explore and cross the cave.

Reaching the other side of the mountain,
a tight jungle forest is waiting for us.

Paddle crew.

Cave entrance
on the other side of the mountain.

Inside the cave,
we enjoy the beauty of the bearly illuminated rocks.

Vieng Xay, a tiny town in northern Laos, not far from Vietnam is the Lao "city of victory". The area has been home to the Lao communist government between 1964 and 1973. Here they survived American air raides, by living and working in more than 200 caves.

Laos fate was decided in the late fifties. 1958 it still decided to be a neutral country, but being squeezed between China, Vietnam and Thailand it never had a chance. Soon after the neutrality declaration, the US started to support anti-communist movements in Laos ranging from air support, military training and built up an alliance with the Hmong, a group of Lao people living in central Laos. They were willing to fight for the cause of the Americans against communism. Soviets on the other side supported the Lao communist group, sent tanks and whatever else was needed.

The whole thing got really dirty. Most of the US- Hmong cooperation was organised in secret by the CIA, only in the late sixties, the public got to know about this hidden war in Laos. Everyone focused on Vietnam, no one took a look at Laos. But US considered Laos to be a crucial part for winning the Vietnam war. And that is probably why they hit this tiny country with an aggressiveness that is even now, decades later unbelievable:

From 1964 to 1973 the US flew more than 600 000 air raids over Laos, approximately one every eight minutes. They threw 2,1 million tons of bombs on the country, more than in Second World War on Germany and Japan together. There were around 270 millions of so called "bombies" amongst them, tennis ball size bomb sub munition of unfamed cluster munition. Experts think that at least a third of that ammunition did not explode, they call them UXOs: unexploded ordnance. These UXOs still pollute the whole country, only some 300 square km have been cleaned. So when hiking and trekking, we have to be careful and only stay on pathways.

In Vieng Xay, we can visit the struggle of Lao people to survive the horror. 20 000 people lived and worked here during the war in caves. They lived during the night, when airplanes could not fly and stayed in the caves during the day, when air raids hit the area. One every eight minutes, nine years long, just to recall some numbers.

The caves can be visited on a guided tour. We follow a nice guide and at the same time listen to a fantastic audio guide, whenever he tells us to turn it on. We see the working caves, all entrances are shut with high concrete walls, to avoid bombs and flying around rocks from getting into the caves. There are school caves, bakery caves, office caves, living caves, sleeping room caves, cooking caves, printing caves, toilet caves, even a concert hall cave is there. Soviet and Vietnamese stars would sing there to cheer up the crowd. A highly developed communication system between the caves is explained.

The guide tells us, that in the last years also American tourists have come to visit. "Some say sorry, some don't" he says, "but I would really like them to come clean up the area from the bombs." he adds silently. He explains that there is even an own subject in school today, where children learn how to detect and avoid bombies. Fires for example they are only lightning in nature on a big pile of sand, to avoid warming up bombs underneath, who explode only after a while. 50000 people have been killed or injured since the end of the war. Even land where farming has been going on for a while already can be dangerous from hidden bombs. He also tells us to avoid walking through rivers, where there is no sign of clearance. He points to a wood and grass field right behind one of the caves we visit and explains that this is uncleared area and he would not recommend walking through it. If clearance will be going on as slow as today it will take more than 100 years to clean up all Laos. The US have sent some money for the clean up, but payments to find missing Vietnam war soldiers are much higher.

At the end of the day we are really tired and worn out, but at the same time impressed of the will to survive. It is cold up here and it has been raining all day long. We put the heating back on and warmer clothes, but this weather fits our feelings, to be honest.

To get the whole picture I don't want to forget to mention here, that Vieng Xay has been used in the years after the war as a detention camp for people not in line with the new communist government. Apparently the old Royal family died here, along with others. But there is no official information about that, since this government is still in power.

Vieng Xay Caves: Johann checks
out the environment.

Vieng Xay Caves: A guide showing us the cave halls ...

... like the dining room ...

... the 'bathroom' of Kaysone Phomvihane ...

 ... air-tight bunkers ...

... literature inspiring Kaysone Phomvihane politically ...

... houses build infornt of the caves after the war.

Bomb craters in the garden

Massive rocks and steep peaks in the middle of the village.

While I took the bike, the guide was so friedly to offer Johann
a ride with motor bike in order to visit the differnt caves.

Huge halls carved in the stone ...

... connected through a system of tunnels.

Cinema Hall. Every Friday movie night.

Vieng Xay: Pancake time.

Pauli happy.

We head back towards the South. In the villages on the way we visit women weaving traditional clothing and Torsten manages to get some of the local Whiskey, they call it: Lao Lao.  :-))

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional houses.

On our way to Phonsavan: Stopping at a waterfall.

On our way to Phonsavan: region is known for ...

... beautifully woven textiles.

Pauli helps to select some of the traditional scarfs made on
the manual weaving looms.

The stop gives us an intersting insight in the rural life.

On our way to Phonsavan: Stopping at village being famous
for its distilled Lao Lao. My bottle is being freshly prepared ;)

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional housing.

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional stock buildings
(e.g. vegetables)

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional buildings.

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional buildings.

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional buildings.

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional buildings.

On our way to Phonsavan: Traditional buildings.

On our way to Phonsavan: Bushes of ...

... winter roses! At home we count ourselves lucky
if a little one in a flower pot survives a couple of weeks.

We leave the mountain range towards the plain of jars. It is a high plain, where a forgotten old culture has left some interesting traces that can be visited today: huge stone jars. These huge stone jars are scattered around the plain as if giants had left them after a big feast. :-)))

We are now in the middle of the Hmong settling area, so this is also one of the places that got hit hard during the war. Around the jars everything has been cleaned up around 2005 so we can visit safely, but have to stay between clearing signs. It is argued what the jars were used for, but research that has been done before the war destroyed most of the traces show, that they were bury places. Dead bodies were put into the jars and only later they buried the bones.

Phonsavan the town next to the visiting places receives us with noise, dust and dense traffic. What an ugly town. We know immediately that we will not stay for long.

There is an UXO Survivor Information Center we visit. It is run by survivors and shows what is being done to help people, all the facts are again presented and we have long discussions with the kids to digest all the cruel information. But this Center also shows the hope and joy and we can buy souvenirs made by the ngo people to take home and leave some donations. So we don't leave feeling too helpless.

Phonsavan: Visiting the UXO Survivor Information Centre
(UXO ... unexploded ordnance) ...

... learning about the impact of an accident to the survivors' life.

Phonsavan: Western Food causes a lots of joy on the table.

For the night we decide to park next to the plain of jars visitor centre, a little house and a parking place next to the attraction. After we have hiked the field the next day we leave the place and realise too late that we have hit a low hanging electricity cable that some people have put across the road leading to the centre. It rips off our roof window, that we find in the dust of the road, after we have have realised what has happened. The whole construction of cables has come down too. We see that this was not the first time, the thing was attached with plastic bands and a bit of bamboo. We are pretty shocked and angry with ourselves that we did not see the cable on time. We start fixing our window, attaching it from the inside with a stick and some band. The owners of the place get pretty mad and we have some nasty arguing before we decide to call the police. Actually it is not very clear what they want, they are just really upset and want us to stay, but they don't mention any amount of money they want. We explain our damage, that is actually pretty high: a broken window, that we will not be able to replace. The discussion goes on for a while, a translator has been called by the owners, until police suggests that we call our insurance company (we have bought insurance when we entered the country). The police is not at all interested in the fact, that there was a low hanging illegal cable crossing a public street at a construction that could have fallen down any minute, we were just the unlucky ones to finally hit it. Our damage is also our problem, no one even wants to see it. This is such a strange scenery. We are at a police station in Phonsavan, but they don't have a phone. Instead they have a key board to play music, which they do while waiting for the insurance agent to come join us. He eventually shows up, pretty drunk, since he had been partying Hmong-New-Year. He fills in the forms, Torsten adds a description of the place and damage, this is signed by everyone and then the whole party is over and we are released by police. I have no clue at all, why this has happened that way. Why would any insurance pay for that kind of damage? Why was there no visit of the place where it happened? No photos taken of the damage, no documentation at all. Never during the whole discussion were their numbers on the table: the owners never asked a certain amount of money from us. Strange, strange, but all in all a pretty unpleasant encounter.

Phonsavan: Catching a cart to the Plain of Jars

Near Phonsavan: Pauli exploring the jars ...

... from all sides ;)

Near Phonsavan: Plain of jars.

Near Phonsavan: Plain of jars.

Near Phonsavan: Plain of jars.

Near Phonsavan: Plain of jars.

Near Phonsavan: Plain of jars.

The jars are big ;)

These stones indicate the areas which cleaned
of unexploded ordenances. (MAG ... Mines Advisory Group)

Cart-Riding on the way back
from the plain of jars.

;)

Johann's moel of a crankshaft.

@Plain of Jars: Women in traditional costumes

Phonsavan: Sorting out our accident at a police station.
Every once in a while one of the police man played with
one finger a melody on the music keyboard (left).

After the stressful time we decide to still visit the little village we wanted to see. It is called Ban Napia and is home to a nice project. It is called #Buybackthebombs. More information you can find here: www.article22.com
Village people had started to make spoons out of bombs they found on their fields and sell them. A young European jewellery designers suggested to enlarge the project and make jewellery instead of spoons and the results is pretty impressive: rings, armbands, mixed with gold and silver, very nice things and we would like to buy some. Some km before the village we are stopped at a bamboo gate before a bridge, with some young men showing us to stop and go back. One of them repeats the sign of cutting a throat and a gun being fired, pointing behind the bridge. There is quite some traffic across the bridge though, trucks, pickups, motorbikes, all kinds of people passing. We try to ask around what is going on, but no one speaks English, or no one wants to answer, I am not sure. We see a pick up coming across the bridge with people from a UXO-demining team, they all wear uniforms with a Lao and an American (!) flag on the sleeve. As we can not go further, eventually we leave.
Only later that evening there is coming some light to what we have seen. We have met a very nice family from France in Phonsavhan the other day. Like us they are travelling for one year with their two boys, same age as Antonia and Johann. Only they started in Indonesia and are going north now. We have passed them on our way to Ban Napia, them being in a car with a local driver on the way to the jars. They tell us in the evening, that the driver told them that we would not get far, if we wanted to visit Ban Napia, because "this is American controlled area, they grow drugs there, everyone knows that and everyone earns with them here in their area." Some time later on our trip in Laos we learn even more about what is going on there, it is an open secret. After the war ended the head Warlord cooperating with the Americans became a refugee to the US when the war was lost and with him some thousands of Hmong. Today they are very wealthy and come back to their home country, growing drugs and making a lot of money. But apparently with the knowledge of the current government. Can there be things more disgusting?

Muang Khoun: Remnants of burned down monastery during the
CIA war.

Impressive memorial.

Johann is too small to open our door, but he found out
techniques to reach the door w/o pulling out the ladder.

Phonsavan: Morning Market

On the morning market Phonsavan:
Grilled corn puree in banana leaves.

On the morning market Phonsavan: 
Grilled minced corn puree. 

We have seen enough of the plain of jars and go on. Luang Prabang is our next destination. The best preserved temple and kings city in south east Asia. We are really excited, because we have quite some plans on what to do in this town and last but not least, we will spend Christmas here.

On the road we realise once more, that traffic has changed towards south and strange enough everyone is driving the same kind of car. It is always a Toyota Hilux pick up or any version of that car or a sort minibus from Hyundai.  Anywhere we go in Laos it is the same situation: the same brand new cars everywhere, no old cars, no other cars, just Toyota Hilux. Later someone being familiar with the country explains it with one sentence: "Chinese get land, Lao get metal." We can't believe what we hear: apparently Lao are currently selling their land in big pieces to Chinese investors and in exchange get new cars from them. That cars are not worth anything after a couple of years anymore and land is lost, a lot of foreign people try to tell Lao people, but the excitement about getting a new car easily is stronger. What a pity. The difference between Laos and China is so huge, that there seems to be a lot of ground for those things to happen. The gap of development is huge, there are villages in Laos that have seen electricity for the first time in the last couple of years, school education in remote areas is still difficult, an organised clean up from bombs has only started in 1994, the only modern town we have seen was Vientiane, the rest is little villages with maximum two storey houses, green jungle and farming. And Chinese are using the land they are getting for free, we can see that everywhere: big building projects in Luang Prabang and Vientiane, deforested jungles in the north of Laos, being turned into Chinese kautschuck fields, huge water dam projects in all major Lao rivers to send energy to China, road buildings etc.

On our way to Luang Prabang:
Locals in traditional costumes playing ...

... a ball game in a village along the road.

Luang Prabang, a magic old town at the Mekong river. We have read that this will be a very touristy place, expensive etc, but when we arrive and during our stay, we find it very charming. The old town is located on a peninsula at the Mekong and Nam Khan river. There are basically two streets on it and the river ways. Some old colonial villas can be found here, the old royal palace, several old monasteries and today a lot of restaurants and guest houses.
We find a spot to park at the Nam Khan. As a lot of people are passing by we have a lot of very nice company, meet people from all over the world and keep telling our story a hundred times...;-)))

Luang Prabang: Antonia checks out the X-Mas decoration.

Luang Prabang: Huge spiders in the trees

Luang Prabang: Seasonal Bridge at
river junction of Nam Khan and Mekong 

Luang Prabang: Kids watching a local working on
traditional artisanry.

Luang Prabang: Home, sweet home!

Luang Prabang: A coco nut being prepared ...

... for a fresh drink.

Luang Prabang: Antonia being drawn in her book ...

...by an unkown Czech tourist.

Luang Prabang: gardens reaching down to the Nam Khan river.

Luang Prabang: Sunset in Down Town.

Luang Prabang: At the end of long day. Pauli ready for a nap.

Luang Prabang: Food stands on the night market.

One morning we hear someone climb at the front of our car and we have a look and are really surprised. Out there are Noah and Luca, two young men from Switzerland whom we have met in.... we have to think a moment: Iran!!! So great to see them again! We met them in Persepolis and Shiraz in September and now we have breakfast together in Luang Prabang and tell us our travel stories. They have recognised our car, but weren't sure and checked for the Pauli's seat in the front... :-))) In Iran they had been a group of five in a Swiss car, but three went home in the meantime and the other two sold the car in Georgia and rented motorbikes in Thailand to go to Laos...:-))) What a nice breakfast!

Luang Prabang: Reunion by chance with Noah & Luca from
Switzerland. We met already in Persepolis (Iran).
@Noah & Luca: if you read this please contact us!
We lost your address.

The oldest monastery in Luang Prabang is Wat Xieng Thong located right where Nam Khan flows into the Mekong. It is the original pattern for the typical Lao temple roofs, that we can see everywhere in the country. The temples long stairs towards the Mekong used to be the entrance to the city for kings and other high officials coming to visit. The place has a wonderful magic, all is again totally different to what we have seen before. We recognise things from Buddhist monasteries in Tibet, but the style of drawings, paintings and architecture is totally different. Buddha is a very slim standing figure here in Laos, holding his open hands to his sides, which is the rain bidding gesture as we learn. The walls are painted with an ancient form of printing technique.

Luang Prabang: Wat Xieng Thong with its typical
Laos Architecture forming the model for other monasteries.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Famous Screen Printing - outside.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Pauli takes off his shoes and climbs the steps.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: Kids recognize the Buddha
storry on the walls.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Famous Screen Printing - inside.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Posing with Buddha ;)

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Luckily he has a sister helping him to get the shoes back on.

Taking them off is a lot easier ;)

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Impressions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Impressions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Impressions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Impressions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Sleeping Buddha.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: 
Pauli discovers a little Buddha ...

... and makes friends.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Refelctions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Refelctions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Refelctions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Refelctions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Refelctions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Sculpture.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang:
Stairway down to the Mekong River.

Luang Prabang: Mekong Impressions.

Wat Xieng Thong@Luang Prabang: Monks.

Later in the afternoon we pay a visit to the former royal palace. Located in a marvellous park it is small and simple. A bit like: When the King wanted to go to the toilet in the night he had to pass the thrown hall. Built by the French it is even bigger than the original Lao one. But in a way it fits our picture of friendly and discrete Lao people.

Haw Pha Bang near the Royal Palace

Take off your shoes please ;)

Luang Prabang: Royal Palace.

Luang Prabang: Climbing up ...

... Mount Phousi.

On the way down Johann almost stepped on this little fellow.

One highlight after the other and there is more to come! For the first time in my life I take a cooking class! Together with Antonia I learn how to cook Lao food with two nice Lao chefs showing and helping. They explain which vegetable we can take in Europe to replace things like banana flowers or green papayas... Great fun!

Torsten and Johann take an evening off to cook too. Torsten tells us afterwards, that they have met some nice travellers in their group who have asked Johann what his opinion about our long travel journey is. Johann answered: "On a scale from 0 to 10 I would give it a 5." Needless to say that we can't deny being a bit shocked...;-))) The next morning Johann raised the topic again and corrected his grade to a 7 ;) Lets see what he says next year!;-)))

Luang Prabang: Antonia & Susanne taking a ...

... cooking class.

Apparently it turned out to be delicious

Luang Prabang: Food on the night market.

Luang Prabang: Surreal scenery. Traditionally monks receive
rice from locals. Nowadays tourists put rice and sweats in the
bowls. Other tourists with heavy foto equippment illuminate
the dawn. Felt really strange.

You do not have rice? for €2,5 you
can buy a sticky rice bowl 'big size'.

Some travel literature say that the rice is of low quality 
and sometimes monks fall sick from the donations.

Many monks take out the sweets a little further down the road
and put it bak in baskets. This way they are resold the next day to
tourists again. Intersting cycle isn't it.
We also observed a strange scene where a tourist surrounded
himself litteraly with piles of rice bowls and sweets and made
sure that he was photographed from different angles while
'donating' the food to the monks

Laos is called the land of the million elephants and we visit some of them on a farm. It is called Elephant village and is located at the river Nam Khan nearby Luang Prabang. We have taken quite some time to find out where we want to go visit the elephants. We have heard too many horror stories about badly treated elephants to make money from tourists, but Elephant Village seems to be the best option. They tell that the elephants have been rescued from hard wood logging work and we have to believe them. We see that the animals at the place are treated nicely and they seem very relaxed, as everyone in Laos.

It is great fun to watch them closely, the way they move, eat and react. Pauli is most impressed. We have a wonderful day at the farm. We are even allowed to visit two baby elephants. The guide tells us that they are really playful and that we can see, very impressing their energy, wouldn't want to be elephant mom... ;-) Included in the visit is a boat tour to one of the blue waterfalls around Luang Prabang, Tad Se waterfall. We take a swim and enjoy the nice and warm weather. What a great day!

And we meet Kimberley and Elisabeth, two American ladies who later invite us to join them for a late Christmas turkey feast in Vientiane at the end of December.

Every evening there is a night market in Luang Prabang, colourful hand made things are sold and here we stock up with presents for friends at home and get some Christmas presents for each other. The market also includes a food market with great Lao food packed on huge buffets. Coconuts are served with straws and all sorts of fruit shakes that the kids love. "Mama, Banana shake drinke!" And even a German butcher is in town selling German Bratwurst. Real German Bratwurst. Pauli doesn't stop eating. ;-)))

Lunag Prabang: Waiting for the Tuk-Tuk to the elephant village.

Fascinated to see these impressive animals from that close.

We join them for breakfast ...

... and accompaign them for taking a bath.

We had the impression that they are really enjoy the place
and are well treated. Unlike in the timber business.

Antonia says 'bye'.

With a little help Pauli dares to feed them bananas.

Kids like the pool of the bungalows, where visitors can also
stay overnight.

Later we take the longboat to visit the young elephants.

One of them is as old as Pauli and ...

... likes to play just like Pauli.
The junior elephant is just a lot stronger,
that's why they first want us to leave the area,
 before they can play outside the fence.

On our way back ...

... we stop at some waterfalls.

Water running over limestone created a paradise-like scenery.

Ofcourse we cannot resist to take a bath at this beautiful place.

We eventually return to the elephant village and ...

... the kids enjoy the park for some more playtime.

Johann takes Pauli to say ...

... 'bye' to the elephants.

Luang Prabang: Now it's our turn for the cooking class.

We manage to prepare the food just like ...

... the professional cooks did.

It was really delicious.

Two US-Americans, who also joined the class, gave Johann
some first-hand answers on his questions about the USA;
simple ones like:
- how is it like to live in US nowadays?
- is the US a wealthy country?
- ...
More than once they hesitated with their responses.

The 24th we spend near Luang Prabang at Kuang Si waterfall, visiting a bear rescue Center and we see and learn about tropical butterflies in a wonderful garden. We have to tell ourselves: hey it's Christmas and we are not dreaming. :-)))

X-Mas morning on our way to ...

... have some breakfast next to the Mekong.

Later on we take a Tuk-Tuk to the Kuang Si waterfalls.

Micro-farmig creates beautifal landscape, which we see
along the way.

Time for a morning-nap, before ...

... we arrive at the Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Center.
The organnization provides a safe place for Asian Black Bears
(aka Moon Bears)

Tat Kuang Si waterfalls: Time for a bath.

Johann loves to jump from the tree.

Tat Kuang Si butterfly park: Since this fellow eats from
poisonous plants, it is not recommanded to touch him
since the caterpillar himself is also poisonous.

Tat Kuang Si butterfly park: Johann & Antonia admiring
the colorful cocons.

Susanne surrounded by doctor fishes, which nibble from the
skin of her legs. Pauli fascinated.

On our way back to Luang Prabang: Pauli all tired after a
long day with many impressions, but it's X-Mas eve
and still not over yet ;)

Lunag Prabang: Bridge over the Nam Khan River in the twilight.

An then comes Christmas Eve. Since it appeared on the calendar we were trying to find a way to get around it. :-)) I knew it would never be like home and cause a lot of homesickness. No way that we could create the Christmas atmosphere in a car, travelling in a country with jungle and 25 degrees. But the kids take it very seriously, especially Antonia. She insists on having presents, candles and a Bescherung, "in this stupid car". ;-)) We try our best.
Lao have decorated guest houses and restaurants with Christmas decoration, that helps a bit to get in the mood. We look out for something special for dinner and want to try Lao fondue on Heilig Abend, but then can't imagine to sit next to a fire at 28 degrees that evening... So we end up in a different place: a Belgian restaurant. There is stoofvlees, stoemp, Maredsous and Rochefort beer. It is a real home coming. :-) Andre joins us and brings a friend, Daan from Gent and we have a great time. When we walk back to the car we meet some other German tourists and everyone greats with: Frohes Fest! As if we had just left church... :-)) Doesn't help for homesickness though. Later we sit in the car and there are presents and there is even a candle that a very nice couple from Berlin gave us that day. It's not the same, but it is special and we will never forget it. Still later in the evening our little girl has a heavy homesickness attack and I promise: next year everything will be as usual again. :-)))

Lunag Prabang: Enjoying the X-Mas dinner.

Later Dan from Gent and André from Berlin (we met him
already in Xam Neua) join us. 

We light a candle for some cosy ambience, before we start ...

gift giving!

The kids became a little homesick and we had to promise that
next year everything will be according to the traditions again. 

On Christmas Day Christmas is over and we go on enjoying wonderful Laos: we visit a rice farm! A farm where they have different fields at different a levels of rice plants growing and people are invited to come plough, plant, harvest and treat rice, a wonderful educational project to teach us Europeans how rice is grown. The farm is a community project of seven families who had been growing vegetables, selling them in Luang Prabang. The story is that the great quality of the vegetables caught the attention of some tourists who asked if they would be allowed to visit the farm.
We are very impressed by the hard work that needs to be done. And we learn: on one square meter of rice field grow three kilos of rice. In one plant there are about 2800 grains of rice.
Great lesson, I will think about it with every future rice bowl on my table.

Next morning the majority decided of the travel group decided
that I had to get shaved!

The kids executed the order to drag me to a barber. 

Johann and ...

... Antonia had quite some fun ...

... unlike Paul, who actually likes to tickle my beard.

The job is done, the hair is gone,
and at least Johann & Antonia are proud to have
completed their mission successfully.

Johann enjoys riding at the back of the Tuk-Tuk, ...

... while Pauli laves the head wind at the side bar.

Step 1 of 13: selecting the good rice grains as seeds.

In salty water the bad  grains float on the surface
and can be easily seperated.

Step 2 of 13: The selected good grains are sowed in rice
'nursery' not far from the farm houses so birds can be chased off
if needed. Latest after six days the rice seeds need to
germinate ...

... and a new rice plant is born.

Step 3 of 12: The 'real' field has to be prepared with the help
of a wter buffalo and a plow.

It's quite a muddy business.

Step 4 of 12: The young rice plants from the nursery are
planted on the prepared field.

Step 5 of 12: Time warp! Rice can be harvested on another
field.

Antonia all proud of her crop.

Time to wash off the mud.

Some members of the cooperative create little souvenirs
from bamboo.

Step 6 of 13: After drying the crop the spikes have to be hit
on a piece of wood so all grains fall on the ground.

Step 7 of 13: The straw needs to be blown away with the
help of a paddle. Much more difficult than it seems.
It's all about the right technique.

Step 8 of 13: Using the rice farmers' hats all grains are
gathered from the ground into the baskets.

Step 9 of 13: The rice is carried in the baskets to the village.
The three ethnical groups use different techniques:
- Antonia shows the Hmong-way
- Susanne carries the baskets like Khmou do
- Johann holds the weight of the basket with
a rim over the forehead (Lao-approach)

Step 10 of 13: Breaking-off the husk from rice with a hammer

Step 11 of 13: Separating the husk from rice.
Look at Susannes' learning curve ;)

Step 12 of 13: Grinding rice to rice flour.

Step 13 of 13: Cooking the rice.

Different Rice bins used for sticky rice.

For dessert we squeeze out some sugar cane.

The waiting time until the rice is steamed we play ...

... with a bast ball over a net.

We enjoy the wunderful evening light and 

the different food made of rice and rice flour.

Luang Prabang: Locals offering colorful little bouquets
for Buddhist temples.

Luang Prabang: Best fish  ever on the night market.

Pick whatever you want!
It's gonna be delicious.

However the differnt food should be mixed carefully,
otherwise it tastes like everything and nothing at the same time.

Luang Prabang: Down Town @Night Time.

Luang Prabang: Spectecular moon light.

It is time to leave and once again Emma has to climb high mountains on small jungle roads towards south. We stop at Vang Vieng an infamous town, known for tubing on the river, binge drinking, drugs and drunken tourists dying in the river. Just before we arrive there are two more dead, this time from Australia. In the last years officials have tried to stop the chaos a bit, but the little town has still that Wild West feeling, with a dirt road and open bars. We don't find a place with good food and are in general not very impressed by all the traffic and dirt, so we flee north and stay at the organic farm. Here at this quiet farm the whole wild life started some 20 years ago, when the owner of the farm threw some old truck wheels into the river to entertain bored volunteers working on his farm. They paddled down to Vang Vieng and were eventually followed by thousands of tourists, today most of them Korean and Thai, wearing shirts saying: I did tubing in Vang Vieng.

Main road from Luang Prabang to the capital Vientiane.
partly gonne after a landslide.

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng: Mulberry Tree.
Leaves are used as food for the silkworm and for tea.
From the berries you can make delicious wine.

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng: Star Fruit

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng: A mud house in the middle
of fruit trees

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng: Odd decoration.

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng: Another mud house.
Bottles are implanted to fill the inside
with colorful light.

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng: We all fall immidiately
in love with the house. Look at the oven (left).

Organic Farm@Vang Vieng: Work plan for the goat stable.

Vang Vieng: Famous for tubing. Since some do the
tube-ride under alcohol, many accidents occur.

On our way to Vientiane: Overarching tree.

Vientiane is hot, but not because it is great city, I really mean the temperatures. We are still at the Mekong, but have left the mountains. The town greets with high traffic, cars parked on the pathways everywhere, dust and dirt and is not very appealing. We stay to get an extension for our Visa, we need two more weeks to see the rest of Laos. This includes a visit at the customs to get an extension for the car papers and insurance (!) too. Torsten takes the trip with the kids to the Lao-Thai border to get the papers done.

Best attraction of Vientiane is a real playground! We haven't seen one since the Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan and Paul is so excited that he refuses dinner and insists on going to the playground immediately. :-) He has learned quite well in the meantime to express his wills with words. Sometimes he gets frustrated when we don't understand what he is saying, then we guess all together while he repeats the same word louder and louder.... ;-)

Vientiane: First playground since a long time.

Vientiane: Locals watching the kids at their ball game.

Vientiane: Visting the
Cooperative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise  (COPE)
to understand something of the heavy burder to Laos
of unexploed ordnance (UXO)
BTW: just after we accessed the building Pauli hit a bunch of
empty bomb shells in the silent museum. They all fell
domino-like and made a lot of noise. I think we would 
not survive long in this country ;)

Vientiane: Listing to some testimonials @ COPE.

COPE@Vientiane: Worn out prosthesis.
Adults need to get a new one every two years.
Kids every 6 to 9 months.

COPE@Vientiane: Hard to smile in this building.

COPE@Vientiane: Building and exhibit
mainly realized by volunteers.

COPE@Vientiane: Impressive visit!

Vientiane: Pauli posing with
King Chao Anouvong.

Vientiane: Everywhere you can buy unripe sour fruits
with spicy pouwders and sauces. 

Vientiane: Statue of King Chao Anouvong .

Vientiane: sunset over the Mekong river

Vientiane: Antonia helps Pauli to pick the right food;.

Vientiane: Dresden Tao ... What? The name of our German
hometown on a Lao restaurant? The staff explains us that
'Dresden' is favorite word in Japan and that the Japanese
owner has therefore decided to name his restaurant like that.

Vientiane: Foodstand for breakfast. You get here all kinds of
soups and barbecue. Funny that it does not feel odd anymore
to smell this in the morning hours.

Vientiane: The majority of the travel crew opts for the French
way of breakfast. 

Vientiane: Meeting Pin from Malaysia again
(1st time in COPE center the day before). We had a great chat.
@Pin: if you read this, pls. contact us to keep in touch.

Pin invites us for a 2nd breakfast. The coffee is great!
The white layer is sweet milk ;)

On our way back from the Lao-Thai-border check
point: After having extended all our documents
Pauli takes some rest from the exhausting mission.

Vientiane: Golden Sleeping Buddha in Wat Si Saket.

Impressive!

Vientiane: Wat Si Saket.

The best of our stop in Vientiane is Kimberley's invitation for a turkey feast at her house. She works for the American embassy and we have met her and her friend Elisabeth in Luang Prabang. Her mom has come to visit for Christmas and we have a wonderful time together. The kids are very impressed that "Oma" has come all the way by herself from the States with her 82 years of age. Kimberley has among others been working in Afghanistan and east Ukraine and Elisabeth is a journalist in Georgia. We are happy to have the whole evening to talk and talk. And as one of her last posts included Germany she has good German white wine in house and it is heaven on earth. :-) For the kids she does magic too and puts on a German series on her TV, it is the new series "Deutschland '83", anyone seen it yet? A story about a young east German spy in west Germany in hot eighties. It is quite famous in the US, although it is only on the market since summer. Sehr spanned!

Thanks a lot for the great time! We hope to see you all back one day in Brussels!

Vientiane: We follow an invitation for a Turkey Dinner from
Kimberley an US-Americane lady working in Laos.

Vientiane: Looks like a challenge.

Vientiane: Post X-Mas Turkey Meal. So delicious!
We spent a wonderful evening.

Vientiane: Time to say good bye again. Johann had to lift the
phone wires so Emma could drive through ;)

Roads get better towards south of Laos. There are two days left of 2015 and we don't care much, our time has become very different. We flee the heat towards the mountains again and this time we want to visit a cave. It is called Kong Lor cave, 6 km long, can only be entered by a boat and consists of huge halls and domes, some of them more then 80 m high. It is fun lao tourism again: a wooden boat, a little motor, a driver, a head light on each head and off we go. I have to be honest I have never entered such a huge cave without any light before. Behind us the entrance of the cave gets smaller and smaller and the little boat drives fast into the dark. Only our headlight show us the rocks and halls. We drive on for about ten minutes, then comes a little walking path, before we drive on almost one more hour deep in the mountain. The water is very low, sometimes we have to help get the boats across sand banks. Very impressive!
On the other side of the cave there is a little village and we enjoy chatting with Bernardo from Gelsenkirchen(!) who has joined us on the tour. It is a lot of fun with him and he is a real world traveller: started in South America in April and has worked his way through to Asia. He has studied engineering in Aachen and Johann is happy that he can show him his engine plans, finally an expert.
After our cave trip we relax at the river, the kids swim, and we later decide to hang out together on New Year's Eve. It doesn't become a party, although Lao villagers around us do their best to turn their loud speakers on highest level, but we enjoy some beer and nice talks.
Welcome 2016!!! If this year will be as great as 2015, then I will be the most happy person on earth! We wish you all the best, may this new year only bring joy and happiness to all of you!

On our way to Konglor Caves: Beautiful mountain ranges on the high platteau in the sunset.

Temporary or forever? Bridges on our way to Konglor Caves.

Konglor Cave: Bernardo joins us to explore the caves, so we
can share the longboat.

Konglor Cave: The size of the cave is huge.
6 km long. The dome in the middle more than 50m high.

Konglor Cave: One size fits all life jacket.
Except for Paulis size.

Konglor Cave: Stalactite growing down
to the ground of the cave.

Konglor Cave: At some places we have to help
pulling our boat over the rocks.

Konglor Cave: We reach the entrance on other side
of the cave ...

... and a little further down the river we stop at a small village.

Konglor Cave: Johann enjoying the longboat-ride back ...

... so does Pauli.

Konglor Cave: last impressions of the rocks aboe our heads ...

... before the kids take a bath in the river where
we originally started our 'expediton'. (BTW it's 31/12/2015 ;))

Pauli loves the sand beach at the river shores ...

and they can't stop running into the water ;)
Great afternoon on the last day of the year 2015.

No one parking on the parking place except Emma.
Quite remote here and only few tourists find
their way to the caves.

Bernardo takes the kids for moto-ride.
Only Pauli has to watch.

Fun time!

Last sun beams of the year 2015 illuminate the surrounding mountains.

Bernardo seems to have fun reading with the kids through
Johanns' book about mechanics.

On our way to Pakse: Johann & Antonia need to do some
homework. Pauli and me enjoy playing in the sand.

Pakse and the Bolaven Plateau is one of our last stops in Laos. The plateau is actually the inside of a former volcano crater, the crater walls being perfect spots for waterfalls. And the climate is perfect for coffee growing. So, we spend time swimming waterfalls, harvesting and trying local coffee and the biggest adventure of all: We "fly" the so called Tree Top Explorer, a zip line system through the jungle for two days, sleeping over night in a tree house. Since Pauli can't join, he is still too little, we have decided to split up in two groups: Johann and me we will start, Torsten and Antonia will do the same two days later. Antonia is allowed to join the tour too, sometimes they have to help her, because she is too short for some of the wire bridges...

The tour to reach the zip lines is a heavy hike through the jungle, some parts on our way back I walk on hands and feet, because the mountains are so steep. When we come back to our car the next day I can feel every muscle in my body...;-)) We don't only hike and fly on zip lines, we also walk across swinging wire bridges and climb steep rocks. Johann loves it and would like to stay forever...:-))) It is really nice to be on my own with him, we have some great quality time, just the two of us. Even to reach the tree houses we have to take a zip line. The houses have no windows, we sleep underneath mosquito nets, that's it, in the middle of the jungle, the waterfall not far. The zipping itself is much easier than I thought. Some of the lines are more than 400 m long and it feels fantastic, just like a bird...

Have a look here: treetoplaos.com

Pakse: Oil change of the rear differential gear.

Pakse: Time for a cut. Getting to hot to keep all the hair ;)

Not too bad ;)

Pakse: The rubber of one of our 10-years old tyres starts
breaking, just as one of our Brussels friends has predicted.
From Brussels to Laos they still ran 27.000km. Right
decision to keep them, but now it's time to plan for a change.
It should come with considerable colateral damage :(

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: Few people coming to
this paradise-like place.

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: Endless swimming
surrounded by a stunning scenery.

End of life: Johanns sandales give up. They did a good job.

Tad Fane waterfalls: Even more impressive, but no
place for swimming.

Time for a break.

;)

Back@Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: Colorful ingredients
for delicious meals.

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: In the middle of coffee plantations.
Coffee for sale!

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: The Lao-way of making coffee:
Coffee powder is boiled in a net ... 

Then it's poured in glas. Optionally sweet milk is added.

It taste really great!

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: rudimentary staircase down to the
base of the waterfalls. 

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: behind the scene.

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: Tandem-Tubing construction.

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls: View from the top.

Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls:
Johann & Antonia practising selfies, for
a news paper article. 1st try.

next one!

Final one! This one looks good!

Bolaven Plateau: Coffee is dried around the housings, ...

... with fruit flesh to enhance the taste of coffee bean or ...

... without fruit flesh for the purists.

Tree-Top-Explorer: Johann & Susanne getting ready for
the adventure , ...

... starting with some practicing ...

... some lunch. Table is ready ...

and great Lao food is served.

Tree-Top-Explorer: Abseiling!

Tree-Top-Explorer: Zip-lines over the canyon ...

... with a marvelous view on the waterfalls.

Johann enjoys the rest after
the exhausting hikes and zip-line rides.

Both enjoying the sunset.

Night stay in a tree house.

Belongings best to put above the ground;
Lots of animals are crawling around, ready
to check if there is something eatable in it.

Johann & Susanne infront of their tree house.

Johann ready to zip.

Johann climbing up the wall.

Respectful glances to the top. They are still on save ground ...

... Johann isn't anymore, but manages as if he would do that
everyday.

Happy to have reached the summit.

Beautiful view from the edge ...

... over the canyon. Way down there is  the bivouac.

Group shot with the whole team.

Meanwhile the rest of the crew
@Tham Cham Pee Waterfalls. 

Torsten is our coffee lover. I don't like the brown water, but I love the smell in the morning, when he puts up the little Italian coffee machine on the oven and cooks his morning coffee. We even bought Torsten a new machine in Vientiane, because the old one was pretty worn out already and no one of us wants him to be without his daily cup...;-))

At the Tad Fane waterfall, not far from Pakse on the plateau lives Mister Koffie, Dirk from Holland who fell in love with Laos and the coffee plants and stayed to cook coffee for everyone. When he arrived for the first time a couple of years ago, farmers grew coffee everywhere, but there was no possibility for visitors to drink coffee! Today there are workshops with Koffie and we learn everything about coffee growing, harvesting, roasting and drinking. There are two different types of coffee plants inLaos: Arabica and Robusta. The French brought coffee to Laos and it is still a success today. We have a wonderful day together and I just confess: it is not that bad, this brown water...;-)))

Tad Fane: Learning about coffee from the plant to the cup
@Koffie's Coffee.

We start with roasting and learn to 'dance' the coffee walz
 in the wok ... left, two, three, four...right, two, three, four.

First a popcorn sound, later a wood fire;
beans become brown and shiny from the
oils (occurs@240°C) and ...

... it is time to cool them down.

Pauli loves to touch ... 

... the beans ...

... even when tries to pull him off ;)

Now it's our turn and Johann masters the roasting very quickly.

The beans change ...

... their color within minutes.

Kids drawing faces into the roasted beans.

Each one gets a bag of
our self-roasted coffee.

Later we visit the planations.
Tiny beans forming the start of the growing process.

Meanwhile Pauli gets ready for a nap.

Redish beans ready for harvest (here robusta)

We learn a lot aboutthe difference of arabica vs. robusta.

On our way back from the plantations.

Farmers on their Tok-Toks passing by.

Christmas star plant.
In Europe we are used to smaller ones.

Robusta coffee ready for harvest.

Typical leaves of robusta coffee.

Bamboo handcraft products.

Bananaaaaaa!

Now it's our turn. Antonia gets ready
for her adventure.

We pass coffee farmers drying their crop.

Still the easy part.

On our way to the canyon we cross a high platteau.

Moss 

A little later we dive into the jungle ...

... and vegetation changes.

That looks easy, but ...

... the bridge keeps swinging over the
first canyon.

Bamboo Pick-up sticks.

Time for a ride.

Abseiling.

Antonia did excellent, but the hikes
and rides are exhausting.

Time for rest in our bivouac with a
stuning view.

We take a bath ...

...  at the waterfall ...

... enjoying the sunset.

Next morning we slide down from our tree house.

Sometimes Antonia is a little too light and
does not reach the other side easily.

My 'favorite' one. Walking in hanging
steel wires between the tree tops. 

Antonia caught some banana leafs
while flying over the jungle.

Our crew. 

After zip-lining into the valley
it's time to go up again.

Huge spider webs along the path.

Antonia climbs like a chamois.

Arriving atthe wall. It costs me quite som guts to climb it up.

Happy about having reached safely the summit.

Greez from some anonymous traveller from
our German home town.

After more than one week on the Bolaven Plateau we drive on further south. We want to see the "4000 islands" of the Mekong. But before we have to stop at a truck repair because we have detected on one of our wheels several cracks and want this tire to be exchanged with one of our spare tires. Again a lot of changing rims and wheels, it takes two hours and when we are almost done Torsten jumps down a last time from the spare tire platform of the car and makes a sound that curdles my blood. He keeps strapping tires, but soon after his white face tells me that something is really wrong. He can't walk anymore with his right foot and after a break we decide to go to the next hospital. Everyone has warned us not to go to Lao hospitals, we would be better off in Thailand. But we want to check the foot as soon as possible. After the X- Ray and some waiting time, we know that the heel is broken. Torsten is brought to a little room with a bed, where bloodstains haven't been removed for a while I think, but since we don't deal with an open wound here we just close our eyes and help to put on the cast. Later I am being accompanied to the department where usually victims of bombies receive their hand made artificial replacements. There I buy two wooden crutches that will be Torsten's buddies for the next four weeks.... Luckily pain is not too heavy and we hope the best.

Time for a tyre change.

The elevator on the rear side of the truck
facilitates this excercise.

Here less man power is needed than in the rural areas.

The cracks pretty long. Not sure how long
it would have still carried us.

My file at the Pakse hospital. For some reason my name is now
Hibed and I aged suddenly to 39.

Diagnosis: Broken heel.

Could have been worse ...

Treatment: Plaster for four weeks :(

New appearance in the legroom.

Heat is hitting us hard in Pakse and we decide to park somewhere outside town. When entering the little remote road we should have been suspicious already. It is too new, too even, to good to be just a normal road to the next village. And as soon as we have parked the car at a little opening next to the road we are surrounded by people. Looking closer I see only men, some guns, some uniforms, a lot of flip flops and discussions. We are friendly approached by one man speaking English who explains to us that we can not stay here and should better come stay at the next village down the road. We are tired, Torsten is trying to get used to his plaster and we don't feel at all like being the village attraction tonight. Strange enough this has never happened before in Laos, usually we can park wherever we want and people let us sleep quietly. There is a lot of security personnel around us. I think we have parked accidentally next to a big industrial area, we see trucks with sand the next day. And industry is always heavily secured in Laos, that we have seen before. There is not much of a working industry here though. We keep discussing and explaining and after a while we have convinced the village elderly and security people that we are just a family and that we leave next morning and then we have a wonderful quiet night...

Emma had to work hard
to reach a safe place to stay for the night.

4000 islands in the Mekong river: What a nice place! A bit touristy and therefore expensive, but still a very nice place. The river Mekong splits here into a lot of river beds, flooding around thousands of islands and rushing down towards Cambodia through huge waterfalls. And the best: it is a great place to swim in the blue and green clear water of the Mekong!

France, that ruled Cambodia and Laos in the colonial period always dreamed of shipping goods along the Mekong towards and from China for trade. So they sent an expedition team up stream that buried all trade dreams when they saw for the first time the huge and wild waterfalls at the 4000 islands region. French still didn't want to give up and built up a railway across two islands to surround the waterfalls and transports goods along the stream. Today we can still see a big bridge built by the French and the steam engines left at the islands, when the railway closed. Today the river is not used for transport anymore, roads have taken over, even though their state is pretty terrible.

Ubiquitous Tok-Tok. They are used for hard work on the field
as well as trasportation means.

Moving around becomes a challenge.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.
Stop on a island.

Playtime ...

... in the water.

I stay in the boat.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.

4000 islands: Sunset on the Mekong river.

And there is one more interesting "attraction" here: if lucky, visitors can see river dolphins! Irrawaddy dolphins are a special and endangered species of dolphins, living in sweet water of rivers in Asia, as the Mekong and the Irrawaddy in Myanmar.

And how wonderful: we are lucky! With some patience and quiet waiting in a boat on the river we are able to see two of them swimming next to us, making funny snorkelling noises and leaving everyone in the boat enthusiastic.

And we see a fantastic sunset on the river. Time to reflect a bit: wow, we have driven with our car all the way from home to this wonderful Mekong sun set. :-)))

4000 islands: Ready for the Mekong ferry to Don Det island.

Pauli not yet awake.

4000 islands: Don Det has a tiny but beautiful beach.
Kids love it!

4000 islands:We asked for a Tuk-Tuk to dsicover the island.
But there are Tuk-Tuks and Tuk-Tuks in Laos.
We got the latter one ;) 

Fun ride on the former railway.

4000 islands: former cargo terminal on Don Det for loading
freight from the train back on a ship and vica verse

4000 islands: Former Railway bridge connecting idslands
Don Det & Don Khon.

View from the bridge.

4000 islands: Former reservoir. Not sure whether it was used for
fuel or drinking water. Both probably a scarce resource when
the railway was operated.

4000 islands: Me; jumping downstairs the ancient cago terminal
to get to the pier.

4000 islands:Johann helping to remove
garbage from the propeller.

4000 islands: Impressive! We spotted Irrawaddy dolphins.

There are only a couple dozzens left.

Pauli: 'Tschüss Mekong'

4000 islands: Remnants of the French
maritim infrastructure.

Pauli looking for a comfortable position to take a nap.

4000 islands: Traditional boat builders at the shores of Don Khon.

4000 islands: Cargo terminal at Don Khon.

Long ways to go ... I mean jump ... on one leg :(

Pauli finally found a place to take a nap. The way is
so  bumpy that I cannot belief that he keeps on sleeping.

And then it's time to leave Laos. We really loved to be here. There have been so many wonderful and happy moments, I would always come back to enjoy the relaxing live style of the friendly people in this green country.

There is a little lonesome border station between Laos and Cambodia. We arrive at noon, sun is high, the heat is glimmering and everything seems very sleepy. But the two police officers are awake enough to ask their bribe for stamping our passports. I can still deal the prize from ten to four dollars, but I can't persuade them to hand over a   receipt...;-) (Laos is number 139 on world wide index of corruption.... LINK)

Li Phi Waterfalls: How must this view feel if you are on a
expidition to checkout how to ship the Mekong river upstream
towards China ...?

Li Phi Waterfalls: To us it's simply impressive!

Antonia takes off with my sticks.

Very funny! :(

Don Det & Don Khon: Remnants of the railway
to bypass the waterfalls.

Khone Phapheng Waterfalls: Stunning!

Swing out of Laos. Last moments in
wunderful country. You'll see us again.

Our next adventure is called Cambodia, more precise the mystic temples of ancient Angkor Wat. Here we go!

**** Off-Topic Pictures ****

Johann's first drawing
of a combustable engine.

Fake Nutella. Would you have noticed it?

Vietnam Coffee bought in Xam Neua:
they add up to 10% butter and sugar.
Don't expect coffee  but I still like the taste.

after