Luang Prabang and a change of pace
Trip Start
Jun 26, 2008
1
21
67
Trip End
Ongoing
Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Saturday, August 2, 2008
We arrive in Luang Prabang without having really heard or read much about it, only that it is a world hertiage protected city and one of the biggest in Laos. Arriving on the main strip after getting a tuk tuk to a hostel is beautiful. The entire city feel like a little like something out of the sound of music, quaint bars and guesthouses line the main street with local craft of weaved product on some of the stalls. Incredibly picturesque. We wander around taking it in before settling on one of the prettier restaurants which serves amazing food, kim designates as the best meal we have had so far and a snip at $10 inc beer. We plan relatively little for the following day apart from walking around the city and getting our orientation and seeing some of the many Wats that fill this old city. We didn't need air-conditioning either as the mountain air gets quite cool at night.
Day 2 in the city and we get up pretty late and are intent on seeing much of the city. We head out and down to the Mekong (the city is surrounded by two rivers) and to the fresh produce market, filled with goods from the fields and farms locally and then on to try to find breakfast. The Vietnamese have Pho for breakfast which is a rice noodle soup and very tasty. The lao people have something very similar and kim has developed a real taste for it. Usually we would go to a retaurant but we head to a stall where locals are eating breakfast. We are served with chinese tea and coffee which looks like bitumen until diluted with water and sweet milk, making it some of the best coffee i have ever had and actually reputed to be some of the best coffee in the world around these parts. After faltering phrases from our guide book and much amusement on their part, we manage to order noodle soup, one with beef and one without which is delicious.
The sun is hot after the rain during the night and we wander along the Mekong watching the world go by very slowly - nothing is rushed here. We stop at the a local game of petanque, a by product of the french influence here and very competitive! Exploration of some of the Wats at the end of town followed, their condition surprisingly dilapidated given the cities heritage status. On to a shopping mall of sorts with fine wines and locally produced clothes with the aim of buying an iphone - however the only ones available are imitation ones from china and not the real deal. We aimed to get to the Royal palace museum but it was closing as we arrived so we went to the highest point in the city which is a Wat overlooking much of the local Mekong valley with spectacular views and photos.
For dinner we went back to the place the night before for drinks and more food before going to see a traditional Laos ballet show put on by the Royal Ballet troup. An amusing hour after a few beers, much of the show involving a man in a green mask dancing around a fake mountain with a lizard on it.
Day 3 - again a lazy start but we pack stuff to go and see the local waterfalls. Tuk tuk drivers offer trips to the falls relatively cheaply but we had wanted a moped to discover some of the sights on the way. Unfortuantely they are not available to rent anywhere in the city so tuk tuk it was and we met a group of people from Isreal who were also heading there. Them and a pair of dutch guys made 8 and off we went. Arriving at the falls after a manic journey over the hills and we climb up to the start of the falls which are obviously full from heavy rain making them very pretty. Slipping and sliding our way to the main viewpoint and the full force of the falls can be appreciated - spectacular photos to follow. We managed to climb to the head of the falls but with so much rain it made getting a decent vantage point difficult and dangerous, and my slight phobia of jungle trekking bare foot wearing just shorts with all manner of poisionous creatures lurking in the trees and the water underfoot eventually took over. Finally swimming in one of the lower pool with very strong currents before heading back to the tuk tuk. On the way back we stopped at a village where the children played and ate Kims biscuits. Children as young as 3 looking after the babies of the family with them strapped to their backs.
When we got back we arranged with the people that we had been on the tour with to meet for dinner. It turned out to be 10 of us in total, two english, two dutch and the rest Isreali. We went to the Lao Lao Garden which does traditional Lao BBQ?! You get individual BBQ over red hot coals on the table and cook your own meat from the platter provided along with traditional soup wich surround the BBQ hotplate - awesome!!! Esp with 5L pitchers of beer for 24000kip ($4). After quite a rowdy meal (Irealis are noisy! :-)) we decided the night was still young so headed to the only place in town that was open - bowling. Yep, smack bang in the middle of this world hertiage site town is a modern bowling alley filled with drunk westerners. We could literally be back in stevenage. We realsied that we only had enough cash left for one game each and no beer so we played (i won) and then worked out that we would have to walk home. Bearing in mind that there is an 11:30pm curfew in Laos which is police enforced. Strolling through the deserted streets at 1am not really knowing which way we were going was certainly an experience. We fortunatley managed to pickup the lights of the central Wat on top of the hill in the middle of town and made our way to it like a green beacon. Safely back at the hotel we slept soundly.
The following day we got up very late with a vauge idea that we should head to Thailand if we wanted to go to Koh Phengan for full moon. We had around 1000 miles to do in the next week or so over pretty rough terrain by local bus. We pottered around getting ready and breakfast and got ourselves booked on the bus to the Thai border - 16h over mountainous terrain with no aircon. We managed to get ourselves to the Royal Palace Museum so that at least we had seen something that day. And then to the bus station. We arrived at 4pm and the bus eventually left the station at 6pm after managing to argue our way to better seats than our tickets gave us. Into the mountains with beautiful scenery which - mile after mile- becomes quite samey. As night falls Kim took her sleeping tablets (9pm) and i decided to take mine when i naturally felt sleepy (11pm). At 1am with an overwhelming urge to go to the loo i woke up and realised we had stopped. I went outside and the driver and about 10 other people had laid a blanket on the road and were asleep?! There gets to be a general principle with travel in these countries, which we are learning and im sure those of you who have travelled a lot understand it too. You never really know whats going on - and therefore you accept whatever is happening in the vague understanding that you will get to where you are going at some point. So through my sleeping pill haze i got back on and went back to sleep. 6am i woke to sunrise and we were still on the same road, except now there were only about 5 people on the bus! Not knowing where everyone had gone and why we hadn't moved for 5 hours i dozed. Soon the driver reappeared and we started very gently down the road. It turns out that a landslide had covered the road a few nights before leaving a thick layer of mud. And at about midnight a huge lorry had turned the corner on the mud and toppled over almost completely in the road, blocking it. By the time morning came and we started on our way, various people had managed to get 5 small tree trunks underneath the lorry to prop it up out of the way so the bus could get through. Figuring we were now 5 hours behing in a 16h bus trip, our 9am arrival and subsequent investigation of the local national park was now shot and we arrived at 2pm instead. With the Thai border shutting at 6pm we decided to get as much travelling done on the day as poss so we headed for Thailand over the Mekong. Another local bus later (3h) (after some fresh pancakes) and we made it to Chaing Rai at around 7pm a full 27 hours after we had arrived at the bus station the previous day. At this point the heavens opened just as we got to our guesthouse. And it rained and i mean properly. The thunder was deafening and the lightening strikes were hitting ground almost within view from where we were standing - no more than 50-100 yards away. We had met a guy on the bus from London who was thinking of going mountain biking the following day so we headed out with him to try to book them. Unfortunetly we couldn't dfind anywhere that did bikes and Kim was feeling grotty so we decided on beer, wine, pizza and chocolate back at the room which made her much happier. Finally falling asleep after the worst overland journey i have ever done.
