Day 41 - Chatted to the guesthouse owner for a bit this morning who turned out to be really nice despite her first impressions, and her husband gave me two bananas from his garden for breakfast (which incidentally were the best bananas I have ever eaten!) I wanted to get a boat to Luang Prabang as I heard it was a beautiful journey and I was fed up with bus rides, but like most things in Laos, you need to get a larged group together for it to be affordable - we managed 7 falangs and it worked out at 9 pounds for the day long journey. It was well worth the money - the boat was a motorised wooden canoe with a roof and 8 chairs in it. Aside from the scenery being beautiful, there was so much going on in the river - we didn't go 5 minutes without passing someone of something such as buffallo, children playing and waving, villagers fishing and panning for gold.
After joining the Mekong from the Nam Ou (you could tell as all of a sudden the river got a whole lot wider and browner), we arrived at Luang Prabang around 5:30 and I walked down the main street as they were setting up the night market. I found Rattana Guesthouse which is really nice, nay luxury for a backpacker. The night market is an impressive sight - hundreds of stalls on the floor filling the street and lit with individual lightbulbs hanging from a tree branch.
Day 42 - Having accepted I wasn't going to make it to Phonsavan today (as I wanted to go and come back to Luang Prabang for the Pii Mai [New Year]) I got a big breakfast and set about the task of finding a guesthouse that had a room available for the Pii Mai - got one on the eigth attempt from a man who (I kid you not) has 4 inch long hair growing from a mole on his cheek - charging me 3 times what the crappy room is worth! But I am desparate! After carrying out some more not-so-fun-but-has-to-be-done chores I took the rest of the day quite easy (plus I was dying in the heat) and had a Luang Prabang salad which is made with a watercress that is only found here) and was served by a very sweet, chatty waiter who told me he likes English girls - ahem!
Already children stand in the streets in the afternoon and chuck water at passers by - I am looking forward to coming back here for the Pii Mai! All of a sudden the heat changes to an enormous storm which lasts a couple of hours. I got hungry and had to venture out for an early dinner of sticky rice and a Luang Prabang tomato, soya paste and went to see a performance at the Royal Ballet Group - similar to the Chinese Opera, it was more of a cultural dance than what I would consider ballet. It was good though and the dancers seemed to be really keen and proud of what they do. The masks and costumes were really beautiful but the set just a simple red curtain - you can tell that the organisation suffers from lack of funds and I am glad I spent my money supporting them. I walked back to the hostel through the night market, which was slightly depleted by the rain - Luang Prabang reminds me a little of Hereford, in that having been here 24 hours I have already bumped into 5 people I met previously on the trip!
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