Luang Prabang
Trip Start
May 08, 2008
1
16
25
Trip End
Ongoing
Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Monday, June 30, 2008
After our airport ordeal we arrived in Luang Prabang to discover a one of the more pleasant immigration/visa experiences and peaceful, relaxed town. It doesn't seem to be spoiled by tourism too much, even though there are loads of tourists milling about. The food is very good here and for the first time in months its possible to buy a baguetet for lunch, filled with all kinds of goodness. Also there are lots of stands grilling fish (whole), chicken, sausages and lots more. Happy days.
On our first day we did the touristy thing and visited the palace and all the major wats. We never did quite get to climbing Phusy Hill, a major part of the town visit apparently, but such is life. In our defense it looked like quite a steep climb. The palace and the wats were very impressive, and its fascinating to see the monks out in force, all in their orange robes.
We also did a fair bit of research into our intended trekking in Luang Nam Tha, and opted to go with Green Discovery, crossing our fingers that more people would sign up so the price would come down a lot. They're a really good company which puts over 30% of the fee back into the communities that we visit. Its seems like a lot of trekking in this country is done in a very ecologically sound way which is refreshing as manny countries which are as poor as this are effectively raping their countryside in order to lure in the tourists. Of course that just makes the whole thing feel wrong and puts lots of tourists off but by then its too late. Laos seems to have learned that lesson in time.
Our second day was a little lazy except for our trip to Kuang Xi Waterfalls, a local landmark and very beautiful. Once we reached there we had lunch (baguettes from town!) and a decision was taken to climb to the top of the waterfalls. Sounds simple right? Not in the rain it isn't! And the descent was even worse as the compacted mud path turned slick as can be. There were a few falls on the way down but nothing too bad, thankfully, although Maria was very lucky not to damage her ankle badly when it caught in some tree roots. After a dip in the water we headed back for some more good food.
Luang Nam Tha is described elsewhere, but we returned to Luang Prabang via another horrible journey. After the journey I decided that I couldn't face something similar the next day so we we changed our minds about travelling the next day and instead took another day of doing nothing, coffee, reading, massage, nice. On our final morning, Tot, the lady in our guesthouse, took us to see the monks collecting alms at 5.30 in the morning. That was excellent, with the locals turning out with baskets of sticky rice and other food to give the monks. Its their only food for the day so its very important to them. We were allowed to partake although we were careful to make sure it was okay first. Lesson learned though, hot rice burns the fingers! Yeah a good start to the day. From there we went for our bus to Phonsavan, not having booked in advance, as the agents in town charge crazy commissions. Initially we regreted that decision as we were numbers 64 & 65 on a 45 seater bus. Our regrets eased as several people who had booked seats also found themselves in our predicament. Lots of anger and rage ensued but the poor lads at the bus station knew nothing. We all ended up on small plastic seats for the 9 hour journey which was very different and actually much easier than I expected, although the Laos people did some serious puking.
Somehow the laws of physics didn't seem to apply on the bus and no matter that a few people got off the bus as we slowly progressed the 250 odd km from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan over the course of 9 hours, there didn't seem to be any additional space for us poor suckers stuck at the front. Strange indeed.
