Laid-back Laos
Trip Start
May 12, 2005
1
15
33
Trip End
Sep 11, 2005
Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
Wandering round the airport in Hanoi was one of those strange
"small world" travelling experiences, as I kept bumping into people I had met in Vietnam, including Roland and Karina from my Mekong delta trip and Kat, an English girl I'd introduced myself to in Hanoi after bumping into her in almost every place I'd been since Nha Trang! All three were getting the same flight as me to Laos' capital, Vientiane, and Kat was actually booked onto the same flight from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, five hours later.
One 45-minute flight later, we were in Laos. I lost Kat at the airport, where I got stuck in the slowest-moving queue for passport control, but bumped into Roland and Karina outside and shared a tuk-tuk with them into the city centre. We had brunch, and started to wander around.
It was immediately obvious that the pace of life in Laos was very different from the hustle and bustle Vietnam. My first impression was that there actually wasn't much to recommend
Vientiane: just two main streets; nondescript buildings; hardly any people to be seen; and next to no traffic. It hardly seemed as if it could be the country's capital city and I was quite glad to be leaving later that afternoon. Roland, Karina and I whiled away the afternoon sitting at a pavement cafe, playing cards.
Back at the airport, I found Kat and after another 45-minute flight, we were descending over spectacular mountain scenery down to Luang Prabang, the former capital of Laos.
Kat had been recommended a guesthouse fairly near the city centre, so we shared a tuk-tuk there. Unfortunately they only had one room left, so I headed just across the alleyway to the guesthouse opposite, but the owner, Sai, invited both of us back that evening for free food at a party they were giving.
We just had time for a quick wander up and down the main street - with a stop for a BeerLao (best beer in Asia!) - plenty enough time for us both to decide that we had fallen in love with Luang Prabang, its stunning mountain backdrop, old colonial buildings, numerous temples dotted around the streets and rows of cafes and handicraft workshops spilling onto the pavements. By the time we walked back to the guesthouse, the main street had transformed itself into a night handicrafts market, with people selling textiles in the four distinctive styles belonging to different areas of Laos and 'saa' lampshades of handmade paper made locally with mulberry leaves.
Back at the guesthouse, the party was in full swing and we were encouraged to eat as much food as we could possibly manage: gorgeous fresh spring rolls with sweet chilli dip; fried spring rolls; Luang Prabang watercress salad (with egg and a yellow - possibly turmeric? - sauce); salad; and rice; all washed down with frequently topped-up glasses of BeerLao. Talking to Sai, we discovered that the party was to celebrate finishing the building of part of the guesthouse. He also taught us a few Lao words, including hello ("sabidee"), thank you ("kawp jai") and thank you very much ("kawp jai de lai").
Next morning, I headed towards one of the two rivers converging in Luang Prabang for a cheap breakfast: coffee and baguette (one of the legacies of being a French colony is good breakfasts!) at a morning market stall. I'd been told Lao coffee was fantastic and wasn't disappointed. As in Vietnam, it is drunk with sweetened condensed milk, but was much smoother and less bitter than some of the coffee I'd had there.
I spent the rest of the day wandering up and down the banks of the Mekong and Nam Song rivers and the main street, visiting the tiny 'Grand Palace' of the former royal family, finally ousted by the communist movement in Laos in the 1930s. It was the smallest palace I'd ever been to, but very 'homely' and well worth the visit for the decor, including a rather gaudy mirrored mosaic throne room.
While wandering around, I popped into several travel agencies to investigate the possibility of travelling up to Luang Nam Tha, in the north of Laos, to trek in the Nam Ha national park and booked a two-day trip with an 'eco-tour' company recommended by Lonely Planet, starting in two days time. The travel agent told me there was already one person signed up for the trip and bumping into Kat in the main street, just ten minutes later, I found out that it was her. She persuaded me to travel up on the overnight bus, to give us an extra day in Luang Prabang, rather than take the day bus I had been planning.
I ate gorgeous food (fresh spring rolls, noodles and fried bananas) sitting at stalls on the night market that night and wandered around the handicraft stalls, before the rain came, forcing all of the little stallholders into packing up their belongings and evacuating the street quicker than I would have throught possible.
I spent my 'free' day next day hiring a tuk-tuk to the Kuang Si waterfalls, about 20 bumpy kilometres of unmade road away, before meeting Kat to head to the bus station.
As I was waiting in the reception of my guesthouse for the tuk-tuk to pick me up, the little old lady who lived there (the grandmother of the owner, I think) came and sat down beside me. She didn't speak a single word of English, but grabbed my wrists and tied pieces of wool around each, knotting them and reciting a mantra in Lao, as she did. I still have no idea what she said, but it was obvious that it was some sort of prayer or blessing to protect me on my travels. Through sign language, she managed to convey that I should leave them on my wrists until they fell off, rather than cutting or untying them, so I did, until the (by then, very dirty) bracelets fell off, several days later.
Cathy
