After a wonderful two days on the Mekong river, we arrived in Luang Prabang on Monday afternoon, 18 July, in the pouring rain. Our upmarket guest house, Thongbay, is a cluster of bungalows set in a scenic spot just outside town, overlooking a tributary of the Mekong. As the rain lifted a little in the evening, we were treated to a western-style barbeque in the pleasant surroundings of the guesthouse dining chalet.
Earlier that afternoon, after dumping our stuff at the guesthouse, a few of us had made a trip into town with the view to checking out options for outdoor activities the next day. We decided on a river rafting excursion - four hours of paddling down the Nam Seung, a tributary of the Mekong, and over dinner we managed to talk another member of our group into joining us. So, on Tuesday morning, the excursions company, Tiger Trails, collected six of us at 8.30am. We drove for 45 mins or so in a songteaw with the raft strapped to the roof and arrived at our starting point - a small village on the river bank, where the locals delighted in watching us don our lifevests and helmets, and gathered to wave us off as we clambered into the raft.
After the rain the day before, the skies were clear and the sun beat down on us as we paddled and negotiated mild rapids here and there. Needless to say, we hopped out the boat for a swim and floated down the river in our lifejackets - bliss! Our two guides clowned around, doing back-flips off the raft.
There were a quite few hilarious moments - crashing right through the worst part of the second rapid; hauling people back on board after swimming, etc. In the heat of the day we went ashore at a village to eat our packed lunch, and found ourselves being watched by the entire population as we munched our way through our baguettes - we were their day's entertainment!
We returned to the guesthouse at 2.30 and spent a lazy afternoon before heading into town for dinner. Luang Prabang is a pretty place, its colonial past reflected in the elegant buildings along the main street. It is the second largest city in Laos and the former royal capital, but has only 100,000 residents (if my memory serves me correctly!). All development is low-rise, and the city is a UNESCO world heritage site.
The main street is lined with sidewalk cafes and restaurants. In the evening, the lower end of the street comes alive as local craftswomen display their wares in the night-market - brightly lit stalls are filled with beautifully embroidered quilts, jewellery, woven scarves etc. We browsed, but didn't buy!
The following day, Wednesday, a few of us rose at 5.30am to go and watch the monks collecting alms. This tradition of Buddhist monks clad in their orange robes walking down the streets to receive food donations from local women, can be seen throughout Laos, but is especially interesting in Luang Prabang, where the high number of temples mean there are many hundreds of monks in the streets every morning. They walk in long lines, alms bowls in hand, as women kneeling on mats place a small ball of rice into each monk's bowl.
Later that morning we headed up to the Kuang Si waterfalls. The songteaw ride there took us through a landscape of rolling hills, rice paddies and grazing water buffalo - needless to say we made a few photo stops. At the Kuang Si Falls, two enclosures house rescued wild animals - a number of young Asiatic black bears in one, and Phet, a five year old female tiger, in the other.
Brian, our tour leader, had bought some bananas for the bears; we threw the fruit over the fence of the enclosure and watched as they were devoured. The Asiatic bears are beautiful animals, quite small, and it's heartbreaking to see them in captivity. However, they had been saved from poachers - a life being gawped at by tourists is better than one being milked for your bile.
We also had meat for Phet the tiger with us - like the bears, she was rescued from the illegal wildlife trade and is being cared for by the forestry department, which welcomes donations of meat. When we arrived, we were informed that she was not hungry at the time, so we continued up to the waterfall, a spectacular, multi-tiered cascade of sky-blue spring water. Rich and I walked to the top of the waterfall while others took a swim in the pool at its base. The two of us cooled down in the pool higher up.
By lunchtime we returned to Phet's enclosure. Her keeper sliced the meat we had brought and let us feed her through the bars. Again, so sad to see such a lovely creature alone and on display. We all felt she could at least be included in some captive breeding programme rather than living out her life on her own, a genetic dead end.
In the afternoon we roamed the town and visited Wat Xieng Thong, Luang Prabang's most spectacular temple, built in 1560. Towards the end of the day, three of us climbed Mount Phousy, the hill at the centre of town. The views from the top are amazing, and we stayed up there to watch the sunset. After a lovely meal we had a nightcap in the 'farang' bar, and walked back to Thongbay Guesthouse.
On Thursday, before saying farewell to Luang Prabang, we visited the Royal Palace Museum, the home of the Lao royal family from the early 1900s until end of their rule in the 1970s. It houses many interesting artefacts and personal possessions. After our visit to the museum, we set off on our bus journey to Phonsavan (Plain of Jars), about 7 hours' drive away.
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