Luang Prabang
Trip Start
Nov 21, 2007
1
70
158
Trip End
Oct 01, 2008
Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Luang Prabang is our final stop on the Mekong river and what a treat! LP is a unique town because of the mix of religious and culture richness. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage sights back in 1995. This town is just great. The people are so very friendly and say Sabaai dii (hello) all the time with a huge smile
We saw an Elephant on the Mekong
! We both really like Laos and much of it is because of the relaxed atmosphere and friendly people. We took a day to trek to the Kuang Sii waterfalls. It is an impressive 3 tier waterfall. We hiked about 2.5 hours through lush landscape, farms and a village. Again, the people in the farms and along the path would smile and say Sabaai dii to us which is so cool! We swam in the waterfalls, got to jump off one and even participated in rope swing foolishness a few times! We did it at the same time too! On our way out of the park, we saw a bear conservatory where rescued bears are kept. Bear poaching is very common in Asia and organizations like this try to save as many as they can.
One evening, the guest house invited us to participate in a Buddhist blessing ceremony for their some new bungalows they had just built. We think it was called a Basci ceremony but not 100% sure...anyway, it was really sweet and kind of them to include us. We all had to wear our nicest clothes and they gave us a small scarf to wear on our shoulder too. Then, we all gathered around a basket full of goodies they were offering to Buddha for luck. They did a few chant type prayers which we knew nothing they were saying but it was interesting to hear them perform.
locals watching us or the elephant
Then, about 20 or so of the group came around and tied white strings on our wrists. They would tell us Happy New Year, safe travels, bless you...and many other good wishes. We would tell them "Kowp jai" or thank you every time as that was the extent of our Laos linguistic skills. Again, their welcoming smiles and sincere gestures made the whole experience just precious. We are to wear our white bracelets for 3 days and then untie them off instead of cutting them off for good luck. While we are not superstitious people, we feel the need to experience their culture 110%. On our second day, we all went for a ride on an elephant through the jungle. They are such amazing creatures. They eat like 200 kgs (440 lbs) a day! That is a ton of eating. We road on benches sitting on the elephants back for about an hour. After we were done, we were able to feed them bananas. They would swing their big trunks around and literally pick up the banana from your hands! Such an amazing feature of such a large animal.
On our last night, we participated in a traditional Laos celebration dinner at Tamarind: A taste of Laos. The first course was sticky rice and dipping sauces. You were to roll the sticky rice in your hands into a little ball and dip the ball into the sauces
we got to get out to see it closer
. The sauces were much like our salsas at home, but not quite hot enough for Layton. We also had river seaweed crisps which you dip in a chili and buffalo skin (yep) salsa. Our main course was so fresh. You wrapped diced cucumber, tomato, onion, mint, cilantro, peanuts, noodles, fresh tilapia and pork ALL in a leaf of lettuce. A final touch was a peanut sauce...SO fresh and yummy! The fish came out wrapped in a banana leaf...amazing. We ate ourselves silly. They also had nice smoothie type drinks like watermelon chili and pineapple ginger. Finally, we had a purple sticky rice and exotic fruits. Our favorite new one was mangosteen (you should google it!) Monsoon season is just around the corner. We have had rain storms two days in a row around 6 am or so...should be interesting to see if the rain follows us!
