Luang Prabang
Trip Start
May 15, 2007
1
10
19
Trip End
Jun 15, 2007
Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
And another busride... Today we are moving on to a town called Luang Prabang. It's about 220 km and it takes us 6 hours. It's - again - a very pretty ride though, mostly winding mountain roads and tiny villages. I seem to have been bitten by a few mosquitoes yesterday and the itch is driving me mad, so I buy some tigerbalm when we stop over in a tiny village for lunch. It's pretty strong stuff that burns my skin a bit. I don't particularly care though, as long as it stops itching I'm fine. :D
We paid a dollar extra to be in a minivan instead of a big tourist bus - supposedly faster too, but I don't really believe that. We're still pretty cramped though as they try to fit in as many passengers as possible. :D Selmer found a bag of "German Sausäge" flavoured potato chips in a shop - naturally he was very pleased (and I was terribly amused by the completely random umlaut :D).
We arrive in Luang Prabang around 3 pm and settle into a guesthouse. After that we go for a bite to eat and I have a very interesting though nice stuffed cucumber soup (with minced meat, glass noodles and some unidentified vegetables)
Selmer and his sausage chips
. After that I have a bit of siesta and my head starts feeling pretty feverish, which worries me. I'd rather not get malaria or dengue fever, thankyouverymuch. I look up the symptoms, but they turn out to be the same (fever and headache) as the side effects of the anti-malaria pills we've been taking - so how am I supposed to know whether I'm sick or it's just the pills that are supposed to prevent me from getting sick?! In the end I decide I'd know if it really was malaria, and the feverish feeling does go away after a while. We go for dinner at a place across the street. I have another watermelon shake (they're definitely my favourite!) and a wonderful yellow curry. After dinner Selmer goes for a walk around town but I retreat to the guesthouse due to new-shoe-blisters on my feet.
Day 19: Luang Prabang - Laos
Luang Prabang is listed as a World Heritage Site (which is why I really wanted to go there), so we after a bit of a lie in we head into the old town to look around. They have a lot of pretty wooden colonial houses and the town has a very relaxed atmosphere that I really like.
After breakfast we climb the hill in the middle of town. It has a big temple on top and the view is supposed to be nice, but it's pretty hard work in this temperature. Eventually we make it to the top though and it's worth the effort as you can see the entire town from the top, which is pretty cool.
After coming down from the hill we sit at the riverside for a while to have a few drinks and some fresh fruit
On the road to Luang Prabang
. We go to the museum to check out an exhibition they have with a movie and some handicrafts that I think are pretty cool. We also wander around the many Wats in town. At night we have dinner on the riverside. Unfortunately it hasn't rained today - it has rained every day we've been in Laos around 5-6 pm, which I don't mind at all as it's refreshing :D - so we're in for a muggy night. Before we return to our guesthouse we go shopping at the night market. We get a whole bunch of pretty scarves and knick knacks for the folks at home at an old lady's stall, who keeps trying to sell us more. She's good at it too, as we also buy a table cloth that we hadn't intended to buy. :D We also get some paper lanterns for our hallway. I would've liked to buy lots and lots more as they have so many pretty things, but I must admit I can't really be arsed to drag it all home. :D
