The Long & Winding road to Luang Prabang
Trip Start
Jun 11, 2008
1
97
349
Trip End
May 14, 2009
Luang Prabang,
Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Friday, September 5, 2008
The bus didn't set off until 10.30, so we knew that time was going to be later when we got to Luang Prabang. The journey itself is quite testing. It takes you over the mountains (by road of course, not in the air), but the roads are very, very windy. There seems to be a bend every 5 yards. This is not the best journey if you get travel sick that's for sure. It's probably not best to do if you have a hangover as well - we have managed to avoid that somehow.
The other worry on the bus journey are the landslides. Due to the rain up in the hills, landslides are very common. We could see many areas that had recently had a slide and sometimes this included half the road being missing. It's quite alarming to be looking down a cliff face where the bus wheels are ony just staying on the road!!! I think the first toilet stop was an interesting time - the polution must have wiped out half the ozone!!
But, as I am writing this, you are aware that we must have survived - the journey and the pollution - and we arrived in Luang Prabang about 6pm.
We got a Tuk Tuk with a group of others from the bus (to make it cheaper) and headed into town. We went straight to the Vilay Guesthouse where we booked and it's not bad actually, but I think we will take a look around anyway.
After we dumped our bags we had a walk through the night market whichstretches, well forever I think! It's got loads of souvenier stuff and eating places - really good. We had already decided on a curry tonight so we headed to the Nazim curry house that was in the Lonely Planet. The food was good, but we had had better. The price was pretty cheap though.
After dinner we went for a walk by the river which proved pointless because it was dark, but at least I tried to be romantic! We couldn't see the river and we couldn't really see each other - so all was well!! Lol! On the way back through the Night Market we bumped into Vinnie & Irma who we knew from Vang Vieng. We had a chat with them and they showed us their guesthouse. It was slightly cheaper than ours, but they had a tv in each room. We decided we will move here are Sunday for 2 nights.
We then came back to our current guesthouse as we were a bit exhausted. Funny how a bus journey can take it out of you.....
