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Published: January 28th 2007
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Little Town of Luang Prabang
Luang Prabang, another town with a funny name, lies on the banks of the Mekong river, in the northern part of Laos. We arrived there after a "short" bus ride from Vang Vieng which took 6 hours. It might sound a bit weird to call it short, a time in which one can easily make the Metula-Eilat way, but that's another interesting thing about backpacking - time loses its conventional meaning and becomes "fluid". 4 hours are considered really short, 10 hours are nothing to worry about and even 15 hours night rides are not that bad. We did lots of these during this trip and found ourselves sleeping quitely even under the most inconvinient conditions. Different propotions I guess.
The town was Laos capital long ago but it is not reflected in neither its size nor its look. It's a small place with several nice golden temples and a royal palace. However, the main thing that catches the eye is its "french" style. Laos is an ex-french colony which left quite an influence shows out in architecture and food (yes, there are baguettes!). This might be the reason why so many french tourists arrive
Sunset over the Mekong River
View of the Mekong river. It is the 13th-longest in the world streching over 4,000 km in 7 different countries there. We expected another backpackers town, but found a touristic place with older tourists. Maybe the direct flights from Bangkok did it but it seems Laos is about to be the next North Thailand. This has, of course, a direct influence on prices, but also on quality of service everywhere. It therefore seems that Laos will soon be on the map of organized trips so our parents can visit it as well, quite a change from its 3rd world image.
There isn't much to do or see in Lunag however. 3-4 days are enough to cover it all. We climbed up Mt. Phousi, which is actually a big rocky hill in middle of town, just to find there 500 tourists coming to see the sunset over the Mekong. Though beautiful, it was best put by the Israeli girl who told her friends it's an "old men view". The daily night market is another nice thing to see, with practically all town's women opening stalls in main street and selling their stuff. It made evenings there very lifefull. The waterfalls just outside town were very nice as well, yet again, quite commercialized. The Mekong itself is quite impressive, and ah
yeh, there's also great coffee in Joma (thanks Binders), a place that gives good competition to israeli Hillel, and the food is pretty good all over town.
Bottom line, Luang is only worth being visited if it's on your way up north or to Vietnam. For us it was the last travelling destination in this trip. We previously thought of going to Vietnam and Cambodia, but in Laos we found out that our travelling spirit is gone. After more than 9 months on the road we felt we're tired of the sufferings involved with backpacking such as finding your next guesthouse, long rides, communication issues with locals and so forth and so on. Four years ago, in South America, it also happened to us after 9 months. Then we cut to Brasil and spent a month on the beach. This time we knew it'll be Thailand islands which will host us for the final rest before coming back home. So we took the long ride back to Bangkok...
The Title is taken from Simon And Garfunkel song "My Little Town"
(Lyrics).
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Rotem
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Hi!! its so great to read your blog everytime, bring back memories..we hated luang prabang when we were there. so tourisic!! when you come back home you have to be in touch..same numbers, same e-mail.. Keep in touch and enjoy in the islands.. lots of kisses!!!