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Published: September 16th 2007
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Boat along the Mekong to Luang Prabang
River taxi rank - Laos style. Cath scrambling down the beach to her awaiting water carriage. Although the elephant festival was fun, time was pressing, so we left first thing on the second day and repeated our journey back to the river. We bid farewell to Patrice and the remaining 4 of us set off for the next stage of the journey - Luang Prabang, regarded by many travellers as a haven in Laos. Thankfully, as it was first thing in the morning, we didn't have a repeat of the dust storm and arrived at the river relatively dust free (although we were far from clean).
We were looking forward to the river journey to Luang Prabang as the guidebook had described it as a journey not to be missed and because so many people travel through Laos that way. We were disabused of this notion about 30 minutes into the most uncomfortable 6 hour journey any of us had ever made. A seat can apparently be made out of two planks of wood, one for the 'seat' and one across the back, accurately positioned to provide maximum discomfort at slightly less than a 90 degree angle, and no-one really needs any leg room (i.e. enough to actually sit on the seat). 'Numb bum' set in
almost immediately...
The journey was not made any more pleasant by the bleating American from Alabama who was so freshly out of University that he was still wet behind the ears and thought that the entire boat really did want to listen to his opinions on everything, including his racist and sexist jokes. That's right, everyone on the boat is indeed as ignorant as you are... Yes, we are grumpy old travellers...
The 4 of us were reduced to near delirium with the boredom and discomfort, even the usual chats with other travellers couldn't sustain us for long. We were reduced to playing eye spy (I spy with my little eye something beginning with R... River... YES!) and singing the bored song (bored, bored, bored... you get the idea) to pass the time.
Luang Prabang made up for the journey and we were taken with it immediately, despite some issues in finding accommodation. The town is just the perfect place to relax and enjoy life for a while, so we thought it would be rude to not participate as fully as possible in this. The town is World Heritage listed, and it has a lovely charm about
Giving of Alms (Luang Prabang)
Monks collecting morning alms. Bananas were not as popular as sweet rice cakes. it and still isn't that big despite the huge (and increasing) influx of travellers each year. Parts are very geared towards travellers, so we were a bit spoilt with great food, lovely weather, cheap laundry, a brilliant night market, wonderful scenery, friendly people... does it show that we liked it there??
We spent 4 nights there in total and could easily have spent more. Fairly early on we decided that a massage was necessary as we obviously needed to relax even further due to the tough and punishing schedule of travel and no work that we were undergoing. Found a brilliant place that had space for the 4 of us at the same time (and no 'happy ending' option). Girls in one room, boys in the other. Still never happy when they try to crack my fingers and toes by pulling on them (why is it needed I ask you??) so trying to communicate that in my non existent Lao was fun. An amazing massage though.
We floated out of the massage and went aimlessly wandering the streets for a while, full of goodwill towards pretty much everything and everyone. Fairly soon after it seemed like a good
idea (given our wonderful first experiences on the trek and in Hong Sa) to buy a bottle of homebrew lao lao whiskey (complete with homemade label stuck on the bottle at a wonky angle) from a small shop, and take it back to Cat and David's guesthouse to consume neat. In shots. We played cards, and it'll give you yet another insight into the true delight of this drink that the two players in each hand who finished last (i.e. third and fourth) had to drink a shot, while the lucky winners looked on, and laughed as the alcohol fumed off the losers tongues as they breathed out.
Rob and I decided to get up very early the next morning to give alms to the monks. This act has become a major tourist attraction in Luang Prabang. People may view this as a good or bad thing (each to their own) depending on whether they believe such giving should only be an act of the faithful. The monks do well out of it, but have to put up with bleary eyed tourists taking silly amounts of photos of them every morning. A lot of the tourists are simply bused
Laos Laos Whisky with a bite
No animal products have been used in the production of this alcohol. (picture courtesy of Cat) in for the event without giving any thought as to why they're participating. The locals, who give as a matter of course, have to fight for some pavement space to offer their alms. We avoided the pre set up 'seat and donations' that many people seemed to want us to buy (well done Rob for purchasing large amounts of food the night before), chose a bit of pavement, and handed it all out. The sweet flavoured rice cakes went down a treat... The experience was an eye opener.
The night market in Luang Prabang is great. More consternation from Rob as I discussed purchasing half of it. Restrained myself to a few more scarves, bags, hand drawings, a gift or several, and a table runner. Rob got drawn in enough to get a t-shirt (must try harder). Watched the sun set from the top of Phu Si hill in the middle of town. It was a wonderful view, but unfortunately shared with about 400 other tourists all keen to get a perfect sunset shot, so the occasion was a little lacking in serenity.
We took a day trip to the caves at Pak Ou about 1 hour north
Caves at Pak Ou
Only accessible by boat, thousands of images of Buddha fill these holy caves. of Luang Prabang by river. Stopped at a village on the way (one more scarf purchase - a gift for someone else of course!) and Cat got roped in to having a shot of lao lao, this time a homebrew version that had a snake at the bottom of the bottle. I ran away as the woman started waving the glass in my direction. Luckily got to Pak Ou before the masses started to arrive. Very cool cave full (literally) of small buddha statues that the faithful have left there over the years. Some are so old they've started to fall to pieces, and they're covered in cobwebs. Stacked on every surface rising up into the cave, and of many different sizes.
Rob and I decided to hire bikes and cycle out to a waterfall 17km from Luang Prabang. The cycle there was great fun, the heat was bearable, as was the occasional hills, despite the bikes having only one gear. All the local children in the villages we passed thought we were very entertaining and wanted us to 'slap hands' with all of them as we cycled past. Found the closest village to the waterfall with no trouble,
Caves at Pak Ou II
People bring their images of Buddha to be left at the caves. Slowly they decay, quite aptly illustrating 'impermanence', one of the essential doctrines of Buddha’s teaching. and hired a small boat to ferry us along the river to the waterfall site. It was very peaceful and quiet once we got there and we quickly realised why. The waterfall site was lovely, but missing one vital thing - water. Yep, we undertook a 32km round trip to spend time relaxing next to a series of leaf filled holes. On reflection we hadn't needed to carry our bathers and towel all that way with us. Apparently there had been water in the falls until 2 weeks earlier which we found out from our ferryman, who gained the ability to speak better English once we were on our return journey.
We did do the obligatory sightseeing route around Luang Prabang to take in all the Wats, river views and town life, but because the town is quite small it was at a nice relaxed pace. Luang Prabang has real charm in the buildings and people, and a very traveller friendly pace of life. All in all Luang Prabang was brilliant fun and very relaxing. Next stop Vientienne!
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cat
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that lao lao on the way to pak ou
..... the woman made me drink... and there was a snake at the bottom???????? ewwwwwwwww