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Published: February 24th 2008
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As Russ said before as we landed Ellie said it looked like we were back in New Zealand. Laos is like all the best bits of New Zealand and Bali all in one. The people are the most welcoming we have experienced, they bend over backwards to make you happy. and the land it's self is beautiful. As we flew into Luang Prabang we spotted little settlements on the top of the mountains. Little clearings of mud huts, with long winding tracks going on forever. A lot of people have said there is a lot of logging going on, but we saw no more than we had seen in New Zealand. So hopefully it is slowing to a rate that is not as damaging.
The first thing that really hit us about Laos is the fact that it is so clean. After coming from Cambodia and Thailand we felt we could breath again. There was no sewage on the streets, no dead animals decaying in the bushes and no piles of plastic bags. Even in Vientienne it was clean, which is the capital city. This is meant to be one of the poorest counties in the world but they seem to
take great pride in themselves and their surroundings. They have a dustcart that goes round Luang Prabang every day, and wicca bins on all the streets. After being in Thailand which really is dirty it makes you wander how much self respect people have.. and I think it is reflected in the people and how they treat those around them..... in Russ's word you may live in squaler but you can still be clean...
Russ has already said what we got up to or didn't in his case.....
I think he came down with the lurgy I had in Siem reap..... which is not much fun for anyone when your living in a small hotel room, least of all the one making friends with the toilet..... Due to that he missed our trip to the Buddha Cave. We booked it with one of the local tour opperators and decided it was worth booking our own boat so we weren't tied to the rest of a group. We had been told when you do it with a group you end up with very little time at the caves, and it is about 2 hours down river so for a few extra
dollars it seemed worth it. It also meant we didn't have to get up at silly o'clock in the morning... we are on holiday after all.... and I dont do mornings....
We met our guide Tuy at 9.30 am and went off to our boat on the Mekon. We had a whole boat to ourselves, just me and the girls.
On the way to the caves we stopped at 2 villages, one was a silk village (sorry cant remember the name) and the other was a whiskey village. Both were real tourist traps, although they did seem to be a bit cheaper than some of the stalls on the night market. Every house was a shop selling silk and lanterns. I was struck by the fact that the villages were made up with little bamboo houses, but each of them had a huge satellite dishes on the roof, and all the shops had websites.... (Third world...????...)I had a taste of some of the local whiskey and saw how it was made.... very nice.... it has an interesting smokey flavour, but reminded me of sake (Japenese rice wine), which I guess it is at the end of the day.
I will
Whiskey distiller
very nice too....... add as a word of warning, at this point our guide said we had to pay to go into the caves.... we weren't told of this when we booked the trip and Russ had only given me so much money so I was short on cash.... The guide said we could borrow the fee from him and pay him back when we got back to Laung Prabang, which I agreed to as we were already so far to the caves... I dont know if this is a scam.... but if you book a simalar trip it would be worth checking what the fee covers....
The Buddha caves are a long way down the Mekon, but the scenery is amazing, there are white sandy beaches and lush jungles, water buffalos, and fishing villages. I'ts wonderful to see so much untamed land. The caves are on the side of a cliff that you get to by climbing up a winding stone staircase. They have been used for at least 1000 years, but there are no real records, to say who was there first. There are over 5000 Buddhas there, that are placed there year after year by locals. Our Guide showed us
Doorway to the rest caves
just incase anything tries to get out
how to make an offering and pray to buddha, which the girls enjoyed as it was the first time we had done it properly. We were then led up to the upper cave. Or the "Rest Cave", which is a long way up more steps. Ellie tried counting but got lost at about 100.... The Rest cave is where they take all the old and damaged Buddhas, it is a lot bigger than the lower cave and you need a torch to go in. It has some of the most amazing rock formations, and also carvings into the walls. On the way back down the steps our guide brought us some sweet crispy pancake like things which we all enjoyed, cant remember what they were called but they were very nice.
As we had stopped at both the villages on the way to the caves we went straight back to Luang Prabang, which is a long way in one go, but we seemed to get back alot quicker than we should of....
It was a good day and when we got back Russ was feeling better.
While we were in Laung Prabang Ellie and I also did a Laos cooking
course... (http://www.tumtumcheng.com/ ) It wasn't the cheepest, and you also didn't get to do loads of the cooking or even preparing. but it was a great morning and Ellie loved it. I dont think she would have been able to do a whole day, which another place offers (which we found out about after ...of course...). We went to the local market to look at food, and were told where they harvest certain things. It was very interesting as a lot of things are brought from the jungles where the tribes people will harvest it to sell to the townsfolk.... Ellie was interested in a bunch of dried mice which apparently make a very nice stew (Cut-me-own-throat dibbler came to mind). We then went back to Tum Tum Cheng to be shown how to prepare and cut the food. As there was so many people in our class we didn't all get to cook. We all stuffed bamboo shoots and lemon grass, and we all made fresh spring rolls, but only a few of us cooked. It was still a good class though and we enjoyed it. What I liked was meeting such an interesting mix of people, and we
Buddhas in the cave
sorry not a great photo but my camera realy dosn't like the dark... all got on really well, and Ellie got a lot off attention, and enjoyed showing every one how to do the bamboo shoots.....
Laos is my favourite place we have visited, for so many reasons. The people, the food, the land, the peace and tranquillity. I just hope it stays that way and isn't destroyed by the tourist invasion that is going on at the moment. We spoke to a lot of people that said they had never had so many tourists there at this time of year. Which is fantastic for such a poor country, but it would be a shame to see it go the same way as Thailand. it was nice not to have a macdonalds on every corner, or a dunkin donuts.... and I won't mention starbucks...
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