Bumpy Road to Heaven

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After leaving the Bokeo Nature Reserve, I caught a local bus over to Luan Nam Tha for the night before continuing my journey south to Luang Prabang. The rest of the group went back to Huay Xai to continue their journeys west to Thailand or south to Luang Prabang via the slow boat. I was loathe to retrace my steps and taking this route was going to save me a day.

Arriving at the bus station in Luan Nam Tha, I buddied up with Carlon, my new Romanian friend. We were both starved and started to wander in search of food. Apparently, no one cooks or serves food between lunch and dinner, which meant we were out of luck at 4pm in this one street town. The bright side is that we stumbled on the local massage place and made arrangements to come back in the evening for Lao-style rub downs. Despite the immense popularity of foot and body massage in Thailand, I had not indulged at all and after the strain of zipping around the forest canopy my body was asking for TLC.

Eventually, an enterprising woman setting up her food stall for the night market recognized the starved look in our eyes and hooked us up with the best soup I have had since starting the journey. Just a simple noodle soup with a flavorful fish broth, coconut milk and dried beef plus all the herbal and condiment fixings such as fish sauce, soy, roasted red chilies, cilantro, mint, lettuce and the local fish paste. A word about the fish paste: it is a pungent, fermented, dark grey/brown matter that I find absolutely repulsive in its container, but delicious when added in small quantities to soup.

The subsequent massage was pleasant enough although I can't get used to the full clothed rub downs that are common here. Oil massages aren't offered by all places and are understandably a bit more. The massage was a combination of acupressure and circular motion similar to swedish massages but with more pressure. One cold beer and a great conversation about politics later, I was tucked in bed and watching my first dose of the BBC since arriving in southeast Asia.

From Luan Nam Tha to Luang Prabang, I ended up taking a minibus rather than a local bus. It was going to cost the same and logistics were far easier to negotiate. The minibus turned out to be me and the driver for 8 hours. This meant that every opportunity he had to provide transportation to locals along the way was seized. The road to Luang Prabang goes through the city of Oudomxay as well as many many many small villages and picturesque landscapes. We stopped constantly, but I was in no hurry to get there and had already chalked up the day purely to travel. The people watching and eavesdropping was fantastic. I had no idea what anyone was saying - pure Lao - and my driver spoke extremely limited English so there was no translator, but you don't need one to share fried dough, fresh corn, and mandarins right off the tree with fellow passengers. At some point our cargo included several live chickens and I am impressed at how inventive and interesting the different chicken carriers are. I think our driver made some pretty good money on the side by driving villagers to neighboring villages or even as far as the major cities en route.

The road was smooth for the first 3-4hours and at some point it became an interesting blend of asphalt and unpaved rocks. I couldn't quite figure out what the logic was behind the way it was paved as there would be half a mile of pavement, followed by half a mile of unpaved road, and it continued to alternate for hours. Seems it would be more labor intensive to lay the asphalt this way rather than just pave half the distance and leave the rest as is.

Arrived in Luang Prabang near sunset and was pleasantly surprised. I knew it was a tourist hub and former french colonial town, but I wasn't prepared for how chic and modern it actually is. Over the course of the next few days I alternated between being completely thrilled by having reached a sophisticated, mellow niche in my travels to being annoyed and frustrated at the gentrification and sameness of it all.

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Photos

Cooling Off
Locals swim and bathe at the end of a long day

Bridge across the Nam Ha
Cool bamboo bridge across the Nam Ha river