Turning 25 in Luang Prabang and The Slow Route To Thailand

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Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and possibly the most beautiful and most photogenic city in the world, with it’s sparkling gold and emerald wats at every corner, orange clad monks walking the streets and the most awesome night market I’ve ever been too. I loved it here and cannot wait to come back and explore more of it.

We had left Vang Vieng in the morning and took a minivan to Luang Prabang. Along the way we stopped off at a restaurant with amazing valley and mountain views, where we took multiple jumping photos! It was so much fun, and such a leg workout considering how many times we had to make the jump to get a good photo! We drove passed so many villages settled alongside the road, and one particular image stayed with me for days after. We passed a village far from any town, where I saw a girl no older than 6 sitting near a group of other kids watching them play. She was wearing the same dirty ragged hand-me-down clothes that the other kids were wearing and was playing with an old rag doll. And she was white. As in snow white skin, long blonde hair with a fringe covering her eyes. It was such an unexpected sight to see, and I couldn’t stop thinking about who she was, where she had come from, and why she was there. I was fascinated, but we continued driving to Luang Prabang so I guess I’ll never know.

I celebrated my 25th birthday while in Luang Prabang, and it began with a 4.45am alarm so we could give alms to the monks. Every day around 5.30am, monks wander the street and collect food offerings, and we were lucky enough to be part of it on my birthday. I unexpectadly received some birthday gifts, a dark blue bag that I desperately needed after my other bag suffered from the mud of Vang Vieng from Jade, and a beautiful bright blue and green scarf from Azusa and Mae. I was so taken aback, I wasn’t expecting any gifts!

We took a walking tour around the city and ventured into the morning markets, with a huge array of food from sting ray, gopher and cow hooves! So random!

That night, Tong put on a massive BBQ for my birthday with enough food to feed the entire population of Laos three times over! We had everything from Buffalo meet skewers, chicken balls, chicken wings, a massive elaborately created salad, pork, beef, tofu, fried mushrooms, fried beans and a huge birthday cake! It was fantastic! We went bowling later that night, where I managed to lose both rounds, and Tong dropped the ball backwards as he went to bowl, which sent the entire bowling alley into fits of laughter!

The night markets were spectacular, the entire road is blocked off for stalls to be set up, selling the most beautiful scarves you’ve ever seen, lots of fisherman pants and cotton skirts, brightly coloured parasols, rice paper hand painted with Laotian themes, and exquisite silver and stone jewellery. I really had to use all my power of self control (and I don’t have much) to not spend all of my savings here, because I wanted to!

The following day we began our journey into Northern Thailand. To get there would take 2 days, about 18 hours on a boat with a stop at a small town with electricity that lasts only until 10pm, 10 BeerLao’s, 5 tubs of Pringles, 2 novels read and countless card games! The scenery was basically same same but same the entire way, brown water and dense green bush along the river, every now and then we’d see a cow, maybe even a goat or another boat, but mostly it was just us on the Mekong. Azusa treated us to an impromptu concert on the boat’s old dodgy keyboard, where she played all the Disney classics and Queen songs! Brilliant!

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Comments

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Slow boat
Nice photo! I have read stories from those who travelled *DOWN* the river in over-crowded slow-boat. If I have understood you correctly, you traveled *UP* the Mekong river. Was your boat crowded?

[rachelisawesome]

Thanks! Yes I suppose we did travel 'up' the Mekong! We were lucky though, it wasn't overcrowded at all and we were fortunate enough to have padded chairs! Guess going up the river is the way to go!