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Published: September 12th 2010
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Lao Wooden House
Our home away from home :-) Luang Prabang
We opted to fly from Hanoi to
Luang Prabang in Laos, mostly as we had heard nightmare stories about the overland trip there and 24 hours on a bus didn't particularly appeal. The flight on Vietnam airlines was straight forward, no tropical storms to fly through this time thankfully. We got some guesthouse recommendations at the airport then paid the fixed 50,000kip for a taxi into town.
Our guesthouse for the next few nights was the
Lao Wooden House. It is set in a traditional Lao style house built in the last century for a member of the royal family. The guesthouse owner was extremely friendly and after some swift negotations from Cath we were staying there for 1/3 less than the asking price.
Although breathtakingly beautiful, it was incredibly hot and humid in Luang Prabang, which is yet another UNESCO Heritage Site. It's no wonder the town shuts down from about 11am to about 4pm! Everyone goes to sleep and no one seems to do anywork around the place when it's hot. The Lao people are well-known for their laid back outlook on life, with many people only doing as much work to see them
Beer Lao
It's important to stay hydrated in the heat through and no more. When we walked around to a tour agent to see what day trips we could do in the town, he said it was too hot and he ws going for a sleep and could we come back at 5pm. It was currently 1pm!!
Hundreds of monks live in the city and the varied buddhist temples which are everywhere around the city. We found the Lao people to be very accomodating and friendly. Unfortunately we were surprised at how expensive everything was - it was about the most expensive country yet and we thought it would have been the cheapest. It seemed like everyone in town had one big meeting and set tourist prices high and then agreed to fix the price. At every place we went the cost of a 1.5litre water was 5,000 kip, about 80 cents US. We had been buying 5 litre bottles of water for about $1 US everywhere else. It was the same with the cost of the tours.
We didn't feel like sleeping so we decided to look for other ways to cool down...ice cold
BEER LAO It was a first love for us and came in nice
Luang Prabang temples
Had a big scary dragon BIG 640ml bottles, unlike the small cans you get in most of Vietnam. YAY. Our love of Beer Lao continued for many long happy days to come.
Kouangxi Water Fall Our second day in Luang Prabang we went on a day trip to the
Kouangxi Water Fall, a 32km trip by minvan. The waterfall is at the end of a short forest walk and is known for being a lovely swimming spot. Unfortunately for us, rainy season had struck again and we found the river had risen so much it had swallowed up the picnic site and swimming was no longer a safe option. Instead we decided to strip down to our togs (swimsuits to the Brits) and cool down using the spray of the waterfall. On the walk back we visited a small wildlife rescue centre for
Asiatic black bears which have been rescued from poachers and traffickers. Numbers of the bears have become dangerously low in the wild because of this.
That afternoon we went for a walk down the main street of the city and visited a couple of the temples. We then decided to climb the citidel in the centre of town for
a view of Luang Prabang at sunset. The climb up some 350 steps was worth it, except for the big cloud in the sky blocking half the sun! We walked down the other side past a temple and some buddha statues to a bar called Utopia. The bar bascially operates on recommendations since it's set off the road down a narrow windy alleyway. It has a bamboo structure set over a small cliff overlooking the river, decorated with mattresses and tables for you to relax and enjoy the scenery. We loved the serenity of this place so much we went back the following evening.
Pak Ou Buddha Caves The next afternoon we had organised a trip to the Pak Ou Buddha Caves. To get there you cruise in small long boat for 2 hours upstream on the Ou river. On the way we stopped off for a toilet break in a small village. The village had the obligatory markets but this included a stall with whiskey bottles which contained snakes and scorpions in them! For some reason we politely declined a free sample.
The Pak Ou Buddha Caves is comprised of two caves, the Tham Ting (lower
In a rush
To get down that bank cave) and the Tham Theung (upper cave). Both caves are famous for the impressive number of Buddha statues which have been collected and placed inside them mostly by local people. Tham Ting contains about 2,500 Buddhas, while Tham Theung has about 1,500 Buddhas. After the caves we sailed back to Luang Prabang and sought out some dinner and more beer Lao. We also organised our bus to Vang Vieng the next day.
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mum couch
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Love the waterfalls
Just loved the waterfall and the cute bears. You have seen some beautiful sights with sunsets and rises. love mum ( Dad)