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Mmmm
Cocktails at our favourite barFlying over Laos, coming in to land at Luang PraBang airport, you’d swear you had actually been in a time machine rather than a normal aeroplane. It looks like a gentle version of the scenery as they flew over Jurassic Park (though without the dinosaurs) - millions of trees, extremely lush and verdant bushes and plants I have never seen before. The runway suddenly appeared amongst all this, which was a joy for me, being such a great flyer who never wonders about how planes actually stay in the air. We trundled out of the cute little Bangkok airways plane that has pictures of fish and reefs on it, surrounded by what I have named butterfly bushes, as I have no need to know its real name, the butterflies swarming around us as we walked into Immigration. Four very cool passport stamps later, and we were through. A little tuktuk trip into town took us to the guest house we booked at the airport for a whole $18 a night. The travel agent in Bangkok advised us to book before, with him obviously, as accommodation may be hard to get. We counted six foreigners the whole time we were there, and
The first big Asian person I've ever seen
Not sure why she was involved! Maybe as proof?? about forty-seven different places to stay. The cheapest he had was $65 a night! Hmm, sometimes, especially during the off-peak season, it pays to be completely unprepared. Neither me nor Fiona actually knew anything about Laos, we bought a book at the airport, reading frantically during the short journey to see what to do and see. A friend in Bangkok had advised not to go to the capital, as it is just like Thailand, she said to go north to see the real Laos. It took us about thirty seconds to fall in love with the place, and our affection only grew during our ridiculously short stay. It is how you imagine Asia to be, though we were not expecting it to be like it at all, if that makes sense. It also has French links from a colonisation, and they make wonderful bread and cake, which we had to try. We were staying on the outskirts of town, almost the suburbs, and so it took us ages to get to the main street, at least a three minute walk. And though it was officially rainy season, it was bright blue skies and scorching sun the whole three days. Must
be all them butterflies, those wings flapping must have diverted rainy season to all land on Hong Kong this week.
As we munched on our bread and condensed milk, we watched the stalls being set up for the night market, which is fairly big compared to the size of the town. It must be annoying to set up your stall and make it look pretty for the benefit of six Westerners, only to pack up a few hours later not having sold anything. The town is dominated by a big hill in the middle with a temple on top, which we climbed. Steps and Asia, I don’t know what it is about it, but my thighs have really had enough now. We sat up there for hours, just watching. It was so peaceful, a wonderful mind-chill after the noise and speed of Bangkok. Eventually, we admitted that we should head back down and find some food. We walked down a different path, and found a cave to adventure in. I then found out that I have a problem with millions of tons of rock hanging inches above my head, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a cave before.
And probably won’t be again. We headed back to our hotel for a shower, and went out.
For dinner, we went for a Laos show. It was so funny and so sweet, six little girls dancing around and singing, two little boys pretending to be monkey type things, drums (Bill, the octogenarian from New York, would have been happy, he went on forever in Xi’an about seeing a show with drums), and for some reason, a really fat person dancing around by herself, which we found hilarious after a few BeerLao. There were three tables of two people each watching this show in a huge hall. The food was great though, and they brought out as much as you wanted. We had a whole fish, duck, and many other things I couldn’t identify. After the smattering of applause at the end, we ambled back to our room, though we got waylaid as we walked past a bar that looked so French. And we thought we should sample more of the place, so had a few glasses of the local spirit - Lao Lao. They aren’t great at thinking up names here. We got back at 11.15, only to find
our guest house locked up for the night. Luckily, they had noticed that our shoes weren’t at the door, so one little woman was waiting up for us to let us in. Apparently, curfew is 11pm. They don’t stay up here at all; the night market closes at 10, street lights off at half past. We learned our lesson though, and were in before curfew the next night.
The next day we headed across the Mekong river to another village, after a wonderful breakfast of eggs, bacon, cheese, bread, a pineapple smoothie, and the best coffee I have ever tasted. We got a little boatman for $2 return (they generally only take dollars and Thai baht here, the local currency - the kip - isn’t worth a lot, and you can’t exchange it back. Their biggest note is 20,000 kip, about two dollars. You can only pay for your visa and exit fee in something other than kip). Luang PraBang is a veritable metropolis compared to Xiang Mene across the way. We set off through the village, being smiled at by people, and barked at by dogs. No hassle from the water buffalo, luckily. We also picked up a
little group of girls who had nothing better to do, their little sisters were hiking up the mountain for mangoes, and they showed us to the old temples scattered around. It was amazing, the ones furthest away from the village looked untouched for years, and were all falling down, covered in bushes. Kind of Tomb Raider-ish. Without the guns. And the short shorts. I got a beautiful bright pink neck, with a tide mark of where my SPF15 face cream stopped. I must go down to the islands soon to get all my pink and brown stripes sorted out. The undergrowth got thicker and thicker, and we started seeing death-spider houses right above our heads, so we walked back to our boat along the river, watching little people swimming and laughing. The boatman lost one of his flipflops as he pushed off the bank, and sadly watched it sink into the mud. We saw the look on his face as he saw four days worth of money disappear under the brown water, so told him to go back and get it, which he did with a joyous smile. A shower and a mini-siesta later, and we were ready to hit
the town again.
After a huge meal of Lao food and a crocodile steak, we mooched around the night market. I couldn’t tell you what the food was, apart from the sticky rice you form into balls (right hand only) that you dunk into various sauces, but there was meat stuff, vegetable stuff, dried slices of seaweed stuff and tomato, and some other things that tasted wonderful. We bought baggy Lao trousers, pretty bags, gorgeous silk throws, all sorts of beautiful things, for a grand total of $7, which left me feeling a bit guilty afterwards. Everyone scampered away at ten, leaving us time for one last cocktail before bed.
Up early the next day, to buy things we had seen on our rambles. We’d found a great art gallery, and had chatted with the artist. He made wonderful paper lamps, and painted beautiful scenes on handmade paper, and we wanted to get some. However, despite his assertions that he would be open on Saturday, when we got there, he was closed. We were so disappointed, but learned the lesson that you should get things when you see them. Though it worked out fairly well, as you can’t
get cash out in Laos, you can exchange money, or sign for it in a hotel if you’re in desperate need (at 8% charge, you’d have to be desperate). We managed to work our finances out so that we had enough left for the airport fee, tuktuk, and breakfast. It is a wonderful place, there is a lot more to do there, not so much sightseeing, but there’s great hiking, climbing, rafting and elephant trekking in the countryside, which is going to be done when I come back.
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Nice story
Nice story and cool photos :)