Advertisement
Published: February 10th 2012
Where's the Honey?
Enjoying our encounter with Sunny bears at Bear SanctuaryWe left Chiang Rai early in the morning to take a three hour VIP bus back to Chiang Mai, where we were catching our flight to Luang Prabang in Laos. Before our flight, we were even able to send back all of the souvenirs and other items we purchased to date. We give the Thai Postal Service a huge thumbs up – within 10 minutes they produced a custom-made box for us, processed the mailing and greeted us with 100 smiles.
We took Lao Airlines 1h flight to Luang Prabang (LP), they provided really nice service and a new ATR prop-plane. At our arrival in LP we had one important immigration goal in mind – my passport had only 5 empty pages available for visas and we needed to convince Lao immigration to post it on left-hand side vs. the usual right-hand side. I used paper clips and post-it note signs in hopes of achieving this goal. It was very important that the Lao immigration officers would comply. If not, I would likely not have enough space in my passport for both Cambodian and Vietnamese visas! To our shock, after the immigration officer said it is no problem to place
Kuang Si waterfall
The water was like the Carribean the visa on the side we requested, we got my passport back with the visa stamp on the wrong page.
However after only 10 minutes of Suzi’s persistent negotiations with the head of the operation, they removed the visa sticker and moved it to the right page! Off we go to explore LP without worry!
Luang Prabang, which literally means ‘Royal Buddha Image’ is located in north-central Laos, and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. When France annexed Laos, the French recognised Luang Prabang as the royal residence of Laos. During World War II the Japanese occupied the city although it remained under nominal Vichy French control. On March 9, 1945, independence was declared for Laos, and Luang Prabang was the capital.
The town has an amazing feel, almost as if it were straight out of a movie set. The streets are filled with small coffee shops, restaurants and bars. I don’t think I have ever seen so many tour operators in one place! One of the highlights of the town is also the daily night market that brings together local merchants selling hand-crafted scarves, shirts, bags, sculptures and paintings, and local street food.
On our first
Kuang Si falls
50 meters high night we went to a recommended restaurant and bar called Utopia that has a beach volleyball court, a projector that plays documentaries / sports adventure scenes. It also had and a number of games on hand – similar to the ‘Common Ground’ bar in the East Village. We enjoyed the environment, had dinner, played a few hands of cards and called it in early.
On our first full day in LP, most of the town lost electricity sometime between 9:30 AM and 3 PM. We were able to find a restaurant that had power and Internet due to their gasoline-based generator. We took that time to research nearby attractions, trips, sights in town and made a decision to extend our stay in Laos by 3 days. We celebrated the decision with a 1hr Lao massage for $5USD!
We spent the first half of the next day exploring the town of Luang Prabang, doing a bit of shopping and secured our spots in a popular Lao cooking class. We went to the
Ock Pop Tok gallery, a fair trade shop meaning ‘east meets west’ that brings together multiple local hill tribes’ traditional woven textiles, and provides English explanations of the symbols
Kuang Si picture
Enjoying the falls and culture embedded in the textiles. Their purpose is to empower women through their traditional skills and to advance the artistic and social development of Lao artisans. We often tell other travels that this is our ‘2
nd honeymoon’ so we thought it fitting that we purchase a matrimonial textile wall-hanging for our home. We also bought a beautiful white and red scarf (Polish colors!) for Kostek’s Mom from a hill tribe woman who has won numerous awards for her designs.
During our city explorations, we saw the most impressive
Wat Xieng Thong, constructed in 1560. Its tree of life mosaic was beautiful. We also loved the views of both the Nam Khan River and the mighty Mekong – it was a sunny Sunday and both rivers had many kids playing beside them with beautiful mountains as a backdrop. We had to go back to our hotel by 2:30 PM as the owner of our hotel invited us to take part in a local afternoon attraction by the river with him and his wife and son. We didn’t know what that was going to entail but decided to join in. It ended up being one of the most fun experiences
Mountain Biking
This was the 'off off roading' of our trip and probably the least touristy as well. We crossed the Mekong with his family and friends in a small boat and ended up on the shore on the other side of town. The shore had a few bamboo huts, bocce ball courts and a lot of locals enjoying a cold afternoon Beerlao and local food while playing cards, chatting, laughing and playing bocce. We were the only non-Laotians in attendance and loved tasting the local cuisine, playing games with the locals and enjoying the sunset views!
On Sunday we took a half day trip to one of the most beautiful waterfalls both of us have ever seen. The 50 m high waterfall was
Kuang Si, it stands for golden deer. We first saw a bear rescue center and witnessed a bear climb a hammock, which he made his afternoon relaxation area. Unlike many other waterfalls, the water at this one was crystal clear, almost Carribbean sea blue. We hiked up to the top of the waterfall and Suzi took a swim in the waterfall. We spent the afternoon booking our biking tour around the province as well as booking the boat that we are currently on, while
On flatter ground
Glad to catch our breath I write this blog post. It is a very simple wooden boat we are taking up north for 7 hours to a small village of
Nong Khiaw. We ended our Sunday with a great dinner at one of the nicer restaurants in town called 3 Nagas. Suzi especially enjoyed the local ‘Luang Prabang salad’ a fresh green salad with watercress, mint, dill, cucumber, tomato, and boiled eggs. When Suzi’s sister Linda went to Luang Prabang years earlier, she said it was the first time she had a fresh green salad in weeks (triple-washed with bottled water ensured a happy and safe stomach). I loved my beef with onions and some sticky rice.
The next day we woke up on the earlier side and made our way to Tamarind restaurant, which was the meeting point for our Lao cooking class. We loved going to the local market, learning about the various ingredients of Lao cooking and traditions. We then spent half of our day cooking various local dishes that included fish steamed in banana leaves, water buffalo soup and chicken stuffed in lemongrass. We made friends with Lacey and Alex, Lacey being the first person on our trip that we met
from New York City!
Our afternoon passed with taking care of some rebooking for flights in the latter part of our trip, as we were able to include a stop in New Zealand to visit our friends Vicki and Ryan. We also ended up going to the
Big Brother Mouse, a local volunteer center that matches up English speakers with local kids who want to improve their English. Both Suzi and I were surrounded by 4 local Lao kids each and we had a blast reading with them, helping them with their homework or talking about New York / our life and Luang Prabang and their lives. It is great that tourists passing through the town can easily walk in and spend a few hours helping kids improve their English. The day finished with a nice, surprisingly tasty pizza dinner sharing travel stories with Lacey and Alex.
Yesterday, we got up very early to participate in the
alms giving ceremony that is one of the main attractions of Luang Prabang. We really enjoyed sitting on the side of the road and giving sticky rice to the passing monks. After breakfast we walked over to meet our biking guide, Kai, with whom we
Overlooking the Nam Khan river
Enjoying great views on our stroll through town were going to explore areas around Luang Prabang. It was a really fun adventure, some of it going through small villages with kids running after us and screaming Sabadeee (hello in Lao), some of it braving off-roading paths that involved passing over rocky terrain with streams cutting through our path, and formidable hills that made our muscles work quite a bit. All in all a really fun 30km biking adventure!
As I mentioned earlier, we are currently a few hours into our Lao wooden boat trip that is taking us to Nong Khiaw for a few nights. Armed with our kindle and iPad, we will spend the trip reading as well as enjoying the amazing landscape. A day trip to a
Muang Ngoi, a town only accessible by boat awaits in Nong Khiaw as well as a trip to a local village school, where we will bring over 100 children’s books that we purchased at the Big Brother Mouse. Stay tuned!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0526s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Dan Rohtbart
non-member comment
Bears and Beers
So glad you enjoyed Luang Prabang! The bears look much healthier than 7 years ago. When you return, I can help you get Beer Lao by the case...hopefully it's easier than it used to be. A few years ago it was a (fun) challenge.