Mekong Adventures and Monks of Gold

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Geo: 19.8841, 102.142

Laos could not come soon enough. I had certainly had enough of China, perhaps even as far back as the terracotta warriors. It was not the same feeling as the want to leave the chaos of India behind months ago , it was more of deeper need to run away screaming! I am not sure if it was the rudeness, merged with the pushyness of the people, the constant hacking and spitting on the pavements outside and floors inside or just the high rise, endless cities that make you feel like an insignificant spec in an ocean of concrete or the fact I had been so ill in the places I would have loved. Either or, I am a much happier bunny now, and have no desire to jump on the next plane home!!

Now we are no longer mother truckers, it was a sleeper bus that took us across the border. I was quite excited abt this prospect, having never been on one before.... it was certainly an experience! The bus had three rows of bunk beds stretching the length of the bus, wide enough to lie on, but most definitely not curl up on. Each bed had a rack to put your possessions on, and a Snoopy covered pillow and duvet. We left Kunming at 6.30pm and arrived in Luang Prabang 8.30pm the following day!

I managed to sleep intermittently, between the pee stop and thunder storms. By 5am we were parked up 20km from the border, waiting for it to open at 8. We were awoken at 7am by a money changer, our first handling of kips.... at 12000 to the pound, we were going to be rich!!!!
Exiting China was surprisingly simple, with even a smiling man at the desk I went to. Miracles can happen! After reloading all our possessions back into the boot of the bus, it was a 2 min drive through no mans land to the Laos 'line on the ground'. Similar to the Nepal border, there was a man or 3 sat in a little office. Various forms went to carousel people and with the aid of our best dollars, into Laos we went! GOODBYE CHINA!

Having 4 nights in Luang Prabang, seemed a wonderful idea to me. Somewhere to become settled and know our way around, to have a favourite coffee shop and place to eat breakfast, to see the sites, but at our leisure. Unfortunately, arriving late on the first night .... landslides had delayed us by a few hrs... we did not see much of the town on the drive through from the bus station. And once on my bed, in the 10 bed dorm, I was happy to reside there until morning.... well post erecting my mosi net. The hostel was full of home... well European grown people, and it was lovely to spk to some other people other than our lot, but the moaners that be on the trip decided that the place wasn't good enough for them..... God help some of them if they think that is bad! ...and so having returned from a Laos breakfast of yellow noodles, we packed everything up and toddled down the rd to a Guesthouse with twin rms and no real common area.... soulless in my opinion, but I just go with the flow! Actually I lie, this probably annoyed me more than ever on this trip, and so it was a case of get into the room and get away from people I may regret saying things too.
We walked along the main street, lined with cafes...(the place is renowned for its bakerys, as it is very closely related to the French) and tourist shops, there was always a draw into them! There were also many Wats (temples), covered in gold paint, making them sparkle in the sun. The most astounding was the one attached to the royal palace, that was heavily decorated in green and gold, rather than the usual red and gold. It was truly stunning. Further down the road, there were many large, gold Buddhas taking various forms ( i did not realise that they had daily/ weekly forms of 'a Buddha'😉 They were stunning, if not a little over bearing, but were surrounded by the monks and their everyday live, my favorite vision being of all of their washing, their bright orange robes, hanging in the courtyard of the Wat. At the end of the road, we met the confluence of the rivers, where the Nam Khan met the Mekong. We sat and had an overpriced fruit shake, but with a beautiful view. Then it was time to shop 😊 with the aid of a coconut cake half way..... was a grand, girly afternoon.... and i only bought one pair of earings, which i have warn ever since, so i think that is allowed! In the evening, in true British style, we went for an Indian, before heading out to the night market. Always was going to be a bad idea for my wallet! There were so many beautiful things, from bowls made from the finest wood from the surrounding jungle, paintings of the monks walking in the streets (I bought abt 10 of these of varying sizes) and lots of textiles (of which i bought 3 bed runners, for the triple room in my future B&B!) There was also a food alley, where the smells are indescribable. After a successful and expensive (well about 15 pounds!!) shopping day, it was time for sleeps, as we were off on an adventure to the waterfalls in the morning.

The Kuang SI waterfalls are famous throughout SE Asia, as they are so large and beautiful, have a facilities to swim in the water pools below, and the 'grounds' house a black bear sanctuary too! There is the option of taking a Tuk Tuk to the area, however, as we like to travel in style, we decided to take a boat along the Mekong, driven by a short, little, fat man! It took an hour to get there, on a what looked like a fast barge! Slung very low to the water, with ten of us in it, it was very easy to rock the boat side to side, as we found out as photos were taken from from the windows as we bobbed along! When we arrived at a small village, we were piled into the back of a pick up and driven the 15mins to the waterfalls. The black bears were lovely, but with only 2 hrs there before the boatman chugged back, we didnt spend much time with them. As you venture up the river valley, you hit a series of small pools, with very fast flowing waterfalls flowing into them. They looked great, but I was a little disappointed, as I had only read about them, never seen any pictures, and if this was it... it was def not worth the money! However, as we hiked further up the valley, you could here the roar of a much larger flow..... you could just see it through the tops of the trees, and as we rounded the corner, there it was. It was HUGE! Well 60 metres to be precise. With the spray in your face, it was lovely and refreshing, and with the view i was a happy bunny! There was a path up to the right of the falls, which myself, Chris and Janet decided to venture up, whilst others waited on the bridge for the perfect shot. It was a steep old climb, on very clayey soil. The root systems of the jungle trees assisted with the climb but meeting the people, on their bums with bare feet climbing down, i was not looking forward to the return journey! Once at the top, we wandered through the currents, up to our knees in cooling, clear waters, looking over the drop.... it was so beautiful and exceedingly loud! We decided to chance our luck on the other side of the falls to head back down, although people had come passed us saying we couldn't climb down that way!! I knew i had read in the guide book there was a hidden path on that side of the falls - it was going to be mine to find!! Well actually, i didnt have to, as a group of locals found it for us! Easy times! It was a much more approachable path, and with steps through the waters, it was much more entertaining. I adored our time here, although it ended far to quickly! After dinner and some horrendous Lao Apple Wine (the hope of it tasting anything like cider went swiftly out the window when it came out the colour of blood!) it was time to waste away a good few hours in the night market, spending money that i perhaps shouldnt, but i enjoyed it all the same!

The following day, it was the turn of the Buddha, Pak Ou cave, in the opposite direction on the Mekong! It took what seemed like an age to get there, as i think the novelty of floating around in a boat had warn off, and the numb bums on the wooden chairs for 2.5hrs had hit home! On arrival at the cave, i think alot of people were disappointed, as they had read nothing about it, and therefore were expecting to go caving, when infact, they are a spiritual place, where before Buddhism had come to the country, the people believed spirits lived, and has since been adopted into the Buddhist religion, where over 4000 statues have been placed and worshiped. There were 2 caves, the lower, by the river, was set by lovely light coming through the holes in the kharst, the upper, in complete darkness. I loved it, others were not so keen!

We had returned by 3pm, so i decided that i would walk up the 350 steps to the stuppa above the town. No one else could be bothered, so it was going to be a lone venture, well, until i found Chris wandering the streets and kidnapped him to come too! In the humidity, it was a sweaty betty climb, but worth it for the views from the top. After some photos, we dropped down the other side, finding at least 20 HUGE golden buddha statues, another temple, and the Buddhas footprint! A nice surprise to make the climb even more worth while.

Our last traveler act of Luang Prabang was to go to the Alms giving at sunrise. I had heard so many rumours of 5.30 am, that we headed down for about 5am, just in case, when in fact, the monks didn't leave there homes until 6am. They 'parade' down the main road was for the soul purpose of the monks collecting sticky rice and bananas for their breakfast from the locals. It truely was a beautiful and mental site at the same time. The amount of people that stood in the way of them walking to take photos of them was unreal. It is done incomplete silence by the monks, and therefore they could not say anything to any of them. We hoped we were respectful, standing on the other side of the street, and we didnt offend anyone, however even then, it did feel a little intrusive.

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Photos

Hostel 1
we left so quickly, no time for anymore photos