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Published: December 14th 2008
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After a great night out I woke early to check out and move closer to everyone. I arrived and checked into the cheapest room available. It was known as the ‘outside’ room, but the only sign of it being outside was a few gaps between the walls and the ceiling and at 30,000 kip-who could really complain!? It had a fairly large bed and though the bathroom was not in the room it was just down the stairs. Now that I was closer to everyone, I set out to meet up with them. We were hoping to check out a boat race in a village not far from there, or possibly go to one of the waterfalls in the surrounding area. After discussing our options we decided to just stick around the town for the day, and to try to get to a waterfall the following day. It wasn’t a large town so it didn’t take long to explore. Much like Thailand there were many temples within a small radius of one another. The day drifted along and at nightfall I was anxious to try out some pizza. I ended up finding Florian, Tom, and Ryan and the four of us
went to a little pizza place on the high street of the city. The pizza was fabulous, and the conversation fantastic. I enjoyed sitting outside along the street, sipping my glass of red wine, and looking down the street. After dinner the plan was basically the same as the night before-grab some drinks and head to the Mekong with some music. The guys grabbed their large bottles of Laos beer-and since I had decided to steer clear of Asian beer, after getting sick in Seoul and Singapore-I looked for another option. I ended up finding some large bottles of a Laos wine cooler. It was….different…little too sweet, but cheap and drinkable. The night was fairly mellow, Narani had already turned in for the evening, and Daniel and Rianne didn’t stick around too long. When we decided to go in search of some fun, Tom dropped out as well. So that left Ryan, Florian, and myself to go in search of an adventure. We ended up getting a tuk tuk again, and asked to go to a nightclub where we could dance. So we headed off toward the bowling alley again, only this time the tuk tuk driver actually brought us
to a nightclub! Unfortunately it was midnight and the place was closing! It looked like a mansion and the only people leaving seemed to be locals, but we thought Haha we found a nightclub in this sleepy little town! We decided since we were close by we may as well check out the bowling alley-maybe get a game in. So there we were-the three of us a little tipsy, bowling at 12:30am, still drinking, and whirling bowling balls. We spent most of the time screwing off and laughing at ourselves. Ah-it was good fun. We played two games before the place started to close down. Where does the time go? We made our way back to ‘town’ and ended up sitting outside their guesthouse screwing off for a bit. Eventually I walked the 50yrd up the street to my guesthouse and turned in for the night. The next day we decided to go to Kuang Si waterfall. We found a tuk tuk on the main street and piled in. It was about 45min away, and the drive there was lovely. We made our way through several surrounding towns/villages. The countryside was beautiful, and watching the locals go about their daily
lives was interesting. The children walked or rode bicycles along the road, and some walked along carry heavy bags of rice. Often times it seemed that all they did was lounge about in their little hammocks for the day, though I doubt that was the case. Eventually we arrived at the waterfall entrance. We paid the small entrance fee, and made our way up the trail. We stopped at the black bear sanctuary for a bit before making our way to the swimming hole where I stopped to chat with the girls from the minibus/border crossing. They said the main waterfall was just a little way up the trail, and that it was quite nice, but you couldn’t swim in any of the pools up there. So up we went, and when we arrived and I looked at the falls I was taken into utopia. I walked up and stood right at the base of the falls, with the water splashing up and soaking me. I took off my flip flops and waded in the water and smiled at the beauty and serenity of it all. After about 20min we decided to take the trail with no name that seemed
to lead up to the top of the falls. After a steep, barefooted, and semi strenuous climb we reached the top and explored the area a bit only to discover there was no where left to go-and we had to go back down the way we came up. We sat at the falls for a while chatting, until it was declared that some of us were a bit hungry. Luckily at the bottom, by the entrance, there were plenty of little stands selling gifts, food, and drinks. We all broke our separate ways to find what it was we wanted. I ended up talking with the girls again, and we went to order pancakes. (These are not the ‘American’ pancakes-they are basically crepes, only a little thicker and a bit crunchy.) I ordered a banana pancake topped with coconut and condensed milk-mmmm. I joined the group again, and after sitting for a while we headed back to our tuk tuk to go back to town. Shortly after leaving, the tuk tuk driver stopped and a woman came to the truck carrying two rats tied up by their legs-still alive. The driver bought the rats from her. He then explained to
us that they eat them-and that the rats are often used to cure eczema for babies and young children! Ewww. Due to the fact that I didn’t write this blog immediately the remaining details of Luang Prabang blend together and I don’t remember the order of everything-so I’ll just tell you what happened in the remainder of time there. I think the next day we had decided to book a minibus down to Vang Vieng together with about 11 people. It turned into quite a mess with details, because we were a large group, and I was close to just booking a single ticket so I wouldn’t have to deal with it all. Eventually we sorted out and bargained a price and bought the tickets. We were set to depart the next morning. Later in the evening, Florian, Rianne, Daniel, Ryan, and I all decided that we wanted to check out the temple on the hill. After a little smoke, we walked toward the temple and took a little rest at the bottom. We sat and watched as the townspeople set up their goods for the night market. Meanwhile-as usual-the local children began to flood around us eager to sell
us their little bracelets and knick knacks. It turned into quite an amazing little experience, they were excited to look at the cameras we were carrying and when we asked them to take a photo they were nothing but smiles. It was great for a while, but eventually we couldn’t take the bombarding and we began walking up the hundred or so stairs that lead to the temple on the top of the hill. The view from the top was fantastic-and we watched as the sun slowly started to descend behind the hills. We all kind of went our separate ways for a bit and Daniel, Rianne, and myself ended up at a very relaxed little wine bar. The only thing that made the time a bit unenjoyable was the fact that a festival was coming up, and the children all had fireworks! They continued to set them off in the street and they were really loud. So we tried to enjoy our time sitting and chatting with some drinks, but my ears were ringing and after a short while we thought it best to get some rest for the early morning to follow.
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