Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Gio with a giant leaf
Walking through the jungle on the way to the waterfall We arrived in Luang Prabang after an 8 hour bus ride from Vang Vieng. We were planning to meet up with our Italian friend Gio in the city since he had already found accommodation. Unfortunately, when we arrived at his guesthouse, it was full. So we quickly found another place and settled in to Luang Prabang. We had heard amazing things about this city and I am not quite sure it ever lived up to its expectations, but we did enjoy it. Luang Prabang is a quiet town, where all businesses legally close at 11:30pm. However, the party must continue somewhere because every night tuk tuk drivers would whisper "Tuk tuk? Opium? Bowling? Marijuana?" Hmm... That was an interesting combination.
Our first full day in Luang Prabang we spent heading out to Tat Kuang Si waterfall 32km's outside of the city. Sounds easy enough, but we had to bargain with tuk tuk drivers for about one hour to get the price we wanted. It is really getting tiring! So we ended up sharing a tuk tuk with and Israeli couple and a chick from NYC.
The waterfall was gorgeous and definitely worth the trip. As you hiked to the
waterfall there is a rescue center for Asian bears that had been attacked by poachers. You keep trekking into the jungle and eventually arrive at the swimming pools and the lower waterfalls. From there you hike up more to the large falls. They were really pretty! We decided to make the trek to the top of the waterfall, once again in sandals, and it was not very fun or easy. My shoes were super muddy and the view from the top was really anti-climactic. Oh well- at least we did it.
From there we found ourselves a swimming hole and jumped on in. The weather was a bit cloudy and rainy and the water was cold, but we sucked it up anyways. We began jumping off a tree into the swimming pool and then found out you could jump straight off one of the lower waterfalls into the swimming hole. "Just don't jump too far to the right or else the waterfall will suck you under" was the advice we got from another traveler. Well, of course, I had to do it- so we spent the rest of the afternoon jumping and doing flips off the waterfall into the
swimming pool. I can honestly say I have never jumped off a waterfall until now!
We arrived back in the city late that night and discovered an all you can eat vegetarian buffet for 5,000 kip (about 60 cents!) so we ate dinner there. Then... we discovered Oreo shakes for the same price and made this our staple meal for the next few days!
The next day, we woke up at 5:30am to watch the monks receive alms from the people. This was an interesting process. Every morning, all the monks in the city take a certain walk and receive food from the townspeople. All the old women of the city sit along the street with fried bananas or sticky rice and put a small amount into each monks bowl. The monks continue walking until they are finished and that is their food ration. I even saw the monks returning the food to poor and/or homeless people. I was very happy we were up early to see this process. We took a short nap after that and decided to stay around the city that day and see the sights and discover all the temples. The city is definitely
quiet, but we enjoyed walking along the Mekong and just spending an easy day. The city is filled with different temples, too many to count, and all of them have active monks that chant each evening around 4pm. The city is filled with chanting as you walk by each temple. It is absolutely unreal!
We had also heard about a program in the city called Big Brother Mouse, an organization that helps with literacy in the local people. They give books to poor families and help teach older Laotian people computer skills and English. We decided to volunteer there for two hours that night. We spent the night talking with children and helping them read English and generally just playing with them. We had a great time. The children were so fun and loved the fact that we were there. Jeff also spent some time helping one of the volunteers learn how to use a video camera so he could make videos to show what the organization does to gain more support. It was nice to give a little something back to the community we had stayed in for the past few days.
So... with all that done,
1-2-3 JUMP!
My first jump off a waterfall! we decided to we would leave Laos for Thailand the next night, which meant this was our last night in Laos. We were going to figure out why the tuk tuk drivers mentioned bowling in their little speech they gave us. We had some dinner and then took a tuk tuk driver out to this bowling alley. Since all the businesses close at 11:30pm, the bowling alley is the only place open, which makes it the late night hang out. We walked in to a crowd of people in a small bowling alley. We got a lane and our night was on! No bowling shoes and no proper equipment, but it was so fun! We bowled a few games and made some new friends. Our tuk tuk driver kept coming in to try to get us to leave, which didn't make me happy since we had negotiated a price for all night and would pay him upon returning to our hotel. After the fifth time of coming in to get us to leave I finally got mad and told him to leave if he wanted to, but he was getting no money. He didn't like that, so he stayed around
and didn't bother us anymore. Our ride back however, didn't work out so well. The tuk tuk broke down and luckily we were in walking distance from our hotel. We simply got out, paid him half the money, and walked off. He was not happy because he wanted us to stay and pay him the full amount. Jeff calmed him down and we walked home! He later found our Australian friend Ryo and told him we didn't pay. Mind you, this was at least 1/2 hour later and his tuk tuk was still broken on the side of the road. I am just getting tired of 1+1 not equaling 2! So that was our last big night in Laos and now it is off to Thailand. We have less than two weeks before Megan arrives in Bangkok so we will speed through the north a bit and then head south with her. I cannot believe it is almost October! Time flies when you're having fun!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.135s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 8; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0651s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
nins
non-member comment
YAY BOWLING
im so glad bowling really was bowling! miss you and WISH WISH i was there fighting w foreign men