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We were all quite surprised by Luang Prabang when we pulled up to the centre in our tuk tuk from the bus station. Perhaps naively we had all expected the second largest city in Laos to be a little more built up than it was. Not that this came as a disappointment as it was lovely not to see a highrise in sight and it was literally all made up of small rows of colonial houses scattered with ornate Wats here and there.. just beautiful and so relaxed.
Our first afternoon was spent in the usual way of filling ourselves with food and seeing what there was to see. Luang Prabang really isn't very big so it's very easy to walk around and see lots it in a very short space of time. Back to the food though and we would have to say that this is probably our favourite place so far for the quality and price of street food.. it's just awesome. For lunch you can get big filled fresh baguettes for just 5,000kip (around 40p) and wash this down with an equally lovely fruit or oreo biscuit fruit or milkshake also for 5,000kip. Then you are really
filled until dinner time when you can enjoy the buffet street market where you can get a huge bowl of noodles/salads/roasted veggies for 5,000kip. If you fancy meat, which of course Dale did, then you can get a breast of chicken on a stick for another 6,000kip and wash it all down with more shakes or a Beer Lao! Ok so it's not strictly authentic Lao food but it sure was good and kept us filled up each and every day without fail.. in fact we miss it even now!
We'd travelled here with Max & Yinca, Mike & Jen so spent the following day with them visiting Luang Prabangs big attraction.. the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. We'd met up with the Argentinians who'd been the day before and said how amazing it was so we were all looking foward to seeing what all the fuss was about for ourselves and were so glad we did. These waterfalls are just breathtaking and should not be missed by anyone going to this area but go early as it gets very busy come lunchtime. The waterfalls are set in a lovely park with a sunbear rescue area at the entrance which
was a treat to see in itself as the bears played with each other in their lovely enclosures. Then it's a short walk to the first pool and you can carry on for a km or so seeing more and more pools and falls on the way all with gorgous turquoise water.. and the best bit is you can swim in there too which is such a relief on a hot sunny day in Laos.
We decided not to settle for the first pool and work up a sweat before taking a dip so trekked up to the big fall at the top which is the best of the bunch, and then hiked/climbed right to the top and down the other side. It's pretty tough going getting up there and the views weren't really worth the effort so we were glad to be back at the bottom and all headed for the first pool to take a much needed dip. There is a rope swing at this pool and everyone made the most of it to get used to the freezing water.. well everyone except Sophie & Yinca who were just too scared to have a go! Mike, Dale
& Jen even managed a jump off the waterfall which was quite awesome to watch. After a while though the pool really started to fill up and we'd cooled off enough so we went back to chill out at the large waterfall where a group of monks were having lunch so we stalked them a bit and got some good monk & waterfalls snaps.. people never tire of taking photos of the poor monks do they!?
Again the evening was filled with eating at the yummy buffet and then Sophie got to go shopping (again!) in the fantastic street market that fills the main street each evening with wonderful handcrafted things. This was actually the best market we've been to in Asia and Sophie was a little disappointed that she'd got so much in Vietnam as these things were nicer, (but not cheaper) but isn't that always the way! To save any tears both she and Dale consolated themselves with bracelets anyway as it would be rude to leave with nothing!
Luang Prabang is a town full of Wats and with Wats come monks so we decided to go and see the monks collecting their daily alms one
morning to see what went on. The alms are basically gifts from the townspeople as a goodwill acts and they come in the form of food for the monks each morning. Most of them receive sticky rice which are placed in their bowls by the kneeling people but they also get fruit and the occasional chocolate bar which we were surprised to see didn't go down to well and were mostly returned! This ritual is carried out every morning but you have to be up at dawn to catch them as it's all over by 6am so at 5.15 we headed out onto the streets to go hunting for the monks. They mostly head for the main streets in the town so we settled there and soon enough a line of them passed by, then another came from the other direction and within minutes it was like Picadilly Circus with monks heading left right and centre but blink and you'll miss it as they don't hang around and are gone in a flash to eat what they have collected.
There is a strict etiquette to this though but we didn't really find this out until after we'd watched it
and realised we'd done a few of the forbidden things.. stood on steps outside a shop so we were higher up than the monks, this is a no no... Sophie also made a joke about putting museli and milk in their bowls as a change which made everyone laugh, another no no... finally Dale stood a little too close which is another forbidden thing but karma soon came back on us to punish us that day. We had possibly the worst technical difficulties day that we've ever had with us going from internet cafe to internet cafe and having computers crash, switch off, mobile phone not working, ATM not giving us cash, losing photos on our blog.. it seemed neverending and we were glad to get to our room and away from computers by the end of the day for fear of what might happen next. Let this be a lesson to anyone coming to LP to see this.. make sure you obey the rules otherwise it will come back on you!
After watching the monks we headed down to the Fresh Produce Market where it's advised to go early morning when it's at it's best. We always love
to see the different types of foods that are on offer in each country so looked forward to seeing what the local's enjoy here. We were not however so excited to see various live animals including a goanna and hawk, with their legs & wings all broken and tied behind their backs just waiting to be brought for the freshest meat there is. It's quite hearbreaking to see these animals looking up at you as people go past maybe knowing their fate and certainly in a great deal of pain. We also had to wonder what happened if they weren't purchased.. do they just get kept like that until the next day? We contemplated buying them to set them free but there really is no point because they cant fly or walk so would just be a target for getting caught again and none of us fancied putting them out of their misery ourselves. We also found out that it's not good for tourists to buy them for this reason as it gives the locals the idea that we are keen to get this sort of thing and will encourage them to catch more and more so were glad we
just left it. One happy event did happen though when Dale managed to rescue a bug from a pile of chargrilled ones that were still alive.. this one made a bid for freedom so Dale picked him up and put him back on a tree so we did manage one rescue act!
One evening we all went up to the top of Phu Si which is the highest point in the town and a great place to watch the sun go down over the Mekong River. This was our last night with us all together as Mike & Jen were heading in a different direction so we enjoyed our final evening together with the sunset and panoramic views of Luang Prabang by day and then by night.
Luang Prabang is a beautiful chilled out city where you could spend many days just relaxing in a cafe or enjoying shakes all day.. we were tempted! We wanted to check out the North so made our way to the bus station with Max & Yinca and booked our tickets for our next destination of Luang Nam Tha far up North...
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Tanya 0608
Tanya
Very nice blog and lovely pics. They are so bright and colorful. Really like the pics with the monks too.