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Asia » Laos » West » Luang Prabang
August 15th 2006
Published: August 25th 2006
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The monks reading up on their english in order to communicate with Ricko
As Lonely Planet describes Laos, "once you reach it, travellers let out a communal sigh "ahh" "
And I have to say, it's pretty damn true.

DAY ONE


After our trying boat journey that I attempted to put down as some kind of test in patience, we walked the beautiful, though some times run down, streets of Luang Prabang. This was our first experience of a Colonial Asia, where the French influence extends not just from the architecture (conveniently protected by a declaration of heritage by UNESCO - French based by the way), but to fresh baguettes (a VERY welcome change from fried rice), and the lovely gardens and numerous out door cafes in which you can drink REAL coffee!!

Our first mistake mind you was to look vaguely interested at one of the many spruikers that meets the boat to grab unbooked tourists to take to their guest houses. Highly motivated by the opportunity of booking 8 people (ourselves plus Prince Christoph, and 5 other Aussies) they worked tirelessly to gain our attention and agreement to go to their establishment. In the end, we walked away, rucksacks on backs, gaining more attention from the Tuk Tuk
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the climb to the top of Mt Phousi
drivers all offering to take us to their mate's guesthouse, and being tailed by the wharf spruikers who were now following us on their motorbikes. So, maybe, things aren't as totally cruisy as expected...

Booking in to Philayak Guesthouse with lovely teakwood rooms, AMAZINGLY COMFORTABLE beds, we started a brief exploration of the city in search of dinner. We passed through the Hmong Night Market which appears each evening around 5pm onwards, taking up nearly a km of the main street. Admittedly, like many markets it tends to sell about 60 varieties of 30 objects, but they are all so beautiful, and all handmade. Amazing bed covers and fabrics, a zilion fishermen pants, slippers, antiques, pictures and small pieces of silver and hand made jewellery. The women and children who man the stands are there till midnight each night, then pack up on overcrowded Sangtows (not how they're spelt) only to reappear the next morning any where from 6am when the local people give alms to the monks, to 9am when the day markets officially open. This is not easy work!

The difference from this market though to those in Thailand is that it was quiet, peaceful, the
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The view from the top
area has a constant yellow orange tinge from the bare lightbulbs, and sure you'll bargain with them, but really, for what you're getting it is a crime to try and out-bid them too low.

First night we ate at a nice restaurant that had some good Laos dishes, but more importantly a Carlsberg promotion that saw every single person that bought a beer win some kind of Beer Laos merchandise. I walked away with a t-shirt (only avavilabe in XL) and Richards was stoked with his Beer Laos Drinking Mugs. What a score.

DAY 2


Today we discovered a number of wats (temples) I wandered off on my own this morning (only to later discover that I'd locked Richards out of the room when he went to bring me breakfast in bed!) and headed to Wat Ho Siang. This was the first temple I'd been to, which is remarkable considering we managed to make it through the whole of Thailand without stepping into one, and not only did I get to wander round the grounds (the main temple was closed) but I also got to have a yarn with one of the monks who came up
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Sampling the delicacies from the night market
and asked where I was from. Now I have to admit, i'd been very nervous about the whole ettiquette of how you communicate with monks (especially being a woman) and was kind of apprehensive, but considering he approached me, I thought it was probably ok.

I think he was just stoked to practice his english and find out a bit abiout Australia, and I found out a bit about his life living in the temple (he'd been there 7 years!!! And looked about 18 years old) and things to do around Luang Prabang. Feeling a bit more confident, I headed down the main street and checked out the next Wat, Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham. What a mouthful.

This one, I made it inside the temple and found myself kneeling in front of a massive 5m tall smiling buddha, with about 20 other smaller images placed symetrically around him. The interior of the building was painted in black and gold and seemed to be made entirely out of wood. It was pretty nice, the Buddha was very lovely and peaceful, but I was surprised by the amount of noise you found in there. It's not like a big stone church
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Looking out from Pak Ou cave
where you enter and are then enclosed in a cool, silent atmosphere, this place was noisy! YOu had the sounds of chickens and roosters, of motorbikes going passed, and of people trying to sell things on the street. Not to mention the group of tourists that came in after me, took heaps of photos and talked loudly in some friggin European language. Gawd damn tourists.

Finding Andrew and Christopher (who had climbed up the central moutain / hill Phu Si and were vaguely tempted to release a bird at the top) we headed down the main street out towards the peninsular at the end of Luang Prabang. Along the way we stopped in at the Royal Museum - who'd have believed it, Andrew in a museum, which is the museum hosting a number of religious artifacts, inluding a 2000 year old Buddha that was made in Sri Lanka and used in a special procession each year, plus a number of gifts given to the Royal family by different countries - note, Prime Minister Harold Holt's gift of a boommerang and a gold and opal encrusted box. This was nearly as good as President Nixon's piece of the moon... nearly.
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The start of Laos Karst landscapes near Pak Ou
This used to be the royal palace and was quite ornate with a crazy mosaic room made from Japanese glass and depicting local stories and pictures of everyday life. I couldn't quite figure out who was the king, and who was Buddha mind you.

Heading down the penninsular, we reach the end where Andrew makes friends with some younger monks who were about to sail across the Nam Khan River to their village, but decided to stop and practice their english. While Andrew learnt some Laos, Christopher and I smiled a lot at the younger ones taht would just look at us and giggle, untill one of them ripped out a massive fart, and we all lost it. It was from this group that we discovered that a great boat race was to be held the following week, and it seemed a shame that we would be missing it.

Dusk was starting to approach, so we decided to climb Phu Si (the second time for the boys) to watch the sunset. 956 steps later, we discover that most of the phalang's had the same idea and were all waiting patiently in hope that the clouds would lift to
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Free the bird for luck? How about the bad luck for putting it in the cage in the first place
see the sun disapear over the surrounding mountains. hmmm..... well, at least a plane came in and landed, making the boys happier. Bloody plane spotters.

We head down the North Side of the mountain this time, to again run into another bunch or monks. THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!! ANd they all want to stop and have a yarn, which is usually great except the sun has now gone down entirely and we are trying to climb down 956 steps in the dark. Thankfully the bannister of the stairs was a giant snake nd we could follow the scales all the way to the bottom, with only minor tragedies. We also found out from the monks, that the boat race was the next day rather than the next week. Looks like we got ourselves a plan for tomorrow!

DAY THREE



Pak Ou cave. We passed this on the way down the river, but decided to take a boat upstream to revisit and go inside. pak Ou cave used to be used as a place to worship the river spirit untill Buddhism tok hold, and was then used as a place for pilgrims to place their icons here,
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action from the boat race
and pray.

What a waste of time.

We sit in a boat for 2 hours upstream, got to a fairly unimpressive cave, climbed a heap more stairs to the upper cave where it was totally black and you couldn't see any of the objects anyway. BUT we did meet some lovely locals (about 30 guys) that hung around at the top of the stairs, at the entrance to the upper cave with machetes from hacking the jungle back, and leers and suggestive eyebrow raises in my direction. Yep... I ain;t going in that cave without Richards.

THe way ack though saw the captain of the ship, Mr Sinkham (no joke), give over the contol deck to both Andrew then Christopher. The boys were stoked, despite being unable to fit in the very tiny Laos cabin. Still it was very amusing to both Mr Sinkham and myself.

We head back to our starting poit, pick up the Aussies, Martine and Jimmy, plus some stray poms we met, collect some beer, and head up the Nham Khan river to the boat race. It was RAD! We were the only tourists there, and we even got cheers from the
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spectators aboard the river boats
drunken, Laos cheerleading squad when we arrived. What a top afternoon. Every couple of minutes 2 teams of long boats of 46 people would come pelting down the river, and we chanting along with the orchestra of gongs, cymbals, and drums. We had crazy dancing men, curious little kids, and Andrew got the eye of quite a few of the older ladies, who he couldn't help but flirt.. oh sorry, WAVE... back to. This mind you, saw him playing their gongs and cymbals within no time at all.

Quite satidfied with our 'authentic' Laos experience we left shortly after the band who much like a footy game disapeared when they realised their villages' team wasn't going to win.

Returning to port, we took a detour through Wat Xieng Muan and stumbled across the evening prayer session where we sat outside and listened to the monks chant. Very nice indeed. Headed out for dinner with the crew from that day to an indian joint (Pom's choice funnily enough) and from there checked out Laos most famous niteclub the Hive which had overpriced drinks and a mixture of R&B and some weird drum and bass. Not to mention a massive
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ricko is given the gong - mwahahahahaha!
tree made from old Laos Whisky bottles out the back which was pretty cool (almost cooler than the barstaff and patrons... 😉

DAY FOUR


A quiet day of sorting out money from the bank (another saga - these VISA emergency cards are great! 😉 plus travel plans for the next day and burning a few photos to CD.

The heavens opened and we decided that we'd have to kick back in Le Cinema (private rooms with big screens and comfy couches) and watch the Killing Fields in preparation for our trip to Cambodia. Half way through the power went out and we ended up sitting around for an hour while they sorted it out watching the ducks play next door.

Met Chris for dinner at a little road side kitchen that sold massive plates of vegie dishes fro 5000 kip (50 US cents) which we enjoyed and headed home for a well deserved rest before our trip to Vang Vieng the next day...




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Wat Xieng Thong


26th August 2006

whaddup
Manly are certainly not in a slump. In 3rd spot, 4 points clear of the Eels in 4th, but still 8 points behind the Storm on the top of the table. Can find the ladder here http://www.ozleague.com/statshq.asp. Johnsy deserved everything he got. Cokehead. Can't wait for the photo montage when you get home! rock on dudes
27th August 2006

go grrl!
love a gemini take on reality!!! especially one with such an eliquant(?) gift of the gab ;-))
28th August 2006

dam birds in cages
when we were traveling through thailand we saw the birds in cages, we sat an observed and "lucky" for the sellers the birds will come back after there released and back to square one we are. sounds like your habing a ball, your not missing the shitty weather here. take care guys

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