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Published: June 17th 2007
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After a few days of pain from the tubing, which i'd still do again, we travelled North to Luang Prabang.
The journey was suppose to take about 5/6 hours, however one thing i have realised in SE Asia is always anticipate the unexpected. We set off about 10am and apart from the towering cliffs above and below, crazy driver and monsoon weather, everything was okay.
We had our first stop and spot of lunch, but not trusting the black meat and women picking her toenails on the choipping board, i opted for a good old slice of laughing cow in a baguette. A bit on the dry side, but when you are not presented with too many options it tastes pretty good. We continued our journey North only to come across a slight obstacle. When i say slight, i mean an petrol tanker, blocking 90% of the only road heading north. The other 10% leaving a trail on the side of the cliff that the locals would happily try and squeeze through...No thanks. We sat there for about 2 hours, played some poker and calmly anticipated the worse, maybe a long trek, a night on the coach...all part
of the fun i suppose. After a few gun shots, water buffallos and tuk tuks (you know, the normal things you'd see on a main road) we we're back 'en route'.
We arrived in Luang Prabang about 7pm, only a small 9hrs later, and headed to the guest house Sokadee. Seems like a nice place; touristy but not too much, tranquil but not too much, cultural but definately not too much. (pretty sure we are both done with the cultural thing for the time being.)
We we're now a group of 6; Rich, Harry, Peter, Liat & Tziki (the Israelis) and Rich and Myself. We did the 'shtandard' initiation of familiarizing ourself with the local area, and grabbed a quiet bite to eat and wondered through the night market, which i know my sisters would love. The orientation didnt go to well, as we headed back about 11pm, and later around 3am had on knock on my door, by Tziki, looking for Liat. She said she knew where she was going, but if she didnt return i dont think i could have ever forgiven myself. We walked the streets for hours, but no one around. I said 'she'll
be fine, probably got a little lost, and slept in another guest house' to ease his mind, but deep down thinking the worse. A few hours later she turned up, after navigating her way at first light...Thankfully now we can all joke about it.
My adivse: if you ever head out at night, always come back together, as once the markets and shops close it looks like a completely different place...'same, same but different'..a phrase you'll gert used to.
After a restless night we headed for the cultural (i hate that word) buddha cave; whereby ,any old buddhas are kept, as they can not be thrown away or destroyed. Basically lets put our old, useless buddhas in a cave, really far away, up the worst roads on the other side of the river, so we can charge stupid tourists, not only to get there, but also to cross the river and also to enter the cave. We then climbed up to another cave which was worse than the first one...
My advise: dont do culture.
We headed back acroos the river...just about, as the man couldnt get the boat to start and by the noises he
was making it didnt sound to promising. After a nice trek back we had a spot of lunch and headed for the waterfall. Shame the Sun wasnt out but it was pretty impressive. A short trek up to the first pool and the scenery was brilliant. We swam around under the drop and behind into a little cave. Unfortunately we didnt have the camera, as it was definately another one of those moments.
Climbing back was even harder and a little slippery as Rich might tell you. Thankfully we can laugh as he only picked up a few scratches but seeing someone bounce from rock to rock, like Homer Simpson, is funny and worrying at the same time. Jenny i would never laugh at your son, but once he started to laugh i knew he was ok....he's fine i promise.
Last night we were shatterd and after a supposed 2hr sleep, from 6;30- 8;30pm, i woke up 14hrs later. Tonight we will have a good old drink and tomorrow we head for Bangkok.
Miss you all
Love Brad and Rich
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Meliz
non-member comment
Delicious!
Oh, I'm so glad I read the bit about "the black meat and women picking her toenails on the choipping board" while I was eating my lunch!! Hope you're doing well boys - sounds like you are!! Have fun x x x