Elephant, Tigers and Bears, oh my... Luang Prabang, Laos

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August 25 - 31 Luang Prabang

Tam, Felix, Jen and I took a minibus through the mountains from Vang Vieng up to Luang Prabang. The scenery was breathtaking, winding up over the high mountain peaks in northern Laos. We arrived in the late afternoon and found a place to stay. At our guesthouse, we randomly ran into some Australian friends of Felix’s who we had met earlier in Vang Vieng. It was a bit of a family reunion for them. One Australian woman lived in Vang Vieng and ran a guesthouse with her Lao husband. Her parents, Rex and Ruth were this very cool older couple from Australia coming to visit for a few weeks along with their interesting extended family, Simon and Ash. We also met up with several other people who we had met down in Vang Vieng. Unfortunately, Felix and Tam had to leave to return to Vientiane. We had so much fun traveling with them in Laos!

One of the highlights of Luang Prabang was the beautiful Luong Xi falls, just outside of town. The waterfall was enormous, and the water was cool and refreshing, light blue/white from all the limestone. It just felt so great soaking up all the minerals and getting natural massages from the water. The limestone texture made it very easy to climb too! We had so much fun we went two days in a row.

Another highlight in Luang Prabang was the Elephant rescue center we visited with the Australian family we had met. A German guy had opened this center to protect old elephants, who often are mistreated in this part of the world. It was great to see the center and go for an elephant ride. We also met one baby elephant they had acquired recently. We also took a little boat trip over to the small waterfall outside Luang Prabang.

I absolutely loved Laos - the people were so kind and relaxed. The other travelers we met were so much fun. Luang Prabang was such a beautiful little town with great shopping and lots of cute restaurants. And we were surprised at how nice the accommodations were. Night life was pretty chill as everything closes around midnight, but we did make it out one night to go bowling after hours with a big group of people we met. A game with 12 players, however, lasts a really long time...

So we stayed about a week and then got back on the road (or river rather) towards northern Thailand....

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Photos

Riding an Elephant
We each took turns sitting where the mahout sits and trying to steer - unfortunately, the elephant has a mind of his own!

Tiger
Near the Bear rescue center, they had also rescued this tiger, named Phet, as a 4 week old cub when poachers had killed its mother.

National Museum
Luang Prabang

Riding an Elephant
With Jeannette and Simon

Bears
Baby bears at the bear rescue center near Luang Prabang

Jen, Simon and me in the Lao Lao Garden
Free shots of the local rice whiskey, called Lao Lao is dyed a different color every night of the week. It doesn't seem to matter what color, it still takes disgusting. We're actually just posing here - none of us could stomach the stuff after our first visit to Lao Lao Garden!

Pubic bus
I can't help take pictures of the funny English mistakes I see all over Asia - I think the VIP bus was the better option...

Comments

[Jim]

Bugs & Snakes
Kris; Are you finding bugs, snakes, spiders, centipedes to be a worry in any particular area of your travels? Am particularly interested in poisonous sea snakes in the waters of Viet Nam. We are enjoying your posts very much. Thanks, Jim