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Published: October 31st 2005
Sai Waterfall
Colour, Mark - COLOUR!!!That out of the way - lets deal with our next instalment (guided and proofed by our own 'in house' editor - Miss Gillian Hoult) - Lets Hang in Luang Prabang.......
We arrived later that day, with no
feeling from the waist down, in Luang Prabang. We headed off on mass, knocking cyclists to the ground if they got in our way, to race for the best guest houses.
After braking away from the crowd we aimed for one of the lonely planet recommendations, a $6 fan room with balcony - Hoixeng - with free fruit and coconut bread!!
Luang Prabang is a UNESCO heritage site. It is a lovely place, which hopefully comes through on some of the pictures. Every night there is a night market with food, clothing, home things, and a plethera of 'stuff'.
The food is sort of cheap, the bars and restaurants are nice and everything is pretty, but most of all the locals are lovely.
The town has an array of buildings with French influence including services such as 'La Poste'. There are some beautiful Wats and civic buildings and the mekong drifts lazily by while you sit and ponder.
While there we did the usual tourist trips. We visited the 'religious iconography dump' (it is actually a fine cave - Tham ting - half an hour back up the Mekong) with thousands of Buddha statues. The
Tham Ting Cave
Buddhas secret lair cave has been patronised for centuries by royalty and dignitories, and holds a very important place in the hearts of Loatians for miles around.
After the caves we visited the 'Whiskey Village', which we havn't the faintest idea of the proper name, which offers Loa Loa - the local moonshine - with either the plain varieties or if you prefer you can have bottles with snakes or scorpians in (but we really can't get our heads around the idea that getting pissed with the preserved remains of creatures is a tempting option).
The 'waterfall' (Sai Waterfall) was visited, which isn't so much a waterfall, but is so nice with trees throughout the flow and in which you can swim (but very cold).
One thing we have noticed here though is that everything costs and that cost builds. These places which were visited had the cost of the tuk tuk, boats to ferry to and from, and the cost of entering, all of which are comparitively pricey. Not a big issue but we thought this worth a mentoin.
The rest of the time here was spent moochin, chillin, sittin, eatin, and drinkin. All in all a well
worth visiting place - although if you're coming from northern Thailand you ain't got much choice.
Our next destination is six hours down route 13 (noted in recent years for it's armed attacks on government buses) to Vang Vieng - the home of tubing and 'happy pizzas'!
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