Sabaidee

Asia » Laos » West » Luang Prabang
March 20th 2008

Published: March 22nd 2008

Edit Blog Post

Mike Huch

Mekong River

A fisherman laying out his nets

I was lucky enough to share a cab to the Bangkok airport, somewhat making up for getting ripped off when I arrived. The flight to Luang Prabang, Laos wasn't too full (only 12 people) but 3 of them were from Canada (a married couple from BC and her brother who works in India). The 4 of us shared a cab into town as none of us had booked a place to stay. After checking a few places out, we managed to find a nice little guesthouse on the Mekong for around $14 a night. Not too bad for a private bathroom!!!! We ended up walking around town , taking some pics and then went for dinner. The food was amazing and we shared everything that was ordered so we could taste all the amazing dishes (deep fried stuffed bamboo shoots, steamed fish flavored with coconut wrapped in banana leaf among several other dishes). I was a little disappointed when we got the bill though and I had to shell out $4 for everything, like I'm made of money or something.

The following day I walked around town in the morning and then went on an excursion in the afternoon. I

Fishing

Another fisher in the Mekong, doing it the hard way without the boat.

met another Canadian couple (there were 5 of us on the tour) from Ontario who now live and teach in Hong Kong. We took a bumpy ride to a little village for our first part of the excursion, an elephant ride. When we got there, we were told there are only 2 elephants today. I figured three of us would have to squeeze onto the makeshift seat on the elephant but it turned out that one person had to sit on the elephants neck. Given that I was there with 2 couples, I was the odd man out. It was quite the experience!!!! I couldn't take any pictures of the scenery or even look or even really look at it as I had to concentrate so much to not fall off. The couple from Ontario was super nice and they held onto my backpack to help stabilize me. After the HOUR LONG trip on the elephants neck, we took a boat to Pakou Caves across the river. These caves hold over 4000 statues of Buddha in all different poses, very cool to see. After the caves, we stopped by a whisky village to try some LaoLao whisky, wasn't too bad

Laundry

Better dry it done before nighttime. From my 4 nights in Laos it seems like it pours every night (along with wicked thunder and lighting)

at all. We headed back into town, I checked out the night market (seemed to be the same product at every other stall again) and went to sleep.

The next morning, I went to the Kuang Si waterfalls about 30km from town. ON the walk to the waterfalls, there is a bear sanctuary and a tiger in a cage as well. I walked up the side of the hill too see about 4 different falls, each progressing in size until the last area with a huge waterfall. The tour headed back after a few hours and I called it a day as I would be flying to Vientiane (capital of Laos) in the morning.

Additional photos below

Photos: 21, Displayed: 21