Advertisement
Published: August 29th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Luang Prabang, Laos - Unesco Protected World Heritage city What a beautiful place!!!
....Luang Prabang is 11 hours by bus from Vientiane, the capital of Laos. I took the bus from Vang Vieng where i was staying at the Organic Farm so it only took about 6 hours. It is very difficult to try to catch the local buses because they expect you to take the expensive VIP or Express buses instead, it is common to get discouraged at the bus station, last minute notification of buses being cancelled or getting stuck somewhere are quite normal...anyways, i still believe traveling by bus around Laos is very easy and one of the most amazing experiences.
I am at a loss for words to describe how amazing and beautiful it is the bus ride from Vientiane all the way up to Luang Prabang. Nature is wild, mountains have the most beautiful shapes i have ever seen, the rice paddy fields are impressive gardens, cascades of water coming down from the mountains, a very fun curvy road unless you have a sensitive stomach ;-) Every day, i become more and more convinced of how similar Laos is in comparison to Costa
Rica. I have seen just as many fruits and vegetables we have at home and the mountains are just as green, of course, Laos is a less developed country; which turns out to be a great thing. They are starting to promote more eco-tourism, it seems the majority of people leading this movement are very aware of the consequences of massive tourism and really looks like they are taking the effort to preserve it....All great news!!!
Luang Prabang is between the Nam Khan and the mekong River:
http://maps-guide.org/laos/luangprabang-map.htm It has some stunning wats = temples, glittering in emerald and gold colors, combined with the beautiful sacred orange colors of the robed Monks that can be seen at all times walking peacefully in the streets or chanting beautifully at the wats in late afternoons.
Every day starting at 5:30pm, the TH Sisavangvong is closed to traffic to see the most beautiful night market in Laos, with a lot of handicrafts from the hmong tribe village: jewellery, traditional medicine, beautiful colorful mulberry paper lamps, bags, wooden made crafts, silk Lao textile, etc....I also found a delicious vegetarian buffet for 5,000 Kip $0.50 in one of its streets. There is also
a small road just off the main market road with plenty of street vendors and tables to sit in serving fish, eggs, vegetables, "a lot of meat, of course", noodles, coconut sweets, and pastry. One of the last things would happen to anyone in Laos is Starving as it seems to me they eat for fun more than anything else ;-) I hope to validate this theory as i travel along the other countries.
I also visted "Phu Si" mountain which is just in the middle of everything, a good way to exercise on my way to the top, where the effort is rewarded by stunning views of Luang Prabang. Here i met two very nice road friends Luis from Spain and Ale from italy, we connected very quickly and got engaged in a nice conversation, we ended up hanging out for couple of days, visiting the "Pak Ou" buddha caves and without noticing arriving for dinner at a place next to the Nam Kham river that was just being opened so we got to sit around with many Laotians and get a little bit of this family/friends reunion feeling.
I was very blessed to find a nice
room for 30,000 kip = $4 just off the center and right in front of one of my favorite places "L'etranger books & Tea".... where I spent many of the afternoons when it was pouring cats & dogs from the sky...the place was very cozy with tons of interesting books from travel guides and maps ;-) to hollistic treatments, history, laotian culture, cooking, etc.....they also had an upstair tea room with cushions in the floor where they had independent films played every night for a couple of hours. The place is open for the community to have access to books, take-home rental, they also promote dropping off or exchange used books to encourage reading.
As usual, one of the first things i did was renting a bike for the day to get oriented in town and see a little bit of what there was outside of it. Riding bikes has definetely been one of the happiest moments during my trip. I tried looking for opportunities to volunteer working with the elephants but this place i went to was more keen to sell me an expensive tour than letting me help, after many excuses and fruitless conversation i decided to
walk away, later on, i visited "the Big Brother Mouse" project
http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/ where i had the chance to take part in one of the English teaching class for the kids.
The only thing i was sad about is to realize how hard it was to get out of town and explore the mountains, waterfalls, etc without having to pay for expensive tours in Air-Con mini-vans/lunch included. Fortunately, i met these two friends and we were able to arrange a Tuk-tuk ride to the Pak-Ou buddha caves, 25 Kms from town, the two caves in the lower part were packed with buddha images, then we walked up the stairs to the upper cave where we meet many many kids along the way trying to sell us "birds in cages", food, etc. The best thing we could do was to share some of the fruits we had bought back in town.
We also had a wonderful boat ride crossing the Mekong river and walking in the forest for about 6 Kms to some ruins, all guided by a very funny little kid that knew very well to say "Ten thousand, Money, Ten Thousand"...all in all, this was the closest experience
to Treking this beautiful mountains....
I really wanted to stay in Luang Prabang longer, it happened to be the most beautiful place of all 3 i visited in Laos and the most economically friendly, unfortunately, i forgot my passport at the organic farm in Vang Vieng and had to go back to get it :-( I am sure i will be back to this wonderful place very soon!!!
I am heading back to Vientiane to get my Thai visa, then crossing the border by land to Nong-Khai, Thailand.... ;-)
Love to all,
Andres
Advertisement
Tot: 0.099s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 7; qc: 44; dbt: 0.049s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Bucky
non-member comment
Photos --
Only the first four loaded for me. I feel cheated. Your descriptions are enticing.