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Published: September 19th 2008
Heaven
Hill Top Temple sunset in Luang PrabangI heard the putting of cars, padding of feet and pitter-pattering of the rain before I felt the cold hard concrete beneath my face. I slowly but surely lifted my body off the floor and everything came into view - the weak morning sun straining to get through the rain clouds and the streets of Luang Prabang that were coming to life. We weren't home and free yet; yes, we might be in the right town and yes, we might have more luck in the light of day but we still hadn't found our bloody hostel and yes, I was still lying on the resturant veranda where I had been sleeping for the last 3 hours!
Getting there
Arriving in Houyxai (laos side of the mekong at the Laos/Thai border) we went straight to the nearest tourist office and were told that the bus for Luang Prabang left at 1pm and it was the only bus. Bugger! Who is their right minds has only one bus from the border to one of the main destinations; and knowing that it takes 12 hours, decides it should leave at 1 in the afternoon so that you arrive, oh so handily, in
Laughing Lady and rice terraces
The reason for her smile - Her son was literally head to toe in mud so she was giggling as she walked past us! the middle of the night. We were so certain that there was a night bus - it would just make sense right? and by arriving at 2pm we had missed it by an hour and had to stay in Houyxai for a night - while it pissed it down, brilliant!
We had to hang around till 1pm the next day dispite trying many tourist agencies and going all the way out to the bus station to try and find a sooner bus. So i ran about town without a jacket to finally find a really nice little guest house with a triple room for only 1.90 pounds each and after a nap we felt much better about the current situation. We thought about looking at the temple up the hill that overlooked the Mekong but decided against it on account that the rain was so harsh we wouldn't be able to get any decent photos and we might well be washed away! In the end we decided on good food and on our way back we found a really cool little bar, probably one of my favorites, and had a few drinks to make up for the time lost!
The
readying the boats
mekong fishing village, LP bus the next day was packed with people who were meant to be taking the slow boat, that we had already decided against, because of the rain - 2 days on a little wooden boat in the rain wouldn't really appeal to anyone! It was a typical Laos bus with no leg room, broken seats, no air con and middle of the forest/pee in a bush toilet stops. I was actually expecting this after my last short experience in Laos and my Asian bus experiences since but Sam was in no way prepared for it all! Especially since the buses always run a couple of hours longer than they say and in this weather it ended up being 5! When in this situation you have to laugh or try to just get on with it - there is no other option of getting around (unless you have enough money to fly; I don't!) So the squished bumpy journey took 17hours (including the hour spent waiting in the bus before they decided to leave) encompassed leaning over the edge of a cliff at night as we drove over a land slide and a break at a bus stop where there was
man asleep in the only toilet (it's asia so you can't wake him up) and the local resturants (plastic patio furniture and only one dish available) won't let you use their loos so all the western girls on the bus went round the back of their houses and peed one by one into a ditch whiel the bus driver revved his engine to hurry us up - I love Asia! (I actually do!)
All this was then topped with getting into Luang Prabang at 4am and trying to get into a guest house, all the doors were shut in our faces, the guys just couldn't be bothered to check us in and trying to find SpicyLaos (spicy Thai's sister hostel) which was new in town, and without an address was nigh on impossible. So for 7 of us it was just a matter of trying to find somewhere to sit out the rain till morning. I found a closed resturant (a real one) that had a veranda and some chairs and tables still out, so while the others sat down and played cards I snuggled up on the floor and slept till morning!
Spicy
Finally in the morning
Monsoon in Houyxai
Border town with Thailand on the edge of the Mekong we were able to find Spicy Laos, get a pick up and be welcomed in by the great and wonderful Pong (founder of the Spicys). Luang Prabang, once you have somewhere to stay, is actually a lovely place. Laos in general in just so chilled out and perfect, dispite all the difficulties in travelling, and LP is one of the places that I have loved the most. It was owned by the French so there are little stalls on every corner selling bagettes with laughing cow cheese and cucumber. It in general just gives the whole country a very colonial feel with the Asian favour to back it up and give it a real vibe. We went straight out that first day tp the waterfalls which are one of the main attractions in the area. Normally what was a beautiful clear and serene blue with perfect swimming and waterfall jumping conditions became a mad torrent of brown water for our day there - Well it is monsoon season, we didn't have much right to expect less! So this first day we weren't actually able to swim which kinda sucked but we went again later in the week when it was
a little calmer and were able to dip in (i did however manage to almost drown when I jumped off the waterfall and the current took me - luckily i'm a strong swimmer!)
One of my highlights was on the first waterfall trip we ended up the day at a little fishing village. The main family in the village are actually the owners of the Spicy Laos house and friends of Pong's so we all went with Pong for an amazing little side trip to their house for dinner, although not before a sunset cruise down the Mekong in a couple of dinky fishing boats! The spicy papaya salad was some of the spiciest and best I have ever tasted and all the rest of the food was served on the floor of their balcony and was equally as good; finished off with the freshest and sweetest pineapple (I think I ate an entire one to myself!)
The waterfalls is not the only thing you can do in Luang Prabang. We got up very early one morning and paid extortionate amounts for little baskets of sticky rice (oooh sticky rice, I just reminded myself of how good sticky rice is,
Hmmmm!) and rice wrapped in banana leaves. With our haul we headed to the main street where the monks from three different monastaries converge to collect alms. Buddhist monks can only eat what they are given so if you are ever up early enough and wondering the streets in a Buddhist country you will see them walking the streets and collecting their alms from whereever they can, relying totally on the good will of the local people. I have often seen them singularly walking around while I was waiting for a bus or boat but nothing quite like this morning in Luang Prabang. They came in long lines all walking together from every direction; long orange ribbons of men walking with dedicated steps through the town in the pale morning light. It was actually quite beautiful and I was very excited about finally being able to photograph them (Pong, an ex noivce monk, said as long as you stay out of their way and don't shove your camera in their faces, they don't mind people photograhing them), but what happened? My memory card had a hissy fit after taking 3 photos! So all I was able to do was watch
and make a memory, something that would've actually been quite lovely had I not been on the verge of tears over possibly losing 4GB of photos!
During our time in this great little town we were also treated to talks by Pong on Thai/Laos history and the history of Buddhism. (Spicy Laos is actually quite expensive for Laos and becuase it's dorm accommodation but these little extras more than make up for it!)And as a group we all made it up the steps to the little temple on the hill in the centre of town for an incredible sunset before heading out for dinner and drinks to celebrate one of the staffs birthday. It all ended rather messily in typical Luang Prabang fashion - at the bowling alley! LP has a curfew and therefore the only place open late at can still serve drinks is weirdly enough the local bowling alley, crazy, but a good night!
More Monsoon Headaches
Sam and I were on a crazy schedule - trying to loop SE Asia from Bangkok to Singapore in two months is no mean feat! So we fell in love with laos and were very excited about getting down
to Vang Vieng for tubing, I had heard so much about it and how fun it was from the boys and Ellen that it was definitely on our list. The weather man had other ideas. We found out that a guy had died just days ago in Vang Vieng due to the huge amount of rain that resulted in a crazy current. People die every year going tubing (perhaps why my insurance doesn't cover it!) but because all the bars were flooded out and current was so dangerous tubing was actually closed for the time being. Then we were told that because of all the landslides they weren't sure whether or not buses could get from Vang Vieng to Vientiane, the capital city from which we were meant to get a bus into Vietnam. In one day we had a make a snap decision - hang out and hope it all cleared up and opened quickly or get a flight straight to Hanoi from Luang Prabang. Because of the tight time schedule we opted for the very expensive second option. Gutted, but had to be done. We didn't want to leave Laos but we needed enough time to get through
Vietnam so off we went. I'll be back!
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