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Published: March 4th 2009
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A petite Asian woman holding a simple paper sign with my name on it greeted me outside of the airport. Taxis are absent, tuk-tuk drivers are not to be found, in fact outside of a couple of other guesthouses picking up their guests, no one is here. The lady turns out to be Khoun and she points to the end of the parking lot and tells me that her husband Khoun is in the car waiting to take us back. At the far end of the parking lot, an old US Army Jeep with the top cut-off and the doors missing rumbles to life. An Asian looking version of Hunter S. Thompson (shorts, aviator glasses, bushman's hat and a huge smile) is behind the wheel as it heads in our direction. The man is Khoun and the jeep is my ride. This is Laos.
Khone and Khoun took me on a brief tour of Luang Prabang. I saw the main road, some of the numerous wats that have made Luang Prabang a UNESCO world heritage site (then again what hasn't been declared a UNESCO site), and the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers that around the city. We then proceeded out
My home
Great mountain views of the city toward their guesthouse. Set in the middle of the surrounding hillside, their bungalows (made by Khoun) were the much needed peace and solitude that I desired after the chaos that was Vietnam. A large room with a huge porch out front and a stone shower in back. Managed to spend the day on the porch reading and having a Beer Lao.
Khone and Khoun go out of their way to make you feel at home. I dined with their children one evening while watching a horrible kung-fu movie. When I wanted a ride into Luang Prabang but Khoun had taken the jeep, they simply gave me the keys to a motorcycle and a helmet. It was such a drastic but incredible change.
6AM Luang Prabang style - Morning slowly starts to shake off the night as people begin heading to the streets. Street vendors selling sticky rice and numerous banana wrapped goodies are already hard at work. Slowly in the distance you can see a streak of orange along Sisavangvong Street. The monks have arrived for morning alms. Slowly the monks from each wat (there are over 30 wats in LP) walk along the streets
accepting alms from the people. This will be the only food that they eat for the day. Lines of monks keep appearing no matter where you walk. Turn one corner and you are in view of another group of monks. Orange is everywhere.
The color orange seemed to be the symbol of the day. From the orange clad monks, watching the sun setting of the Mekong River from atop Phu Si hill. to the burning hillsides at night from my balcony, orange seemed to be everywhere. The hills were on fire as the farmers were clearing their land in preparation for the upcoming rainy season. They wanted to be ready to plant.
There were 4 of us staying at the Khone and Khoun's and we decided to take a hike through the hills to see some hill tribe communities. The Hmong people live on top of the hills and the Khmu people live in the middle of the hills. Even though they are different ethnicities, they appeared to get along with one another quite well. At the Hmong village one man was working on making machetes. It was interesting to watch but I was more fascinated by the
Cable for all
A man's got needs. fact that he was using an old US bombshell as the plate to shape the machete blade on.
The hike was pretty spectacular as we wandered through teak trees and pineapple plants throughout the countryside. We had lunch at a Khmu village and were served a traditional Laotian meal. We had sticky rice with a sauce made of dried buffalo skin and chillies, Mekong seaweed with sesame on top and some Lao sausages (pork and water buffalo). Later on we wandered into a large group of water buffalo sitting in a pond of mud. I should of probably taken note that the water buffalo were attempting to cool off as the temperature was getting rather hot. It was a great relief to hear that we had arrived at Tad Sae waterfalls. Unfortunately the waterfalls were a little less than spectacular due to dry season. It was still nice to get the feet wet though and cool off. After that we did the standard elephant ride. Pretty cheesy but it was impressive to see how nimble the elephant is.
A bit hungry after our day, we heading into town for some Lao BBQ. BBQ seems to be quite popular
Water Buffalo
Getting dirty in order to cool off. around here. From fish, chicken, sausage and beef on a stick from the street stalls to sit down restaurants, BBQ is everywhere. The restaurant reminded me of a fondue station as the tables had a removable center piece for the burners. Rather than a burner though, we had a bucket of hot charcoal dropped into the center and a dish that looked like a rather large orange juicer on top. The waiter poured water into the outside circle and loaded it up with veggies. We placed the various meats on top and as we slowly cooked our meal, the meat juices added to the water and vegetables to make a nice soup.
Wanting to see a better waterfall, I grabbed a tuk-tuk with some other travelers in town and head out to Kuang Si waterfalls. These were much more spectacular and the spring-fed water was a beautiful shade of ice blue. It was great to spend the day wandering in and around the falls.
Spent the rest of my time on the balcony reading and planning some more of the trip.
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Tami
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water buffalo
Nice picture of the dirty buffalo. Today, I was pulled in a trailer by a water buffalo named "Sexy." I am so not kidding.