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Published: October 30th 2009
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I've never been to a city as relaxed as Luang Prabang. As mentioned in the previous blog entry, it was immediately clear that the contrast with Vietnam was going to be felt immediately. I'm now in Thailand and the 5 nights I spent there are already a blur. I did very little during my time there. I'd wake up around 5:30 AM each day, when the monks in the local Wat started banging their huge drum. This announced the beginning of the daily procession through the centre of town. The faithful line up each morning to donate sticky rice to the monks each morning. It is a simply amazing sight to see literally hundreds of monks and novices in their bright orange and yellow robes each day - and the many people who donate food to them each day is equally impressive.
Less impressive are the hordes of tourists pretending to be professional photographers - there is something about having a digital SLR and banana-republic style trekking kit that makes people run around like morons, getting in the faces of monks and snapping photo after photo...
With a 5:30 start every day, the town is (as the tour books
all say) a 'morning town'. It has a single main strip, known as 'restaurant row' but has a few other streets as well - there are cafes/restaurants that line the mekong riverside as well - a great setting to have breakfast in, as you watch the fisherman and tourists heading out for the day.
In the afternoon, there are plenty of places to go, read, eat, drink lao coffee or fruit smoothies - and many people go trekking or adventuring with one of the countless tour companies. I spent 5 nights in town but only ventured out of town twice - once when i hired a mountain bike (2 USD for the day) and made 2 unsuccessful attempts to find the 2 famous waterfalls...but I did enjoy 60 km or so of lao countryside anyway! My second journey was an 'official' tour, where I went with a group of other tourists on a day trip - 4 hours of kayaking and an elephant ride. It was billed as 'whitewater' but the guide says he toned it down because there was a girl in the group. The guide was a 20 year old guy who had recently left the wat
and life as a novice to 'chase girls and drink beer' as he put it. He did provide great insight into the area and life as a monk-in-training.
On my 6th day in town, I boarded the boat for Thailand. Its low season so everything is pretty empty. I opted for the tourist boat, netting a 60% off last minute discount meant that though it was still way more expensive than the public 'slow boat' it wasn't obscenely priced. I joined 7 others on this trip and we settled into 2 days of gorgeous landscapes and tasty food - plus a night at a very impressive lodge on the mekong.
When the trip ended, we went our separate ways - except that I stayed on the Laos side of the border for one final night. There was a couple on the boat from London that were heading back to Luang Prabang the next day on the 'fast boat' - 6 hours on a double-wide canoe with a huge outboard motor...so scary that even in laos they make you wear a crash helmet!. Anyway, we decided to spend the evening sipping a few beer laos in the border town
and i stayed in the nastiest guest house I've ever been in. Pictures don't do it justice but what can you expect for 5 USD per night!
Early the next morning, I was on my way across the mekong one last time - on the 1USD ferry to Thailand. For another dollar I hopped on the back of a motorbike to the bus stop - and the next leg of my adventure begins...
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Susan
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Did you have an elephant all to yourself?