Luang Prabang

---

---

Luang Prabang - From Craziness to culture

Meeting Steve, Simone and Julia at the bus station (All in various states after days of late night mischief) we boarded the VIP bus to Luang Prabang. The 6 hour journey was by far the most beautiful and scenic in Laos so far. The jungle clad limestone mountains, rice fields, winding roads and deep gorges never seemed to end.
We arrived in Luang Prabang a little tired and ratty and after exploring several Guest houses we settled on the first one we wondered into. A little more expensive than Vang Vieng but just as comfortable.
Liff and I wondered into the Night Market which was a sensual overload with BBQ everything on the menu, eat as much as you can buffets and plenty of Beer-Lao on offer. Tiger Claws and Paws and painted turtle shells were unfortunately as common as the BeerLao
After a brief wonder through a raining market we called it quits and retired for a long and peaceful sleep.

We spent the next day wondering the old town (A UNESCO heritage site) Temples, old french villas, Monks and cafes lined the streets. The city is right on the Mekong river and the Mighty Muddy is visible form most locations. Liff spent a few hours talking to a young Monk by the name of Lie. Just about to graduate, he was by far the most articulate and insightful monk we have met on our journey so far. He gave us a unique insight into the life of a Lao monk and we were sad to part ways. He gave us all the details of the 'collecting of alms'. Every morning before 6am the monks from all the Wats walk the streets collecting food and donations from the local residents. A sight we had to see, we set the alarms for early the next morning.

Rising around 5am, Julia, Liff and I set off to find the long orange processions of monks lining up to receive their daily food, an awesome spectacle! Each monastery's monks would stick together in long ques awaiting their turn in complete silence, only the birds chirping in the surrounding hills could be heard.
Spell bound we returned to the guest house to find Steve and head to the hills to find the LaoLao (A locally produced whiskey) factories and the sacred Pak Ou cave. This day was going to be a rip snorter with the distilled liquor being tested at every opportunity.
We found several local distilleries hidden in the bamboo forests (see pics). Every one keen for us to sample the brew made from sticky rice and yeast. Steve and I set to work and before lunch we had tasted every form of the potent brew and were stumbling and slurring trying to sound intelligent. These local distilleries can make LaoLao with a strength from 16-60% depending on various factors in the process.
A strange addition to the Lao Lao was snakes, scorpions, geckos and any form of large insect available from the local virgin jungles.
Whiskeys sampled we decided the time was right to explore the caves, only accessible by long tail boat, we found a boatman to escort us to the mouth of the cave. Pak Ou is an ancient cave complete with over 4000 Buddha statues. We spent several hours exploring the 2 cave systems and their ancient contents.
Starving and wanting to dodge the inevitable hang over we had lunch on a bamboo terrace overlooking the river and nearby jungles.

Returning to Luang Prabang we ascended the only hill in town to watch the sunset. The views from this hill are amazing and from the top temple we could see the city from above. The hill is covered in statues shrines and even has a footprint of Buddha hiding in a cave. Chased of the mountain by darkness we vowed to return the next day to explore these treasures more extensively.
The next day we booked our 2 day boat trip up the Mekong to the Thailand Boarder. A slower option than the buss we shopped around. Tickets in hand we explored the hill top once again finding cave temples hidden and loaded with shrines, statues and many forms of strange bling.
The evening was spent at a local river side bar (Utopia) we highly recommend an evening visit to this fine establishment. Packed and sorted we prepared for the early morning boat ride to Pak Beng, a small village on the banks of the Mekong in the middle of nowhere..........

---