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Mekong Sunset
Luang PrabangWe said a temporary farewell to our friends from near Vientiane and flew to Luang Prabang with Laos Air. There was a Vietnamese dignitary on the flight so when we landed in Luang Prabang there was a television crew there to greet our flight. We joked with Sai that we thought the fuss was because of his arrival looking like a Thai pop star. Our greeting party was Sai’s cousin, Top, with his wife Ting, plus their young son. Naturally our first stop was a noodle soup house for a quick lunch. Then they helped us find a comfortable guesthouse in the centre of town.
After settling in we took a walk around and met up with some of Sai’s friends who he used to work with in the tourist industry. They mostly work as tour guides or run cafes.
The real estate tour Boon, who is a guide and all round nice guy organised to take us on a quick trip around town looking at what businesses and buildings are for sale. We picked up a friend of theirs who is a real estate sales person and we did our drive around. They wanted to show us
how things are opening up market wise and how there are many opportunities for business.
So, we took a look at a French style villa owned by the former Laos royal family, on the market to a mere US$1,000,000. We saw a old style Laos building not far form the centre on the market for US$450,000 and various other places. They also showed us residential houses in a few locations ranging from US$50,000 to US$80,000. We also saw a few hotel projects up for sale for between US$4,000,000 and US$5,000,000. A lot of the projects were being funded by Chinese or Korean consortiums.
Phousi Hill & the Foot Print of Lord Buddha With us suitably informed about the local real estate market, Boon took us up Phousi hill and showed us the various Buddha statues along the way, Saturday Buddha, Sunday, etc. The walk was worth it for the panoramic views around Luang Prabang. I offered some incense and candles at the small shrine atop the hill and we took a look at the rock that reputedly has an imprint of the Buddha’s left foot. True or not it sure looks like a footprint to me, have
a look at the photo and see what you think.
Kouang Si Waterfall & Big Noses Boon organised our trip to Kouang Si Waterfall, with Top and Ting. On the drive there we got a good laugh form their young son who was pointing and joking that us “falangs” have really big sharp noses. We teased him that his was very flat and small and asked how could he possibly breathe through something so small.
We joined the other tourists and took a swim at the waterfall. The water was lovely and refreshing. After our swim we had some lunch with Boon and enjoyed a coconut drink to wash it all down. On the way back Ting gave Lorenza a lovely silk bed runner as a gift, which was lovely of her. It should have been us giving the gifts because they had shown us around and waited for us while we did the tourist stuff. They are very patient and kind people.
Karaoke with the girls Sai introduced us to one of his “sisters”, who was a very close friend of his when he was growing up. We found in our travels that he
has many, many friends, sisters, brothers, cousins and acquaintances. All of them seem like lovely people and are I guess a reflection of the fact that he is a nice person also.
Anyway, his sister invited us out to a karaoke bar, together with some of her friends (all married women in their mid thirties or so). We were set up in a private room with plenty of Beer Lao and food to nibble on. It soon became evident that these ladies could drink, dance and sing us under the table with no effort at all.
One lady, Van, was a singer in a band and her husband had written some of the songs that were featured. They liked mostly Thai lost love songs, that always had the same theme – girl meets boy, falls in love, boy meets girl’s best friend and cheats on girl, they bust up, get back together, etc.
The best songs to sing along with where the Laos style folk songs that had been modernised, but had communist propaganda style film clips added to them. Nothing like singing a stirring Laos song with visions of Laos soldiers marching to war to stir
you on! The group of people were just happy to be happy. We had a great time with them.
Lovely Temples Over the four days we stayed in Luang Prabang we visited a lot of interesting sights while in Luang Prabang and possibly missed many more. The national museum housed in the former royal palace was really interesting. Wat Visounnarath, the oldest operating temple in the town was lovely.
We also saw the Dutch Temple, so called because it was built in honour of the first European to have visited Luang Prabang. The Royal Family were so impressed by the Dutch visitor they built a temple in his honour, complete with gold pictures of the Dutch visitor wearing his very period looking Dutch hat.
We met a couple from New Zealand, Chris and Vicky, while wandering the streets and got talking. We visited a few temples together and shared some lunch and some beers. We also joined them for dinner, along with a German couple Klaus and Stefan. Chris and Vicky own a vineyard near Auckland called Cliff Edge wines, so pay the a visit if you are nearby, they tell us their Bordeaux style Merlot
and Cabernet Franc blend is very nice.
Cooking Class We took an evening cooking class together with Chris and Vicky, this was fun and we all enjoyed sharing our culinary creations following the class. Each couple picked two dishes to cook, so as a foursome we got to try all four dishes that were on offer. My personal favourite is the pork larb, even though our version was a bit salty on the day.
The cooking class reinforced the fact that Laos food is simple, fresh and meant to be shared. The sharing idea is great, unlike European type meals where each person gets a plate of the same dish all Laos meals are a variety of dishes all put in the middle of the table to share. There is no set idea of entrée and main dishes, it is all served roughly at the same time and meant to be enjoyed as a group and talked about.
Bun Me or “Lucky” the Dog During our time in Luang Prabang I had noticed a particular little dog wandering the streets with a very plucky attitude. He looked to be a mixture between a fox terrier
and a French bull dog. He was small but looked like he owned the world.
While returning from our cooking class I saw this dog again, sitting with some women on the footpath outside a shop. Lorenza, Chris and Vicky were browsing in the craft shops and I struck up a conversation with the two women about the dog. Within a few minutes the older woman of the two (one was about 40ish and the other 60ish) offered me a chair and said “you don’t need to shop, why not sit and talk”. They then proceeded to tell me the story of Bun Me or “Lucky” …
Bun Me had been dumped as a pup on the doorstep of the older women. She liked the dog but because of her busy life looking after children, cooking and running a business she had not come up with a name for the dog. She arrived at the name Bun Me or Lucky after the dog got run over three times in the space of a few days and survived.
I told them if the dog was missing tomorrow it was because I had packed him in my bag and
taken him back to Australia. I explained that I had seen him all around town and how I thought he was such a character.
A relaxed time We had a really enjoyable, relaxed time in Luang Prabang. We did not rush about to see every tourist sight on offer, instead we wandered the streets and took in the atmosphere of the town. Two people had told me while we were planning our trip that they would love to live in Luang Prabang and we understood while after a few days. The town has a very old world charm and is very slow paced and inviting.
In the side streets there are some lovely houses and galleries and beautiful small temples. One of these temples housed an art workshop funded by a the UN to help preserve traditional Laos art. The monks and novices practiced traditional style painting and wood carving, plus gold leaf work. They had a small showroom with some very reasonably priced art works.
We had originally planned to stay only two nights in Luang Prabang, but luckily the agent we booked our air ticket through had given us an open ticket so we
could extend our stay if we desired. It was a great idea on her part. If you ever need a good travel agent in Laos, please contact Pat at Diet Helm Travel www.diethelmtravel.com/laos/Pages/home.aspx. She is more than helpful and gave us great service.
BB & the Dalai Lama While awaiting our return flight we got talking with BB who was returning to Singapore. He had been in Luang Prabang investigating the possibility of setting up an orphanage and a school on behalf of a Singapore based Buddhist charity aligned with the Dalai Lama. He was an interesting guy to talk to and I admired his drive to try and do good works in Laos. He explained that his group in Singapore wanted to do something in Laos because it is one of the poorest countries in the region. He gave us the website of the group in Singapore www.casotac.com may they all be well and happy.
Missed connections On our return to Vientiane I got a call from one of my cousins who it turned out has been living in Luang Prabang for the past year. He had left us a message sometime ago to get
around Luang Prabang
the Buddha's foot print in contact with him but somehow I did not get the message – ooops. We probably passed him in the street but never realised it!
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