Luang Prabang

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We arrived in Luang Prabang and walked up the hill and found plenty of guesthouses to choose from. The town was cute, and this old section was on a small peninsula bordered by the Mekong and Nam Khan Rivers. We were really tired for absolutely no apparant reason - I mean, all we had done was sit on a boat for the past two days! However, we just couldn't make a decision on a room and ended up getting a super cheap room, that on first glance was alright. First glance didn't include the bathroom, which ended up being quite revolting. It had mould all over the walls and something was leaking and water was dripping down the walls and all over the floor. Now, it is not unusual to have a wet floor in the bathrooms in Southeast Asia, as pretty well all of them have wet showers (the shower head is just on the wall, and when you shower the whole bathroom gets wet. A drain on the floor collects all the water). Once we had looked into the bathroom, we had already paid our ridiculously low price of 40,000 kip for the room (8000 Kip is roughly equal to $1 Canadian). Unfortunately, opening the bathroom door unleashed the smell into the rest of the room and we couldn't get rid of it. The room was fan only - no air con, as the weather was quite cool here in Luang Prabang in the rainy season.

Did I mention it was raining? Not the rain we had seen up until now, that only lasted an hour or so, or sprinkled on and off during the day, mostly off. No, this was a steady rain but it was still warm enough to be comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt so it wasn't bad. We braved the rain and headed out for some good Laos food. In Luang Prabang, there were also many western menus so Pizza and burgers were an option as well. We were getting terribly sick of eating rice twice daily by now!

Luang Prabang has a lot of options for day trips, including seeing waterfalls, trekking, elephant training and kayaking, but we had already seen a lot of waterfalls and caves by now, and Peter had contracted a nasty cold, which he blamed on our awful room on that first night (we changed guesthouses to the Thanaboung Guest House and had a lovely room there, although it was significantly more at 135,000 kip). Also, we had already done elephant training, so we just chilled out and went to the museum, which had once been the residence of the King and his family before he was dethroned in 1975. We also saw a few wats, and we rented bicycles one day and toured around the town. By our third and last day, when we went cycling, the rain had ceased and we enjoyed riding for the afternoon then eating by the rivers and enjoying the sunset.

Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site, beccause of it's unique mix of colonial buildings and traditional Laos architecture. The people are happy and laid back, and the touts are not at all pushy, with the exception of some of the kids trying to sell bracelets. They plead with you, saying they need money to go to school, but school is free in Laos. Laos now has 85% of its children attending school, so hopefully this will improve the literacy rate here. The people have a terrible time reading and their math skills are horrendous. I had to correct my bill several times, almost always in their favour. Watching them try to figure out your change when paying a bill is painful.

We left Luang Prabang by express bus - not VIP bus, as they were not available, for Phonsavan. We had enjoyed Luang Prabang, however, we were ready to move on so we boarded the bus for the eight hour journey to Phonsavan.

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Photos

The Grand Palace Museum
This used to be the Palace of the King of Laos, where he and his family resided, but after the King was dethroned in 1975, his palace was turned into a museum.