The slowest of slow boats into Laos and Unesco's Luang Prabang !!

---

Days 119-120 (Thurs 3^rd – Fri 4^thJan)



Recently has been pretty good going so I have not moaned in a while. Today is the day for a whinge. Myself and Megan endured the 2 day slow boat from Houay Xai to Luang Prabang. I have no problems with boats and am very familiar with them but I absolutely hated it. We spend 9 hours each day on this canal barge basically going down the Mekong. The boats were ok and only once did I feel like it nearly tipped over but the journey was thoroughly boring. The scenery is quite nice but very samey all the way down. It was a bit like a Scooby doo chase scene, hills, rocks, sand, water buffalo and repeat for 9 plus hours. The first day was slightly more enjoyable than the second as on the second some guys got stupidly drunk and to put it simply, they were being morons.

The night in between we spend in Pakbeng, a 1 street town that I’m pretty sure only caters to slow boaters. We had a decent meal and watched a film in the evening which chilled me out after being frustrated and bored all day.

When we finally arrived in Luang Prabang we were conned by a tuk tuk driver. On telling us a certain street was a 30 minute walk we hopped in, he drove round the town in a huge circle (to make it seem longer) and literally dropped us off one street along. We have found tuk tuk drivers here to be very sketchy characters.

We found a place to stay for one night and headed out in the evening for a beer and to meet the other Chiang Mai group members who’d travelled down here before us. After a beer or 2 we headed over to Louise and Amy’s guesthouse as it was far cheaper than ours, we got a room sorted for the following couple of days and headed back to ours. Luang Prabang has an 11pm bar curfew and 12pm guesthouse curfew although ours didn’t enforce it. As the entire town is a UNESCO world heritage site and there are lots of monks drinking isn’t huge here.



Day 121 (Sat 5^th Jan)



We packed up and moved over to the girls guesthouse first thing and then met up with a few others to go to the number 1 tourist attraction in Luang Prabang, being the Kuang Si waterfall. It took about an hour to get there in the world slowest tuk tuk but it was totally worth it. You first see a bear sanctuary where they have recovered endangered bears for the wild, these were amusing and just lay in hammocks enjoying life.

We then walked a little and got to the lower end of the waterfall. The waterfall itself is huge and very impressive. Further down there are smaller waterfalls and some swimming areas with rope swings and the like. We stopped there for a bit and all had a swim and swing. After getting bored on the rope swing I decided to start somersaulting of the waterfall into the pool below. I did check it was deep enough and there was nothing there first then went for it. After getting one wrong I stopped as it gave me a dead leg. The water was also really cold but it was a good hour spend swimming about. After being by the sea in the Philippines I am missing not being able to just go swim in the sea so this was a good substitute. I went and booked a kayaking day out after this.

For tea we went to an all you can fit on one plate vegetarian food stall, surprisingly it was quite good but I am a meat eater and did feel something was missing. We once again headed to Utopia after this for some more drinks.

From here we went to late night bowling, one of 2 places you can drink after 11. We only had one game but it was more than enough and very entertaining, some interesting throwing tactics I hadn’t seen before.



Day 122 (Sun 6^th Jan)



I woke up and was incredibly ill. I had only had 4 beers the night before so it wasn’t a hangover but I felt terrible. If I hadn’t already paid for the tour I would have stayed in bed but not one to waste money I went anyways.

We got taken an hour or so in the car upstream to Nam Ou and from there we kayaked down the Nam Ou river. The first stint was for around 2 hours with a little stop in the middle to take pictures of some of the nearby mountains, of which there is many. It looks similar but not quite as nice as Guilin in China.

We stopped for lunch and to visit Pak Ou Cave, which is filled with thousands of Buddha statues and relics. It wasn’t the best cave by any stretch but was a nice place to stop for lunch which was cold chicken fried rice and banana’s for dessert. I perked up a little bit but was struggling with being tired. This didn’t stop me from trying to be the fastest, my guide slowing us down to not get too far ahead of the girls at the back.

We kayaked further downstream after lunch and stopped at a little village where they make Lao Lao whiskey and other various drinks. Although I was feeling ill I am not one to turn down free alcohol. We tried the whiskey, some banana whiskey, sticky rice wine, of which I bought some and another I can’t remember the name off. They weren’t bad but I couldn’t drink too much of any of them.

The evening was a quiet affair. The girls weren’t up for going out as they were leaving the following day early and I was still ill so just watched a star wars on Lao tv which was decent enough.



Day 123 (Mon 7^th Jan)



I woke up being the only one left in the town as the 5 girls had gone to go visit a place I had no interest in so I was left alone. It gave me a chance to do some sightseeing and walk around the town. This didn’t take too long as it’s not a big place and there isn’t too many tourist things to do. I took in a few temples and Chomsy Hill I think it was called. From here had a panoramic view of the city which I always enjoy, if not the 292 steep steps to get up it.

I spent the afternoon doing some planning and booking of a trip to India in April for the IPL cricket so I used the time I had on my own well and got loads sorted. I now have more of a timed schedule so I know where I will be when and where.

Tammy and Jo, who we also met in Chiang Mai had arrived in town so in the evening we went out for tea followed by more late night bowling. We went to one of the nicer looking places in Luang Prabang called the Lao Lao gardens. It was also far more expensive than most places but I sucked this up and went for the water buffalo steak, possibly the most expensive thing on the menu. This came with fries and some garlic bread as well as a salad I expertly avoided. It was possibly the nicest meal I’ve eaten since I’ve been away and I hope to find it in the rest of Laos. It was superb and a good choice of place to go. My meal and beer came to around £6 which here is pricey but for an amazing steak, such a bargain by western standards.

After bowling I am pretty sure I got shafted by the tuk tuk driver. I was positive I gave him a 50 and 2 5’s but on walking away he waved 3 5’s at me. After checking my wallet and being sure I had given him the right money, he opened his wallet and offered to let me search him. I just gave him another 50 and was done with it. I was tired and had to be up early so just got on with it.



Day 124 (Tues 8^th Jan)



I left first thing the next morning for Vang Vieng, famous for tubing and being a bit of a party town. Although this has been massively curbed in recent times, which for me is a good thing. Otherwise it’d be crawling with drunken people 24 hours a day. I can see that at home, I don’t need it here so much.

The bus left around 9:30am and arrived some time near 4pm, after I was told it was a 5 hour journey. The roads weren’t the best I’ve seen but a big improvement on some in the Philippines where I thought I would die. The views also were stunning. What I assume were limestone hills we popping out of everywhere, it was a very impressive mountain range and one I must look up online to see how high we got.

In the evening I popped out for some food and a walk and bumped into Sam and David (Melbourne) who we’ve met various times now. We had a couple beers and played a bit of pool and it ended a decent day. Normally I am not massively keen on travel days, hence why I often break it up and shorten a couple days instead of one long journey but today’s was fine, no complaining done whatsoever.

The girls had done their day trip excursion to some jar place and were due in around 11pm. This didn’t quite happen as there bus broke down 3 times, once for an extended period meaning they arrived shortly after 2am. I had sorted the guys out a room and told them where to stay but the night porter speaks no English so waited up for them to show them their rooms. They did all look like extras from a horror movie as they were all so tired. Surprisingly they were in very good spirits which would not have been the case if my bus had broken down. I used the time waiting to finally Skype Mum, seems the Isle of Man is the same old and nothing’s changed. My 2 little brothers were both keen to get off Skype, considering they never shut up they barely talk when I’m online. It was good though.



Next - Vang Vieng and Vientiane

---