Finding Utopia in Luang Prabang (Day 121 - 124 by Gemma)

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Friday 15th January 2016

With a day of travel ahead, we headed out for a quick breakfast at the small kitsch Disney themed restaurant we had been to the day before called 'Into the Woods'. Feasting on scrambled eggs, waffles drizzled in chocolate sauce and sipping coffee whilst humming along to Aladdin's 'A Whole New World', we were just about ready to say goodbye to Thailand. We picked up at our bags from the guesthouse and hailed a red taxi van to take us to the airport. In the taxi we met a Slovenian group travelling through Thailand. So far we've met people of all ages and from all walks of life, within this group were some young parents who'd decided to leave the kids at home to embark on a backpacking adventure with their mates. As I said, all walks of life. Bidding farewell to our new friends at the airport we got ourselves checked in and were soon boarding the plane for the 1 hour flight to our first stop in Laos; Luang Prabang. The plane we took was a small propeller plane, which was a first for Chris. Any nerves quickly disappeared once we were in the air, as the views were pretty phenomenal. We were sitting right by the propeller which, although noisy, was a bit of a novelty to see. Due to the type of plane, we didn't fly too high so got some great views of the fluffy clouds as we flew through them and breathtaking birds eye views of the mountains.

1 hour later and we had arrived in Luang Prabang, where we took a taxi along the bumpy roads to our guesthouse in the town called Cold River. An apt name, given the temperature had already begun to drop as the night fell. We met the owners on arrival, a French couple with 2 young children who had taken over the guesthouse and renovated it only 3 months ago. They were both really friendly with great local knowledge and keen to get any feedback to help them establish their new guesthouse. We dropped off our bags and headed straight out to take our first evening glimpse of Luang Prabang. Walking from our guesthouse to the main street, I realised how much the town reminded me of Hoi An (in Vietnam) as all the buildings were illuminated with small paper lanterns and fairy lights. A very picturesque setting. After our day of travelling, we were both really hungry so stopped off at a small restaurant along the way for our first Beer Lao and green and yellow curries, being served by a really friendly waiter who kept wanting to know 'is it delicious, is it delicious'. It was, and nicely full we set off for a quick explore of the local night market. We ended up buying a small painting and a lantern (standard!! No idea where we are going to hang them all?!?) before heading to a local bar for a glass of red wine (not served chilled this time!) to toast our first evening in Laos.

Saturday 16th January 2016

We woke up to our first morning in Luang Prabang unprepared for how cold the mornings were even at this height. Wrapped up in trousers, jumpers & scarves we started our day with a huge breakfast in the (outside!) courtyard of the guesthouse; fresh fruit & yoghurt, crepes, scrambled eggs and warm soft baguettes. It was definitely a fresh start to the day. Luckily this part of Laos warms up really quickly and by the time we were ready to explore, the sun was happily shining. Today we had decided to have an explore of the town and started with Wat Visoun, one of the older and more rundown temples in the town with a collection of ornate gold Buddha's inside. From there we headed down to the riverfront where we got great views of the landscape along the Mekong River. On a whim we decided to take a boat man up on his offer of an hour long boat ride along the river for about £5ish each and it didn't disappoint. We had the long boat to ourselves and settled ourselves in the car seats that had been attached to the inside. The scenery is pretty amazing,as we passed small villages, fisherman fishing, children playing in the water, and monks sailing past us. After an hour the driver dropped us back on the banks of the river and we found a small restaurant overlooking the river to stop for a late lunch.

After lunch we climbed Mount Phusi, a walk of 322 steps to reach a gold temple on top of the hill from which you can get amazing panoramic views of Luang Prabang and the Mekong. The climb wasn't too bad winding around the hill and the views were great in the late afternoon sun. By the time we reached the top, we noticed some people already staking out their spots for the sunset, which was meant to be very good from up here. We decided, as we were already here, we'd get ourselves a spot and wait the hour or so for the sun to set. From a handful of people wandering around, the crowds multiplied over the next hour with coach loads of Chinese tourists arriving and balancing themselves precariously on the edge of the steep hill ready to start snapping. By the time the sun set, the crowds were huge but we were lucky enough to have an unobstructed view of the hills and sunset and a great opportunity to get a classic crowd selfie. Post sunset, we headed back to the night market to locate the street food buffet we'd seen the night before. It was down a small alley that was crammed full of small bbq's and picnic benches. For 15,000 kip (just over a pound) you could help yourself to a range of noodles, vegetables, rice & fruit and then select meat or fish on a skewer to be cooked on the bbq for only a pound or 2 more. We piled our bowls high and selected a big fish and 2 Beer Lao to go with it. The whole meal & beers came to about £4 each and we were stuffed. But not too full that we couldn't pick up a piece of the best banana cake I've ever had from a stall in the night market.

Sunday 17th January 2016

Today we woke up to another chilly morning and another hearty breakfast. We'd arranged with the guesthouse to hire motorbikes for the day, as we were planning to drive out into the countryside to visit the Kuang Si waterfalls. Surprisingly Luang Prabang turned out to be the most expensive place to rent a motorbike on our travels so far, a whopping £20 for the day! But we had heard the drive to the waterfalls was pretty epic and loving a good motorbike ride, we decided to splash out. The waterfall was about 25km from the town centre, taking about 45mins, and the journey didn't disappoint. Beautiful hills, passing small villages and farms on the way. We arrived at the waterfall in the early afternoon and paid the 10,000kip entry fee. To reach the waterfall pools, we walked through forest area passing a large bear sanctuary on the way where 4 large black bears were play fighting. We soon reached the first pool filled with bright turquoise water where a lot of people were swimming. We decided to save swimming till a bit later and have an explore. The pools and small waterfalls were all spectacular in a range of blues and turquoises. But it was the main waterfall that was the real show stopper. In the afternoon light, there was a hazy glow over the huge rocks and a conveniently placed wooden bridge for the perfect photo opportunity, which went down particularly well with the many groups of South Korean tourists we were sharing our day with. From the foot of the waterfall we climbed some very slippery steps towards the top where we found more shallow pools leading to the edge of the waterfall. We had a very quick peak over the edge but weren't keen to get too close to the edge!!

On our way back to the slippery steps, a sign pointing towards a cave and natural springs caught our attention and only 3km away we thought why not! Wandering through forest, followed by dirt track, followed by forest, we soon reached the advertised cave. We arrived at a wooden hut where for 10,000kip each (just under £1) we got an entrance ticket, a headtorch and a free banana. Random but true. There didn't seem to be another soul in sight but having walked the 3km here, we were keen to take a look. The cave was a short walk up some steep steps, passing a gold Buddha on the way. I'm not sure what we were expecting, but soon found ourselves plunged into darkness in a very average cave, as caves go. As Chris put it, it was like being in a bathroom with the lights turned off?! We lasted about 10mins before deciding to try out the natural spring. The setting was very picturesque if a little strange. It was basically a small stream full of local children, a wooden shack selling baguettes and a few other bewildered looking travellers. A short distance from the stream, was the wooden frame of a large new building. I'm sure that like many other naturally pretty places on our travels, if we came back in a year we'd be greeted with a far bigger setup than a ticket man dishing out free banana's and a baguette stand. With the afternoon getting late, we started our 3km walk before the sun started to set. We arrived back at the lower waterfall pools late in the afternoon and couldn't resist a quick dip before heading home. By now the pools had emptied and other than a few South Koreans, we had the pools to ourselves. Not that we were in there for very long, the water was absolutely freezing. We only got about waist deep before running back out again! Long enough to get a shivering picture or two before drying ourselves off and heading back to the bike. The journey home was a striking one, as we drove alongside the sunset. But with wet clothes from the waterfall and a chilly wind, we shivered the whole way home. Annoyingly our shower was only ever luke warm so arriving home we ended up piling on the layers to try and warm up. Still cold(!!!!) we headed out for dinner, warming ourselves up with grilled bbq fish, noodles and vegetables from the food market. Whilst piling our bowls high, we found ourselves bumping into my friend from work again, Lianne, who we'd unexpectedly bumped into in the post office in Chiang Mai. The small world of travelling! Post dinner, we all found ourselves in the same bar, Utopia, in the centre of Luang Prabang where we met other people from Lianne's hostel (Michel and Mateja - Dutch and German guys respectively). A few beers & cocktails later, with the bars in Luang Prabang closing promptly at 11.30pm, we all opted to sample the late night Luang Prabang nightlife. Turns out the late night joint is actually a brightly lit bowling alley in what looks like a church hall. Beers and wine coolers in hand, we discovered I am absolutely atrocious at bowling!!

Monday 18th January 2016

With our alarms waking us up at 7am this morning, bowling till 1.30am didn't seem like our best idea. Today we had booked to visit The Living Land Company, a local farm collective where we would learn about rice farming in Laos. The morning started much like our others in Luang Prabang; very cold and misty. Following some hot coffee and steaming scrambled eggs we were picked up in a tuk tuk to travel to the farm, which was about 15mins out of the main town and into the countryside. On arrival we were greeted by the owner and given traditional Laos farming hats to 'make us feel more like farmers'. We joined the other people doing the same tour as us and our very smiley guide, Bai Lee, in the main wooden house overlooking the farm. The farm itself was stunning surrounded by cloud covered mountains in all directions. Bai Lee explained that during the day we would learn about and get to try the 13 stages of rice farming, with the 14th being trying a range of rice products. We were soon very much involved, being knee deep in mud helping to plough the rice field with the resident water buffalo, Rudolph, wading through mud to plant the seedlings, cutting ripe stalks and tying our own bundles, hitting the stalks on large wooden boards to free the grains, learning how to separate the good grains from the bad and using stone machines to grind the grains into rice flour, among many other stages. The whole day was really interesting giving a new appreciation for a food we have eaten on a daily basis for the past 4 months. The enthusiasm of our guide was infectious and the hours flew by. In the afternoon we got to try some of the rice products, including sticky rice dipped in chilli sauce, rice and coconut wafers and rice wine.

By the time the tuk tuk driver picked us up to take us back to the guesthouse, we were shattered. On arriving back, we stopped at Utopia to get some lunch. We had only seen the bar by night when it had been packed full of groups of people. By day it was quieter but also revealed a platform area full of low cushions that had been built with unobstructed views of the Mekong river and surrounding jungle. We settled ourselves on the cushions and had a very relaxed lunch. So relaxing I managed to fall asleep in the afternoon sun. A bit woozy from an afternoon nap, our last stop of the day was a quick walk to one of the bamboo bridges famous in Luang Prabang. They charge you 5,000kip to cross the bridge which goes towards rebuilding the bridge each year. The views were nice along the river, but with not much happening on the other side of the riverbank we only spent a short while there. Worn out from our day, we opted for one of the local restaurants for some traditional Laos food. We both had a pork dish, Chris opting for the local spicy version which knocked his socks off!! So much so, he could only eat half before admitting defeat. Tired and full, we headed back to the guesthouse to pack ahead of leaving tomorrow for our next stop Vang Vieng. We both really liked Luang Prabang, the stunning scenery on the journey was unrivaled and the relaxed, pretty town was a real treat.

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