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Published: March 13th 2013
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This is the first blog I've done in a while, partly because the internet connection in Laos is very primitive and partly because I've been having too much fun to bother spending a couple of hours sat at a computer screen. I think last time I blogged about arriving in Luang Prabang so I'll kick off with that.
The first thing we did when we got to Luang Prabang was climb the Phousi Mountain. I say climb, I really mean walk up a lot of steps, but it was really quite demanding given the 35 degree heat. There were various statues of the Buddha in his various different poses dotted around. I'd say my favourite was the one in the cave about halfway up. The respite from the heat might have played a part in this decision though. The views from the top were fantastic and made it well worth the effort, Luang Prabang is situated right where the Mekong River and the Pha Nang River meet, so you can look out over both of them with the city in the background and the mountain range rising up behind. Pretty special.
The next day we made good
use of our alarm clocks and got out early to see the big waterfall just outside of town. It's the biggest attraction in Luang Prabang, possibly even in Laos. We got there, paid the entry fee and followed the path round expecting to find a waterfall, instead we found... some bears. For some reason, unbeknown to us they decided to put a bear sanctuary right next to the waterfall. I don't think I've ever seen a bear in the flesh before so I quite enjoyed it. They were suprisingly active too, playfighting 'Gladiators' style on top of a plinth and swinging on the tyres in their enclosure. Bears aside, there is definitely no doubt to what the attraction here really is. You pass several pools and lesser waterfalls before you get to the big one right at the top. It's seriously impressive. I'm not a man of many waterfalls but this one was definitely the best I've ever seen. There is a naturally occuring Calcium compound in the water which causes it to turn a brilliant shade of aqua, couple this with the height and sheer velocity of the falls and it makes for quite the show. We climbed up
under it for a Kodak moment (not sure if you're meant to) then headed down to one of the other pools for a dip.
The pools below were good fun. There was a rope swing there and plenty of people splashing around. Unfortunately it gave it all a bit of a Centre Parcs feel. I think I would have definitely preferred it if we hadn't been surrounded by wobbling western flesh but there you go. We sat in one of the quieter pools for a while to chill out and take in the surroundings and it was all pretty pleasant. The waterfall was loud enough to drown out the belly flops. I didn't have a turn on the rope swing either, I was wearing swimming shorts I'd bought from a market in which the elastic felt very questionable at best. I had visions of some kind of Mr Bean-esque moment happening whereby I jumped in and my shorts slowly floated to the surface, leaving me naked below in the crystal clear icy water. It would've definitely ruined the vibe.
We headed to a bar called Utopia in the evening, seemingly Luang Prabangs coolest hang out. It had a
massive bamboo balcony overlooking the river, covered with mattresses so you could lie down and drink whilst looking out over the scenic backdrop. Another one of those incredibly brilliant places that would be labelled a death-trap and shut down within an instant in England. It turns out Laos has a night curfew of about 11.30, so there are no dance clubs or anything, but as soon as the bars kick out everyone just goes bowling! We took a tuk-tuk there with some Canadians and invited the driver to bowl with us on the condition if any of us beat him we got a free ride home. Sadly he was an incredible player, and the fact you could get an entire 70cl bottle of whiskey for about 6 pounds also impacted our game somewhat. I offered to buy one of the Canadians we were with a beer if he bowled himself down the alley, which I didn't think he'd do, but he did! If you've never seen a grown man bowl himself down a bowling alley I thoroughly recommend it. Best 10,000kip I ever spent.
We got up suitably late the following day before visiting the Pak Ou
Caves, located just outside the city. We took a tuk-tuk there, which took an hour and probably wasn't the wisest decision considering the state of our heads but we made it there stomachs intact. From there we wandered through a lovely little village down to the river, where we could cross to get to the caves. The caves were imbedded into a large mountain, so the view from the boat on the way accross was pretty spectacular as you gradually disappeared into its shadow. The caves are known as the Buddha Caves because they've been stuffed full of Buddha statues, some hundreds of years old, hidden there during times of war and civil unrest. The cave was very remote and probably quite difficult to get to back in those days so the dedication to ensure that the statues weren't stolen or disrespected was pretty amazing really. We climbed up to the top cave, which was fairly empty (not even any German tourists!) and lit only by a solitary candle, which gave it a very eerie feel. I felt like I was in Tomb Raider.
We took a night van down to Vientienne, the capital of Laos, which
very impressively for Asia got there four hours early! The only issue being we thought we were arriving at 6am but actually arrived at 2am with nowhere to stay. Not ideal, but luckily we wandered around aimlessly and managed to find somewhere pretty quickly. The van stopped in a restraurant in the middle of nowhere which had on the menu: "Deer Meat soaked in feces and distilled with intestines (Bitter Taste)." I've been eating some local food but I really do have to draw the line at that.
We weren't there very long but I did quite enjoy Vientianne. It was a lot busier than Luang Prabang but it still had that French Colonial feel about it. We spent our day there visiting the COPE centre, a place I read up about and really wanted to visit. It's a museum/charity that deals with the unexploded bombs left over from "The Secret War" (America's largely unheard of bombing campaign over Laos during the Vietnam War.) It was really quite an experience. Incredibly powerfull and really quite educational too. I had absolutely no idea how badly effected Laos was by the war. Per capita, it's the most bombed nation on the
face of the planet. Which is pretty incredible if you think about it, considering it was a supposedly neutral country. Alot of the bombs are still live today, which is creating a real problem because the children find them and think they're toys, and some poorer people out in the villages dig them up because they can be sold for scrap metal. This often results in them accidentally blowing themselves up. Very very sad. A few things that stuck with me were the drawings of the villages under the bombing campaigns and a man who'd had his leg blown off by a bomb and had then used some of the scrap metal from that bomb to fashion himself a new leg! All in all quite harrowing but I was glad we'd taken the time to go.
My final highlight of Laos before we flew over the Vietnam was the sight of literally 200 people all in lycra in the centre of town doing group aerobics to some banging trance music. You can't make it up.
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