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Published: January 26th 2007
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After an hour delay, our plane landed in Luang Prabang airport at 5.30pm, just as the sun was setting over the mountains. It was the smallest plane I have ever been on & I think there were less than 30 people on it & the plane wasn't full, only two of them weren't western. The airport was one small building that closely resembled a shed, when I went to get my visa I handed my photo & form over & about five Laos men started laughing at me, one of them said it was a nice photo.
We got a taxi into the city with a Canadian couple to reduce costs & found somewhere cheap to stay by the river. We headed straight back out to get some food & a nice cold beer, as it was a lovely warm evening. After we had eaten we walked through Luang Prabang's famous night market where I struggled to control myself & not buy more lovely things like duvet covers, paintings, scarf’s & other things.
We were talking about our travel plans throughout Laos & decided to nip into one of the many travel shops along the main road. As I
walked through the door I spotted the Bristol Boys & they spotted us, it is crazy that of all the shops & places in Laos we bumped into them, just as they were reading my e-mail about Cliff Richard & how they should let the man publish their photo in the magazine.
We went to a bar where they were showing the football & we drank lots of Laos beer, played cards & the guess who game which proved to be very amusing. The guesthouse we were staying at said the curfew was 11.30pm but I had checked with the man that checked us in & he said it was ok to come home after 11.30pm just knock the door; we rolled back home at about 1.30am.
The following day, (Monday), it was a lovely sunny warm day. We took our washing to be cleaned, as it was so cold in Vietnam we had just been wearing everything we owned. We got our Thai Baht exchanged into Laos Kip, (even though they except Thai Baht in developed areas they give you your change in Baht & try to rip you off). We then walked along the main road
& in an attempt to try & be healthy I had some muesli & fresh fruit with yoghurt for lunch; we priced up some trips for the following day & booked one.
As I was walking along the roads three little boys of about eight or nine said hello & asked to shake my hand which I thought was really funny. We walked past the Royal Palace & Museum & got a couple of photos, continuing up to Wat Xieng Thong, one of the 65 Wats' in the city, (a Wat is a Buddhist Monastery with religious & other buildings). Afterwards we carried on walking along the river, stopped for a beer at a little bar overlooking the River, (The Mekong); obviously my intentions of being healthy lasted all of about four hours!
We continued along the river & walked up Mount Phousi to Wat Chom Si & Wat That Phu Si, where we made friends with two Laos monks & then watched the sunset over the mountains from the top, enjoying the beautiful views.
When we woke up on Tuesday Claire wasn't feeling very well so told me to go on the trip we had booked
on my own as we had already paid. I felt bad leaving her when she was ill but thought it would be best if she slept it off & rested. It was so strange being without Claire, in the past 12 weeks I think the longest we have been away from each other was a morning. Luckily I made friends with a Dutch couple & also the Canadian couple we had got the taxi with from the airport were also on the trip.
The long boat left at 8am & we visited the village that made the paper that is used for lots of lanterns & Laos paintings of Buddha's & Monk's. I brought Claire a present, as I felt bad she was ill & couldn't come. Back on the boat we headed further upstream to the village that made Laos Rice Wine & Rice Whiskey, where at the grand old hour of 10.30am I got to sample them both!
The boat then took us to Pak Ou Caves, where I walked up over 258 steps to the upper cave, (I got bored of counting at 258 & was trying to concentrate on breathing & not collapsing!) I
Sunset over the mountains
From the top of Mount Phousi got my torch out & had a look at the paintings on the walls of Buddha’s & things. I went in the lower cave & saw lots of statutes of Buddha's people had been leaving there for hundreds of years.
We got the boat back to Luang Prabang, arriving at 1.15pm, we (the Dutch couple & I), grabbed a sandwich & went to the Tuk Tuk that was taking us to Kwang Si Waterfalls. It took about 45 minutes to get there & we travelled through some beautiful countryside. At the Waterfalls there were also some Black Bears that had been rescued from poachers & a tiger, who was absolutely beautiful & kept walking back & forth in front of us so we were just inches away from him.
We got to walk up around four levels of the waterfalls & I took loads of photos before going for a swim in one of the fresh water lagoons under the falls. It was great; the water was so clear & blue, just like a swimming pool but obviously loads better! I took my waterproof camera in & was asking random people to take my photo & also taking
some of myself, (I know I'm an idiot), so lets see how they turn out! When I went swimming I also discovered the so called waterproof watch that cost me 2 quid from Vietnam wasn't waterproof!
On the way home we stopped at a little village & got to walk around, the children were so cute, I just couldn't stop taking photos of them! When we were back on the road again we saw a mini bus that had driven straight off the road & landed in loads of plants, (it looked bad as it was quite a drop). We think it was the lunatic that had overtaken us a couple of minutes before & he had obviously crashed by being on the wrong side of the road on a blind bend. (Why oh why do drivers in Asia overtake on blind bends?!) Claire & I later went to confirm our bus to Phonsavanh for Wednesday morning only to be told it had been cancelled as the bus had crashed on the way back from the waterfalls, (I think it was a blessing in disguise as the driver was nuts!)
Wednesday morning we got up & were about to check out when there was a lot of chaos on our road, there had been another bad accident where a mini-van had been going down a one way at about 50-60 miles an hour & hit another car head on, (these people are mental drivers!) Our Tuk Tuk was slightly late collecting us because of the accident but we managed to get our bus to Phonsavanh ok.
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Monkey
non-member comment
Oooo oooooo oooo
I'm loving the sunset over the mountain photo so much i've set it as my backdrop on my computer at work! And the pool in the fall is ace too. Love ya baby monkey! XXXX