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Published: February 6th 2007
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Outskirts of Luang Prabang
One of the rivers that runs past Luang Prabang in Laos We arrived in Luang Prabang in Laos by plane from Vietnam late in December. The flight into Laos seemed much easier than the alternative day long bus trip. Only later did we check the Lonely Planet to learn that they do not advise flying Laos Airlines due to a very poor history when it came to flights landing safely, and that they refused to release the information regarding their track record. However, we landed safely in Luang Prabang without incident.
Luang Prabang is a town of around 25,000 people and is situated in the north of Laos and in a basin formed by two rivers, the Mekong and the Nam Khan. The town itself is quite nice, with a fair amount of French influence. It has many restaurants, galleries, bars, Buddhist temples, markets and more. The French influence on the food was perhaps the part, with many great meals had here.
Walking around the first day trying to organise some cash (not easy in a country with only one ATM) we randomly bumped into Josh Vogul, a guy both Luke and I have know for many years back in Perth. It seemed such an odd coincidence to run into someone we
knew when we truely felt that we had gotten off the beaten path and were somewhere absolutely unique and relatively untouched. Enjoyed catching up and swapping stories later that night at a classy little bar with Josh and his mate.
Days in Luang Prabang were quiet but very enjoyable. For the most part, we ate beautiful Laos and French cuisine for a song, read our books, drank coffees, strolled through the streets and savoured the peace and quiet. One day we rented bikes and rode around the town a couple of times, stopping regularly for fruit shakes and to read with a view out over the mighty Mekong. We also poked around a number of Buddhist temples and holy places, a public garden, and trekked up the large hill in the middle of the city to see another temple and take in the panoramic view of the surrounding countryside.
For something different the three of us (Tom, Luke and myself) took a cooking class. This began by spending a morning in the market buying the produce needed for our cooking. Came across some very interesting, and sometimes disgusting, things at the market. A woman offered me a whole chili to
Cool kids
Loved this kids fur jacket then the other pulled a sik move for the camera eat, which I did out of stupid pride, and it almost got the best of me. After shopping we sat around the open air courtyard behind the restaurant learning about typical Laos ingredients, and the different ways to prepare each of them. We were all given large cleavers for this exercise and thankfully no one was hurt. For some reason the whole class was also filmed, apparently for a documentary to be shown in Washington but the details were sketchy and so too was the camera work. Who knows, maybe someone will see it somewhere, sometime, but I'm not holding my breath. We prepared about 6 dishes and took turns cooking. The food was excellent but I doubt I would be able to reproduce the meals without the cookbook, which I was too shortsighted to buy.
After several excellent three days in Luang Prabang, we thought we should move on so that we would have time to arrange something interesting for Christmas day. An early morning bus saw us arriving at a place called Vang Vieng 7 hours after our departure. Our travelling trio was a little disappointed when we arrived to find that the our new destination starkly contrasted
to the last. Vang Vieng appeared to exist entirely to support tourists, with every shop being a tourist office, a bar (showing the newest and not so new American comedies) or a restaurant whose menu consisted of pizza and burgers and all other things western. The odd thing was that a place that exists for tourists usually has some sort of attraction. Vang Vieng appeared to exist for western tourists without a real selling point- so the question is how did it become this way? Perhaps just because its on the way...
The one thing that Vang Vieng is known for is its tubing on the Nam Song river. We had heard from other travellers that you could float down a river in an inner tube and stop along the way to eat, drink and have fun. So this is what we did. Arriving the day before Christmas, we teed it up for Christmas Day. Instead of spending the festive day enjoying the culinary delights of Luang Prabang, we found ourselves floating down the river in tubes with a Beer Laos in hand. Don't get me wrong, this was quite a fun adventure and certainly very different from your average
Biking around town
Baskets on bikes- soo practical. Who ever decided they weren't cool? day. We spent around 6 hours floating, stopping for drinks, and taking in the Laos countryside. There were plenty of flying foxes and crazy ropes attached to trees. We spent a good amount of time at one bar with decent music and a very high rope swing which made for some funny splash downs.
After this day of sunning and boozing we planned to go out for a drink and the nicest meal we could find. Unluckily for me it was my turn to catch a stomach bug. This probably had something to do with my willingness to drink tap water in situations it wouldn't be particularly advisable. Dinner was replaced by me spewing off a bridge and I spent the rest of Christmas day sick as a dog and too sick to even sleep.
After this sleepless night, the next morning we were on a bus and on the move again. I hoped and prayed that whatever was affecting me the night before would be lenient on me for the duration of the 4 hour trip to Vientiane. The ride turned out to be quite scenic and saw some spectacular jungle and countryside. Being one of the most undeveloped
Monks doin their thing
These guys were waking around chanting and looking the part. Notice, however, the monk on the left with the flash digital camera countries in the world, Laos has so much unspoiled nature along with many charming little traditional villages along the way. I survived the journey and we arrived safely in Vientiane- the capital of Laos.
My apologies to those who live in Vientiane or those who have been there and enjoyed it, but after our somewhat disappointing Christmas and the high expectations set by beginning our Laos trip in Luang Prabang, we just weren't taken with Vientiane. After unsuccessfully trying to locate the only ATM in the country, and then trying to change currency at a ludicrously inefficient and illogical bank, we had had enough. We checked out of the dingy hotel we had checked into only an hour before and bought our bus ticket to Bangkok- only a short 13 hour bus trip away. Still feeling terrible from whatever little demons were battling away in my stomach, we set sail for the last country of our epic journey (nothing short of a tour de force).
Hoping you still have the attention span to read one more of these (only one!), as Thailand is soon to follow. Hope everyones having a good start to the year. Take care
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NNowack
Nathan Nowack
High Roller
I like the wad of money worth 70 cents each. That's funny. The scenery looks amazing though!!