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Published: December 24th 2005
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Hey All, we hope you're all enjoying the holiday season (or at least coping well)! We'll just give you a run-down on the latest from Laos before wishing you all a safe and happy Christmas and New Year.
Luang Prabang continues to be a comfortable place to stay, offering excellent food (especially good cheese) and wonderful atmosphere. Definitely our favourite place so far. About a week ago we started getting the itch to explore, and the closest site outside the city is the Kuang Si waterfall, about 30 km south of the town. In Laos, 30 km means a one hour or so drive. But it was definitely worth the bumpy ride! The waterfall is actually one large waterfall and five or six smaller ones, all of which flow into calm pools of the most beautiful, glowing, blue-green water (also where you can swim). It's hard not to get a picturesque shot of the place. We're actually going back there with our swimsuits in the next couple of days so we can take advantage of the pools.
After the waterfall, we decided we'd head up north (on recommendation from a couple of our friends) to a town called Nong
Kiaw. This town is actually two, both towns across the river from one another, and connected by a bridge. The minibus ride on the way up was entertaining, as we had a number of other foreigners going to the same place. One older couple got in the bus and the lady dropped an orange on the ground and exclaimed "Ah, Funculo!"....Nick laughed heartily at this, because it's one of the only Italian words he knows. Later on in the trip when we were talking, she asked us where we were from and we suggested they were Italiano (she looked at us astonished that we knew, until Nick carefully imitated her exclamation, causing her to laugh). They proved to be entertaining travel companions with a great sense of humour (at one point the man turned to Nick and asked if he was taking "anti-malaria"....and promptly added that he was "take anti-woman, but (shrugging) no work (gestures at his wife)". Soooo Italian!
Nong Kiaw was really beautiful with the Nam Ou river flowing by, through a valley of green mountains. We noticed that everywhere here they have poinsettia TREES, not just potted plants. It's beautiful. We headed west after just one
night though, since the town felt a bit too much like a transit point for tourists, and the people just scowled at us constantly. Oh well, we're still glad we saw the scenery.
After that we took an open truck to Luang Nam Tha, a town set beside a national park. The drive was amazing (we recommend it, especially the part between Pak Mong and Oudom Xai), winding along the tops of mountain ridges where tiny villages popped up where you least expected them. WARNING: It takes a really long time to get anywhere here.
We stayed in a guesthouse kitty-corner to the bus station, which served our purposes. It even had a nice little bakery around the corner, which had good pastries, as well as one item they called a "VOMIT THAT SANDWICH.....15,000 kip". We didn't try it.
Once in Luang Nam Tha we booked a two-day trek into the national park, through Nam Ha Eco-tours, a company that specializes in low-impact ecotourism in a partnership with local villages. This sounded much better than those tours offered at Chiang Mai, so we took the chance. We were pleasantly surprised by the gorgeous scenery (all the while
Rice harvesting
Did you know where rice grains came from? Nick thought it was Aisle 3 in Safeway. thinking we're so lucky to live in Vancouver, since it reminded us of home), but the visits to the local villages left something to be desired. Even though the company was working with the villages (paid the village for our overnight accomodation and food), and we had a local guide with us, the people seemed reluctant to have us there. This of course is fair, we wouldn't necessarily want papparazzi coming up to us in a subdivision while we were trying to wash our cars....but if it's intrusive then they shouldn't offer the village visits. We would have loved to interact more with the people, learn some of their cultural ways, but instead we sat around a campfire, semi-isolated from the village, with only a few cold pigs warming themselves next to us for company. Good thing our trekking party consisted of eight people, at least then we had someone to talk to. We even met a Canadian guy (from Belleville, Ontario) who we will be hanging out with for Christmas here in LP. The trekking was fantastic and we'd recommend it to anyone, even without the village visits.
So after the trek we realized we had to quickly
get back down to Luang Prabang in order to extend our Laos visa (it conveniently expires on the 25th), and because we wanted to spend Christmas here. We decided to take the next bus back from Luang Nam Tha, and promptly had an interesting trip. Interesting, if you define it as 250 km in 12 hours, including stuff dropping off the roof twice and one breakdown for an hour (the amazing bus drivers hauled out their spartan tool set, took the engine completely apart, and fixed it with nothing more than two mallets, one screwdriver, and a chisel....don't ask). PS, it was a Hyundai. But we made it.
Yesterday morning we enjoyed being back in LP, and decided to walk around some of the small alleys we'd missed during the last visit....and were rewarded when we saw a lady wearing a tan, knitted toque that closely resembled a santa hat. Nick smiled, gestured with his hands, and somehow conveyed the idea that he liked her hat and wondered where she got it from. SOMEHOW she understood and went running into her shop, where she showed us the same hat in a range of colours, including one that was red and perfect. And so now we have a santa hat, and are ready for Christmas, courtesy of a small Laos woman in a back alley.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, SAFE AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS...WE MISS YOU!
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kieran
non-member comment
merry x-mas
Have a wonderful christmas, and can't wait to meet you both love kieran