Advertisement
Published: January 18th 2009
We arrived in Luang Prabang with a cool bunch of people who we made friends with the over the journey from Vang Vieng.
The usual tuk tuks pestered us all for our business upon arrival but we all jumped on one bike and haggled for the best price, which was rather amusing. We all cheered when the driver managed to change into 2nd gear and think the short journey into town did his bike no good at all.
Luang Prabang has a curfew enforced to be back at your guesthouses by midnight and no cars or buses are allowed through the centre, which adds to the tranquil feel of the city. A bit like Vientiane is has a French influence from the bakeries selling hot baguettes to the colonial guesthouses.
We ended up staying for 4 nights, and managed our customary stay at a random guesthouse one night and spend the following morning searching down another - its becoming a habit!
On our first night we could smell diesel from the garage behind our room, and you could touch both walls with both hands if you wanted but we soon found a little gem just out of
town which had big fluffy pillows, hot shower and a friendly host.
We spent a couple of lazy days chilling and strolling around the excellent night market, which hosts a budget friendly 40p all you can eat veggie buffet (our favorite until Michelle found a bug in hers on the 3rd visit) and getting free shots of the local whisky Lao Lao!
We also heard there was a bowling alley up the road from our guesthouse which we paid a visit. Michelle started well but I managed to comeback and win by a couple of sneaky points. In true Lao fashion we were joined by the Manager's two daughters and ended up having a right laugh, a high five everytime someone got a strike and cheers when we missed all the pins!
We had been meaning to get a massage from day one of our trip, and in fact everyday since, but for some reason hadn't got round to it. We made inquiries and the Lao Red cross offered a traditional Lao Massage (all over) for a mere 4 pounds each (1hr). The only mistake we made was we went too early. It's something like 12 degrees
in the morning and warms up to the mid twenties at noon, so when we arrived and got asked to strip it was a little chilly!! even my masseur had a scarf on!!
Luang Prabang is blessed with monks and temples and on our first night we managed to stumble across one at prayer time, we sneaked into the back and watched what was going on. We also managed to get chatting to a monk (the one in the main picture sitting on the ledge) and turned out to be a really nice guy. He has been learning English for a year and spoke really well. He told us that he hopes to be in business and is currently studying economics.
Its been really nice spending time here and its sad to move on, but I guess that traveling! Our next destination we don't know too much about, so will have to get reading up on it! Its a little place in the North called Nong khiaw and is a little bit more off the beaten track, I think they call it a 'cultural injection' !! sounds painful!!
Take care,
Lee and Michelle
Advertisement
Tot: 0.051s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 10; qc: 25; dbt: 0.0319s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Jody
non-member comment
It all looks amazing!! I bet you are having a great time. I do hope that rule 4 was strictly adhered to! Love Jody xx