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Published: March 14th 2011
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Luang Prabang
the town was beautiful full of narrow maze-like side streets. ***!!pictures have now been posted for my two previous blog entries!!***
From Chiang Mai in North Thailand the easiest way to get to the country of Laos is to fly. The infrastructure in Laos isn't the greatest so they do not have direct and paved highways between cities. We took a 30 minute flight from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, Laos for under $50. If we had decided to go by land we would have taken a 3 day slow boat right up the river, or you can risk your life and take a speed boat (which apparently is hazardous to your health). The flight was fast and we arrived in Luang Prabang in the late afternoon. The city definitely has a small town feel to it. Tiny cobble stone side streets that come off the main roads. This area is Laos has a lot of french influence and we could see it in the architecture of the buildings as well as in the coffee. Oh the coffee!! some of the best coffee I've had in a long time. Best part is, you can get a giant iced coffee for just over a dollar. On our first day there our
Utopia
This is perhaps one of the most amazing restaurants/bars I've ever been in. Canadian owner, amazing menu, we pretty much lived here for most of our days in Luang Prabang. group was introduced to the bar/restaurant called Utopia, and that place pretty much became our hangout for our time in Laos (see pictures and you will understand why). Luang Prabang is known for it's chill atmosphere as well as it's over abundance of buddhist monks. There are so many wats (temples) running throughout the city I lost count. Right beside our guest house was a wat and every morning the young monks (boys around 7 or 8) were up at the crack of dawn doing laundry and other daily duties outside. The bright orange of their wrapped clothing would always be a burst of colour in my surroundings as I walked the narrow streets. The next morning me and a few others from the group decided to wake up at 5am in the hopes of catching an Alms ceremony. The alms ceremony is a longstanding religious procession where the monks walk in a line down the main streets of Luang Prabang carrying empty bamboo baskets. Locals and other religious followers will line the streets sitting on the ground (always sit below the monks) and hand out various foods into the monks baskets as they walk by. Me and two other
Utopia
The bar comes with a volleyball court. girls stumbled out of bed at 5am, got lost trying to find out where these mysterious processions actually happen, only to be saved(or possibly scammed) by a local woman who kept saying, "alms alms!!!" and pointing in the opposite direction of where we were walking. So we followed her, next thing we knew we had a trap to sit on and each of us had a dish filled with sticky rice, banana rice in bamboo leaves and crackers... then the lady wanted money. hah. I imagine this is her gig, waiting for random tourists who look lost looking for an alms ceremony. So we sat there in the dark, the three of us and the local woman. About 45 minutes later, we began to see a procession of bright orange coming towards us. Next thing I knew I was surrounded by monks with open baskets. Kinda like a bunch of kids showing up at your door for Halloween all eagerly awaiting sweets with their bags open, except this time I had these beautiful monks staring at me. Some were so young and others seemed at least 80 years old. I began handing out all my treats and the monks just
Utopia
amazing views kept coming. I started to feel pressure to go faster and within minutes I was out of all my food and the monks were gone. It was done in a blink of an eye! After that we headed to the main street in Luang Prabang and watched more ceremonies from the side. As you can see my pictures aren't the greatest as I could not use a flash. In Luang Prabang it is also encouraged that you either rent a pedal bike or a scooter to explore the sprawling city. The city is located on a peninsula landmass. Me and 6 other girls rented old school pedal bikes for the day for 12,000 kip each (about $1.50 CAD) complete with bells and baskets (they even had bright pink girly bikes which pleased some of the girls) and spent the afternoon riding around the peninsula along the river looking at the gorgeous scenery around town. I've learned over the years that often times the best way to get an idea of the life and culture in a country is to either walk, bus or in this case bike through it. As you pass by you can see the daily life of
Utopia
breakfast, lunch and dinner was had here multiple times. Laotians. The last highlight of Luang Prabang was a trip to nearby Kuang Si Waterfalls. The waterfalls were made up of various pools for swimming, relaxing and just enjoying the amazing scenery. We spent the day there, including hiking up to secret pools near the top of the waterfall. We also visited the main hilltop That Phu Si & Wat Tham Phu Si (yes that's pronounced pussy) temple of Luang Prabang. Once again there were about 300 steps to get to the top (I don't get these damn steps!), we decided to go near sundown to watch the sunset. Once at the top you discover that the temple is quite small, so small in fact that no one actually goes inside it. But on the other side of the temple if you descend about halfway down you reach the famous buddha's footprint. A "life-size" impression of his foot in stone. This footprint is probably twice my height. That makes for one big buddha! There were also many huge golden buddha statues as each buddha depending on the position represents something else. The huge amount of religious icons you find in buddhism is mind blowing. Reminds me of Hinduism in it's
Utopia
the garden in the bar. immensity. You will see in the pictures that I had a personal moment with one of the large buddhas 😊
An interesting note for all you beer lovers. Beer Laos is known throughout Southeast Asia as the best beer. A large beer, about 1 litre is about $1.50 CAD. Since coming here I've discovered that they now have a dark, light and original lagers to choose from. I must say the Dark Beer Laos is delicious and I will be searching for it at the specialty beer stores when I get back to Canada.
next stop Vang Viang, Laos!
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Seng Sisomphone
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btw great blog.... really enjoy reading it. thanks