Lazy Luang Prabang

We hummed and hawed and debated whether to go to Laos for a number of reasons: 1). Neither of us fancied the 2 day long boat trip to get there; 2). Neither of us fancied the 2 day overland in a jeep trip; 3). Flights in and out of Laos were ridiculously expensive (think $500 each).  In the end, we decided to bite the bullet and bought some flights, into Luang Prabang and out of Vientiane – sure we’re only here once!

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the early evening (the journey had spectacular scenery as you saw in the Chiang Mai blog) and were delighted with the view that our guesthouse “Thongbay” offered.  It was right on the Nam Khan river with a vista over to the sacred Phou Si, which is a temple on top of a small hill in the middle of Luang Prabang.  That evening at dinner we met two lovely couples, an Aussie couple, Max and Billie (about our parents’ ages) and Yvonne and Sebastian from Germany (around our own ages).  We had all just arrived in Laos and while we had our own itinerarys for the next day already planned we arranged to meet the following evening for dinner.

Looking onto the Nam Khan River

The next day, after having breakfast on the veranda of our villa, Rob and I hired bikes at the guesthouse and cycled into Luang Prabang centre.  We took the shortcut and to say that it wasn’t bumpy would be a gross understatement.  The path was so rocky and uneven I’m surprised the bikes didn’t fall apart (the journey home in the dark was even worse!).  Luang Prabang is great.  The pace of life isn't so much sedentary as almost completely stopped.  Things trundle on as they like, everyone is very relaxed, and cycling around in the sunshine up and down French-styled streets doing a fat lot of nothing is a joy unto itself.  The town is a UNESCO world heritage town and you can understand why, with its French colonial style buildings and the beautiful glittering temples.  We cycled along the Mekong River and while it looked lovely we were still a bit reluctant to eat any river fish as the water was that murky mucky colour that just didn’t look healthy!  We also visited a few Wats (temples – you can never get enough of them!) including Wat What (yes it is actually called that) and the world famous Wat Xieng Thong.

World Heritage buildings

Wat Xieng Thong

We paid a visit to the Royal Palace and its accompanying museum which was interesting to see.  The royal family here definitely lived a simpler life than their British counterparts.  Their vehicles were even gifted by the United States; I guess they were trying to incentivise them not to adopt Communism.  It didn’t work though and Laos is now a Communist country (the second we’ve visited on our trip).  You wouldn’t really know it though because it is very laid back and rather poor and they receive funding from many other countries aside from China, including Japan and South Korea.

The Royal Palace

Market outside the Royal Palace

We had lunch at Joma Bakery Café.  We realised very quickly that the Lao people bake exceedingly good bread, baguettes in particular.  They’re crispy and doughy and delicious.  In fact, we soon learned that the food is Laos in particularly good in general.  I think it must be influenced by the French as they had a presence in Laos for quite a few years.  This is one of the better things that they passed on.

That evening, we walked the 300 steps to the top of Phou Si to enjoy the sunset.  We stayed around 15 minutes; the camera brigade was there!  During the past few months we have developed a hatred (maybe a slight exaggeration) of people who go to tourist sites with their tripod cameras and believe that their quest to capture the “perfect shot” is the be all and end all, that they are the most important people there and god help you if you try to get in their way.  Phou Si was full of these people and needless to say our tolerance levels plummeted particularly given that the top of the mountain is quite small and cramped.  So we took the obligatory photos (the views were beautiful) and hotfooted is out of there.

Phou Si Temple

View from Phou Si Mountain

One of the benefits of staying out of Luang Prabang is that we weren’t woken up at 3am by the gongs of the temples.  Laos is a very Buddhist country and we saw Buddhist monks everywhere we went.  Every morning the monks get up very early for morning prayers and afterwards they walk around the streets of Luang Prabang collecting alms from the local people.  To facilitate this and so that the monks have a decent night’s sleep, a curfew is imposed every night in Luang Prabang.  This means that all shops, restaurants and bars must close by 11pm and by 11.30pm there is nobody on the streets.  Over the past couple of years though there has been talk among the Buddhist monks that they may cease the alms ceremony.  The main reason for this is because of some insensitive tourists who insist of taking photographs of this old tradition and flashing them in the eyes.  Taking a photo of a monk without his permission is highly disrespectful.  However, the government has made it clear that the monks have to continue the tourist pageant or risk being replaced with lay people clothed in saffron robes in order to keep up appearances, and thereby maintain tourist revenue.  It’s a bit crazy really and naturally Rob and I opted not to go and see the ceremony; it had nothing to do with the early start of course!

Our "early" start - Breakfast on the veranda

The following day Rob, Yvonne, Sebastian and I decided to go on a biking, kayaking day trip.  We met our guide, Mr. B, got our mountain bikes and set off for the day.  While Yvonne and I held up the back going at our own girlie pace, the boys raced ahead and scared off any snakes that were lying in the middle of the road as they rode past!  Along the way, we met some local children who were eager to see their own picture in a digital camera.  Their giggling and teasing each other photographs made you really realise what you have.  We also stopped at a local craft centre, where we were shown how the women make the beautiful scarves, table cloths and bedspreads that we see in the markets.  It is painstaking work weaving with old fashioned looms and spinning wheels, taking up to a week to make an elaborate scarf and 10 days to produce a tablecloth that we would haggle $2 in the market.  If we hadn’t been travelling for another month, I definitely would have bought some items.  After a hearty lunch it was time to abandon the bikes and hop into the kayaks.

Looms at the craft centre

Curious locals

Pre The Adventure!

Our first stop along the river was to a nearby waterfall where we went swimming in the cold water.  The falls were beautiful, going up the hill in step like fashion and the water was crystal clear.  Rob and Sebastian took turns swinging off a rope and into the water.  As I walked down the steps into the pool, I slipped on the steps and fell.  The pain was so excruciating I thought I had broken my foot.  I couldn’t walk on it and it began to swell up really bad.  I also had a massive bruise around my knee but there’s nothing new there.  Anyway I hoped for the best and hopped back to the kayak.  The kayaking was simply brilliant.  We paddled and drifted along the river taking in the scenery and the mountainous terrain that was all around us and negotiated a few minor rapids.  The “fun” began at the end of the trip, when we hit the major rapids.  Yvonne and Sebastian’s kayak toppled over first; ten seconds later ours did the same.  We tried to roll it back over but every time we did that and get back in, it capsized again.  At the same time we were being carried along the river at full speed and bumping into rocks and boulders that were hidden under the water (the bruises were mounting up!).  Eventually Mr. B, having first rescued Yvonne and Sebastian, managed to make his way over to us.  He couldn’t help us either and we missed our exit point from the river.  As we looked ahead all we could see were more rapids and a giant boulder sticking out of the river.  Mr. B told Rob to make a grab for it and the last thing he saw was me being swept away around a corner and into more rapids.  Eventually we made it to the banks of the river (the wrong side to where our pick up was though!).  Neither Rob nor I knew whether the other person was safe or not but Rob was picked up in another kayak by our bus driver and Mr. B and I kayaked across to the other side, after having drained the multiple litres of water that had built up in the kayak and the cause of the problem in the first place.  It was definitely one of the scariest moments of both our lives and we were both pretty shaken up afterwards.  At least we lived to tell the tale and I was pretty sure by then that my foot wasn’t broken either!

Beautiful waterfalls

Tarzan!  Sorry, no, that's Sebastian!

That evening, over dinner, the four of us regaled Max and Billie with tales of our adventurous day.  The adventure wasn’t over yet though.  When the time came to go home, we all crammed into a tuk tuk that was really only fit for four people.  There were six of us and Max was not a small man!  Honestly, every time the tuk tuk turned a corner, I thought it was going to topple over and every time it started up after stopping, I thought it was going to topple backwards!  By the time the driver got us near the guesthouse the tuk tuk was going so slowly that we decided to get out and walk the rest of the way.  He got a generous tip as he had used up all his fuel carting us lot home.  It was definitely an eventful day in what is normally a lazy Luang Prabang.