Laos – Luang Prabang
After our few days of relaxing in Vang Vieng, we jumped on a mini-bus and headed North for the 6 hour drive to Luang Prabang. If I ever go back to Laos, I would hope to be able to rent or buy a motorcycle in Vang Vieng and ride up to Luang Prabang over a period of 2-3 days. The scenery on this route is absolutely stunning, with village after village built and perched on the edges of precipitous cliffs for pretty much the entire duration of the drive. Going up through the mountains is absolutely stunning, and it would be awesome to have the time and ability to stop for the countless photo opportunities along the way.
Also along the drive, we stopped at a small village where we could grab some lunch. I found myself a little Laotian lady making sandwiches out of baguette's, and I never turn down a good sandwich. I also have this irresistible urge to take photos any time I see gasoline and diesel dispensed from barrels.
After we arrived in Luang Prabang, and some might smooth negotiating with a dozen Tuk Tuk drivers, we were off to our accommodation which for the first couple nights was a place that Carly's sister had stayed when she was in Laos a couple years ago. Known as Thong Bay Guest House, this was a superb little place along the river, with wonderful little cabins/huts and a ton of character.
Our bedroom at Thong Bay
Our balcony at Thong Bay
Washroom at Thong Bay
A highly zoomed view from our balcony at Thong Bay
Daniel looking a little dumb and sleepy, eating breakfast.We found Luang Prabang to be a spectacularly relaxed place (much like the rest of Laos, from what we've read). Situated right where the Nam Khan river meets the Mekong, there are plenty of neat places to walk, eat or drink by the water, enjoying the boats going by, or simply looking at the rice paddies and bamboo foot bridges - a surreal experience. Luang Prabang is packed with restaurants, old temples and quaint alleyways that you never tire of wandering.
Small side-street in Luang Prabang town
Small bridge in Luang Prabang, near some art galleries
Foot bridge over the Nam Khan river, just before it joins the Mekong.
Beautiful Carly with funny looking man, standing by the Mekong immediately prior to ordering some BeerLao. Yum.
A schoolyard in Luang Prabang
On one of our more adventurous days, we headed out on a trip to Kuang Si falls which was fantastic. There are a number of swim pools designated along the path as you walk up-river to the main falls. After that there are some paths and stairs you can climb in order to swim in some of the basins waaaaayyy up high on some of the larger parts of the falls. The views are stunning, and there is something exciting about swimming in waterfalls. Behind some of the falls are small caves carved out by the water, and being back there is absolutely fantastic.
A 'sandwish' stand by the river.
Selling fabric, blankets, etc. by the river.
Luang Prabang was also home to the coolest night market we've ever seen. About an hour or two before dusk, local families and sellers begin to line the streets on the south west side of town with displays and tents and bare light bulbs that will later be used to shine light on the countless ware's and goods for sale. The people do not harass you in the slightest compared to some of the other markets in Vietnam, Cambodia or Thailand. Wandering this night market is truly an experience unto itself. Fantastic gifts, blankets and all sorts of other goods.
As an aside, if you're ever interested in some 'strange cuisine'...
Mekong weed with bong sauce, anyone?One of the other 'major attractions' that Luang Prabang offers is the early-morning rising of the monks who walk the streets in small groups collecting alms for their daily food. We were up at around 6:00am to take these photos at various places through the town. Each monk carries a container around his neck, and each of the people place a small handful of sticky rice into each of the monks container. Other food is also given at times, sometimes meat and sometimes candies, etc. It's been noted that this has been turned into a bit of a business, where people on the streets will sometimes try to sell tourists old food to give to the monks, and it has been reported that this has caused illness on more than one occasion. If you're in Luang Prabang and plan on giving alms to the monks, ask the proprietor at your guest house to prepare something for you.
The last super-cool thing worth talking about here is Lao New Year, also known as the water festival, or Bun Pi Mai Lao. This three-day water festival kicks off the Lao New Year - and also takes place in Thailand (not sure if any other countries as well). This is a culturally interesting experience, unless you happen to be carrying with you things like passports and digital cameras that prefer not to have water thrown on them. At this time of the year. people stand on the side of the streets with buckets, pails, hoses, cups, mugs, water pistols, or any other thing that would act as an exceptional water-projectile. You need to prepare to get wet. Carly and I would be walking down the street, unsuspectingly, and as we would pass a group of high-school aged boys, KERSPLASH!!! - all of a sudden we'd have a bucket of water tossed on us from behind, completely soaked.
Now, in Laos this wasn't so bad, but we had booked our flights through Udon Thani in Thailand, because it's much cheaper for us to fly to/from Thailand - and then simply drive over the Laos border into Vientiane. After flying from Luang Prabang down to Vientiane, we crossed over the Laos border into Thailand and (...oh... shoot... time for a side story... we'll come back to the water thing in a minute...).
So - side story. Carly and I arrived in Thailand and began negotiating for a ride into Udon Thani. The prices being given to us were completely unreasonable (1000 Baht for the two of us), so we began looking around for some other folks to ask for prices, or share a ride. We see an Indian man all decked out in a suit, running around a little frantic talking on his cell phone. Him and his buddy apparently were also trying to get a ride into Udon Thani, so we managed to get a price of 800 Baht for the four of us (200 each). After a few minutes however, the gentleman seemed a bit less frantic, and let us know that they had a van that they were trying to get from Laos back into Thailand, but that someone had screwed up their paperwork when they had originally gone the other direction. They had the paperwork sorted out, and offered us a ride into town with them. Score. The reason for the franticness is that they had planes to catch to Bangkok / India in about an hours time, and it takes 35-40 minutes to get from the Thai border to Udon Thani. Needless to say, the ride from the border to the airport was an outstandingly good time, from the egging on of their Laotian driver to go faster, to conversing with these two amazing Indian businessmen who work for a huge Indian conglomerate of companies responsible for, among other things, 25% of the worlds rayon production. After we managed to get them to the airport, and they ran off frantically with their bags trying to catch their flights, they left us with their van and Laotian driver to go wherever we wanted. So we got dropped off at a huge grocery store and picked up some food for lunch. After that, it was time for us to find a ride to our hotel....(ok! carrying on with the water story...)
Carly and I managed to find a Tuk Tuk in the parking lot of the grocery store, and after the obligatory price haggling, we were off in his little Tuk Tuk for a ride to our hotel. Boy, were we stupid. We had no idea what we'd just gotten into.
If we thought that Laotian folks were water-happy, in Udon Thani, it was an order of magnitude (or 9) more insane. And unfortunately for us, we had all of our luggage with us, packs and all. The streets were insane. Traffic jams, pumping music, everyone was soaked, and dancing in the streets. Groups of 4 people would stop our driver in his tracks, and make him wait while they opened up our shirts pouring buckets of water all over us and painting our faces with white cream or baby powder. Five people would drive by in the back of a pickup truck with a huge barrel of water tied to the cab and be flinging buckets of water all over us. It was madness. Laughable and enjoyable madness, and an amazing experience to be sure, just too bad that we had all our stuff with us.
After about 40 minutes of this, we arrived at our hotel (a rather fancy place) sopping wet. I'm certain I squeezed a liter of water from my boxer shorts. My passport was soaked - I had to try it with a hair dryer. Fortunately - our camera was just about the only thing that wasn't soaked, and a few of our clothes that were deep in our packs.
For anyone wanting to get involved in a party like this, I can't recommend Thailand at mid-April enough. This was an absolute riot of a good time.
Poor sucker getting water tossed on him in Luang Prabang
Sopping wet pile of clothes after arriving at our hotel in Udon Thani