24th - 28th November 2011
Have I mentioned how much I LOVE Laos? This is such a beautiful country, with beautiful, friendly people (who don't shout and don't shove) great architecture (very similar to Thai) and good food AND they even have baguettes. O, I didn't realise you don't have to be good and then die to get to heaven, woo hoo!
Luang Prabang is the cultural capital of the North, one of the royal seats of the country when there were monarchies (it competed with royal families in Vientiane in the centre and Champasak in the South) pre-communism, neat tidy streets branch off roads that run along the great Mekong River and the Nam Pha River, the former of which we hadn't seen since leaving the rivers delta in the South of Vietnam.
We arrived late at night just before the 11.30pm curfew which keeps the streets quiet and reveller free, not that this is a party destination. After getting a rather lovely cheap room at a good rate from a charming smiling Lao dude (who it turned out had rented the room out for too low a price) we settled in, happy to be back in a land of smiles and slept like babies.
The next day we wandered around the city with no fixed route, we walked along the rivers which envelope the city and had lunch at a small riverside restaurant, some salad, sticky rice and sun-dried fried buffalo. It was gorgeous but expensive.
We got back to our guest house to find that our room rate was going up the following night so Djalma went off in search for something affordable while I packed up our things and waited for him. We walked to our new guest house in the afternoon sun, which was cheaper but less polished, a low bed on the floor with a kids patterned bed sheet and Cinderella towels. Business as usual then. That night I went out by myself to get some dinner, Djalma was sniffling and coming down with a cold and the cool evening air wouldn't have done his poor little chest any good, poor baby. We shared a Lao style baguette, our no carbs in the evening plan going out of the window (I only remembered after buying the sandwich, oops).
The following day I went out to get some breakfast baguettes and do a little more exploring, we didn't leave until the sun was high in the sky, I found the temperature rather cool and wonderfully UK like, but it wasn't weather for sick. After a cheap but ginger and chilli enriched noodle soup we strolled around again, this time crossing a rickety bamboo bridge to get to some kind of temple that we ended up not seeing. We followed the path round and watched men fishing from boats and long tour boats floating past.
My pretty back-up flip-flops broke and I walked back barefoot. We went to the night market that fills one of the streets every evening and got a couple of vegetable dishes from one stall, some smoky aubergine mush, some glass noodles with palm heart and something with meaty mushrooms and took it to a table opposite the barbecue meat stalls where we got some freshly cooked pork and chicken. It was unbelievably good, much better than the slightly disgusting ground underfoot (still no flip-flops). We stopped at a restaurant with wifi on the way back, we wished Djalma's Auntie a happy birthday and spoke to my Nan which put us both in a very good mood.
Djalma and I made a six-pack pact, we would each do our best to get one in time for Christmas, so after some power yoga in the morning we went out for some morning baguettes from the same guy as yesterday, after a VERY strong Laos coffee that left my teeth an attractive shade of brown we arranged a tuk-tuk ride to the waterfalls outside of town.
Tat Kuang Si is a beautiful set of waterfalls just over 30km outside of town. Unfortunately our original tuk-tuk driver told us a little porky pie and the promised people to share the fare never materialised so we wasted an hour driving round town looking for more people to make up the minimum number of passengers. We ended up back where we started and got in with another driver who did have enough people to leave immediately and after an hour of winding our way round country roads we arrived at the bottom of the waterfalls.
At the entrance to the site there was an enclosure for rescued sun bears. They kicked back in big enclosures, lounging in hammocks and generally not doing much in their play areas. Cute doesn't begin to describe a bear in a hammock. I also learned that there are only 8 types of bear, I can't remember all of them but I know that there are; American Black Bears, Brown Bears, Polar Bears, Giant Pandas, Asiatic Black Bears, Sloth Bears, Spectacled Bears as well as Sun Bears. I confess I just googled it, I wish my memory was better than it is.
We had a couple of hours to enjoy the scenery and the powdery blue water before meeting back up with everyone else and returning to town. A swing and the water beckoned, and despite his cold Djalma had to jump in, repeatedly, trying to perfect his backward somersault. I took a few pictures and then wandered of by myself, taking pictures of the water and waiting for my beloved to put some clothes back on and catch up.
He did after a while and we decided to climb to the top of the waterfall and come back down the following side. The climb up was treacherous and torturous on the knees and legs, but my power yoga stood me in good stead and we made it up in fairly good time.
It was far too slippery to go back down the same way so we followed a track to go back down the other side. Big mistake, we followed the track that after an hour became evident was a path used only by cows and their herders. With not much time to spare we retraced our footsteps through the woods at the top and then at Djalma's insistence crossed the top of the waterfall (impressive doesn't begin to describe it) and found steps running down the other side, still heavy going on the old knees but much more manageable than the route we took on the way up.
We raced down the steps, rather late for the meet up back to town but fortunately for us they were still waiting (not paying before the trip helps) and we sped our way back along the same country roads to town. About five minuted in to the ride back I felt a little wiggling between my big toe and its neighbour, I took my trainer and sock off to scratch when it didn't stop and found a bloodsucking stowaway. With minimal panicking I got the leech off my foot and then spent the next ten minutes trying to stop the bleeding. I'm not talking major haemorrhaging here just a constant dribble of blood, I left the centimetre long bloodsucker on the floor of the tuk-tuk, keeping an eye on just in case it tried to worm it's way in again. Yuck.
Back in town we headed straight for dinner, doing the same thing as the previous night, veggie stuff from the lady and meat from the man. We then wandered round the night market trying to find some replacement trousers for mine which despite numerous patching up and sewing repairs, continued to fray and rip. We didn't find anything and made our way back home to rest our tired bodies and aching legs.
We had peanut brownies for breakfast the next day washed down with pots of tea. Djalma decided to stay in bed and focus on getting better so I took myself off for a couple of hours to go to the Palace Museum. It was a bright sunny morning but still cool, perfect sightseeing weather. I got my ticket, deposited my camera and wandered barefoot with the rest of the tourists around the inside of Royal Palace Museum.
The labelling wasn't up to match and the royal family didn't really live in all that much grandeur once you got away from the rooms where they received people (just like in Buckingham Palace I imagine). One thing that was nice was a small story telling of a prince and his family told in pages spaced out around the corridors, complete with pictures. I took a look at the royal car collection which consisted mainly of US gifted Lincoln continentals, what HUGE cars! And the photography exhibitions of monks, neither allowed cameras in.
I got my camera and then headed to the royal temple, which is basically like every other temple in Luang Prabang (and therefore the reason why I didn't need to visit any other temple), I could take photos there and I made up for the lack of photos in the main palace.
My time up, I got a baguette for lunch and then headed back to Djalma, we packed up and waited for our minivan which collected us and began our five hour trip south to Vang Vieng.
We shared the small bus with a small group of US kids who were headed the same way. The road out of Luang Prabang wasn't too bad but after a couple of hours it got steadily worse. We stopped along the way and admired the view, we passed through lots of tree covered mountains and waited while the kids had dinner. The dusty road outside the restaurant saw plenty of chickens and lots of baby chicks, families carrying buckets of wood and the odd speeding car/scooter. We got back in and after a few more hours we arrived just outside of Vang Vieng, we shared a tuk-tuk and after a few price enquiries found ourselves a nice little room with a balcony overlooking a river.
No comments:
Post a Comment