Following the Gibbon experience we hopped onto the slow boat for two days down the mighty Mekong River. Before watching an impromptu group of Lao people try to drag several sheets of steel from the bed of the river we were off, taking in the beautiful scenery, drinking the occasional cold beer and catching up on our journals. Every time the boat stopped was an experience in itself. Sometimes children would emerge from the banks with beer and crisps in the hope of a quick sell, sometimes people would appear with live lizards.. one of our fellow passengers got himself a bit of a live lizard bargain, check our pics for his steal and the great steel retrieval.
We landed in Luang Prabang which is the old capital and has a chilled out charm about it. On the first day we got to know the place with a short walk around town and a visit to the old temple as well as a few of the french style bakeries. The next day we hired a motorbike in search of weaving courses for Angie and despite a visit to a textile village were not successful at first due to language barriers. We then headed up to a nearby waterfall. After arriving at a touristy car park we were delighted to find several beautiful clear blue pools by the waterfall that you could swim in. This was very refreshing following the hot ride up.
The next day we got up at dawn to see the Monks Alms Procession where the locals place tiny balls of sticky rice into the monk's begging bowls. Although an amazing sight to see we were saddened by the amount of tourists bustling about with their cameras which has turned this old tradition into more of a spectacle (but Ben obviously took a quick picture before being completely saddened). Following a quick power nap Angie managed to get onto a weaving course and was delighted to make a place mat in a speedy three hours.
Feeling suitably relaxed we decided to head onto the party town of Vang Vieng. In high season everyone goes a bit wild in the island that is connected to the town by a rickety bamboo bridge. It's an anything goes town but as we're in the quiet season all the drinking was happening in town or at the 'tubing'. Tubing involves getting an old tractor tyre tube and floating from bar to bar along the Mekong until you arrive back into town. However, with low tourist season and the wet season only beginning, the party remained at the first bar meaning most people stayed there and then found that it was a very slow three hour float down back into town. Despite our best paddling efforts we still went at an extremely slow pace, although we managed to make it back just before dark and ready for dinner and a couple of beers.
Vang Vieng is also known as the place to take on adventure sports in the beautiful surroundings of the nearby limestone cliffs. The next day Ben decided test his finger muscles and went rock climbing, a very scary experience on some sharp vertical cliffs but it was a great setting for it and apart from barely being able to pick up a beer afterwards it was well worth it.
We have just arrived in the capital city of Vientiane and are currently contemplating the next part of our journey.
B & A
