Hi everyone,
We finally arrived in Luang Prabang in Laos on Thursday last week after our two-day slow boat trip down the Mekong river. It was a really atmospheric journey meandering our way down from northern Thailand through the misty jungle, and a pretty romantic way to spend Valentine’s day really!
It’s a very peaceful journey down the river for the most part, with just the occasional sleepy village, or fisherman to take photos of. The tranquility is only disturbed by the speedboats which also rip along the route. They take just half the time that the slow boat does (i.e. with no overnight stop), but since there are dangerous stretches of rapids and hidden rocks along the route, passengers are issued with compulsory life jackets and crash helmets… never a good confidence booster as you climb on board!
Seeing these (mostly Japanese) adrenaline junkies zoom by, soaking wet and gripping on to the sides of their boats for dear life made us feel really quite grateful to be whiling away the hours just looking around, reading books and playing scrabble. The slow boat really wasn’t that uncomfortable once you’ve bought your cushion (a bargain at 50p or so, and you get to keep it – could come in handy for those Chinese trains!). And some of the canny passengers that were first in the queue even got a ‘luxury seat’ – one of a few padded recliners that were apparently ripped straight out of aeroplanes… and we wonder why Lao Air has such a bad reputation….
Perhaps the best bit about the trip though was actually arriving in Luang Prabang. It’s the first place of any size that we’d seen for 48 hours and getting off the boat you do feel a bit like a nineteenth century jungle explorer, discovering somewhere unknown to western civilization and preparing yourself for whatever ‘the natives’ might be like … that is at least until the mist clears from your eyes and you see all of the pretty little avenues of sophisticated cafés, art galleries and quirky shops anyway…. In fact as we stopped at one of the cafes for a coffee and a catch up with the Bangkok Post, we were rather reminded of Stoke Newington Church Street! (will the Lonely Planet pick this up and finally publish a Stokey edition?!)
LP has actually recently been voted no. 1 city in the world to visit by Wanderlust magazine – a fact the Laos people seem to be being rather over-modest about – it was reported in the local paper that it had entered the top ten…(?!) And it is an amazing little town – preserved exceptionally well (it's UNESCO-listed) and apparently little changed since the French colonialists arrived. It certainly makes for a very picturesque setting, with old colonial-style houses with shutters and balconies (many of which are now very classy boutique hotels), set against gorgeous old buddhist temples and palm trees.
In summary, it’s the sort of place for mooching, drinking coffee and watching the world go by. So we’ve been doing lots of that! The local stuff, Lao coffee, is a big favourite – it’s incredibly strong, and thick like soup – oh, and keeps you awake all night – but we don’t care, we’re addicted! We’re actually thinking of throwing out some clothes to make space for a couple of kilos in our bags for home – so place your orders now those of you with young children!!
We’ve also got in our fair share of sightseeing, and have visited lots of the main temples. Our favourites so far have been Wat Xieng Thong (the oldest and really, really beautiful), That Chomsi (on top of a hill in the centre of the Old City, from where you can watch the seatless Lao Air planes take off over the jungle), and the excellently named Wat That – a useful landmark which hasn’t stopped making us giggle yet – “oh look, wat that, over there Phil!” We're easily amused...!
And we’ve also been on a couple of trips out of the town – one morning we took a little boat out to the Pak Ou caves, where thousands of Buddhas have been left in caves, we think (though we’re not sure – they have interestingly nuanced translations round here!) as offerings to keep the gods that look after the river happy.
We also spent a lovely afternoon at the Kouang Si waterfall, which falls 60 metres before spilling through a series of crystal blue pools. And we had fun pretending to be on the Krypton Factor trying to make our way across the top of the waterfall because we’d gone up the steps on the wrong side and had to get down the other way… all good fun and we only got our feet a little bit wet....
Other good things about Laos are:
* The people – who are making what they can from tourism in a very friendly and less ‘in your face’ way than some places we’ve been to so far
* The money – the currency is Kip and there are approx 17,500 of them to the pound. So we’re millionaires – hoorah! (see photo gallery also!)
* The beer – Beerlao – which is delicious, incredibly cheap, so helping us get some kip (of the sleep variety) after all that Lao coffee…
The Internet is also rather more advanced than we’d bargained for, and there are internet cafes everywhere (many even offering free wifi with your patisserie of choice…). So, with any luck we’ll be back online with another entry from our next stops in Laos, Vang Vieng and Vientiane, soon!
Until then,
Sarah and Phil x x
P.S. Book list – call for nominations!
This café lifestyle has meant that we’ve been getting through a lot of books recently, and as we’ve heard that the second hand bookshops in Vietnam are top notch, we’re going to try and use it as an opportunity to stock up. So, has anyone read anything really good recently? Anything considered –we’re trying to broaden our horizons after all…
Suggestions can be posted via the ‘comments’ option at the bottom of this entry, or emailed to us….. thanks!! (sarah__barton@hotmail.com / pn_shaw@hotmail.com)
