Laos – Luang Prababang

Main street in Luang Prabang

We left the Luang Prabang bust station in a Tuk Tuk, with the driver promising to take us to our specified hotel. When the driver dropped us off somewhere we hadn't asked for, we tried to argue with him but he didn't speak English. SO we ended up in the middle of a town, at 6am, not having a clue where we were. We asked around for our hotel that we'd booked, but no one could help us. One old man spoke French and directed us the wrong way and everybody else was just clueless or didn't speak English. Finally, we happened upon a Guest house with its doors open and a man sat inside on a laptop, so we asked him if we could use his laptop to see where our hotel was. Eventually we found it, and they let us check in early, which at 6.30am, having just been on a night bus for 22 hours, we were very grateful for. We check in, had a shower and then slept until midday. When we got up, we went for a walk around the town and to get some food. First thing we noticed was how much more expensive it was than Thailand, which didn't make sense to us because Laos is a lot poorer (one of the poorest nations on earth according to LP). But that's how it was. So we begrudgingly paid more for a breakfast than we would have done in Thailand (only about £2 more, but still). And then we wandered around the streets of Luang Prabang, which had a very French feel to them (the French occupied Laos at some point in history and lots of things like signs are still in French). There were lots of boulevards, with cafes and old French style buildings, with Buddhist temples scattered around for good measure. It was a really nice town with a good vibe and not too many tourists. At night there was a night market, so we wandered around those and then went for dinner in a restaurant on the main street.

One of the temples

The next day, we took a minibus to go to the waterfalls nearby. We were joined in the bus by a group of British travellers travelling with Stray Travel. It was a weird mix of people, some older (in their 50s) and some very young (just finished their GCSEs), but all terribly posh. We assumed this must mean Stray is an expensive company to travel with. We got dropped at the waterfalls and had about 4 hours there. Jemma and I decided to walk to the top tier first and work our way down. This was no easy feat: it involved scrambling on muddy branches and climbing some really steep rocks to get to the top, but when we got there, we were glad we'd made the effort as the view was lovely and there was nobody else up there (all the tourists were at the bottom tier). It was the closest thing I have seen to Iguazu falls, except you could swim in it. We climbed back down to the lower tiers and then got in for a swim, jumping off a waterfall and into a deep plunge pool which was lovely. 

There were not many fish there this time, which made it even nicer than the ones in Thailand. There was also a rope swing, which people were queuing up to go on, with everyone watching and cheering. I decided to have a go, and did the most pathetic plop ever off the rope into the water. 

Someone getting ready to swing off

As I swam back to the bank, something (probably a fish) bit me really hard on my leg and drew blood! Also in the same river, were a group of locals washing their hair! We assumed they must have paid the £2 entry fee to have a wash in the clean water as it must beat washing in the dirty Mekong. Perhaps they do this once a week to get really clean? I will never know because we didn't ask them, so this is just a theory. After rope swinging into the river, it was then time to leave, so we got out and walked back to the minivan, stopping to have a look at the bears on the way back (there was a little compound with black bears in it). One of the bears started to get aggressive, and there was only a small fence holding them in, so I told Jemma to get away and we walked swiftly off. If that had been Australia, there would have been at least two 6metre fences between the tourists and the bears!

That night, we went to the night markets where we had an all you can eat buffet for less than a £1 from stall where there was a boy stood wafting the food with a plastic bag on a stick to keep away the flies. God knows how we didn't get food poisoning. After this, we wandered to a lovely bar called Eutopia. 

Wine by the river

Eutopia is a famous bar in Laos that is set next to the river, with cushions for you to lie on and has an excellent chilled out vibe. We ordered a big bowl of wine each (thanks to the French, Laos has good wine and good baguettes) and we settled ourselves on some mats facing the river. It was really relaxing.

Whilst we were eating our buffet, we had noticed a poster asking for people to go to the Library to volunteer to teach English, with no experience required. So the next day, that's what we did. 

Jemma teaching English

We went to the library, where there was a room full of young boys, mostly young monks, and each English speaker got assigned to a pupil. A man came in and said it was time to start and then we just had to speak with them and help them practice. Jemma had a really good student, who already spoke very good English and wanted to know more about the grammar, whereas mine could hardly say anything and I had to go right back to basics with him. Jemma's was from the Hmong tribe outside of the city and was really poor. His family could only afford to send one of their children to school and had sent him. Jemma wanted to offer to take him round the rest of Asia with us and treat him to a nice meal but in the end, she refrained. After teaching, we were going to hire bikes and cycle around the city, but Jemma has had a really bad back for a few days now so we decided to just walk instead, and went to our favourite bar Eutopia for an early tea. They did really nice food, and I had a tuna baguette with chips (despite promising myself that Laos would be the beginning of my chip ban). The chips in Laos are the best I've tasted in Asia, if not the world (UK notwithstanding (or Flunch)). That was our last night in Luang Prabang and we had organised to leave the next day, with a minivan to pick us up from our hostel and take us to the bus station where we would catch the VIP bus to Vang Vieng. That was when we had our first experience of 'Laos time'...

  

Some nice Laos grub

Laos photos