Laos - The slow boat to Luang Prabang

Where we you to watch the Royal Wedding? We were in a tiny town on the Lao side of the Mekong called 'Huay Xai' drinking BeerLao! We were the only customers most of the day but managed to find the BBC coverage on the TV.

The town really was tiny but I did still find a place for my daily foot massage.

When I returned, I realised that Kenny had been enjoying the Dark BeerLao rather a lot. Well why not? It was, after all, a bank holiday!
(And Beerlao Dark is the closest thing I've had to real ale since we left home, apart from the micro brewery in Patagonia last December! - K)

We were told by the local shop keeper that we needed to buy a cushion for the uncomfortable seats on the slow boat to Luang Prabang, and that we had to get there for 9am to get a seat.
Rule No. 1 - Do not trust everything you hear from the locals, especially if they are trying to sell you something.
The boat was near empty until we finally left at a little after 12, and as for the cushion! Grrrr!!
(The boat seats were in fact old bus seats, nailed to planks of wood, but not actually attached to the boat, making it somehwat precarious to stand up and sit down! - K)

The slow boat takes 2 days to get to Luang Prabang, as it makes its way down the Mekong stopping at a little place for the night. Laos is beautiful. No - really beautiful! Is is very unpopulated (6 million), very wet and fertile (hence lots of trees etc), and fairly untouched. The only blots on its landscape were created by the American government, who 'secretly' bombed Laos during the Vietnam War to flush out the communists. They dropped over 2 million tonnes of bombs, as well as the deadly Agent Orange destroying miles of land and killing thousands of very innocent Lao people (more of this in a later blog).

The boat meandered down and stopped briefly for children to jump on to flog us stuff. They always send the children, especially the really cute little girls.

Despite our long day, the boat was a wonderful way to travel. Cool from the river and relaxing as it swayed in the water.

Arriving in Pak Beng for the night and the madness descended. This was the daily overnight stop for this boat and so many guest houses have sprung up here, all touting for our business.

Looking back at our boat.

We found what looked like a lovely place to stay. The pictures of it were fantastic. However once inside, it became evident that they had spent more on the photos than the cleaning! Ah well - it's only for 1 night and it was really cheap - £3 a night for both of us I think.

Pak Beng was a very traditional village by the Mekong and not a bad place to spend the evening.

Day 2 and back on the boat.

Leaving the sleepy village of Pak Beng.

Peace once again as we float happily downstream.

The scenery just got better and better.

Once in a while we would stop so that the selling and bartering could begin. I have had to restrict myself as to how much I buy. It is so difficult though. I love the textiles here and they are so cheap and all handmade.

Back on the waves.

Things just became more and more beautiful.

By now we were very near Luang Prabang. It is quite odd sometimes travelling in Asia in your 30's. The average age of traveller here is probably 18 - 21 yrs and trust me - they want a totally different experience from us! Take this boat trip, we were happy to enjoy the ride and spectacular views. Most of the others preferred to take full advantage of the bar on board and drink beer after beer. They even decorated the back section of the boat with toilet paper (They'll regret wasting that vital travellers' resource later! - K). Don't get me wrong, I love a drink too and if they had served wine I may also have been merry. But I am a big believer in always respecting the country you are in and the people from it. The tourists share the slow boat with locals, who are making their way up and down the country, and it was not difficult to tell that they were disgusted and probably a little bit frightened by the behaviour onboard. It was like being in a student nightclub at 3am, people falling over, snogging whoever they fancied, jeering and throwing things. Like I say I love a drink like the rest of them but even I felt pretty glad to get off the boat!
(A bit like being at work, for me, only without the Security team to deal with things! - K)

So, finally, we did arrive in Luang Prabang - one of my favorite places in the world.

We decided to stay in a good guesthouse near the town centre and (more importantly) away from our fellow travellers.

Luang Prabang is a wonderful town. If you have not been - go there. If you have already been - go again! It is sandwiched between the confluence of the Mekong & Nam Khan rivers. There is a huge French influence here, which mainly comes out in its architecture and cooking. The town is clean, quiet and so, so relaxing. It has a wonderful night market, great restaurants & guesthouses and beautiful countryside all around. It is the home to many Buddhist monks, who wander down the streets in their bright orange robes. (Have I sold it enough yet?)

The lazy main street.

I have been here once before, with Mum, when we did our S.E. Asia trip 4 years ago. Not much has changed, it is a little more expensive and slightly more busy, but the restaurant we ate in (as all I would eat on that trip was pizza!) was still here.

Our guesthouse backed onto the fabulous Temple in the Palace grounds.

In the centre of the town is a small hill called 'Phu Si' at its base is a very old temple.

With a beautiful inside.............

................ with painted walls.

Steps lead up the hill...

...to the top, giving wonderful views of Luang Prabang.

See what i mean about it being so pretty?!!!

On the way back down the other side of the hill are many Buddha statues (Mum & I named this the 'Buddha Theme Park' when we were here).

Loads of them.

There are many stalls all over selling all sorts of things, the most interesting are these little baskets with tiny birds in. Buddhists they believe in every life being sacred but also tend to have a carnivorous diet. In order to readdress the balance, one can buy these little birds for a fee and set them free.......................... (probably to be caught again moments later and re-caged and re-sold).

Our favorite 'Crazy Eyes' Buddha.

They are very proud of their very own 'Buddha Footprint'.

Kenny could only just squeeze in for a look.

Once at the bottom we decided we deserved lunch and found it in a little hillside restaurant over a rickety bridge across the Nam Khan river.

2 for 1 cocktails - my favorite!

There are some lovely waterfalls near Luang Prabang so we paid for a Tuk Tuk to drive us out to some.

Through their wonderful countyside.

The gates of the waterfalls. Notice the red flag of the former USSR on the right, with the red and blue of Laos to the left of the gate. Due to many past ties with the communist USSR, you see these flags everywhere. In fact we're not sure if Laos realises that the USSR doesn't exist anymore!

Before arriving at the falls there is a bear sanctuary, how odd!

Kenny decided they only homed 'camp' bears from the statues outside.

Not bad, Eh?

Fancy a swim?
Actually we did fancy a swim and had gone there with full intensions of taking a dip. We decided against this as as we were walking up on the top part of the falls for a view, both of us attracted leeches!!!! I managed to catch mine before it had bitten in but Kenny was not so lucky, it got him right between the toes and latched on. They are really difficult to get off and once you do, you found that they had injected something which meant that the blood flow did not clot for sometime after. As it is also very difficult to feel when they have latched on (due to injecting an anesthetic before they bite) we decided against a swim!
(If only I'd remembered my SAS jungle survival training and carried a lit cigarette at all times, I could have dealt with these pests in seconds! - K)

Stunning.

The temple outside our guesthouse.

It was beautiful, protected by this 4 headed snake.

Inside was all red & gold, totally stunning.

The view across to the Palace.

That njght we headed out for some dinner and found a lovely, cheap place that sold us a glass of wine and a dark BeerLao for under £2 total! Just as we got there the monsoon rains started.

We decided to stay put until they had stopped - 5 glasses later, Kenny guided me back (the rain still hadn't stopped).

After nearly a week in Luang Prabang we needed to make a move - across the mountians. Next stop Phonsavan!