Category: Luang Prabeng

Louisa and Beth had gone to Ponsovanh, so it was just the boys.  I left a little early to get to a bookstore and find a book.  The others joined me a few minutes later, and we met up with Joe.  Our first stop was Wat Phousi that overlooks the city.  I’m a tad watted out, but there were some decent views.

We walked along the Mekong next, and came across a rickety old bamboo bridge.  We walked down, and came across the bridgekeeper, who convinced us we should go over to the other side (4000 kip, 50 cents) to eat at his son’s restaurant.

We grabbed some Beerlao at the restaurant, and were approached by some locals on their way to a party a little further towards the Mekong.  They showered us with Talcum powder, and then went on their way, making us promise to join them later.  Air, the restaurant owner, gave us some Lao Lao whiskey, which wasn’t as horrible as I would have feared.

After our drinks we grabbed some of the girls from the restaurant and headed down to the Mekong where people were making stupas in the  sand.  We made our own.  The locals were experts, so we mostly sat back and watched as they added towers and things like that.

After that we played with the local kids in the water.  They were thrilled to be tossed into the not-so-deep water, and kept begging for more.   Some teenagers invited us to a party at their village, but Josh, Guto, and Andi were leaving in the evening, so we didn’t bother.  Later on the same kid tried to see if I was interested in a girl for the night, so it was probably for the best.

I had dinner with Joe, as everyone else had left for Van Vieng.  We were both exhausted, so we didn’t spend too much time, but he told me about his contracting typhoid fever in the Philippines, and I think that’s something I never want to get myself.

Louisa, Beth, Josh, Guto, Andi and myself had some breakfast than hired a tuk tuk to take us to the Pak Ou Caves that we had passed when we were on the slowboat.  The ride was ridiculously bumpy after we left the paved road, and we stopped at a small village where the driver lead us to the water, and we had to cross over the Mekong by boat.  The boat driver couldn’t have been more than 8, but he seemed to know what he was doing.

The cave was a graveyard for Buddhist images, but overall not too exciting.  Not worth the extra money we had to pay for the boat, and entrance fees.  After a short while there, we headed back to Luang Prabang, drove through the town and stopped at Kuang Si waterfall.

There’s a bear rescue setup there, so we looked at some rescued bears, thinking they didn’t look that secure.  There’s also a tiger, but he was “Not out today”, so we didn’t get to see him.

We came across a really nice area and thought we’d jump  in for a swim.  We swam for about 20 minutes, then headed up to see the rest of the waterfall, and realized we’d swum in the worst of the many pools created by the waterfall.  The waterfall itself was really nice.  If you were making a fake waterfall, you’d probably use Kuang Si as your inspiration.

We climbed to the top and swam in the pool created at the very top.  It was deep enough that we could jump off the ledge and in, so we did that. It was pretty quiet up there too, which was nice.

Headed back to Luang Prabang afterwards, and showered, then grabbed some dinner.  Ran into one of Andi’s friends, Joe on the way to the bar, so we played some pool with him.  Turns out he and Josh are from the same town and have some mutual friends.  Small world.

Bars close at 11 in Laos, but we found one that was opened later, so we hung their for a bit.  Unfortunately, the guesthouse closed at midnight, so we had to make our way over there.  We were almost locked out, but there was someone asleep in the front lobby who let us in.

Slow Internet alert… Rewrite alert.
Up early to grab some food and try and secure a seat on the slowboat. We were on a different boat – which was narrower, but not as crowded, so we managed to get a seat. It was quite a comfortable ride for the first couple of hours, and then we docked and loaded on a bunch of other passengers from Chiang Mai. Natalie and Yasmine, the Americans who’d been following me since Ko Lanta were in the group, so we exchanged hellos.

Uneventful trip, but I did manage to finish my book, which was quite good (“Clockers”, Richard Price). We stopped a few more times to load/unload locals, and reached Luang Prabeng just before dusk. Guto, Josh and myself had picked up three more travellers. Beth and Louisa (friends from England), and Andi from Germany. We all went in search of a guesthouse, and with the help of Josh’ guidebook found a decent one on the other side of the big hill in the centre of town.

We checked in, showered, and then headed out for dinner. Walked through the night market, and like every Asian city, it’s everyone selling the same thing. They had some nice silks and things like that, but nothing we couldn’t find in Thailand. We were all pretty beat, so after dinner we headed to bed.