We flew to Luang Prabang in Laos- that was an interesting flight! the plane was tiny (it had propellers!) but only about 25 of us on it (there were lots of spare seats though). Flight was fine though, we landed at a teeny tiny airport and walked off the plane to the terminal. We got a tuk tuk into town and headed to our guesthouse. it was ok pretty good.
We walked around town, went to the museum then went to find a pub to see the Anzac footy game. On the way there though a man on the street convinced us to go to a waterfall instead, it was so hot we decided to go! The waterfall was just next to a sanctuary for sun bears. It was a really nice sanctuary the poor bears are near to extinction because some cultures like the chinese hunt them for use in traditional medicines (even though you can now use other ingredients for the same thing), so the bears now need to be protected. They were so fun and playful to watch, such a shame they may not be around for much longer. we then went to the waterfall, it was bright greeny/blue and freezing cold! there were lots of rock pools cascading into each other so you could choose which one to swim in. We chose the one with a tarzan swing of course, it was quite scary getting to it (you had to climb up tree!) but good fun. The place was so beautiful, especially to just relax and escape the heat (it has been about 40 degrees each day with +++humidity!! it was about a half an hour there in a tuk tuk, we went with a group of 3 others which made it cheaper (the tuk tuk driver organised this).
We had a total of 4 days in Luang Prabang, wish we could have stayed for longer though! the town is built on a cliff/piece of land with a s bend river around it. it is spectacular to just walk around and see the scenery. There are bamboo bridges (literally made out of bamboo!) that are constructed each year after the rainy season which you can use to get to the other side. The town is a world heritage site so there are lots of beautiful wats and houses to see. It is quite touristy but it hasn't seemed to have ruined it at all.
There are really impressive night markets, really nice stuff being sold and much of it is made locally. their fabrics and needlework are beautiful!
We found couple of fantastic restaurants, one was called rosellas i think, YUM YUM YUM!!! had the best local food there and the staff were really nice. We also went to one just on the other side of the bamboo bridge where we had fondu. You have to try this in Laos! instead of oil or cheese they put hot soup in a special fondu bowl and you add vegetables and eggs to it. in the middle is a dome like grill which you cook your meat on then add to the soup which you ladel out. It was delicious!
we hired bikes (mine was a kids bike so not too comfy!) and rode around the nearby villages where they made paper and did weaving. The people are so friendly and always smile and wave at you.
We also did a day trekking into nearby mountain villages which was fantastic experience. We started off walking in the rain, but lucky for us it soon cleared up. The villages were quite an eye opener. All of the houses were made from bamboo. There was no running water and no electricity. They were self sufficient with their own rice crops and a couple of animals which they made pens from out of bamboo. They had very little posessions in their houses, it really was the most basic living I had ever seen. The people however were so happy! the children loved you taking photos of them and they would rush to get a look at the picture (no one in their village ever would have owned camera or any other electrical good for that matter). There were no cars or mechanical goods, not even for farming. Some of the villages were so small that the children had to trek through the jungle for 1 hour each way to and from school in their nearest village (and of course they have no shoes). The trek however was beutiful, the mountains, trees and landscape was breathtaking.
Another day we did canoe trip. It was pretty good, the scenery was fantastic, but it was REALLY hot!! we both got quite burnt, think our malaria medication didn't help that. We saw elephants being used by farmers and also saw lots of fishermen throwing out their nets to catch fish. They only ever seemed to catch teeny tiny ones!
We also saw lots of children playing and swimming in the river. They often tried to catch us and splash us/knock us out but luckily we managed to stay clear of them!
On our last morning we got up early and went and watched the Monks receiving their Alms. This is a cultural ceremony the monks do every morning at 6am where as they are walking along to their wat the locals line the streets and give them offerings of food. Unfortunately tourists have started to be very disrespectful of this and buy food to hand out to them which apparently is highly offensive. THey also get in the way of the monks as they are walking and go right up to them to take photos. It is a shame so many people can be so disrespectful of a culture, we saw many people doing this as we watched from a distance. Such a shame!!!!!!
Something else we saw in Luang Prabang was a company called big brother mouse (www.bigbrothermouse.com). They make childrens books in Laos and English to help children at school learn English. Laos is so poor that most children have never even seen a book before and many schools do not even have any kind of books or library. Unfortunately we were mostly in Luang Prabang for the weekend, but on a weekday you can go to the big brother mouse office and read english books to local school children. You can also donate to this fabulous charity online or sponsor a book party where they take heaps of books to a community and donate them to the school as well as doing lots of fun activities with the books for a few hours. I wish we could have done this!!!
We did buy a few books though and gave them to some kids at a nearby village they loved them and were pretty excited to get them! a shame so many other kids in the world aren't even interested in books any more when these poor kiddies have no access to them. Anyway, big brother mouse--- a great idea!
In general the kids in Laos are so happy and so friendly, its so hard to believe they are some of the poorest people in the world. They children never seem to cry or moan about things, they just get on with it! from such a young age the are walking by the streets with fast cars whizzing by them on their own. They walk by rivers on their own with no swimming lessons or knowing how to swim, its just amazing how well behaved and knowledgable they are at such a young age!
After Luang Prabang we hit the road again on our way to Vang Vien.