We took a local bus to Luang Prabang, it was supposed to take 9 hours, not because the distance between Luang Namtha and Luang Prabang is so great (288km), but because the road winds through range after range of hills and the road is little more than a rocky dirt track. The traffic along this road threw up such clouds of dust that the the roadside trees, shrubs and grass were a red brown colour. I did wonder how the roadside villages ever got their laundry done in that atmosphere. The villagers seemed to make a living from collecting rubber from the plantations or from subsistence level farming in the valleys. Most homes were wooden stilted huts, a marked difference from the palatial albeit fairly tacky mansions that lined parts of the dual carriageway of Luang Namtha. The bus made its usual 'toilet in the bushes' stops and one stop at a local market - of all the places it could have stopped! This row of stalls only sold turnips, bamboo shoots and some other root vegetable chopped up. Hardly a service station! We traced our journey on Google Maps on our phones, the bus crawled along and it was soon clear that 9 hours was a conservative estimate.
After about 7 hours we stopped at a bus station 50 kms north of Luang Prabang. Lots of westerners got off here to transfer onto another bus. I noticed our bags being offloaded from the roof and others on the bus saw the same happening to their luggage. We had heard a rumour that tourists were thrown off the bus and forced to pay for another bus to Luang Prabang. I asked the local passengers if they were going to LP and they said they were so Paul grabbed our bags and stuffed them under our seats. A group of Chinese were directed to a mini bus that would take them the rest of the way to LP. We were not shifting, unfortunately neither was the bus, it waited more than an hour until it set off again. Finally, 12 hours after we had set off, we arrived in LP, thankfully we had booked a guesthouse and got there at 9:15pm. The guesthouse owner was sweet enough to run to a local restaurant to see if it was still open for us, we were a bit hungry at this point. Inthasack guesthouse was just what we needed, quiet and comfortable and away from the busy areas. 80,000 kip (£6.35) per night and free tea/coffee and fruit all day. Luang Prabang is a delight. The holiest of Laos cities, it has a Wat (temple) on every corner and orange robe clad Buddhist monks shuffle about everywhere. LP lies at the confluence of the Nam Khan and Mekong rivers. Beyond it are pretty green hills. The French colonnial influence is very prevalent here, rows of white painted houses with arched verandahs, dark wood interiors and dark wood shutters line this Unesco World Heritage centre town. LP is famed for its sunrise alms collecting ceremonies - which has now become a tourist attraction. Traditionally, the Buddhist monks would pass through the streets at dawn collecting sticky rice and other food from the locals for the day. Now, this has escalated into something a little bizarre. We got out at 6:30 am and headed to Sisavangvong Road. Little mats were set out along the roadside and Laos tourists, Korean tourists and the occasional westerner took their place and waited with boxes of sticky rice, candy bars and other gifts. Other tourists stood on the opposite pavement with cameras at the ready. Soon we could see the procession of orange robed monks ahead. They each held a large round bowl. Each alms giver handed them gifts and rice (sometimes with their hands - eeewww). The monks at the head of the queue were soon weighed down with stuff. At the end of the row of alms givers, near us, was a cardboard box. Here some of the monks unceremoniously unloaded the excess stuff into it. Before the first 30 monks had passed, many alms givers were running out of sticky rice and plenty of vendors were at hand to sell them some more. It was now slim pickings for the monks towards the end of the queue. Paul had read that the monks of LP were so fed up with this daily circus that they were going to abandon the ceremony. The government, however, stepped in and threatened to replace them with actors if they did. That's tourism for you! Our guesthouse catered for Laos tourists mainly and they always stayed for 1 day only and got up at 5:30am, presumably for the alms ceremony. We got back from one day out and Paul couldn't find his flip flops. As there are wood floors throughout the guesthouse you leave your shoes in the common area. I went back to the room, while Paul searched for his flops. After a minute or so a Laos guy sitting at the table lifted up his foot as if to say "Are you looking for these?" Mystery of the missing flip flops solved. We hired bicycles for a few days (to get a cheaper deal) as the prices were triple those in Luang Namtha (see previous blog). We went west of town and spotted a sign for Tadthong waterfall on the way. It was along a rocky dirt track as usual. There were two waterfalls around 1 km into the forest across a wooden path and makeshift log bridges over the streams. It was a good natural setting but not so exciting, we tried the second waterfall but the path had fallen away as had a bridge across the river.
Our cycle ride east of town took us past the airport and the cement factory, so it wasn't looking too scenic, but then we spotted some scooters crossing an "incomplete" concrete bridge that had barriers across it. We followed the scooters across the bridge and the road followed the rivers edge back towards LP. We then saw a golden stupa on top of a nearby hill, we had seen it from town, but couldn't find it. Wat Pa Phon Phao was really impressive and the views of Luang Prabang beyond were great. Whilst we were there we saw severeal locals in fancy tribal constumes. Paul got some photos and asked them why they were so dressed up. A young guy pointed down to a nearby village, where he said he was taking part in a festival to celebrate the H'Moung new year. We were back on the bikes and following his directions. The fair grounds were lined with gambling tents. Boys as young as 7 sat with notes at the ready to gamble on which pictures the picture die would land on. There were bouncy castles, food stalls and a stage area too. So many people, young and old were dressed in tribal finery. Bizarrely there were two lines of people throwing balls backwards and forwards to each other - not sure what that was all about. We had hit lucky again on our adventures - see photos. We had planned to do Kuang Si waterfall during our stay as it was a must see attraction, although we are now a bit blase about waterfalls. A tout near the breakfast baguette stand that we were sitting at asked us if we would like to join some others taking a tuk tuk there. 40,000 kip (£3.30 each) for the 45 minute drive there, a two hour visit and return was a great deal. We had a nice chat with a guy from Oregon, a girl from Appleby, Cumbria and a German couple on the way. At the start of the waterfall entrance (10,000 kip entry fee), was a free visit to the bear sanctuary, home to rescued moon bears. They are killed and sold to the Chinese who use their bile ducts for medicine. The bears are caged and have little to do, one was rocking with distress - an Asian tourist said "Look he's dancing!". Very sad to see! We had heard some bold claims about the waterfall. The lowest level had pools for swimming with cascades behind it. A bit like Pamukkale in Turkey. The water is a vivid, unnatural torquoise because of the copper and mineral content. It was a bit too cold for swimming when we were there, about 14 degrees in the morning. The next levels had yet more impressive cascades. The final level, higher along the path just blew every waterfall we had ever seen away. It was 50 m high and had a series of around seven cascades that the water hit before reaching the pool below. A perfect time of the year to see it, just weeks after the end of the wet season. Wow! Glad we didn't miss it. We spent Christmas at LP, but were just too tight/poor to go for the $65 per person Christmas lunch at L'Elephant, the best restaurant in town. Instead we went there on 23 December and chose from their normal (cheaper) a la carte menu. Paul had the caesar salad to start then duck and I had pumpkin soup followed by beef medallions - lovely! We had mainly eaten at a cheap little chinese place not far from our guesthouse, we also had Laos noodle soup (Khao Soi) at a roadside stall, tuna baguettes at the row of baguette stands and a veg stir fry buffet for 10,000 kip in the night market. We explored most of the town's temples although at 20,000 kip for entrance at some (twice the price of Kuang Si waterfall) they were a rip off. A highlight was Mount Phousi's temple with views across the rivers, across town and back to the golden Wat Pa Phon Phao.
After a long stay in LP, it was time to move on to Vang Vieng, Laos' party town. Another long bus journey, 6 hours. The bus was comfortable and cool. On the way, I spotted a woman examining what looked like a dead dog at a roadside shelter. I was confused as she was holding up its tail, which was really long and thick. The bus driver spotted this spectacle too and screeched to a halt. Paul got off the bus to investigate (I wasn't keen on seeing a dead anything!). Unfortunately, it was a bear, we are not sure how it died. After much debate and weighing, our driver bought the bear and put it in a sack in the bus luggage store. He boasted that he would sell it to the Chinese, who would buy its head and paws. We arrived at Vang Vieng bus station a couple of kilometres from the town centre but only 50 metres from KL guesthouse where we were staying. Lovely large comfortable bungalows and a huge breakfast of omelette, baguette and fruit, orange juice and tea. All for 150,000 kip (£12) per room per night - oh and you got free use of their bicycles, which was the best bit. We were invited to a party on the second night at the guesthouse, the owner was a Scorpions fan, so the music was a bit grim. They did a camp fire to keep us warm and did a barbecue. They layed on fried rice, salted fish (Paul feasted on this) and bbq skewers. The beer was flowing freely too. They filled up your glasses and said cheers every 30 seconds. I was a bit drunk on the premise of being polite. There was a very rich police officer at the party he drove a £30k 4WD car, his wife had a Rolex and they were playing with their ipads. Well paid job clearly, in one of the poorest countries in the world. The next day we had decided to do a 45km bike ride loop into the valley across the river from Vang Vieng town. Well it would certainly blow away the cobwebs and the hangover. Vang Vieng's big draw is the party atmosphere and the drunken tubing rides down the river. Young westerners ride a tube down the river drinking a beer/shot at each of the riverside bars - all seven of them. We had heard that this scene had been closed down by the police as there had been a couple of deaths. Not the case, this was still ongoing. The Chief of police owns one of the bars. Our ride took us across a wooden bridge over the river and the road became the usual rocky dirt track. This stretch of road is rammed with tour buses and mini vans throwing up dust clouds. They head for the many blue lagoon caves on the way. We passed rice fields, small villages with wooden stitled houses and waved and shouted Sa Bai Di (hello) to the villagers. We stopped at one of the caves, but as there were about 20 vehicles parked and as we heard screaming from the tourists doing the ropeswing into the lagoon, we thought we would pass on it. The bike ride was a real boneshaker, our hands were numb gripping the handlebars vibrating with the rocky terrain. The scenery was of jungle covered limestone karsts. The road quietened down after the main caves and we enjoyed empty roads. Despite the hangover it was a beautiful but exhausting 6 hour ride. We recovered later at Banana restaurant, our riverside haven where we would go every day to watch the hot air ballon rides down the valley at sunset.
We took lots of bike rides out to waterfalls and karst valleys, passing through villages. We spent New Year's Eve at Gary's Irish bar in town, they did great music, which was cool as we really have missed our indie stuff and they also did beef and veg pies.
We left around 1:30am to walk back to the guesthouse. Along the way, the locals were practically trying to drag us into their homes to join them in celebration - very sweet of them!
A less winding bus ride took us to the capital Vientiane, the bus was supposed to stop several kilometers north of town but we were watching our progress on Google Maps and found that we were only 100m from the guesthouse that we had researched. We later discovered that the tuk tuk drivers were telling the other passengers that the waterfront was 9km away - rogues!
Anyway, in spite of our research, the guesthouse was full, so we lazily checked into the guesthouse next door which we hadn't researched. We then headed out to explore the waterfront, Not a pretty, scenic waterfront. They have built a park to make the promenade more pleasant but the narrow walkway on the edge of the river is separated from the town by a large dual carriageway. We were hoping for the French colonnial style of Luang Prabang, but were very disappointed. That night, we were getting ready for bed when Paul noticed some blood spots on the sheets. A sure sign of bed bugs, we were checking Google for a photo of one and I spotted a little creature on my twin bed. Paul then saw one on his pillow. Rather belatedly, we looked at the Tripadvisor reviews of Chanta guesthouse and discovered that bedbugs were a bit of a theme. Well it was 11pm and because of curfews, the hotel closed its doors at 11:30pm. This meant we would need to pack our bags, find a new hotel and move in less than 30 minutes. Paul resigned us to the fact that we would have to stay the night and check out in the morning. I covered myself from head to toe, only hands and face exposed to the bedbugs. If the constant scratching of imaginary itches didn't keep us awake, the noise from the traffic outside did. We headed out for breakfast and tried to spot some other places to stay. Not wanting to hang around, we checked out early and headed for a place nearby. They only had shared bathroom options left. We then traipsed round in the heat with our heavy bags, to be either disappointed by the rooms, by the price or by the lack of availability at the hotels we tried. Finally, we went for a coffee and used the free Wifi to look at Agoda for places. At last we spotted Riverside hotel with nice comfortable, clean rooms and good reviews. We certainly slept well that night. Our short stay in Vientiane was spent exploring the city on foot. We visited Patuxai, the victory gate, a huge structure dubbed Lao De Triomphe by tourists (see photos). We also visited Pha That Luang a golden stupa and large reclining Buddha.
Not the best capital that we've been to, but all in all it was a great and very quick month in Laos.