Luang Prabang

We got a minivan to Luang Prabang which is about 180km north of Vang Vieng. It was an extremely narrow winding road that just goes through the hills. It took about 5 hours of driving but was worth spending the extra dollar for the minivan that the bus as this would have taken a few hours longer. The only thing that we ever saw in the five hours were small villages built along the side of the road. Most buildings were built with wood/bamboo and had thatched roofs. The funniest thing was then counting the number of satellite dishes that were in these villages to get cable TV!!

We got to Luang Prabang, found a small cheap guesthouse and just went for a bit of a walk. It is a really pretty town and once again very quiet. You don't get bothered by anybody on the street trying to sell you things or ask for money. Luang Prabang is situated on the Mekong River and is preserved with it's French and Asian influences as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is surrounded by mountains and is a really beautiful setting. The first night we went to one of the many restaurants along the Mekong River for a very cheap meal and bottle of beer.

The following day we decided to go to the Pak Ou caves by slow boat. This took a couple of hours and we stopped off at a couple of the local riverside villages on the way. One specialised in whisky making (we declined to try any at 10am!!) and one in paper making. Everyone there also sells all of the silk scarves and materials also that Laos is famous for. The Pak Ou caves are a Buddhist pilgrimage site and situated inside the caves are over 4000 Buddha images that have been placed inside them. There were only 3 other people on our boat who were really lovely and once back in town we had a late lunch with them. We had a very relaxing afternoon which included walking around some of the town looking at some of the wats around, and then dinner before an early night.

The next morning we set out alarms early (5.40am is early when you are on holiday!!) and ventured all of the way to the end of the driveway of the guesthouse. We had heard about the monks alms giving and wanted to experience it first hand. There are many wats in Luang Prabang (all of Laos and south east Asia really) that have many monks living in them. Every morning the monks do their rounds in Luang Prabang and the locals come out and give them rice. It was quite an amazing experience to watch.

That morning we hired bicycles and cycled around much of the town and visited about 8 of the wats we hadn't been to the night before. One of the highlights was when one of the young monks decided to come and practice his English and chatted to us for about 10 minutes. He was absolutely lovely and his English was very good. Later that afternoon we went in a minivan to visit the Kuang Si waterfalls. These were a series of waterfalls that were quite stunning. One of the best bits is that you can swim in a couple of the waterfall pools and it was cold!! The water was actually cold (the first time we had had that feeling since we had started travelling I think). At the bottom of the waterfalls was a black bear rescue centre where there were quite a few bears in a really large area with lots of stimulation. They had been rescued from poachers which is still a big problem in Laos. There was also a tiger that had been rescued when it was 4 days old after it's mother had been killed and it had been sold on the black market. It is now about 2 years old and an absolutely beautiful creature.

That evening we headed up the citadel hill for the views over the city and then dinner. We also had a look around the markets that get set up each evening around the town streets by the local tribes selling their goods. It has been really nice to have been in Laos for the last week where it has definitely been a change of pace and much more relaxed. We now head back to Thailand to Chiang Mai which is the last stop for us...