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Wow the bus journey here was hairy! We were in the bus for 7 hours and the roads were so windy and bumpy, our bus driver seemed to want to overtake everything on the road aswell! So thankful when we finally arrived at the bus station, both me and Anouj liberally applying eye drops every few hours and both wearing sunglasses on the bus.
We decided to stay at the other Spicy hostel and it's just as cool and set in an old French colonial style building and basically falling apart because it's a protected building. Luang Prabang is my new favourite place, it's beautiful. Set right by the Mekong it's full of stunning shuttered buildings and all the shops and restaurants are all beautifully lit up at night by latterns or fairy lights- also it's shoppers paradise! The night market has been my regular haunt since I arrived here three days ago, they sell the most amazing handmade products and jewellery I'm struggling to hold onto money.
I had all the best intentions to explore Luang Prabang but I've been recovering some sleep deprivation from Vang Vieng so literally relaxing and enjoying the peacefulness. Yesterday, Anouj and I managed to get out and about (the torrential rain almost stopped us!) and got onto an hour long boat ride up the Mekong which was gorgeous, we saw lots of little Laos boys all playing by the river and jumping in. Felt bad though as we'd turned down the trip at 100,000kip each and ended up paying only 30,000 kip whereas the chinese couple who came with us paid 80,000 each- totally scammed.
On the first day I did manage to wake up with some of the people from Spicy Vang Vieng who had moved to Spicy Luang Prabang to go and feed the monks. The Alms giving is a tradition in Buddhism that happens really early in the morning (we left the hostel at 5.30am) whereby local people and a few Pharang bring food to give the monks who walk down the roads with an empty bowl. It was lovely to see them all in their bright orange robes. After we wandered around the corner to the Morning Market to see all the stalls selling their vegetables and goods, we bought lots of fruit for breakfast and some delicious pancakey coconut steamed things- yummy! The rest of the day was lost to sleep I'm afraid, several people commented that they'd met me as they'd walked past my sleeping lump on the balcony at the hostel!
Today we finally managed to do the most famous thing in Luang Prabang, the Khangsi waterfalls. They're 30km out of town ad absolutely stunning. Everyone had told me to visit but I was still amazed when we got there. At the base of the waterfalls is a lovely Asiatic Bear Sanctuary and we watched the bears roll logs over to get to their food hidden in the carved holes, they were Moon bears and had as lovely white crescent moon shape on their chests.
Walking just past we got to the first swimming pool and I couldn't believe how blue and clear the water looked. Complete contrast to the Mekong!! Walking up and up you see pool after pool of blue sparkling water that you can swim in. Someone had told us about a special place just past the main waterfall (which was stunning too by the way!) and up a muddy bit and then up some broken steps you get to a 'no swimming' sign and a danger sign, ignore these and you find the most amazing waterfall and an infinity pool that you can dive into and look over the edge down over all the smaller pools- breathtaking, could have stayed there all day! You can they hike up further and look down from the very top. It was such an amazing place to visit and best of all the water was cold so it was so incredibly refreshing.
Tonight we're checking out Uptopia as Hatty from Spicy Laos sent me with special instructions to spend an evening here so we've convinced half the hostel to meet us there, should be fun!
- comments
mum ooh sounds wonderful xx
dad Hi Kate Good to hear you are getting lots of recommendations on things to do! I recommend that you email your dad more regularly!!!! Luv from a neglected father xxxxxxxxxxxxxx