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And in the end, we entered the most touristy city of Laos - Luang Prabang - on a blistering hot afternoon after a flat motorbike ride. The climate had been changing steadily since we left the mountains and reached lower plains, where the noon sun was almost unbearable to an Italian used to the August sun in Rome, imagine Mandy ;)
Well, as Mandy says, a place is touristy for a reason, and Luang Prabang is touristy for a specific reason indeed - its charming colonial architecture and regal vibe. We described it as a mix of Hoi An in Vietnam (for its houses and run down charm) and Siem Reap in Cambodia (for its heavily touristed center).
In the end we settled in a really cute guesthouse and enjoyed the 3 days spent there on cheap vegetarian food - you can eat a buffet at the night market for 1 Eur - and relaxed walks along the numerous temples in town and along the Mekong river.
The most beautiful part is the riverside area where the French colonial styled villas dominate the town and were the reason for the Unesco heritage nomination back in the 90's. We are sure that back then the city was more run down but splendid at the same time. These days the sanitized look ruins a bit the atmosphere, but certainly the numerous middle age high income tourists flooding into town come for that specific reason: sleek colonial hotels and restaurants everywhere.
Our last morning in town, we got up at 6 am to experience the once cool and now super touristy monks procession to collect their food. It must have been really nice 20 years ago, with hundreds of monks lining up in the streets and devotees handing out sticky rice, fruit and sweets. The most beautiful experience of the ceremony was to see the monks handing back part of their food to poor street children sitting on their knees. The worst part of the experience was to see shameless tourists flashing with their camera in front of the monks faces.
Anyway, we left with a god feeling and headed Southeast towards Phonsavan, where the astonishing mystery of the Plain of Jars was waiting for us. We didn't make it the same day, as the bike broke down after such a long time it hadn't. It didn't come as surprise, as the engine was rattling climbing up the steep mountains and at some point it gave up. The lucky side of the story was that after only a couple of minutes a guy with a small truck stopped by, smiled and mentioned he was a mechanic; so pulling out is toolbox he quickly diagnosed the problem and confirmed he could fix it, but we had to get the bike on its trick and drive to a Hmong village where he was working with his team to set a water pump on behalf of a Korean charity. Once the bike was fixed, we kept going but had to stop overnight on the way and be able to reach Phonsavan only the next day. I was actually happy with this circumstance, as the road to Phonsavan was so much fun to ride that to do in fresh in the morning allowed us to enjoy it even more. Imagine, high mountains, good road, new asphalt, plenty of curves and no traffic. Francesco or Vinicio, if you are reading this, you would definitely have loved it ;)
The 2 days we spent in Phonsavan were filled with a day visit around the Plain of sites (3 of them up to 30 kms from the city). Surprisingly enough for its beauty, this archeological site is still not popular with international travelers. And in two of the sites, we managed to be by ourselves and breath in the mysterious vibe of the ancient jars placed for funerary purposes on top of tens of hills. Unfortunately, due to the unexploded bombs, only 5 sites are open and only 3 are the most visited ones, however the whole area is dotted with jars and more mysteries. The other unfortunate situation was the huge amount of unexploded bombs sitting in the area. We are talking of millions of bombs that are laying on the ground and that make Laos the most bombed country by population in the world.
In the evening we even got invited to a Lao wedding, crashing the party of 1000 + guests. Initially, we were reluctant but then realized that Lao weddings are a public affair and bride and groom were delighted to have Falangs (Westerns) at their wedding. In fact, we were asked to sit at the table next to the bride/groom and we were invited to dance the funny slow Laotian dance which is a joke for European standards, but shows how easygoing and relaxed Laotians are if their national dance is so slow.
After Phonsavan, we took a one night stop in Van Vieng and then escaped to Vientiane as soon as possible. Van Vieng, is indeed a backpackers trap: full of 20 years olds kids drunk and high on opium that trash the city with their nudity and rudeness. Locals are cashing in as the whole town caters services to the kids, but some people are getting pissed off at them, as the Laotian morality is being corrupted according to them. We stayed 4 kms out of town at a cool organic farm and we managed to eat fresh homemade goat cheese since we left Holland!
And now we are in Vientiane, the smallest Asian capital city with only 200.000 + inhabitants, no much traffic, no honking, little begging but also not much to see and do. We are taking our time here to gain some energy and fix the bike for our second leg of Laos.
Coming up, there's motorcycle loop of 4 days around the city of ThaKhek, which seems to be very adventurous from travelers' reports. Let's see if our motorbike will make it.
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