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Crossing the border between Thailand and Laos was very backward. We arrived at a shack on the Mekong river, officially exited Thailand and hopped on a small boat which crossed the river to Laos. We filled in the visa form and waited for our name to be called amongst all the other flashpackers. Our names were finally called 45 minutes later from the small window and we paid our $35. We were told the slow boat to Luang Prabang left at 10, then 10:30 and at 11:30 we were still waiting. It left at 12:15, a small wooden boat hosting 80 tourists and a few locals. The boat from the inside was very ordinary, stuffed with old minivan seats but the scenery outside the boat was incredible! Huge green mountains lined the 60 metre wide Mekong on both sides with our boat chugging along, avoiding the massive rocks. We stopped at a few 'villages' along the way to let the locals on/off onto the makeshift beaches. Eight hours later we arrived at pakbeng, our stop for the night. Everyone gets off, stays for the night in this non-descript town and then we all hop onto the same boat for the next 8 hours. The second day of our boat journey seemed better and went quicker. The scenery was much more spectacular, seeing waterfalls and the pak ou cave. After a few beerlao's and numerous trivial pursuit games, we were finally here in Luang Prabang.
Luang Prabang has to be in our top 3 places (amongst Koh Tao and Chiang Mai). We stayed in a colonial style building overlooking the river for £10 a night. We've been to about 5 Wats, hired bicycles twice, seen many many monks, bought food/beerlaos tshirts at the local market, had a massage at the Red Cross shop, visited the Unexploded ordinance museum, had lazy beerlaos's at the best bar in town (utopia), walked up to the sunset at Phu Si, visited the kings palace, and eaten a lot of amazing croissants (pan ou chocolat and pan ou raisins have been the best at le bannaton!).
We did a laos cookery course by the top restaurant in town, Tamarind(according to tripadvisor). After visiting the local market we were taken outside of the town to a beautiful kitchen set in the middle of a lily pond. Laos food is completely different to thai, they use a Laos barbecue (sindad) which is a terracotta pot filled with hot coals, no woks in sight. They boil, steam, bbq and fry using this. We cooked all sorts such as chicken stuffed lemongrass, steamed fish wrapped in banana leaf, sweet sticky rice and a buffalo dish cooked with bile and tripe!!
We visited Kuang Si falls, similar to Erawan falls but even more spectacular! A series of blue pools and cascading water. We walked up to the one with the rope swing. The rope swing involved climbing a tree about 3 metres above the water, balancing on the end whilst using a stick to bring forward the rope. Once you have the rope in your hand, you hang up the stick and jump! Oli did this no problem but I needed a bit of help and only did it because by the time I actually got the rope in my hand I had audience of about 20 and a cocky Chinese man whistling at me! The water was refreshingly cold and there were much less fish than Erawan falls, although they still headed for Oli's mosquito bites. We walked up further to the biggest waterfall I have ever seen- about 40 metres high! As we headed out of the national park we visited the moon bear sanctuary, where they have rescued about 15 of the large and unusual bears.
Our time in Luang Prabang has been fun filled and we have met lots of other backpackers doing a similar trail- although none as long as ours! We've loved it here and even after 5 days we don't want to leave.
Stats-
Backpacker Aladdin/fisherman pants bought: 2
Kilometres travelled by slow boat: 450+
Laos Dishes cooked: 6
Visits to Utopia: 3
- comments
Mum Wow wow wow!! What beautiful photos! Those falls are amazing!! The colour of the water looks unreal. You were brave to jump in from that height! Also those bears!! I've never seen anything like those before, why are they called moon bears? Is it because of their markings? Keep up the good work, your blogs are so interesting! Enjoy Veng Vieng. Speak to you soon, lots of love Mum xxxxxx
Debbie Hi, uch 8 hours on a boat, not sure i could have done that, waterfalls sound and look beautiful , how may times did you jump in ? When you and oli get back , we expect some of your cooking that you have learnt. Would love to see a pic of you and oli in your Aladdin/fisherman pants . we love reading your blogs and looking at your photos. Hear you've hurt you back , hope its ok. Love to you both xxx