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So we ended up flying with Lao Airlines to Luang Prabang in Laos which did not please me as we had bought tickets with Vietnam Airlines (who we like and have flown with many times before) and not an airline that has a bad safety record and which is banned from entering European airspace! BUT saying all that, the flight in a propellor plane was ok (although I swear both the pilot and co-pilot were out of the c*** pit at the same time on one occasion) and we arrived to an almost empty airport and a very easy process to get our Lao visas.
Once out of the airport we met our host and got a lift to Villa Laodeum, our hotel for the next few days. Luang Prabang was such a breath of fresh air - so quiet, drivers are polite to each other on the road, the motorbikers don't even toot their horns. We instantly liked Laos. Our hotel was nice too -welcome drink and bananas included :o)
Luang Prabang exudes tranquility and grandeur. It was a tiny mountain kingdom for more than a thousand years and is full of red-roofed temples and French-Indochinese architecture. Despite being touristy, it has loads of charm and we enjoyed taking a walk around the Main Street where all the restaurants, shops and tour agencies are as well as Bar Street, where erm...all the bars are :o)
We had an ok dinner here (food is better in Vietnam and Malaysia) and then headed back as it was midnight. The next day, we spent the morning searching for the best tours and ended up booking a 1 day Mahout Trainer day (Elephant Trainer day)- more on that later. We just chilled for most of the day and visited the National Museum which preserves all the stuff of Laos' extinguished monarchy. We also visited some other wats (the country is full of them)
The best day we had here was spending the day with elephants. We started the day having an elephant ride (both sitting in a chair and riding on the neck) in to the forest whic was good fun if not a little wobbly at times. On the way back, the mahout taught us how to control the elephant - here is a crash course in elephant language....
Left is 'Sai'
Right is 'Qwa'
Stop is 'How'
Go is 'Pie Pie'
If you say 'Bon' and tap it on the forehead with a branch, it's trunk comes up and you can feed it - so cool...and they listen to you way more than a horse!!
When we got back, we fed them and then had our own lunch (and rested our sore bums)
In the afternoon, we had another ride in to the forest and took them to the river where we, still on their necks, went with them in to the water and washed them. They really like water and either kept going head first and taking you nearly with them or sitting down...and you needed to hang on to make sure you didn't slip off - it was so cool and unique and I loved it!!
We then brought them back and gosh, we were saddle sore. I even have an elephant ear injury - friction burn on my right knee - hahah
We then went for some food, before heading to the market but we couldn't agree on anything to buy that we both liked so headed back to the hotel and had an early night...and rubbed our sore spots with Deep Heat - hah!
Our last day in Luang Prabang was spent walking leisurely around the town, visiting Wat Xiong Thong or 'The Golden City' Monastery which was very pretty, eating and drinking in one of the many cafes and relaxing back at the hotel, trying to find Formula 1 on TV but failing terribly. It seems it is not a popular sport on Laos TV...but karaoke is very popular :o)
The next day we took a tuk-tuk to the bus station and took a VIP bus to Viang Vieng for our next Laos stop.
The bus to Viang Vieng was ok - pretty comfy but not VIP as we know it - the good thing is that they give you water and lunch in the price so we were fed and watered. We got sore bums but got to VV ok and we were confronted by two main streets, lots of bars and restaurants and our nice hotel. It was a good location and we had a wander around to find what there is to see and do and to be honest, there isn't much. The weather was good - much hotter than in Luang Prabang and for two days, we ate cheap food, drank lots of pepsi and watched sooooo many episodes of Friends on the TV in the bars, that we are re-obsessed by how funny it is and bought the complete box-set for when we get home for those rainy Dutch Sunday afternoons :o) From Viang Vieng, we got another VIP bus to Vientiane. It was an hour late, so we were with a group of about 60 western foreigners in a dusty car park just waiting...must have looked a little bizarre to the locals :o) Eventually the bus came and we had another 5 hour journey - not too bad with the ipod and a little snooze. We arrived in Vientiane around 6.30 and took a tuk tuk to the hotel which again, was a good find. We then went out for dinner and found a brilliant restaurant called 'La Terrasse' where we had a slap up 3 course meal for less than $20 which is pretty good value...yum yum!! Then we had a walk around the town which is charming and quiet for a capital and then had a relax back at the hotel - surfing the net and taking a look at houses (we want to move) and also I found our wedding music :o) - that is very exciting and Max loves it too!! :o) The next day was hot and sticky and we had a city day, visiting the sights. We visited Wat Sisaket, which is the oldest in Vientiane and constructed in 1818 and was the only monastery to survive the Siamese attacks 10 years later in 1828. We also visited Haw Pha Kaew which now functions as a museum of art and antiquities (but there isn't much art at all but the building is very pretty). This was once the king's personal Buddhist temple. We then walked down Vientiane's equivalent of the Champs Elysee to their equivalent of the Arc de Triomphe - they call it Patouxai, the Arch of Vistory was built in the late 1950's to commemorate casualties of war within the Lao Government. It has been said that the arch was completed with concrete donated by the US government for the construction of a new airport and has been jokingly referred to as the 'Vertical Runway'. After walking for a few hours around the city in the heat, we headed for lunch and then back to the hotel to relax and cool off for a few hours before heading for dinner at recommended restaurant called Kap Chau Deu (translated as 'Thank You Lao') but the food was crap - well the Italian food is bad so the chef is definitely not from Rome!! On our last day in Vientiane, it was burning hot so we had a slow day hanging around the city, visiting the National Museum and chilling in bars with pepsis and Lao Beers. We had a nice lunch in a French cafe before coming back to the hotel for a relax in the air-conditioned lobby and a good search on the internet for wedding related things! We then headed back to the town much later for a lovely dinner, back at our favourite La Terrasse, a walk to walk off the food and then an early night as we have an early start for our fligh to Cambodia. On reflection, Laos has been a haven of tranquility compared to Vietnam and so easy to travel around. The people are friendlier, the pace of life is slower and the places we visited have a charm and elegance about them that was missing in other cities we have visited. Having said that, there isn't that much to see or do in the country. Museums and Art Galleries don't contain much and the landscape is pretty much like anywhere else in Asia. You are inundated by Wats, some worth seeing, others in such bad condition that they have lost their natural beauty and attraction. All in all, we have enjoyed our trip here and relaxed...A LOT but we are now ready to see what Cambodia has to offer us....Lá kawn from Laos!!
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