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We were almost giving up hope after our 29th hour on the dreaded sleeper bus from Hanoi to Luang Prabang however we began to see the light at the end of the tunnel when the announcement "Luang Prabang!!" came from the driver. 45 minutes AFTER that announcement we finally arrived feeling like crap. The journey however wasn't all bad as we saw some amazing mountainous scenery after crossing the border into Laos which was relatively smooth compared with some of our previous border experiences. I also noticed while stretching my legs waiting for the bus to set off again that my backpack had magically whisked its way from the cargo hold in the bus, onto the roof of the bus precariously tied on with some rope. I was in far too tired a mood to try and express my concern about this so boarded the bus, constantly listening out for a few scratches on the roof then keeping an eye to see if my backpack fell down through the window. Considering the speed the bus driver was taking these sharp (and steep I might add!) corners, I was impressed that it arrived still attached to the bus.
After our catch up on sleep we spent the next day sauntering the quaint little town really noticing the temperature difference compared with Hanoi, much hotter! Luang Prabang is basically a peninsula separating two rivers, the bigger of the two being the Mekong which we were quite familiar with now as we had seen it at many different locations throughout our southeast Asia travels. The middle of this peninsula consists of a steep hill to a 100m high point called Phu Si where a stupa called That Chomsi can be found. Here is where we finished our tour with amazing views of the entire town and beyond. On the way down there is the famous Budha footprint which we were quite impressed by seeing as it was the size of a decent sized cow, if it were flattened and made into a footprint of course, but still you couldn't help but wonder how big they think he is! We finished our tour at a place called Utopia which was a lovely bar/restaurant with a bamboo balcony overlooking the river. We spent the rest of the afternoon here enjoying the food (which included a local speciality called Khai Phun which was basically dried seasoned river moss). Doesn't sound great but went perfectly with the dip they provided and a Beerlao (the nations staple drink which also offered Beerlao Dark, my fave, and Beerlao Gold). But the beer of choice for me had to be Namkhong! By the end of our Utopian experience we rather plastered so retired back to the room.
Our next day was to be much more productive as we decided to book a boat trip for the morning to go and see some caves and a local village. We certainly got our exercise as one cave was up plenty of very steep steps which didn't seem to end. The caves were not to be of the same calibre we were used to (thinking back to Jenolan Caves in the Blue Mountains, Sydney), but were more of a place of worship for locals with copious amounts of Budha statues placed in whatever flat surface could be found. Not the stalagmites I was hoping for but still quite a sight for the spiritual side of things. Our boat brought us back to the town where we waited for our next excursion to take us to a bear sanctuary and Waterfall in Tat Kuang Si. After viewing what seemed like very friendly bears in their sanctuary we walked further into the jungle park to notice some beautiful light blue coloured streams which then lead up to some small waterpools. The colour of the water was mind blowing and as we worked our way up the stream following the mix of screams of laughter and gushing water, we were left speechless at how picturesque everything was. We continued working our way to the grand finale which was a sight to behold. Check out the photos for this area! After our views of the waterfall/stream, we decided to join in on the fun and checked out the source of the screams which was a series of people lining up to get their go at using a rope to swing into the waterpool. I had a go then Laura had a go however Laura's swing was not quite as graceful, in her words "much like Dumbo".
This brought us to the end of our Luang Prabang time and we then headed to our next destination Phonsavan, home to the Plain of Jars! We used this as a base and booked a day tour which included visiting 3 different Plain of Jar sites as well as an old Russian Tank and a Whiskey village. The Plain of Jars was quite the sight and what made it even more interesting is that no one is certain as to why they were made. The fields of jars had a kind of Stonehenge feel to it and the common explanation for them was to store Whiskey. Either way it was very interesting to see the varying sizes of them and how spread out each site was from each other and concoct some reasons for their existence of our own. Our bus driver/tour guide then took us to see the Russian Tank which was a glorified piece of scrap metal and then to the Whiskey village where we met the brains behind creating this awful drink which the locals seem to love. Probably because you can buy a litre of the stuff for 60p. As no-one took up the offer of buying some from the poor old lady I decided to purchase half a litre which is still with me today!
After our tour we decided to learn more about what actually happened here during the Vietnam war. We were shocked to learn that Laos was used as a dumping ground for all un-fired American bombs and missiles after flying from Thailand to Vietnam. It was deemed to risky to fly back and land with un-fired bombs so they were simply ordered to drop them on "secondary targets" in Laos which consisted of the Phathet Laos and the Ho Chi Minh trail. Although this was the reason behind it, there are still thousands of unexploded bombs on the grounds of Laos today and the locals have had to learn to live this danger. It is a massive problem in this country and it restricts farming land and children who stumble across them, mistake them for toys leading to devastating consequences. Fortunately there is an organisation called MAG International who recruit local men and women to scour the grounds intensively with metal detectors to try and find all these UXO's (unexploded ordnance).
After educating time at Phonsavan we boarded our minivan to Vang Vieng further south...
On another note the minivans in this country are much more comfortable and the drivers are far more considerate to their passengers! Something Cambodia definitely needs to improve on.
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