Author: Rach

Photos: Rach (unless specified otherwise)

5 April

Much undiscovered Laos awaited us as we boarded a practically empty early evening Vietnam Airlines flight from Siem Reap. After the crowds at Angkor Wat we were excited to kick back and enjoy 6 days of slower paced culture and people-watching in Luang Prabang, the quintessential heart of ancient Buddhist Laos. We knew we were going to get just that as we descended toward LPB over the vast Mekong river, flanked by uninhabited mountains as far as the eye could see. This UNESCO protected city of spiritual nourishment is described by Lonely Planet as a place to ‘slow your pulse’ and ‘awaken your imagination’ and we couldn’t wait to discover it. Saibadee Laos!

We arrived after dark into the modestly sized airport and met a couple called Kevin & Sarah from Switzerland who like us were working out their transport options. There was only one taxi company – monopoly alert! So we shared with them the fairly short drive into Luang Prabang and to our hotel, the Merry Villa Lao III. As we pulled up alongside bars twinkling with fairy lights and lanterns, we got an instant fuzzy feeling about our upcoming time in Laos. A nice surprise was a movie channel in English on the TV. Cue film night! Ged popped out to grab a few snacks from the supermarket and we settled in.

6 April

Today’s plan was as simple as to walk around Luang Prabang, looping around Mount Phousi, which we were staying right at the foot of (it’s much fairer to call it a hill than a mountain), and to spend some time by the Mekong river observing local life and the history of LPB which is written all over its buildings. Which is exactly what we did! Beautiful French-style villas with wooden window shutters, temples on almost every block, patisseries and bakeries intermingled with fresh juice stalls and modest Lao eateries, and orange robe-clad monks going about their daily business.

Half way through the loop we stopped to sample some local spring rolls and noodles by the river, washed down with a couple of beers, and used the time-out to make some progress with our final New Zealand blog post.

The weather was deceiving, with the slight hazy and grey-ish skies giving away nothing of the intense 36 degree heat. The siesta was much needed!

Our continuation of the loop took us along a further stretch of river and past several picturesque bamboo bridges which go across the smaller Nam Khan river on the opposite site of the hill, flowing into the Mekong, the bridges manned by local men charging around 3,000 kip to cross (around 30p).

On our meandering we also came across one of the most important Lao monasteries and temples; Wat Xieng Thong. This wat was a royal temple until 1975, where Lao kings were crowned.

It was one of the most impressive buildings we’ve seen on our travels so far, beautifully gilded wooden doors illustrating scenes from Buddha’s life and a fantastic glass mosaic depicting the tree of life. The whole complex is a beautiful and typical example of Laos arts and crafts.

After our first Laotian Wat visit we washed down the day’s gentle sightseeing with a cold drink and an ice cream as we headed back to our hotel. No sooner had we walked through the door though, Ged realised that the key to our room safe was missing from his key chain. Yikes! Passports, camera batteries and Rach’s wallet were all stuck inside! We had no idea how it could have detached from the chain, and it could have been at anytime and anywhere during our day, in which we’d probably walked 5 or so miles. There was nothing for it but to run back, and quickly, as it was 4.40pm and the temple we had been to shut at 5pm. Ged volunteered, having better legs to cover that kind of ground in a hurry, so Rach waited patiently and hopefully for his return, though not without a big dose of scepticism. Were we really going to find it in the whole of Luang Prabang? The door handle turned at 5.30pm and to our shared disbelief Ged had found it, or rather Buddha had! The key was at the temple – a staff member had spotted it on the floor and kept it to one side. In this town of Buddhist serenity, peace, and religious diligence, was Buddha looking out for us? We made ourselves a spicy pot noodle for tea to celebrate, too exhausted to go back out a third time for dinner. Not to mention that our 35p tea would be a welcome entry on the trip budget planner too!

7 April

After our more restful day yesterday we got up before dawn to go and witness one of Luang Prabang’s most iconic daily activities; the alms giving ceremony. Monks, adorned in their bright robes, spill slowly out of the temples and process in silence through the streets collecting alms – sticky rice offerings from locals – in a woven basket carried across their bodies.

It was great to be a by-stander to this historic tradition and religious activity, which is so much a part of life here. Tourists however have taken to the spectacle a little too zealously, as evidenced by the multiple signs around telling people to dress appropriately (some were not), not take flash photos (some were) and not obstruct the procession, which we saw some people almost achieving with unbelievable ignorance.

As we were up and about so early we also got to experience the morning food market, located down a narrow stretch of street alongside a temple. Here all manner of things, some edible some less edible(!) were on sale for breakfast, or the day’s supplies. In amongst the typical fruit, vegetables, fresh herbs, grilled meats and dumplings, were strange sea creatures, live insects, live frogs, other strange looking meats we had no idea about, and finally dead squirrel (fur and all). A couple of oranges would do us nicely thank you!

We popped into the Vat Sènsoukharam temple at the side of the market, just as the bell rang for the monks to commence their morning duties, and admired the beautiful ornate exterior guilding and the fabulous painted scenes on the inner walls.

After returning to the hotel for breakfast we then took a walk around the main streets and ventured to Saffron by the river, for reputedly the best coffee in Luang Prabang. Ged can testify that it was indeed very good, if a little on the pricey side.

A few hours later and we needed to escape from the heat. We’d heard about a bar called Utopia, just a few streets behind our hotel, which has bean bags, lounge beds and fans with views overlooking the Nam Khan river. Right they were! We grabbed a couple of lounge beds on the more than a little worryingly creaky bamboo balcony and let the searing heat diffuse a little with the fan whirring and two large cold beers.

Laos beer is similarly cheap to Cambodia, at about 10,000 kip in most places for a big bottle (around £1). Can’t argue with that! By 3.30ish we were hungry so tended to our stomachs with a spicy pizza for Ged (it’s been a while since we had pizza!) and a pulled pork burger for Rach. We were definitely going to be back to this view with a breeze!

As the light faded we headed back to our hotel to make plans for the rest of the week. We had some sights we wanted to visit just outside of the main town, which required some transport, so we collected a few phone numbers of tuk tuk drivers along the way back and got down to drafting an itinerary. We decided that tomorrow we were going to cross the river to Chomphet district. Time for a good night’s sleep!

8 April

Today we were going to venture away from the tourists and get off the beaten track to see more of real local life. We went to a bike hire shop in town and picked up 2 mountain bikes for the day for around £5. Saddled up, we cycled down to the riverfront and lined up to board the car ‘ferry’ to cross the river. In honesty it was more like a raft, and cars and scooters and passengers just piled on in any which direction.

For about £2 return per person we glided across the river. Ged got to talking to a guy who was a local tour guide, who was interested in what we were doing – apparently not many tourists go across the river with bikes! We explained we were headed to see the Ban Chan pottery village, where most of the local pottery is produced the traditional way on kick wheels, and to see the Wat Chomphet temple too. He looked suitably impressed and we were excited to be venturing into pastures a little less known.

After mainly walking our bikes up the steep hill from the ferry stop we turned left onto a dirt road and off we went – around 3.5km to the village, passing very little except for a few passing scooters with teenagers at the wheel, and a herd of water buffalo. The breeze was bliss in the crazy heat, and thankfully the going not too tough. Before long we arrived at the small village of Ban Chan. Hardly marked as a pottery village, we only knew we were in the right place because of a man with a tiny stall at the front of his house with a few unglazed pots for sale. We cycled the loop and stopped pretty much at the only place seeming to sell pottery.

We had a nice chat with the woman who made the pots, many of which were beautifully glazed. She explained that she had been taught to glaze only a few weeks ago by a international teacher, which is why we hadn’t seen glazed pots at the two other stalls in the village. Wanting to support the community, and not without admiration for her work, Rach bought a small handle-less mug and a bowl for around £12. Not cheap by SE Asia standards, but worth it! Turns out this way of life is slowly fading and sadly at last count only 6 or so families are still producing.

We also stopped in the village’s only and curiously named ‘Just to Know Restaurant’, for a delicious iced coffee (Ged) – one of the best he’d ever tasted – and a soft drink for Rach.

The owner was a real character. On hearing us laugh about him blaring out Celine Dion’s ‘My heart will go on’ on the speaker system, he thought we were big fans and took to playing her greatest hits at full volume, followed by showing us you tube clips of kids on Asian TV talent shows singing her songs. We found out he’d only been open a week – perhaps it was his slightly misguided attempt at attracting in customers!

After a short ride in the opposite direction to find the firing kilns, where we saw lots of examples of the bricks made here, stacked up by the roadside, we cycled back the way we came until we reached the hill by the ferry jetty and then turned left this time and drove on a straight narrow road through a village, passing kids pouring out of school and street sellers to Wat Chomphet itself.

Not much information was available about this slightly run down temple, but the view from the top over Luang Prabang was pretty fab.

All that cycling was making us a bit hungry so we rode back to the ferry port and once back in Luang Prabang we got on with sampling something from one of the French bakeries confusingly called ‘Zurich bakery.’ Rach was made up to get Parma ham and french bread – yum! Re-energised and wanting to make the most of the bikes we got back on and cycled out of town, through the hustle of bustle of the outskirts of Luang Prabang centre, to Ock Pop Tok (meaning ‘East meets West’), a crafts centre founded by a Laotian and British female duo.

The centre’s aims are to elevate the profile of Lao textiles and artisans, increase economic opportunities for Lao craftspeople and facilitate creative collaboration in Laos and around the world. We could get on board with that!

We were given a short free tour on arrival where we learned about how silk is made from silkworm, harvested and dyed, and then saw women expertly weaving traditional textile designs in the centre. These women are sort of self employed – the centre takes a percentage of what they make, but provides all their equipment and materials for them. In fact the centre supports more than 500 women in villages throughout Laos. The resulting products were truly exquisite, but the hours of intricate work and quality of the silk meant the prices matched. No souvenirs here!

We cycled back into town around 5.30ish and plonked ourselves down in the bar next door to the hotel, which did a bargain 2 draught beers for 15,000 kip happy hour – around 75p a glass. A quick shower after and we went out for tea to the humble Bamboo Garden, recommenced on trip advisor for good value local food. Both of those things it was! Ged had the traditional Pork Larb – minced pork salad with mint, shallot, chilli and coriander, and Rach had a seafood noodle soup. Delicious.

On the way back we walked into a beautifully lit quiet temple, Wat Aham Outamathany, painted ornately in terracotta and gold, and manned by two green ‘guardians’ – Hanuman and Ravana, two characters from the Phra Lak Phra Ram, the Laos version of the Indian epic Ramayana.

This would be a lovely spot for meditation if you are so inclined, but after gazing up at the temple for a short while we remembered what we had planned to do, which was go get a cocktail before bed! The twinkly bar across the street from our hotel were doing 2 cocktails for an irresistible 20,000 kip (£2). 2 ‘pink gays’ coming right up! Despite the weird name they were quite tasty, washed down with a shot of whatever was in this glass.

We thought Lao Lao rice whisky (more on that in a couple of days) mixed with sugar syrup. Cheers!

Sleep beckoned and we got ready for our second day of adventuring, to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. Next time, on the blog!