We left Vang Vieng behind and headed for the more cultured destination of Luang Prabang. Our 7 hour bus journey north revealed some of the most stunning scenery we have seen during our 10 months so far, amazing. We stopped high up in the mountains for lunch and then watched as the crew from the bus changed one of the back tyres. We all willed them to screw those nuts on tight! We arrived in Luang Prabang safe and sound and soon found ourselves some decent accommodation in this beautiful town. We ate some top notch food in a candle-lit garden restaurant and soon came round to the idea of staying here for a few days.
During our first day we walked to the end of the peninsula on which LP stands, finding Wats and orange robed monks at every other step. No wonder this place has been declared a World Heritage site.
We reached the end of the peninsula and walked down to the river where we found this rickety looking bridge, where some entrepreneurial locals had decided to set up a wooden shack and charge people to cross over. There wasn't anything of interest on the other side so we declined the opportunity to cross and just took a photograph instead.
We then set up camp opposite the tuk-tuk drop off point in town as our new found friends Hannah and Paul had sent us a message earlier on in the day to say that they would be arriving earlier than expected into Luang Prabang after some nasty business in Vang Vieng (robbery!) They arrived an hour or so later and we whisked them off to the sanctuary of our air conditioned accommodation and some street market food later in the evening. Unfortunately the winning streak of watching England matches together didn't stretch any further and we watched in despair as our World Cup dreams were smashed.
The next day we all made plans to travel further north together and do some trekking in deepest darkest Laos, with slow boats booked and trekking options investigated in was time to chill out with a beer and then a game of Petanque. As we wandered past a gang of locals playing a lively version of the French game we were invited to challenge them to a match. The price to join was the promise to buy the next Lao beers if we lost, so we decided that our best option was for Dave and Paul to join forces and form a winning team. The boys put up a good fight but these men were obviously highly practiced individuals and their experience soon paid off. 2 big bottles of Lao beer for the locals.
I think their efforts were sabotaged by the shots of Lao Lao (rice whiskey) which accompanied every other throw of the boule. Hannah and I didn't miss out on this generosity either, we were given several glasses of this potent brew and a piece of dried squid to chew on afterwards - ack!
Feeling slightly squiffy from all that Lao Lao we decided to keep the party going and head out for a traditional Lao barbeque. The bucket of charcoal in the middle of the table turns the whole thing into a very hot affair and to be honest this take on the BBQ doesn't compare to the huge chunks of meat we gorged on back in South America and Australia.
The next day we finally gave into the hoardes of tuk-tuk drivers shouting 'tuk-tuk, waterfalls' at every corner of the town and headed out of LP to the Tat Kuang Si falls. We paid our entrance fee to the falls park and then walked to the first attraction in the area, an Asian Black bear sanctuary. It provides home to bears who have been rescued from poachers who want to use them to extract the bile from their stomachs to use in traditional Chinese medicine. The bears have large enclosures and looked very playful and happy, especially when it was time to be fed.
Once we tore ourselves away from the bears we continued up the forest path and reached the very bottom of the falls. We resisted the urge to jump straight in and continued our walk, discovering pools and falls as we ventured further up the path.
We hiked up the steep path to the vertiginous summit of the main waterfall and admired the views over the surrounding countryside before returning to the pools at the bottom and finally plunging into the cool water.
After cooling off from our climbing efforts the lure of the rope swing proved to be too much to resist for Dave and Paul. They proceeded to fling themselves from great heights into the water, seeing who could make the biggest splash upon landing. I'll let your imagination (and maybe this photo) provide the answer to the winner of that competition!
Our last day in Luang Prabang was spent watching life on the river,
enjoying the picturesque streets and
indulging in a little shopping at the night market.
It was time to get active again so we waved goodbye to LP, safe in the knowledge we would be back the following week to catch our flight to Thailand.
During our first day we walked to the end of the peninsula on which LP stands, finding Wats and orange robed monks at every other step. No wonder this place has been declared a World Heritage site.
We reached the end of the peninsula and walked down to the river where we found this rickety looking bridge, where some entrepreneurial locals had decided to set up a wooden shack and charge people to cross over. There wasn't anything of interest on the other side so we declined the opportunity to cross and just took a photograph instead.
We then set up camp opposite the tuk-tuk drop off point in town as our new found friends Hannah and Paul had sent us a message earlier on in the day to say that they would be arriving earlier than expected into Luang Prabang after some nasty business in Vang Vieng (robbery!) They arrived an hour or so later and we whisked them off to the sanctuary of our air conditioned accommodation and some street market food later in the evening. Unfortunately the winning streak of watching England matches together didn't stretch any further and we watched in despair as our World Cup dreams were smashed.The next day we all made plans to travel further north together and do some trekking in deepest darkest Laos, with slow boats booked and trekking options investigated in was time to chill out with a beer and then a game of Petanque. As we wandered past a gang of locals playing a lively version of the French game we were invited to challenge them to a match. The price to join was the promise to buy the next Lao beers if we lost, so we decided that our best option was for Dave and Paul to join forces and form a winning team. The boys put up a good fight but these men were obviously highly practiced individuals and their experience soon paid off. 2 big bottles of Lao beer for the locals.
I think their efforts were sabotaged by the shots of Lao Lao (rice whiskey) which accompanied every other throw of the boule. Hannah and I didn't miss out on this generosity either, we were given several glasses of this potent brew and a piece of dried squid to chew on afterwards - ack!Feeling slightly squiffy from all that Lao Lao we decided to keep the party going and head out for a traditional Lao barbeque. The bucket of charcoal in the middle of the table turns the whole thing into a very hot affair and to be honest this take on the BBQ doesn't compare to the huge chunks of meat we gorged on back in South America and Australia.
The next day we finally gave into the hoardes of tuk-tuk drivers shouting 'tuk-tuk, waterfalls' at every corner of the town and headed out of LP to the Tat Kuang Si falls. We paid our entrance fee to the falls park and then walked to the first attraction in the area, an Asian Black bear sanctuary. It provides home to bears who have been rescued from poachers who want to use them to extract the bile from their stomachs to use in traditional Chinese medicine. The bears have large enclosures and looked very playful and happy, especially when it was time to be fed.
Once we tore ourselves away from the bears we continued up the forest path and reached the very bottom of the falls. We resisted the urge to jump straight in and continued our walk, discovering pools and falls as we ventured further up the path.
We hiked up the steep path to the vertiginous summit of the main waterfall and admired the views over the surrounding countryside before returning to the pools at the bottom and finally plunging into the cool water.
After cooling off from our climbing efforts the lure of the rope swing proved to be too much to resist for Dave and Paul. They proceeded to fling themselves from great heights into the water, seeing who could make the biggest splash upon landing. I'll let your imagination (and maybe this photo) provide the answer to the winner of that competition!
Our last day in Luang Prabang was spent watching life on the river,
enjoying the picturesque streets and
indulging in a little shopping at the night market.
It was time to get active again so we waved goodbye to LP, safe in the knowledge we would be back the following week to catch our flight to Thailand.
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