Luang Prabang
Once again it’s low season, which (like in India) means you can stay in some rather nice hotels for a fraction of what they’d usually cost. Unfortunately, this one was extra cheap due to the building site below the rooms….!
Luang Prabang is a charming little town situated in the confluence of two rivers.
There are many French colonial buildings along the almost traffic free streets, with Buddhist temples squeezed in-between.
In the middle of town is a hill with a few hundred steps up to another Wat, where there’s an ideal spot for watching the sunset, after which there’s a little nightmarket to wander through.
As becomes a regular occurence, we kept meeting up with all the people from the slow boat. Are there really only about 50 people travelling south east Asia right now?! The next (and last) England match was made even more infuriating by the power going off right in the middle of the second half, right up until the start of penalties which we knew we’d lose. The “dark time” was passed with lots of singing and chanting, until the depression set in and nearly everyone sidled off to their respective beds in relative silence.
The new extreme sport of tuk-tuk surfing was invented here: the trick is to get as many people on the roof and hanging off the sides of a tuk-tuk as possible. Great fun.
On the day before we move on, we hire a tuktuk and head out to the stunning Jat Kuang Si waterfall about an hour out of town along dusty roads and through quiet little villages. The water cascades over many tiers of limestone, and is the colour of a tropical ocean. A nice way to spend the last afternoon, swimming in the pools…
We end our time in LP at the Vietnam bar, where nearly everyone ended up: unfortunately this meant meeting the first “Chav” traveller… a certain (nameless) L-e from Essex who described himself as ‘mainly obnoxious, but a few percent genius’. There were other ways to describe him.
As we had an early bus the next day, someone had the great idea that we should stay up all night and sleep on the bus. We managed the former, but the latter proved annoyingly difficult on the bumpy, but scenic, 7 hour journey south to Vang Vien.
Tags: Travel
Nick