Our time in Luang Prabang has come to and end. We spent 6 days amidst the French villas and Buddhist temples of this UNESCO World Heritage town, but I must say that we didn't really 'do' a lot. We visited 1 museum. We saw 1 temple. We hiked hundreds of steps up Phu Si, a beautiful green hill in the middle of the peninsula that is Luang Prabang, to enjoy the view. We saw a waterfall and a couple of caves. Moreover, we enjoyed the amazing weather - no rain, blue skies, lots of sunshine and 30 degrees Celcius. Naturally, a lot of food and coffee was involved. Our hotel room (hot water! AC! a TV with HBO showing movies 24/7!) also made it easier to just stay in, especially considering the amazing Lao take-out place next door.
Royal Palace Museum
view over Luang Prabang from Phu Si
view over the Mekong river from Phu Si
Buddha's "stop arguing" posture (with myself, maybe?) @ Phu Si
monks' robes @ Wat Xieng Thong
While we stayed in town Tuesday through Friday, we took trips to the surrounding areas during the weekend.
On Saturday we made a trip to the waterfalls at Tat Kuang Si. Funny story: due to the rainy season we were supposed to turn left on the trail, but, never having been told this tale, we decided to head right. The result was a 2-hour long hike through ankle-deep mud. This just goes to show you how easily the monsoon can be forgotten after a couple of sunny days. I can just imagine the faces of the countless taxi drivers who drive us, dumb tourists, to these waterfalls every day, never knowing what hit them until one foot stands on a nest of ants while one hand desperately holds a tree for support only to find out that said tree is covered in another type, yet-to-be-identified, bug (that was a special moment). It is impossible to return from this trip without being completely covered in mud. Unprepared like your typical tourist, we wore flip-flops (because there are blue pools at the bottom of the waterfalls where you can swim, don't you know?!), that we quickly had to carry because we got stuck in the mud. Jochem was bitten by leeches 3 times (for some reason, I was spared from this particular feast). So there we are, covered in mud, backpack on back, flip-flops in hand, on all fours, trying not to fall face-first into the leech-infested mud. It was AWESOME!
Tat Kuang Si
Tat Kuang Si
On Sunday our taxi driver drove us to the Mekong river on a very long and bumpy road to a place where we could charter a longtail boat to bring us to the caves at Pak Ou. These caves house thousands of Buddha images and were really extraordinary, if a bit creepy. I enjoyed the views from our boat the most, though.
Pak Ou
Pak Ou
And now here we are in Pakse in southern Laos after a 2-hour flight with Lao Airlines in the world's smallest plane (not really, but small planes freak me out, no matter how many bright flowers are printed on the sides). Pakse itself is not a really nice city - it is clearly not as developed as Luang Prabang and even quite dirty, with trash all over the streets. It's cloudy and rainy here as well, which makes me miss Luang Prabang even more. We don't plan to stay here for long, but to only use it as a base for some trips to the coffee-growing region of the Bolaven Plateau and the Khmer-era ruins at Wat Phu Champasak. Hopefully we'll be able to go to Si Phan Don on Thursday then, but who knows how long we'll stay on those islands with this weather. But if it rains too much we can always leave early and head for our next stop: Cambodia!
I'm not sure when I'll be able/willing to write again, because it always takes a lot of time and effort and in Laos, especially, it can take hours. But know that I'm thinking of you here.
If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!
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