Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
We arrived safely in Luang Prabang, but not without incident. Less than half way through our “1 day” river cruise, the engine on our boat blew. Apparently the gear box was shot after the captain tried to engage two engines at once. They managed to pull over to the side, and lay anchor, while we waited a couple of hours for a replacement boat to come. When a boat finally came, it turned out to be the tow boat. With an engine half the size (our original boat boasted the fastest engine on the river), we were pulling twice the weight, with the broken boat attached to the starboard side of the powered boat. Needless to say, we didn’t make it to Luang Prabang within a day. We spent the night in a town half-way between start and finish, the same town where the slow boat passengers would stay. The next day, we continued on in the slower boat, but without the added drag of the broken one.
One hour outside of town, we stopped to walk around the Pak Ou Caves, which are holy temple caves that have been turned into an over rated tourist stop, bringing in admission fees. The cave used to be filled with thousands of Buddhist statues, but now there’s just the really little ones and the broken ones. Most have been stolen, to be sold at tourist shops in Lao and Thailand. It probably wouldn’t have been worth a day trip excursion, but it provided for a much needed exercise break from the sedentary life on the boat.
Regretfully, we only had 1 night to spend in Luang Prabang, since we had a flight booked out of Vientiane in a couple of days. We made the most of it by booking tickets on the following night’s overnight bus to Vientiane, giving ourselves a full 24 hours to explore the city.
On our long boat journey, we had made some great friends: Bonnie from San Francisco, Michaela from Italy, and Laura from Switzerland. Throughout our brief stay in Luang Prabang, we continued to enjoy great company and laughs with them.
We chilled out in the old historic part of the city, with quaint palm filled alleys, beautiful colonial homes, and rivers on two sides. Saturday night was a great time to be there, with blocks and blocks of street market, featuring colourful Lao crafts. We hiked up to the top of the temple hill, for a 360 degree view of the area, and to watch the sunset off in the distance. We enjoyed excellent street vendor specialties, and bags of fresh fruit. On our second day in town, I rose early with the sun to watch the long stream of monks proceding down the streets, receiving donated food from locals and tourists. I got lured in by a food vendor (and a photographer named Dave) to kneel and feed the monks myself. After some excellent lattes and people watching, we strolled along the river bank, taking in the peaceful setting.
The overnight bus trip to Vientiane started around 7:30 on Sunday night. To our dismay, we arrived at the bus station, 45 minutes early, to be told that the bus was full. The fact that we had tickets with assigned seats didn’t seem to matter. I tried really hard to respect the Lao customs and not loose face, but it was tough. We had to somehow make them realize how important it was that they help us get to our destination. All they had to say, at first, was: “sorry, you will have to wait and take the local bus”. Yikes! An overnight trip on the over packed local bus, stopping everywhere! Somehow, we managed to get through to them, with the help of an Israeli couple who were in the same shoes. They brought plastic chairs onto the bus, and shuffled some people around. I ended up sitting on a seat with my feet on the wheel well, which was better than some alternatives. Dave ended up having to share 2 seats with a Lao woman and her 2 year old Damien. Grant had the aisle seat next to me, with a local sitting in the aisle between him and Dave, on a plastic chair. Within a couple of hours of harry twisting and winding roads, this guy was puking his guts out, and eventually just laid on the floor. So, my wheel well and knees up to the ears felt just fine.
