Interesting things about Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is like just coming out of my dream.

After two days on the Mekong, we had an illusion of this small city of 26,000 inhabitants being exquisitely charming. Luang Prabang has yet offered a new vision of this region.The French influence is still demonstrated in the food and architecture dating from the time of Indochina. On the other hand, Buddhist temples are everywhere. The combination of the two makes this World Heritage City even more interesting. Imagine a small city with a style of the Mediterranean hinterland with its beautiful houses painted in different colors, small shops to drop by, clean streets and flowers, and everyone travel by bicycle - and the churches are replaced by Buddhist temples. The enchantment of the town of Luang Prabang also lies in its location bordering two rivers: the turbulent 'Mekong' and the idyllic river 'Nam Ou. The atmosphere looks strange to me with its long main street, all those people who know each other, small restaurants with nice tablecloths with French specialties, wine red,

We moved into a guest room called the "Golden Crescent", where we had every morning a sumptuous French breakfast, surrounded by a fantastic staff to ensure that our stay is the best place possible. This is actually a vacation to rest from our active holiday. We spent days travelling in the the surrounding mountains , taking cooking classes , strolling through the bustling market covered with stalls of fruit, fresh meat, soap, books and one another, working on our website . And we enjoyed our evenings munching the delicious tasty buds in local restaurants or French, a little massage, the sunset of the Buddhist temple of Phu Si, the night market of magic and enchantment. The handdicraft is fantastic work of Laotian. Young women who run small stands at bright and colorful night markets are of unparalleled beauty, and have babies in their arms.

I am the first to remark that Laos is full of life as every woman is in the motherhood or being pregnant! Either parent, or in anticipation of a child ... And the one morning we got up to Aurora to attend the ceremony of offerings to Buddhist monks in Luang Prabang. While it was still dark, we were kneeing on a mat placed on the sidewalk, waiting for the passage of monks in procession with their wicker baskets which we would put white rice, bananas and small packages rice with coconut.

Touring Laos(cont)

On Thursday, we rent a scooter for 7 euros a day, and we were accompanied by Lin and Helene for a walk in the Bolovens plateau, known for its pleasant climate, waterfalls, villages, coffee plantations .. . We set off a little early, and around 12:30 we stopped at Wat Phu, a pre Angkorian temple, a gem of Laos. We prefered to come and visited later in the evening because of the heat of midday. .

On Friday, we headed for Paksong past Pakse to withdraw some money for the next section of our tour in Laos. We arrive in Paksong after 50 minutes, put our bags in a guest house where we would spend the next night, before visting some coffee platations. We then bathed in a beautiful waterfall, the most beautiful perhaps. Just before returning, we are witnessing a game of Kataw. It is a mixture between volleyball and football, it is played with a small rattan ball braid about 12 cm in diameter.

Saturday, Delph and I continue our journey by bike , and stay in Tadlo for a night , a little further north. We feel the cool nights, and wind, especially after a long day of cycling . The plateau must be 1200 m high. During our 2 day passing Tadlo, we had chance to view beautiful waterfalls, villages, and local people (especially children). This biking tour brought us great days, great memories, beautiful photos ... until the bike has had difficulty moving forward, so we had to pay 30 euros for the repaire(our budget for 1 day)

Sunday , we cycled through Pakse (100km), and in the late afternoon we stopped by a final cascade. A short walk around the river, we came to a village that seemed genuine and unsubject to tourism. Apparently, there are several tribes around it. We spend the night there in a lodge of local tribe. Then the next day, we left for Vientiane, the capital of Laos. We had a great night bus with comfortable bed.

Touring Laos

Annoyed by the delay of the flight, we still expected to catch a bus for a lower price. Since our arrival in Laos 10 days ago we have been very disappointed by this country. We had left Cambodia on Sunday, February 24th. We left at about 8 am from Bann Lung and after 2hour and a half in a minivan, 10 minutes boating and some more travel on minicaravan, we arrived at the border pass. Then another 30 minute on tuktuk and we board a small boat to get to Don Det, the first stopover in Laos.

Located in the south of Laos, Dondet is part of Si Phan Don( 4000 isles) right in the middle of the Mekong. We settled in a rural bungalow priced at 2 euro per night. There was a bed and a mosquito net. After a good shower, we put on some anti mosquito lotion and went for a walk on the bank of the Mekong where we enjoyed fantastic sunset. In the evening, the first Laos meal came along with a Laos speciality from chicken and some spring rollls.

On Monday, 25th, we rent a bicycle to get around the isle of Don Det and Don Kon another accessibel isle. We stopped at a cararact and finished our morning with a relaxing swim in the refreshing water. Then have lunch with fish on legumes and milk of coconut cooked in a lear of banana before taking a siesta on another beach . Siesta is irresistable because of unbearable heat. On the way back, we encounter many villagers, and adorable children. We met some Laotian speaking English and even a little French but these people worked in tourism. Talking to villager was very difficult because of the language barrier.

In the evening, we went to a party 100m from our guesthouse. It is in fact a small fete with stands of games, chows, music and a concert. Once year this fete is held in a view to raise mony for the monks. We didn't stay long there because the mix of noise was unbearable. On Tuesday, we went for a kayak. Accompanying us is a Dutch, an English and Flax and Helene, two nice French who we travelled together with during the past few days. On the way we passed some expresses and scenic spot. We enjoy watching the dolphin show, too.

On Wednesday, we left Don Det to go further north to Pakse. The journey is a little bit hard lasting for 3 dhours. We found Flax and Helen who were in the same kayak trips as us in the guesthouse. We spent the quiet midday there with nothing special to do. In the evening, four of us went to the downtown.( to be continued)