ANA AND ANDY, LUANG PRABANG, LAOS. 19th APRIL 2014.

Crammed into yet another minivan to head north to Luang Prabang (if only we'd known at this point how much of our time we'd spend in minivans around Laos / Thailand!).

A breath of fresh air at the halfway point to Luang Prabang

Good view from the top of a very twisty and long mountain road

Luang Prabang is Laos second City. Vientiane is now the capital but it seems as though Luang Prabang was where the country was governed from in the past. It also sits on the bank of two major rivers (Nam Khan and Mekong) so we have a choice of which one we'd like a view of :)
The journey was not too bad, long and I had an irritating Asian girl next to me who kept using me as a pillow!  But other than that we had a break and the driver got us there in one piece.

Luang Prabang a UNESCO world heritage city which means... that a lot of the buildings look the same... The streets have an old world French stylewith wooden shutters and beams. The whole town has a very relaxed feel and is an interesting cross between French café culture and the laid back Laos. All in all it’s pretty difficult to get too stressed out here and if you do – there’s always a massage parlour to help out!

As with all bus stations in the entire (Asian) universe this one was around 3-4km out of town so we jumped out of a van and into a tuk tuk to our guesthouse - Sita Norasingh.  Our guesthouse backed into the Nam Khan river and was centrally located for everything that you'd want/need to see in town.

Down the road from our guesthouse at night

The old town feel

Even the cars are pretty old style, not sure how old the monk is though...

Cafe culture in Laos or is this Paris?

I think the plaque means that this town is UNESCO listed

Bonjour centre ville

Really is picturesque, maybe just don't look too closely or you will see Laos

Monk under the shade of the blazing hot sun - wise guy, in more ways than one!

Back to the important things, dinner. We headed to the night market and found the infamous 10,000 Kip buffet. So pretty much eat as much as you can stuff in a bowl for 75p. It's all veggie and you can add on BBQ meats for a few extra kip. We filled up our bowls with god knows what and sat down in a crammed alleyway to eat. Once we'd eaten our  way down to the bottom of the bowl then we explored the rest of the market. It's a very picturesque and calm market, possibly unlike every other market we'd come across so far. The street gets taken over by pedestrians and stall holders for a few hours each night and creates a great ambiance. Still not looking to buy anything in terms of tourist tat (that includes gifts for you all!) we enjoyed a look and sat and had a coffee and watched the market go by.

Surveying the potential meal choice

This is a busy BBQ!

Grilled meaty goodness - hmmmm...

Decisions, decisions. You only get one bowl and it wont all fit in!

Happy face (we had eaten by this time ;) )

Followed by a sneaky iced coffee at the night market. Good coffee!

On our way back we stopped off at a few temples to see them at night. I also spotted this sign outside a spa which made me laugh. Imagine walking in and asking for whats on the menu..

Wat? It's dark already?

That's another big Buddha to add to the list

I'm the troll collecting the toll - if you wish to cross then you must pay your KIP!

I wonder if monks are exempt from the 'toll'

Hi, i'd like you to wax my hairy arms please. Yes both of them...

The next morning we got up early to catch the parade which celebrates the end of Pii Mai- yes they are still celebrating New Year a week on :) We arrived at what looked like a parade gathering and saw bands, people in traditional dress, monks, families in their best clothes, tourists and of course rabid dogs. We got a good spot and watched everyone get set up and ready for the procession. The parade was not going far, delivering a sacred Buddha (which in the past had been 'stolen' by Thailand) back to its home in a nearby temple, so the crowds were starting to gather around us.
Including this monk who was taking a selfie in front of the gathering! Selfies crossing religious, social and cultural boundaries, who would've thought it :) Selfies always remind me of my nieces Shan-Patz and Becks so if it's good enough for the monks then you carry on with it girls!

A new favourite photo. I think this should be called a 'Monk-ie'! Look at that technique!

Bhudda's golden chariot being prepared for the short journey.

The marching band have their own float too and their escorts have some rather interesting uniforms!

The monks forming up ready for the arrival...

Good pan-pipes! Tuning up.

And a conch shell too, quite an interesting band!

Must have been a busy morning at the stalls making and selling the floral offerings.

The manhandling of the golden Bhudda up to the chariot. It weighs about 90Kg so a tough job in the heat.

To me...to you.

Nearly there...

Ta-Da!

And the first monk gets to sprinkle water on the statue.

And we're off

A very colourful parade

The public and tourists crowding around the palace gates

Can't get much closer and the Bhudda is being taken inside

Ana's getting bored so decided to entertain herself!

Once the Buddha statue is returned back to his temple then a certain few are allowed in, but we are not. So we make a hasty retreat to our breakfast venue.

We popped back to the guesthouse and were presented with a couple of local dishes to try. Palm fruit in coconut milk (served in a bowl) and fried salted river weed. Unsure of the river weed at first but it was really tasty and was covered in sesame seeds too. The palm fruit in coconut milk was a sweet treat and equally tasty.

Balanced Laos meal, pudding in one hand and fried river weed in the other :)

They we both very tasty

Once we'd eaten (again!) and wrapped up at the guesthouse we headed back out into town and bumped into an Aussie (of course) sports bar showing the Chinese Grand Prix, so we pit-stopped (see what I did there?) and had a drink whilst catching the right half of the Grand Prix (that's over half way).

A new beer brand in Laos, 'Namkhong' am surprised it's been allowed given the monopoly Beer Laos seem to have!

That evening we headed out to dinner to Dyen Sabi restaurant which is across the Nam Khan via, you guessed it- a bamboo bridge! Andy had spied this as a good place to try from Trip Advisor and online reviews. It was a very romantic looking place and we had two (small) but very tasty dinners served with pastis (Andys choice) and a fruity fizz. My choice was steamed fish served with rice and Andy went for the Luang Prabang buffalo stew.

Fish with rice, tasty but v.small!

Buffalo stew anyone?

The next morning we had splurged on a full day Kayaking trip to the cave of 1000 Buddha’s, we were picked up early morning from our hotel and driven to the place where they stored their kayaks with a minibus of other unsuspecting tourists. We got out the van whilst the guys located and started to load up what seemed to be some quite old and dusty kayaks. They did a pretty good job manhandling them all on to the roof of the minivan and when they had finished they beckoned us back onto the van for the onward journey to our start point

Arriving at the riverside ready to unload.

I was a little concerned when I saw our guide frowning at the bottom of our kayak and was less than impressed with his solution when he got out a plastic bag and lighter and started melting the bag to plug leaks and gaps on the underside of our kayak. Satisfied he pushed it into the water and we hopped in (little choice at this point really).

We set off full of energy and at a good pace, paddling along the Nam Kham river (tributary of the Mekong) through beautiful scenery and enjoying the sun. A few hours in, we were all a little slower and more considered in our pace! We had a good chat with an Irish couple we were with but were not really able to keep up with our guide so left him to it! We did get to head through a few small and one or two not so small rapids which were quite exciting but by the time stopped for lunch we had taken on quite a lot of water and the kayak took ages to drain!

Ready and raring to go...

Lunch stop and a chance to drain the extra ton of water form our holed kayak :-/

Ana working out with the full kayak, I helped after the photo - honest!

The kayak finally too full. Oh no, this was swimming at our lunch stop!

Ana and Dave playing with the local kids, they were good fun.

At our lunch stop we were given our ‘Traditional Laos Lunch’ which was essentially a special fried rice which I had been dreading but actually despite being a bit of a mess, it was quite tasty. After lunch a group of 8 or so kids turned up to check out the crazy foreigners and to show off their swimming, diving and acrobatic skills in the river. It wasn’t long before we were all joining in, splashing, playing and chasing these kids – they seemed to enjoy it and our guide showed us his fun game which was to walk up to a very shallow rapid section of the river and jump in. The current was strong enough to really pull you out into the centre of the wide deep river and sweep you away quite quickly. It looked like a lot of fun so we decided to give it a try. Amazing how quickly it would pull you downstream and I nearly overshot the easy exit point making a longer swim back to land but it was great fun and I had another couple of goes.

Fun break over we pulled our leaky craft back to the river, hopped in and followed our guide for several more hours hard paddling. This had turned into more of an endurance exercise than a nice day trip but I was quite enjoying that. The sun however was pretty punishing and despite sun cream all round we were all starting to look a little red. It was also still difficult to keep up with the guide through the series of rapids with more rock scraping and possible hole making going on! We were faced with a decision at one point, the kayak was getting to full of water to be stable – Ana did not like the quite severe rocking from side to side going on and we were going to lose touch with our guide who was essentially just ignoring the other kayaks he was guiding. So we chose to pull over to avoid capsizing, we were met by some more young kids who were interested in what we were up to and tried to help (but really were getting in the way of what was supposed to be a quick pit stop to empty the boat). It must have taken us just over 5 mins by which point I had lost sight of our group and as luck would have it – this was at a fork in the river, balls! We got the kayak back in the water ASAP and after shedding all of the kids who were sitting on or hanging on to the kayak we sped off much lighter.

Back on the move

This is harder than it looks!

That hill in the distance is still over an hour away...keep paddling!

It was around this point that I started to have a bit of a tantrum with our ‘guide’ who had left us without checking on us. There was a likely looking  quayside that we paddled towards but as I couldn’t see our group I thought we had lost even more time and were going in the wrong direction so quite annoyed by this point I turned the kayak around and started paddling as hard as I could the other way to try and catch up. Ana, not being a big fan of my antics was not best pleased with me and after a few minutes – she caught sight of the group on the quayside that I was doing my best to paddle away from at top speed! So back we turn again – my mood not really improving and made our way back to the mooring point which was the entrance point for the cave of 1000 Buddha’s.

Reunited with the group we hiked up many steps to get into the cave which sure enough was filled with Buddha statues. Huge carved and gold leaf statues with smaller glass, jade and stone examples even down to tiny plastic Buddha’s that look like they could have come from a Christmas cracker (if that wasn’t a bizarre cross cultural contamination). It was quite impressive but after the hard work of the day and the minor drama of the last hour or so, was less enjoyable than it may have been! Still, we dutifully got out the travelling T-shirt to capture our Laos T-shirt shot in this cave with many Buddha’s (we didn’t count).

Cave of 1000 Buddhas, I don't think the little ones painted on the wall on the right count, do they?

Ah, that's more like it!

There are a lot more here though...

This is the cave of 12 Bhuddas

A few more here of all shapes and sizes. Including Kinder egg stlye ones! 

Ana's T-Shirt shot. Buddha-ful :-) 

I think she may be praying now?

Good view across the river for the Buddha statues.

Spotted this funky little chappy on the way back to the kayaks

We headed back to the kayaks for the last stretch  - 20 mins paddling back across the river to the van which was to take us back to Luang Prabang via a ‘whiskey village tour’ things were looking up!

The village tour consisted of nothing more than being taken to a stall on the end of a village filled with bottles of Laos distilled spirits from fruits and rice. I dutifully tried all of the freebies on offer and finished the samples that Ana didn’t want. Bought a small bottle of Laos Laos for less than a pound and blagged a cheeky extra shot or two. Suitably fortified we had a look around the village which really was just a small tourist market selling scarves but it was interesting to try the spirits and the Laos Laos here proved to be very similar to the distilled rice spirit we tried in Northern Vietnam. 

The whiskey village tour consisted of this table

Me on the tour!

You can't see it but my eyes are watering here - I think it may be meths...

That evening we headed along to the huge undercover Laos BBQ restaurant and had a large flaming clay pot set in front of us with a hybrid soup boiler and meat grill placed on top and got stuck in!

Right... so where do we begin?

Pork n squid, bit like a surf n turf? Alison, you would've struggled at this buffet, no chickpeas in sight!

The aftermath, we've cooked until the stove is brown and are now on the ice cream - result!

It's a busy spot and most popular restaurant by far

Everyone loves an eat-all-you-want especially when you get to cook it yourself too.  This is no Gunwharf Quays Water Margin

There were loads of dishes on offer meat, vege, fresh and cooked sides and pre-prepared kebabs with fresh squid and beef being prepared too. There was something for everyone and we certainly made the most of the experience. The general idea was to fill the metal tray with stock which was provided on the table and flavor this with any array of chilli, garlic, ginger, ‘holy basil’ and loads of other seasonings then cook your meats and or fish on the grill and let the juices mix in. Add some veg, spinach, cabbage and other assorted goodies then pour over a bowl of rice and/or noodles – polish it off and repeat. We ate so much and it was really hot sweaty work. The good news is that the Beer Laos was the same price (or cheaper) than other places so unlike all you can eat at home you can tuck into the beer too!

This was a great feast and a fun night out with a huge variety of food eaten. The atmosphere was really lively and the waiter was great helping us figure out how it all worked. The all you can eat price even included desserts so fruit and ice cream aplenty to finish up with and cool down your mouth!

Next morning we spent a little time exploring the town itself. We wandered around the streets a little, taking a stroll after breakfast at Joma Café. We visited the royal palace museum now re-opened after the Pi Mai procession and spent a couple of hours exploring the palace, the grounds and their small car collection. An interesting visit and beautiful recently refreshed buildings.

This is where they are storing that Buddha

This is the entrance to the museum and the nest of tables donated by Japan

Andy with a couple of dragons - I put 'couple' in there Scott so you can't say they are me!

I get in on the action too of course

Roar! If that's the noise that a dragon would make?

Another t-shirt shot, just to be sure we capture Laos correctly

The exhibits primarily consisted of gifts from other countries and it was interesting comparing and contrasting who had given what! I think Japan gifted a set of nesting tables (no joke) and Australia gave a boomerang - handy in Laos.

Base of the hill and the start of one sweaty climb

Later on in the afternoon we headed up Phousi hill to get a view out over the Mekong. We have been with this river for more or less 3 months straight and I will be a little sad to leave it as we head into Thailand, its been a fun place to sit and watch, walk across, paddle in and it seems odd that we will be leaving it at the Thai border…

They were proud of the painted wall behind these Buddhas... Nice wall

Farewell mighty Mekong

Andy's most recent modelling shot with our new favourite brand of clothing - Regatta

These 'pods' were in the trees, not too sure what they are - any ideas?

After the exertions of the hill climb I thought I would indulge in a traditional Laos massage so left Ana and headed to a (reputable!) joint and enjoyed an hour of relaxing massage and gentle (and at times not so gentle) pummeling! Suitably relaxed I met up with Ana for a coffee and cake in a local bakery and slumped in a chair for an hour or so! Great experience and highly recommended!

That evening we headed out to a very popular local restaurant that also runs cooking classes, ‘Tamarind’. We were a little late to get seated straight away and had to wait an hour or so for a table, certainly worth the wait.

We had an entertaining meal of ‘make your own miang’ to start, essentially lettuce and local citrusy tree leaves that you make into a small wrap with either a peanut sauce or aubergine paste with onion, garlic, chilli, peanuts and other assorted toppings. Quite fun and also surprisingly filling.

Washed down with a tamarind cooler with a shot of Laos Laos (Had a couple of these – and will be trying to recreate back home!) lemongrass and lime cooler for Ana (sans booze of course).

For main course we had Pumpkin stir fry and a rare buffalo salad which was really tender and very tasty. Hmmm.

Tamarind cooler numero uno

Make your own 'miang'

Mine looked a  little like this

Buffalo salad - yum

Pumpkin stir fry, plenty of garlic in there for you Miss Smith

All this pampering today was for good reason, we were leaving Laos the next day and heading on a scheduled 14 hour bus journey directly to Chiang Rai in Thailand. 

We turned up to the Southern bus terminal in plenty of time only to be told that we were at the wrong station and we should have gone to the north terminal 5K away (despite making sure this was not the case).  So we hurriedly jumped into a tuk-tuk and sprinted across to the Northern terminal to be met by a blank faced desk attendant who just picked up the phone and handed it over so we could speak to the booking people. Ana had booked originally and so spoke to the guy on the phone to clarify what was going on. At the same time I was chatting to a Spanish guy who was in the same predicament, the only difference was he had already paid for his ticket so was under a little more pressure to get this sorted immediately. With about 20 mins left to go before our bus we were told that actually we needed to be in the minibus terminal (despite not catching a minibus) and that this was about 10 metres from the Southern bus terminal we had just come from on the opposite side of the road. I had reconciled myself at this point to staying another night here but astonishingly we got back to the bus station and managed to check in including having our passport details recorded painstakingly by hand (as we were crossing a border) and managed to get onto the bus . What a hassle! Still Ana, I and our new found travelling companion were close to elated to have made this journey and the best part was this was clearly a Thai bus. The aircon worked excellently – even feeling a little too chilly at times – bliss! It was big and as comfy as you could expect for this epic journey. It was a smooth and pretty hassle free trip to the Thai border the next morning (about 14 hours in already) and joy of joy’s a real international border checkpoint into Thailand with no bribes, no hassle and just a quick stamp and through – Hello Thailand, it’s good to be here!

A shot which captures many memories of Laos

Even with this smooth and cool journey the poor roads in Laos and the longer than expected 17 hours to Chiang Rai took their toll as demonstrated by Ana before we set off and when we arrived! It was a hard journey! 

After 3 tuk tuk rides in under 1 hour we made it - phew!!  This 14hr bus ride will be a breeze...

I think my face has started to melt here out of tiredness and or the sun peering through the window.  But this is me 17 hours on from the photo above - Rob can I still be considered for travellers next top model??