After the luxury of the Shangri-La hotel in Bangkok we knew absolutely that our next accommodations could not possibly measure up. However, we were excited to be back on the road moving again, and landing in beautiful Luang Prabang was a great place to start.
A lot of money has poured into this town since being given UNESCO world heritage status and many of the French colonial homes have been restored to their full period lustre. Combined with its location on a peninsula bordered by the Mekong river on one side and the Nam Khan river on the other, it makes for a stunning setting. At this time of year the rivers are filled with silt from the heavy rains and the rivers run a colour of brown that reminds you of rich hot chocolate (please do not drink it).
We checked into a nice cozy guesthouse just off of the main road and decided to take a bit of a walk around town. In addition to the French architecture there are many Buddhist Wats around town and it was typical to see orange robed monks walking the streets with their umbrellas. We spent a lot of our time walking down the main street that had lots of small shops, restaurants and food stands as well as the night market.
We also got our first introduction to Beer Lao, which began a love affair with this fine brew throughout the country – you’ll definitely notice the theme in our pictures! Although many other beer companies have tried to muscle their way into the beer market, the Laos people have remained loyal to their national brand and for a good reason – it is tasty!! It also goes very well with the delicious Laos cuisine, which we enjoyed at streetside eateries.
All of Laos has a VERY laid back attitude and we found it difficult at first to deal with the relaxed approach we experienced with every local encounter. For people like us who arrive with big plans for seeing sights, spending time in nature and having meaningful exchanges with the Laos people, the slow beginning can be a bit frustrating.
But we persevered and found our own pace in Luang Prabang. One day we decided to check out one of the nearby waterfalls and opted to rent mountain bikes instead of paying a set fee for a tuk-tuk ride and tour. The exercise that we had missed in Thailand came abruptly into focus as we biked about 2 hours up and over long hills to get to our destination. We paid the boatman to take us across the river and took a splash in the waterfall’s running water (more like a river on a bit of an angle really). As we rode back on the boat to our waiting bikes, the heavens opened up in a serious downpour. Given that the hills on the return trip would be steeper than on the approach we gladly paid for a tuk-tuk drive with our bikes mounted on top. At least our hearts were in the right place…
On another one of our walkabouts, we had a very successful textile outing. Ben got his man bag fixed by a roadside seamstress for about $0.50 and Patricia found some nice fabric to make a skirt. The ladies next to the fabric shop were running sewing machines with expert skill and a few hours later our intrepid lady traveler was sporting an authentic Lao skirt. Throughout our trip this garment got a lot of attention and appreciation from the local people who seemed to take our interest in their fashion as a high compliment.
As we continued along, we spotted a restaurant advertising Lao traditional music and dance along with dinner. We promptly returned to check out the local show and to taste some higher end Laos cooking. The food was really fantastic and we had great seats at the very front of the restaurant (there was only one other table occupied)!
The show was also very interesting with traditional Laos instruments played by four young guys who would trade places at each piece of equipment after a few songs. The music is nothing like we’d heard before with a simple drumbeat, one guy playing only a single bell (this guy always looked really bored), another guy surrounded within a low walled fortress of metal gongs and last but not least a player of some kind of wooden xylophone in the shape of a boat.
The dancers added a lot of flair to the show with their intricate hand movements and frequent costume changes. A lot of it reminded us of performances we had seen in Thailand and we later learned that the Khmer dynasty originating in Cambodia and of Angkor Wat fame had a big influence on culture in neighbouring Thailand and Laos.
We took a stroll afterwards and found a small cool bar with a Loatian band playing live music, oldie goldies such as Beatles and Janis Joplin with incredibly fantastic guitar work and voices. It was cute that they couldn't pronounce the "s" in plural words - this only added to the experience!
Overall, it was the laid back, picturesque atmosphere of Luang Prabang that charmed us. We spent a few great mornings on the patio at the Art House Café enjoying breakfast with bottomless mugs of delicious organic Laos coffee. Ahhhh…
Although we could have stayed a long time in Luang Prabang repeating our relaxed days, we yearned to see some of the wilder mountainous north and hopefully experience a boat trip on the mighty Mekong. So, we hopped on a van bound for Nong Khiaw about 4 hours north up the big brown waterway. On arrival we searched around and checked in to a bungalow on the river with a great view of the village from across water.
As we had already completed an amazing trek in northern Vietnam and were not that eager to sweat profusely and battle mud for several days, we set our hopes on finding a kayaking adventure. After having a bit of difficulty locating the tour operators we had heard existed in the village, we got the information we were looking for but at the price of an entire two weeks in Laos for two people! Crazy. This was another example of typical Laos thinking. Instead of running a trip for two people at a reasonable rate, it is preferable in the Laos mind to run no trip at all. Our attempts at negotiation and reason were met with a blank stare and confusing logic. You just had to laugh.
At any rate, we resolved to see if we could make the trip happen ourselves by putting up signs around town to help spread the cost among more travelers (unfortunately, this turned out to be unsuccessful). We also decided a good hike was in order to work off our energy so we set off down the muddy road (yeah, our resolve to avoid this situation lasted literally a few hours) with promises of caves, waterfalls and a village to be found. It was definitely a nice walk along the Mekong with views of the mountainous surroundings – very peaceful.
Eventually we did stumble upon a village where local kids, little puppies and various farm animals were skidding about the streets. Still no sign of cave or waterfall so we decided to keep on the path. After walking for quite some time and starting to lose hope, we met two friendly Laos youth coming the other way. We asked about the cave and waterfall and they vigorously nodded and agreed that we should continue in our direction. With renewed optimism we carried on…and on…and on with nothing discovered. As we turned back for home, we played back the scenario in our minds and realized that we had made the classic mistake of doing all of the talking and pointing, to which many people here who don’t understand what you’re saying seem to strongly agree with any question you might pose. “Is your hair on fire” would be met with a lot of head nodding and a loudly articulated “yes, yes!”.
We did find a great kitchen in town that served up some nice Laos food and naturally the delicious national beer. We tried great coconut curries and Lapp which is made with the meat of your choice and a combination of local herbs and citrus. Really tasty.
In the end, with our kayak advertisements doing little good and the tour operator confident in his business approach, we booked passage on the riverboat from Nong Khiaw going downstream to Luang Prabang. People make the journey here just for this boat ride, so it certainly wasn’t a terrible consolation.
About twenty tourists were crammed into the small wooden vessel to make the 6 – 7 hour journey, meaning that seating was improvised. We ended up with a fun group mostly from Europe and spent the time chatting about life and traveling when not distracted by the spectacular views.
It was a memorable start to our time in Laos.
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