Luang Prabang, Laos 20 - 23 December 2010

The next day, we continued to Bangkok, but only long enough to change to the small propeller plane with Bangkok Airways, that took us further north, over the mountainous jungle. We followed the Mekong River as it was snaking north into Laos and to the magical town of Luang Prabang. Yes, here it comes, the history lesson: Luang Prabang was the capital of Laos during the Lane Xang (“the land of a million elephants”) Kingdom from the 14th – 16th centuries and it is still the cultural and religious centre of Laos. 





























After a period as a French colony of Indochine, Laos gained independence in 1949. A long civil war ended officially when the Communist Pathet Lao movement took over in 1975 (and the King mysteriously disappeared). The whole town is now a UNESCO World Heritage site so hopefully its unique architecture and atmosphere will be preserved, if not future mass tourism mainly from China will ruin it. In April, the Chinese will start building a railway line from Kunming in China, passing Luang Prabang and continuing down to the Lao capital of Vientiane. They are also planning to expand the tiny airport in the near future – so hurry up! I heard of this place during my back-packer years, but back then it was only possible to reach by going up the Mekong river for 2 days, so I gave it a miss then but promised myself to come here one day. 12 years ago they build a road to Luang Prabang and now they even have a small airport. I’m at loss at words to describe this place, it simply has to be seen and experienced.

The main road is a wonderful patchwork of traditional Lao wooden houses and hints of colonial architecture - reminders of when Laos was part of the French colony of Indochine. Golden-roofed wats (temples), decorated with mosaics and murals of the life of Buddha sit under the gaze of wrap-around wooden balconies and 19th century shuttered windows. Tiny alleys leading down to the river bustle with activity, people cooking food, washing clothes, someone is carving on a wooden Buddha head, a dog chases a chicken, some young monks sit and chat on some stairs….there are smells and sounds everywhere. It really is like stepping back in time and I hope it will never change. Although some of the old French colonial style houses have been carefully restored and been converted into lovely boutique hotels. 

I found one of them, called Mekong Riverview Hotel on the web, and thought if I’m going to convince Peter to come to a remote place like this, I need to find something special... To my surprise, it was owned by a Swedish man called Urban! The deal was set when he agreed to a generous discount and the best of all - they had Swedish (remote controlled!) soft beds – Peter was persuaded! The kindness and helpfulness of the staff was over whelming. Most of them were former poor monks coming from the remote tribal villages. Urban trained them and gave them a home by the hotel. They worked part time at the hotel for a good salary and studied part time at the town college to get a proper education. They drew maps, followed us if we were unsure of the way, recommended restaurants and took time to tell us what life is like here in Laos.


What makes Luang Prabang such a special place is the 30 something Wats (temples) and the presence of the orange-robed monks everywhere. The monks, from young boys to elder men, all just had had their head and eyebrows shaved, as they are only allowed shaving when it is full moon!




Long before the first hairline crack of daylight comes through the wooden shutters, temple drums and cymbals from the nearby Wat Xiengthong seep into the reviving consciousness. Tum-tum-cheng is the local’s name for this rhythmic beat – Luang Prabang’s exotic alarm call. 

By dawn the monks leave their wats in long lines and begin the “tak bat”, their silent walk to collect alms from the kneeling or sitting villagers who hand out warm sticky rice in rattan baskets along the streets – for the monks to take away in their brass pots. 
This was amazing to experience.

When the monks returned back to their wat after the tak bak I got the chance to speak with some of them. They were keen to practice English and it was very interesting to hear about their way of living and of future plans and dreams. One of them told me he wanted to become a police officer.

After that, the clock still only being 7am, I continued to the morning wet market. It was in full commerce and I came across so many things, both dead and alive, I didn’t have a clue what they were or how they tasted! 
But some were pretty obvious - smoked worms for breakfast, no thanks! We found a great little café with good espresso, called Saffron, which quickly became a favourite. A great finale of the morning walk and it kept us awake! 

Our staff lent us some bikes and we explored the town. We crossed the Mekong river on a wobbly temporary bamboo bridge ( it gets washed away during the rainy season and is being re-build every dry season). 


We visited wats, did a sunset boat trip along the Mekong river, explored the amazing handicraft night market, selling silk scarves, silverware and handmade paper of mulberry tree products amongst many other thing. 

We found some excellent stylish authentic restaurants serving local food such as green papaya salad, water buffalo, sticky rice with chili paste…noodles, all very tasty. The Lao beer is really good and is a far better option than wine. 

One day Urban organized a driver for us who took us out into the real countryside and jungle. 
On the way to the spectacular Kuang Si waterfall, we stopped at a rural village and were approached by children trying to sell us handcrafted souvenirs. Matilda’s wet heart couldn’t pass any of them and she made an easy target. I tried to teach her how to haggle, but she didn’t want to hear about it and instead gave them more than they asked for because she felt so sorry for them. In a way, she is right, the things were beautiful, locally made in the village and cost next to nothing…and they need the money!


After passing more villages, rice paddies, water buffalos, monkeys, bamboo forests and wats we finally arrived close to the Kuang Si waterfall. We had to walk through dense jungle the last bit, saw some tired looking Asian brown bears in a conservation area, before we reached the waterfalls.


These are the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever seen! It is not the sheer size of it, it is more the lush and tropical surroundings, together with the many small waterfalls and natural pools that makes it so spectacular.


 The waterfall is coming down the cliffs in different levels and the main fall cascades down about 50 meters before the water collects in numerous turquoise blue pools as it flows down the stream. Peter and the kids quickly got undressed and jumped into the water. “Unfortunately” I wasn’t able to join them in the cold water as someone had to stay dry and do the boring job of filming and taking lots of photos… 


Elliot was adventurous and even dared to jump down from some of the smaller waterfalls. Then he saw a rope hanging from a tree, in which he was swinging himself down into one of the deep pools like Tarzan. They had great fun! 
Enough of the swimming, we hiked up the steep path to the top of the waterfall. It was a long and difficult climb and we got confused a couple of times as the path disappeared under dense vegetation. 

But we somehow managed to reach the top and there we had to cross some eerie mangrove swamps and wade barefoot through knee-deep muddy water or crouch down to avoid low growing branches. I tried very hard not to think of what was under my feet, as some things seemed to move and where very slippery…. But luckily - no leeches stuck on to our legs. Almost across on the other side, I slipped into the mud, not a pretty sight, and once the mean kids had stopped laughing, we continued back down, which was as strenuous as coming up….

We got back to Luang Prabang just in time for the sunset and I decided to climb up Puh Si Hill from where there is an amazing view of the surrounding mountains and the Mekong River as the sunsets. The rest of the family ad had enough of climbing for the day…Sitting up there at the top of the village, listening to the drums and cymbals of the evening prayers, seeing the red sun reflecting in the Mekong River and slowly disappearing behind the beautiful mountains was a perfect ending to this humble and very special place.
Sun down, and I met up with the others at a trendy wine bar, sitting outdoors people-watching and soaking up the atmosphere one last time. 

Luang Prabang has it all really and I can't wait to go back!
But sadly, time was up and we packed our, now very full, bags again and made our way south, to Thailand. 

a