Luang Prabang

We arrived at the Laos side and gathered with a large selection of westerners whilst we waited for everyone to cross over. Eventually, after a short lesson in phrases of the Lao language, we were told we could save some hassle when we got to Pakbeng by booking a guesthouse in advance for a special rate. Not knowing how easy it would be, or how much it could cost, we decided we'd go for it to make it easier, and then we were channelled into a nearby coach that had just pulled up.

The coach stopped at the river bank, where a number of shops were dotted around with drinks and food for the boat trip ahead. We bought a couple of sandwiches in baguettes, something we hadn't seen in a long time, and most of the other people getting the boat stocked up on beers. We were given a ticket to allow us on the boats both days, with a seat number written on. Our seat was facing sideways, more of a bench with a cushion cramming as many people as possible in. Further down the boat, people had what used to be car seats placed in tight formation. A good 100+ people were on board, and we set sail.

The journey took around 5 hours, mostly a fairly social event with a river backdrop and occasional stops for locals to hop on and off. The Mekong didn't seem to be the cleanest body of water we'd seen, whether it was due to being the rainy season or it's always a muddy brown, we don't know, but it was certainly a smooth and relaxing experience.

We pulled up to shore in Pakbeng and grabbed our bags. A few tuktuks were pulled up waiting for us to take us to each respective guest house. A kiwi woman was running around trying to get people to go back to the guest house we had paid for, so we hopped aboard and waited. Only then did we find out we'd overpaid for the room by double. At least that wasn't a huge amount of money, but somewhat annoying.

A few people decided they'd walk to the guest house instead. Once the tuktuk set off we realised why, it was perhaps a 1 minute drive at most. We climbed out just as everyone who decided to walk arrived and were handed a key to a fairly standard room. We headed to the restaurant area which overlooked the Mekong and treated ourselves to a beerlao, the country’s main beer and about 5% volume.

We understood there was very little to do in the area, so after using the cripplingly slow Wi-Fi we gathered with a few other people who were also on the boat. After a while this turned into a game of cards, and soon escalated into playing drinking games. We were joined by some people from a guest house over the road, apparently we were having more fun than they were.

The next morning we picked up some more sandwiches for the second leg of the boat trip and had a fairly unexciting breakfast. We checked out fairly early compared to when the boat left as we didn't have reserved seats, so now knowing how short a walk it was we headed straight down. When we got there, similar seats to what we had before were available, so we grabbed then whilst we could. We were sat next to the kiwi woman and her husband and friend, who had stayed in the town one extra day and missed their boat to take ours instead.

Whilst this doesn't sound like a problem, apparently it was, as the person collecting tickets informed them it wasn't valid for that day and was for a different company. This turned into a huge standoff as they were demanding more money, and the New Zealand couple and their friend were insisting they were told it would be fine. After around 20 minutes of nobody budging, with the entire boat held up and all its passengers eavesdropping and hoping they'd just cough up the cash so we could all go, they told them they would only pay 1/3rd and handed over the money. By now, everyone was losing their patience and a round of applause and hearty cheering took place as we could now set off. Only we couldn't because someone then realised they'd left their phone at the guest house, so a crew member quickly gave them a lift on their bike so we could set off ASAP.

The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful, apart from the stop to bring a catfish wearing a harness on board very little of interest really happened. This boat journey was another 2 hours longer and it definitely felt it, by the time we arrived in Luang Prabang we were pretty sick of boats.

Good views at least!

We headed towards the tuktuks and were handed some business cards from guest houses in the town. The one we got last seemed cheap and offered free coffee and bananas, so we figured we'd check it out and see what it was like. For some reason the tuktuk driver took us half way, turned around, drove all the way back, told someone something and then we headed back to town again, it never was explained what exactly happened but we weren’t in a hurry.

We arrived at the guest house and they showed us their cheapest room, a separate building with 4 walls and a bed, not the worst we'd stayed in buy we could handle it, we thought we'd check what the option for an extra £1 a night would be like anyway. A somewhat substantial upgrade, decoration, comfortable beds and Wi-Fi in the room. Seemed worth it.

We headed out for food. The night before a basic meal had been over £1.30 each, not exactly expensive but more than we were used to. Figuring that was because the town was mostly for people coming from Thailand so they had no other choice, we wondered how much cheaper it would be in a town. Not much, if at all, to our surprise. Seems we'd have to get used to paying up to 5 pounds a day for food. Shocking. Anyway, we found a huge night market where they had a food stall offering one plate of food for just under a quid, buffet style. Diana helped herself to a bit of each, I checked carefully for terms and conditions on the height of this stack. Mentioned nowhere, I managed to get my money's worth, resulting in some laughing and pointing from nearby people, if not the stall owner. Should have been more specific.

The next day we decided to do as much of the town as we could on foot, which included a few monasteries and temples, and a museum in the centre. Unfortunately, and typically, the main part of the museum had just closed, but we got to see some of the old presidential vehicles and boats. As we turned to leave we could hear some music in the background and headed in its direction. We found a small theatre area, where they held a traditional dance show three times a week, the next one being that night. We decided to check it out.

View from the temple on the hill

The dances were accompanied by a number of musicians playing what we were told was traditional Lao music. First, some Lao ladies came out doing a graceful dance involving careful positioning in sync with each other and their hands flattened and carefully extended, like a fancy Macarena. The 'headline' act involved dancers who wore costumes and masks, quite heavy looking full-head masks. They took it in turns to prance around, depending on the part of the story they played, acting out killing and fighting, worshipping and praying. All the while, some dancers dressed as monkeys were scratching and rolling around in the floor and generally doing what they fancied. Whilst we found it interesting, apparent another group didn't, as they walked in about half way through and left before the lights had even turned on. Each to their own. 

We took a proper look around the night market, discovering what was on offer. Disappointingly, although huge, most stalls offered exactly the same stuff, mostly aimed at tourists as souvenirs. Being as I was sick of markets anyway, this certainly wasn't my favourite part. We found another buffet style dinner, this time instead of a plate we got a bowl so I felt a little less like it was a competition. 

Time to explore some of the local area. We hired a motorcycle, and headed for a waterfall and bear sanctuary we'd heard about and one of the main nearby attractions. Whilst not a particularly difficult ride, the roads potholes put anything in England to shame. The couple I didn't spot in tone to dodge were bone jarring and Diana was fairly terrified by the end.

We arrived and bought some sandwiches and vegetable crisps, an exciting picnic with actual (teddy) bears! As we walked towards the waterfall, the enclosure was about half way.

Fluffy cuddly fella

The bears were, well, fairly lazy. Most of them had been rescued to prevent being used for 'traditional medicines', usually their bile. They seemed fairly content with having been rescued and most of them were lounging around posing for tourists. We read up some of the nearby information on the organisation (save the bears) and carried on for the waterfall.

Is YOUR favourite bear listed??

We made it to the waterfall to find that we certainly weren't the only ones here. Plenty of people were stood around, swimming, or jumping from a nearby tree. It seemed to be mostly Koreans, especially doing the jumping, at least eventually as most of them stood at the top, screamed for a bit and then jumped in with all the elegance of a dying walrus to a chorus of applause from everyone else, a strange sight. Diana had a swim about and we settled down for our picnic.

Awaiting plunging Koreans

Picnic!

Content with our lunch we figured we'd exhausted all this area had to offer, and, getting a little lost on the way, headed back to the bike. We spotted a sign saying there was a butterfly park only 500m away, so decided to see what it had to offer and started walking there. What felt like 18 miles later we changed our minds about walking and went back for the bike. We found it, probably about 501 metres away but it felt a lot longer, and wandered in. It seemed pretty dead, but all signs indicated it was open.

We eventually found a reception desk, manned by a British girl who was volunteering there for a month, but had only been there a day. After looking at the two pounds entry fee and trying to work out if we wanted to spend an entire 4 pounds to be entertained, we decided we could fit it in our budget and had a look around. 

It was a very well maintained and pretty area, all sorts of flowers and cacti growing and another part of the waterfall. We entered an area with heavy blinds across the door, and sure enough, butterflies! Many of them, all sorts of shapes and colours. We went in a room and tried to work out what its purpose was, until we spotted a number of caterpillars and cocoons attached to plants. A lady from Holland then came in and started explaining about the place and the life cycles of caterpillars and butterflies. She owned the area and had been running it for 4 years.

Hungry hungry caterpillar

Butterflies eating... Uh... Sugar sponges.

We carried on around and found some pools of the fish that attack your feet so we had a go at that, Diana now almost enjoying it rather than being entirely terrified of the sight of a fish, a (slightly) changed woman in that regard. We took a good few photos of butterflies and flowers and continued on our merry way.

Butterflies and fish in one venue, what more could you need?

We heard about another waterfall nearer town and headed towards it. Apparently a little more hidden away and not as popular, we followed the route carefully looking out for the sign. Once we found it, we had a 2KM drive down an unmade road with huge potholes and thick mud, but survived and arrived in a deserted car park. Unfortunately we didn’t get away without buying a ticket, as there was a vehicle just about to leave but we’d just caught them and they hopped out to take our money, most generous! We headed up the path towards the waterfalls, apparently there were two here, and according to the sign there was a detour to see a nearby village also.

We started the path, and very quickly it turned into a real life game of Tomb Raider. Without any exaggeration, we had ledges to climb, logs to walk over sheer drops, jutting out roots to jump over, narrow bridges that gave way as we walked them, plants to duck under. In fact, the whole thing cost me a shoe, as my sandal was completely wrecked by the time we made it to the first boss level.

Mind your step!

Bit of ducking and diving, and of course, the odd limbo

We made it to the first waterfall. Well, no we didn’t, we found a dried up excuse of a ledge where there may have once been a waterfall. Apparently the wet season wasn’t quite wet enough to put on a show. We continued through various pitfalls and eventually saw the turn off towards the village, which we figured we’d take a look at.

Deadly spike traps lay beneath. I'm sure.

It was a fairly different experience, as usually when we’ve visited a traditional village it’s been with a tour group, or an area where tourists are usually present pretty much daily. This felt a lot more untouched though, although I’d assume they get tourists from time to time the same way we found it, it comprised of mud roads, wooden shacks, people sat around outside or preparing vegetables or doing washing and cleaning. Children were running around without a care in the world, dogs looked at us like we had an extra head and immediately started warning the villagers of our presence. Unfortunately we couldn’t really have any conversations as there was certainly no English here, but smiles and waves from everyone and a few children laughing and giggling at us sufficed for communication, and we headed back into the wilderness to find the second waterfall.

Whilst we never found an actual waterfall, again, we found the remnants of what probably had been a waterfall at some point, but right now there was absolutely no falling water to be seen. Shame, but it had been good exercise getting to this point, and after getting sufficiently lost trying to navigate back to the entrance (the route was a circle, but seemed to have a few forks where we had no idea which way was correct), we hopped back on our trusty steed. 

Give the children bigger knives!

A fairly long bike ride back, feeling fairly shattered at this point, we headed back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the day. Unfortunately this evening I developed some sort of fever and headache for no apparent reason, so other than dropping off the bike back at the shop the following morning as Diana wasn’t too confident riding a semi-automatic, I ended up spending most of the day feeling sorry for myself.

Fortunately, the day after I was feeling better. We’d heard there was a good route to take a motorcycle around the area, seeing villages and some of the local area. Thinking this would be a good plan, we rented the same bike again and set off in the direction of the start point.

Whilst the guide book that had mentioned the route stated it should only be approached by competent motorcycle riders as the roads used were very underdeveloped, it failed to mention that it, by no accounts, should be attempted after rain, especially rainy season monsoons. After getting around a kilometre up the road, which was terrifying Diana no end, we came to a road of pretty much 3 inch thick mud and clay. Attempting to stop the bike once we realized how bad the area was, I had to put both of my feet down, neither of which found any traction at all, and proceeded to skid a good 2 feet before any source of friction got a grip. At this point Diana had to get off the back, barely able to stand without slipping over, whilst I carefully did a U-turn and we completely abandoned that route.

One of the better bits of road...

Our next bright idea was to try the route in reverse, as the end of it was a highway and should (note, should) be a better road surface. In fact, we did manage a number of kilometres without a problem, except I missed a turning and carried on far too long, until the point we got to a part of the highway they hadn’t considered paving. Realising at this point we’d overshot it, we headed back to the turning, only to find this was another unpaved road and decided we didn’t really fancy it after all. 

In the end we did very little with the day and the bike. We visited the market again but at this point we were pretty much done with Luang Prabang. Upon consulting some guides, we decided our next destination would be a place north of here, called Nong Khiaw (non – khee – or), apparently quite a sleepy village based on a river, with good scenery and trekking. We arranged with our hotel to get a minibus directly there, apparently a 3-4 hour journey.

The next morning, before a tuktuk arrived to take us to the bus depot, we had one other thing to do which we were in two minds about. As is a Buddhist tradition, monks leave the monastery early in the morning to collect food from the locals who wish to give alms. This is a traditional act for any monasteries in a setting where it’s viable and is usually the primary source of food for any monks, nuns or novices. As Luang Prabang is quite a bustling town with many temples and monasteries, it of course takes place here, although if you checked a guide book you’d assume this was the only place it happens.

As I said, we had a bit of a moral dilemma with seeing this one, as we’d heard many tales that this act of tradition was now ruined due to the tourism in the area. Apparently this is so popular with tourists that the monks were planning to stop their tradition in this area as it had lost it’s meaning to them, only to be told by the government that if they did stop, they would recruit actors to continue this for the tourists. We decided we’d go, but stand back and observe from a distance to see what it was like.

Not too surprising they don't want to continue

We had already seen a more ‘traditional’ sense of this in Bagan, Myanmar, where when getting a 5am horse and cart to our guesthouse in the dark the shadowy shapes of monks could be seen queuing outside residences. This was a much different experience. Stalls had been set up on the roadside so tourists could buy food to give to the monks, similar to a petting zoo. When we arrived we figured we’d missed the monks as all we found were huge crowds of tourists. It soon became apparent we hadn’t missed it, but the ratio of tourist to monk was off the charts, and they weren’t taking the same standing-back approach as we were, no, some people were quite literally standing in the middle of the line of monks to take a selfie of themselves with them. An absolute joke, honestly, and made me feel embarrassed to be a tourist in this country. It seemed most of the people may have been Korean or Japanese, but a fair amount of Europeans were joining in. I wouldn’t particularly recommend it to anyone, I only felt pity for the monks trying to go about their rituals.

After getting some rest as we’d had to wake up at 5am for that ludicrous display, our tuktuk arrived at 8am and collected us and a number of other people to our minibus, where we’d head to our next destination, Nong Khiaw. 

Agh! Stock up quickly!