As far as South East Asian villages go, Luang Prabang is a gem. Basically a two road town, the complete mishmash of beautiful French Colonial Villa style and local corrugated roof corner shops meets in an extremely attractive way, and for the most part, the place actually has well constructed roads and pavements. Guest houses, bars and restaurants all compete for space amongst the massage parlours (totally legit, we are informed) and tour operators (of which there are at least 15 within 50 metres of each other).
Having looked through the guidebook in advance, Matt and I had our hearts set on staying at the Silichith Guesthouse. My cryptic clue for pronouncing that name (Silichith) is 'Idiotic Poo'. If you thought that the whole reason for staying there was purely down to the name, you'd be correct, so it was a great bonus to find the place in great nick, cheap, and with amazingly friendly staff who'd join us for a drink or cigarette in the evening. Our room had aircon, two double beds and a toilet which, while you couldn't flush the paper down it, at least resembled a western one. If you need explanation of why this is a good thing, re-read the last post.
Luang Prabang is the most laid back place I think I have visited. There are some beautiful bars, Utopia which overlooks the river, and Lao Lao Garden which is a 6 tiered rock garden, each of which you can order a Lao Beer, extremely refreshing, similar to Tiger, or a bucket of the local Lao Whiskey plus redbull/coke/sprite etc. Just an aside on this locally brewed moonshine - if you buy a bottle of it, it comes with a dead but real scorpion inside the bottle, whose tail is being 'swallowed' by another dead but equally real cobra.
The only downside is curfew. A communist country, Laos gives its village elders or councils complete authority over the people. As a result of this midnight curfew, all bars, restaurants and shops will close latest 11.30pm, so that tourists and locals can be home in time.
But then you learn about the bowling alley. As you leave the bars after last orders, a plethora of tuk-tuk drivers start shouting out 'bowling, bowling, 5thousand each!' and everyone piles into these tiny covered trucks (think an American troop transport and reduce by half) or hang off them. Inexplicably, this bowling alley, which incidentally feels somewhat like a town hall with 8 bowling lanes, is allowed to stay open until 3am, and sell beer. I've never seen so many drunk people trying to throw a ball at 10 pins in my life. Nor have I ever had to associate bowling and hookers together. However, out of three Irish lads we were with, two of their faces the next morning told a story best left unrepeated.
Luang Prabang has quite a few temples to offer, including one at the top of a 300 step climb. If you decide you can deal with the 6am wakeup call, you can get up and give food offerings to the monks, who every day, rain or shine, walk the streets for their daily sustenance. There is an amazing set of interconnected waterfalls which you can swim in, and the beautiful scenery there ensures you're captivated for ages. There is something to be said for being able to jump in a pool at the very top, then swim to the edge and look over a 60ft drop without being in danger of falling yourself. It did however decide to rain cats and dogs when we reached the top, and the descent back to ground level in bare feet over slippy mud left this traveller with a bump the size of a Brazil nut on the back of my head.
Due to its sleepy town nature, Matt and I stayed 6 days in Luang Prabang, rather than the 3 we had originally intended. Like most travel hotspots, we met and made friends with quite a few people, and were happy to find that it was a busier hub than Chiang Mai, which while a great place, we found lacked in nightlife.
On Thursday we took a Minibus through the mountains to Vang Vieng, a cramped, 6 hour winding trip in which the aircon only worked when we went downhill. Stay tuned to hear more about this place soon...
Having looked through the guidebook in advance, Matt and I had our hearts set on staying at the Silichith Guesthouse. My cryptic clue for pronouncing that name (Silichith) is 'Idiotic Poo'. If you thought that the whole reason for staying there was purely down to the name, you'd be correct, so it was a great bonus to find the place in great nick, cheap, and with amazingly friendly staff who'd join us for a drink or cigarette in the evening. Our room had aircon, two double beds and a toilet which, while you couldn't flush the paper down it, at least resembled a western one. If you need explanation of why this is a good thing, re-read the last post.
Luang Prabang is the most laid back place I think I have visited. There are some beautiful bars, Utopia which overlooks the river, and Lao Lao Garden which is a 6 tiered rock garden, each of which you can order a Lao Beer, extremely refreshing, similar to Tiger, or a bucket of the local Lao Whiskey plus redbull/coke/sprite etc. Just an aside on this locally brewed moonshine - if you buy a bottle of it, it comes with a dead but real scorpion inside the bottle, whose tail is being 'swallowed' by another dead but equally real cobra.
The only downside is curfew. A communist country, Laos gives its village elders or councils complete authority over the people. As a result of this midnight curfew, all bars, restaurants and shops will close latest 11.30pm, so that tourists and locals can be home in time.
But then you learn about the bowling alley. As you leave the bars after last orders, a plethora of tuk-tuk drivers start shouting out 'bowling, bowling, 5thousand each!' and everyone piles into these tiny covered trucks (think an American troop transport and reduce by half) or hang off them. Inexplicably, this bowling alley, which incidentally feels somewhat like a town hall with 8 bowling lanes, is allowed to stay open until 3am, and sell beer. I've never seen so many drunk people trying to throw a ball at 10 pins in my life. Nor have I ever had to associate bowling and hookers together. However, out of three Irish lads we were with, two of their faces the next morning told a story best left unrepeated.
Luang Prabang has quite a few temples to offer, including one at the top of a 300 step climb. If you decide you can deal with the 6am wakeup call, you can get up and give food offerings to the monks, who every day, rain or shine, walk the streets for their daily sustenance. There is an amazing set of interconnected waterfalls which you can swim in, and the beautiful scenery there ensures you're captivated for ages. There is something to be said for being able to jump in a pool at the very top, then swim to the edge and look over a 60ft drop without being in danger of falling yourself. It did however decide to rain cats and dogs when we reached the top, and the descent back to ground level in bare feet over slippy mud left this traveller with a bump the size of a Brazil nut on the back of my head.
Due to its sleepy town nature, Matt and I stayed 6 days in Luang Prabang, rather than the 3 we had originally intended. Like most travel hotspots, we met and made friends with quite a few people, and were happy to find that it was a busier hub than Chiang Mai, which while a great place, we found lacked in nightlife.
On Thursday we took a Minibus through the mountains to Vang Vieng, a cramped, 6 hour winding trip in which the aircon only worked when we went downhill. Stay tuned to hear more about this place soon...
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