Wanderings around Luang Prabang
Each morning we rolled out of bed to watch the monks walk silently on alms round just outside our hotel. Then we would linger over breakfast under the banana trees in the hotel courtyard and decide what we wanted to do for the day, which often was "not much." We walked and walked and walked around the town. Seeing all the wats would take several days alone, so we only visited a few of them. But living a few buildings away from a wat kept us in tune with the monks' day. The bonging and drumming begins at 4 am.... then at sunrise they begin their walk through the streets on alms round. In the evenings around 6-7 pm, we could listen to the chanting during their evening prayers. We would sit on the steps outside and just enjoy the sounds and scents coming from within. It was very peaceful and enjoyable.
Boat Trip on the Mekong.
One morning, we decided to take a boat trip to some caves up the Mekong river. There is a ticket office where you can purchase boat tickets for 60,000 kip....(8500 kip to the dollar). There were about 25 other people who also had purchased tickets and we thought "oh, oh, a big boat group". They have a pretty interesting system, though. They divide up the people into groups of about 6 each and assign the group to a boat, which seems to reduce some of the competition among boat pilots for customers. You walk down steep steps to the river and along a narrow plank to get onto "your" boat.
Some boats are fancy; they have old car seats to sit on. Our boat was older; it had wooden seats with pads.
But big or small, fancy or plain, the boats all get you there, so off we went.
The trip up river took about 2 hours and was the highlight of this day. The Mekong river is grand.
It reminded us a bit of the Missouri River. (The river did, not the landscape.) It is wide, shallow in places and seems to have a current of around 7-10 miles per hour. It only took one hour to return to Luang Prabang, so it is somewhat strong. Much of the way, the river banks are occupied with small gardens of intensive agriculture. They seemed to be growing beans, squash, the green river weed eaten at many meals and many other types of food for their tables.
We passed giggling groups of naked children playing and swimming in the river. Men were fishing in small narrow two person boats--flinging nets into the water at a slow steady pace.
Women were washing clothes along the banks.
Everyone waved and were very friendly.
The Pak Ou Caves are filled with old Buddha statues. Neither the caves nor the statues are beautiful, but it was interesting.
Little children line the walkway to the upper cave. It is somewhat like walking a gauntlet. They want to sell you something, anything, including baby birds in little bamboo cages, large LIVE bugs in bottles, or a variety of other snacks and "goodies".
Along the way back to Luang Prabang, we stopped at a village that specializes in making rice wine. The stills they had to make the wine were quite interesting. Large barrels of mash were being distilled over large wood fires. The clear liquid was drip, drip, dripping off a crusty pipe into a large jar. We were told the rice wine was 50% alcohol. After looking at the production equipment, we decided it was wiser to take their word for it rather than to test it.
As a geographer, Gail found the village very interesting. She wandered around and watched women weaving silk scarves and other items.
She kept walking "deeper" into the village, away from the river and the commercial area,
and ended up in the central cooking area of the village.
Many women were gathered there cooking huge pots of sticky rice
and something made of coconut over large fires.
They were chatting and talking and having a grand old time and so Gail stopped and "chatted" with them as well. Seeing local village life was really amazing.
Kuang Si Waterfall
On another day, we met a Vietnamese-American couple and a group of physicians staying at our hotel. The physicians had just returned from two weeks in Bhutan where they had been doing charity work repairing cleft palates and training local physicians to do the same. They were regrouping in Luang Prabang before leaving for home. We all decided to rent a minivan for the day to travel to several villages in the area and to see the Kuang Si Waterfall, about 35km from Luang Prabang. We had a glorious day and it was very interesting to get to know our new friends.
The drive to the waterfall gave us a chance to see the countryside outside of Luang Prabang. It is rolling hills and mountains with dense forest land on the hillsides and agriculture in the valleys. The intensity of agriculture is far less than what we experienced in Vietnam, where very steep hills were often cultivated to their tops. The population density also seems much lower here. The villages located along the road were very small, similar in appearance to those in Vietnam, and the people seemed to be doing subsistence level farming.
When we arrived at the waterfall, our driver dropped us at a small "village" at the gate. The village consisted of places to buy more tourist type of merchandise and also lots and lots of places to buy food. We purchased some fried coconut rice things that were exceptionally good. Along the path to the waterfall, we saw some black bears in cages. The bears' mothers were killed by poachers and these bears were their babies who would have been taken and used for harvesting bile to sell in traditional Asian medicine shops, a very painful life for the bears. These bears, though, had been rescued and were being used to rebuild the population.
We continued walking up an easy trail along a beautiful stream. We passed tons of flowers, butterflies and other interesting flora and fauna.
Passing several wonderful swimming pools, we arrived at the falls--and they were spectacular! What a beautiful setting.
We decided to climb up the path over the bridge to the top of the falls. Unfortunately, we missed the easy paved steps and took a very steep, muddy path to the top. At the top, we had to climb over trees, rocks and stumps but reached the top of the falls. Gail forged onward walking upstream right in the water, which at times was thigh level deep.
Phil stopped as he wasn't willing to get his shoes any wetter than they already were and came back down the difficult way. Gail eventually came across a path that led all the way to the bottom of the falls. After climbing down, Gail walked to one of the swimming ponds and had a very refreshing swim.
On our ride back to Luang Prabang we passed a group of Laotian soldiers marching on the road with guns and all. Gail managed to get a picture and realized that the guns they were carrying were pretty darn old.
Shopping
We really worked very, very hard to support the local economy and our overloaded bags show our effort. We thought the shopping opportunities were wonderful. Living in Vietnam right now, Gail has to bargain for everything she buys which she hates. But bargaining with the Lao people was fun and enjoyable for her. She knew she was close on a price when they rolled their eyes and really started punching the calculator buttons to come up with a counter offer.
Travel by Tuk-Tuk
On our way to the airport we decided to take a tuk tuk because we hadn't ridden in one .
It was a nice ride, until we reached the airport and received a rude surprise from the driver. Our hotel called the tuk-tuk and told us that the cost would be 20,000 kip. A minivan taxi would have been 50,000 kip. When we arrived at the airport the driver insisted his fee was 50,000. After some tense moments we gave him 30,000 and left him standing. It was a lesson for us in setting a price before departure. While upsetting, it didn't spoil the overall glow we felt from our time in Luang Prabang.
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