Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang is a sleepy little town full of monks and wats, smack in the middle of the northern part of the country on the Mekong River. In the area surrounding it, there are mountains, waterfalls, and hundreds of little fishing villages. When I arrived, I started my trip right away by going out with some people at the hostel to a little village on the Mekong. We brought a few balls along to throw around while swimming in the river and the children of the village ran down to play as soon as they saw us. So we spent the afternoon playing with the Lao children in the Mekong before our dinner was ready. Our hostel arranged for a full traditional Lao to be made while we were swimming. The dinner was amazing, consisting of rice noodles, sticky rice, fresh vegies, and meat, all of which they showed us how to combine to eat with our hands in the Lao style. It was messy and delicious.


The next day, the hostel arranged a trip out to the Khuansi Waterfalls, which were amazing, complete with blue pools and rope swings into them. To get to the top pool, I actually had to climb up a series of cascading waterfalls that served as steps.




Right when we got back, the owner of the hostel, who had been a novice growing up, gave us a talk on Buddhism and what it means to be a monk. But after a busy first few days, I mostly relaxed in Luang Prabang, walking around and such, before taking a sidetrip down to Vang Vieng that I have already talked about. Below are some photos from the wats in town.


On my last day, we took another trip out to a river village to help fish for a barbeque later. The style of fishing we used involved putting out debris in the river, waiting a week for the fish to populate it, then surround it with a net and removed the debris. We ended up getting a bucketfull of fish and ate a few later.
In general, Laos (pronounced "Lao", by the way) is a relaxed country, especially when compared the hectic mess of Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. It is one of the few Communist countries left and its landlocked position and hills have slowed its economic progress. Only recently have paved roads connected Luang Prabang with the capital and even this is a slow, windy, and perhaps dangerous one. The people still live in thatch houses in the villages, which adds quite a bit to its charm. But Laos is really a gem of a country that hasn't seen too much tourism to be spoiled yet.

Beer of Laos: Laos has one beer, Beerlao and it is amazing. It is the perfect light beer for a hot and humid country, surpassing even those of Thailand, hands down. Considering how undeveloped the country is, I really have to respect the national beer. Grade: A.


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Details:
I flew into Luang Prabang on Bangkok Airways ($140, 11:40 departure), but had I known that the travel agents in Thailand offer cheap, direct bus routes to Luang Prabang, I definitely would have done that. But at least I saved myself an overnight bus ride. The taxi ride into town is $6/50,000K for up to 3 people. I stayed at Spicylaos Luang Prabang, a PERFECT hostel ($8/70,0000K for a dorm). Very easy to meet people, great activities, free internet. But it is a little more expensive than the others. Just get a taxi to get to the waterfalls, I paid $3/30,000K but we had a full truck, so we did get a discount.