after an easy hour plane ride from chiang mai, i was in laos! jim and i got ripped off trying to get a taxi into town. it turned out that the guest house i was hoping to stay at had shut down, so i wandered around khem khong with a backpack on each side. i finally found view khem khong, listed in the lp but a bit out of my price range. praise the low season! i got my favorite room yet for just $6 a night. they even gave me towels and little bars of soap. the best part? a genuine hot water shower - not one of those electrical thingamajigs. i am in heaven.
luang prabang in laos is an incredible little town. it is much, much more rural than chiang mai and still shows a bit of french influence (laos was occupied until 1953). it was even named a world heritage site by unesco in 1995!
we're on a little peninsula in a valley surrounded by mountains and jungle, right in between the mekong and nam khan rivers. there are only three main streets in the old town, one on each river bank and one in the middle with all of the restaurants and tour shops. the mekong is lined with little al fresco dining ventures, and i slipped into one right across the street from my guest house. i sat on a platform directly over the mekong surrounded by palm trees and fairy lights and enjoyed a little banana leaf package of fish and curry (a traditional lao dish!) as the sunset over the mountains. absolutely stunning!
i meandered around the old town for a bit before heading back to the guest house. without liz around, there was no one to stop me from going to bed at 8 o'clock!
the next morning i went for a walk to see the town in daylight. i wandered all the way down the main street to the point where the two rivers converge. on the way, a group of monks beckoned me into their wat. they were playing some game with black and white stones on a big checkboard, and i watched for a while trying to learn the rules. no such luck... after a while, i went to sit in the shade with a monk named alling. he is from a very small village in the north of laos, and he became a monk so that he could get an education. he is currently studying to get a degree in english so he can get a job as a tour guide. as we were talking, a few others drifted over, but most of them were quite shy and just listened with a smile.
by the time it cooled down enough for me to continue my walk, i bid farewell to my new friends and continued around the town. i met up with jim, who had made a new female friend (and another showed up over the course of the evening). alas, a new set of folks to keep me up late.
the next morning, i had planned on renting a bicycle to head further afield, but after the tenth tuk tuk had greeted me with "hey miss, waterfall?" i asked the price. a strapping young british lad invited me on his tour, for a fifth of what the other drivers were trying to charge me. i jumped at the chance and ran back to get my swimsuit. up the mountain!
there were nine of us in all, eight brits. one couple had been living in laos for almost a year, and their moms had come to visit. very cute. they spent a year teaching and traveling in china before coming to vientiane, and by the end of the ride they had helped me develop my own plan of escape. i've met a lot of people who have moved to the region, taught to save money and then traveled for months. it's much easier than most americans imagine!
back to the tuk tuk. the drive itself was gorgeous, through jungle and by smaller villages. after about an hour, we arrived at the waterfall entrance. it was a trek to get even just to the base, but along the way we passed an animal sanctuary with tigers and bears that had been rescued from poachers. at the very top i met a french woman who quit her job in the business sector and wants to go to medical school - at 33! she won't be fully qualified until after she's forty. if she can do it, i certainly can take a few years off to join the peace corps.
after a couple of hours hiking up, down and all around, i headed back to one of the swimming pools at the base where i met up with the british couples. this swimming hole was swarming with lao kids doing spectacular flips into the pool from a rope swing in the trees. i had a go - not quite spectacular. i did manage a pretty neat jump off one of the smaller waterfalls nearby!
i was exhausted and burnt by the time we got back hours and hours later, as i hadn't expected our trip to be so long. a great day, nonetheless, and much better than pittering around by myself on a bicycle in hundred degree heat.
i ventured the opposite direction from my usual path and discovered that there is a whole other part of town with bigger night markets and more cafes. i had dinner at a tiny vegetarian buffet cart on the side of the road surrounded by long tables so everyone just kind of mixed together. i met a group of kids who had just come back from a hardcore four day trek into the jungle. one (the only other american i've met in laos) is a third-year at reed and lives in the bay area. whenever i told anyone i was from california, they'd point to him and starting singing everyone's favorite eagles song.
we all headed off for a drink nearby, and they served us all lao lao (moonshine!) as we sat down. later that evening, i met up with a lao friend named loun to go to a local discoteque. i was definitely the only white girl there, but every lao kid in town made an appearance throughout the night and they were all really friendly. as usual, i got tired early, and loun let me drive his motorbike (manual) almost all the way back to my guesthouse until i stalled trying to turn a corner.
this morning i woke up early for a traditional lao cooking class. i've been so excited about it since before i got to lao, and i even paid 50 cents for a tuk tuk there so i wouldn't be late. when i got there, a girl told me they had cancelled the class because i was the only one who had signed up. first of all, they information sheet says they still run individual classes. secondly, i had signed up only the night before and it would have been very apparent then there weren't going to be any more takers. so i missed out on cooking and my trek which was only running on friday. what a bust! i fumed all the way back to town and now here i am. luckily, i'm fairly confident that a lao massage will make me feel much better. off i go!
luang prabang in laos is an incredible little town. it is much, much more rural than chiang mai and still shows a bit of french influence (laos was occupied until 1953). it was even named a world heritage site by unesco in 1995!
we're on a little peninsula in a valley surrounded by mountains and jungle, right in between the mekong and nam khan rivers. there are only three main streets in the old town, one on each river bank and one in the middle with all of the restaurants and tour shops. the mekong is lined with little al fresco dining ventures, and i slipped into one right across the street from my guest house. i sat on a platform directly over the mekong surrounded by palm trees and fairy lights and enjoyed a little banana leaf package of fish and curry (a traditional lao dish!) as the sunset over the mountains. absolutely stunning!
i meandered around the old town for a bit before heading back to the guest house. without liz around, there was no one to stop me from going to bed at 8 o'clock!
the next morning i went for a walk to see the town in daylight. i wandered all the way down the main street to the point where the two rivers converge. on the way, a group of monks beckoned me into their wat. they were playing some game with black and white stones on a big checkboard, and i watched for a while trying to learn the rules. no such luck... after a while, i went to sit in the shade with a monk named alling. he is from a very small village in the north of laos, and he became a monk so that he could get an education. he is currently studying to get a degree in english so he can get a job as a tour guide. as we were talking, a few others drifted over, but most of them were quite shy and just listened with a smile.
by the time it cooled down enough for me to continue my walk, i bid farewell to my new friends and continued around the town. i met up with jim, who had made a new female friend (and another showed up over the course of the evening). alas, a new set of folks to keep me up late.
the next morning, i had planned on renting a bicycle to head further afield, but after the tenth tuk tuk had greeted me with "hey miss, waterfall?" i asked the price. a strapping young british lad invited me on his tour, for a fifth of what the other drivers were trying to charge me. i jumped at the chance and ran back to get my swimsuit. up the mountain!
there were nine of us in all, eight brits. one couple had been living in laos for almost a year, and their moms had come to visit. very cute. they spent a year teaching and traveling in china before coming to vientiane, and by the end of the ride they had helped me develop my own plan of escape. i've met a lot of people who have moved to the region, taught to save money and then traveled for months. it's much easier than most americans imagine!
back to the tuk tuk. the drive itself was gorgeous, through jungle and by smaller villages. after about an hour, we arrived at the waterfall entrance. it was a trek to get even just to the base, but along the way we passed an animal sanctuary with tigers and bears that had been rescued from poachers. at the very top i met a french woman who quit her job in the business sector and wants to go to medical school - at 33! she won't be fully qualified until after she's forty. if she can do it, i certainly can take a few years off to join the peace corps.
after a couple of hours hiking up, down and all around, i headed back to one of the swimming pools at the base where i met up with the british couples. this swimming hole was swarming with lao kids doing spectacular flips into the pool from a rope swing in the trees. i had a go - not quite spectacular. i did manage a pretty neat jump off one of the smaller waterfalls nearby!
i was exhausted and burnt by the time we got back hours and hours later, as i hadn't expected our trip to be so long. a great day, nonetheless, and much better than pittering around by myself on a bicycle in hundred degree heat.
i ventured the opposite direction from my usual path and discovered that there is a whole other part of town with bigger night markets and more cafes. i had dinner at a tiny vegetarian buffet cart on the side of the road surrounded by long tables so everyone just kind of mixed together. i met a group of kids who had just come back from a hardcore four day trek into the jungle. one (the only other american i've met in laos) is a third-year at reed and lives in the bay area. whenever i told anyone i was from california, they'd point to him and starting singing everyone's favorite eagles song.
we all headed off for a drink nearby, and they served us all lao lao (moonshine!) as we sat down. later that evening, i met up with a lao friend named loun to go to a local discoteque. i was definitely the only white girl there, but every lao kid in town made an appearance throughout the night and they were all really friendly. as usual, i got tired early, and loun let me drive his motorbike (manual) almost all the way back to my guesthouse until i stalled trying to turn a corner.
this morning i woke up early for a traditional lao cooking class. i've been so excited about it since before i got to lao, and i even paid 50 cents for a tuk tuk there so i wouldn't be late. when i got there, a girl told me they had cancelled the class because i was the only one who had signed up. first of all, they information sheet says they still run individual classes. secondly, i had signed up only the night before and it would have been very apparent then there weren't going to be any more takers. so i missed out on cooking and my trek which was only running on friday. what a bust! i fumed all the way back to town and now here i am. luckily, i'm fairly confident that a lao massage will make me feel much better. off i go!
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