Luang Prabang

At this exact moment I can be found sitting in a restaurant in Luang Prabang eating a plate of fried rice with tofu watching the heavens pour down. We've been in this little city 5 days or so, a few days more than planned but we liked it here. I knew the city had a very 'French' feel but I was still surprised at how familiar the streets felt. All the cafes on the main street have French names and offer croissants for breakfast. Oh and the best yet; the toilets are immaculate. 

I thought Chiang Mai would be hard to beat but I think Luang Prabang has done it. It's the locals. Of course we've been approached to take this and that tour but it's been in a far more genuine way than in Thailand. It isn't cut-throat and people are happy to see other locals do well too. Children play outside with other children (such a novelty now) and we've seen kids pretend to play guitar with an old tennis racket and play war with bamboo sticks (boys will be boys after all!). 

And then there's the side of things here that makes up for the elephant ride we took in Chiang Mai and the day we spent in bed in Pai because we were too hungover to deal with life. We've managed to clock up a few socially responsible activities which has been on my agenda since I booked my flight to Asia. Good for the soul.  

LIVING LAND PROJECT

Friday morning we took a tour out to a little rice farm that gives workshops on the traditional method of growing rice. A bit expensive at 30eur per person but the money goes towards the rice farm that feeds 7 families and provides jobs for the village also. Not to mention its just a great experience. We got to work barefoot with a water buffalo in the paddy field and plant rice with our own hands. We also got to see how they make all their tools from bamboo. They do not waste one bit of bamboo or rice, everything can be used for something. We were literally watching thousands of years of tradition in front of us. Our tour guide was called Lee, told us he was from a hilltop tribe but his parents sent him to school in Luang Prabang when he was 8.  In 20 years he has only been back 3 times since. We asked him if he came to live with some family when he was 8 but he told us himself and two of his brothers just built a little hut for themselves outside the city and lived there together going to school. Can you imagine?

LUANG PRABANG LIBRARY

I saw the library and popped in the door to take a look. Turns out the library runs a little charity where visitors can buy and donate a reading book to children in river villages with no schools. If you buy the whole lot of books (250usd) they will take you out to the village to deliver them. I could only afford one book, can't have money for everything I'm afraid.

VOLUNTEER AT LOVANH COLLEGE

We were approached on the street by a few students asking if we'd like to volunteer at their school to help teach English. We said we'd give it go. Such a great experience. We really thought we'd just sit and have little conversations with students. Wrong! We were both given our own classes and literally told to teach the class. I had no idea what to do and the poor students were so shy with me too. But I got on with it. Half way through me and Lorna swapped classes, this time I had a more advanced class and I could chat a lot more freely with them. One fella was even trying to sell me a Tuk Tuk tour to the waterfall. It was such a nice introduction to volunteering before I join the school in Cambodia. I think with a bit of training I might be ok at it...

Actually, in the spirit of giving I also gave a street beggar 2000 kip (20cent). I never, never do this normally but I felt so sorry for him with his one eye and his limp and he was so grateful. Two seconds later we turned around and saw the fecker sauntering down the street with the use of both his eyes having a laugh with a few fellas. I was so angry but it's a lesson learned for the future. 

There are far more Eco-conscious trips and community development opportunities than this in Luang Prabang. We just didn't have the time to explore them all. If I had a few more days I would have liked to visit all the craft villages outside the city and gone to the Weaving centre to take a look. Oh well, next time.

One of the mornings we got up at dawn to watch the 'Tak Bat', where people give food offerings to monks. This is supposed to be an old tradition where local people personally prepare food themselves. Now, it's a tourist attraction which is really sad. The monks who do the rounds are just young boys and tourists are sold food to give to them. Some tourists get too close to the monks. I'm not religious but I did have a good scowl at the French tourists snapping away in the boys faces at 6 in the morning. 

And then we also got the chance to visit the most unbelievable waterfalls yet, Kuong Xi. Forty minutes out of town it's easily accessible. Lorna got distracted by the rope swing and we nearly missed out on seeing the jaw dropping falls way in the back. My pic below doesn't do it justice but I did almost propose to Lorna it was that romantic. 

The paragraphs above might make us sound super motivated and full of energy but in truth this week has been touch and go. We are about a week into taking our malaria tablets and suffering from extremely vivid dreams, groggy heads, upset tummies and extreme lethargy. I didn't think I would have such a strong reaction but I haven't slept so much in a long, long time. If it gets any worse I might consider just coming off them entirely. I'm not sure though. It's a risky decision. 

A couple of afternoons we felt so unsettled we just left our guesthouse and set up camp in some of the more laid back cafes, reading, watching movies, even napping. I've listed our favorites below. 

- l'etranger, they let you watch movies of your choice in the afteroon and show a set film in the evening. They also do book swaps and have a little exhibition upstairs of Laotian culture. 

- Utopia has a deck outside overlooking the Nam Khan river with comfy cushions on the floor. They have yoga lessons there everyday at sunrise and sunset which is nice. Really chilled out place but their food isn't great. 

- Joma, the most European coffee house you will find in Asia, I think. Might as well be in Amsterdam. I'm not so much of a coffee drinker but Lorna was in heaven. 

- Icon bar, just off the main street, it's a cute little retro bar serving expensive (but awesome) cocktails. This bar could also be in the centre of Amsterdam. Worth a visit. 

And that brings me up to this evening, eating my fried rice and watching the rain. Our plan this evening was to watch the locals launch their homemade boats into the Mekong river to celebrate the end of the Monks fasting for this year. However, Lorna is feeling awful and I'm not far behind her. (Actually, I think my low mood has affected my tone in this post. I love this place, I swear!) Time to head home and rest up before our 8.30am bus to tubing country tomorrow. Bleh. 

Journey into Laos

This is going to be a long post, I can already sense it. We have arrived in the city of Luang Prabang in Laos. It has been an interesting journey getting here that has equally amazed me and tested my sanity.  It turns out me and Lorna have the same breaking points - only we break in different ways, me being the more dramatic of course. To be honest, the last few days have been relatively plain sailing but my sense of 'how things should be' has been put through an emotional obstacle course and the pair of us have been left in stitches every time we witness an organizational culture clash. 

First up, we were to leave Pai Saturday evening on a 5 hour bus ride to the Thai/Laos border. Fine. Only the bus ended up being a 7 1/2 hour journey. At one point it seemed the bus driver had went the wrong way but someone later mentioned to me that he was showing another bus driver his new house...Ok... He was also a fan of stepping on and off the accelerator giving us a nice new dose of motion sickness even on the smooth roads. 

We arrived at 2 in the morning and had to be up by 7 for breakfast, after which we were herded into the back of a pick up truck to be taken to Thai immigration offices. Of course, me and Lorna didn't have our departure cards from when we arrived in Phuket two weeks ago. Panic. Our 'hostess' person told us to fold 100baht into our passports when handing them in and hopefully we'd be fine. We were examined carefully but we got through. (By the way, Lorna, I saw a sign saying we could face two years in jail for not having all our documents. I kept that quiet.)

Loaded up again into little boats on the Mekong river we were taken across the water to Laos border control. We filled out our visa application and our arrival/departure cards. Three separate forms requiring the exact same information. Efficiency at its best. We handed our three forms, passport and picture to the man dressed as a hobo outside the office and waited for our names to be called. Exhausted from the night before, this was a big breaking point for us both. Lorna went off to find a quiet corner while I stood directly in front of the window like a psycho. We had each 35 US dollars on us exactly (a pre-meditated currency conversion strategic decision) the amount quoted EVERYWHERE to pay for our visa. Imagine our frustration being told that we couldn't get our visa unless we paid the full 36USD. Sure enough there was a minuscule sign way at the back saying an extra dollar charge applies on Saturdays and Sundays. We managed to scrape together two extra dollars leaving us with no cash on hand at all. (By the way, when I say hobo, I don't mean it in a horrible way. It's just that the people inside the Laos visa office were very smart looking in uniforms and the guy outside was wearing a shiny Adidas track suit circa 1992.) 

 

And so we were herded up again and taken to the slow boat. Our passports were taken for the third time so we could be 're-issued' with new tickets. I'm still confused about that. Meanwhile we got a speech from our 'tour guide' to say that the town we would stay in had no ATMs, no electricity after 10pm, no wifi but there was also only one hotel there and he could offer us a great rate. I didn't hang around for his sales pitch and went in search of an ATM. No use though since the one ATM I found would only take visa (which I don't have). Lorna managed to get about 15Euro out. We bought a small sandwich to share and vowed to sleep outside before we'd book a night in yer mans hotel. 

6 amazing hours later we reached our little Mekong town, Pak Beng, for the night and lo and behold there was a string of guest house owners lining the dock offering rooms for a third of the price of yer mans hotel, with wifi, hot showers and electricity after 10pm. Score. But before we could get a lift to the guesthouse in yet another pick-up we had to form a human chain down the length of the long boat to get everyone's bag off. I thought this was a nice 'we are all in this together' moment. Actually, the best moment came when we realized there were two ATMs in the town and we would be able to eat that night after all. High five! 

I slept like a baby. Although I should point out that a side effect of my malaria tablets is to have very vivid dreams, verging on nightmares and truthfully I was a bit exhausted at having to chase Leonardo Di Caprio for a work project and entertain him AND his 3 unicorns at my parents house for a weekend. Or it could be down to the fact I (along with a dozen others) took a shot of 'Lao Whiskey' from an obscenely drunk waiter in a restaurant where half the slow boat ate themselves sick. One or the other. 

And so the second day of the slow boat was spent looking at the scenery, reading a bit of James Joyce (my new thing) and sipping slowly on a beer hoping I wouldn't have to use the toilets down the rear of the boat. I wasn't able to sit beside Lorna the whole trip and while I was next to the smallest Laotian man on record he took up 80% of the seat (seat being loosely defined here). 

The above is just a summary of how we journied into Laos. The reason we did it was for the view. It was truly out of this world. The Mekong region is a special place and the lifeline of the Laotian people. The length of the river to Luang Prabang is dotted with small villages, traditional fishermen, craggy rocks, farm animals getting a drink and the occasional naked child taking a dip. A different world than we are used to. My pictures don't do it justice I'm afraid and while I know I sound moany above I would recommend to anyone to take the slow boat into Laos.