2-5 January 2018
In 2005, we took the bus from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang. I remember that I kept passing out during the trip but, whenever I would wake up, I was astounded by the scenery that surrounded us. It was so beautiful that it looked fake, like CGI. I tried taking photos, just to be sure that I wasn't hallucinating, but my timing was so bad that I'd end up snapping a blurry photo of a wayward tree branch. Each. And. Every. Bloody. Time.
This time around, I made sure to stay awake. We, again, rented a van from Green Discovery Tours (USD$180, six hours). I heard that there's shorter route to Luang Prabang but I insisted that the driver take us through the scenic route. The scenic route turned out to be foggy. The fog was so thick that we barely saw anything. But the few glimpses that we had was enough to impress Nicolas to want to do the trip again in the future.
When we arrived in Luang Prabang, I was relieved to find that it was still beautiful. It was possibly even more beautiful than it was before. Thanks to it being declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is free from high rises and fast-food restaurants.
I booked us a second-floor room with a balcony that faces the Nam Khan at The Apsara. I was surprised that all the hotels I recommended in 2005 were still standing, although I couldn't locate Phounsab, where Sue, Deb, and I stayed.
Scenes outside our balcony at The Apsara.
I signed up for the same Kuang Xi tour with White Elephant, except that Derek was no longer there. Although he still has shares in the company, a guy called Alex has been running the show since 2014. They have two offices: one on the main drag, and the other one where Derek's wife's jewellery shop still is.
I was surprised that I recognised most of the streets of Luang Prabang. Probably because I did a lot of shopping all over the place. Kopnoi has moved across the White Elephant with the jewellery shop, alongside the row of establishments where Hive used to be, although it sells mostly handicrafts and jewellery now.
The Kuang Xi tour now costs USD$60 and isn't what it used to be. I kept waiting for that "Monkeys in the Mist" moment, but it wasn't there. Perhaps we took a different route? Or maybe it was the lighting...
While we were exploring the Hmong and Khmu villages, another tour group arrived. I guess this tour isn't unique to White Elephant anymore.
Above: Scenes from the Hmong Village.
Below: The villagers of the Khmu Village. Both villages co-exist side by side peacefully.
A different group also arrived just as we were finishing lunch at the rest stop.
This river was only a few meters from where we had lunch but, according to our guide, we didn't stop there because we would have had to buy our meal from the small eatery that had set up shop there, in order to sit by the river.
It's funny how Laos still has that mindset of catering to the gap-year backpacker, even though their market has clearly shifted. Across the log is a table of beer. If you manage to cross to the other side without falling into the river, you get a free beer. Apparently, there is also a zip line somewhere around the waterfalls.
There were also lot of tourists at the top of the falls, but I think most of them had walked up there.
And whereas the water used to be clear and pristine, now some of the pools at the top of the falls looked stagnant and disgusting.
But the main waterfall itself was still impressive.
The bear zoo was still there. There was no sign of the tiger, although we didn't really look for it since we were all quite eager to return to town.
Nicolas thought that the whole trek was unnecessary to see the waterfalls. But he did like the boat trip down the Mekong which, I, personally, could have done without.
Where the Nam Khan and the Mekong meet.
We visited the whisky village and Nicolas bought more weird Lao Lao bottles with scorpions and snakes inside. (These are also on sale at the night market so Derek was still right about a trip to the whisky village being totally missable.)
Nicolas, making his way back to the boat from the whisky village, purchases in hand.
But Nicolas really wanted to try to fish, so they dropped me off back at the town and he and the boatman went out to try their luck along the Mekong. They didn't catch anything, but had a good time chatting together.
You may contact Puk, our boatman, at+856 (55) 678 044.
I wandered about town, and briefly contemplated climbing Mount Phousi, when I stumbled upon some young Buddhist monks-in-training chanting at one of the wats just as the sun was setting.
For dining, we loved everything about Tamarind, which was right beside our hotel.
The Apsara, too, had excellent breakfasts.
The food at the night market has now been confined to one narrow side street. You'll find the barbecues and the vegetarian buffets there.
The night market is still interesting and, at least, the vendors now are open to haggling, which they weren't before.
The two photos above are for Sue and Debra.
I woke up early one morning to check out the alms-giving ceremony and found that most of the locals that were up at that time were there to sell food to the tourists to give to the monks. They lined up plastic chairs for the tourists to sit on and, even then, there weren't a lot of tourists giving alms.
Above and below are all tourists giving alms. At least, the monks now are getting more than sticky rice in their baskets.
She was the only local I saw giving alms.
Most of the tourists were mostly there to take photos, like me. Which was all a bit sad.
It's a good thing our flight back to Bangkok was really early in the morning, and our car drove by the less commercial parts of Luang Prabang and Nicolas got to see the authentic alms-giving, with locals kneeling by the roadside.
Comments