Laos, Monks, Hill tribes, a million Elephants, and "meat on a stick"

It was with a heavy heart that we left Sri Lanka on the very last day of our 30 day Visa, however I'd heard such good things about Laos (and especially Luang Prabang) that we were pretty excited about stage 2 of the trip.

After a quick pit stop to resupply in the Kuala Lumpur shopping malls (and some guilty pleasures at the cinemas/food courts) we then grabbed our next super cheap Air Asia flight to Laos (£65).  I'm loving Air Asia by the way.  It's like Easy Jet but really cheap and really good.

First stop Vientiane...  This the capital city and is described as a city with no hustle or bustle.  I was sceptical about this but it's one very chilled out city.  It's on the Mekong and borders Thailand.  People drive slowly here, food takes a while to come, no one hassles you and everyone seems really chilled.  Apparently Laos's full name for is Laos PDR. The Locals claim this stands for Please Don't Rush.  How very apt?  We grabbed a couple of bikes and set out to see the sights.  Cycling in a city (especially an Asian Capital city) would normally scare the bejesus out of me but here it was an absolute breeze.  Cars seem to slow down for you and traffic just nicely, politely flows along at a easy pace.

We took a trip around some of the what seemed like hundreds of temples which were all pretty spectacular.  We stopped for lunch at some lovely bakeries, visited some sprawling markets where someone selling pigs trotters, and intestines was jammed inbetween a stall selling kids toys, and another selling fabrics.  Crazy.  After a couple of sunset drinks looking across the Mekong, we hit the night markets for some clothes shopping and a few cheap snacks.















Almost everyone I've spoken to about Laos has told me I'd LOVE Luang Prabang so after a couple of days we excited headed off to the Ancient capital.  We came to Luang Prabang with high expectations and booked into a cheap guesthouse for a few nights.  We ended up staying 10.  It turns out "everyone" was right and we did LOVE Luang Prabang. 

Luang Prabang is a leafy, quiet, Uber chilled town full of Monastries, temples, markets, old traditional wooden villas, and most importantly some of gorgeous cafes with delicious menus.  The old town is almost an island being 80% surrounded by rivers with temporary bamboo bridges.  It's in a valley surrounded by forested Mountains on all sides.  At this time of year there's a pink blossom on lots of the trees.  We fell in love with the place at first sight.



On the second day we got up at 5.30 am to see the "Giving of Alms."  Every day a procession of the local monks walk through the early morning misty streets of the old town and the locals (and tourists) give food to the monks.  At first this seemed a bit of a tourist carnival but later we found some back streets and quietly observed some of the local old ladies offering rice to what seemed like a never ending stream of monks.  It was a very serene experience.

I'd say Luang Prabang has something for everyone and as we didn't want to leave we tried most of it.  First we volunteered at the local library and ended up teaching some young monks English.  Unfortunately I couldn't help them with some of their homework which included filling in the words to Westlife songs (you've got to draw the line somewhere right?)  There are several Elephant rescue centers near Luang prabang so next we decided to take some Mahout lessons (to learn how to drive an elephant).  Laos is known as the land of a million elephants. These days the truth is there's only 1,600 left.  Of the 1600 I got paired with the biggest, greediest elephant and she was determined not to listen to me.  She did however enjoy feeding and bathtime where if I'm honest I got more of a bath than she did.  Needless to say I left being a little bit in love with my elephant.  We trekked into the mountains and stayed with a hilltribe, then Kayaked back down into town.  I can now say hello in Kmu and Hmong.  You never know when that could come in handy.  Tinas been enjoying learning the language, and has done really well.  I haven't been quite as successful.  Yesterday I told the guy on the toll bridge that he was delicious (I was trying to say nice to meet you.)

The Night markets in Luang Prabang are a sight to behold.  The main street is closed and each night hundreds of stalls set up blocking the street, selling millions of different handicrafts, jewellery, silk scarves, T shirts, and fabrics.  Most have been hand made by the ladies of the hill tribes.  Tina was of course in her element.  Luckily for me they also had food stalls.  I'd call this part of the blog Meat on a stick heaven.  "Stick around" and I'll tell you why.  The Laos people are close to my heart as they love a good roadside BBQ.  Fish, Lizard, chicken breast, leg, feet and the rest- (nothing was wasted).  The smell from 4.00 onwards as the food starts to cook is just mouthwatering.  To go with the BBQ there are several Buffet stalls setup.  For 80p you can fill your plate with soo much lovely food, of all sorts of variety.  The only challenge on the BBQ or the buffet is guessing what a lot of it is, but it all tasted pretty good to me (especially for 80p).

 

Finally after 10 days we realised sadly we had to move on....  We're now down at a town called Vang Vieng. This is a riverside town that is set with a dramatic background of Limestone Karsts/mountains.  The scenery is amazing.  It's the adventure capital of Laos, but the town itself seems to have become a bit of a tourist party town, which seems a shame given the beauty of the area (especially after the quiet and chill of Luang Prabang.)  We took some bikes out yesterday and to explore the area.  We found some huge Limstone caves and and dangled our feet in a beautiful blue lagoon, but just cycling between these giant mountains is breathtaking.  It's a beautiful area and in our last 2 days here we'll probably do some more kayaking before heading back to the airport, and onwards to our next destination.....  Nepal.