After deciding to move onto Laos, I took a bus to the Lao border and a 2 day slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. On the border I stayed in an extremely dingy, prison-like hostel with other people who would be fellow slow boat passengers. We spent as little time in our box-rooms as possible but gave into sleep as we were up at 5am the next morning. Or so we thought.
A small group of us (the English/Scottish/German collective whom I would spend the rest of my time in Laos with) met in the little courtyard at 5am, with bed hair and sleep in our eyes, just to sit there for 2 hours until the others showed up with the news that we actually weren't leaving till 8. A fact that nobody had bothered to tell us. Slightly irritated but excited, we set off on our slow boat adventure. We spent the day relaxing, reading, chatting, playing eye spy and taking in the breathtaking scenery. We didn't see a single city, town, village or even house on our slow meander down the Mekong. Just steep hills rising out of the otherwise flat landscape covered in vegetation. We saw waving children, families loading small boats, young monks in their bright orange robes splashing about in a rare display of childish fun. That night we stayed in Pak Beng, a small village nestled among the hills that line the river. Our hostel was much nicer this time, although the hostel owner did offer us opium 5 minutes after we arrived. He accepted our polite declination with a cheerful smile and a "Maybe later".
The second day on the boat was spent much the same as the first. The scenery became even more dramatic with jagged rocks rising out of the river banks and a temple full of hundreds of Buddha statues crammed into a cave in the side of a cliff.
That evening we arrived in Luang Prabang. It's an incredibly beautiful city that feels much more like a small town. It has a really chilled out vibe and the colonial architecture, especially along the river, is stunning. Most days were spent exploring the city and the evenings were spent drinking BeerLao at Utopia (a bar set in a tropical garden with cushions on the floor and motorbikes hanging from the ceiling inside, complete with a beach volleyball court). There is a curfew in Laos which means all bars shut at around midnight. But for some reason there is a bowling ally on the outskirts of town which is open until 4am so at 12 everybody moves, en mass, to this bowling ally to carry on drinking the cheap Lao whiskey and bowl with increasingly less skill as the night progresses.
The highlight of my time in Luang Prabang was a visit to Kuang Si waterfall. The huge waterfall flows down into a series of turquoise pools so we swam in the cold, crystal clear waters and clambered up the incredibly steep climb right to the top of the falls (in flip flops and a skirt which in hindsight wasn't the best choice). The view was worth the climb though.
After 5 days in Luang Prabang (although I could have stayed much longer), we moved on to Vang Vieng on a very sweaty, cramped 6 hour mini bus. Although it was slightly bettered by the spectacular scenery as we wound our way through the mountains along roads that had drops of hundreds of metres right alongside.
Vang Vieng is a very strange place. It's filled with westerners sitting in hostels playing back-to-back episodes of Friends and drinking. It was a fun few days, although my liver took a beating.
A small group of us (the English/Scottish/German collective whom I would spend the rest of my time in Laos with) met in the little courtyard at 5am, with bed hair and sleep in our eyes, just to sit there for 2 hours until the others showed up with the news that we actually weren't leaving till 8. A fact that nobody had bothered to tell us. Slightly irritated but excited, we set off on our slow boat adventure. We spent the day relaxing, reading, chatting, playing eye spy and taking in the breathtaking scenery. We didn't see a single city, town, village or even house on our slow meander down the Mekong. Just steep hills rising out of the otherwise flat landscape covered in vegetation. We saw waving children, families loading small boats, young monks in their bright orange robes splashing about in a rare display of childish fun. That night we stayed in Pak Beng, a small village nestled among the hills that line the river. Our hostel was much nicer this time, although the hostel owner did offer us opium 5 minutes after we arrived. He accepted our polite declination with a cheerful smile and a "Maybe later".
The second day on the boat was spent much the same as the first. The scenery became even more dramatic with jagged rocks rising out of the river banks and a temple full of hundreds of Buddha statues crammed into a cave in the side of a cliff.
That evening we arrived in Luang Prabang. It's an incredibly beautiful city that feels much more like a small town. It has a really chilled out vibe and the colonial architecture, especially along the river, is stunning. Most days were spent exploring the city and the evenings were spent drinking BeerLao at Utopia (a bar set in a tropical garden with cushions on the floor and motorbikes hanging from the ceiling inside, complete with a beach volleyball court). There is a curfew in Laos which means all bars shut at around midnight. But for some reason there is a bowling ally on the outskirts of town which is open until 4am so at 12 everybody moves, en mass, to this bowling ally to carry on drinking the cheap Lao whiskey and bowl with increasingly less skill as the night progresses.
The highlight of my time in Luang Prabang was a visit to Kuang Si waterfall. The huge waterfall flows down into a series of turquoise pools so we swam in the cold, crystal clear waters and clambered up the incredibly steep climb right to the top of the falls (in flip flops and a skirt which in hindsight wasn't the best choice). The view was worth the climb though.
After 5 days in Luang Prabang (although I could have stayed much longer), we moved on to Vang Vieng on a very sweaty, cramped 6 hour mini bus. Although it was slightly bettered by the spectacular scenery as we wound our way through the mountains along roads that had drops of hundreds of metres right alongside.
Vang Vieng is a very strange place. It's filled with westerners sitting in hostels playing back-to-back episodes of Friends and drinking. It was a fun few days, although my liver took a beating.