Day 1
We had to get up early today to start the second leg of the
boat journey, so after getting some breakfast and receiving our pre-ordered
pack lunches for the trip we headed off to the jetty to catch our boat.
Once again it was a bit chaotic getting our bags onto the
boat, down a steep cliff, but one good thing was that Shelley negotiated (insisted) on getting on
the 2nd boat instead of the one they were boarding and was filling
up quickly so we managed to blag our choice of seats with more room near the
front.
The boat journey was slightly shorter at around 5 hours and
once again it was quite pleasant watching the scenery go past whilst chatting
to our friends and catching up on the blog
Arriving around 2.00 we then negotiated a van which dropped
us off at our guest house for the next 2 nights, the check-in seemed pretty
non-existent and we were just given a room key and shown to our room, which was
pretty basic and unfortunately on the ground floor behind reception = expect a
lot of noise! However it had free coffee and bananas right by our room so we
decided not to ask to change.
As per usual we then had a look around for the nearest bar,
however this took slightly longer than we expected and we finally found one just
where the night market was about to set up.
We sat down and had a few beers watching the stall holders set up and
all the new back-packers wander around the town looking for lodgings. Chris and Natalie then came past and stopped
for a drink with us and we agreed to meet up with them later for food and
drinks.
In the evening we met up with Chris, Nathalie, Steve, Loucie
and had some food and drinks with them, after a while the Manchester Couple
(Now known as Jacob & Danielle – thanks to facebook invites!) walked past
and joined us for the rest of the evening.
The restaurant/bar we were sitting in then run out of beer (I’m sure not
just a result of our visit!) and they told us just to buy them from the shop
across the road instead and drink them there!!
Eventually the bar shut and told us we could just finish our shop bought
beer there before we went home for the night.
Day 2 – Sight-seeing
We did not have to get up too early so we had a bit of a lie
in before heading round the corner to get some breakfast.
Availing ourselves of our free coffee and banana’s in the
morning we decided that we would need to stay another night in Laung Prabang to
do all the things we wanted to do here so we hung around the reception area to
wait for someone to turn up so that we could book (never anyone around).
After a while a lady turned up and Shelley then tried to
organise the room for the next night, when she asked about this her response
was ‘He has gone!!’ ‘He take the computer’ ‘He is Crazy’ ‘He take all the
Money’after some puzzled looks from Shelley (fortunately I was sat down outside
just observing) she then went on to explain that the owner (her partner) had
run off with a 15 year old school girl because she was ‘Shiny’ and he had taken
the computer that the bookings were done on.
Shell tried to console her as she was close to tears but at the same
time she still had to achieve the objective, ‘So can we book a room’. The conversation went on for some time Shell
asking if it was better just to book again on Bookings.Com, to which she didn’t
get a definite answer.
Shell needed a breather so she came and sat with me and we
checked if the room was available on Bookings.Com, so Shell went and informed
her that a room was available according to Booking’s.Com so should we book via
them or pay her in cash (seeing as ‘he had taken all the money’), she liked
this idea of paying her directly so we hoped that we had a room for the following night.
I thought that was it then she came up to Shell again and
said ‘He do this before – he ran away with a ladyboy’ (big raised eyebrows
between Shell and I) ‘We are supposed to be getting married next month’ (her not us!). Shell asked where her partner was from and
apparently he was a local man, who lived across the road and who or who may not currently be in hospital? Anyway Shell sympathised with her and asked
her why she is thinking of marrying him as she was beautiful and bearing in
mind his terrible behaviour ‘Because I love him’ was her reply.
Anyway Shell was now emotionally exhausted (that was the
condensed version the conversation must have gone on for around ½ hour) and we
may or may not have a room for the following night, but Shell had done her best
under the circumstances and so we headed out for a tour of the town.
Following a Rough Guide map of suggested sites to visit we
first walked to a very beautiful Buddhist
monastery where there were two local couples having wedding
photo’s taken, not only by the official photographers but also by the tourists
(including us).
We then visited a few more of these monastery’s one which
was of particular interest as once again it was very beautiful but it had quite
a few novice monks going about their business and cooking over an open fire in
the courtyard.
Having done a lot of monastery’s we then headed down to the
river and walked along until we came to a famous wooden bridge (that we didn’t
cross as they wanted £1 for the privilege) where we took some pictures.
It was getting past the witching hour so we carried on to a
Bar/restaurant that was on the route map and was called ‘Utopia’ and with a
name like that it had to be done. Once we got there you could tell it was a big
backpacker bar with lots of Hammocks, Chill Out Mat’s and even a volleyball
area in case you felt energetic. So we
got a couple of beers and settled down into a chill out area overlooking the
river.
After this short break we wanted to find somewhere for food,
but we were running low on cash so instead we thought we would climb up to the
big viewpoint above town and then get some cash and go for lunch afterwards.
As we started to climb up we found that it was a big
Monastery complex with different Buddha statue’s and Temple’s along the way.
About half way up we saw a sign for Buddha’s Footprint so we
thought we should add this to our collection of Buddha sights (Hair, Tooth,
Toe-Nail, Etc.). When we got there a
young monk was standing there and started chatting to us in very good English,
he told us that a Scottish Teacher had taught him and that he waited there to
practice his English with the tourists.
We had a quick look at Buddha’s foot which I could not make
out as I was looking at the bottom of a small crater for it, but Shell pointed
out afterwards that the crater was the foot print!!
Heading now for the top we saw plenty more Statue’s and
the monk’s doing a bit of gardening along with another caged bird lady. At the op you had a great view over Laung
Prabang and the Mekong river that surrounds it.
Having covered most of the suggested sights we then headed
back down in search of sustenance and soon found ourselves in the
Bar/Restaurant from the previous night.
We sat down and had some noodle soup and crispy buffalo which was really
nice a cross between beef jerky and barbequed spare ribs!
During the course of the afternoon we had been messaging
with the other couples and had arranged to meet up with them to go to the
waterfalls the next day.
After lunch we took a slow walk back to our guesthouse via
some more temples and a food market.
In the evening we met up with Chris, Nathalie, Steve &
Loucie for a few drinks before heading home for the night (sorry a bit vague as
I’m getting behind with this and my memory is not that great!!)
Day 3 – Waterfall’s
We got up early and headed out to check out the early
morning food market (Starts at 3 am!) and wandered through slowly the produce looking at what was on offer which included boxes of live toads and spatch-cocked rats!!
Deciding not to purchase these local delicacies we then met
up with the two couples and got a minibus to the waterfalls.
On the way up you pass a black bear sanctuary where they had
penned area’s with a number of bears, it was a bit worrying as the fences did
not look that high and the bears were pretty close.
Carrying on along the path we eventually came to the falls
which were picture postcard beautiful with crystal blue pools and number of
small falls.
We kept walking up and we
then came to the main waterfall which was about a 200 metre drop and again was
very pretty.
After looking at them for a while we found out that you
could continue up a steep path to the top to see the source of the waterfall. It was quite a tough climb and Shell had one
of her ‘I don’t like this moments’ but we managed to get to the top and were
able to stand near the edge and look at the falls right from the top.
Running out of time for this trip we spent about 10 minutes
looking around the top before we had to head down again, Shell instantly going
into Bambi on Roller Skates mode! So we
took it very slowly back to the bottom.
Once and the bottom we just had time for a quick dip in one
of the pools, which was considerably colder than some of the waters we had
recently been swimming in on the beaches but it was quite refreshing. We just had time for a quick beer in a bar at
the bottom before getting into the minibus and heading back into town.
We then went for a few drinks with Chris, Nathalie, Steve
and Loucie as we were heading in different directions the next morning (yes I
know we don’t need an excuse!!). In the
early evening we side our goodbyes and headed out for some food and a couple of
beers in our favourite bar. Whilst we
were sitting there Jacob and Danielle turned up looking for us and they guessed
where we would be!!!
So after a few more beers and some more farewell's we headed
back to the guesthouse for the night. God know how many new facebook friends we will
acquire by the end of this trip, however it is interesting seeing where they
are travelling too.
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