Highlight: 48 hours in Laos
After a week in Luang Prabang, though very nice, it can be a little touristy so I decided to go looking for 'The Lost Lao people of Luang Prabang'. Unfortunately, the Indiana Jones outfit was in the wash so I took off on my search in my Pirate uniform (missing the eye patch and the parrot!).
Walking a few kilometres south proved to be their hiding place. Luang Prabang has a very good night market but here I found a proper local market with all manner of weird and wonderful (and disturbing) foods. It was quite good being the only westerner in the whole place and they probably found as much interest in me as I did in their market. I then headed off in search of the Chinese market as I had heard the weird and wonderful factors are vastly increased here.
However, on the way I got chatting to a novice monk called Vanthong. He invited me to his temple and I then spent the afternoon with him and some of his friends. He showed me his temple and where he lives in the temple. It was an excellent way to spend the afternoon and I feel privileged that they invited me to see their day to day lives. I also met another novice monk named Loiy who taught me some of the foundations of Buddhism and the precepts that monks or Buddhists have to abide by. Thankfully, considering my attire, number six is not required for the lay person and I was getting rather peckish so it's also good I'm exempt from number seven. The rules for number three can also be relaxed which kept a smile on my face. They then followed to give me a blessing which was very special and something I will never forget. I was also given a 'heads up' on an annual festival that was taking place at 6 the following morning. So I raised my weary bones early the next morning and headed off to see the festival. It's a huge thing in Laos and hundreds of people had arrived to give offerings to the monks. Two monks from each of the sixty temples in the area where at the festival and it was quite impressive to see.
Having found the Laos people we hungered for more (tastier than your average Thai) so headed north on the slow boat to Nong Kiaew; you would have thought two days on the first slow boat might have discouraged us! However, this was a smaller boat and we had the whole boat to ourselves. Being a smaller boat you go a lot closer to the shore line and also to the other local boats. This gives it a very different feeling to the Luang Prabang boat and one I personally preferred. As you pass the riverside villages the children would come out to watch or wave and the people in the passing boats would say hello as we travelled up stream. It's a great way to see how these riverside villages really live and is an, albeit brief, glimpse into a simpler life.
Nong Kiaew is a beautiful town (just one notch up from a village) in Northern Laos nestled next to the river between dominating limestone cliffs and very different to Luang Prabang. To explore the area we hired a motorbike and set off into the hills. Riding a motorcycle for the first time ever in one of the least developed countries in the world where the nearest hospital is 100 miles away and you are advised to fore go this in favour of a trip back to Thailand might not be the smartest move but as luck would have it we arrived back in one piece (just). Similar to the boat it's a great way to see these small villages sat on breath-taking vista's where the sight of a Western face is probably the talk of the town for the next two weeks. Kids again would come running out of their homes (rattan shacks) to wave and shout 'Sa Baa Dii!!!
All was going well until we started back towards Nong Kiaew and our trusty stead started to complain. We only made it a further kilometre before she gave up completely still 15k from home. Luckily, a village lay only a few hundred metres away and down hill so we rolled into town. Kwik-fit was closed ;-) but through pointing and trying random Laos words we managed to get a local villager to look at the bike. An hour later having taken most of the bike to bits and trying some very dodgy looking electrical work we finally got it restarted. More by look than skill I suspect. By this time I had shipped Deborah off on a passing truck to make sure one of us got home and she could send out the cavalry.
Set on my way with a wave and more unknown Laos phrases I made it just one more kilometre towards home before she died on me once more. Still 14k from home I decided to plod up the hill to find a spot to await my rescuers. My last chance was a rolling jump start which luckily worked and so put my foot down (proverbially of course) and actually had a good time racing back through the Laos countryside, trusty stead remaining trusty all the way!
The last 48 hours in Laos have been a great highlight. It's a beautiful country and the people (in the most) are very friendly and generous to visitors to their country. It is just a shame that we are only here for three weeks but it's also good to leave having reasons to come back!!
Walking a few kilometres south proved to be their hiding place. Luang Prabang has a very good night market but here I found a proper local market with all manner of weird and wonderful (and disturbing) foods. It was quite good being the only westerner in the whole place and they probably found as much interest in me as I did in their market. I then headed off in search of the Chinese market as I had heard the weird and wonderful factors are vastly increased here.
However, on the way I got chatting to a novice monk called Vanthong. He invited me to his temple and I then spent the afternoon with him and some of his friends. He showed me his temple and where he lives in the temple. It was an excellent way to spend the afternoon and I feel privileged that they invited me to see their day to day lives. I also met another novice monk named Loiy who taught me some of the foundations of Buddhism and the precepts that monks or Buddhists have to abide by. Thankfully, considering my attire, number six is not required for the lay person and I was getting rather peckish so it's also good I'm exempt from number seven. The rules for number three can also be relaxed which kept a smile on my face. They then followed to give me a blessing which was very special and something I will never forget. I was also given a 'heads up' on an annual festival that was taking place at 6 the following morning. So I raised my weary bones early the next morning and headed off to see the festival. It's a huge thing in Laos and hundreds of people had arrived to give offerings to the monks. Two monks from each of the sixty temples in the area where at the festival and it was quite impressive to see.
Having found the Laos people we hungered for more (tastier than your average Thai) so headed north on the slow boat to Nong Kiaew; you would have thought two days on the first slow boat might have discouraged us! However, this was a smaller boat and we had the whole boat to ourselves. Being a smaller boat you go a lot closer to the shore line and also to the other local boats. This gives it a very different feeling to the Luang Prabang boat and one I personally preferred. As you pass the riverside villages the children would come out to watch or wave and the people in the passing boats would say hello as we travelled up stream. It's a great way to see how these riverside villages really live and is an, albeit brief, glimpse into a simpler life.
Nong Kiaew is a beautiful town (just one notch up from a village) in Northern Laos nestled next to the river between dominating limestone cliffs and very different to Luang Prabang. To explore the area we hired a motorbike and set off into the hills. Riding a motorcycle for the first time ever in one of the least developed countries in the world where the nearest hospital is 100 miles away and you are advised to fore go this in favour of a trip back to Thailand might not be the smartest move but as luck would have it we arrived back in one piece (just). Similar to the boat it's a great way to see these small villages sat on breath-taking vista's where the sight of a Western face is probably the talk of the town for the next two weeks. Kids again would come running out of their homes (rattan shacks) to wave and shout 'Sa Baa Dii!!!
All was going well until we started back towards Nong Kiaew and our trusty stead started to complain. We only made it a further kilometre before she gave up completely still 15k from home. Luckily, a village lay only a few hundred metres away and down hill so we rolled into town. Kwik-fit was closed ;-) but through pointing and trying random Laos words we managed to get a local villager to look at the bike. An hour later having taken most of the bike to bits and trying some very dodgy looking electrical work we finally got it restarted. More by look than skill I suspect. By this time I had shipped Deborah off on a passing truck to make sure one of us got home and she could send out the cavalry.
Set on my way with a wave and more unknown Laos phrases I made it just one more kilometre towards home before she died on me once more. Still 14k from home I decided to plod up the hill to find a spot to await my rescuers. My last chance was a rolling jump start which luckily worked and so put my foot down (proverbially of course) and actually had a good time racing back through the Laos countryside, trusty stead remaining trusty all the way!
The last 48 hours in Laos have been a great highlight. It's a beautiful country and the people (in the most) are very friendly and generous to visitors to their country. It is just a shame that we are only here for three weeks but it's also good to leave having reasons to come back!!
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