Luang Prabang Days 3 & 4: Waterfalls, Watching Kittens and Not Watching Eurovision

This will be a quick blog...I have people to see and beers to drink tonight.

For our third day in beautiful Luang Prabang, we decided we’d seen enough temples and buildings, and fancied something a little more natural. So we decided to head out to Kuang Si waterfalls, an hour by sorgnthaew outside of the city.

We had planned to head out early and organise our own sorgnthaew, but we I woke up late, and whilst I was attacking my third cup of tea an American girl came and asked if we wanted to share the one she had arranged, to spread the cost.

This is why the social hostels are the best; more people doing things where you can share the cost of overpriced sorgnthaew.

We all squashed into the back of the sorgnthaew, and after waiting for a Canadian with food poisoning (a all-too-frequent danger in this country), we were off bouncing along mountainous roads, and inching over bridges of planks-and-nails.

At the foot of the falls, there was a small tourist village with food stalls and souvenir huts. I bagged myself a mango fruitshake, and then paid my entry fee into the waterfall park.

However, upon walking through the gates, these are what I saw:

Black lumps on wooden decks.

Within the park there is a sanctuary for Asiatic Black Bears that have been liberated from poachers or been stranded by deforestation. There were over a dozen of the sloth-like black masses lolling on platforms or itching themselves in pools. I did sympathise for them having to deal with the humid heat whilst wearing black fur coats; I would also spend my day sat in the drinking pond if I were in their position.

A bear cub with some bears.

After admiring the immobile black lumps that signs informed me were bears, we pressed on and saw our first sight of the waterfalls.

The waterfall is actually a long chain of bright-blue pools staggered and spread down a gentle hill for around half of a kilometre. As we climbed, the pools became more and more beautiful.

Paradise...if a little full.

I honestly do not think I have ever seen water as clear and blue as at the falls; they really were a paradise, and I understood why they were a must-see attraction of Luang Prabang. Sadly their perfection attracted many other tourists and Lao, and were very crowded in places. However, they were large enough to escape the worst of the crowds and find your own shelf of paradise.

The colours here were just amazing.

We (Alex, Niko and myself, plus our new friends Corey, Laura and Niko) soon couldn’t resist the bright-blue, cool water, and headed in. Alex and I were the only ones to brave a full-on swim, as the pools were full of small fish of the variety that you find in fish spas nibbling on feet. That sounds fine in general, but Laura, Corey and Ailen all had burns or other cuts and scrapes on their arms and legs, which when immersed in the water, the fish could smell/taste, and consequently focused their attention on these areas, much to the discomfort of the victims. Even I found their nibbles occasionally a little painful. And Niko was just too cool to go swimming. So the group for the most part stuck to the many ledges of the waterfalls, and the smaller rock pools, where the fish were unable to reach.

It was so relaxing and cold (which in South East Asia can only ever be a good thing) sitting on ledges worn smooth by the water, in the dappled shade of the overhanging jungle trees, cool water rushing around your legs while your feet dangle into the pool below.

It was just paradise.

Eventually we dragged ourselves out of the water, and went to see how far these falls went up into the jungle.

It was then that we found the actual waterfall.

We decided to take a group photo with the fall behind us, but with a group of six wrestling with a camera, tripod, and a bridge full of Chinese tourists trying to do the same, it took a fair while to organise.

I quickly got bored, and took selfies with the waterfall.

Yeah, this was Google that automatically combined these pictures - it's far too egotistical for me to do...right?

Eventually the group photo was achieved.

Such a lot of work for a really, really bad photo.

Yes, well, once that was over, we all decided we wanted food, and for the first time ever in South East Asia, found it to be unavailable. There were just no food stalls available in the park. So, tummies rumbling, we tramped back down the hillside, and out of the park, on the hunt for baguettes and noodles and fruit shakes.

The food was so good even the butterfly wanted some.

We may have all gone overboard. I had a pork banh me (French-inspired baguette), and had an amazing Mango and Banana fruit shake, which was made even better by the seller making too much, and giving me two shakes for the price of one.

My euphoria however was short lived when I received the tom sam (green papaya salad) I ordered. Now, tom sam is basically tomatoes and shredded papaya mixed together with a sauce made of lime juice, fish sauce, chillies, and roasted peanuts. It is delicious and refreshing and one of my favourite foods in South East Asia.

This som tam however was something else. The best way to describe the taste would be that it was akin to the smell of a dirty, unclean fishmarket at the end of a long, hot day. It was nasty, and disgusting, and just wrong. It made me decide to have no more papaya salad in Laos!!!

To make myself feel better, I bought a bracelet and another fruit shake, and then we all headed back in our sorgnthaew on the bumpy mountain road. It was a fairly uneventful journey, broken up only when our driver decided to do some fruit shopping on the roadside. I thought this was a little cheeky until two days later I watched the driver of the bus I was on from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng stop on the roadside to buy hallucinogenic fungi. Compared to that, some mangos and bananas are remarkably tame.

On the long journey home.

Now this should be where this blog entry ends. I was tired after a day of long, uncomfortable journeys interspersed with bear-watching, hill-climbing and waterfall-clambering. I wanted to grab some food, do some internetting, and go to sleep early. However Niko had other ideas.

In case I haven’t already made it clear, Niko is a screaming homosexual, and apparently the most important day of the year in 2015 for screaming homosexuals, such as Niko, was the 23rd of May.

Today.

Why you ask?

Because Eurovision.

Personally I do not see the obsession. I enjoy Eurovision well enough, and will watch it if I have no plans for whichever particular weekend in May it falls on each year. I find most acts hilarious bad, and especially enjoy the voting where inevitable every country has a spokesperson who wears a stupid outfit, garbles a few lines of the local language, and generally talks for much too long when there are over 40 of them to get through.

So I like Eurovision, but for Niko it is akin to a religion. He was up until 4am watching the semi-finals, and was determined to stay up tonight to watch the final. I had promised to join him, so I had a sleepless night ahead.

For dinner, I returned to the 10000K buffet once more, this time with Niko, Alex, and my friend from Thailand Lex, and his new Dutch friend. The lady was happy to see me, as I kept bringing her new customers. She even gave a discount on a bottle of water. For Lao people in Luang Prabang to give anything unasked is practically a declaration of eternal love.

After dinner, I bought a pair of ugly harem pants at the night market, and another bracelet (eight and counting), and then settled down back at the hostel to a long night of Eurovision, potentially broken up by a Skype call to parentals.

However, things did not go to plan. I ended up going for drinks in town with a local guy I’d met earlier in the day, and fell asleep on a sofa in his bar, only to wake up at 3am having missed several calls from parents and the majority of Eurovision.

So I walked back to the hostel, in the rain, on Skype to parents. I swear they thought I was off-my-face drunk for that conversation, but nevertheless it was nice to see them. Then I made it back to the hostel in time to join Niko in watching the voting and results, which is my favourite bit anyway, before staggering to bed at 5am.

It was not my most successful evening ever…

…

The following day was most definitely a day-off from sightseeing and travelling. Niko and I woke up late after a late night, and were joined by Alex and Laura from yesterday for a bagel brunch at Joma. Then we headed back to the hostel, and whiled away our afternoon on various pursuits. I wrote a blog or two when the internet allowed me too. Niko got through some work.

I increasingly became distracted by a pair of kittens which a Dutch girl staying in our hostel, called Demi, had found on the street and adopted. They were malnourished, and had eye infections, and she had her hands full keeping them fed, clean, and out of mischief.

I am not normally a cat person, but these were too cute for me to resist.

So cute.

Even more so cute.

In the evening, we all headed out for Indian, which was distinctly average, and then for a few drinks at a local bar. We headed to Utopia for a while, before heading back to the hostel. It was a very successful day-off, which when you are travelling for long periods of time is needed for your sanity!

DSP

Useful information:

• Tuk-tuk to the falls varies in cost, but we paid (?) 100,000K for the entire vehicle return to the falls, which when shared by a large group is very reasonable.
• Entry to Kuang Si waterfalls costs 20,000K (£1.60)
• There is no food available within the waterfall site itself, so bring lunch from Luang Prabang or pick up supplies from outside the gates. The last stall before the gates on the right does brilliant shakes and coffees, though her banh mi (baguettes) leave much to be desired.
• Sweden won Eurovision 2015. We got 5 points, which still beats Austria, Germany and France ;)

Luang Prabang Day 2: Ten-ple Pin Bowling

So….I overslept...of course. I am just good at waking up.

I knew that we would have a limited number of days to spend in Luang Prabang, and as our guesthouse for the previous night was in the centre of the old royal city, we decided to spend our first whole day in the city visiting as many of the wat and brick-and-mortar stick-and-mortar (I’ve seen Lao building sites, trust me) attractions within the city as possible.

There are dozens of wats within the old city alone, and whilst we popped our head around the entrance of any we walked past, we focused on the major ones, as listed in my battered Rough Guide. Our route headed roughly from the Royal Palace towards the end of the peninsula, with its crowning glory of Wat Xieng Thong (see earlier blog for photo essay on that particular blog).

Our first was Wat Xieng Mouane, which just happened to be further down the side road where we had breakfast. It was wonderfully peaceful, with only a dozing monk (there’s a lot of those here) for company, though a group of tourists stumbled out from behind a sanctuary just as we were leaving.

I am a fan of the golden chedi that appear everywhere here. They are very photogenic, though perhaps that still does not justify the sheer amount of pictures I’ve taken of them….

So many golden chedi.

Our next stop was the small, but no less beautiful, Wat Pa Phai, a couple of blocks on. I was trying to not photograph every single wat I went in, but this shot was too tempting.

Oh the symmetry.

Next we crossed the road to Wat Nong Sikhounmuan, which sat in the middle of a drab, cracked, concrete compound. However the main sim building was reached by a naga balustrade which was really quite attractive, and had a fierce, slightly lopsided naga guardian, the similar of which I have yet to see.

Wat Nong Sikhounmuan.

Along the sides of the sim , there were elegant carvings of fish on the roof supports, which I rather liked.

Something I really liked about the wat of Luang Prabang is that they were unashamably quirky and unique; each temple has features that I have never seen repeated in Laos or elsewhere.

Mosaic elephant anyone.

Next was Wat Sensoukharam, which was the first in a line of monasteries flanking the northern side of Sakkaline Rd.

Wat Sensoukharam.

The exterior wall of the sim was painted a deep, deep terracotta red, upon which artists had stencilled gold dancers and musicians. The overall impression when combined with the high, imposing roof, tiled in a deep orange and black, and the red and gold detailing of the woodwork and shutters, was rich, attractive and most definitely regal. This wat certainly did not lack for funds.

Continuing onwards, we walked next door into Wat Sop Sickharam, which had a colourful, glass-mosaic chedi similar to those of Wat Xieng Thong, but was otherwise fairly unremarkable.

So colourful, so blue, so so.

I caught Niko reflecting here.

By our next stop, Wat Sibounghuang, I was starting to suffer from temple fatigue, which resulted in me goofing around and taking this photo.

No mur tenplz plz

There’s only so many wat you can see before you start thinking ‘So wat?’.

This fatigue was of course cured by our next stop, Wat Xieng Thong, which I loved so much I’ve written a separate post for it. If you haven’t seen those photos, I will include a few here.

The tree of life at Wat Xieng Thong.

Assorted mosaics at Wat Xieng Thong.

By this point, we had spent a solid three hours in the heat looking at temples and carvings. We were hot. We were thirsty. We really did not want to see another wat for a while. So I suggested we visit a cafe, a branch of which I had basically lived in when I visited Hanoi last year, called Joma Bakery. I believe it is a Canadian chain, as the English menus have little Canadian flags rather than USA or UK flags. But who knows. All I know is that they do bagels, they do chilli, and they do cakes that taste like home. It is a guilty pleasure last year, and I was thrilled to find one in Luang Prabang.

Joma!!!!

Cue two hour work session.

The picture is bad, but it was far worse before I fixed it!

The next few hours were filled with blogging, followed by a trek across town to move hostels. Our new hostel, Central Backpackers, was far more friendly, and much more social than our previous guest house. I also loved that the AC was so powerful I was cold at night and had to wear socks. Heaven!

After this boring interlude, Niko suggested we tackle one of the last attractions in the city centre; Phousi Hill (pronounced Pu-sy)

Now, whilst I am all for climbing a hill that sounds like a euphemistic vagina, this was at around 3pm, the hottest part of the day. I was not amused, but decided that I may as well get the climb out of the way.

Perched at the base of the hill was Wat Pahouak, with a most enigmatic sign.

Wat Pahouak with it's picture???? Where!?!?

We never did ascertain exactly what or where this picture was. Very Professor Leyton.

Then we started the climb to the top.

108 to go.

I have never, ever, ever, sweated so much. It was in my eyes. It soaked my top. It ran down the back of my legs. It was disgusting, so disgusting.

The views from the top were however spectacular. I’m not sure whether they were worth the hike or the sweating (have I mentioned how disgusting I felt?), but they were good.

Looking over the Mekong to the mountains of Laos.

The city of Luang Prabang - this is the 4th biggest settlement in Laos...

We descended the hill using a different route, which rambled past cave shrines, golden Buddha statues, and signposts for Buddha’s footprint, before eventually depositing us behind Wat Siphoutthabath.

Stopppp.....HAMMERTIME!

Secret valley in Wat Phousi.

…

As we had spent the day being cultural ambassadors and all-round good tourists, Niko and I felt that we were entitled that evening to be, in his words, ‘an all-out ratchet hot mess’. We started innocently enough; we, and our newly found Austrian friend Alex, headed to our favourite buffet lady, who seemed pleased we returned with more people, and enjoyed our food over a few beers. Then, we headed to the bar to go to in Luang Prabang; Utopia. Hidden down a network of alleyways, it was actually very fancy, and it felt like a load of smelly backpackers had invaded a upmarket beach bar. We spent several hours there just chatting, and enjoying the 15000K (£1.20) Rum & Cokes’.

Just after 11pm however, the lights all turned on, and the staff started asking people to leave, as Luang Prabang has a strict curfew of 11.30pm.

So where do you go after 11.30pm if you want to continue the night.

The answer is...the bowling alley.

So many drunks, all better than me at bowling.

Late-night bowling has become something of an institution in Luang Prabang, aided no doubt by that pesky curfew. As the bowling alley is situated well out of town, it doesn’t disturb the locals; in fact there were more locals than travellers using the lanes.

I was sceptical at first of the concept, but it turns out that drunken bowling was a really good night out. It probably helps that I was at a perfect level of drunk where my abysmal bowling was actually improved by alcohol, and yet when I bowled badly I was too drunk to care.

My partners in crime: Alex & Niko.

Partying at the bowling alley.

It was just an awesome night, even though I lost every game I played. Eventually I just gave up and danced with Alex to the too-quiet music.

All round a brilliant day and night!

DSP

Useful information:

Temple costs:

• Wat Xiengmouane: free
• Wat Pa Phai: free
• Wat Nong Sikhounmuan: free
• Wat Sensoukharam: free
• Wat Sop Sickharam: free
• Wat Sibounghuang: free
• Wat Xieng Thong: 20000K (so so so worth it)
• Phousi Hill: 20000K - enter through Wat Siphoutthabath, as route is less steep and shaded.
• Royal Palace (decided against seeing this in the end): 30000K

Eating, Drinking and Entertainment:

• Joma Bakery: Chao Fa Ngum Rd. Canadian bakery chain in Laos and Vietnam. Fairly expensive, but has AC, decent Wifi, and does really good bagels, chilli and wraps. Bagels are 9000 (£0.75), Chilli is 19000 (£1.50) and cakes are around the same.
• Utopia: Hidden down an alley off the road running south from Phousi Hill. Drinks are reasonable (15000K for Whisky & Coke) as long as you stay simple. Bring flip flops in with you rather than leaving them at the door; they’re needed to get to the toilets, and it ensures drunk people won’t borrow them.
• Bowling alley: 4km outside of town. We paid 10000K each way, and the tuk-tuk waits for you outside. I’ve heard 5000K e.w. is possible with a large group. Beer is 20000K for a large Beer Lao, and a game costs 20000K p.p.