lovely little laos

from chiang mai our next destination was laos, the one that started it all, so to speak. that is to say, when i began planning this trip i had envisioned an exploration of laos itself. that somehow turned into a whirlwind trip to four countries in two weeks. hmm. point being, i was particularly excited to see what laos had to offer.

we arrived in luang prabang, what we have since been told is the nicest (presumably nicest tourist-frequented) town in laos. driving along the tiny road to our hotel we had quaint dark-roofed architecture to our left and the mekong down below on our right. when we stopped at our hotel the sun was just going down so we stopped to admire the light reflecting on the water in the adirondack chairs (in sand - 'the only beach in luang prabang!') across the street as we enjoyed the croissants we brought from c.m. a wonderful introduction to the city, i must say.

sundown at the market

we checked into our hotel - like all the others there, entirely paneled dark wood, one of the things that makes luang prabang somewhat reminiscent of a swiss chalet town - and headed out into the dusky evening. we walked up to the main street, running parallel to ours and the river. here the night market was just getting started. i must say, i really like this night market tradition they've got going here. we walked through the rows, tarps lit with big bulbs above blankets laden with all sorts of crafts - most covered with elephants. slippers, coin purses, t-shirts, keychains. you name it. if it had a surface of more than two inches, there was probably an elephant on it. but hey, who doesn't love elephants? and laos is named for them, after all. (literally: land of a million elephants. sadly, not so anymore.) we browsed as we wound our way through the tented street and, a few jewelry purchases later, finally made our way to the end. and dinner! the food was distinctly less flavorful than in laos, but the beer lao was cold and sitting down felt good. our crêpe afterwards was similarly underwhelming. but, hey, when's the last time i had a crêpe?

the next day we started out fairly early after a nice night's sleep and a vaguely traditional lao breakfast at the hotel. we walked down along the river to set up a boat trip for later. some haggling took place but my mom reminded me that the lao (according to the almighty guidebook) are typically gentle people who like to save face, and aggressive bargaining is not the way to go. (i should say the guidebook seems to be right about this one.) i let go of my indian side and agreed on a boat for probably a little more than i thought we should have. but, hey, i'm not footing the bill, anyway, right?

roofs like rolling waves

that settled, we continued on, checking out temples and cool architecture (the french center was very quaint) as we went along. here, again, there were no shortage of temples. but as compared to thailand there seemed to be less emphasis on the gold and more subtle decoration, which i appreciated. the temple in the center of town, though, was entirely red and gold inside. others had lovely paintings - some with very nice details. and of course to make the picture complete there were the orange-clad monks who seemed to be all over town. we followed our wandering with a lunch along the river - half french-inspired (baguette sandwich) and half lao (red curry with buffalo meat, much more flavorful this time!) before our scheduled boat ride.

said view.

we made our way onto the long narrow boat (one row of seats on each side) and made our way down the mekong. i like being so low to the water - it's lovely to be able to reach down and splash if you get the urge. we knew this boat ride would likely be better for the ride itself than the destination - the underwhelming pak ou cave. so we enjoyed the scenery - small green hills, fishermen in pointed sampan hats, and eventually mountains rising up out of the water. after a quick stop at 'whisky village' (very much like the 'hill tribe village' visit, but with local whisky also) we arrived at the cave. the gangplank that led to shore seemed to be made of giant old plastic gasoline containers that tessellated perfectly, which i thought was very clever. the cave itself was little more than a few small chambers filled with thousands of buddha statuettes of varying sizes. we explored it sufficiently in about 10 minutes, the biggest selling point being the silhouetted view of the mountains across the river (see left). the ride back was more of the same, a low lazy float along the river. once we got back it was another meal along the river - fish from the mekong this time - and watching the sun set.

glowing green fields

the next day we did more of the same in a lot of ways.. different yet semi-traditional breakfast at the hotel (brown noodles with fried eggs?), meandering around different parts of the city, including the morning market - full of things like black chickens' feet, giant hacked-up fish, and small birds in bamboo cages (more on that later). we made our way up to the temple atop phou si hill - all 328 steps. we stopped along the way at a charming little wat (temple) with some beautiful paintings inside. then trudged on. we wound our way up the criss-crossing steps and made it to the top with little trouble. we saw more caged birds for sale up there - presumably to be let free atop the hill. sort of poetic, i suppose. the view from there was pretty nice - for once we could see both the khan and the mekong (you didn't even know there were two rivers, did you?). after the trek down, we had another pretty delicious curry lunch and then headed toward kwang-si, the famed waterfall. the ride itself was quite lovely (albeit slightly bumpy in our songtheaw with the not-quite-wide-enough benches), passing stepped green fields and rice paddies.

really does it no justice at all

about thirty minutes later we arrived at the waterfall. well, actually we arrived at the little area of food stands and shops just before the waterfall trail. the walk was quite short, punctuated only by a stop through the free the bears reserve. the bears looked pretty comfy, lounging in hammocks and whatnot. a quick look and then onward to the waterfall. it was, in a word, unbelievable! the water was a perfect bluish green - i'm not sure any picture will do it justice. once i had scampered all around on the rocks, in the water, on the bridge, behind the trees taking pictures i figured i should get in. the water wasn't quite warm, but it wasn't too cold either. once you got used to it you could just completely enjoy the sensation of swimming under a waterfall - although this proved difficult since the water is essentially trying to push you away with a constant barrage of gallons and gallons of water. on one of the upper plateaus there was a rope from which you could swing and jump into the water. i worked up my nerve and finally went up on the tree to do it. what i did was less of a swing and jump, really more of a fall and flop. still, i did it. it probably wouldn't have been so bad if there hadn't been dozens of people standing around watching. don't they have better things to do? like, you know, swim under waterfalls? well that's what i did anyway. stick with what you know, right?

boats at sundown

i grudgingly removed myself from the beautiful water, dried off as best i could without a towel, and made my way back onto the trail. another sunny, sleepy ride and we were back in luang prabang just in time to watch the sun go down over the many boats in the river. the river seems to really define the city well - monks and people from various islands cross it every day and long boats take people up and down the mighty mekong. after taking that in, all that was left was another dinner and a stroll through the night market (i bought a fun paper lantern/lamp! and possibly some more jewelry..) before hitting the hay.

river of orange

we were up early the next morning - even before the sun - to catch the daily monks' alms walk. we were confused as to where exactly this event took place but we ambled somewhere in the semi-darkness until we reached the spot where most tourists seemed to be gathered. a few people were milling around, some had chairs. there was even a makeshift coffee stand. we waited in for some sort of order to arise and eventually we saw the monks approach, easily visible in their distinctive bright orange robes. the walk was simple but still an interesting sight - all the monks shuffling forward, accepting their small offering of rice from each person assembled, dropping it into their pots. one elderly couple looked particularly sweet as they doled out the portion to each successive brother. and then just as the light was almost total, the walk ended and the monks scattered into the town, each to their respective temple, i suppose.

just elephants walking through a river

we headed back to the hotel for a quick breakfast before our next excursion: the elephant village. (side note: not that this is always a good measure, but on tripadvisor it's the #1 thing to do in laos. not this city. all of laos.) it ended up being one of our favorite parts of the trip. i suppose we booked it initially because we hadn't felt satisfied with our last elephant ride. besides, you can't come to the land of a million elephants without at least seeing one, right? another bumpy ride and we found ourselves in elephant country. it was a lovely camp, and just from the way it's set up you can tell they have the elephant's interest at heart. our half-day adventure started with an elephant ride, naturally. we were on a little saddle, as before, but this one was bamboo instead of metal. our mahout led him to the water, down a narrow slope that this giant creature somehow navigated. we waded through the river and came to a small embankment. there the mahout gestured, asking if i wanted to switch and ride on his shoulder. let me think about that.. um, YES! i was so excited; it was exactly what i had been hoping for. it took a little while to get used to; if you don't sway your body with his you could easily topple off. but i got the hang of it. it even seemed like he was wrapping his big floppy ears around my legs to keep them in place. i patted his hairy head in return. i assumed before we reached the end of the rocks the mahout and i would switch back. but the elephant had other plans. he kept on trucking - through the water, up a small hill and up to some delicious sugar cane. i'm happy to say i managed to stay on top throughout and had a fantastic time doing so.

after that we had a chance to feed the elephants - we bought a bunch of bananas and had a grand time feeding him whole ones that he would curl up into his trunk and devour. then we fed ourselves - a lunch provided by the village. then it was a pleasant boat ride to a place that i'm sure is very beautiful when there is a waterfall but in the dry season, less so. and then back to luang prabang where we wandered to the other side of the river and got some chocolate croissants for the road.

i'm not sure i've ever said this before, but i think we did luang prabang about perfectly. though it's a small town we spread our visit over several days so we could take our time, breaking up days of temple-visiting with little jaunts out of the area. altogether a completely lovely visit. no complaints at all!