Oh La Laos! - Luang Prabang & Vientiane

After two relaxing days on the slow boat from Huay Xai, we had arrived in Luang Prabang ready to check out the French-inspired town we had heard so much about. We spent a day relaxing and drinking coffees before decided to get into the tourist swing of things and see the sights. First up was a city tour… Unfortunately it was so hot (also I may have switched off our alarm by accident causing us to sleep in until quite late…) so we only made it through half the sights before making the sensible decision to retire to the local row of juice stalls for fresh juice (and a crap load of sugar, as we’ve since discovered!) and a baguette (in true French style).After hanging out in the cool for a while we headed back out to explore more sights

Before ending up at the meeting point between the Nam Khan and the Mekong Rivers, where we met a young guy who spent his free time sitting, waiting to talk to any tourists who happened to wander past. He had moved to Luang Prabang with the hope to one day become a guide and practiced his English with any tourists who were around! He had such dedication!

We finished our day with a stroll back to the guesthouse along the Mekong…

Our last day in Luang Prabang was spent at the Kuang Si falls just outside of the city. After the torrential rain almost made us give up on seeing the falls at all, finally the rain subsided and we were able to hail a tuk tuk with a couple of Americans and a group of Koreans out to the waterfall.

Upon entrance to the park, you follow the dirt path through the forest until you come across the Free The Bears park. The park is a rescue centre set up to house Asiatic Black Bears that have been saved from poachers and illegal trades. It was an impressive area with large enclosures set up. The Bears looked very much at home here and the enclosures were just set to be part of the surrounding forest.

We continues to follow the path along past smaller streams until we made it to the bottom of the waterfall cascades! How amazing they were! Thankfully because of the earlier rain we were amongst the first to arrive and it was so tranquil with just the sound of the waterfalls. The pools were an incredible ice blue colour and the perfect temperature for swimming.

After a quick dip and a lost thong, that was recovered in the pool below, we moved onto the higher pools. All of which were just as amazing as the first. They were filled with little fish that nibbled on your feet if you stayed in the one spot too long. A free fish foot massage!

Finally, we made it up to the main waterfall which feeds all the cascades below. You couldn’t swim in this area but it was lovely just to stand and watch the water falling.

On the way back to Luang Prabang in the back of our share taxi, we spotted two elephants and a bunch of men trying to fit them under what was obviously a too small hole in a bridge… Not sure what to think about that…

This night we caught the sleeping bus to Vientiane. What an incredible bus! Filled with extended bed/chairs and blankets. Not a bad way to spend 10hrs travelling, I slept pretty much the entire way. We were obnoxiously woken by the driver blaring music at 6am and then, in true Lao style, dropped in the middle of nowhere expected to get a tuk-tuk into the city centre… Sigh Laos sigh…

Vientiane was much as was expected… A largish city with not a lot going on. I found it to be just meh. Didn’t like it but didn’t not like it… I think the coolest thing we saw in Vientiane was the knock-off Arc de Triomphe, know as the Patuxai. I will admit it was one of the more intriguing things I’ve seen in Asia. From afar it looks just like the French monument however the closer you get and the more of detail you can see, it clearly has a very Laos style to it.

You can walk up through the middle of the monument to a lookout on the seventh floor which provided pretty cool views of the city (although there wasn’t a lot to see..). The strangest thing on going up through the arc was that every floor was filled with tacky souvenir shops, actually more like markets. Very strange.

Feeling a bit down about Laos, Mitch and I made the decision to move out of the standard tourist route and head out to some smaller villages.