Luang Prabang
LP is a charming little town--so much so that it's a UNESCO world heritage sight. The French influence is apparent in the architecture and even more excitingly in the cuisine. There's tons of cheap baguette sandwich stands and delicious french-press coffee (mixed with sweetened condensed milk it's just lovely). Looking back, I didn't do all too much in Luang Prabang, really. Like all Lao towns I'm discovering, it's pretty laid back and I'm continuing to slow down to the pace of life here. I walk at about half the speed I usually do (any faster and you break into a sweat) and have begun limiting myself to no more than one adventure a day. There's so much to be done here but I'm learning that without looking back at the few pictures I take, I'm having trouble assimilating all the memories. The law of diminishing returns rules--the more you do, the less you get out of it (and the more god-awful tired/sore etc. you are the next day). Not to mention the budget constraints. In SE Asia, you can easily get by on $10 a day if you're just hanging out. This breaks down to roughly $5/night for a decent guest house ("decent" heretofore defined as clean, private bathroom, hot shower and fan. A "nice" guest house would also include A/C and have some ambiance...maybe $7-8/night), $4 for non-sit down meals (e.g. street food) and $1 for a beer with dinner. However a ride to a waterfall, inner-tubing down the river, rock climbing or what have you will inevitably add $5 to $20 a day so you can't always be doing something. After all, at home I would probably be lying around the pool reading my book right now so why can't I just lie by a river in Asia and do the same (with a cheap cocktail in hand)?
Anyway, so the first night in LP I just headed to a bar and bumped into a guy I met on the bus ride over and had a nice chat. The next day I took a 40 minute van ride outside of town to a public waterfall/water park that was totally awesome. It required some slippery hiking to the top pool but it was worth it to jump into the cool water at the top. Some pics
Later that evening, I met up with some of my fellow waterfall for a drink and the next day was off to Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng
OK, so the more culturally attuned, sensitive and experienced backpacker (which I, at times, fancy myself to be) will generally avoid Vang Vieng because it has a bit of a sordid reputation. As if Khao San road in Bangkok ran amok and took over a whole little town, VV is a place crawling with cushiony video bars playing old Friends episodes where groups of young backpackers in fake dreadlocks languish and load up on cheap lao beer and other intoxicants quietly ordered from the "happy" menus. I came here mainly because I didn't want to be on a bus all day to get to my next stop, Vientiane (the capital) and because the other main attraction is inner tubing down the bar-lined river which is supposed to be a blast. I took a mini-bus here and was on board with four Dubliners and an English girl traveling with them and we shared a tuk-tuk into town from the bus stop and decided to share rooms at the guest house even. I shared a room with Sonya--large, gregarious and loads of fun and Aaron, a young lad on leave from the Irish army. The lot of us went out to dinner together but it was only Aaron, Sonya and I who were up for a drink afterwards so we bonded over lao beer.
The next day we got an early start on our tubing adventure. The 4 km stretch of river only takes about an hour to float down by tube, but the point of the whole thing is really to do it pissed out of your mind (stupid, and yes there are deaths every so often) so it can take quite a lot longer depending on how much time you spend in the bars. I took it relatively easy--for safety's sake and because drinking ALL day is not so pleasant of course, but mainly because I was having way too much fun on the various trapeze swings they had at each bar that went into the river! Some were probably high-dive height and by the end of the day, I was kipping into back-flips to the drunken crowd's applause. Unfortunately, early on as I was clambering out of the river I scraped my leg up on a hidden rock. The kind woman at the bar took a look at it and wasted no time pouring whiskey all over it (you think it's like fire in your throat...try an open wound). Even now it still hasn't scabbed over entirely...another scar another story I suppose.
Ouchie
Later on at one of the bars we played some beach volleyball and I gave my thumb a good jam. So really I guess when it comes down to it, there's no way to escape tubing in Vang Vieng without some corporeal damage. After recovering for a bit, I decided to move to a different guest house on the quieter west side of the river...some really nice simple bungalows. When I stepped out onto the porch this morning, I found a friendly roommate...
I took it real easy today and just took a walk through the wilderness and hiked to the top of one of the limestone karsts. The landscape here is enchanthing with rice paddies in the valleys and tree-covered, jagged peaks all about.
I went up there
Thank god my memory card has just been recovered, but sadly I lost a few recent pics of the awesome view from the top. On the way down, my shoes got so caked with mud that I started slipping around and gashed my hand open falling onto a rock. Now, this tired, sore, mangled lump of flesh is going to call it a night. Tomorrow I'm kayaking half-way to Vientiane and need some good rest!
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