Luang Prabang:

February 6th, 2005 - February 8th, 2005

Greetings again from Laos...

Our time here so far has been fantastic. The country is beautiful and the people are the friendliest we have met on our trip. Laotians constantly walk around with smiles on their face and are always saying "Sa-ba-dee" which is Lao for hello. And when you leave you get a nice blessing of "Good luck to you." They could be the most laid-back people on earth!

Luang Prabang (LP) was amazing. The town is small and laid back. Only 16,000 people live there full time, but there are tons of tourists bringing the population higher. LP has a real French flavour and baguettes are served on a regular basis at meals. The cuisine was the best we have tasted and everything is made fresh.

On our first full day in Luang Prabang we hired a Tuk-Tuk with Rick, Kim, and Yinon and we went to a waterfall nearby town.

It is called the Kuang Si waterfalls and It was amazing. We hiked up the path to the left of the waterfall, through some forest, to the middle tier of the waterfall and swam in a pool. The water from above was crashing down on us, while we were able to lean against the edge of the pool and look straight down as the water plunged onto the people below at the base of the waterfall.

Most people didn't go where we were because it was quite a dangerous walk, but it was well worth it for the views and the serenity.

We spent our second full day in LP wandering around the town. Jess and I went our early in the morning and found a nice little cafe for breakfast - we even saw the final quarter of the Super Bowl (it started at 6am on Monday morning in Laos). Most people didn't know what it was about so I explained football to the waiter and cafe owner.

LP can be covered on foot so we set out to explore the beautiful temples (Wats) of the town. We arrived at the second Wat on our journey and began chatting with a novice monk who was sitting under a tree studying. He was 18-years-old and had been studying English for 1.5 years. The young monks love to talk to travellers to help improve their English. He said that Canadians, Americans, and Brits would always take the time to speak. However, the French would never talk to the monks to help them learn French, thus, hardly anyone speaks French anymore in this former French colony!

We were then joined by a second novice monk and they began asking us questions. The first question asked was, "Have you been to Washington, DC?" ... We replied and then I asked, "Have you been to Washington?" ... "Of course" replied both monks... I became a bit suspicious of two monks from Laos who had been to Washington so I pressed the issue. Both started laughing and pointing down the street: "Wat Xieng Thong" it is right over there!

They were talking about another temple that is pronounced just like "Washington"!!! We couldn't stop laughing after being tricked by a couple of young monks. They told some more jokes and were pretty funny to hang out with for half an hour.

When we left we asked what time in the morning they walked down the street to take rice from worshipers/villagers... they said around "half past 6:30 am" which translated to 6:45 am. We asked about their route and what to get to give to them. They told us they were not supposed to tell us what to get for them, but that they preferred sticky rice from the shops, not the street vendors! Funny guys, again. We told them we would try and come on our final morning to see them and give them food.

We continued through town to the far end of the peninsula and went into the actual Wat Xieng Thong! There we met a couple of novice monks studying English at a picnic table. They had their workbook out so we asked if we could help them. They took us up on our offer and asked us to pronounce words that were underlined in their vocabulary list. Some were simple but others, like "Aisle" were harder to pronounce. This lasted about 30 minutes.

The best word had to have been "Bamboo Basket Stand" which really has no use to us, but I guess in Laos this is an important "word" to learn. We parted ways when they had to go back to class; however, they asked us to come back and teach them more. Unfortunately, we were leaving town in the morning so we could not come back. But they did thank us for our help and wished us a pleasant "Good luck to you."

That takes us to this morning. We awoke at 6:15 and went down to the main street where our monk friends said they would be. Along the way old ladies were hustling us to buy rice to feed the monks and extortionate prices! Of course, we had no choice. Where else was one to get sticky rice at that time of day! We saw various groups of monks walking down the streets - each monastery has their own route. The monks walked in order of age - oldest first to youngest at the back. Often most of the food would only go to the old monks as people ran out by the time the young monks made it down the queue. We were nice enough to save food for the younger guys!

Finally, as Jess was running out of rice, she looked up in the long line of monks and saw our friend from under the tree. She saved up the last few handfuls of sticky rice and gave it all to him. While the monks are not supposed to acknowledge the people giving the food, he gave her and wink and a smile. It was a nice warm feeling to know that we came through on our promise.

From there it was off to our mini-bus to head south to Vang Vieng. The bus ride was supposed to take 5 hours, but it ended up being more like 6.5 hours. The road was narrow (but paved) and twisted and turned through some of the most awe inspiring mountains I have ever seen. The road was so twisty, in fact, that the Polish girl sitting in front of us threw up into a bag. The driver just turned around, looked at her, and kept going!

However, the real fun began after that. We were going down hill in the steep mountains when we heard a "Ping...ping...ping" sound from the mini-bus. All of a sudden, the guy in the front yells to the driver, "You just lost your brake!" The driver wobbled to a halt right before a steep descent. We all got out and the driver ran back up the road and found the brake lying there. The pad had worn away and the brake got so hot that it blew off the wheel! Talk about fun in the sun.

Within minutes the other mini-buses had reached us and they all stopped to take a look. The other drivers along with our driver jacked the car up and attempted to put a new brake on the right front wheel. After 30 minutes they managed to get it replaced and the mini-bus back on the road.

The bus driver put the bus back into gear and all we heard was a loud bang. This freaked us out because we were at the top of a hill. He ran out and realized he forgot to take the jack out from under the mini-bus! He got it out and then back into the bus where we all started yelling "test the brakes..." He did and they worked and we were saved. Well, we did have a couple more hours through mountainous road to deal with.

But, we arrived alive in Vang Vieng this evening unscathed. We found a great guest house for only $4/USD per night. We plan to stay here for 5 nights and just chill out before heading south to the capital of Vientiane.

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