Luang Prabang, Laos

Monday, 9 May 2005

Just got back from a wonderful week in Luang Prabang, Laos...A cute, sleepy, bed and breakfast type town, with definitely a lot more tourists than in Myanmar, but a lot less since it's the hot season. But, the weather changed as the week went on, and the last few days of my trip were overcast, cloudy, and the familiar drizzle and nightly lightning and thunderstorms..ah, the beginning of the rainy season in Southeast Asia.

I managed to have good timing the first few days of my stay in this beautiful place though.....I was happy to step off the plane into a much cooler environment, with mountains and rivers all around. I met up with Lynn Heller, a fellow Seattle teacher colleague I taught with at Sanislo, and her daughter Hannah who was visiting her from her break in travels to India. We enjoyed a "point and chew" dinner from street vendors and talked about our experiences living overseas this past year.....she in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and spending the past month traveling with a monk through Vietnam, and Hannah traveling the last few months in India and going back to finish her travels after this.

Met them early at 6 am the next morning to see the monks giving alms on the main street through town. We walked around town and went to see the Kuang Si waterfalls. We left earlier before the rest of the tourists, past black bears and a tiger saved from poaching at the bottom of the falls.....and then hiked up the several tiered falls to the very top. Our timing was perfect! Only about 10 of us at the very top, swimming in a pool that hung off like a cliff, and you could see all the other levels of the falls below! Just breathtaking....The highlight though was when about 10 novice monks came hiking up and joined us by playing in the water, jumping off cliffs, and having a glorious time in the falls. Of course we all got out our cameras to capture the beautiful displays of their orange robes against the falls. It was great to see them having so much fun!

As we headed back down the falls, it started to downpour....Slipping and sliding down, we made it, and then, as soon as we got to the parking lot, of course, it was dry and sunny! We rode back to town in our tuk tuk, drenched like rats, joking that no one would ever believe we were just caught in a rainstorm on the falls!

We enjoyed time walking through the night market, where they shut down the entire main street through town and sell handicrafts, the popular swirlie quilts and Hmong people embroidered quilts, silk, and saa paper lamps. Lots to buy! (and because this was my last stop in Southeast Asia...and I can't afford anything in Japan, my next destination, of course I just had to buy!)

Finished off the week stay by hanging out with Janelle, a friend of Christy's who is homeschooling 5 french boys in Luang Prabang. We played Skip Bo with the boys, watched movies, ate at cute French and Italian restaurants, and relaxed poolside at Phou Vao, a fancy resort and $10 pool that looks like water falling off a cliff, looking across to the other mountain where Wat Phousi sits. I'd love to have had more time to relax, sip my chai tea in Le'Stranger bookshop, visit with other backpackers and talk about their travels, and enjoy the temples in this quiet, lovely town of Luang Prabang.