Laos : Luang Prabang

Jess river-crossing in Laos

Next country on our travels was Laos. We had a wonderful six days focused around Luang Prabang including a two day motorbike adventure. I’m going to try and whistle through this in one report…

Fri 2 Feb 2018
Smooth one hour flight to Laos courtesy of Vietnam Airways, with an impressive approach down through the hills into the little airport of Luang Prabang.  Our hostel Villa Thony 1 was a marked change from 5* Lotte Hanoi, but they had “upgraded” us to a nice big room.                  

Hostel: Villa Thony 1

We took our usual approach and wandered around to get our bearings, enjoying the heat after chilly Vietnam.  The wonderfully relaxed pace of Luang Prabang (LP) was a pleasure after the madness of Hanoi. The old centre is a picturesque French colonial town created where the Nam Khan river curves around to connect to the Mekong, and is watched over by the golden tower of Wat Chom Si on Mount Phousi.

Nam Khan River with “old bridge”in distance: our hostel was on the right hand side

Wat Chom Si

Night market

Sat 3 Feb
Time to cover the top sights of LP! We stomped up the steps to Wat Chom Si, but the weather had turned cooler and cloudy so not the best views over the Mekong and hills surrounding LP.

Then down to the Royal Palace where it was intriguing to meander through the peaceful 1904 building built for King Sisavang Vong.  When his son was forced to abdicate by the communists in 1975 the Palace was converted into a museum. No photos allowed inside though.

Wat Haw Pha Bang - in grounds of Royal Palace 

Next was a quieter temple we stumbled upon without many tourists: Wat Mahathat

Then onto the most popular Wat Xiang Thong– built in 1560

We spent an amusing 30 minutes with five highschool students at an English Discussion project but then missed our intended Laos Storytelling at the theatre so bought tickets for the next evening.

Sun 4 Feb
We hired well-used Honda scooters with gears and headed out early to the Kuang Si waterfalls – about 45 minutes out of LP. This is a hugely popular tourist attraction, but thanks to TripAdvisor reviews we beat the crowds, and had a nice walk up to the top, then lunch back at the base as the hordes started arriving.

There is also a Moon Bear sanctuary here – rescued from the hideous bile farms – which is surprisingly well done and worth the stop.

Back to LP, where. we put the scooters on a ferry and headed across the Mekong to the relatively tourist-free Chomphet Distric. Good fun working our way along the river to a selection of beautiful and peaceful Wats.

Luang Prabang viewed from across the Mekong 

 

We crossed back over the Mekong at sunset and spent an hour listening to the storyteller recounting Laos folk tales – luckily in English – and accompanied by an elderly traditional flute player.  Quite exciting heading back to the scooter hire near our hostel afterwards as Jess’ steed turned out not to have working lights!


Mon 5 Feb
Motorbike adventure! We signed our lives away at MotoLao’s office, met our guide Xue Yang and donned our protective gear: enduro boots, body armour and decent helmets. Then onto the Honda CRF250L bikes and out into the LP traffic!

What a fantastic experience. Jess and I hadn’t ridden proper bikes for 30 years, but were soon buzzing along the winding roads.  After roadside noodle soup lunch in Nam Thoum, we peeled off-road for an hour. Although we had said were were novices, it was quite tricky riding to start (for us) with rutted tracks.

At one point Jess overdid the front brake and hit the deck, bending her handlebars and bruising her knee (would have been worse if not wearing leg protectors). Quickly rescued by Xue Yang, and off we went.

Xue Yang demonstrates the river crossing! 

The scenery was amazing – despite the cool and cloudy weather.

Another tarmac section, then final off-road up into the hills to reach Pha Yong village where we were to spend the night. It was properly cold (5degC) so we had to use all four eiderdowns in our hut and slept fully clothed. Earplugs vital as village life begins at 0430 with cockerels and then families up from 0530.

Our accommodation for the night - and bike garage!

Tues 6 Feb
Huge “farmers breakfast” with fish, soup, sticky rice and omelette! Fully wrapped up, we bid farewell to our hosts, and hit the tracks.

“Farmers breakfast” (and v unflattering pic of Xue Yang)

The most amazing stretch was along a stunning ridge – albeit the views were shrouded in cloud – and through villages where all the kids ran out to wave and “high-five”, which felt a little dangerous but great fun (see video below: kids are running to wave at us)

It was cold and tiring, but great fun. Jess called a break in Vieng Kham and stopped at the only shop in the village. They were able to provide much needed hot coffee and we purchased one of her beautiful sarongs made on the roadside loom.

Drying type of grass used to make brushes

We experienced every road hazard imaginable:  children, geese, goats, cows,
 ducks, water buffalo, chickens galore, and even pigs!  

  

Ridge road through villages: look very carefully and can see Jess approaching the village! 

House building Laos style

Very welcome hot lunch stop in Park Xvng, then fantastic winding tarmac road all the way back to LP

In two days we covered 389 km, with about 100km off-road. We have to come back and do this again but with sunshine. Absolutely loved it!

Weds 7 Feb 
Last day in LP.  A leisurely breakfast at our favourite L’Etranger Books & Tea café, then an interesting visit to the small Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre. Our final stop were the two Wats nearest our hostel – then tuk tuk to the airport and flight to Myanmar via Bangkok.