I'm in Luang Prabang, Laos! I and a couple friends (Emily and Rob), took a seven-hour bus journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, a border town in Thailand on the Mekong River. It was hot (a barely functioning air-conditioning and no vents over our bench!) and crowded, but I finally made it out of Chiang Mai! The next morning, we took a small dugout across the Mekong to Huay Xai, the border town in Laos (Laos, baby, LAOS!) and got on the slow boat to Luang Prabang.
The slow boat down the Mekong River takes two days, stopping overnight in Pak Beng, a town that exists only for the trip to Luang Prabang, as far as I can tell. Along the Mekong are dozens of small villages, isolated from the rest of the world if not for the Mekong River traffic. They consist of a few ramshackled elevated huts made from woven reeds. The boat stopped off at a few places to buy and sell wild boar and chickens to these river folks. There were a few water buffaloes grazing by the river. I felt like I had gone back in time.
Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is gorgeous and small. The food here is wonderful. There is a mixture of French and Laotian cuisine that is out of this world, after almost four months of Thai food. I love Thai food, but this is simply amazing. Today we sat by the Mekong having Beer Lao (fantastic!) and some spring rolls and a nice Lao salad. I cannot describe how perfect it is here. This country place is pretty run down, but there are a lot of old French Colonial buildings. Things close down early (11:30 pm). I'm not sure why, but probably for security reasons. Tomorrow we plan to head to Vang Vieng.
Lao, baby, Laos!
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Laos, baby, LAOS!
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Laos was AWESOME DUDE!! It is such a beautiful country. I presume Thailand looked like this before mass farming etc stripped the hillsides of its trees.
The food was also excellent in Laos. Eric was extremely entertaining throughout the trip. Emily and I particularly enjoyed his rendition of the Long John Silver advert for fish and chips from US TV. Arrrgh, have yer seen me parrot? Where's me glass eye?
Mind you, I found the food to be more expensive than Thailand and I seemed to get myself into scrapes with the locals and it usually involved an arguement over money. Even managed to get everyone thrown out of a pub in Luang Prebang. Sorry guys! Still, beerlao was cheaper than Thai beer in Thailand so this country definitely had some good points.
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