Jewel of Asia

Having booked another mini bus up to Luang Prabanag, we were lucky enough to have only 3 of us in the 11 seater bus which gave us a whole row each. I now understand the section I had read in a travel guide about buses handing out spew bags, the roads were a continual roller coaster as they would around the mountains, at one point we even picked up a couple more passengers from a collision between two buses.

Arriving in Luang Prabang there was a distinctive architecture that made for enjoyable wandering around the small alleys looking for a guest house, finally deciding on Silikhane, which was nestled in between the river and night market in the centre of town. For $7 a night the room seemed perfect with a double bed, private bathroom and aircon. A little further investigation on trip adviser revealed a few receng\t reviews of in room theft, which I promptly brought up with the manager. He claimed to not know anything about this and let me lock all valuables in a cupboard at reception with a list confirming the deposit, so at worse case at least it was evidence for travel insurance.

 It was still a bit early for the night market, however few food stands were already serving and for a little under $1.50 I could fit as much vegetarian buffet on to a plate (which I'm proud to admit was a small mountain) which the lady would cook up with your desired dosage of chili. The night market had a interesting mix of local arts and gift ware, thought the rows of tents under the rain were set to anti tall westerner height and I soon got sick of crouching around and quickly relocated to the big man height fruit stand for my latest banana/peanut obsession.

One thing I had been told was not to miss were the turquoise falls at Kwang Si, so after a Western breakfast at the Joma cafe chain (they have one in Vientiane also) I was picked up in a mini van for the 45 min drive out to the falls. Unfortunately for everyone else in the van, my boardies had not dried properly in Vang Vieng and wafted a rather unpleasant wet mouldy aroma throughout the journey. All unpleasntries were forgotten once we got to the falls as the amazing turquoise water flowed from one idyllic bathing pool to the next up to the big one at the top. The water was refreshingly prefect, the first chance for a proper swim since Thailand nearly two month earlier. We had two hours to explore the falls and the bear rescue park that hosts a handful of Sun Bears rescued from traders in the region.

Back in town I chatted with a few backpackers about their travels in the north and getting itchy feet decided it was time to move on from this town. Many people call it the Jewel of Asia and I can appreciate the peaceful mix of architecture, food, temples and riverside cocktails can be enough to draw one in for days on end. The next morning was the first day of Buddhist lent so  woke up at 5:30am to witness Tak Bak, the famous ceremony of monks collecting Alms, they line the streets in the morning so locals can donate rice and other gifts of merit. Following this I grabbed a supply of fruit from the morning market which was conveniently a hundred metres from my hotel , I waited patiently in the rain over an hour until my boat was ready to leave.