Downstream to Luang Prabang

After we came back from our 3 days trek in Phongsali, we moved on straight away the next morning. Our original destination was Luang Prabang, but plans in the life of a backpacker with a bit of time can quickly change. Our French friends JuJu told us that they had taken a boat up the scenic Nam Ou river when coming to Phongsaly and they told us so many nice stories about the stops on the way that we decided to take the slow route to Luang Prabang (3 days instead of 1) as well.
 
It is actually possible to travel all the way from Phongsaly/Hat Sa down to Luang Prabang by boat, but we decided to go halfway by bus because the boats are basically just wooden nutshells and even a local bus seat is more comfortable than sitting on a wood plank for a full day :). So from Phongsaly we took a 7 hours bus ride down to Muang Khua and funnily enough we took exactly the same bus that brought us up there from Dien Bien Phu.
 
The small town of Muang Khua does actually not have much to offer, it is usually a transit stop for people coming from or going to Vietnam. We just spent the night there in a guesthouse with the probably most unfriendly staff in whole Laos, but well...
The next day our boat departed at 9:30 and our destination was a tiny village about 3-4 hours downstream the Nam Ou river. The boat ride was alright, we enjoyed the views of the limestone karsts along the river, but the butt was still hurting after sitting on this tiny boat on a wooden bench all way long with 10 other people.
 
The boat went from Muang Khua to Nong Khiaw via Muang Ngoi Neua (and a few local stops in between to drop some rice bags and cabbage).
 We got off in Muang Ngoi to spend the afternoon and night there. The little village on the river bank can only be reached by boat and even though it gets a bit more touristic these days (but after Phongsaly pretty much everything feels touristic), it is quite charming with the wooden bungalows and restaurants lined up on the river and no noise from cars or streets around.
 
In the afternoon we went on an easy walk through the rice fields to one of the 3 local villages around before heading back to our balcony to enjoy the sunset with a view.
The next day we hopped on a boat again for another hour to reach Nong Khiaw and catch a bus to Luang Prabang. This time we decided not to spend another night because we "only" have a one-month visa and we knew there was still tons of stuff to do until the very south of Laos.
 
After the bumpy minivan ride we arrived in Luang Prabang in the late afternoon and were craving for a glass of wine as two French girls had told us about a well equipped wine bar on the main road. After checking out our accomodation for the following nights, we met the girls to go to the lively night market for some food and to the wine bar to have a glass (or two).
 
The first day in Luang Prabang was a rather calm day - we used the opportunity of the good internet connection to publish some articles on the blog (yeah yeah, we run quite late these days) and do some sightseeing in town in the afternoon.
Luang Prabang's old town is set between two rivers: the mighty Mekong river on the west side and the rather small Nam Khan river on the east side.
All along the tiny peninsula up to where the two rivers meet there are plenty of "wats" (temples with adjacent monasteries), sometimes a bit further apart, sometimes just next to each other.
We went to the northern end of the peninsula to see the probably most beautiful one - Wat Xieng Thong. The architecture of all the temples is super splendid with a lot of gold and shiny glass mosaics and the level of detail is quite impressive. The main temple with a big Buddha statue is accessible and all around the main temple you find tiny stupas (like little chapels) and the "royal garage", a beautifully decorated building that houses the massive carriage designed to carry the golden funeral urns of the Lao royalty.
 
The next day was a special day as it was Alex' birthday!!!
Luckily for Alex, there is still a lot of French influence in Laos and at least in all the cities you find good bakeries with fresh baguette, croissants, pain au chocolat and nice cakes.
So for lunch we went to one of the bakeries in the old town and had some very tasty baguettes and of course the mandatory pain au chocolat.
 
In the afternoon we visited some more temples around the old city - the main ones you have to pay, but there are dozens of less touristic ones where you do not have to pay and they are equally interesting.
The probably most impressive temple in town (apart from Wat Xieng Thong) is a very recently built temple next to the old Royal Palace which is now housing a museum (just check out the pictures, you will recognize it immediately).
 
A little comment to opening hours of main attractions in Laos (smaller ones are generally no problem): usually, the attraction - let's say the Royal Palace museum in Luang Prabang - opens at around 8:30. Staff is having a lunch break from 11:30 to 13:30, but they already close the ticket counter 30min before the break starts (makes sense, you need mental preparation), so at 11:00. In the afternoon, the counter opens again at 13:30 and closes at 15:30, again 30min before the regular closing time at 16:00. So basically, the staff is working 2.5 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon, the rest is break time - great concept, no?!
 
After all this sightseeing Moni treated Alex with a footscrub (we both urgently needed one!) and in the evening we went to a very nice French/Laotian restaurant, enjoyed good food, a nice glass of wine (or two) and some delicious chocolate lava cake!
 
On our last day in Luang Prabang we got up early to see a ceremony that takes place all over Laos at dawn. The monks walk around the city with begging bowls to collect alms from the population. Their belief teaches them to live in poverty and the Buddhists donating rice and other food items gain spiritual merit by the act of respectful giving.
The ceremony is very calm and peaceful and as Luang Prabang is one of the most beautiful settings to see this event, tourists unfortunately start to outnumber locals in some parts of town.
We were as well donating some food that we had bought at the morning market to the monks and tried to take some pictures only from a respectful distance with the zoom.

After breakfast, we rented a motorcycle and drove about 35km south of town to the pittoresque Kuang Si Waterfalls. In a beautiful tropical forest and quite spread out there are many small waterfalls, beautiful turquoise pools to swim in and one massive waterfall at the very end. We went up on a steep and slippery path (yes again, we do not learn, hm?!) to find some more small creeks and pools in the river that is then turning into the impressive waterfall.
As it was still early we decided to walk another 3km on the plateau to reach the spring waters.
That place was much less frequented, there was as well nice water to swim and some tarzan-style lianas to swing and jump into the water. Alex looked like a super elegant frog trying this out :)))).
 
And the next day, it was already time again to move on. We packed our backpacks - still one of Alex' favourites next to dealing with our laptop - and got ready to head to Vang Vieng, situated halfway between Luang Prabang and Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
 
You can read about our activities in this outdoor destination in our next article.
We hope that you are not freezing too too much in Europe yet (we still have over 30 degrees here :D) and would be happy to get some news from you as well.
 
 Until the next article...
 Cheers,
 Alex & Moni