When we left Bangkok, it was raining and the little plane to Laos was further off on the tarmac so ground crew held a line of umbrella's over us for boarding.
Looking over Luang Prabang town as we neared got me very excited seeing all the sloping roofs. Reminds me of Goa!
Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage city. On the main road one sees a wonderful patchwork of traditional Lao wooden houses and hints of European architecture - reminders of when Laos was part of the French colony of Indochine.
Its a charming little town and we were quite amazed by the tidiness and cleanliness of it. .
Our first impression of Luang Prabang was great. Nice wide streets, beautiful houses (most of which have been converted into little hotels) and coconut trees to give me a feeling that i'm in Goa.
Luang Prabang, sits on a narrow peninsula that bisects the conjunction of the Mekong River, flowing south along the west side of the city, and the Nam Khan river, a tributary. The tip of the peninsula was where our small guest house was. We had a room on the first floor and could see the Mekong river from our balcony.
The river Nam Khan, running along the town was running low according to the locals - it being dry season and all. During this time, temporary bridges are put up for crossing (wonder what they do when the river runs full).
Though the bridge looked mighty shaky, there were a whole bunch of young monks crossing over and they didn't look like they were hurrying - so it must have been safe.
A nice way to collect garbage in this neat little town!
One of the road/river side cafe's had this really quaint mobile of wine glasses. They also had one made of soup spoons!
Street vendors still carry stuff in the good old way - this woman was selling mangoes.
Cock fighting seems to be much loved here and the amount of care and affection showered on the cocks is much the same as i do on my dog. Here they are on the road/ river side - their afternoon out.
Here is one guy grooming his fighting cock. This one's getting a sponge down. You still see the fresh wound marks on it's flesh. The man was lovingly carrying on with this for almost half an hour - the cock must have earned him a lot of money to get that kind of attention.
We were cycling around on all the days we were in LP - the streets are such a pleasure to cycle on and everything being close to everything else made it fun.
Cycling around, we also came accross such houses - this is what most Lao houses are like. Off the ground on wooden stilts - only modern thing here is the tin roof which originally was thatch.
On the first day itself, we went on a 1.5 hour boat ride on the Mekong river. It was a nice boat but had a motor which made the whole river trip a 'fast forward' event. Would have loved it if the boatman / boat-herd (what is he called??) had some oars and we would have paddled our way along.
But we did manage to shut out the motor noise and see some nice things. The Mekong and Nam Khan rivers are part of the locals' lifestyle. They bathe, wash, fish in it. But it all seems a lot cleaner than on Indian river edges.
We saw a whole bunch of people preparing their nets for the next catch and it seemed to be a ladies hair wash day.
One early morning (5.45 am), because we were told that this is a 'must-see', we schlepped our butts over to see the alms giving ritual that happens in the town. Each morning, hundreds of Buddhist monks line up in their deep orange robes and walk along the road to receive alms from the people of Luang Prabang, who wake up early to cook the sticky rice and prepare their offerings. This ritual has been a part of the area’s religious heritage ever since Buddhism was introduced to Laos in the 14th century. The local ladies sit along the street on small stools and offer small bits of sticky rice and fruit. The monks collect it in a little pot - everything is put in there and they don't seem to mind that rice gets mixed up with bananas or cut mangoes.
Towards the end of it i felt sad about the whole thing which is turned into a tourist event. It felt like we were intruding in a very private local ritual and it didn't feel right hanging around there and making photos.
On the way back from looking at the alms ritual, we saw a whole line of sticky rice pappad's being put out to dry. Notice how the streets look clean so it doesn't feel yucky to have food stuff drying out like that (but the dust??).
There were several wat's around town all with - beautiful, graceful roofs sweeping down very low. Wat's are Buddhist sacred precincts with monks' quarters, the temple proper, an edifice housing a large image of Buddha, and a structure for lessons. There's a compound wall around these structures and it was confusing which part was what (!). But the beauty and peace is very much felt within these compounds.
After our breakfast on day 2, we wandered around looking at other parts of town. Here is one more nice wat we walked into.
Most of the decorative works is stencilled on in gold paint.
And we found some plants imitating the wall stencils.
But the star of all wats was the Wat Xieng Thong.
It was the one right next to our hotel and was the most beautiful of the lot. Wat Xieng Thong is also the most historically significant and impressive of Luang Prabang's many wats. Xieng Thong is situated on an embankment above the Mekong near the juncture with the Nam Khan River.
The buildings are lavishly decorated with mosaics of tiny red, green, and blue mirrors on a gilded background.
This is the royal funerary carriage house comprising a funeral carriage.
The carriage had some carved impressive dragons.
The next day, we visited the Kuang Si water falls in a rented car. The falls were the most beautiful i've seen so far.
The falls begin in shallow pools atop a steep hillside. These lead to the main fall with a 50 m cascade. The water collects in numerous turquoise blue pools as it flows downstream. The many cascades that result are typical of travertine waterfalls. Travertine is a form of limestone deposited by mineral springs.
We then climbed up to the very top - it was a very steep clamber. But once on top, the view isn't spectacular as one imagines - the falls are spectacular, the water pools are stunning and the trees around are breath taking.
This tree had a huge base and you'll see the scale of it with me against itI know it looks seedy with me pretending that the tree is gulping me but it gives an idea of the scale
And there were these gorgeous trumpet shaped flowers - the whole thing looks like a perfect landscape design instead of nature on it's own.
These are a type of Datura flowers. The trumpet shaped flowers hang down making a picturesque setting next to the falls - but this plant is poisonous.
We also went to the bear rescue center near the falls. Anything / anyone who's into rescuing animals gets my attention and i drag Ulli around on such outings also. But we both enjoyed looking at the bears playing around like little puppies. I was told that they were 7 year old bears - quite grown up.
All the play things are built up for them and i took a lot of pics as i'm just in the process of building a play space for kiddies at the Aikyam school. The kids will also love this kind of play space.
These guys had splash ponds to fiddle around in and great big rolling drums in which tasty bites were hidden. Everything to keep their minds occupied and sharp. These guys from a distance look so sweet and loving - but the fencing around reminds us that these are actually large wild creatures with the potential to cause harm to us puny humans.
The presence of the rescue center also reminds us that though puny, we humans manage to cause a lot more harm to animals than the other way round. May be roles should be reversed and we should be behind a fence - being the most dangerous of all mammals.
Most of the bears arrive at the rescue centre as very young cubs having been confiscated by the Lao Government from illegal poaching and trading. It is likely that they would otherwise have been destined for a life of torture in a "bile farm" outside of Laos.
22 of the bears are Asiatic Black Bears and one is a Malayan Sun Bear.
The same organization has also helped in getting the 'kalandars' with their bears off the streets in India.
Our last two days in Luang prabang province were far away from town, next to the nam khan river. We stayed in a not so nice place first and then shifted to the most gorgeous place called the Lao Spirit. The view from our verandah was awesome.
We got a Thai massage in tandem (ulli and me laid out head to head on the verandah).
Our massage girls were from the neighboring village and were trained in Thailand by the hotel. They also multi tasked as the cooks and house keepers in the same hotel. Their food was excellent too!
One thing that took us to live further away from Luang Prabang town was because i was keen on seeing the Elephant village. "Elephant Village" is a privately owned elephant camp in a lush jungle valley on the banks of the Nam Khan River. They give rescued elephants a new home where they are free from abusive work. They also provide local villagers a better livelihood, so they can stop their slash and burn tradition (you'll see a pic on that in the Vang vieng page). The village was within walking distance to the Lao spirit and we went there on the overcast afternoon. Tourists were already on the trip to the jungle across the river with the elephants. Wish i could have been with them!
But i did get a chance to have a small ride. One of them took me on for a walk. Its quite different from riding a horse - there's nothing to grasp with your thighs - just a great big elephant! The movement is more relaxed , more roly-poly.
And i could see very clearly the hair on it's head. Looked exactly like those balding men who try to grow hair with magic oil....
One strange thing i saw was that some things that grow downwards in India grow upwards in Lao - like this banana flower ! This flower seems to defy gravity and shamelessly go upwards, whereas in India, banana flowers try to hang unobtrusively at the bottom of the bunch of juicy bananas.
