31st – Muddy road

This morning we had the option to give alms to the monks at the local monastery. You show up, the monks come passing by and you give a little to each one into their buckets until you run out. We were told that there would be vendors on location so we wouldn’t have to plan ahead with buying snacks or other things we would want to hand out. 

So at 0515 6 of us showed up in the reception and we were brought down to the main street. It turned out that this morning the vendors only sold sticky rice. Oh, well. We took our seats and soon the monks came walking by in a long procession. You had to be quick on your hands to hand every monk a bit of rice, and it seemed some of them weren’t too happy with the selection as they seemed to sometimes sneakily cover their buckets or slightly tip it away from us when they saw what we had to offer.

The locals giving alms.

We returned to the hotel and near by a smaller procession came by a small group of locals who also received a blessing from the monks. Returning to our rooms I managed to get an extra hour of sleep before getting up and ready to leave at 0830 for Vang Vieng.

The plan was to arrive at around 1500 at our homestay in Naduang village, but due to the rains there was a risk of mudslides covering the roads which ultimately would be slowing our pace. On our way we did pass a few slides but most of them were being tidied up so actual waiting time ended up being quite limited. Much of the road was a narrow 2-way street winding itself through some beautiful mountain landscapes, so due to the conditions it unfortunately wasn’t possible to stop and take some photos along the way.

View from our lunch spot.

When we turned off the main road and onto the small dirt road towards the village we were staying the road conditions dropped significantly. The closer we got the muddier it got. The minibus had no special drive system and we got stuck a few times on the way. Out driver was absolutely fantastic, though, and got us out of the deepening mud every single time to thundering applause (as thundering as it gets when you are 15 people). At 1700 we finally arrived at our destination and soon we were split up in groups of two into separate houses spread out in the village. Nice private houses, no AC, but fans which ended up being enough everything considered. An hour later we were shown around in the village for a short walk (short mainly due to the wet and muddy conditions) followed by dinner and the children of the village showing us a few local dances, in the end dragging us up and teaching us. Let’s just say it was done with varying success.

Slightly muddy.

Dancing.

A few of us stayed behind after the dance for a bit to drink and a chat, but soon after around 2300 everything had gone quiet.

30th – Climbing Pho Si

5 hours of sleep later we met for breakfast at 0830 with rain pouring down. Today was a free day, i.e. nothing planned as part of the tour so we could make our own schedule. After having a quick talk with our guide, we decided to hold off on much until after midday.

Around 1100 I started getting bored and restless so I got dressed and headed out for a walk. Almost the moment I stepped outside the rain stopped so the timing could barely have been better. I walked around Pho Si mountain and ended up going to the top despite the overcast grey weather. But arriving at the top it turned out the visibility was good enough to get a nice overview of most of Luang Prabang, with the surrounding hills and mountains only being partly covered by clouds.

View from the top of Pho Si mountain.

Coming down again I returned to the hotel where I teamed up with 3 others and together we visited the Royal Palace (which had been turned into a national museum). When trying to get in I got turned away as you could not bring any photographic equipment or bags with you inside, so I had to backtrack to the lock boxes (which, to my surprise, were free) before I was allowed inside and tour the museum. The receiving hall was beautiful and all blinged up, the rest was basically ordinary living quarters (albeit in a fairly fancy building). A lot of ceremonial equipment and gifts from other nations were also on display throughout the palace.

Haw Pha Bang at the Royal Palace.

From there we split up; the others wanted to see one of the oldest temples (from 1300-ish) in town while I wanted to see the UXO Luang Prabang Centre. It’s the local division of the Lao National Unexploded Ordnance programme, a programme that locates and dismantles unexploded ordnance from the secret war. The museum itself was located in the buildings of the centre itself and consisted of a few small rooms with information posters describing the – often dangerous – work of the crews and a small film room where a few short documentaries were looping. They were quite upfront with what the bombs do to villages and others that unintentionally bump into these in their daily life. They estimate that during 1964-1973 more than 2 million tons of bombs were dropped, many of these cluster bombs. They estimate a 30% rate of unexploded bombs which means that there is app. 80 million unexploded undetonated bombs located across the entire country. A very informative, but harrowing, experience.

I returned to the hotel and around 1800 I returned to the mountain in an attempt to see the sunset like many others having the same idea. To my disappointment the sunset was not nearly as colourful as I had hoped, but as the clouds to the west had cleared a bit there was an ok view of the setting sun.

Sunset.

From there I once again descended and met up with most of the rest of the group at a restaurant at 2000 and from there afterwards we returned to the hotel around 2½ hours later, ending the day early-ish.

29th – Silky smooth not so blue waterfall

The hotel’s restaurant is located further down the street so after that quick walk back and forth we met up at the reception at 0900, being picked up to start the day’s planned schedule.

A few minutes’ drive from the hotel took us to the etymology museum where we got to see and read a bit about the various local indigenous people groups and subgroups. I felt that it was very small considering the numerous groups but yet quite informative – had it been bigger it would probably have gotten a bit too dry.

From there we drove to the Ock Pop Tok Living Crafts Centre (a local place where they showed the process from caterpillar to silk and the products made from this). They had a show and tell about the dies they use to colour the different types of silk, and also a handful of people weaving some very intricately patterned cloths and wall carpets. Being told it could take up to three weeks to make just 1 meter didn’t sound very impressive until you saw how long a process was necessary just to make a single line. But the results were stunning. And some of the prices likewise, until you realized the time and energy required and the fact that you knew in this case that the products were genuine and not made from child labour.

Colours used and what they sue to dye the silk.

Intricate patterns.

View of the river.

Continuing to our last stop of the day we drove an hour out of the city to go to the Kuang Si Waterfall, a waterfall known for its blue colour. Except, it’s blue in the dry season, in the wet season it’s like the Mekong River – brown/grey from all the sediment the increased waterflow takes with it. And the extra volume is significant, so much so that swimming was prohibited, something that is otherwise popular to do in the normally blue waters. Also, some of the benched areas had been flooded. Walking down a different path than when coming up (which was a paved road) we quickly realized that the river was overflowing the path, making the descent more interesting. Halfway down you had to go barefooted as the path had gotten completely flooded, and half of us decided to turn around and go back up to take the paved road down while the rest soldiered on. Meeting at the bottom again we found out there had been a casualty on the flooded route; a show had been lost to the stream of the river. There was a bit of disagreement whether it had been sacrificed to a one-legged river spirit or that the spirits could settle with the one shoe as many more shoes had been similarly previously sacrificed.

They had a small moon bear sanctuary near the waterfall.

The Kuang Si Waterfall. Not particularly blue.

Slightly flooded.

A new passenger joined us on the way back to the hotel.

We returned to the hotel around 1600 where we relaxed a bit (some around or in the pool) until 1900 when we went out for dinner. The buffalo steak was good, the wine a nice match.

A couple of hours later we ended up in Utopia, a place where we had a few drinks. Considering certain previous nights it was probably good that they were not allowed to serve alcohol after 2300 (the city is UNESCO protected which limits how late you are allowed to serve alcohol) so walking back to the hotel a few beers were bought on the way which were enjoyed in one of our rooms. A potentially (relatively) early end to the day ended up not happening, instead we kept the company going until around 0230.

28th – I'm still on a boat!

Having left (relatively) early and (almost) sober last night getting up this morning wasn’t much of an issue. My room mate even thanked me as he admitted he wasn’t sure he would have gotten up in reasonable time if it hadn’t been for me and my alarm (yay – I am useful!). Breakfast was had across the road, a couple of elephants were spotted on the other side of the river being walked by their care takers, and the last person was woken up a few minutes before departure time.

The view from our room.

Elephants with their care takers.

We got back on to the boat and a few minutes delayed around 0800 we continued down the river towards Luang Prabang. We stopped at the Pak Ou caves to see the numerous buddha statues and figurines placed throughout the caves. It wasn’t just a place where people have put thousands of statues, it has become a holy place on level with a “normal” temple. Apart from this stop we just gently cruised down the river.

Pak Ou caves.

The first couple of hours on the boat were pretty quiet as people were still recovering from last night but they slowly livened up during the day. There isn’t much traffic on the river these days so apart from muddy water and constant forests on both shores there isn’t much to look at, so time was mainly spent on playing cards and reading.

We arrived at our destination around 1530 and form there a half hour drive to the hotel. It’s very nice; large rooms, AC, good beds and a no-shoe rule when entering the building where your room is located.

At 1740 we left for a walk to see where the night market was, locate ATMs and exchange booths, and then we were taken to a food stall with a vegetarian buffet with a set price per bowl. Despite it being vegetarian it was surprisingly delicious.

We had a walk around the market before returning to the hotel before 2100, effectively concluding the day.

27th – I'm on a boat!

We left the hotel around 0730 to drive 10-ish minutes to the Thai border where we all went through without issues and got onto a bus, drove a few minutes through no man’s land until we reached the Lao border and immigration. As I was the only one in the group not needing a visa I could skip the visa papers, fill out my arrival form, exchange all by baht to kip, use the ATM and go through the short immigration queue without worry.

When we were all once again gathered, now in Laos, a new pair of minibuses picked us up and took us to the Mekong River and a longboat, our mode of transport the next 2 days.

We took off at around 1000 and the following 6 hours we made our way down the Mekong River. Lunch was served but apart from that we tried doing as little as possible; relaxing, playing cards and just seeing the world pass slowly by.

We arrived at Pak Beng where we checked in at a simple but cosy hotel; no AC but with a view of the river from the rooms. Also – on arrival there was no power. When we later started our small walk in town we were told that a log or branch had dropped onto some powerlines interrupting power to the entire area. During our walk where we got to see the market (in the late afternoon, shortly before they closed, we were probably in a lot of people’s way) we did luckily see power coming back on around us so the damage was limited.

"But why do you bring all that camera equipment with you? Isn't it heavy?"

This is why.

At the market. Notice the dried squirrel just above the spring onions - apparently it's used to keep flies away(?).

Well, if you can't find anything else to use as a stable pillar you might as well utilize a bomb casing from the war.

We had dinner and afterwards we ended up in a bar next to our hotel, so when I a couple of drinks later went home, among the first, it was quick and easy getting back. Going into our bathroom I did meet a bigger than average spider sitting on the wall; a tile wide so 15-20 cm would be a good guess. That did wake me up to be honest.

26th – White and... death-y

Right before my roommate passed out cold on his bed last night he said he’d do first shower in the morning. When the alarm went off 4 hours later he hadn’t moved and was still dress and lying on top of the covers. I took my shower and coming back into the room he had now moved – under the covers. When I was done he had slowly gotten himself out of bed and when I had him confirm he knew what time it was I grabbed my stuff and left for breakfast.

At 0745, after breakfast and meeting a few hungover people, we left to go and do a 2-ish hour relaxing bike ride around the outskirts of Chiang Mai. The gentle pace resulted in a comfortable breeze in the heat and humidity. On the way we also stopped for lunch to have some delicious noodle soup.

We stopped by a small temple on the way.

Returning to the hotel at 1300 we had half an hour before leaving for Chiang Khong, 5-ish hours away. On the way we stopped at the White Temple which was absolutely beautiful and very different from any other temple we have seen. Due to fucky traffic, though, we got there only 10-ish minutes before they closed at 1700 so we had top rush a bit – and those who stayed behind to listen to our local guide missed getting inside. I don’t think they missed much, though, as the interior was quite an anti-climax compared to the expectations you’d get when seeing the exterior.

After this slightly shortened visit we returned to the bus and continued our journey towards our destination.

Without further ado we arrived around 1900 at a nice-looking slightly rough around the edges hotel. We got our rooms and moments later we went down the street for dinner before returning and tucking in for the night.

As there is an uneven number of guys travelling alone versus rooms available until Hanoi we did a quick random lottery to let randomness decide where each of us would have a room by ourselves. I ended up with 2 nights in Hanoi which I am not unhappy about.

25th – To snip-snip or not to snip-snip

At around 0630-0700 a stern staffer walking down the aisle yelling “Good morning! 2 stops Chiang Mai!” over and over again functioned as an alarm clock. I had found that if I laid diagonally I could just stretch, so I had had a fairly good night’s sleep. Others had not, either due to the bed, rumbling, noise or the fact that the lights never were turned off in the cabin.

When people woke up and had gotten themselves out of the bunks the same staff member started going through the car and collected the used linen and packing the beds away so it would be ready for a trip back to Bangkok during the daytime after arriving in Chiang Mai, which we did on time at around 0845. From here we drove to our hotel where we got to check in and have 1½ hours’ break before continuing. My room mate and I got a room that hadn’t been cleaned so we left our bags, notified the staff and waited for half an hour in the lobby before returning; the room was still messy and now our bags were missing. So back down to the lobby and when informed their reaction was basically “oh yeah, we should have told you” and gave us a new key where we found a clean room – and our bags.

At 1030 10 of us left for a cooking class where a sweet old lady picked us up at the hotel and brought us to the market to shop for the groceries needed for the class. From here she brought us to her home where she had a whole Master Chef-like setup for up to 20 people at a time. We were given vegetables to chop followed by us cooking at our stations, adding ingredients by her command while she walked around adding coconut milk, oils and other liquids as needed. “Now add the [ingredient] and stir! Stir until boiling and wait! Turn down on medium! This is coconut cream, now stir! STIR!” etc. We ended up with red and green curry, pad thai, mango & coconut rice and morning glory as sides (yes, it is called that, and yes, it is a vegetable).

Cooking class.

Very full and happy we returned to the hotel at 1400 with a certificate and cook book.

At 1600 we left the hotel again to go up to a temple view a view over Chiang Mai – if it hadn’t been covered in clouds. We had a walk around and saw the monks when they started their scheduled chanting at 1800. Soon after we returned to the town centre where we had an hour and a bit for shopping or at a food court before meeting up again at 2045 to go see the local ladyboy show.

Chanting/praying on schedule.

Despite what one might think I thought it was surprisingly fun and entertaining. A cabaret or dance theatre. It was also obvious that many of the participants didn’t take it too seriously, either. They basically “just” mimed to various songs but put on a great stage performance. Among many other performances there was a Tina Turner, a Whitney Houston from her later years (which did have an amount of humour to it, involving among other things a… butt rose) and a near perfect Rihanna.

Tina Turner.

Rihanna has taken an innocent bystander up onto the stage.

After a few hours of amazing entertainment we left and 7 of us decided to stay behind for a few drinks until midnight. Which of course meant that we didn’t leave at midnight but didn’t return to the hotel until around 0200. While a bit tipsy I know I won’t be suffering nearly as much as some others in the group tomorrow.

24th – Training to sleep

We left the hotel at 0830 after a breakfast that was mostly Thai food which gave us a selection of several dishes involving rice combined with a few western dishes. We had a local guide who led us through Chinatown and a morning market before reaching the river where we boarded a longboat and had a 1-hour tour on the river before reaching our destination, Wat Pho. 

Wat Arun Ratchawaram Ratchaworamawihan (or just Wat Arun).

Here our guide took us around for a few hours, and among some beautifully painted buildings we saw the Reclining Buddha; 15 meters tall and 46 meters long. Too bad the building, while intricately painted, was narrow with multiple columns making it impossible to get a good view of the entire statue. We had a walk around on the temple grounds where there were multiple Buddha statues and stupas.

When leaving some of us were referred to another guide who then spent a few hours taking us through the Royal Temple grounds. Some absolutely astonishing buildings with walls and statues covered in sparkling stone and gold (or probably “gold” in most cases). It was quite a sight. There is a quite strict dress code here; covered shoulders and ankles. We had been warned beforehand and were therefore prepared, but many tourists coming alone seemed to not be aware of this so as soon as they came inside the ground walls a guard had them go to a small clothing shop that had the required outfits.

The Royal Temple itself.

From there we looked for a place to have lunch. We ended up deciding going back to the hotel and the place we had dinner at yesterday (deemed safe by our guide) and while talking and looking at a map deciding on taxis a local guy said we would be idiots taking taxis there; instead he brought our attention to a bus coming around the corner at that very moment. There were no problem using that and it stopped close to the hotel – and instead of paying 100 baht for a taxi we each ended up paying 9 baht.

We had (late) lunch and returned to the hotel to relax and shower at the spa. At around 1830 we were all present and were quickly briefed before gathering our luggage and walking 5 minutes to the railway station where we located our train and sleeper car and boarded. On schedule, at 1935, the train departed northbound.

While it does look a bit narrow the seats/beds were wide enough to not be completely uncomfortable.

Soon after a staff member passed through and converted our seats to beds which sent some of us down to the cafeteria until we got kicked out around 2200 when they closed. Back in our bunks we did what the rest had already done – went to rest as much as possible, trying to ignore the very short beds.