Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang has brought out all kinds of emotions and expectations of the world.

Upon arriving at Luang Prabang, much like our arrival in Vientiane, we could not find a room and there were no touters to take us to their guesthouse. Our minivan driver from Phonsavan had stayed with us, assisting us in our mission to find a bed despite his multiple phone calls that were quite obviously from someone who was expecting his arrival.

After we had searched for a good hour, we sent the driver on his way, and about 20 minutes later, as we checked into a guesthouse, Will and Ali realised that they had left their month-old digital SLR camera, full of photographs, in the minivan!

We knew the name of the travel agency and the agent who sold us the tickets.

After 3 days of compulsively investigating each minivan we saw, would you believe it, Will and Ali got in touch with the travel agent who arranged the minivan, who gave them the driver’s phone number, and his sister’s phone number, and then after phoning, and being assured that they had the camera, the guesthouse owner drove Will to their village so that he could pick it up! AND, they had taken photos of themselves with the camera!!

The most wonderful part of the story is, although Will and Ali had felt doubtful about getting the camera back, none of us were surprised when they did!

Just love Laos!!

The other things that made Luang Prabang beautiful, were the waterfalls. The two famous ones are Tat Kuang Si, the big waterfall, and Tat Sae, the “small” waterfall. Kuang Si, is really tall waterfall at the beginning, and then gently falls into tiers with deep swimming holes, a beautiful misty blue colour. It is surrounded by jungle, and right by the falls there is a sun bear sanctuary and a tiger sanctuary for animals that have been rescued from poachers. The second waterfall, Tat Sae has no tall section, but is much wider and in our opinion, far more spectacular. It too has amazing blue swimming holes, and it is surrounded by jungle, and it encompasses trees. It ends at the Mekong, which you see as you arrive, as the only means of getting there is by boat. It’s really incredible.

The night markets are another treat that Luang Prabang has to offer, where not only could we find the best quality items we have seen for sale yet, the same price as elsewhere, but we also found vegetarian and vegan food stalls (street stalls!) with buffet-style options, where you can fill a bowl for 5000kip – which is 50c!!!

SEE PHOTOS AT: http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Luang%20Prabang/?start=all