Day 53 - Luang Prabang and the surrounding area

So we've been in Luang Prabang a good few days now. Our first duty was to do the touristy things inside the city itself, and as a newly formed foursome we set about exploring the cities temples, monasteries, hills and markets - plenty of all these things here! Crossed the Mekong river on a boat to check out more temples, a cave and a village, before returning back to the developed side of the river for some well-earned food and rest.

View from the top of the hill.

Cute kids from the poor villages here - always wanting a chat (and looking for an opportunity to make some money), doing what they can to keep themselves occupied.
 

The next day our plan was to get a boat down-stream to visit the larger of the two waterfalls we'd heard good things about in our guidebooks and from fellow travellers we’d met. After some difficult haggling, and an unsuccessful search for additional bodies to bring down the cost-per-head, we got a deal and set off in a narrow boat. One hour later we reached the village where we were to catch a truck to the start of the waterfall complex.

An older village man, waiting and watching as we ascended the river bank to our ride.

A 20 minute bumpy ride in the back of a pick-up later, and we at the entrance to the waterfall. On foot from here, we first walked through an animal sanctuary where a collection of bears and a tiger (the two species kept separately of course) who'd been rescued from cruel tourism-based treatment/captivity, and were being cared for and restored to health. After which you walk on through to the first in a cascade of pools created by the stream. The site is pretty stunning, and the water a tone of blue I thought only existed in the movies - presumably created by minerals in the water.

I wish I'd bought my swim suit!

After a few hundred metres of pools and water cascades we approached the main waterfall, tumbling from a total height of over 100m. We scaled the height along a difficult path to reach the top to get a pretty spectacular view.

The return journey took longer as we were moving upstream, and our boat ran out of petrol before we reached the town. Our driver left on foot with a canister to fetch more for 30 minutes or more, giving us some time to take in the scenery, was pretty funny really.

The waterfall.


We'd also spent time in the day booking ourselves onto the tour we'd talked about before - not our original vision of 4 days (became too expensive!), but a more compact, but equally exciting sounding 2 day trip that included mountain biking, elephant riding, trekking, villages and kayaking. All booked in the following morning we were up bright and early to start the adventure. Mailey wasn't joining us so we said our goodbyes at this point and she continued her journey to Hanoi in Vietnam.

Our adventure began the following morning by hoping onto mountain bikes and heading out of town. Stopping by first at a temple, then a paper/parchment-making company, we continued onto cycle along a rough and hilly track that didn't completely fulfil my visions of off-road biking, but was sure fun to burn down the steep slopes at high speed. 2 hours of cycling later, we reached the village where we met our elephant. We hoped into a wooden bench mounted to her back, as our driver guided us around an hour long walk through the forest, kicking at her ears to communicate his commands, occasionally giving her a whack with a sharpened stick when she didn't play ball. It was nice to be so close to an elephant, but as I shifted side-to-side as she took each step on the very relaxing journey I started to wonder if the continued domestication of these animals in any country is still appropriate, and if by contributing to the tourist trade use of elephants I was in some small way making the plight of these majestic animals worse... Elephants have been domesticated in this part of the world for millennia, used as work-aids to help carry large loads (eg: logs from logging), farm, and generally get about. The development of these countries means they obtain machinery to do such jobs today, making the elephants an unnecessary financial burden; many were abandoned - there are tales of elephants begging for food in the streets of Bangkok. Tourism has given some of these unwanted animals a new purpose, but surely it would be better (although I'm sure very costly) to just reintroduce them into the wild where they belong, and leave them alone. Being so few in numbers today and considering their level of intelligence; I would feel better, especially as I learned the domestication kills 40% of young elephants put through the process, and consists of extreme starvation and sleep deprivation to break their will to fight back. Sounds more like a concentration camp torture to me.

That's our girl on the left

After our ride we packed up for the trek that was to take us through villages, over rivers, and through some really incredible open plains of farmland, bush and forest. We climbed steep hills in what turned out to be the hottest day we'd experienced in over a month, giving us a need for a well earned lunch break and a quick power-nap in a makeshift bamboo hut used for hunting we stopped at.

One of a million amazing views experienced on the trek

The trek lasted about 3 hours in total. When arriving in the village we started to see how the majority of Laos people lived; a dry dirt covered town with huts made from bamboo and weave - mostly on stilts. Children are everywhere - most families have between 3-5 kids, and they are left to play in the village while the adults go out to work the land. We found our accommodation for the night - a home-stay shack run by a local family - and started to explore the town. It had everything you would expect; a school, animals roaming around, people preparing food and weaving straw, children playing, and new structures being built.

View as we entered the village

Our guide noticed a celebration in town - one hut was overcrowded with people, with chatter and music coming from the open door. After enquiring he discovered there had been a wedding earlier in the day, and the celebrations were still continuing. He approached and asked if we could join in with the festivities - they were more than happy/drunk to include us. Upon entering we discovered the hut was packed with drunken Laos villagers of all ages, some playing a bamboo wind instrument, and a lady singing in tune to the music as others clapped along. We sat crossed legged on the floor in what looked like the heavy drinkers corner. Pots lay about the floor with long plastic straws extending from the top from which people were sucking. It was Lao Jar Whiskey - fermenting sticky rice in a jar, to which you continuously add fresh water, as it filtrates down you suck from the bottom with the straws. These tubes were shoved in our hands and they made us start necking this whisky as they continuously refilled it from the top. It was great! It has a really sweet taste, with little alcohol in the flavour, but plenty of effects in the head. It's apparently 30%, and from the effects I wouldn't be surprised... We met the town chief (he had many wives), who was pleased to welcome us to his village – telling us of their plan to turn it into a regular highlight on the eco-tourism map. Snacks of sticky rice, and boiled pigs lung and liver were being passed around the room - it's rude to refuse so we politely chewed it down :S.

Peter and I sucking down the jar-whiskey with the locals from the wedding party - what fun!

A few hours passed, and we started to feel as merry as everyone else there. We thought we’d leave them to finish their celebrations alone, so left the party and sat down for dinner. Other foreigners had purchased similar packages, and had ended up at the village with us. We shared our meal and evening continuing to drink with a Canadian, a French-Canadian, a German, and a guy from Holland - all really friendly.

Day two consisted of an easier trek down through several small villages, across streams, and down to the main river where we were to start our kayaking leg. The river was pretty slow, containing only a few small rapids. We got stuck on a rock once, but after we freed ourselves it was clear sailing for the rest of our journey to the end point where a car took as back to our hotel.

Jon's-eye view kayaking along the river
 

All in all it was a pretty cool experience, of which the highlight was definitely the wedding party in the village. Only Petr and myself went on this tour. Lukas felt he wanted some serious photo time, and fancied exploring villages on his own, rather than participating in the activities too, so he hired a guy with a bike, and spent his time exploring the area, but in a more photo-opportunity creating context. He really did take some amazing pics, and he was much happier for it. So we met back up with him in town for what would be our last night in Luang Prabang. The following morning - this morning - we're booked on a flight to the south of the country, to a place called Pakse. Sat in the airport now killing some time as our flight is delayed a few hours. Our flight will take us on this updated-visual journey progress path.

Once there we hope to rent motorbikes again, and do a couple of day circuit around a mountain plateau - exploring the towns and villages in the south of the country before continuing on down into Cambodia.