C & C globetrotting around the world…

The bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was so loooong. The road was always winding and although in better condition than from Vientiane to Vang Vieng, the 220km still took 7 hours!

Luang Prabang has a nice feel to it, so we stayed longer than we had planned. The town is pretty small with its 55,00 inhabitants, but it has a charm. Until the Pathet Lao (communist party) took over power in 1975, Luang Prabang was the capital of Laos and seat of the Royal Family of the Kingdom of Lane Xang (“Kingdon of a Million Elephants”, as Laos used to call itself) since 1353AD. To this day, it is the religious capital of the nation, with over 30 temples (Wats) still active and orange-clad Buddhist monks everywhere on the streets. The UNESCO-protected down-town area is very beautiful, show-casing the typical Luang Prabang architecture where temples, Lao-style stilt houses and French colonial villas alternate to create a wonderful mix. There is sight-seeing to be done, but also just wondering on the streets and taking in the relaxed yet historic atmosphere is very pleasant. There are lots of good restaurants, beautiful terraces along the 2 rivers (Luang Prabang is a peninsula between the Mekong and the Nam Khan river), a night market with local handicrafts, as well as beautiful small alleys with an abundance of flowers.

On our first day we visited Phu Si, a small hill in the middle of town. There are lots of Buddhas all over the hill as part of Wat Tham Phu Si, as well as a cave-shrine and Buddha’s footprint (phutthatbat). At the top there is a golden stupa called That Chomsi, which is visible from the town below. We were thinking of going on a day tour outside town, but they are all very expensive, especially if you consider that many of them only involve trekking. For us, paying $40 per person to walk behind some guy in the jungle is not really worth it. Unfortunately you cannot go trekking by yourself because paths are not well marked and there are still many unexploded American bombs from the Second Indochina War.

As we were walking on the street, a lady spoke to us because Christoph was wearing his Trier t-shirt. She’s German and he is an 81-yr-old American who taught English in the US Army (soldiers’ kids). They now live in San Antonio, Texas and we sat down to chat with them. We were totally impressed when they told us they travel every year for 4 months (at his age!). They also showed us the “food alley”, an alley with lots of stalls of local food. You get a plate for 10,000 kip ($1.50) and can pile as much on it as fits from various dishes they have. The only thing you have to pay extra for is meat (10,000 kip for a big chicken breast skewer), so we had dinner together there and it was delicious.

One evening we went to watch the “Ethnik Show”, where they parade traditional costumes from the various ethnic minorities in Laos. A bit outside town is Pak Ou cave, reachable by boat. The 2 caves hold thousands of Buddha statues and is the place where the kings came on a yearly procession. The boat stopped at a village where they make Lao Whiskey (called Lao Lao) made of sticky rice.

We finished off the year at “Utopia” bar. The bar is a really cool place, half outside, half indoors, so we stayed there for the Midnight Countdown, but left shortly afterwards. When you’re not with friends, New Year’s Eve is not as much fun. There were many “candle/hot-air-balloons” being sent up in the air and people shooting fireworks, which was nice to see.

We started off the year by spending a few relaxing days planning the next few weeks of our trip. Our guesthouse had a nice terrace, so we read and researched a lot there. We also visited the Royal Palace Museum, where the Royal family lived until the 1975 revolution when they were exiled to caves in northern Laos and the Pathet Lao took over the power. The museum is home to “Phra Bang”, a small Buddha statue of gold, silver and bronze after which the city is named. The statue is believed to have been made in Sri Lanka and brought to Laos as the symbol of Theravada-Buddhism. Since 2003 there is a shrine built on the museum grounds for the “Phra Bang” statue, but the statue has not been transported inside yet. This building is beautifully decorated with gilded walls on a red background. The actual royal residence showcases a mix of French and Lao architecture. On the facade one can see the three-headed elephant. The symbol of the Lane Xang Kingdom. Inside the residence, we visited the reception halls, the library, the bedrooms and many exposed artifacts and Buddhist sculptures. In the garage there is the King’s fleet of vehicles. There was also an exhibition (called “Floating Buddha”) from a guy from Trier (Mr. Berger), which we were excited about. He accompanied monks on a meditation camp to the jungle and displayed his photos of the excursion. Quite interesting.

Luang Prabang is a great town to walk around. Once we stumbled upon “Tamarind Cafe”. It is one of the guidebook recommendations and although we don’t usually follow them, we wanted to check it out. The menu looked really good, so we decided to try something. We had the dips platter with sticky rice, a Lao speciality. You take some sticky rice in your hand and form a small ball. With it you scoop up some of the dip and eat it. It’s fun to eat and the dips are delicious (we had eggplant, sweet chili, coriander and marinated veggies). We washed this down with tamarind juice and ginger/lemongrass juice, which were also delicious and cooling after the fiery chili.

One day we walked through town towards the tip of the peninsula to visit 2 of the more famous Wats. Wat Saen has a giant Buddha and very peaceful grounds. Wat Xieng Thong, is the oldest and most famous in town and Cecilia’s favourite. It was built in the 16^th century and is the best example of the architectural style of Luang Prabang, especially the roof. It also served as inspiration for later buildings. The outside walls of the buildings are decorated with tiny pieces of coloured mirrors, like a mosaic. Inside the main building (sim), the walls are also decorated with gilded pattern on red or black background, depicting the enlightenment of Buddha. Also on the grounds is the royal funeral chapel with the funeral chariot and funeral urns for each member of the royal family. The corpse was placed in the urn in the foetal position until cremation. At the back of the hall are also many old wooden statues of Buddha in the “calling for rain” position, the most typical for Laos.

Our lunches in Luang Prabang often consisted of a baguette with chicken and veggies from a street vendor. These baguettes are really delicious, better than Subway’s. They have different combinations, but we like this one: toast the bread, put the grilled chicken inside and add all the veggies you want (lettuce, cucumber, onion, avocado, etc) and top it off with mayo and chili sauce. It costs 15,000 kip ($2) and then we get a fruit shake for 5,000 kip ($0.65) to top it off.

We visited some more temples (Wats), including Wat May. Most Wats have a central temple (sim) where the praying is done and are surrounded by the monks’ quarters, stupas and other Buddha shrines. The central temple at Wat May was very nice, with a gilded bas-reliefs on its facade. We enjoyed our massages in Vientiane so much, we decided to get another one here in Luang Prabang. We went for a Lao-style massage, but without the hot herbal one. It felt really good too (although not quite as good) and we walked home happy. We should do this more often, especially at a price of $5 an hour.

For dinner we went to “Delilah’s” restaurant, the place run by a German, we think. I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara and Christoph asked if the Fried Chicken Breast with fries and salad has tomatoes because Christoph is allergic to tomatoes. The waiter asked the chef and came back with a negative answer, so Christoph ordered it. The Carbonara arrived, we split it and it was good. Half an hour later Christoph’s chicken breast arrived with mayo and ketchup on it and tomatoes in the salad. We told the waiter that we said NO TOMATOES and he said they can take them out of the salad. But what about the ketchup? The guy didn’t know that ketchup is made of tomatoes… So we sent it back to the kitchen. They took the tomatoes out of the salad and WASHED the ketchup off the chicken breast. Great! Christoph started to eat and as he cut the chicken breast, there were sliced tomatoes inside (sort of like cordon bleu). We called over the guy and he said sorry. By this time we were really mad and asked for the bill. He brought the bill with all the items on it. We only paid for the carbonara, not the chicken breast and he asked us if we can’t pay for it. Is he kidding? We said no and he didn’t quite seem to understand why. Luckily Chris’ allergy is not that bad, but he still didn’t want to eat that dish. Laotians always amaze us.

Between all the reading and planning for Thailand, we also booked our flight to Europe on April 6^th. Very exciting and cool since we can now plan with a time line in mind.