We arrived in Luang Prabang after yet another long bus journey, with some form of dodgy karaoke blaring out. I have to say I am beginning to get use to these long bus journeys, which is quite surprising when you think that the 90 minute journey from Oxford to London use to really irritate me. However the journey is very different to the Oxford to London trip down the M40. This bus journey spent 5 hours twisting and turning through mountain roads with some incredible scenery appearing around every corner. We drove past numerous mountain villages literally perched on the edge of the mountain. In fact in most cases their back yards were a shear vertical drop down the mountain side. I had noticed when we got on the bus that there were two or three local guys who seemed to stand out a little bit, mainly because they were dressed slightly differently to all the other locals and they did not seem to require a ticket. Now I had heard that some of the buses in these parts carried guards and I did wonder if these were them. My suspisions were confirmed when one of the ‘guards’ walked through the bus carrying a Kalashnikov (a Russian made machine gun)…mmm! Still it is quite comforting to know that he is there to protect you from bandits, should the bus brake down in the middle of no-where. I found out later that this measure had been put into place after a load of tourists were shot dead on the same bit of road.
We finally arrived in Luang Prabang which lies on the banks of the Mekong river with rolling hills all around. This is one of the best places we have been to so far and you can’t fail but to relax here. There are plenty of views to wonder around and look at, markets and some great little bars and restaurants. There is even a sports bar, which was luckily showing England giving Australia a good thrashing in the Rugby.
On one of our days there we took a day trip out to Kuang Si Falls, which is a multi-tiered waterfall tumbling over limestone formations into a series of pools. One of the pools makes a great place for swimming and cooling off in the hot humid Loas weather. There is also a path that goes up the side of the waterfalls, through the woods to the top. At the top the water flows through the woods and trees and is a very peaceful place. I have to admit I did wade across the top of the waterfall past the ‘Go no further signs’, which was a little risky. There was some form of barrier in the way of a very flimsy wooden stick wedged between a couple of trees, which to be honest really would not stop a lot from going over the edge, particularly me, but the view from the top and watching the water tumble down over the edge, was well worth it, even if the pictures do not do it justice.
Luang Prabang is a great little town and anyone who has the chance to come here, even if it is just flying in for a couple of day, should do so. I could easily stay here a bit longer and do not really want to leave but we are a little behind our rough schedule and so we must move on and head up the river on the slow boat towards the Thai boarder.
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