UNESCO World Heritage site Luang Prabang

July, 2013

After the Vang Vieng adventures our next city, Luang Prabang, offered us culture and history in the North central Laos. The beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site with old French style buildings and the two rivers, Mekong and Nam Khan, crossing at the other end of the city center, is mainly a peaceful place. There's more to the city though than just its many Wats and French villas. If you have the time the nature also has a lot to offer and it's easy to keep fit here too.

The clean streets of LP with old buildings

Drying rice cakes on the streets

During our Laos trip we've seen the same tourists everywhere. People often travel the same routes here, either going from North to South or the other way round. That's how we made friends with our group, we all happened to travel the same way and our interests were the same, so it was easy to stick together.

Of the numerous hotels, guesthouses etc in the area we all eventually ended up staying at the same guesthouse in LP, as the other ones had some problems. One of them was very noisy due to the location close to the main street with most of the restaurants and bars. It was strange to notice some tourists partying in LP, as the city mostly attracts the culture and history buffs and not so much the younger crowd.

LP art

Beautiful door

One of the sights to see in LP is the Buddhist Alms Giving Ceremony, which is one of the most sacred Lao traditions. The idea of the alms giving is for the Buddhist monks to make merit and also to collect food for their one meal of a day. 200 monks depart daily at sunrise from their temples to gather their daily meal on the main street. The tradition dates back to the 14th century. Tourists bring their own offerings to the monks, which is usually food. We passed this, as we didn't feel like waking up so early. So far on most days of our travel we'd waken up at sunrise, which is the worst part of travelling. You always have to wake up early for a bus, a flight, for a dive, to be an early bird at an attraction...sometimes it just doesn't feel like a vacation when you're doing this.

The Dara night market is a nice place to go to if you want to buy souvenirs or eat. You find all sorts of local handicraft and good cheap food there, even veggie and vegetarian, and you can also taste some really good coconut cream filled little pancakes and chili filled dumplings. We had some tasty Indian food too.

Local handicraft. Angry Birds is a Finnish brand though.

The lovely owl bags. These are also sold in Thailand and Cambodia.

A funny sign in one restaurant

Night market's colourful veggie dishes

Night market's colourful veggie dishes

Coconut cream filled little pancakes

Fancy this in your dinner table?

Mt. Phousi, which rises some 150 meters above the city, offers great views over the city. The path up to the mountain starts from the main street, where the night market is held. The nearly 300 steps are pretty easy and fast to climb if you're fit. Again, it costs a bit to see the view, but it's worth it. From the mountain you can see the Nam Khan river and the surrounding mountains. A small stupa can be found at the top and the Buddhist temple Wat Tham Phou Si is on the way up.

View to LP from Mt. Phousi

View to LP from Mt. Phousi

Wat Chom Si stupa

Sightseeing in LP is really easy. The center is small and by following the main road Sisavangvong and the rivers you get to see a lot of the areas temples and French buildings. Walking in the city feels like travelling back in time, the city is like an open air museum.

Sightseeing next to the rivers. Young monks bathing in Mekong.

Serpentine Nam Khan river

Old cars of Laos

Haw Pha Bang temple at Royal Palace Museum area. The temple 
was built to house Laos’ most sacred Buddha image.

Surrounding views from the temple

Shrine inside the temple

Haw Pha Bang temple

Haw Pha Bang temple

Paintings inside Wat Pahowak, which lies at the base of Mt. Phousi. The paintings date back to 1860.

Wat Mai Suwannaphumaham (or Wat Mai/Wat May), built in the 18th century, has a large emerald Buddha statue inside.

Window detail

Coloured glass mosaic details

Wat Xieng Thong, a Buddhist temple, was built between 1559-1560 by the Lao King Setthathirath

In the back; Wat Xieng Thong main temple with the Tree of Life mosaic.
Red Chapel at front. Tripitaka library is just outside this picture. Just like the Red Chapel, Tripitaka Library (1828) is also covered with mosaic details
depicting scenes of local Lao daily life and traditions. The library
houses the three baskets of Theravada Buddhist scriptures.

Seventeen-element gilded Dok So Fa, which is believed to symbolize
the center of the universe, on the roof of Wat Xieng Thong

A gong inside Wat Xieng Thong

With so much temples in the area it's easy to get tired of them. You might want to have a break from them and head over to a massage from all the walking. We picked one massage place by the Mekong river on the second floor, which seemed nice with a very friendly staff. We went upstairs, changed clothes to what seemed like old mens pyjamas and waited for our masseuses. Sometimes you can pick your masseuse but here it wasn't possible, so we had to wait and see who was eventually going to take care of us.

Finally the masseuses arrived and we met an older woman with a young boy, who seemed like 12 years old. We were puzzled if he was one of the masseuses, as we'd never seen anyone that young working as a masseuse. We asked him and after he confirmed he worked here we found out he was going to massage me. I wasn't too comfortable with having a young boy massage me and even working, but they said it was ok. I asked the boy if he can do powerful massage, as I really needed one now. Again he confirmed, so they started working.

The boy gradually increased the massage strength and finally he was massaging me like he was a polar bear, throwing his crushing weight on me like a seal he was hunting. I thought about telling him to take it more easy, but then let him just crush me. I'm pretty good at handling bruising and pain, although it might not be a good idea to cope with pain in a massage, where a wrong technique can do serious damage to your body. I was overwhelmed by the strength this young boy had. He was like a baby on steroids. After he was done I had to ask him how old he is. We nearly dropped our jaws as he said he is sixteen! Well, he was still very young and very strong for his age, but needed to work on his technique though. I still prefer to have an older lady with years of practice behind her to work on my muscles. The next day I had some bruises all over my body, but felt otherwise better.

One of the best things to see in LP is the Kuang Si waterfalls, which we also wanted to see. It takes about 30 minutes to reach from the city. There are many waterfalls, ponds and nice paths to walk at and a Bear Rescue Centre is in the same area. We spent about half a day in the area.

Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Centre
http://www.freethebears.org.au/web/Projects/Laos/

There were about five bears in the large encloser,
all energetic, playful and looking healthy

Playing with a log

Small part of the encloser seen here

Curious of tourists

Relaxing with a twig

A large, one meter tall fern

The ponds in Kuang Si area

Main pond area

Main pond

The ponds

Kuang Si waterfall. There are many different
sized waterfalls in the area

Kuang Si waterfall

Huge palm plant in the area

A huge banyan tree with a strangler fig around it

Our time in Laos was soon coming to an end. We had spent nearly a month here and the time had gone really fast. The few days in LP weren't enough to explore the city, but we couldn't stay here any longer, as we needed to continue onward to Luang Namtha and to China. Here our group again got smaller, as Tom and Florrie were the second ones to leave us after Tomoko. They continued to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and the next day me, Kari, Steve and Jemma travelled to Luang Namtha. We also had to say goodbye to Julie that day, as she travelled to Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was strange to continue with just the four of us, as we'd grown into such a tight group during that month.

There aren't many beggars in LP

Star fruit growing wild

Next blog; Luang Namtha

Tubing in Laos can be a screamer

Vang Vieng
5.7
Today seemed like a good day for an afternoon tubing, so we searched the party street for a company renting the tubes. We found one soon. Before we were ready to go they asked us to sign waivers in case something happened on the river and marked our hands with numbers, probably to identify us in case we drowned or something. When you sign the waiver it means you're doing this at your own risk. They also asked us if we can swim and gave lifejackets to those who wanted them. Because there's been so many deaths and accidents on the Nam Song river it's no wonder they've taken these precautions. The company then drove us some 15 minutes away from town where the tubing, and supposedly relaxing floating, start was. The tubes were in good shape, so we trusted them to be ok. The river also seemed calm, so we didn't worry about that either. Some other things surprised us though...

Tubing number

The tubes are open from the bottom, so we had to rent a drybag for the camera etc and hold on to the bag through the whole tubing. We left our dive gear and drybag back in Lembongan, because we didn't plan to do any water sports here.
During the whole tubing time your butt is in the water. I imagined all kinds of creatures biting our butts, just hoping nothing happens. I wonder why the tubes aren't sealed. This wasn't a reason to worry either though.

The tubes

While tubing we saw some ferries cross the river and other people on boats and tubes. Some photographed and filmed us, even a film crew that was on a boat with a reporter talking to the camera. The first surprise on the river was a boat heading straight towards me with good speed. I had to yell to the captain so he would see me, as he was looking somewhere else. He got close enough to scare me a little before noticing me. This could've turned nasty. Who knows how often boats collide here with the tubesters. You can't escape a boat with a tube, maybe just dive into the water real fast before the boat hits you. But if you're too drunk, like some people here, you might not react soon enough.

As we continued floating along the river we suddenly heard a hysterical scream somewhere behind us. Our group was now scattered everywhere on the river in the slow current. Florrie had drifted into bushes near the river banks and she was screaming. A snake had slithered between her legs from the river. Anyone would've been in panic with a snake on their lap! Somehow the snake soon disappeared though and we thought now was a damn good time to have a break in the next bar.

One of the bar areas along the river

They have nice rest spots, some free drinks and games

For breaks there are bars along the river, who sell and even offer some free drinks. We'd managed to tube some twenty minutes before the first break. The bar crew throw you a rope and then pull you to shore. We were offered free Lao Lao shots (local whiskey) and we had just one, although it's a bit risky to drink those. They've sometimes caused blindness and even death. While the others also had beers I got myself a Breezer, since you can't find cider so easily in Asia. The bar area offered some games, but we only had a short break and watched some other tourists playing and even showering together outside. The mountains surrounded us again and the scenery was very beautiful everywhere. Florrie was still shaken from the snake experience, but was brave enough to continue tubing.

The busy river also had quiet places

We hadn't tubed for too long, when another surprise struck. This time Jemma was screaming. We thought there was another snake, but it was a big spider that had jumped on the tube. Kari was close enough to go and help her. Why was our group attracting the snakes and spiders everywhere?! We had already seen them in the jungles and caves before and not even the river kept them away from us. Luckily there were no other surprises left.

We couldn't stop for another bar anymore, as we had to rush to return the tubes for 6 p.m. or you lose some of your deposit. If you wonder where the last bar on the river is you'll see it. It has a huge sign screaming "Last Bar". A big group was just coming from there as we tubed past it.

Last Bar

Wet feet, relaxed soul

A small village at a river bend

You'll know when you've reached the end of tubing, as it's marked with a huge sign saying "stop tubing". Julie was probably aiming to reach the next city with a tube though, as she somehow managed to drift away from this spot and it took her a while to find us from the beach.
The sun was just going down, so we finished in a beautiful setting. The tubing took an hour and a half, but the times are different for each, depending how long you spend time at bars and how fast the currents are.

Don't tube any further.

Finished at sunset

We returned the tubes a bit late so we lost some of the deposits, which wasn't that much. Although we had some scares on the river we all still agreed tubing was a fun and "kinda" relaxing way to spend a few hours. I'll definitely do that again someday. Even Finland has its annual tubing events, but the scenery isn't as beautiful as in Laos. People are drawn to it in Finland only because of drinking and fun company.

Next blog takes us to the North of Laos; to Luang Prabang's Buddhist temples and monasteries, its old town centre (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and more.

Scenery on the road to Luang Prabang. It's heartbreaking
to see the massive deforestation with your own eyes.