We caught the 5pm sleeper bus from Kunming, through the Laos border and into Luang Prabang. It was a 30 hour bus ride and an all round thrilling experience! It was significantly better than the last overnight bus, mainly because no bus drivers were yelling at me, and because Nick and I had kind of a double bed (Nick should have been sharing with a random man, but we managed to persuade him to switch places!). I also managed to delight the whole bus by asking where seat 25 was. My question was then mimicked for a good half an hour by those around us!
For 30 hours we kept our heads down and tried to ignore all the disgusting people around us! The bus driver insisted that everyone took off their shoes and put them in plastic bags to walk down the isle (a good thing), but rather than try and keep the isle clean, the rest of the people on the coach spat fruit pips and fruit peel into the isle, along with all the rest of their litter which made walking down the isle in your socks pretty gross! The woman in front of us was truly revolting and kept spitting out the windows and throwing every piece of rubbish she could find out the window, despite the fact there were bins in the isle! It got Nick and I very mad as she was littering these little hill tribes and villages as we went past where little kids were having to play in her filth.
There was only one other tourist (or NSE) on the bus who we were able to have a moan with. Nick had very politically correctly started referring to ourselves and other tourists as 'Non-Slitty Eye's!'. Like I said, very P.C!
We arrived in Luang Prabang about 8pm, waving goodbye to the Chinese, and it was a bit like Mary and Joseph arriving at Bethlehem, there was no room at the inns! We wandered round for ages trying to find a hostel -I had developed a bit of an upset stomach by this point and my patience was wearing very thin! Eventually we found an overpriced one and took it just because there was nothing else! Nick was delighted to find Arsenal kicking off (he'd not been able to watch them anywhere in China), while I spent the evening close to the toilet!
We ventured out for a very late dinner, and ended up in a pub where one of the lads playing pool was an absolute spitting image of Chris. It was actually quite scary and we both almost went to wave him over!
The next day we slept until about 12, we were just so tired from the bus. But walking round Luang Prabang was like a huge sigh of relief from the enormousness of China. The town is tiny, quaint and beautiful, totally different from the concrete jungles we'd become accustomed too! It's surrounded on both sides by the Mekong River and the Nam Khan. Once we got to the river we managed to scrape together enough money for a beer (we hadn't found an ATM yet!) and chilled out in the sun.
In the afternoon we spent a good hour trying to get money. They rip you off everywhere for cash advances and the only ATM only accepts mastercard. They tell you its 3% commission, but you have to sign for US dollars, then they charge you more commission to convert that into Kip. Very annoying! Anyway, after lunch we walked up Phu Su, which is the highest temple in Luang Prabang. It's not really worth doing it for the temple, by the views from the top are fantastic. Luang Prabang is just a town built literally in the middle of a jungle, and you don't realise it until you get up Phu Su.
From up their you can see both rivers, and just greenery going on for miles, right up to the mountains. There is also a rather gimmicky Buddha 'footprint' up there. Its been sprayed gold and looks even more naff that it would have if they'd left it alone. One of the Laos women up there could barely keep a straight face when she pointed it out to us!
On our second day we booked ourselves onto a tour of the Pak Ou Caves, which is a temple built out of the limestone rock. We got had an hours boat ride up the Mekong, which would have been lovely except it was very overcast. At the caves you discover that they are actually really tiny and a bit of a waste of time. You pay an entrance fee, plus there are various people trying to get you to part with more cash by buying insence or flowers, or hiring torches! So many of our group were looking at each other in astonishment and saying 'is this it???'.
The second cave is a bit more interesting, but if you're already a bit templed out (as we are), its not worth bothering with! The sun did make an appearence later on, which made the boat journey back a bit more lovely. Then there was of course the obligatory stop at an 'authentic Laoian village' (so, just a market selling the usual rubbish then!).
In the afternoon we got a bus to the Tat Kuang Si Waterfall, which was stunning. Honestly you've never seen water this blue ever! We climbed to the top to admire the whole falls, before heading back to the blue pools for a swim and a play on the rope swing. Nick was in his element and managed to find another bloke, Kristian, who was just as big a kid as he to play with! It took me a little longer to get it as it was pretty cold, but once you went numb it was quite enjoyable! Nick teased me as I couldn't actually swing on the rope swing, I just kind of fell in as I couldn't hold myself up!
In the evening we had a quiet dinner and an early night as we were getting an early bus to Vang Vieng the following morning.
Videos )copy and paste):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am0M-zuDXk8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec1f8eYzyKc