Lovely Luang Prabang

From Thailand setting over the boarder to Laos was easy. Bus connections all the way, visa on arrival at the boarder crossing and finally a tuktuk ride to Huay Xai. We stayed over night in this sleepy place to take the slow boat the next morning to arrive to Luang Prabang. As Huay Xai is a small nest in the North of Laos it has some small night amusement along the main street. Gambling is quite common for youngsters it seems. Home-made roulette wheels are put along the roadside and one throws dart arrows on it for a number to guess in advance. Looked like a fair first. And people really bet small notes on the numbers. Open-air casino the Lao way.
Our ticket for the slow boat was a hand filled in copy of a bad cut Microsoft Word document print. We were very suspicious if this was a valid ticket. And, it was! More or less. Before boarding we had to hand over the ticket to a woman with our passports along. Waiting. Finally tickets and passports back. We could board the boat! Leaving the pier took quite a while though. Running late is common use. But when we were about to leave more people were coming and wanted to board. And the same again and again. People started complaining and finally we left. The people at the pier started to load a second boat. Why not from the start?

the pier in Huay Xai

on the Mekong

The slow boat is slow! Very slow. Sometimes it seemed we were just floating on the Mekong river. Therefore the view was stunning! Green hills all the way, farms on the shore, fishermen in longtail boats throwing their nets. After sunset we arrived to Pakbeng where we had to stay a night and then continue the next day to Luang Prabang. Another 7 hours on the boat!

view from the boat - two days like this

Finally in the city I fell in love at first sight. It is a cozy little town with French colonial past which you still can see in the architecture. This is the reason why Luang Prabang is also UNESCO world heritage. From here we took it slow and were checking out town. Temples were shared over the centre and the main road turned into a lovely night market. We found a small road serving Lao style buffet and barbeque. Streetfood paradise! One day we rent bicycles and rode to a waterfall close by Luang Prabang. The waterfalls had several terraces and icy water. As it was a rainy day only few people were around and we could enjoy peacefully.

Luang Prabang from a mountain view

colonial style house

 

Lao buffet

streetfood paradise

 

on the way to the Tad Sae Waterfall

river crossing in a longtail boat

at the waterfalls

The last day I took a tour with some people from our hostel to see the Kuangsi Waterfall. Amazing! Already at first view I liked it but by climbing up higher it got even more incredible. See yourself:

main falls of Kuangsi

swimming in the middle pool

climbing to the top

pool on top of the waterfall

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