Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang

Getting to Luang Prabang In Laos took 3 days of travelling, starting with a bus and ferry across the border into Laos at Huay Xai, followed by the infamous slow boat that takes you down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang.

First impressions of Laos are that is is very similar to Thailand but more expensive, despite being a poorer country.

The first thing that hit me was a big gully of phlegm (literally), on the back of the leg, some local was clearing his throat, a public display thats not uncommon, absolutely filthy!!

The slow boat was packed way over capacity with backpackers, holiday makers and locals and not a single life-jacket in sight. The lucky people get to sit on tiny wooden benches, with everyone else on the floor.  After about 7 hours of floating down the river very slowly there is an overnight stop in a place called Pak Beng, which is a tiny village along the Mekong, who's lights go out at 10 o clock! The second day is much of the same, with everyone delighted to disembark at the final stop of Luang Prabang, a uniseco world heritage site and a very popular tourist hub in Laos.

On arriving we were instantly ripped off by a tuk-tuk driver to lied to us about how far away the accommodation was, what we were told was a 20 minute walk was actually a 30 second tuk-tuk drive, not a nice start!!

Luckily though we came upon a really nice guesthouse with a proper mattress and cable t.v for about 10 euro a night.

The beds in Laos and Thailand are like sleeping on rocks or if you are lucky a wooden plank so we were especially delighted with this room!!

Luang Prabang is a lovley place, but very very touristy. Apparently it has exploded with tourists over the last 3 years, so there are lots of good restaurants, and a nice night market where they display all their local crafts..

Instead of backpackers, this place is full of wealthy American, European and japanese tourists. The down side of this is that the locals are super greedy for dollars and are constantly trying to short change, over-charge and basically rip you off. This can get abit stressful when you have to argue with them for breakfast, lunch and dinner!!!

We also came across the worst waitor in the world here in a little cafe overlooking the river. There were a few people in it when we arrived but soon after we were the only people left. For lunch we ordered one rice dish for Nick and I ordered Pad Thai, perhaps the easiest and commonist thing on the menus over here. When the waiter asked what meat i wanted I asked him just for vegetables, so he said "no Problem, i make especially for you". Nick got his rice and finished it, and about 40 minutes later still no sign of the pad thai. So next thing i looked around and saw two of the waiters scoffing down a plate of noodles that looked suspiciously like my lunch... i couldn't believe it!!!

I went over and asked him if there was a problem with my lunch and he jumped up and told me that there was no pad thai, and then he said sorry he had forgotten, even though he had written it down. I told him that he hadn't forgotten his own lunch...but sure they just look at you blankly! So it was off to another cafe and hour later to order my lunch again..

This is a typical type of day in Laos, the people seem very uneducated, they are super Inefficient and very lazy, but you have to laugh...

While here we visited a beautiful waterfall and lots of temples and a palace museum which were all fantastic, despite the hefty tourist surcharge at the entry!

Next stop Vang Vieng

Sorry problem with flickr and realtravel at the moment the photos are not linking between the sites. For those who cannot wait check out the below links.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickandsuzy/sets/72157613114251006/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickandsuzy/sets/72157613074538317/