We got up early this
morning, packed, checked out and then headed up the road to get some
pancakes and mango shakes for breakfast. We took everything back to
the hotel and ate it out the front, finishing not long before the
arrival of our minivan at 9am. The drive out of VangVieng was quite
spectacular, taking us up some steep, winding roads through dramatic
mountain scenery. I was sharing the back seat with Andy and Lisa, a
chatty young couple from Bristol who were quite deep into a big
around-the-world trip.
After a while we stopped for a break at a
hill-top roadside place with a great view back down the valley
through which we had just driven. Just below the lookout area was a
stall selling pineapples, but we were reluctant to buy one as they
were crawling with some extremely large wasps. A bit later we stopped
again – for 'lunch'. The food in the place we stopped outside was
sitting in metal trays on the counter and looked both unappetising
and unhygienic. And in the place next door, there was perhaps the
ugliest, greyest cooked chicken I've ever set eyes on. It also had a
small display of 'flavoured' whiskey, one bottle containing a variety
of small reptiles and the other a couple of large bear paws. So we
went back to the first place and bought some pre-cut mango and
pineapple.
We finally arrived
in Luang Prabang at about 3pm and after getting our bags from the van
we began the inevitable haggling over the price of a tuk-tuk ride to
our hostel. As I mentioned before, they annoyingly charge per person
here, but Kate managed to convince them that it should be less for
children and got us a pretty good price. When we got to the
guesthouse, we dropped off our bags and then headed into town. Andy
and Lisa had been to Luang Prabang before and had recommended a place
called the Utopia Bar, which was located not far from the guesthouse.
When we got there, we walked through to the river – a tributary of
the Mekong - where there was a bamboo platform set up with mats and
cushions and small tables with all manner of backpackers sprawled
about drinking beer and looking at their phones. Kate was less than
impressed with the whole place, complaining that it smelled and was
full of zombies, so after a quick much-needed beer and some chips, we
headed further into town, soon bumping in to Andy and Lisa again. As
we chatted to them, Zoe suddenly cried out and then burst into tears
– a little orange fruit had detached itself from the palm tree
beside us and fallen right on the top of head. After bidding Andy and
Lisa goodbye, we headed into the night market, which proved to be
rather claustrophobic – what with this being the rainy season, the
whole thing was covered in very low tarpaulins. The merchandise on
offer was extremely repetitive – the stalls mostly selling
variations on about five or six different themes.
When we finally
emerged again, we walked down to the river, which was being very
prettily lit by the last rays of the dying sun. As we walked along,
we were hailed by a familiar couple - Sam and Laura from Chi Phat
(we've discovered that we're very much on the 'Laos trail' - we keep
seeing the same people as we move from place to place). We joined
them and sat for a while swapping stories and drinking beer, before
bidding them farewell and going for dinner at a restaurant a short
walk upriver. When we sat down, we couldn't help noticing that we had
suddenly risen to a level of dining sophistication that we hadn't
enjoyed for quite some time – we were surrounded by an older crowd
of nicely dressed people, and the restaurant was very attractively
lit. And the food was pretty good too.
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