Luang Prabang

After an hour on a boat we arrive in some dusty village that brings civilisation and reality terrifyingly near. A bar with loud noise. Vehicles on streets. The peace and serenity we have been living is once again but a dream.

We had about 4 hours in the back of a took-took to forget about our prior bliss, and settle in on a bumpy winding tour.

The first small city, or large town, in Laos we encounter is Luang Prabang. Fortunately, having only a small percentage of the population Vietnam has, the streets are relatively peaceful. Little took-tooks send the tourists peacefully on their way. Buddhists rouse the city to the beat of their drums at 6:30 each day. Markets and stalls selling coffees, fruit drinks and meals don the streets and alleys. Night markets take over the street completely, each of the hundred stalls selling the same goods, their occasional temporary power lines are strung at perfect decapitation height. Restaurants line the Mekong. It's understandable why there are so many tourists here.

As per usual, we have already met up with many of the troupe we first met on day one in Laos.

We settle in to semi-respectable accommodation before spending our time wandering around the attractions. We reached the end of the peninsula, and turn back at a pay bridge. We climbed Fussy (sp?) hill to see the Buddhist thing at the top. We went to the museum, but were deterred by the price - looking at anything here costs - and instead settled on walking around the grounds, stopping to observe the old king's rather lame car collection. We finished by viewing the sights from their gates without entering, as you get a pretty good idea what it's like from afar, and once you've seen one temple you've kinda seen them all.

We spent a day hiring bikes to go and check out a waterfall, a bear sanctuary and ride elephants. The waterfall was beautiful. The bears were cute. The elephants were cool. Craig, as a result of the pay-silly-amounts-to-do-anything and gifting 50.000 kip to the bear sanctuary, sadly could not afford to join us on these magnificent beasts. The elephant tour involved a short meander along a path then in to a pond for a bath. All good fun. I named mine Horton.

This was the day I saw two children under three playing with a meat clever as a toy. I could see it was sharp because they were good at chopping things. I am baffled that any parent could think this was a good idea.

We had two superb street dinners here where we filled our own plates, and payed under a couple a bucks each. Mine was a food tower both nights of course.

The greatest meal (then drinks following) was at Utopia. An over manicured landscaped bar that forces you to walk across rocks and under trees to reach a table. We were nestled on a balcony, lounging on bean bagy sorts of things, perched next to a 30 foot drop. The handrail was non existent and flaming lamps were everywhere, a sight that would give Osh (nz's health and safety executive) some serious heart palpitations. To make this even more special there was NZ dub music in the background. Being a special occasion (Christmas Eve) this place was open til 1 and had a large bonfire roaring on the beachy sports arena (yes, this place, this utopia, had everything). I had the nicest burger I have had since Staten Island, August 2011. This one was the most amazingly fresh, melt in your mouth paddy and smothered in wasabi mayonnaise. A-mazing. This was finished off with Giant Jenga next to the fire with Tom and Anna til the wee hours. Great fun.

Christmas day rolled around and, after an all too brief conversation with back home, we were off to the bus station and then a six hour bus to Vang Vien. An early start, too little sleep, no breakfast, taking my bus-sick prevention pills too late, and the windiest roads ever combined to make for one unpleasant journey. That is to say I spent my Christmas making 7 presents for Craig. Still, this was Christmas, and even that small blip did nothing to stem the evening feast and celebrations. The bus ride, despite it's obvious unpleasantness, was worth it. The journey winding through the hills was just breathtaking. The silhouettes of far away mountain ranges, the road winding along cliffs. Beautiful fauna growing in dazzling colours across the hills. And a dozen stalls miles from anywhere all lined up selling oranges. A phenomenal drive which I would happily repeat.

Christmas! An orphan's Christmas. Christmas dinner comprised of a nice sit down (on cushions) meal and a nice yellow chicken curry for me. We were subjected to two of our compatriots' high decibel ramblings, including spouting that there were four million people in Christchurch. While mostly entertaining, any shred of serenity to be found here was utterly destroyed. Still, a fun evening was had.

And that was Luang Prabang and the first glimpse of Vang Vien.

I'll aim to upload the photos that go with this post tomorrow or the day after.