Adventures in Asia: Luang Prabang, Laos

On Wednesday after the waterfall, the six of us Nagi friends went for lunch.  This was my banana leaf-wrapped fish.

After lunch Nuna and I walked over to the Royal Palace to buy tickets for the ballet show that evening.  This beautifully coloured wat is on the grounds of the Royal Palace, and this is it at around 15:00:

And then again at sunset:

The ballet is in another building on the palace grounds.  The ground floor displays some of the instruments used by the ballet orchestra:

Upstairs in the performance hall, the orchestra just sat cross-legged on the stage to the right of the performers.

I felt like the presentation of the ballet was an interesting reflection of Laos's political and economic realities.  The building we were in was no doubt a very impressive building in the mid-20th century when it was built for royal receptions, but now, in 2018, it seemed tired, poorly maintained, and perhaps the victim of communist neglect, despite touches of beauty, such as this alcove:

The show itself lacked polish, but it was still fun, and the costumes were incredible.

Many of the performers were quite young, which was nice to see, and there was even a very little boy who was presumably the son of one of the musicians who was often on stage watching the show amongst the orchestra!  He was remarkably well-behaved.

Later that night some of us from the boat got together again, including our guide, Xay Phon, and his girlfriend.  He brought out some lao lao "with local herbs" that had been steeping in an old water bottle, and we shared it Lao style in a glass we "borrowed" from the bar we were at.  Xay Phon translated some Lao phrase as something like "you cannot only drink once because you have two legs," but then we kept passing the glass, so apparently the phrase does not mean stop at two because you have two legs!

I found a little bottle of lao lao in the grocery store the next day, and it said it was 60% alcohol, so even "mixed" with these local herbs, we were shooting a pretty strong drink!

I passed on breakfast at my hotel yesterday morning, and instead ate it at this food stall.

I took the day fairly easy, doing some writing at various cafes.

This morning I met up with Nuna, the only Nagi passenger left in Luang Prabang, at the morning market, where there were many fascinating things to see, including pink eggs . . .

. . . hand rolled balls of some green herb or leaf vegetable . . .

. . . live crabs . . .

. . . fresh fish, including the biggest catfish I had ever seen (and the one on this picture is not the biggest one I saw) . . .

. . . live turtles . . .

. . . honeycomb . . .

. . . large red mushrooms . . .

. . . and more crabs and some type of little bird.

After the market I went for another outdoor breakfast, this time a mango crepe . . .

. . . and some of this sausage that I have eaten multiple times, because I think it is the most delicious sausage I have ever eaten!

Later Nuna joined me for a last lunch along the Mekong, at a restaurant that apparently Barack Obama visited.

After lunch I took a tuk-tuk to the airport and caught an Air Asia to Bangkok whence I will fly onward to Chengdu in a few hours.

These were my views as we took off out of Luang Prabang.

Now, I am chilling in a very relaxing lounge here at DMK.

Adventures in Asia: Kuang Si Waterfalls, Laos

Yesterday I rejoined some friends from the slow boat for an excursion out to Kuang Si waterfalls.  We met for breakfast and then hired a truck tuk-tuk to carry us the hour or so west of Luang Prabang.

We arrived at the park around 10:00 or so.

Once through the gates, before you actually get to the river and waterfalls, there is a sanctuary for bears that have been rescued from the bile industry.

Despite the lack of good pictures of the bears, they were fun to watch, and it was interesting to learn so much about this awful industry that confines bears in tiny, tiny cages (barely big enough for them to turn around in) for their entire lives.  

Just a little past the bears you get to the river, which is lovely right away, so much so that I waded right in right here!

But if you continue up the river, it only gets more and more spectacular!

Eventually you get to the real highlight:

There are steep trails on either side of these falls that lead you to the top, and you can even continue hiking further on than that, but we stopped at the top.  On our way back down we stopped at this pool to swim.  The water was cold at first, but super refreshing!

Adventures in Asia: Luang Prabang, Laos

Since Monday evening I have been in Luang Prabang, where the slow boat trip ended.  I am here until Friday, when I will fly back to China.

The Nagi cruise included transportation from the port, and the van dropped me at my hotel.

Once checked in, cash was my priority.  I had basically no kip left, and $17 USD, so I was a little desperate.  Luang Prabang has many ATMs, so finding one was no issue.  However, I tried six before one worked!  Anyway, with a 1,000,000 kip, I felt in good shape, so I bought a couple postcards and had some dinner.

My hotel is on the Mekong, but does not have the view that my hotel in Chiang Khong did.  Still, its restaurant is on a patio right atop the river, and I could watch the ferries and other boats go by as I ate breakfast yesterday.

After breakfast I visited the post office to mail my postcards.

Then I wandered down Luang Prabang's main tourist street, Sisavangvong.

I found a lovely little cafe with a patio along the street and plunked myself down to do some writing and watch the world go by.

Look at the fruit salad I was served!

Sometime after 13:00 I went for another walk, this time from my hotel east along the Mekong.

Eventually the Mekong meets Luang Prabang's "second" river, the Nam Khan, which means "lazy water."  At a restaurant here I ate lunch.

This was sour fish soup, which is apparently a Luang Prabang specialty. It proved to be a lot of food for one person!

After lunch, I decided to check out Wat Xiengthong, Luang Prabang's oldest temple.

The temple was great, but I was touring it during the hottest part of the day, so I was wearing out fast.  I had take a rest in my hotel room for the rest of the afternoon to cool down!

At sunset I went back out to meet up with some of my Nagi friends on Mount Phousi, a large hill in the middle of the city that is popular at sunset.  I was surprised just how popular it is--the viewing area on top, which is around a small wat, was absolutely packed!

Mount Phousi did provide some great views, but between the crowd and mosquitoes, I found it hard to relax up there!