Pancake for breakfast, then all aboard for the Slow boat to Luang Prabang, it's a 2 day trip with an overnight stop at Pack Beng. Each leg is 110,000 kip each.
We got to the dock early, got our tickets from the little office and were onboard by 9, got good seats. We didn't leave until nearly 12!! We were a bit keen!
The seats are like coach seats, pretty comfortable watching the scenery go by. Got chatting to a nice couple from London, Charlie and Harry, her grandmother started the famous 'River cafe'. We use some of the recipes from their books at Cafe Espresso, Exeter. Small world!
A lovely first day, relaxing and watching the scenery go by, arrived in Pak Beng at 17.45,
just up the hill we found a guesthouse for £8. Matt had the best local curry of the trip so far. Then we nearly got ran over. A local was speeding round a bend when the bike slid out from under him and slid right across the road in front of us. The local women came out of there shops and gave him what for!
Up early, sat having a coffee and the monks came by collecting their alms
Elephants on the bank in the morning. Yes they are there, zoom in and find them.
We bought tickets on the boat for the next leg to Luang Prabang, 110,000 each and climbed aboard with a picnic lunch made by our guesthouse. Left at 9.30am, a chilly and misty start.
Saw some Macques on the bank :-), no pic though, sorry.
The boat stopped on the outskirts of Luang Prabang, 10 km away from where we thought.
The agro Italians on board decided to stage a sit in as we hadn't been dropped at the town quay!
The captain left and went home for his dinner! We couldn't get our bags as they were in the hold.
An hour later we managed to get off and got a tuk tuk into town, 20,000 each (£1.50). No big deal really, although it does seem like a money making setup. We were told the big boats aren't allowed to drop off in town anymore, although we did see the boats moored up there the next day!
Found a little guest house near the Royal Palace museum.
Enema anyone?
Thursday 5
Luang Prabang is on a peninsular, French influenced architecture, lots of old colonial buildings. The Mekong on one side and the Nam Khan on the other. Found a great cafe with good coffee and pastries for breakfast, yummy. A pretty town, Easy on the eye. Huge market.
Fri 6
Nice cloudy day, booked flights to Cambodia. Climbed Phu Si, 329 steps up! Great views of mountains, town and rivers both sides.
Royal palace museum, bit boring really, nice to get out of the sun though
Sat 7
Got up at 5.30 to see the monks collecting their alms. It was awful, with Japanese and Chinese tourists chasing them with cameras. Pretty disrespectful. Should have stayed in bed!
Hired a moped, went off to Kuang Si waterfalls, beautiful place.
We enjoyed Luang Prabang :-)
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