Luang Prabang - the city no one wants to leave

26 - 29 April

We arrived in Luang Prabang early afternoon by mini bus, probably the bumpiest ride ride we've ever taken. Many times we were thrown out of our seats, almost hitting the roof. I was worried about my laptop as it's so fragile now since the crack in the screen. Every bus ride it gets progressively worse. Sure enough it was way worse, not just the screen this time however, the hard drive was playing up to. I couldn't watch any movie files as it would skip really badly. Every program I opened would lag and have this cool fade in and fade out thing. Sam kept saying how awesome that looked but it only worried me more. How much longer is my computer going to hold up? I need to get it home and to repair fast.

Golden Lotus Inn

Luang Prabang is a town of outstanding beauty with a very strong french influence so the bread is incredible. Lonely Planet even calls it one of the most sophisticated places in South East Asia, There is this old world romance about the city and the streets are well maintained. The mekong runs past on one side with a line of outstanding seafood restaurants and Nam Khan river on the other side with picturesque mountains all around.

Tha Nam Khan River

The tuk tuk dropped us on the main street in town and we went in search of cheap accommodation. Usually we find something within the first 20minutes and for only $7.50 without air con. Not in Luang Prabang. We quickly discovered how expensive this town was going to be to us when hotels were quoting $75! Finally we found a lovely place tucked down an alley way called Golden Lotus. It was double what we had been paying still it was very good value and we were exhausted, ready to give up on our search.

We found the row of baguette ladies on the main street where we had lunch for $1.50 each. The bread was so fresh and tasted amazing and they were so big that even Sam couldn't finish his! 

The baguette sandwich stalls along the main street

We met up with this European couple who had been on our mini bus and agreed to join up on a tuk tuk to the waterfall the next day. Tuk tuks were asking for about $25 in total, so the more people you have the cheaper it is. That night we had a massive wet season storm with lightening, wind, rain, the whole works. We woke up to a beautiful wet season morning which back home I would normally be excited to sleep in to. However here it meant you would get wet going outside to do anything. Sam and I still  got ready for the waterfall but our friends next door bailed and said it was too wet for them. So instead we spent the day doing absolutely nothing. I updated my blog and Sam slept.

We met up with our Kiwi mate, Matt for dinner down by the riverfront. I had the biggest fish I have ever seen for $9 which is the most I've paid in South East Asia. It was so full of tender meat and the bones were so big it was easy to get to the flesh. I was in heaven. God dammit it was amazing! They had this incredible chili sauce on top which just added to it. I can't believe I managed to eat every single bite. By far the best whole fish I've had yet!

My incredibly fish - it's massive!

The next day was lovely and sunny so Matt, Sam and I set out for a tuk tuk. We found one with 4 other tourists to join in and the driver was still asking us all to pay $5 each even though there were now 7 of us! I actually stood up to him in front of everyone and said 'no', 7 of us should be paying maximum $2.50. Eventually we got him down to about $3.50. I could've kept arguing but everyone else agreed to easily and were already jumping in the back of the tuk tuk.

The best bread we've had in a long time

The waterfall was pretty spectacular even for a Northern Territory girl who grew up camping by some of Australia's best. Our tuk tuk driver gave us 3hrs in total which was the perfect amount of time to explore the many cascading waterfalls and swimming pools which all came down from one very large waterfall. The most popular swimming whole had a rope swing that proved quite popular and had an eager line of tourists and locals waiting to use it. Sam and Matt both had a few swings but I wasn't interested. I just went snap happy around the place instead.

There were so many local families around with picnics set up enjoying their day off. I was fascinated by these 3 girls who were scraping sand and rocks from the bottom of the pool we were sitting at then running down a small waterfall before coming back for more. They did this over and over again and I was very intrigued at what they were doing with the sand and rocks.

The water was freezing so I couldn't stay in for long but was definitely refreshing on a hot sticky day. Sam and Matt decided to walk to the very top of the waterfall which I sat out because my hip had been playing up ever since a dodgy massage in Vang Vieng. While I was waiting I was talking to this Danish guy, Mikkel who was on our mini bus from Vang Vieng as well. He was waiting for his Dutch friend Liede. In our conversation I discovered that they were heading up North to do the Gibbon Experience as well! He was aiming for May 1st which is when we needed to do it and had already booked his overnight bus there and booked the jungle adventure. I started to worry that Sam and I needed to do this so that afternoon I emailed them to book us in for Thursday and booked an overnight bus for the next day, Monday night.

Enjoying the pool where the rope swing was

We had dinner that night with our friends who had arrived from Vang Vieng. Sam was drinking many beers with them and got very happy drunk. The Swedish girls turned up as well so I was chatting to them for ages. They were heading South the next morning to 4000 Islands. 

The next morning when there was no reply from the Gibbon Experience I started to freak out. We decided to call them instead and book it over the phone. It's the most popular thing to do in Laos and is often booked out way in advance. As we were on in off season we didn't worry too much about booking  but we had still left it later then I wanted. We called on the hr every hr all day and the phone just rang out every time. No answer over and over. Sam got really panicky as this could mean they are booked and not answering us on purpose. I sent another email and told them we were on our way tonight.

We met up with Mikkel and Liede on the bus that night who said they had been replied to that day, after both my emails and several calls from me. Wtf? We were on this 13hr bus to this nothing border town where you only go to cross into Thailand or you do the Gibbon Experience. We crossed  our fingers praying we would get in with 1 day notice. Sam took some valium and we tried to sleep sitting up as the people behind us did not want our seats back. The worst overnight bus ride ever.