Luang Prabhang, Laos (Part 1)
22/12/2008 - Today, I had booked a mini bus to Luang Prabhang(LP) for 115,000 Kips. Had I taken a regular bus, it'd be 110,000. I decided to take the mini bus and save 1/2 hour or so for an additional 5000 Kips. The van crowd was very nice -we had a good group - an Australian dude and his Dutch girlfriend, 2 Japanese girls and a Taiwanese girls studying all at the same university in Singapore and two local Lao people. We had a nice language and culture discussion during the trip. We each taught each other words from our languages and cultural differences. We reached Luang Prabhang around 3:00p.m I think, after stopping mid way for lunch. Took a shared Tuk Tuk to centre of town as usual, for 10,000 kips.
Did not have a good map of LP, walked around quite a bit aimlessly and finally found a couple of tourists which I asked for advice on accomodation and they gave me a low-down on Luang Prabhang and where to find accommodation. I followed their advice and found a nice room for 90,000 kips (about $10USD) with air con, satellite TV and free coffee and bananas int the morning. Set my things down in the room, showered and went out to explore the city. Very close to where I was staying, there was a night market, where local people sell tshirts, artisanal stuff and local products. Browsed about the market and it was already getting dark. A little girl came to me trying to sell me keychains and stuff. Told her I did not need any, then she asked me if I could buy her a pad thai at the street stand nearby. So, we went to the pad thai merchant and both of us had the most delicious pad thai ever. The girl was only about 10 years old and in school and sold keychains and stuff in the evenings to be able to buy school supplies etc.. The same road where the night market was, was filled with many travel agents and internet cafes (100 kips per minute). I went into a travel agency and tried to find out day tours that they had. After browsing a few options and checking which tours already had people (if people are already signed up, you pay cheaper), I picked a half day tour to go see the Pak Hou caves, a cave where Old Buddhas retire. In fact, as the statues of buddha get old or break, they are are put in this one cave. That cave is about 1 1/2 to 2 hours by slow boat and the boats stop on the way to a lao-lao (lao whisky) making village for us to check. I was pretty tired by then and called it a night and went back to the guesthouse to sleep. Pic 1 : Lunch (where the minivan stopped half way to LP)Pic 2 : Many minivans stopped for lunch and passengers stretching
Pic 3 : Luang Prabhang Night market
Pic 4 : Umbrellas at Luang Prabhang Night Market
Pic 5 : Wholesale Orange Sellers by the riverside
Pic 6 : One of the many street side restaurants in Luang Prabhang
Pic 7 : Street Snack Seller
