See What Tim Is Doing: The first taste of Laos – Luang Prabang (19

My first thoughts after crossing the Mekong River on a tiny wooden boat was that Laos seems kind of backwards, but not in a bad way. The houses, wooden huts, elevated a meter or two from the ground stilts, majority of roofs made from straw, a few from tin, chickens running freely in the yard, some even have a cow or two keeping the chickens company and all the people I saw, smiling.

Although their way of life looks extremely basic and possibly poor to some, they look happier then people I see driving Lambos and Porches with all the money in the world. I have been to some pretty poor places that are depressing and heart-breaking, this is definitely not one of them. Poor, yes. Depressing, no.

Not only did the people seem beautiful but the scenery was simply amazing too! The mountains are like nowhere I have ever seen before. So green with so many mountains stretching right out to the horizon and valleys and gorges in between. So this was making the bus trip easy, until it got dark and there was nothing to see, and then in literally the middle of nowhere, our bus breaks down. Never fear though, they have a spare fan belt and its changed and we are back up on the road in half an hour. Smooth sailing for about 20 minutes and then, bus pulls over again, this time in the middle of no where (more so then the last break down) and the news is bad, our bus isn’t going anywhere.

Different people gave us different reports, but they all seemed to lead to the same conclusion, we had to wait hours to get a new bus, at 1130pm, in the middle of nowhere. Luckily the bus was full of English speaking people including a couple of crazy Spanish guys who entertained the bus during this dark time, and not to mention the sky was filled with more stars then I have ever seen before, it was pretty amazing!

An hour had gone, and we were hungry, and thirsty, and with nothing in sight, not even a street lamp. Myself and Jonny, an English guy who I met on the boat to the Laos border, decided to go for a walk as there was word of some food and drinks place nearby. A little further then the 200m we were told, but eventually we found a place with literally a fridge with a few drinks, including beer that went down a treat, but they had nothing at all to eat. A building across the road though showed some hope, so we went over and it looked like a garage with a few tables in it, but they had more then finished for the night, but one of the Laos lads on the bus managed to sweet talk the lady into making a huge plate of fried rice and vegies for the 20+ people that now filled their garage looking restaurant. We ate and drank and decided to venture back to the bus and wait there, and on route to the bus the new bus drove past, so we loaded up the bus, got on and was back on our way over three hours later. There was one small problem; there was not enough seats on the bus, so some people had to sit on the floor for the next 10 hours.

We arrived to Luang Prabang though and found a nice little guesthouse and settled in, and I decided to go see what the town was all about. First impression: chilled, slow paced, beautiful. The Mekong River is right there, green hills in the background and no sign of a high rise!

I met back up with Jonny and Emma, the couple I had met on the boat to the border and were also on the eventful bus ride to Luang Prabang, and went for a wander in the night markets as I had heard they were pretty cool, and that they were. Paintings, home wares, slippers, shirts, books and loads of other cool things that you would actually consider buying unlike many of the other markets I have seen. We stumbled across a small alley that looked inviting and we headed down. Instantly we saw and smelt a wild array of foods, and at the end, we hit the jackpot, the BBQ meats and salad section. Full chickens or fish on skewers, ribs, chicken breast and legs, slabs of pork and just about anything you can BBQ. I ended up with a plate of all different kinds of salad, a full BBQ fish stuff with lemon grass and a big BeerLaos for roughly £3 and it was all amazing.

We ran into an Irish guy, Kevin, we met on the bus as well and decided to join him for a drink at Utopia, a bar consisting of shesha pipes, chilled out couch and sitting areas, a beach feel and of course what every good bar needs, a full sized beach volleyball court. Few beers later and the 1130pm curfew kicked in and we were being ushered out with only one place left to go, bowling.

Bowling was epic! 100+ people there, everyone pretty toasted and still drinking, laughing and bowling barefoot which I am sure is really not safe. We joined a lane with a few Australians, English and Dutch and played a game with them, drank, partied and had a sweet time! We finished off the night sitting by the river, drinking some more and just chatting and chilling. Good night, but not the best next day.

Awoke at 2pm thanks to the shutters that made my room pitch black, and really spent the day not doing much. Organised my next days activities and tried to sort my next moves for my trip. And then at night, headed again to the food market as the food was worth another visit!

My last full day in Luang Prabang and I had signed myself up to an Elephant course where you learn how to ride an elephant, wash them, feed them and general care and information about them. Doing all this was cool enough, but then when we arrived the location was purely stunning and just added to what was going to be an amazing day.

Within 30 minutes of being there, we had learnt a few basic commands and how to get up on the elephants. And then once we had a basic understanding of that, we were up and onto the elephants all by ourselves. We rode them around, got used to them and then got on a boat and went to ride some other elephants through the jungle. This time we got on the chairs on the back of the elephants, but within 10 minutes I was down on the neck riding my elephant through thick mud, heavy trees and water deeper then I am tall. It was wicked!

Then lunch time and after lunch we crossed back over the river to my favourite part of the day, bath time. We got down to our swimwear and got on our elephants and they trudged into the water with the mahouts and us on their backs. Elephants love the water! Going right under, spraying water, splashing around, all while we were on their backs. We scrubbed them and washed them and it was a really cool thing to do, and they were liked dogs in a way, you find a spot they love (my elephant loved getting behind his ears washed) and they are powerless and hypnotised. I want a pet elephant!

Bath time done and was the last part of the day trip, down to a waterfall, 15 minutes boat ride away. We arrived and the waterfall was mental. Not tall like previous ones I had seen, but wide and raging! Laos has had a lot of rainfall and this had caused the waterfall to be flowing over where is normally dry, and flowing at a angry pace. The bars had water gushing past where you would normally stand to order, walkways over the river were under water and the cement tables and chairs were just about underwater. I think this made it more impressive in the end as it just seemed angry and a bit out of control!

I decided to cap off my day with of course, another trip to the night market for some dinner. Although I got there a little later then wanting to as the guy at the guesthouse insisted I have a beer or two with him before I go, there was still plenty of fish to go around and I had my way with a huge serving of salad and BBQ fish and washed it down with a tasty BeerLao and retired home, ready for our minivan to Vang Vieng the next day, which could be an interesting trip due to all the recent landslides…We’ll see how it goes.