Entry into Laos was fairly straight forward via Huay Xai. All you needed was a passport photo, lots of US dollars and enough time to cross the border before 6pm
.
Our guestouse at Huay Xai had clearly been reviewed by lonely planter during the 70’s. The décor was bad, it was damp and the place was overpriced. We also suddenly learned that the atms in Laos had a maximum withdrawal of £4.57 inclusive of bank charges. We managed to scrap enough KIP together to buy our boat ticket and pay for our hotel and food.
The boat trip along the Mekong from Huay Xai to Lang Prabang was a pleasure. We arrived on the boat before the Germans so quickly established the towel regime for the comfortable seats, real bonus. WE stopped overnight half way along river in a quiet little town called Pak Beng. Curry seemed to be a popular choice so we followed suit, many Indian nationals in Laos, not sure why. This place was amazing at night since the skies were so clear that most star signs were visible.
Finally ended up in Lang Prabang 2 days later what a picturesque town, Very French, very colonial….
We eventually stayed in Lang Prabang for 5 days in total since we needed a rest from the 3 days travelling and had many things to do. During our stay we hired mountain bikes and cycled 32km to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls, which was a complete shock to the system since we hadn’t done any real exercise for a while. Mariana had a hissing fit just before we arrived but soon calmed down after a feeding.
The waterfalls were spectacular and there was also a bear sanctuary down the hill, but sadly it was late in the afternoon and all were sleepy. It was agreed that cycling back to Lang Prabang was a stupid idea since it would be dark before we made it back, so we took a tuk tuk instead with the bikes tied to the roof.
The following day was a well deserved rest day before our next adventure, a hill tribe trek. We started early and headed out for about an hour in a van, our guide Kia took us on a 6 hour trek climbing about 600m in a straight climb which took there toll on the old man’s knees. The day was fantastic, the nature and scenery were really nice and I suppose (but only suppose) this gave us satisfaction for the $90 we paid for the trip. We had lunch in one of the villages Laos style, i.e with hands using banana leaves as plates.
The next day was again a rest day before heading off to our next destination, Vang Vieng.
No comments:
Post a Comment