Greetings from Luang Prabang, Laos!

Monday, 17 December 2007
Our flight to Laos scared the heck out of me (Laura writing here, Charles is never scared of anything!) --I hate flying and it was my first time on a smallish propeller plane, but I have to say that it was one of the smoothest rides I've ever been on. The flight into Luang Prabang is amazing--you see all the mountains
around the town and the 2 rivers that surround it.

(now Charles is writing): The airport scene wasn't too bad. Once we got through customs and proved that we would be obedient to the laws of this socialist state we had to list the name of the hotel we would be staying at. There was actually a booth set up for hapless folk (like many of the other tourists who didn't seem to plan this sort of thing in advance!) to help them find a hotel in their price range! At the airport we were directed to a shuttle bus that would take us and some other tourists to our hotel. We shared a shuttle with an interesting Norwegian guy with an intriguing backpack (too difficult to explain but it looked handmade--something involving bamboo and fabric). He had no reservations but was confident that the choice he made through the airport service would suffice. We admired (and later envied and emulated) his gutsiness. After dropping off our Norwegian friend the shuttle dropped us off at the no-frills but clean Haysoke Hotel where we were staying. After taking a brief respite we decided to explore the city. The clerk at the hotel gave us a map on how to get to the main drag. It was interesting to compare the no-frills service we received in Luang Prabang vs. Bangkok. Of course this might have been due to the fact that our guesthouse in Bangkok was privately owned (and by a group of friends) vs. a state-owned hotel in LP. Their English was definitely not as good as in Bangkok but we can't complain because our knowledge of the Lao language was non-existent! The clerk said it would be a ten minute walk to the main part of town. He then stated, "walking is good, it is good to walk." OK! With that in mind we headed off to downtown Luang Prabang. The first thing that hit us was how few cars there were and how many people were on motor bikes. (Apparently, in all of these SE Asian countries, bicycles were the norm until a proliferation of cheap, Chinese-made motor bikes hit the market a few years ago). We tried to imagine how this town looked under French rule but the only thing that looked European were the extremely wide boulevards. There were some buildings that looked vaguely "French" but had obviously been updated/renovated within the last few years. One of the more interesting things about the architecture was the fact that so many religious or animist motifs were incorporated into the landscape. Very different from what we were used to.
We walked down the main boulevard where merchants were beginning to set up for the night market, which apparently is a very big deal here. A lot of intriguing shops and restaurants were open (and tons of tourists were milling about!) but we decided we'd check these out tomorrow. We wanted to explore as much of the city as we could while it was still light enough to do so and investigate this one neighborhood we had read about up the hill near the Mekong River.

We continued walking up the "street" to Phu Si hill - an area that actually reminded us of Silverlake in Los Angeles. Hip restaurants and bars blasting Western-style music were set up next to traditional Lao huts and restaurants. An odd juxtaposition. We decided to stop in at this one bar we'd read about on the Lonely Planet forum called "Hive" -- lots of red mood lighting, trance music, exotic drinks and cool furniture...and BeerLao, of course! We enjoyed the atmosphere of "the most posh night venue in Luang Prabang, and perhaps all of Laos" but it was still pretty early and hardly any other customers were about. (For an altogether different view of how this place is when it is crowded, read this).

After a drink or three we headed back up the road to Lao Lao Garden -- a bbq restaurant we had passed earlier. Of course what sort of meat they barbecued was the 20,000 kip question! The restaurant was set up in an intriguing way -- open-air layout, bonfires and individual tables carefully separated from each other on the terraced hillside. Christmas-type lights placed in the bushes around the tables and on the stairways. No other lighting was present to allow maximum privacy. We ordered one of their BBQ combos (some tasty barbecued pork, chicken and beef) and they served it up quite well. A guy came to our table, lifted up a grill in the middle of it, lit it and then proceeded to place meat fat on the center of it. The fat bubbled and he rubbed it around the grill before placing the various types of meat on it. After grilling the meat, he prepared bowls of veggies and broth that he placed the hot, grilled meat into. Wow! What an amazing meal! He left us on our own to finished grilling the remaining meat. Tasty and lean (nothing was fat in any of these countries except the tourists!) and washed down with more Beer Lao.

Across the way from this restaurant we saw one of the hotels that we tried to get a room at and we were kind of glad they were full because this is one street that had a lot of traffic noise. While we were eating dinner we'd heard music coming from nearby, and we realized that just off of this same street there was some sort of local carnival happening. We decided to be brave and investigate (we think we were the only Westerners there). We walked down a dirt pathway that led to an area between some buildings and saw groups of people gathered in various areas playing different types of games. It was very low-key -- kind of like a small church carnival -- and we watched some of the games and people dance to live music. Everyone once in awhile we saw the locals checking us out--probably wondering why we were there. After awhile, knowing that we had a full day of exploring this town tomorrow, we decided to go back to our hotel and crash.