LUANG PRABANG, LAOS
After meeting at the White Elephant Adventures office at 8:30 am, Chris and I were joined by three young Londoners--Rob, Charlie and Charlotte--and our Lao guide Max (a former monk and a Slipknot fan!), for our one-day trek through the surrounding countryside. First we were driven about a half-hour south of town via sawgthaew (a covered pickup truck with benches in the back) over dirt roads, through the outlying hills. We stopped at a couple of hill tribe villages along the way, where we got out and took some photos of huts and children and drying peanuts and piglets and whatnot. It's still strange to come across primitive-looking thatched huts with big satellite dishes outside, but I guess that's the 21st Century for ya! It seems that housewives the world over have to watch their stories. We also visited a village primary school, which was a lot of fun. The kids were at recess, playing various playground games and running around like lunatics. They're not that used to visiting Westerners, apparently--seems like many of them couldn't decide whether to be frightened or amused at the sight of us.
We then started trekking, first through a village, then over farmland (fields of corn, squash, and rice), and finally into the jungle. After some three hours of steamy, sweaty slogging, we finally made it to the top of Tat Kuang Si, one of the area's most famous waterfalls. We then followed a staircase that ran down the side of the falls (and sometimes through them) to the bottom, where there's a picnic area with a magnificent view of the falls, which are really tall and dramatic. We had lunch there and then walked farther downstream to even more falls; a series of smaller cascades that drop ten or fifteen feet at a time; and a bona fide swimmin' hole complete with jumping tree. We all had to jump in and go swimming, of course--the water was freezing cold, but felt great after all that trekking in the hot sun. Charlie and Rob were the most acrobatic, doing backflips off the tree and the falls themselves--crazy kids. Oh, and we also ran into Andrea from Munich, who was visiting the falls with a different tour group.
Here's something kind of random: On our way out of the waterfall park, we walked by two fenced-in enclosures in the forest: one containing a number of Asiatic black bears, and one containing a tiger! All of the animals were supposedly rescued from poachers, and I think were being raised for eventual transfer to zoos. Actually, the enclosures looked just as big as those in a zoo, and they each had jungle vegetation and a natural stream running through them, so it looked like the animals had it pretty good. There was a guy selling bananas there so you could feed the bears--at the prospect of food, they stood up and walked around on their hind legs, which was hilarious to see. Chris kept throwing bananas to one bear, but he was so stupid he kept staring at Chris while the bananas kept bouncing off his head and were retrieved by other bears--not the brightest ursine in the bunch, for sure.
We were then driven back to town just in time to visit Phou Si, the sacred hill at the center of Luang Prabang. It's supposed to be best viewed at sunset, so Chris and I scaled the 300 steps to the top just after 5 pm to have a look. The temple itself is nothing special, but the view over the town, the Mekong river, and the surrounding hills, forest, and farmland is really amazing. Chris didn't stick around for sunset, as he wanted to get some information on kayaking from the Canadian guy who runs White Elephant Tours, so he went back down while I chilled out at the top of the hill for another half hour or so and watched the sun set over the Mekong. (And ran into Andrea again up there, too!)
Afterward I met Chris at White Elephant Adventures, who was talking with Derek the owner, a really nice new-agey entrepreneur who moved to Laos several years ago from London, Ontario. We sat for awhile in the shop, drank beer, and talked about life in Luang Prabang, changing Lao society, and his various business ventures.
For dinner, Chris and I decided to check out a "Lao Barbecue" joint on the banks of the Mekong, which turned out to be really good: For $3.50, they give you a bunch of meat, eggs, vegetables, and spices (more than enough for two people), which you cook over a charcoal fire right at your table. They also supply a bowl of crunchy fried eggplant, which tastes a lot like potato chips. Mmm....
Later Chris and I went to a local bar called Khob Chai, where we were befriended by the bartenders and somehow ended up getting taken by them on their motorbikes to the big disco in town, which was packed to the hilt. There we ran into Derek from White Elephant, and met a guy named Mark from Louisville, Georgia(!) who lives in Laos for six months of the year. Small world, eh?
After meeting at the White Elephant Adventures office at 8:30 am, Chris and I were joined by three young Londoners--Rob, Charlie and Charlotte--and our Lao guide Max (a former monk and a Slipknot fan!), for our one-day trek through the surrounding countryside. First we were driven about a half-hour south of town via sawgthaew (a covered pickup truck with benches in the back) over dirt roads, through the outlying hills. We stopped at a couple of hill tribe villages along the way, where we got out and took some photos of huts and children and drying peanuts and piglets and whatnot. It's still strange to come across primitive-looking thatched huts with big satellite dishes outside, but I guess that's the 21st Century for ya! It seems that housewives the world over have to watch their stories. We also visited a village primary school, which was a lot of fun. The kids were at recess, playing various playground games and running around like lunatics. They're not that used to visiting Westerners, apparently--seems like many of them couldn't decide whether to be frightened or amused at the sight of us.
We then started trekking, first through a village, then over farmland (fields of corn, squash, and rice), and finally into the jungle. After some three hours of steamy, sweaty slogging, we finally made it to the top of Tat Kuang Si, one of the area's most famous waterfalls. We then followed a staircase that ran down the side of the falls (and sometimes through them) to the bottom, where there's a picnic area with a magnificent view of the falls, which are really tall and dramatic. We had lunch there and then walked farther downstream to even more falls; a series of smaller cascades that drop ten or fifteen feet at a time; and a bona fide swimmin' hole complete with jumping tree. We all had to jump in and go swimming, of course--the water was freezing cold, but felt great after all that trekking in the hot sun. Charlie and Rob were the most acrobatic, doing backflips off the tree and the falls themselves--crazy kids. Oh, and we also ran into Andrea from Munich, who was visiting the falls with a different tour group.
Here's something kind of random: On our way out of the waterfall park, we walked by two fenced-in enclosures in the forest: one containing a number of Asiatic black bears, and one containing a tiger! All of the animals were supposedly rescued from poachers, and I think were being raised for eventual transfer to zoos. Actually, the enclosures looked just as big as those in a zoo, and they each had jungle vegetation and a natural stream running through them, so it looked like the animals had it pretty good. There was a guy selling bananas there so you could feed the bears--at the prospect of food, they stood up and walked around on their hind legs, which was hilarious to see. Chris kept throwing bananas to one bear, but he was so stupid he kept staring at Chris while the bananas kept bouncing off his head and were retrieved by other bears--not the brightest ursine in the bunch, for sure.
We were then driven back to town just in time to visit Phou Si, the sacred hill at the center of Luang Prabang. It's supposed to be best viewed at sunset, so Chris and I scaled the 300 steps to the top just after 5 pm to have a look. The temple itself is nothing special, but the view over the town, the Mekong river, and the surrounding hills, forest, and farmland is really amazing. Chris didn't stick around for sunset, as he wanted to get some information on kayaking from the Canadian guy who runs White Elephant Tours, so he went back down while I chilled out at the top of the hill for another half hour or so and watched the sun set over the Mekong. (And ran into Andrea again up there, too!)
Afterward I met Chris at White Elephant Adventures, who was talking with Derek the owner, a really nice new-agey entrepreneur who moved to Laos several years ago from London, Ontario. We sat for awhile in the shop, drank beer, and talked about life in Luang Prabang, changing Lao society, and his various business ventures.
For dinner, Chris and I decided to check out a "Lao Barbecue" joint on the banks of the Mekong, which turned out to be really good: For $3.50, they give you a bunch of meat, eggs, vegetables, and spices (more than enough for two people), which you cook over a charcoal fire right at your table. They also supply a bowl of crunchy fried eggplant, which tastes a lot like potato chips. Mmm....
Later Chris and I went to a local bar called Khob Chai, where we were befriended by the bartenders and somehow ended up getting taken by them on their motorbikes to the big disco in town, which was packed to the hilt. There we ran into Derek from White Elephant, and met a guy named Mark from Louisville, Georgia(!) who lives in Laos for six months of the year. Small world, eh?
posted by John Kuge at 11:20 PM
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