Luang Prabang

I'm going to do the best I can here on 4 hours sleep. Woke up this last morning in Siem Reap to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat. More on that later.

Wrapping up Laos was the UNESCO World Heritgage town of Luang Prabang, Laos. This place has long been on my list and is probably going to end up being head and shoulders above everything else I saw here, including Angkor Wat for many reasons.

The town is a smallish one sandwiched between two rivers, one of which being the mighty Mekong. Unlike the circus show that is Siem Reap, Luang Prabang is not yet overrun with hordes of tour buses and their throngs of camera toting hooligans. This place draws a different kind of traveller as it is a different kind of place. The town, like Vientiane, is also dotted with so many colorful Wats, and the equally colorful and very camera shy monks. Laos is a very devout country and Buddhism reigns.

The town is easily walked in all of a couple of hours. All the action centers on two main throughfares, one of which is adjacent to the Mekong River where chic boutique hotels and lower rent guest houses comfortably share space with low key cafes and riverside eateries. Numerous galleries and the obligatry tourist trinket stores are also in abundance. Pubs are few. People come here to chill, not party. It somehow would feel sacreligious with all the monks running around to poison this place with the beer hall types and fortunately that element seemed absent.

Luang Prabang is the place to to just unwind. The sites themselves are few. TIme spent can be leisurley spent strolling the idyllic streets and alleyways viewing well maintained french colonial architecture and the Wats. Monk's are everywhere here. Their Orange Saffrom Robes add ever more color to this lush and colorful place.

Site's include the great Wat on the hill known as Phousi. Phousi is a golden spire almost 300 steps up from the main street, a climb one must make at least once if not twice. It commands an impressive site hovering over the town and is brightly lit up at night and visible from miles away. Many buddhist shrines dot the moutain and views are 360 degrees from the top of the hill. A few other Wat's should be visited and if you are lucky you can observe the Monk's in prayer, being careful not to distub them in any way. One of the great sites to behold is the procession of monks that occurs every morning near 5am where they receive alms from the devout on the main streets in town. The whole place is deeply spiritual. At dusk the songs of monks can be heard from all directions.

Crowds are moderate. The town attracts a potpouri of visitors from the dirty backpacker crowd to wealthy, mostly French, tourists who inhabit the handful of high end inns and hotels here. Its and odd mix but it works. No one is misbehaved. There is no outwardly rude or loud behavior and everyone seems to respect the space of the monks and the religion here.

If you want to shop, shop you can do. Ater sunset the main drag is closed down and becomes a street night market. This mazelike market is alive with assertive, though not overly pushy vendors selling their wares. No ghoulish animal parts here. Just jewelry, posters, t-shirts and other tourist crap. Again the Lao people show their grace and class despite their hardship, at all times. You are asked to buy, but if you say no thank you one time, you are usually greeted with a smile and a thank you, unlike Camodia where the word NO apparently does not translate. I think Cambodia can learn some lessons from the Laotians. They are utterly charming and polite at all times.

My time was spent doing much the same as everyone else. I explored the Wats,climbed Phousi a couple of times, and wandered the streets and markets taking in dirt cheap and very good local meals every night. A good dinner and a beer might run you 6 dollars here unless you must eat in the best places in which case you might spend 15.

Transportaion is entirely by foot or open air Tuk Tuk, a motorcycle puling a carriage belching horrific leaded gas. A necessary evil. Feet throb by the end of the day.

Excusrsions are easily booked and readily available in LP. Travel agents and tour companies abound and last minute flights, buses and tours to more remote regions can be easily done with no reservation necessary. The same for accomodations. Easy to get a room somewhere any time. I neglected to add my own personal accomodation mishap here. I chose pretty well with my hotels, using primarily trip advisor and other written travel guides for reference. Trip advisor is a site that reviews hotels by customers only, so there is no corporate bias and I have found it very useful in the past.

In LP I booked the #2 ranked hotel in town on trip advisor, the Hotel Le Bel Air. Everyone raved about it and at 75 dollars US how could I go wrong? Well on this one I was wrong. The hotel was on the wrong side of the river from town requiring you to navigate a very old and rusted jungle bridge over one of the rivers to get back and forth to your hotel from town. During the day it was harrowing. At night it was horrifying. This, and the room had no proper door. It was one of those jungle padlocked doors with a wood beam used as a lock from the inisde, torn and useless mosquito nets, a shower that was more of an open pit than a shower, and no windows. I was literally padlocked into this all wooden jungle room. I moved. Promptly. I ended up at the much more comfortable and only slightly more expensive Hotel Grand Luang Prabang outside of town but on the right side of the river which was great until I left. When I arrived in Cambodia my wallet was 50 bucks lighter. Two of the bellmen ripped me off on the way out.

For me, the highlight of this place was the river. I spent one of my evenings on a local boat that tours you out to watch the glorious sunset just up river from the town for about 5 dollars. So enthralled with the river, I spent the next day renting a private boat of my ow, for twenty dollars, and spent the day cruising the Mekong, an expeirence that ranks amongst the best travel experiences I have had. Rent a boat, grab your IPOD and your camera and immerese yourself on the Mekong. There is nothing like it. Luang Prabang is a place you really never want to leave.

On to Siem Reap and Cambodia where things take a bit of an ugly turn. Nap time for me