Luang Prabang all laid back

Today was our last day in Laos :(
We did a small morning tour of the city with our guide; visiting the King’s Palace which was now a museum. No photos were allowed inside, indeed we had to place our cameras, hats and backpacks into lockers before entering. Inside were all sorts of artifacts from around Laos, as well as the preserved Kings Palace, including his bedroom, sitting chambers, welcoming chambers with detailed paintings depicting Lao life on the walls. His throne and various suits and swords were also on display. A very interesting place.

We then visited a temple bejeweled in glass mosaic; green on the outside and red on the inside.

Luang Prabang and Kuangsi Waterfalls

A much later start to the day today; our pickup was at 9:30 so we had plenty of time to relax over breakfast.

Nikhom arrived on his motorbike, and our driver brought the mini-van along shortly after. We headed out through the suburbs of Luang Prabang, passing scores of schools with their yards a sea of bicycles. The houses thinned out and the water buffalo became more frequent as we left the city. The road started weaving through the mountains, and we passed many young teak plantations and small villages.

Luang Prabang and Pak Ou Caves

Up early today for a 6:00am pickup. We watched the monks doing their dawn alms collection. Very beautiful to watch. A large family had come to give alms and they were the centre of attention with lots of tourists taking their photo, even before the monks arrived.

The monks came in single file in their saffron robes accepting rice, bananas and other food without acknowledgement. When their bowls were full, or just at their choosing they take some food out of their bowls and give it to some poor children who were standing at the side of the procession.

Pakse

Today was a transit day. Our guide wanted to pick us up at 8:00 in the morning for an 11:45 flight. This would have left us sitting at the airport for nearly 4 hours. When challenged the night before, he said it was something to do with the airport, and not knowing enough I didn't argue it with him. But after checking with the hotel desk, I decided to leave him a message and we would make our own way to the airport.

I was up when he arrived so told him directly that we would just catch a tuktuk to the airport ourselves. He said to leave it with him, and a phone call later he said he had a driver arranged that would take us to the airport at 10:00. Much better.

Si Phan Done

I was up before dawn, and walked out to watch the sun rising over the Mekong. Some monks were walking along the river but I missed a beautiful photo of them with the sunrise as the battery went flat in the camera and I was locked out with Michelle still asleep and couldn't change it.

We are not quite getting what is meant to be happening with our new guide. He said he would pick us up at 8:00, but was at our hotel at 7:00. Questions on whether we were late or he was early or checking the time on our watch didn't really get resolved. I guess this was laid back Laos.

We had a filling breakfast of scrambled eggs and the most beautiful sweet orange juice. We rushed our breakfast, finishing at 7:30 only to not be able to find our guide anywhere. We wandered along the banks waiting; he showed up soon after but then we couldn't find our boat driver. Eventually we were off down the river.

Don Khong Island

Mone picked us up from the hotel and dropped us off at Talat Suo Market. We had a quick wander through and bought a few woven scarves. Then it was to the airport for our Air Laos flight to Pakse.

Vientiane

We went for a morning walk in Vientiane; the city is quite nice, small and relaxed. We walked along the Mekong River, passing river front restaurants with lots of tasty looking BBQ treats on sale: chicken, quail, fish and vegetables. We also saw live toads and large prawns in pots ready for cooking. I did a currency exchange of US$100, getting just under 9000kip at the Bank deCommerce. The Lao Bank further in town would have given a slightly better rate.

We walked past all sorts of shops, bought a few items from a minimart, saw laundry shops quoting 800kip for a kilo and stopped at an internet café and caught up on all of our e-mail. The speed and being able to access g-mail was a luxury after Myanmar.

Laos!

After visiting Myanmar we spent a week in Laos. Laos is a most beautiful country. Very relaxed and easy going with beautiful scenery and beautiful people.

Yangon to Vientiane

I planned to have a massage this morning but the hotel massage wasn't open till 12 and we were checking out at 11:30.

I went for a walk, but the Sera Beauty Spa in the Lonely Planet Book either wasn't there anymore or was closed and not sign posted. No luck today, though I did have an interesting walk down some back streets of Yangon, past some old French Colonial houses surrounded by large gardens.

We had breakfast in our hotel room as there were smokers in the restaurant. The jams were delightful: homemade orange marmalade and a grapefruit jam, tangy and tasty. Our airport transfer was again filled with much talk of Myanmar, politics and the mystery of the government. Our transfer to Bangkok was delayed on take-off and was also further delayed on arrival; our pilot requested to reduce airspeed due to high traffic at Bangkok Airport.

Our flight to Vientiane was also delayed, and coupled with a very long wait for Visa on arrival our guide at Vientiane was forced to wait almost an hour for us. Our guide Mone was lovely and pleasant and transferred us directly to our hotel, the Don Chan Palace. We went to sleep pretty much on arrival, despite the karaoke night club music playing into the night.