Beer and wats in Luang Prabang

As could probably be expected, we didn’t spend too long in Oudamxai and left the next morning, bright and early for Luang Prabang. (Or Louang Prabang, or Luang Phabang, or any one of the dozens of ways we saw this city's name spelled/transliterated.) The bus was a big long proper bus with two seats on each side and an aisle in the middle. I only note this because after we got on the bus, the bus guys started loading the interior of the bus chock full of merchandise or food. As most of the seats were full, they lugged huge bags to the back of the bus and started stacking them on top of each other and eventually filled up the aisle to about shoulder height (while sitting) all the way to about the middle of the bus. As we were towards the back of the bus, it meant no stretching my long legs out into the aisle. One more interesting thing happened on the bus, we saw the older guy and younger girl from the restaurant the night before. Well, they were actually directly in front of me and across the aisle from Paul. We started up a conversation with them and they turned out to be an Aussie father-daughter combo. They were super nice and down to earth and pretty cool people. They were only sharing one backpack between them and it was both of their first time off the Australian continent. When we got to Luang Prabang we shared a taxi into town and we ran into them a few more times over the next couple days.

The taxi took us to the backpacker district in Luang Prabang and we stopped at a Western-style café and had some coffee and sandwiches before going to look for a place to stay. We found a pretty nice hotel at an okay price and as we weren’t willing to look around more and a lot of places seemed to be full, we took it. We ended up having to jump rooms a few times as the rooms we initially got ended up being reserved but the staff was very nice and accomodating.

That night we walked through the night market which was very tourist-oriented but had some decent snacks and some really nice fabrics and craftwork. Touristy or not, this place was really cool and quickly taking hold of us. After the night market, we found a nice bar and got some actual mixed drinks. It was a nice break after all those Thai and Lao lagers and crappy alcohol. I got a crepe after that with cheese and ham which was pretty good. Crepes are a thing definitely geared towards westerners in SE Asia, but that fact doesn’t make them any less tasty so I wasn’t too much of a snob about eating them. We then went to a restaurant on the bank of the Mekong River where the people who hadn’t gotten crepes had a mediocre meal and I had some mango sticky rice—my last of the trip. On the way back to the hotel we picked up some wine for the next few days as we knew we’d be staying in Luang Prabang for at least a few days while we tried to sort out or Vietnamese visas.

The next day we moseyed on over to the Vietnamese consulate which we’d heard about way back in Chiang Khong. Walking up to the place only took about 15 minutes and it was on the other side of the small mountain/large hill in town which placed it pretty much on the other side of town. The size of Luang Prabang definitely came more into focus then, as I’d expected it to be much bigger. Anyway, the Vietnamese visa procedure was pretty straightforward and not nearly as complicated as we’d been told. The consulate was also pretty lax on security, I think an elementary school in the states is generally better protected. Well, they told us to come back in two days so we said alright, see ya later.

We decided to walk back a different way which took us to the other side of the mini-mountain in town. We saw a pizza place so we sat down, got a few pies, ordered a round of beer, and played a few rounds of euchre. After this, Henry and I wanted to check out some of the statues of Buddha and the wat on the top of the mountain. There was an entrance fee to go up and Patrick and Paul were feeling a bit stingy (or maybe just not interested) so Henry and I checked it out. There were some large golden Buddha statues near the bottom and a different one in a different position for each day of the week. At the top of the mountain was a fairly small wat with nothing too spectacular about it, save for the view. We could see all of Luang Prabang from the top in a 360 degree view and also the surrounding mountains and countrysides with the two rivers coming together just north of us. Henry and I took some pictures and then walked down the mountain and right up to the Royal Museum which was closed that day. More interesting, though, was the incredibly ornate and beautiful wat accompanying it. We could only look at it from the outside, though, because it was closed maybe because of lunch time or something to do with the closure of the Royal Museum. We then walked around, lost but not really caring. It’s something everyone who goes to Laos comments on but it really is easy to just relax, kick back, and enjoy the slower pace of life there. We found the Hmong day market (located very close to the night market) and wandered around there for a bit before heading back to the hotel to regroup.

We had a little wine later on with Patrick and Paul and then walked across town to the bank of a different river where we’d heard about this really tasty barbeque. I’ve never had Korean barbeque but I think the idea was pretty consistent with that. We ordered a few different types of meat at some tables overlooking the river and somebody came by and put some hot coals in a metal tub which was sunk down in the middle of our table. Then, somebody else came by with a cover for the hole that looked a bit like a metal volcano with a moat around the bottom. We were supposed to then pour some broth in the moat at the bottom and fill it with veggies and crack an egg into it. Also, we then put the meat on the cover and let it cook and let the fats and juices drip down into the soup which we’d ladle ourselves a cup full from time to time. It was a delicious meal and we had no problem spending a couple hours there cooking our food and drinking some beers and tea.

The next day Henry and I rented bikes and rode around Luang Prabang. Again, this didn’t interest Paul or Patrick so I think they walked around and got a good meal at one of the luxury hotels that are popping up in Luang Prabang. I’d spotted a golden wat a little outside of town the previous day so we decided to try to find our way out there and it turned out to be pretty neat. It was a round one and had murals and about four floors. Each floor got progressively shorter and smaller so by the time we got to the top one, the two of us were a little cramped. On our way down, the caretakers alerted us that is was prayer hour and we’d have to leave while the wat closed for prayers. We then got lost on the way back to the center of town but, again, we didn’t mind and liked it. We found some really good lettuce-wraped snacks. Think of a spring roll but wrapped in a lettuce leaf and not fried. We then found a book exchange in a different part of town and I got a book to replace the Paul Theroux one I knew I’d have to give up soon because it still had not dried out from the trek and was beginning to get moldy. Henry and I then found a different restaurant down by the Mekong and had a good, quiet time just looking out over the slow moving river and talking a little. We ordered a couple dishes and split them: a grilled deer one and a wild boar curry. Both were amazing.

When we eventually got back to the hotel I decided to relax for a while in our room while Henry, Paul, and Patrick sat around and started hitting the wine again. We went to the same barbeque place from the previous night and ordered about twice as much food, having no problem finishing it all. After that, we decided to go to a bar and it was about this point that I realized how far behind I was in terms of wine drinking because arguments started getting more and more heated and tempers were starting to flare. I tried to play more of a moderating stance trying to get people to cool down or occasionally taking sides with somebody who seemed to be getting the brunt of it from the other two to try to balance things out. Mostly, though, I just tried to get people to cool down and talk about something we didn’t have to argue about and take personally. One thing about Luang Prabang which is probably a good thing is that bars and restaurants have an 11:30 PM curfew. I think this is good because it keeps the town from turning into a party town like so many other touristy places and it rescued us from potentially having several hours more worth of arguments. Apologies were given the next day and I think everyone realized that we’d just been spending a lot of time together and probably one too much beers had been consumed.

The next day, our last in Luang Prabang was pretty calm. I went to a bakery in the morning and then went and picked up all of our passports equipped with our spankin’ new Vietnamese visas. I then met up with Henry and Paul and we got some lunch at a nice pasta place that was near a restaurant where Henry and Paul were thinking of taking a cooking class at. Eventually they decided not to. I’m not sure if it was the price or just a general desire to relax for one last night but we ended up doing just that. We all kinda did our own thing for the most part and getting some much needed solo time. We had one more meal down on the Mekong for dinner and packed up all of our bags and got ready to head out the next day for the infamous party and tourist hub of Vang Vieng.