Luang Prabang is an old town that looks to me like somewhere in provincial Europe somehow; some areas of Laos were settled by the French and cobbled streets and narrow alleyways litter the old section of the city. Buildings are painted white with french style green shutters. Large wooden guesthouses are scattered around; sturdy, aggressive, grand buildings. Two rivers; the Nam Khan and the Mekong run alongside the old city creating a picturesque and somewhat secluded peninsula. In the late afternoon sun, my friends and I take a walk up Phu Si; a natural mount which is topped by That Chomsi; a small temple and a small cave shrine. We wander around the ancient structures and remain high on the mount to watch the large red globe of the sun disappear behind the mountains.
We spend a morning of our stay here visiting Tham Ting; two cave shrines 25 kilometres up the river from Luang Prabang. It's a small long boat which transports us there with comically tiny wooden chairs for seats that takes two hours to chug its way upstream on the stunningly beautiful Mekong. This combined with the horror that is a mini-van ride from the north explains why everyone is taking the slow boat to Luang Prabang! We stop at a whiskey village on the way where locals are selling bottles of liquor with snakes and scorpions and all sorts inside them. Taste? No thank you. At Tham Ting we find the first cave filled with approximately 2,500 various sized Buddha statues (no i didn't count, that figure came from an info board) that are lined up like a tiny army, some perched in peculiar places, most covered in a thick layer of dust. The second cave goes back much further and houses a couple of large Buddha images in it's darkest reaches. We re-board our shrunken 'Alice in Wonderland' vessel for the one hour trip back downstream. The boat ride along the mighty Mekong is the highlight of this outing.
Luang Prabang is an old town that looks to me like somewhere in provincial Europe somehow; some areas of Laos were settled by the French and cobbled streets and narrow alleyways litter the old section of the city. Buildings are painted white with french style green shutters. Large wooden guesthouses are scattered around; sturdy, aggressive, grand buildings. Two rivers; the Nam Khan and the Mekong run alongside the old city creating a picturesque and somewhat secluded peninsula. In the late afternoon sun, my friends and I take a walk up Phu Si; a natural mount which is topped by That Chomsi; a small temple and a small cave shrine. We wander around the ancient structures and remain high on the mount to watch the large red globe of the sun disappear behind the mountains.
We spend a morning of our stay here visiting Tham Ting; two cave shrines 25 kilometres up the river from Luang Prabang. It's a small long boat which transports us there with comically tiny wooden chairs for seats that takes two hours to chug its way upstream on the stunningly beautiful Mekong. This combined with the horror that is a mini-van ride from the north explains why everyone is taking the slow boat to Luang Prabang! We stop at a whiskey village on the way where locals are selling bottles of liquor with snakes and scorpions and all sorts inside them. Taste? No thank you. At Tham Ting we find the first cave filled with approximately 2,500 various sized Buddha statues (no i didn't count, that figure came from an info board) that are lined up like a tiny army, some perched in peculiar places, most covered in a thick layer of dust. The second cave goes back much further and houses a couple of large Buddha images in it's darkest reaches. We re-board our shrunken 'Alice in Wonderland' vessel for the one hour trip back downstream. The boat ride along the mighty Mekong is the highlight of this outing.
its not like you to turn down a drink, but i cant say i blame you, they look very scarry. mum
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