Laos - Luang Prabang

The photo above is by far the best part of the drive from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang. Without dwelling on the full experience, for the benefit of those who come after me (and myself, shall I return), I want to say that roads in Laos are truly horrific. Imagine provincial Russian roads, add mountainous landscape, and you have a recipe for some serious stomach churning. Naively, Google estimates that the distance, 217km in total, should be covered in under 3 hours. In reality, we were 'flying' at speed that's well above safe one, having come very close to a head-on collision with a truck at one of the myriad of blind curves, and we covered the distance in just over 6 hours... yeah, that's an average pace of 35km/hr! I also had the misfortune of sitting next to a very smelly guy who reeked of that unmistakable concoction of old sweat and stale cigarette smoke... that was, so far, the most trying day of the trip. So, for those considering visiting Laos, if you don't have nerves, and stomach, of steel, you may be better served paying the steep price and flying between your destinations, or alternatively, a private chauffeured minivan can be hired for ~$100/day where you can dictate the speed you go at (and control for the stinkiness of your neighbors) -- a great solution for small groups.

The journey's destination, Luang Prabang, is on the World Heritage list. As such, I was expecting something spectacular. What I found instead was something very charming, rather than spectacular. It's a town where colonial architecture mixes with traditional Lao style. Given its 'classic' charm, the town attracts a significant number of older travelers, most of who, I noticed, are from France (and they keep on attempting to speak French to locals and tourists alike, perhaps not having gotten the memo that Indochina is no longer!). Without exaggeration, tourists here outnumber the locals. So popular is the town with tourists, that 'booked up' might be an appropriate term for it -- having figured out back in Ventiane that tourist trail destinations will need to be booked in advance, I arrived here armed with a prepaid reservation for the entire stay. Those of the people who were traveling on the same route who didn't ended up having a tough time finding a midrange place to stay (though backpacker options are available). The same situation we encountered with massages (unheard-of situation in SE Asia!) and even restaurants on the main drag were fully booked by tour groups.

The climb to the Mount Phou Si provides some interesting views of Buddha statues along its route, as well as wonderful scenery of the surrounding area:

Pace of life is very measured here (even by Lao standards), perhaps set by the numerous monasteries dotting the town. I have been struggling with photographing inside monasteries, as it just seems grossly inappropriate to disrupt monks' activities by pointing cameras at them point-blank, or worse, sticking the camera into the prayer hall during the evening chanting and letting the blinding flash go off in the monks' faces, something that a few stately French tourists had no problem doing, as I observed from a distance. As a result, most of my shots are 'stolen' from a distance.

I also did a day trip out of town to the Kuang Si waterfall, joining up with several people I met here. The waterfall is quite scenic, and the plunge pool below was a welcome way to cool off after the hike to the top:

This is the end of my Lao adventure, I'm flying to Chiang Mai shortly and will spend the rest of my time in Thailand (at least that's the plan at this point). My thoughts on Laos, in a nutshell, are that this is a naturally beautiful country. I would like to explore its nature more fully, for example in Phonsavan area, as well the four thousand islands south of Pakse. The people here are very relaxed and tourism didn't seem to have corrupted them yet. That makes for a wonderful atmosphere to kick back, though service-wise it translates to less eagerness to please, compared to countries like Vietnam. Given this relaxed mindset, and the deplorable condition of roads here, the country is best explored with time to spare, it's possible to 'check it off one's list' by doing a one-city stop in Luang Prabang or Vientiane, but attempting to get around on a limited timeframe might be tiresome.