After recovering from our amazing forest trek we spend the 17th December taking buses to Nong Kiaow, a stunning town in the north-east on the banks of the River Ou. We found ourselves by a very dramatic landscape of karst mountains and lush wooded valleys, more laid-back smiling people and a very welcoming guest house (Sunset guest house - recommended if you visit). We were lucky to arrive at sunset which set the the hills on fire and I think all of us (Dan from the trek came too) were rendered speechless by the overwhelming beauty of the place. We spent the next day there to break our journey up which we spent relaxing, visiting nearby caves and in Ellen's case suffering with another cold. Dan and I decided that drinking heavily would be suitable evening recreation and a splendid even was passed, during which we met a really amazing Tasmanian (via Guernsey and Bristol) lady called Jo who I hope to meet again in Laos before we leave.
On 19th we set off in a small slow riverboat (see pictures) for a 7 hour journey to Luang Prabang along the River Ou; this journey was our main reason for taking such a detour to Nong Kiaow in the first place as it is famously spectacular, passing through steep mountainous areas and later wonderful lush rolling hills. I have to report that it lived up to its reputation and certainly wins the prize of most beautiful journey so far, a very relaxing, tranquil way to arrive in the cultural capital of Laos.
Actually Luang Prabang came as a bit of a shock to the system: it is tourist heaven with whities well outnumbering Asians in certain areas and having spent some time in the jungle and then small villages it all seemed quite hectic. Being a tourist myself of course I can hardly complain and to be honest Luang Prabang is a very small, peaceful, laid back and exquisite town; if you arrived here from any English town you would probably wonder why it is so quiet and deserted. It is an improbably picturesque place nestled into a bend on the Mekong where French colonial villas jostle with traditional Lao buildings, and where inevitably the styles collide in interesting and distinct ways - a wooden building on stilts with grand ornate central doorway for example, or a colonial villa with intricate Buddhist roof ornaments.
We came here so we could spend Christmas relaxing in this slow tropical place with nothing to do, and in typical Ellen and Andy fashion have spent most of our time bumping into people we met earlier, being very busy rushing around and often cold: despite the gorgeous and permanent dry sunshine the evenings get below 10 degrees, which now we have acclimatised feels pretty chilly. Still the days are balmy and although we have been here about 5 days I really couldn't tell you where the time has gone.
So far we have browsed the amazing night market where villagers and tribal folks from outside come to sell handicrafts, textiles and clothes to tourists (amazing experience and that's from a non-shopper), eaten well and cheaply surrounded by coconut palms on the bank of the Mekong, met with the very well implemented Language Project and scheduled some time to join them as volunteers, and been taken under the wing of a kind yet fiercely independent Japanese lady we met while photographing a Phi shrine. Phi are the spirits from pre-Buddhist nature worship here that still are revered: when you build a new house or do serious work on an existing one you must make a shrine for the spirit of the place to live in during the disruption, and make offerings daily to it lest this (protective) spirit abandons the place. The Japanese lady, it turns out, bought the building recently and is renovating it to create a Japanese cultural centre (Zen garden, tea house) as a tourist business and as a way to promote her own culture that is so important to her.
She seems to know just about everyone who's anyone in the town, especially if they are gay, and through her we have met may interesting eccentrics including the former Prince Somsanith of Laos who now runs an educational cultural centre to make sure that elements of Laos culture such as embroidery and traditional music are not lost during the modernisation. A very passionate guy who we hope to drop in on again after Christmas. We have also been introduced to the local UNESCO co-ordinator who again we hope to drop in on after Christmas to see if there are any opportunities for us to get involved there.
Yesterday we were also introduced to a very interesting German French Spanish guy who used to be a cameraman but now spends his time yachting on the high seas, who may, just may, be able to help us solve our 'Thailand to India with out flying' dilemma: there is an (albeit very slim) outside chance that we can fluke passage on a private yacht to the gorgeous Andaman Islands at the end of January, from where we can get a passenger boat to the Indian mainland. Given that this would be one of the cockiest solutions to a famously intractable problem, please keep everything crossed for us!
Today we hope to spend the day at a nearby village partaking in the local Hmong tribe's new year celebrations, before returning for that great English tradition: the Christmas Eve curry.
