Luang Prabang Part 2 - Birthday Boun Boun

Pai!

July 20th. A big day. Our first excursion outside the beautiful city of Luang Prabang and time for Mr Riley to pull out the big guns. Why? Because it was my 23rd birthday. And boy was it the best birthday ever! We were picked up by the All Laos Elephant Camp at 9am and headed out of the city with the rest of the group. As we approached the hills we drove through a huge construction site where a new road was being built. The monsoon had hit a few days before and the whole place was thick with mud. It wasn't long before our minivan was stuck. It took some time, a lot of barefoot westerners and a JCB to get it out. I think the locals were surprised at how willing we all were (well, not all the girls) to jump out and take off ouir shoes and help shift the van from the warm gooey mud. When we finally got through we took a short boat trip up river and found ourselves in a forest clearing full of massive footprints and elephant poo and then, we saw them. Lumbering through the forest they were strangely silent as they moved, with their young mahouts perched on top. It was so surreal to see them just walking towards us through the jungle, so vast and yet so graceful. My foolish, western, media saturated brain thought for a moment that they must be CGI or something. We climbed aboard the howdah by means of a wooden scaffold and off we went for my first ever elephant ride.

Our elephant ride!

Yaya!

Our elephant was a little tempramental, she really did not want to go on a walk just then and trumpted away for a while, shaking her head in annoyance. I was pretty nervous, being high up and on a pissed off four tonne animal but the mahout, a 15 year old boy with minimal English, didn't seem too bothered. The view from up there was incredible. We stomped through the jungle for about a hour, hanging over the edge of the wooden howdah to watch the elephant walking. They are surprisingly sure footed for such big, cumbersome beasts.

Returning down river to the camp for lunch we learnt the mahout commands, ''pai'' for go, ''hao'' for stop and ''yaya!'' for no bad elephant, before heading back up river in our attractive, oversized mahout uniforms for some proper training. I thought the heavy denim uniforms might be a little over the top but when you're sat on the neck of an animal that enjoys mud baths and has tough wire-like hair over its entire body you're suddenly grateful that you're not wearing your own flimsy clothes. I tried to angle for what I thought was a slightly smaller elephant when we got back to the clearing but I was still pretty dubious when the elephant stood up and I was way up in the air balanced on its neck. Getting up is no mean feat, even if it does crouch down which it often won't, and it took a substantial bottom shove from Theo and an awful lot of pulling by the mahout to get me properly mounted.

When you're up there all you can see in front of you is this massive hairy head and floppy ears and the ground ahead. Every time she looked around or especially down I felt like I was going to topple off. My nice teenage mahout held on to me for a while before he decided to take a nap, which was very reassuring. Theo's mahout actually got off the elephant and just strolled along behind. I got used to it after a while and started to really enjoy the feeling of "driving" that vast animal through the jungle, not that it listened to my feeble cries of "pai!" when it didn't want to. It was surreal sitting atop an animal so vast it barely notices your weight and you can hardly see any of it from where you're sat.

The author pretending to be a mahout

Boun Boun!

The way down to the river was just a long slippery, muddy slope. I was at the back of the group and watched Theo's elephant slide down, get one foot caught and slither on its knees towards even ground. With a sigh of relief I registered that my boyfriend was still alive, he had not been cruhed by a falling elephant, then it dawned on me that it was my turn. The mahouts seemed to find the elephants lack of grace absolutely hilarious, which we found very comforting. I was so hot and sweaty with fear by this point that it was wonderful to have a dunk in the river. Half submerged my elephant rolled around, enjoying her bath, and responded enthusiastically when the mahout stood on her back, counted to three in Lao and shouted "boun boun!" (spray). Over and over again her periscope trunk came flicking out of the water and doused me. Elephants can hurl as much as ten litres of water out of their trunks at a time and I took some pretty forceful jets to the face. Back on dry land we rode up the slope and then with a graceful slide down while hanging off her ear my elephant ride was over.

Elephant bath time

Hao!

We tubed back down river, which basically involved sitting in the inner tube of a truck tyre like a rubber ring and floating along in the current, and walked over to the less than inspiring elephant information centre. This consisted of a large room covered in pictures of elephants walking, bathing and mating (graphically) as well as various diseases and afflictions in absolutely no logical order or with any explanations. Our tour guide Chai filled the time while we were waiting for the others to finish looking telling us about his home in the mountains and how his father abducted his mother when he decided he wanted to marry her. His grandfather then swung a chicken in the air, for reasons we failed to understand. Each to their own I suppose.

Getting Pally with the Locals

We were so exhausted the next day (and I had some serious groin strain from holding on for dear life) that we spent the day relaxing in the city before renting bicycles for the evening. This was an adventure in itself as it tuned out. We found the bicycle shop deserted and on hunting down a side alley for someone who worked there we found ourselves befriended by three elderly Lao men. They hollered to the shop boy before inviting us to join them. They gave us Lao Lao (oh no!)  and beer and let us share in their meal of fried meat and salad with chilli sauce then a whole dried fish. It felt totally surreal to be invited in to someone's lesiure time like that, we were hardly the only tourists out and about then but the men seemed generally insterested in hearing about where we came from and where we were going. We were pretty woozy by the time we actually got bicycles and only really managed to wobble along beside the Mekong looking for food.

Whiskey Village Deja Vu

On our last day in Luang Prabang we crammed in the final sights outisde the city with another tour. We were picked up by the most adorable tour guide ever, little Touy. Touy was only twenty and was still in training with the company. He told us all about his family who lived hours and hours away in a place with no water or electricity. He told us how he longed to see them and to go abroad but he didn't have the money for either. He had taken the job as a tour guide to learn English and because he liked meeting new people from places he would never see, and learning American slang. Touy stole our hearts immediately, which was good because the tour was slightly chaotic.

At the elephant camp Theo and I of course felt like old pros at the riding and clambered on confidently while the rest of the group wobbled and shrieked. With Theo on the neck and a dutch boy and I in the howdah we set off on a relatively short trip through the trees. It was a pretty easy route compared to the last one and we all took turns scrambling on to the neck. Theo and I shouted "pai!" and "quoa!" at every available opportunity which the mahouts walking along side and taking photos like paparazzi seemed to find pretty amusing.

Leaving the camp we went to a small whiskey village, which really was exactly like every other village we'd been to except that was turned over to the tourist trade. It comprised of wooden homes and dusty streets and stall after stall selling scarves and nicknacks. The only difference here was that you were plied with Lao Lao and rice wine to sample and make you buy something. Back at the elephant camp we had to sit around wait for an angry American couple, who having been forgotten in the morning, had to be taken to the whiskey village we had just left. With everyone grouped together again we travelled to the Pak Ou caves, a stunning set of caves in the side of a sheer rock face dropping straight on to the Nam Ou river. We shot across the river in a frail little boat and climbed first to the higher cave then the lower. The higher cave had a strange metal gate covering its entrance and was pretty dark when you got right back inside. It was full of tiers of tiny Buddha statues brought there by pious Lao People. They showed up like eerie lines of soldiers in the light of the camera flashes. The lower cave was much more open with a Mediterranean style white wall and set of stone steps. It too was bursting with Buddhas of every shape and size but seemed more of an open place of worship than the dark Buddha storage centre of the higher cave.

The Pak Ou caves

On the long drive to the Kuang Si waterfall we had to stop again at the pesky whiskey village and wait in the sweltering minivan while two more girls who missed it earlier looked around. Finally reaching the water park the first thing we saw was an enclosure of black bears, a species being conserved in this area. The black bears looked as relaxed as the locals while tourists gathered just a short walk away, around the breath-taking series of pools at the bottom of Kuang Si. The river is wide and falls in short cascades down into deep blue pools where we swam for an hour or so, avoiding the big rocks and crabs. The main pool is surrounded by people eating drinking and diving in from a rope swing or jumping off the waterfall. Theo and I went past this chaos and found our own private pool for a little while slightly further up stream. It pays to explore. After our swim Touy led us up to the top of the waterfall to see the most impressive cascade. The drop was huge but it was punctuated with a few steps high up the cliff and lots of little side waterfalls contributed to the full picture.

Lastly we stopped at a Hmong village, another one of one room houses and muddy half naked children and cheap bracelets, before making the long drive back to Luang Prabang.

Kuang Si waterfall

The next day was spent almost entirely in a local restaurant waiting for the time to pass. When it was finally time to leave the trip to the airport, check-in, security and boarding all went by very fast. Before we knew it we were taking off, aboard a surprisingly plush Lao Airlines' plane and being given teeny tiny sandwiches and cake!

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Luang Prabang Part 1 - Oh La La

The journey to Luang Prabang was supposed to take four hours, it actually took two and a half. Now every journey we'd done to date on our trip had taken longer than we had expected it to. We were surprised and grateful to finally have a shorter one. However, we spent the whole journey clinging to the seats as the driver threw the bus along the narrow roads like a bat out of hell.

Luang Prabang is a beautiful city. The whole place is part of an UNESCO World Heritage Site so all the shops and signs have to fit into the colonial style brought in by the French. It's continental, slow-paced and elegant and all feels very surreal. The pale yellow houses with their wooden shutters stare out over the wide river on both sides of the peninsula. The orange robes of the monks on every street remind you that you are in fact in Asia, not the Med, and every few turns a wat glitters out from behind its white walls. There are monasteries seemingly everywhere and the streets are packed with monks of all ages, but predominantly very young ones, marching off to the temples.

The author - The view of Luang Prabang from Phu SI hill

Grand Palace My Foot

There is so much to see in and around Luang Prabang that I shall to divide it between two posts. First of all let me tell you about all there is to see within the confines of this oddly mismatched city. On our first day we made a trip to Phu Si hill, a large hill with a golden stupa on top that dominates the old quarter of the city. Climbing the steep steps to the summint was sticky work and we were exhausted by the time we reached the top. We could see the rows of colonial style buildings, the semi-European feel mixed up with palms, motorbikes and muggy heat. The stupa on the top was pretty unremarkable but as we walked back down the east side of the hill we were met by some impressive golden Buddhas lounging on the rocks before continuing through a series of temples that sprang straight out of the hillside. Near the foot of the hill we peered in to the gloom of a temple to see the colossal imprint of Buddha's foot.

The Grand Palace

Close to Phu Si hill is the Grand Palace, former residence of the Laos royal family. It was pouring with rain all day when we visited. The water literally crashed out of the sky, flying up before soaking you again for a second time. On the plus side the city, particularly the tourists sights, was deserted. The palace itself was almost laughably low-key. Compared to the palaces and stately homes of Europe it was small and plain. The furniture was simple the walls bare and the place seemed able to only accommodate the king, the queen and a few children. The only impressive part was the throne room, a large(ish) purple room with its walls covered in tiny glass figures representing folk tales. The palace grounds were similarly unexciting, an exhibition of beat up old American cars that used to ferry his highness around, a chubby statue of the king and a very small Buddha which gives the city its name. The small, bare and crumbling temple we saw afterwards at the foot of Phu Si hill turned out to be infinitely more beautiful.

It's Just a Habit You Get into

At the tip of the peninsula sits Wat Xieng Thong, one of the largest monasteries in Luang Prabang. It's a beautiful place, quiet and peaceful. A collection of buildings sit in a large courtyard, all with gilt walls and intricate glass pictures on the outside, reminiscent of the Grand Palace. Everyday at dawn the monks flood from Xieng Thong and the other monasteries to collect alms. On our last day we rose at dawn and went out into the quiet streets to see the procession. It was incredible to think that we'd been sleeping or reading every morning when this beautiful sight had been filing right past our front door. All down the street Lao women knelt on mats, their left shoulders covered with a sash, and silently doled out sticky rice to young monks. The monks in turn carried vast metal containers slung over their shoulders and periodically broke off chunks of the rice they'd accumulated to drop into the begging bowls of the needy who knelt before them with hands clasped in respect. The only downside was the sheer number of tourists getting involved. We tried to stand respectfully and quietly out of the way but most people either joined in without the due propriety or went right up to the monks and took pictures, powerful flashes illuminating their faces in the dawn light.

The author - Wat Xieng Thong

The monks alms procession - Luang Prabang

Land Mine Legacy

Our last stop within Luang Prabang was the Laos UXO Centre, a small building away from the centre flanked by shell casings. We spent a sobering half hour learning about the terrible daily threat the people of this quiet little country still face. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam were more heavily bombed in the 2nd Indochina war than any other country in WWII.

The UXO Centre had hundreds of deactivated bombs of all shapes and sizes, including a large cluster bombs, refilled with the 680 'bombies' it would have contained. Each one with potential to kill or maim, they were a terrible sight to behold. The tales and images of farmers and children hurt by the UXO were heart-wrenching. Farmers have no choice whether or not they risk going out and digging in their fields everyday, if they want to eat that is, and though most village children are now taught to be on the look-out for bombies there are still those who forget and pick up the shiny round toy-like objects inquisitively. One particularly grim fact was the information that some villagers are so poor that they go looking for UXO in order to make money from scrap metal. The disarming process as well is terrifying, the teams of men and women having no choice but to dig them up to remove them.

There's Something Fishy Going on Here

We of course had some excellent food in Luang Prabang, the highlight of the night-time attractions being the daily market. Like the Chiang Mai market it took up a huge stretch of the main street and was alive with light and noise. The difference however was that it sold more traditional handicrafts. Beautiful silk carves, wooden bowls, paper lanters and whole range of bags, purses, tablecloths and bedcovers were laid out on water-proof sheets on the ground. The food section was even better, one long alley-way covered in corrugated iron was rammed with stalls and exotic smells. The delicious scent of barbecued meat filled the air and the benches inside were packed with people enjoying buffets and various skewered delights. It was so packed it was impossible to see anything more than ten feet in front of you and on the nights when it rained water poured through roof into buckets obstructing the already crowded walkway. We had barbecued chicken and a plate of rice, veg, fried bread and other treats followed by a chocolate filled doughnut, coconut rice cakes and fresh spring rolls. We also found the best banana pancakes we've had in Laos, where they put the nutella inside with the banana rather than meekly drizzled on top.

The night market

But the best meal we had was without doubt my extravagant birthday feast where, thanks to the French occuaption of Laos, we enjoyed a delicious meal in "L'elephant". We consumed goat's cheese, oven roasted tomatoes and salad on a crusty bread to start followed by duck and italian sausages all while numerous waiters fussed around, drowning us in more bread and free water. In contrast the Lao style papaya salad earlier in the week was one of the most repulsive things I have ever eaten. Imagine going out to sea for a day and catching a tonne of fish before putting them all into a bucket. Then when you get home and empty the bucket you decide it would be a good idea to whip up a salad in the bottom of it. So to the putrid fish juice you add shredded uncooked aubergine, sour cherry tomatoes, chili and chunks of unripe papaya. Then you'll have an idea of what it tasted and smelt like.

And that pleasant fishy shudder closes the first section of Luang Prabang, a beautiful and diverse city experience. It's full of tourists but you can totally understand why, it's without a doubt one of the most atmospheric, historic and cultural places we've been.

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