Luang Prabang Part I

After a long journey during which the rain started falling heavily, we decided to take our friends recommendation and chose the Sokdee guest house(Ban Vatnong Khamkong Road, tel:(856-71) 252 555).The rooms were only$9 with air-conditioning or $5 for a fan room. We took air-conditioned rooms even though we didn't end up using it much. The rooms were clean with hot water, cable TV and of course especially friendly and helpful staff.

We took a rest for an hour, had a hot shower then hit the road for a wander. The rain had stopped and we soon realised that Luang Prabang is really a quiet paradise: there are NO horns, No crazy traffic and No shouting. Another good thing is that we came here at the end of the raining season and there were not many tourists around which means we can enjoy ourselves even more. Luang Prabang people are so friendly, they smile and greet everyone every time they see them. We went to have a drink at a restaurant near the guest house and we saw a group which included an old Lao man who now lives in the USA. We left there after one drink because we couldn't stand his loud voice but we feel bad now because we didn't know that he's deaf until the girl in that group told us on our last day before we left.

Our regular restaurant, mainly for breakfast, was called L.P.B. restaurant(Khemkhong road,tel 212634) where the food was really nice. We were served by an hilarious waiter who was always laughing and making jokes with all of the customers in a nice way. He is a short guy with a face that makes you laugh right at the first time. By the end of our trip, whenever we ate there, he knew what we wanted. I gave the restaurant some ideas about their seating, lighting and decor and I hope it helps attract customers.

The next day we took a tuk tuk to some waterfalls. We got stuck in the shops in the parking area and, after buying some fishing pants and climbing up about 20 minutes, oh my god, an amazing water fall appeared. The water was a bit cold for me but there were lots of people swimming. I wish I could have swum there. We took heaps of pictures of the waterfall. There was a tiger up there which was saved from hunters a while ago, as well as some big black bears. People donate money for keeping these animals alive. The tiger needs a lot of food every day.

The tuk tuk ride cost us $12 including a small tip because we ended up staying 4 hours instead of the 1 hour trip we asked for. Even though at first the trip was a bit scary because of the roads, we soon got used to it. In the next few days we took some more day trips.

Tobe continued