After travelling for so long is was nice just to be able to stop and rest in one place.
That has got to be the worst part of travelling. I love the journey itself- I could look out the window till the cows come home- but I hate having to pack all your worldly possessions, trying to fit them into your bag wondering how they ever were in there in the first place!.. And moving somewhere else.
Leaving and arriving are just not for me.
So when we finally found the guest house we'd been looking for, I was over the moon! Clean-check, no animals-check, shower that works-check!.. And this is home for the next few days!
After a much needed shower and a change of clothes- we head out to get some food at a place round the corner, 'Utopia.'
The sign on the corner says 50m, but just like the 3hr bus journey which actually takes 5- the bus not only has to wind through the mountain roads but also swerve all over the road avoiding potholes, cows, chickens and children... you learn to take these things with a pinch of salt.
The restaurant (actually about 400m away) is nestled between the small back streets on the rivers edge and really does suite its name. This place is a hippie haven, made for relaxing.
As soon as I see 'Prangers and Mash' on the menu I have to have it!.. I am British after all and I haven't had gravy for over a month now! Although even with one of the most British dishes you can have they still manage to make it taste... Laos.
The rest of the evening was not so euphoric however- and this was the start of the Laos bad luck.
Early in the evening I'd tried to find my credit card just so I knew where it was- when I couldn't find it I just assumed I'd put in a safe place that was so safe that I'd forgotten where it was. Unfortunately this was not the case.
On the way back from dinner I nipped to an internet cafe just to check my online banking to see if it has been used and almost fainted when I realised it had been used for 6 transactions at gas stations with the bill totally around £1000.I rang my bank immediately and cancelled by card still in a state of shock... I think the man in the internet cafe thought I was mad so I tried to explain what had happened. He just stared blankly at me and said ok. Not the response I was looking for! I was hoping for an "Oh my god! I can't believe it! Are you alright?! Here have a chair, you look like you need to sit down!"Not a slightly puzzled 'errr and...' looking face!!
I checked the date and realised that it had been stolen over 10 days ago when I had been on a night bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. I'd had money stolen from my hand luggage but hadn't noticed my card had gone as all my other bankcards were still there along with all my valuables and my passport. (Don't worry its all been sorted now and I've been reimbursed.)
The next day there was a knock at the door and Rob was standing there asking if we were coming for breakfast. As I stood explaining what had happened I noticed a blonde girl arriving in the room opposite our room and then I noticed it was Merel! Apparently she'd been looking for our hostel, given up and checked in anywhere and it happened to be the right one!
So as the three of us hugged and Merel ran into our room jumping on the bed, Rob stood there in surprise not really knowing what was going on!
We got ready and me and Alena headed out for some breakfast at one of the bakeries on the main street. Laos has a very distinct French influence and the streets are full of bakeries and cafes spilling on to the streets serving all kinds of cafes and pasties.
We found the police office but typically enough they were closing for an 3hr lunch break- if only we could do that in the UK.. I think I'd like working a lot more if that was the case!
With no plans, we headed back to the guest house as Merel was still there.
Our guest house faced a large hill in the centre of the town which had several Wats on so we decided to check them out, although to go to the top you had to pay around £2 so we decided a hand-drawn map with drawings of the final few Wats would suffice for us.
We headed back to the main street and back to another cafe while I waited for the police station to open again.
I asked for a strawberry shake and a piece of pizza which I paid for at the counter and then one of the staff came over and told me there was no strawberry ice-cream so I wouldn't be able to have it and gave me my money back then someone came with my milkshake... I think this was karma saying 'you've had a bad day, have a milkshake on us, you deserve it!'
After reporting my credit card to the police we stopped by the tourist information to get some info on Laos... However they were lacking a little on the information on Laos. "You know the lake.." "I don't know any lake.." The big one between Vang Vieng and Vientiane.." "No" "(gave name of it) we want to know if its possible to get there" "There's no lake" *we point to it on a big map of Laos* "ohhh that lake!... No I don't know." Well great, thanks very much you were brilliant- your really good at your job being tourist information and all!
After I sorted everything out with another not so helpful person at my insurance company- Alena and Merel decided with everything that had gone wrong they would treat my that evening and take me to dinner and pay for the evening's entertainment- Bowling! (More on that later..)
We finished off the day with a foot massage .. Which to be honest was an almost every part of your body massage and a quick foot tickle with a small stick!
After dinner we headed to Lao Lao Gardens a bar near our guest house and had a few drinks- as the rain started coming down we ran to a sheltered seating area and bumped into a few guys from our guest house.
There was Mike from Norway, two French guys Janis and Greg and the real star Phillip from Germany.
We were introduced to Phillip just after he made one of the French guy laugh like a little girl in a way only a German could do. With unamused tone of voice he had told the most boring story in the most serious way- basically he had been woken up by a cockerel and was very annoyed about it but had gone back to sleep again- it was the disgust in his voice at the very idea that he'd been woken up by this bird that made it so funny- but as we pointed out, it didn't really make a difference to his life and he'd gone straight back to sleep so there was no problem whatsoever. He on the other hand did not agree!
As I already mention Laos shuts down at 12; however there is one place in Luang Prabang that remains open till 4am... And that is the bowling alley in the jungle!
You have to get a tuk-tuk for about 20 minutes into the outskirts of town and when you get there you can't actually quite believe that your stood outside a brightly lite bowling alley in the middle of nowhere.
The night was a right laugh- although for the guys a lot more interesting... us girls left about 3 and left them there, only to be told of their tales the next day.
Apparently a group of Laos guys that were bowling next to us (who had been extremely friendly to the the guys) turned out to be gay, and had taken the guys who were unaware of this fact to an afterhours gay bar where they were all given drinks for free- well free until one of the French guys was being given a face massage while a few of the others had recieved much more obvious advances.
The next day was pretty lazy and the three of us girls lazied around in utopia most of the day reading and listening to music the guys didn't seem to make it out of their rooms; whether it was hangovers or the shame we're not too sure!
That evening we ventured again to the markets and found, tucked away down a dark corner, a passage-way filled with noodle dishes, rice , barbequed meat and fish and vegetables all brightly and vibrantly welcoming the passers-by illuminated vividly under the elctric lamps. The food was amazing and oh so cheap- a whole plate of whatever you wanted and for about $2.
We finished off the night playing cards outside our hostel- and this is where Phillip became the most infamous. As he tried to explain a Russian card game that involved tactics and allies and effectively waging war on each other (how very Russian!), we couldn't help but laugh at his direct and assertive manner when explaining the rules. "You 'ttack me!".. "You.. want me ... to take you?!"... to what the rest of us finished, "what to the bedroom?!" ... Although he didn't understand at all how he had been funny and seemed very unamused about the whole sistution while the rest of us were brought to tears.
The next morning (Sat 13th) we got up at 5:30 to go see the monks on their way to their morning mediation. The streets were awash with their vibrant orange robes as they collected their daily offering from the people who gathered on the streets to see them on their way as the sun came up.
And that was to be out lasting thought of Luang Prabang or so we thought as we caught a mini bus north to Nong Kiaw.
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