Having survived the 6 hour boat journey, with only one moment of panic (even the driver looked worried!) over some rapids, we made it to Luang Prabang.
Luang Prabang (LP) is nestled on the sacred confluence of the Nam Khan and Mekong Rivers. It is an Unesco World Heritage city and possibly the most photogenic city in the whole of Southeast Asia.
We met up with Guy and Jo again in LP, and together with Jonny, Ally and Tony we decided that a curry was in order. A proper Indian curry that is, with naan bread, tikka masala and all! Highly recommended, although maybe ask them to go easy on the chillies, Neesha’s Indian restaurant is less well know than the ‘Nazim’ chain in Laos, but the food was superb. Guy and Jo recounted their day – they hired mountain bikes and cycled to the nearby (35kms one way!) waterfall. They gave us the idea to do the same the following day – how hard could it be!?!
Cycling to the Waterfall
After picking up the bikes, getting a couple of baguettes made up for lunch, we set about finding a way out of town that avoided the police checkpoint… seriously, we had to sneak out of town like criminals, all because we wanted to cycle! After 2 hours of more ups than downs, we made it to the waterfall. Out of puff, Ady almost lost it when a man told him to pay 2000kip to park the bicycle against a tree!!! We didn’t swim in the falls as it was quite chilly, and the thought of another 35kms in wet shorts wasn’t appealing. The scenery was spectacular however and worth the ride.
Setting off back towards LP, we realised how much uphill we had ridden on the way there. We coasted the first 4km without needing to pedal! After stopping off at a local village to give away some pencils and erasers to the children, we had picked up an escort for our journey home. Somehow, the local children managed to fly past us on the uphill stretches, even though their bikes had no gears!
By 5pm we were home, saddle sore and tired, but at least we hadn’t been impounded! Our arrangement to meet Ally and Jonny in the evening couldn’t rise us from our bed – we had a quick bite to eat from a food stall then crashed out for the night.
Tamarind Cooking Course
Lao food is quite different to that of the other countries that we have visited so far. Sticky rice is the staple, and it is eaten with all kinds of dips and sauces. We learned about the ingredients and delicacies during our trip to the local market.
After our snack, we made a number of other dishes including steamed fish, lemongrass stuffed with chicken (yes, you read it right – check the photos!) Buffalo Laap, and a tasty Lao stew. All the dishes were delicious and by the end of the day we almost needed to be airlifted out of the school! A big thanks to Joy at Tamarind for sharing his knowledge. We’d recommend the course to anyone interested in Lao Cuisine.
The next day it was time to move on to Vang Vieng, what we discovered to be a little bit of Ibiza in the heart of Laos.
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