Luang Prabang, Laos:
By some kind of freak accident, after only really encountering younger travellers so far on my trip, I managed to meet two like-minded girls of a similar age to me at the airport in Hanoi; both travelling alone and both of the mindset that cultural immersion was their thing rather than the drunken backpacker party scene that preoccupied most of our mis-spent youths, and appeared to preoccupy most of the youth today
While checking-in for our flight to Luang Prabang, we got chatting and continued to converse all the way through security and onto the plane. One of the girls was a larger than life, red-headed yogi from Chicago, the other a beautiful, olive-skinned Brazilian with a terrific aura about her. Upon landing in Laos we grabbed a taxi to the city together; swapped details and agreed to meet up the following day to partake in some sightseeing activities.
Before I left Australia I’d decided that this trip was to be for me only – I wanted it to be a journey I took alone, entirely as a solo traveller; one on which I would refuse to spend large amounts of time with other backpackers. I was adamant about this, and in a stubborn way, especially in Vietnam, I refused to get too close to anyone else; I longed to experience things the way I wanted, on my own terms. However, as I arrived in Laos, things kind of changed.
Laos is a destination many people advised that I overlook; claiming there was not much to do and that it was not worth the effort. Yet even on my first day here, wandering around the streets, soaking in the atmosphere, I could tell how unbelievabley wrong they were in their assumptions and how ignorant they had been; for my initial impressions were ones of wonder and awe. Luang Prabang felt relaxed. It felt safe. It felt peaceful. It felt village-like in its geo-logistics. And even though it was raining, I immediately loved it. And I was very happy that I was going to experience it with two other people, both of whom felt exactly the same in their sentiments as I did. And maybe, just maybe, it would result in some incredible experiences.
First on the agenda was sorting out a visit to an elephant sanctuary. With my trip to Sri Lanka looking to be in doubt (I didn’t fancy visiting in monsoon season) I had taken it upon myself to ensure I gained some kind of wildlife experience while in Laos. My American friend (we’ll call her Chicago) and I conducted a small market research survey (which really just consisted of reading reviews online) to ensure the place we chose was legitimate, treated the elephants well and didn’t involve any kind of forced labour for them, i.e. carrying people on their backs, or trekking while in chains; eventually we settled upon a place called Mandalao and parted with a small fortune for a half day trip that we would commence two days later. Whether the experience justified the cost and whether the sanctuary was just and good or not is something I’ll let you know about in due course.
Along with our Brazilian friend, Chicago and I then headed to Mount Phousi. Now, Mount Phousi is not actually a mountain. It’s just a pretty big hill with a few sets of steep stairs. Having not visited a gym in around five months, my fitness levels at the moment are very questionable and climbing the stairs was a little bit of a gruelling slog on the old lungs and out of shape body. Nevertheless, it was more than worth the effort as the 360 views of Luang Prabang and the Mekong River were incredible.
On the way down we passed by the reclining Buddha, shimmering in its magnificent gold, and stopped to marvel at the many other Buddha statues that resided there; they seemed to represent different days of the week and different stages of the Buddhist journey and I found them enchanting. It was while trying to find Buddha’s footprint that we got chatting to some novice monks who worked and lived in the monastery and the temples around Luang Prabang. They explained that a school had just opened at the monastery which catered for students who wanted to learn English. Being intrigued and wanting to immerse ourselves in the local culture, we asked their teachers if we could possibly come back the following day to help the students with their conversation. Our request was greeted with glee and open arms: “Of course! The students would love that! Please, please, do return, they are passionate about learning English and this would really help them”. Feeling elated and excited we made a plan to come back the following afternoon.
That evening, our trio and a couple more traveller friends we’d picked up along the way, including my German friend whom I’d met in Ho Chi Minh, went out for some street food and wine. Considering the theme of my Laos trip now seemed to have defaulted to one of cultural immersion I thought it only right to try a local delicacy – chicken feet. I’d tried them in China four years previous and hadn’t reckoned too much of them, so this was to be their redeeming moment. And yep, just as I thought, even after a second chance, I found them to still be pretty rubbery, pretty fatty and very bland. I tried to make up for the lack of flavour by choosing some prawns to go with them, at which point Chicago screwed her face up and told me to be careful with the seafood. I was grateful for her concern but justified my actions by saying that if I got sick, I got sick – YOLO! So, if my arse hasn’t started twitching and my stomach isn’t in knots by day 22, then I’ve safely dodged a food poisoning bullet. Watch this space.
Before we left to retire for the evening, we collared a tuk-tuk driver and asked him about taking us to Kuang Si Falls the next day. He looked pretty stoned and uninterested but reassured us he’d be at our respective hostels to collect us at 8am. We asked if he needed to write the names of our hostels down or if he required any further details from us – he just laughed, shook his head and shooed us away: “Tomorrow good. Ok I see you 8am.” I suppose, just like in Vietnam, we were gonna have to go with it, put our trust in another random stranger, and wait to see what happened…
Chasing Amy-Lou 