Getting around Luang Prabang
We're becoming experts on getting around Luang
Prabang (not difficult – there are so few ways to do it, and so few
places to go!).
Slow boat up the Mekong
One
of the ways to enter or leave Laos for Thailand is to take the slow
boats which ply the Mekong river. Although we've declined the 2 day
trip, we did take a slow boat up the river today for an hour, watching
the world drift by. The boats, which are designed to be cheap to run,
have absolutely no headroom at all – I couldn't imagine sitting on a
rock hard wooden seat, with my knees on my chin, listening to a howling
engine, for 2 whole days. Although you see lots of life on the river
bank, its becomes very 'samey' after a short while. Everyone on the
banks is either fishing, bathing, doing their laundry, or collecting
sea weed for the market. And with the smokey haze, everything beyond
the immediate banks is out of sight. After 2 hours, I think we're glad
we only took the short trip ($5 an hour, if you're interested).
Bicycles
Emily
decided to wear a sarong-skirt for cycling around Luang Prabang, and
therefore spent the whole day side saddle. And because we couldn't get
a child's bike, Charlotte was again on the back of mine, which made
it even more hard work than normal, especially as Laos bikes don't have
gears, and normally the saddle is set at the ideal height for a genetically-vertically-challenged-person
(dwarf). But with so few cars around, it wasn't a dangerous undertaking,
and it meant we could get right out of the city and into the straw-hut
suburbs.(Bikes are $1 a day)
Jumbo
Don't
ask me why they're called 'jumbos', because they’re anything but. Basically,
a jumbo is a minivan with bench seats in the back and a roof. (Similar
to a tuk tuk, but with four wheels not three, but with the same engine
- lifted straight from a Travelodge hair dryer). At first we thought
they were great, because they seemed to get from A to B okay. But then
we made the mistake of going out to the waterfall in one ("Hey Mista!
I do you a good price Mista! You come me to waterfall Mista!").
The first 2 miles were good. But then the road ran out, or at least
the tarmac did, and we drifted over the top of mud and stones, kicking
up a huge dustcloud behind us. What a hoot! Couldn't see a thing behind
us, and every bike we passed got immersed in a dust bowl. And then the
first lorry passed us, and we started to breathe road-dust. By the time
we'd arrived at the waterfall, we all looked like we'd been one of Rommel's
tank commanders racing to El Alamein. Our skin had taken on a lovely
shade of mud-brown. (The Jumbo cost us $10 to take us, wait and bring
us back - a 4 hour round trip)
Foot
Turned out to be a pretty good option in Luang Prabang, because there was always something new around every corner, and the lack of heavy traffic meant that even the fact that pavements stop in a big hole with regularity everywhere in Asia wasn't a problem. (Travelling by foot costs ice creams and fizzy drinks at regular intervals!)
Slow boat up the Mekong
One
of the ways to enter or leave Laos for Thailand is to take the slow
boats which ply the Mekong river. Although we've declined the 2 day
trip, we did take a slow boat up the river today for an hour, watching
the world drift by. The boats, which are designed to be cheap to run,
have absolutely no headroom at all – I couldn't imagine sitting on a
rock hard wooden seat, with my knees on my chin, listening to a howling
engine, for 2 whole days. Although you see lots of life on the river
bank, its becomes very 'samey' after a short while. Everyone on the
banks is either fishing, bathing, doing their laundry, or collecting
sea weed for the market. And with the smokey haze, everything beyond
the immediate banks is out of sight. After 2 hours, I think we're glad
we only took the short trip ($5 an hour, if you're interested).Bicycles
Emily
decided to wear a sarong-skirt for cycling around Luang Prabang, and
therefore spent the whole day side saddle. And because we couldn't get
a child's bike, Charlotte was again on the back of mine, which made
it even more hard work than normal, especially as Laos bikes don't have
gears, and normally the saddle is set at the ideal height for a genetically-vertically-challenged-person
(dwarf). But with so few cars around, it wasn't a dangerous undertaking,
and it meant we could get right out of the city and into the straw-hut
suburbs.(Bikes are $1 a day)Jumbo
Don't
ask me why they're called 'jumbos', because they’re anything but. Basically,
a jumbo is a minivan with bench seats in the back and a roof. (Similar
to a tuk tuk, but with four wheels not three, but with the same engine
- lifted straight from a Travelodge hair dryer). At first we thought
they were great, because they seemed to get from A to B okay. But then
we made the mistake of going out to the waterfall in one ("Hey Mista!
I do you a good price Mista! You come me to waterfall Mista!").
The first 2 miles were good. But then the road ran out, or at least
the tarmac did, and we drifted over the top of mud and stones, kicking
up a huge dustcloud behind us. What a hoot! Couldn't see a thing behind
us, and every bike we passed got immersed in a dust bowl. And then the
first lorry passed us, and we started to breathe road-dust. By the time
we'd arrived at the waterfall, we all looked like we'd been one of Rommel's
tank commanders racing to El Alamein. Our skin had taken on a lovely
shade of mud-brown. (The Jumbo cost us $10 to take us, wait and bring
us back - a 4 hour round trip)Foot
Turned out to be a pretty good option in Luang Prabang, because there was always something new around every corner, and the lack of heavy traffic meant that even the fact that pavements stop in a big hole with regularity everywhere in Asia wasn't a problem. (Travelling by foot costs ice creams and fizzy drinks at regular intervals!)