Luang Prabang

After yet another long and windy bus ride we arrived to Luang Prabang, the former royal capital. This is where the Mekong meets the Nam Khan river forming a nice, long peninsula, the home of the so called temple district and the center of tourist attractions. I could also say the old town is like an open museum full of ancient Buddhist temples, French colonial villas, local handicraft market and street food stalls, a complete mix of what you can wish to see together. After our first day stroll across the tiny streets of the old town zig-zagging from one beautiful temple to the other what stroke us most was the silence; despite of many tourists, typical laid-back Lao everyday life and hundreds of monks and novices in the temples, the place is sooo charmingly peaceful as none of our previous destinations alike - if anything like such is possible at all. It took us by hand and slowly, comfortably let us sink ourselves in to its live and stay one day longer than intended.

We missed the Royal Palace Museum unfortunately - Tuesday is the only day of the week when its is closed, guess when did we want to pay our visit? - but it definitely looks something you should see if you are around. Phu Si is a landmark in Luang Prabang, the stupa and small temple on top of a 100 m high hill in the middle of the old town, which I think is mostly beautiful due to the view you gain over the city if you make the walk, and the walk itself through a foresty park full of strange colorful bugs and smelly frangipany flowers (we saw also Buddha's footprint there). But the most unique theme in is observing the life of monks and novices - as it is an integrated part of the daily city life starting at 5.30 am with the silent walk of monks collecting alms every day till sitting through the chanting ceremonies in one of the numerous temples around.

The third day we took a deep breath and hired a tuk-tuk to visit the Pak Ou Caves 25 km out of town, with some suspicion after witnessing other tourists attempts to make their way through the lengthy bargaining process from irrationally high prices just to learn on the way that the driver took it as a one way price... Though we were prepared for the unexpected, I have to admit our driver exceeded my imagination: first he took 50% of the price for petrol, then we found ourselves in a village where we did not intend to go and shortly being stopped on the roadside for a lengthy conversation in Lao with another driver. It cleared only quite some time later what really was cooking, but the immediate outcome was an attempt to take us to a different cave pretending that there was a misunderstanding about the destination. When we stopped the third time and our driver sat next to a checkpoint looking hut without saying anything I learned that our vehicle is not allowed to drive outside the city limits. It might have all been possible to sort out if our driver would have not considered that the half price we already paid for a trip which never got even close to its destination is not to be returned. Now I am not going to describe in such detail what happenings followed, only the conclusion: never loose your coolness, forget about time do not panic and it will all sort itself out. After an hour or so we were riding to our destination - I guess it was a calculated risk or rip off attempt we did not buy and there was no other choice on either side. Anyway, I do not recommend this ride on a tuk-tuk, there is a reason why these hardly vehicle-like creatures must not ride on dirt roads... I think instead of 1,5 hours which was the original quote it was around 4 hours excursion including a river crossing to enter the caves and getting acquainted with the local kids, who were selling small birds for your improved karma and luck. Maybe we have seen enough caves to be too fascinated by these ones in particular, but it is a nice trip, especially if one can avoid the tuk-tuk drivers. Before I forget to mention, when we returned to the city he did not miss the opportunity to ask us to pay more than the agreed price. I wonder and wonder what is on their minds, but about this some time later. By the way Tomek developed a general allergy to tuk-tuk's since we always end up in some trouble and the guys notoriously lie.