Wow! Laos is amazing

We arrived to Luang Prabang quite suitably unprepared. Katy did book a bed and breakfast for us for every night between our flights, but otherwise we no plans whatsoever. Friends of ours from Boston had visited Laos on their honeymoon and upon hearing that Luang Prabang had more wilderness and was more untouched than anywhere else they had visited in South East Asia, we were happy to book our flights and see what adventures awaited us.

The Chompet trail came up on my first day of googling, so we had a completely non-licensed driver ferry us across the river. Sure, there was a recommended and professional service we could have used, but we were on an adventure! Upon climbing a few flights of steps built into the riverbank, we found ourselves in Ban Xieng Mane Village which was one of the poorest places I have ever been. Chickens, cats, and dogs without collars ran about freely; ducks, however, were penned up and covered, seemingly more valuable commodities. That being said, there were piles of construction materials, a partially covered sewer on the side of the road, and brick construction houses either newly built or in the process of being completed.

 

We visited three temples along the towns on main street, paying 10,000 KIP (about $1.25) to visit each. All of the temples we visited in Laos had laypeople collecting the entrance fee, and handed us nicely printed paper tickets that no one ever checked. Monks, dressed in orange robes, occasionally nodded to us, but often ignored us, going about the hot afternoon slowly. There were many beautiful flowers and trees adorning the various courtyards, and our arriving just after Laos New Year meant there were still many plumeria, a.k.a. dok champa a.k.a. frangipani (national flower of Laos) strewn about.

The second temple we visited had a nearby cave, and a very young girl of four or five years escorted us from the temple to the caves, lending us flashlights. The cave had more Buddha statues and descended almost one hundred feet. It was by all means a cool cave (and a nice respite from the heat) but without any cultural context or past study of geology, it was very much lacking in meaning for me. The occasional placards we have seen in English have been austere and lacking in significance for me. Occasionally there are dates, but knowing so little about Laos, its history, people, and culture, I feel like I was constantly watching a foreign film without subtitles. Maybe I showed up expecting too much, or maybe Laos, one of the least densely populated countries in the world, is better understood taken at face value. 

Continuing on our hike, past a large construction site, we followed unmarked trails and roads on our phone maps, got lost for a little, and eventually found our intended destination: the art trail. This part of the hike was marked by stone pine cone shaped statues (seen above). We made it to the top of a hill where various statues of Buddha decorated the forested top of the hill. There was even a different path down, similarly marked, that seemed the easier path in both directions. 

Covered in bugs, dehydrated, and wet from sweat, we meandered back along the town road until Katy asked one of the ladies selling tickets for a "boat? Luang Prabang?" After A few shouts from her, a local man took our money then instructed a  shoe-less/shirt-less teenager to ferry us across the Mekong. Our second ferry trip was less novel, but we were happy not to have to walk the extra mile to the official ferry spot.

Day 2 in Luang Prabang we decided to visit the highest rated attraction on TripAdvisor: the Kuang Si Falls. It is the dry season here, but this set of waterfalls flows all year long. Beautiful blue-green pools cascaded into more pools, and even more pools for a half mile stretch. The entryway to the park surrounding the falls is a bear sanctuary where an Australian NGO "Save The Bears" has teamed up with locals to rescue bears that are farmed for their bile. Bear bile is a part of Chinese and other Asian medicine, but has led to the diminishing of the bear population in Laos. The Lao government has just recently banned the hunting or farming of bears for their bile, but have hardly eradicated the practice. Sun Bears and Moon Bears are smaller than American black bears, but seemed to have an engaging living space in this sanctuary.

Continuing into the falls past the bears, we passed the main bathing area for the falls and found a trail up the mountain. It was rather remote, but we eventually passed some women carrying piping, and soon after found a clearing with a construction site. They seemed to be building a concrete swimming pool, a water-slide, and large flat area including a lookout into a valley below - possibly a parking lot. There was a bulldozer, a few men mixing cement, and a lazy foreman who pointed further uphill and said "waterfall." We had been close to giving up, seeing no other tourists, but followed a dammed stream around the mountaintop and suddenly found ourselves at a bamboo bridge. It was nice to see multiple trail signs, even if none of which were pointing the way we had come. 

The hike was nice - we got to experience unexpected Lao nature in solitude for the second day in a row - but we were also happy to find ourselves back in the designated tourist area. We encountered some tourists swimming, others taking pictures, and a local offering a boat ride to the source of the spring. Being nearly on top of the mountain, I was intrigued, plus he was selling (semi) cold beer. We set off in his bamboo raft, sitting with our feet in the water. He poled us along for a few minutes until we reached the mostly dry source, where told us the legend of the falls. They are named after a deer that took refuge in the rock under the falls. The highlight was definitely getting to "drive" back.

From there, we had climbed about 80 flights of stairs according to Katy's Fitbit in less than 3 miles, so we hiked down and Katy had a series of swims through the pools under the falls while I photographed her.

Eventually, it was getting late in the day and we still had about an hour back to the town. We had rented a motorbike for the day, and having never driven a real motorcycle before I was feeling ready to call it a day. Katy quite enjoyed riding on the back of our two wheeler and I enjoyed her hugging me for an hour each way. I've always considered scooters/motorcycles a little reckless, so driving one for the first time in Southeast Asia was definitely intimidating. I will admit eventually my nerves calmed and I had fun. It is by far the best way to get around this part of the world.

Motorbikes are very popular in Shanghai, but mostly as delivery vehicles driven by men. In Japan they were not as popular and we saw a few women driving but not many. Here, however, it seems everyone drives them: men, women, schoolgirls (albeit illegally), and even a monk or two. Gender equality/gender norms seem much more fluid both in Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang than in Shanghai or Tokyo. Maybe this difference can be attributed more to rural/urban living, but it has been interesting to note the differences. 

We picked a newly opened bed and breakfast in Luang Prabang, down towards the end of the peninsula in the main stretch. We stayed less than a fifteen minute walk from dozens of restaurants and two markets (one day and one night.) The town is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which means the colonial, two story French style buildings will never lose their outward charm. We suspected many residences are being replaced with hotels, restaurants, spas, travel agencies, and boutique clothing stores, as more tourists continue to visit. It is a little strange being in a place that focuses most of its resources on people who pay to visit here, but I have to remind myself that I am one of those tourists, even if I prefer to think of myself as an adventurer seeking experiences. Laos doesn't export rice, their staple food crop, and many Laotians still subsist on a diet including forest foraged foods.

The tourism industry seems more immature in Luang Prabang than it did in Thailand, lacking many of the subtleties of service. Our innkeepers could not have been nicer, but often didn't answer questions we asked. Sometimes we know they didn't understand, but often times we suspected they did but preferred not to answer. Perhaps Katy and I are being disrespectful inquiring so much into their way of life, the people did seem more reserved than across the border in Chiang Mai. I also imagine a certain level of disdain for us may be felt on their part, but mostly I expect the Laotians we have met and interacted with have never left this part of the world. I recognize that I am being somewhat of a snob or speaking from a privileged point of view; I had the opportunity to spend a semester of college studying in Europe, and Katy got to study in South America. We often found ourselves conjecturing about what will be different about Luang Prabang if and when we return in 20 years. Another generation will have grown up catering to tourists, much of the construction we see will be long past completed, and we expect prices will have risen drastically. Will that lead to a higher standard of living for the locals? Will roads have improved? Will it be so crowded with tourists that it will lose its quaint charm? Not long ago, most tourists spoke French, now most speak English. Soon will most be speaking Chinese? Laos has tremendous swaths of untouched forest, which are currently being well protected by the government. If this continues as a global trend towards conservation, I suspect Laos might be the place where hippies have to go to hug trees (myself included), or maybe the cost of lumber will climb to a level too high to pass up and Laos will be clear cut and its citizens cashed out. I have so many questions and so few answers on how Laos and Luang Prabang will exist in 2, 20, or 200 years that it makes me want to encourage everyone reading this to visit, and share your experiences with me.

One last note. I couldn't help myself and purchased a bottle of snake whiskey from the night market. The bottle claims to cure rheumatism and contains an entire cobra coiled in the bottle. The taste is a little reptilian, with an unaged whiskey bite in the finish. I'm not sure I'm ailing my achy joints but I am definitely being a tourist and contributing to the matrix of stigmas the Laotians have for tourists.