Back on the Tourist Trail in Laos (Luang Prabang + Vientiane) | Part III
This is my final post on Laos, you can read Part I here and Part II here. For my other posts on the trip, please click here. I hope you enjoy!
Luang Prabang
We made it through our last Laotian bus back to the traveler mecca (for Laos standards) of Luang Prabang. It certainly was nice being in a sizable town, with buzzing and commotion and this and that, but I will say it did feel quite touristy, even too much so. We spent our first evening hiking up Mount Phonsi, a small hill in the middle of Luang Prabang, to watch the sunset and passed by some Buddhist temples and shrines on our way up.
The next day, we checked out the most famous Buddhist temple in Luang Prabang,Wat Xieng Thong, and while it was quite cool, Thailand really spoiled me with grand, ornate, and colorful temples. We also went to a temple near our hostel, Wat Wisunarat, which was a fun diversion.
The most fun we had during our time here was our two day trips (by motorbike of course), where we visited the Kuang Si Waterfall and the Pak Caves. The waterfall was an inviting turquoise color, and there was one main wading pool where people swam. But it was freezing, and there were tons of fish nibbling on our feet and just about everything. So ticklish!
Pak Ou caves, a day or two later, was also a good time, but nothing too, too special. It took us an hour or so to motorbike our way there, and when we got there, we soon realized we had to take a boat to the caves. We got our tickets and headed on over to a Buddhist temple made out of the caves in the side of the karst. Nothing too fancy or anything, but it was pretty cool. There was a second entrance 100 meters above, and we briefly met some travelers in a meditative state in front of a Buddha, but all pitch black.
On our way back we saw a huge bridge that China and Laos are constructing, for a train line running from Kunming to Vientiane. The significant thing is that that is the only missing rail link between Beijing and Singapore, but seemingly for China’s benefit. I might write an article on the train if I get my blogging shoes on more often.
On a side note, Laotian food was nothing special, and we did not go hugely out of our way to eat it. It was still typical of Asian food, mostly rice and noodle-based dishes, but several steps below Thai food (still better than Vietnamese food though).
Instead of traveling to Vang Vieng, a huge backpacker enclave, we decided to bypass the extra 9 hours of bus it would take and catch a Lao Skyway flight (an airline so obscure it does not exist on google!) straight to Vientiane.
Vientiane
Vientiane was the first real city we had been to in Chiang Mai, and I certainly knew it being a city kid myself. I hadn’t done too much research on Vientiane before we got here (per usual) and I was in for quite the surprise when I stumbled into their replica Arc de Triomphe, with a Buddhist twist. The official name is Patuxai. The avenue was lined with palm trees, and their Arc was square instead of rectangular. Yet another artifact of colonialization, and a rather nice one at that.
One fun story from visiting was being approached by a University student who asked to interview me. He asked pretty basic questions, (what’s your name, where are you from, what do you think about Laos), but it was a lot of fun to do it. They were practicing their English for a school project by interviewing tourists on a Saturday afternoon. Good for them!
That night, we decided to hit up the quite peculiar Lao Bowling Center. We hadn’t even heard of bowling being a thing in Asia, let alone Laos, so of course we had to go. It was quite a nice, if different, way to spend our Saturday night. But boy, was it run down. Our first lane had a considerable tilt, and the super outdated computer software crashed more than once. On top of that, it was mostly empty — maybe two other groups were there. Still though, I really enjoying going bowling for the first time since March or so.
Next on the agenda the following day was the oh-so-peculiar Buddha Park, about 25km from town. Many places online didn’t think it was a top sight to go, and I wholeheartedly disagree. This place was strange, man, and in the best way possible. The first sight is the gigantic (20 meters high) pumpkin, and inside there are floors representing hell, earth, and heaven. On top is a video-game looking spire pointing high.
There was the incredibly long reclining Buddha that is too big to take a picture of. There was the 4-sided big head jutting out of the ground, with other figures surrounding it along a moat. Then there were the other 200 or so sculptures in this bizarre garden, some Hindu, some Buddhist. The whole place was the concoction of Luang Pu (Venerable Grandfather) Bunleua Sulilat, a priest-shaman who integrated the two religions.
Our last venture in Laos would be to Pha That Luang, a 44m high golden Buddhist stupa first constructed back in the 3rd century. Though it was yet another Buddhist monument, it was a fine send off from our 11-day spin through Northern Laos.
Before I started writing these three articles, I honestly felt that not that much had happened in our time, just buses and resting for most of it. I enjoy taking the time to reflect to write, realizing that so much had happened in only 11 days! And just like that, we were onto Singapore, catching a flight that would land some 6 hours before my birthday.
