Luang Prabang: Monks, Caves, and Scorpions

Because it is the thing to do in Luang Prabang, we woke up before the sun to watch the monk procession through the town collecting food for the day. Not knowing what to expect, we were surprised in our still-asleep states when we walked off the steps of our guesthouse and were assaulted by Lao women with bowls of rice. The quite literally wouldn’t let us path without taking the rice (which we knew we would have to pay for), so we accepted a few and then passed it on to the monks. It was a pretty neat experience that was almost instantly marred by the same Lao women demanding more money than was sane. One dollar per bowl of rice was expensive, but we were all willing to pay that and more. The problem was when multiple women asked you to pay them multiple times, seemingly unable to comprehend the facts that you didn’t take any of their rice and that you already paid for what you had taken. It was definitely madness and it was way too early for us to deal with it all!

After breakfast, we chartered a longtail boat up the Mekong River to the Pak Ou Caves, a Buddhist shrine with hundreds of Buddha images hidden within a big cave overlooking the river. We soon realized that our boat was much slower than all the other boats on the river, and our driver pulled over and told us it was malfunctioning. We had to climb into another longtail that was already full and sit on postage stamp size pieces of plywood that could not in any way be considered chairs. Even though the ride was incredibly uncomfortable, the scenery was incredible: the Willy Wonka-like river curved around islands and behind each bend there were more impressive cliffs. We can’t get over how green everything is in Laos: from the river banks up to the top of the mountains (other than a few exposed cliff faces) is carpeted in lush green vegetation. It’s beautiful!

We stopped off in Whiskey Town for a few minutes to see locals at work making their own whiskey, as well as weaving colorful scarves and chasing chickens around. We were back in the boat for about half an hour before reaching the caves, a very disappointing hole in the side of a cliff that went back maybe ten meters and was more crowded with tourists than Buddha images. The second cave was a little bit better, but if the scenery from the boat hadn’t been so gorgeous this trip definitely wouldn’t have been worth it.

Back in town, Matt headed in to take a nap while Frankie and Lauren joined us on a bike ride around town. We went back to the bridge we could see from Utopia and walked around there for awhile. We kept riding onto the other side of the bridge, where it was quite obvious that most tourists don’t travel to. The roads quickly changed from paved to gravel to dirt, street signs were devoid of English, and the locals looked at us like we were lost. We rode through, taking in the scenery and the life, before buying a few bags of rhombutans and mangosteins. On the other side of the bridge, we rode around some more until we found a small wine shop and decided we just had to check it out. “When in Laos”, right? We bought a bottle for seven dollars and sat at a small table watching the world float by in its relaxed, Lao style.

We met up with Matt, Alex, Frankie, and Lauren for dinner, but first we headed down to the river for a sunset beer. Alex and Justin took a scorpion whiskey shot that hit hard, and they were quite entertaining. We walked the market some more before finding a woman that charged one dollar for all the food you could pile onto one plate. We ate well tonight!