Laos – November 2022
One of my absolute favorite destinations in Southeast Asia is the small town of Luang Prabang in northern Laos. You probably already know that I like the only landlocked country in the region if you have read my previous posts about Nong Khiaw, Pakse and Don Det. And my stay there doesn’t get off to a good start… In Vientiane I have a French clinic treat an abscess on my leg, which the doctors in Thailand had probably only partially drained a few days before. When the friendly Japanese doctor gave me the OK to continue my journey to the province on the third day, I immediately went to the ticket office of the China-Laos Railway company. I just manage to get one of the last tickets for the following day and am happy to be able to complete the journey in 3 hours in the air-conditioned express train instead of 12 hours in the minibus.
When I arrived in Luang Prabang, I went straight to the hostel that I had booked for the first night. It’s the cheapest in town, but unfortunately there wasn’t much choice left. Little by little, all the tourists who, like me, were at Loy Krathong in northern Thailand arrive. After an initial satisfactory inspection, I declare with my hands and feet that I would like to stay for 3 nights. I pay the equivalent of 12 euros and then set off to do my laundry. I turn left and walk briefly up the cobblestone street when I am greeted by two old men sitting on the sidewalk in front of a residential building. Looking at the sign above them that says “Laundry,” they ask if I need laundry service. I say yes, and they accept my bag of dirty laundry. I can pick up the clothes again tomorrow.
The most pressing item on my to-do list is now ticked off. So I stroll aimlessly through the town until I reach the Mekong. There I stop at one of the hip cafés and order an iced latte. Overlooking the river, I read my book until I continued my hungry walk along the water in the early afternoon. In a small snack bar on the Nam Khan River I order green curry and a banana-mango shake from the friendly cook. I continue to spend the rest of the day trying to distract myself from the throbbing pain in my leg with beautiful views and a book. Unfortunately it doesn’t help much and the next morning I have no choice but to pay a visit to the local clinic.
The Google Maps reviews are mixed, but the tuktuk driver assures me that I’ll definitely be out again quickly. He would wait for me and offered me a 10% discount on the way back. And promptly I am led incredibly quickly to a treatment room, where a Laotian doctor reopens the wound without hesitation (or anesthesia for me). 4 minutes later I’m back outside and pay the 2 euro treatment fee including antibiotics. The tuktuk driver waits for me outside with a big grin and takes me back to the city center. When I go to pick up my laundry, the two men are sitting on the sidewalk like they were the day before. They think I should come back later. So I spend most of my day again in various cute cafés and restaurants. As I’m taking my afternoon walk down a small side street near my hostel, I suddenly see my t-shirts hanging on a clothes rail. So I wait until shortly after sunset and pick up the laundry that has now been packed.
The second night is a lot more pleasant without the throbbing pain in my leg. The wound looks much better the next day and I can concentrate on writing my diary and planning my next steps. I’m extending the hostel again by 2 nights. On the third evening, I am able to maintain social contacts again. I talk to Vera, who has just arrived from Portugal, and we go to the night market together. The next morning at breakfast we became friends with Marcelo from Brazil and when Vera announced that today was her birthday, the third of us decided to watch the sunset from a viewpoint in the evening. To make it easier for other tourists to understand us, we speak a mixture of Portuguese and Spanish. Like every evening, we then go to the night market, where Marcelo meets a German couple he already met in Thailand.
Laura and Philipp say that they (like Vera and I) want to see the famous waterfall nearby the next day. So we exchanged numbers and agreed to meet at 1 p.m. the next day to look for a tuktuk. Marcelo and I then implement our birthday surprise plan and get some pieces of fresh cake and fruit juice for everyone from the best stall in the market. I fall asleep in Luang Prabang for the fourth time, completely happy. When I show up at Vera’s breakfast the next day, the group around her and Marcelo has expanded to include two Spaniards. Nerea and Jorge are also both traveling alone and want to go to the Kuang Xi Waterfall today. The tuktuk is cheaper with six people than with four people, so Laura and Philipp also agree.
We now meet at 12 p.m. in a restaurant where (as always in Laos) the food takes a long time to arrive for some inexplicable reason and in the end 4 of the 8 people receive something they didn’t order. But then everyone is full and a tuk-tuk is quickly organized. On the approximately one-hour journey we doze and let the green landscape and sleepy villages pass us by. In the waterfall parking lot, dozens of blue tuk-tuks are parked in the shade and the drivers sleep on the beds in the back of the vehicles until the tourists make their way back to town.
Our small tour group agrees that we should first make our way up to the main waterfall before taking the plunge into the refreshing water in the pools further down. After the obligatory group photo, we try to find the stairs that lead to a hidden viewpoint. Unfortunately the path is too well hidden and the sun is almost setting. So we give up and start the descent. When I get downstairs, I leave the cool bath in favor of my wound healing. The others assure me that the water is very cold and we soon go back to the waiting tuktuk. Our driver is one of the last people still dozing in the parking lot. Because of the late start, we are blessed with a great view of the sunset on the way back.
On this fifth evening I chat with Nerea about my desire to go a little further north. She says that a Spanish couple she met in Vietnam are also on their way to Luang Prabang. She planned to go to Muang Ngoy with the two of them – but they wouldn’t arrive until Monday. This would mean that we couldn’t leave until Tuesday and I would have to add another 2 nights in Luang Prabang. A few hours later the decision is made easy for me. On the way home from the night market, a few Laotians on the street spontaneously invited us for beer and karaoke. In front of one brother’s shop, the beer is flowing and the microphone is making its rounds around the small table. We read the song lyrics from YouTube videos. (The new discovery of the evening is “Mama” by Taitosmith – watch with video!)
The second brother is a teacher at a local elementary school and is thrilled when he hears that Nerea was a teacher in Spain and that I speak French. He invites us to come over for an hour on Monday and of course we accept. At around 2 a.m. we finally make our way home. So Vera and I extend our stay again and book a new hostel. So on Monday we visit the school and do some simple speaking exercises with the second grade children. Because both Nerea and I haven’t done anything other than eat for a week, we ask the kids what their favorite food is. To our surprise, alongside some traditional Laotian dishes, carbonara is also mentioned more often.
Afterwards it’s lunch break for the children and Nerea and I talk for a while in the teachers’ room with our friend and the geography teacher. They recommend us to visit the UXO Lao Visitor Center and we say goodbye. First we head to our cafe “Two Little Birds” for lunch. In the afternoon we stop by the recommended visitor center. It covers the millions of bombs dropped on the border with Laos during the Vietnam War. Many of them did not explode and still pose a great danger to playing children, farmers and the entire population in rural areas. The organization is committed to the difficult and dangerous disposal of unexploded explosive devices.
After the moving museum visit, we spend the late afternoon by the river before heading to the night market in the evening for a final meal. There we meet Judith and José, the couple with whom we will continue into the jungle the next day. We treat ourselves to hotpot on the upper floor of the market and of course one last fruit juice. Then it’s time to say goodbye to new friends with the promise that we’ll see each other again in another corner of the world. You can read the story about the next few days in northern Laos here:
thattravelstory 
2 thoughts on “Slow travel in Luang Prabang”