luang prabang

market produce -----------------------waterfall

3 meats special (quite tasty...) ----- waterfall steps


super yammee tilapia from mekong ------korean barbecue with the bad kiwi eggs



a world heritage site, luang prabang is a beautiful town with a combo of traditional and colonial architecture. even though there are many of us 'falangs', foreigners, the charm of the town still remains. almost surrounded by water, it has the mekong river to one side and the nam khan to the other. each side catering to a falangs needs; shade, tranquility and liquids.

the fabrics, jewelry and handcrafts are wonderfully fantastic. if i had the choice, i would buy to my hearts content. alas, the bank (the majority of things are charged in dollars) and backpack do not allow it and neither does my conscious. i would not want to carry such heavy loads around. we will just have to return!

since we have been here, we have found some great places to eat lao (korean) style bbq, where you cook the meat, noodles and veg in a kind of "cone-grill with moat" apparatus. it does a sterling job and we enjoy a facial steam bath at the same time! not too kak -
i participated in tum tum chengs cookery class which was an amazing way to spend a day; learning about the different ingredients and how to make the specialties. even have the certificate to prove it :) !

i fear it is going to be difficult to leave this lovely place. we have met some great people: the"bad eggs" from nz, usa and germany. and now that we have found the best, and probably cheapest, freshly braaied fish, we have to leave to continue our expedition.

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Luang Prabang est tout simplement un petite ville magique entre le mekong et la riviere Nam Kan. Les restes de la colonisation se melangent tres bien avec le style traditionnel laotien. Les rues sont jolies, les gens vraiment gentils et la nourriture vraiment bonne. Autant de raisons qui font qu'il est difficile d'en partir. Les journees se passent soit a la cascade naturelle perdue au milieu de la jungle, soit la visite des villages alentours en vtt, soit a boire des coups avec les amis routards rencontres.

J'ai meme eu la chance d'avoir la visite de Khanh de passage sur Luang Prabang pour la journee ! Toutes les bonnes choses ont une fin, et demain nous partons donc pour Hanoi au Vietnam par avion. J'aurai vraiment aime aller visiter les villes du Nord mais les trajets sont longs et le passage par la frontiere terrestre s'annoncait vraiment difficile. Ca fait bizarre de dire ca mais on manque egalement de temps. Le choix des villes a visiter est difficile mais on va pas se plaindre non plus...

vang vieng

karis the cave woman ... ------------------------walking through the rice fields


the trip from vientiane to vang vieng was an interesting one. seeing that we do love to travel with the locals, we found ourselves a local bus (resembling more a 'chicken bus') with the seats jam-packed with people and the aisle loaded with the sorts of fruit boxes, groceries, motorbikes, backpacks and the odd traveller. we were seated right up front between the driver and the door operator guy, with a rather unsafe looking door. after 4 hours, or so, and many toilet stops we made it to the englishmens (and women) paradise. millions and millions (excuse the exaggeration but there may just as well have been) of bellowing boozed folk carrying, and depending on the case dragging, their tubes along. indeed, there are riverside bars strategically placed with many a notice saying "last bar until end". it must clearly work as there were more than a few legless characters.

besides all that chaos, the town itself was cute, with restaurants (typical and western, showing reruns of 'friends'), roadside kiosks with pancakes, baguettes (i had a mighty happy frenchman with this discovery!!) and fresh fruit shakes. our bungalow was awesome; built on stilts with a little wooden 'stoep' (balcony for the non-south africans) surrounded by rice paddies and the nam song river (which we conquered on kayaks in the pouring, but really pouring rain. in french, they have an expression for such rain - il pleut comme vache qui pisse, its raining like a wee-ing cow). we even witnessed a cat giving birth. a first!

bo pen nian (laos)

the oldest buddist temple in vientiane.



the arc de triomphe of vientiane, with its visitors


karis and the fruits -------------------remi et katia our hosts

vientiane is the capital of laos. one would not think so as it seems to be more like a middle-sized town. and how lovely it is!! situated along the mekong river, drinks have never tasted sweeter.
on arrival, we were quite amazed at how westernised this little place was with french, italian and scandanavian restaurants littered all over.

we met up with remi and katia (merci merci merci a vous deux), who have been living here for the last three years and they allowed us to experience the most wonderful restaurant on the river bank. all i can say is "bo pen nian" meaning that everything is cool.

alas, days like this can't last forever. one reason why we forced ourselves to leave bangkok. let the lao adventure begin, starting with the "express bus" to vang vieng -

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bo pen nian en laotien ca veut dire : merci, tout va bien, tranquille, c'est cool..
c'est plutot représentatif de la vie au laos je trouve. Tout va a son rythme.
Vientiane est assez occidentalisé de part ses restaurants et son infrastructure.
On fait le tour de la ville rapidement et on s'y sent bien car les loatiens sont sympathiques et la vie est simple. On loue des vélos pour visiter les qq temples alentours. On rencontre aussi Rémi et Katia, qui vivent ici depuis trois ans et qui nous permettent de découvrir le Laos différemment. On partage un diner mémorable car tout simplement magique au bord du Mékong a siropter de la bière Lao et à manger des crevettes crues, de la saucisse de Luang Prabang et du tilapia du Mékong...délicieux
D'autre part, on prend note des destinations à ne pas louper dans le nord du laos.