After spending two days cramped on the long boat, we were glad to arrive in LP. We docked (ha ha!) late afternoon so after settling into our guest house (which is probably one of the worst yet, but cheap!) we headed out for a bite to eat and once again were reunited with Cat & Adam, and half an hour later Liam & Lizzy, who we met on the elephant trekking in Chiang Mai.
LP is a fantastic town! Small, very chilled out, tuk tuks riding around, monks walking down the street. The town is “Unesco Heritage Listed” which bans all buses and trucks and makes the place feel so much more relaxed than previous cities/towns we’ve been to; it also has a curfew of 11.30pm, so its early to bed and early to rise – we can definitely vouch for this, each morning we were woken at 6.00am by the monks beating the drum in the temple opposite, not to mention the bloody cockerels.
The first day we decided to chill out, get to grips with the town and spend time with the guys. We all met for breakfast and afterwards started out with a bit of sightseeing then headed off to experience some local Lao massage – a past time LP is renowned for. Thankfully the place we went to could accommodate all 6 of us; the majority of us had traditional Lao massage (similar to Thai massage but a little gentler), Dan & Adam however got in touch with their feminine sides and opted for the “Body Polish”. After my 40 min neck & shoulder massage was up, I walked through the ‘boys’ room (which I had to do to exit) to find Dan & Adam laid out with only their boxer shorts on, which were pulled up their arses and female masseurs rubbing their feet – interesting – what’s been going on here?!?!
Fully relaxed we headed for a cheeky beer in the sun on the river front, where we bumped into Vinney and Tom – say no more, the afternoon/evening ended up being a bit of a drinking session with us nearly burning the restaurant down when the Lao BBQ flames got a little out of hand. A great day, although I felt terrible the following morning.
The second day we had all arranged to go to the waterfalls, 20 odd km out of town. The waterfalls were impressive (again not quite Niagara, but better than those in Chiang Mai). We had read in the book that most people stay at the bottom rather than trek up to the top – I can now see why, what a climb, although it was fun walking through the mud at the top – not quite sure if the view from the top was worth it but was good all the same.
With not much time on our side now, the following day we got the bus from LP to Vang Vieng, which is halfway to the capital city Vientiane, and a place famous for tubing.
We paid for a room and then went to book our slow boat tickets to Luang Prabang hoping we could save on the 1000 Baht price the guesthouse manager was quoting – we couldn’t – the official pier prices were 950