here, there, everywhere

Last day in Laos; I spent the morning climbing through the 10th century Khmer ruins of Wat Phu in Champasack, which were almost entirely empty save a few monks and some women selling incense and cans of oddly addictive, syrupy coconut juice (one of them stopped me on my way out and tied an orange thread around my wrist for luck). Getting there and back - via bus, makeshift ferry, tuk-tuk, random motorcycle from a friendly guest house where I asked for directions - wasn't particularly difficult but it took awhile, which made the temple ruins feel even more isolated. I want to write more, but am on a keyboard where it's really difficult to use the letter "e" (weird excuse, I know, but it would drive you crazy too) and so will leave you with too many photos and will update from Cambodia!

 

Teenage monks and friends pick their way past a pavilion of phallic symbols.

The ferry from Ban Muang to Champasack was two small boats lashed together with some planks on top. I saw similar makeshift catamarans ferrying cars and motorcycles across the river.

A few photos of the night stalls in Luang Prabang; our boat into the city landed right before dark, so the laid-back night market and food stalls were my first impression of the city. I only had the chance to eat at one place in this alley (a vegetarian 'all you can stuff on your plate' buffet for 5000 kip (roughly = 75 cents) but it was delicious.



Barbeque



A fruit stand on the fringe of the market.

A few photos of some of Luang Prabang's many wats; I'm in Vientienne now, where the street signs still say Rue and Quai, and where it's so hot I keep ducking into cafes and internet shops just to get out of the sun. Lately getting photos online has been near-impossible, so photo posts are going to be a bit out of date (which is annoying when you're neurotic like me), possibly until I get back to Hanoi in about a week and a half or so.

Luang Prabang is so indolent that it's easy to spend a whole day wandering from cafe to cafe without getting much done; on Monday, wanting a break from the endless supply of fruit smoothies and internet cafes, and lured by the idyllic write-ups, I took a bus to Nong Khiaw and then a one hour boat to the small town of Muang Ngoi, a quasi-distant town in the mountains, accessible only by river.

An empty petang court; early morning mist rising over the mountains.

The boat ride over was a bit uncomfortable - I got on the small, extremely narrow boat early enough when it was just me and a handful of locals; then, about 5 minutes before departure, about thirty backpackers came down the dock, and the boatman quickly herded all the Lao passengers onto a separate boat, which promptly took off, before packing all 30+ tourists and their gigantic backpacks onboard. I'm still not exactly sure how we all fit on that tiny boat (curled up knee to knee and cheek to jowel, with room for me to put exactly one foot on the ground at a time) but at least there was a short break when the water became too shallow and we all had to get off and hike for about thirty minutes along the shore. It was a beautiful hike through sandy beaches and shady trails through the jungle overhung with sinuous vines and flowers, so I didn't particularly mind the detour. The next morning, I bought my ticket as early as possible, hoping to avoid the overcrowding, but there seems to be one tourist boat to and from the town per day, so we got to do the same thing all over again, minus the hike.

 

Falang-friendly signs proliferate; a "falang roll" apparently involves peanut butter (waffles not included.)

Despite its isolation, Muang Ngoi seems to be a fairly well-established stop on the tourist
trail, and so the town didn't quite match the antediluvian descriptions found in Lonely Planet - there are phones wires criss-crossing the streets now - but it was beautiful and remote nonetheless. The unpaved red-dust roads are scattered with chickens and small children playing and maybe one or two bicycles; at dusk, when we arrived, people were slowly picking their way to and from the river to bathe before dinner. The electricity blinked on unsteadily at around 7pm, and the night was loud with the sounds of insects and the occasional tinny, syrupy Lao pop music from the small storefronts along the main drag.

Foot traffic in Muang Ngoi.

Kids playing on the riverside amidst flowers and a cloud of butterflies.

I wanted to post a real photo post of everything in Luang Prabang, but am unfortunately on the world's slowest internet connection (it's free and I don't know where it's coming from, so probably I shouldn't complain) so pictures of elephants and wats to come. In the meantime, Happy Passover to everyone back home!! It was the best thing in the world to talk to you all today and I miss you all so much and hope you're all well and that you ate a lot of matzah ball soup and charoset for me. Lots of love!

The Mekong River at sunset


In Luang Prabang after crossing the border into Laos (or the Kingdom of a Million Elephants and a White Parsol, as it was known upon its founding, and which I think may be the best name ever) on Tuesday morning and sailing down the Mekong River over the last two days (seven hours the first day; nine the second). Better roads have relegated the traditional Mekong slow boats to the province of tourists who have the money and time, and so the trip was a very touristy experience and I lost count of how many Lonely Planets I saw splayed around the floor, but it was still a staggeringly beautiful ride, past lush forests and small villages and handfuls of little kids swimming on the beaches who would stop and wave (and, in one case, cartwheel) at passerbyers. We stopped for the night in Pak Beng, a small town nestled in the hills alongside the river, where the electricity shuts off after ten and fireflies come out at dusk. I took lots of photos of the ride (with sixteen hours on a boat with only my own copy of Lonely Planet, there wasn't a whole lot else to do), and so will have to post more of them later on.





A boat similar to the one I took.



FIRE!



Fishing boats.







Off the boat at last: the night market in Louang Prabang.