Buddha Caves, Beautiful Temples, and Snake Whiskey!

After Chiang Rai we left for Laos, where you do need a visa…it can take a while to cross the border since they look over these documents, so it’s best to go early to avoid the crowds.

We started our journey in Laos by traveling on a beautiful, wooden boat owned by a Lao family. They made us lunch, so we got some homemade ginger chicken and other treats. I also got to try Beer Lao, which is similar to Chang since the family sold it on the side. We were only allowed on the top of the boat, since it is the family’s primary residence. There was an awning they removed so people could sit and bake in the sun. Otherwise, there was tables and chairs where we able to journal, play cards, and talk to each other.

The weather was beautiful and showed off the landscape, and we had a local guide that explained a brief history of the country. He told us that much of the population died during the Vietnam War since Laos was the most heavily bombed country so the majority of the population is young. The US was trying to get at the Viet Cong, but ended up devastating the landscape with landmines…many are still there and people still die or lose limbs to this day.

 

Once we got to Pakbeng, where we were spending the night, Kristina paid a local kid to take her bag up the hill to the hotel. It’s a thing the children do to make extra money for candy, and the kid was cheeky and made us laugh. The town is really small and pretty much a backpacking stop. The hotel was pretty simple, but the food was good. We ended up staying at the hotel since there wasn’t anywhere we could really go. In the morning we had a great view of an elephant bathing at the river as the sun was rising. We had to be up early to hop back on our boat.

 

The next morning on the way to Luang Prabang we stopped at the Buddha Cave or Pak Ou Caves…I did not know a cave could be a temple, so no shoes. These caves are filled with various sizes of statues of Buddha…you can go up the stairs and take a look at all the different ones. The view from the caves are beautiful since it is right off the Mekong. The caves give you a different perspective on spirituality and how nature can be incorporated into this. It’s definitely worth taking a boat ride to.

 

Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, in fact part of the city is a UNESCO world heritage site. The city is amazing, and after visiting, I understand why our guide said she’d live there. There are beautiful temples and monasteries. Plus western comforts like cafes and bakeries since you can get homesick for silly things like a chocolate chip cookie.

Wat Xien Thong, (the Golden City) is temple that we visited. My sister was part of a bike excursion there while I took a tuk tuk with a friend. The site has around twenty structures and we visited many of them.  It was built in the mid-16^th century. If you like dragons, there are some neat sculptures as well as representations in sculptures and paintings.

 

We climbed a million steps on That Phu Si & Wat Tham Phu Si park which is considered a sacred site that overlooks the city. I was pretty proud of myself for being the first person from the tour to climb to the top. The views are stunning! We watched the sunset and got to see the doves set free (I think they do that for the tourists).

Afterwards we tried a local delicacy, snake whiskey. It tasted exactly like you would think: terrible! But when in Rome…

 

 

 

We ended the night by going to the Night Market…and I have to say Luang Prabang’s was my favorite. The things I saw there I did not see anywhere else on our tour. There was hand painted packages of coffee and tea, beautiful tea sets, earrings made with thread and silver, and I can go on and on… We ate dinner at one of the street vendors where a woman made us a spicy papaya salad and some meat on a stick. We stayed until closing time since the market there is massive and there is so much to see.