They say Luang Prabang is beautiful. This is exceptionally true now.
It was worth listening to the good advice that came a few days earlier.
This small town also enriched my trip with many experiences.
This trip has now reached a stage where I travel a lot. Seven towns and even more accommodations, many kilometers behind me since I left Thailand.
Arriving in the city
In the previous post, I mentioned that we were all waiting for the boat to dock.
When it finally did, we found ourselves in a game of straight lines.
Several tuktuks were waiting for us on the shore, a sign saying that the city was 10 km away (so don’t even think about walking!), the fare was 60,000 KIP/person (so don’t even think about haggling) and that they would take us to the city center (so don’t even think about pestering the driver with the address of your accommodation).
I didn’t have a place to stay anyway, and although I would have liked to walk, in this case I joined the queue without haggling and bought a ticket for myself. As soon as six people got on the vehicle, it started moving.
We did indeed arrive in the city center. Right next to the market. I have been to this market several times since then, but I noticed from the very first moment that I liked the place. Mainly because there were a lot of people sitting at the tables, about half locals and half tourists. A full house is always a good sign where food is available, as is the fact that locals eat here too. The choice of food is huge, the smells are mouth-watering, and the prices are moderate.
So a guy I met on one of the boats and I immediately looked for a free table and a cold beer each. Which turned into more, and – after a difficult choice (I must say, the choice is wide) – dinner was also included.
While we were talking, I started looking for accommodation for myself. When I was looking at one of the best cheap hotels, he mentioned that he also lives here, so I booked my room for two nights. Especially after he told me that he had been here 8 years ago and that he had found this accommodation to be the best.
SaSa Lao
We took a tuk-tuk to the accommodation, which was interesting to me only the first time, because it is within the perfectly normal 2-3 km distance from the market square.
This accommodation is a real gem on the banks of the Nam Khan River. Its center is occupied by a building that can be described as a cafe, restaurant, reception and community area. A bamboo structure, enchanting lights, information boards and kind staff characterize the whole place. It had a very friendly atmosphere, I was captivated from the first moment.
My room was a little slice of paradise. As soon as I entered, I immediately thought that this was a perfect honeymoon room. For a moment I thought of Dulciena, and then I took possession of the home of my next few days. And also the most beautiful room of my eight months of travel so far.
The huge bed, under a mosquito net, with clean sheets seemed like a jackpot in itself. But there was a huge desk with three chairs. A kind of hanging closet, with two other tables suitable for packing. And a simply built, but great bathroom in every way.
The walls of the room were made of bamboo on two sides, so the ventilation was solved naturally, and this obviously justified the use of a mosquito net placed above the bed. This was the first time for me in Asia (and ever) when I slept under such a mosquito net. During the Gibbon Experience, we slept under something more like a tent, this time it was the “classic” mosquito net. Lying under it reminded me of a pleasant sleep – under a tent – which I always loved.
I found a good home here. (I will present the new definition of home, created for me, in the next chapter.)
After taking the room, I looked around the accommodation. The rooms are located around the central building, surrounded by trees everywhere, so it feels a bit like being in a jungle.
The riverside rooms are built with huge terraces and offer excellent views of the city. The river flows under these rooms, about 50 meters walk from the central area.
Not only my room, the whole accommodation is a little slice of paradise.
Days and nights in Luang Prabang
I rented the place for two nights, then it turned into four.
We spent the first evening of our arrival, and a little part of the night, in the city, with the guy we arrived with at Sasa Lao, and several other people we met on the boat.
I spent Sunday mainly working and looking for work, but in the evening we threw ourselves back into social life. It worked so well that a pile of empty beer bottles marked the passing of time, and the clock showed 3:30 when we finished talking, sitting on the banks of the Mekong.
I love the companies formed by chance. Conversations shape us all. Our thoughts are hardened in the crossfire of questions, or lose their edge. Maybe they are further refined by the additional thoughts added.
There are those conversations that you only end because you happen to be so sleepy that you need to sleep. That’s how we parted ways on the banks of the Mekong. That’s how I got the chance to take my first night walk in this city.
This city is beautiful at night too. To walk along the small streets that connect the banks of the Mekong with the banks of the Nam Khan, you have to go up a hill and then down. The streets reminded me a bit of Malta, but I don’t think I can explain why.
I started Monday with work, then with the usual semi-virtual Monday walk with one of my friends. Virtual because he’s walking in Hungary and I’m here. Semi-virtual because behind the communication channel lies the reality of both of us, since we don’t just talk about Monday-to-Monday, but we also do physical exercise.
My friend surprised me by showing up an hour earlier than I expected. I didn’t realize that it was time change in Hungary last night. I needed a second warning because my phone also alerted me to an afternoon meeting an hour earlier than I expected. It’s no use, some people learn slowly.
Sunset on the Mekong
We spent half the afternoon and evening on a sunset cruise with my roommate. When we booked the accommodation, we each received a ticket for a sunset cruise operated by the owner of our accommodation. Moreover, we were both able to book a ticket for two people.
Our ship was a large two-story restaurant ship. To which a smaller motorboat took us on the river below the hotel. This little cruise was already an experience in itself.
After leaving, the large ship aimed for the sunset (west) and everyone, sitting at a table or lying on a sunbed, waited for the central element of our solar system to say goodbye to today.
Let’s just say, it was in vain, because the air was so smoggy that we lost the Sun just when it was almost an experience, so I have to say that we were richer with an imagined sunset.
This is what made me think of making a nearly two-minute video during “The Gibbon Experience II.” Now, when I play it at 10x speed, I can show you what a clearly visible sunset looks like.
The cruise also had a very interesting event.
Turning back towards the city, one of the waiters appeared at our table and invited us to a ceremony.
He told us that he would give us two bamboo leaves. On one, we should write a wish, and on the other, something we wanted to let go of from our lives. I immediately told him that I would not need the second leaf, but I guess he thought I was joking, so I got my two leaves.
I was not joking. I did not write anything on the “evil” leaf. On the other, I could not think of any specific wish for my life, so I wrote my wish for the world on it.
We folded the two leaves and tied them together with a little string. The waiters collected these messages from the passengers in two bowls.
On one side of the ship there was an aquarium with two handfuls of small fish in it. A slide was attached to the aquarium. The letters containing the wishes were put into this aquarium.
The fish were waiting to be released back into the Mekong. This is a spiritually based ceremony, an industrialized form of releasing them back into nature as a good deed. Many people criticize this program, as I read, because the fish are caught only to be released back, and it is therefore “not real.” I had no such concerns.
After a while, the aquarium began to light up with different neon lights. Then someone grabbed a microphone and performed the show in broken English, which was even accompanied by dramatic music to try to elevate it to the climax. Then, after an even more dramatic countdown, the fish were released – and the wishes too.
Then the masked death appeared and – after a dramatic dance – the messages to be released were released on the other side of the boat. Here, for example, the cute little Chinese girl had a hysterical fit from the death, so he – sensing the seriousness of the situation – quickly left the scene.
Although I think there is a bit of cynicism and negative overtones in my writing, overall I was in the scene. Afterwards I thought that the whole thing was very funny. And I realized that in my earlier life I always laughed at such vulgar scenes with the dignity of being an outsider, somehow keeping myself away from being a part of something vulgar.
Here, however, the good humor made me laugh. And I thought that I was indeed part of this game organized for tourists, since I handed in my two letters, even if one was blank. On the other hand, I watched the performance and enjoyed it to the point of the little girl’s fright. I was just as much a tourist in these moments as the others. I was neither above nor below them, I was simply a part of the moment.
I didn’t want to let go of anything. Yet this ceremony took away a piece of the superiority that had previously characterized me.
And it doesn’t matter which side of the ship the water washed over.
Buy me a coffee?
If you enjoyed this story, you can buy me a coffee. You don’t have to – but it means a lot and I always turn it into a new adventure.
Buy a coffee for Steve
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Short introduction