Day 13 -- Luang Prabang
We had no particular plan for our last day in Luang Prabang so Dave and I decided walk the perimeter of town, which would take us on a big U along the Mekong River and one of its tributaries. It was a gorgeous day, clear and sunny, and the river was a slow-rolling muddy amazement, framed by tropical trees and flowers and spanned by the occasional rickety bamboo bridge. These bridges are an interesting take on the idea of infrastructure -- the river inevitably and magnificently floods every year so the bridges are regularly assembled and disassembled (sometimes with a little more planning than others).
We met up with the rest of the team at Tangor, a French restaurant run by a pair of sexy expats serving Belgian beer, cheese and charcuterie plates, ceviche, french fries and assorted other tasty snacks both European and Laotian. It’s got a retro Indochina nostalgia theme going that was a little hard to figure -- we decided it was ironic and tried not to be freaked out by the baldly racist vintage comics on display in the restrooms.
Mary decided not to keep hiking around in her boot and opted to head back for the pool/spa option at the hotel. Glenn, Holly, Dave and I ponied up the one dollar toll to carefully negotiate a very steep handrail-less stone staircase down to the river’s edge and then walk very gingerly across a woven bamboo bridge to the opposite bank of the Mekong. It’s important to note that the Laotians are, as a general rule, small. You would not want to try and pass someone coming the other way on this bridge. We took solace in the fact that a bunch of kids were playing in the river below us and the water only appeared to be about chest deep.
Six things we discovered on the other side of the river:
What looked like a very fun restaurant with a big tiki bar and seats overlooking the river
A scruffy temple where, in a long shed, we spotted a boat with seats for 37 rowers. The thing had to be 90 feet long and if it was 3 feet wide, I’d be amazed. Having just climbed the extremely tricky staircase up from the river, I can tell you I’d pay a lot more than a dollar to see them get that thing into the water
A little fleet of fluffy black chicks peeping along behind their mother hen on the scrubby roadside
A older lady in a pencil skirt whacking a mango out of a tree with a long bamboo pole (it wasn’t clear whether she was actively aiming for the chicks, but it was a near thing)
A very nice shop selling handmade paper crafts
And the most random thing we saw on the entire trip -- a retaining wall made of old TVs
Holly split off once we’d scrambled back across the bridge but Dave, Glenn and I wandered through the grounds of a couple more beautiful temples, including one with dignified monks sweeping walkways and having tea together under a shady tree. This was the most elegant of all the wats -- the ornamentation was entirely gold, which in contrast to the wildly colorful Wat Xiengthong seemed almost understated.
I stopped on the way back as the night market was getting organized to buy a bigger carry on bag -- it really was impossible not to shop on this trip. We ended the evening back at the bar at Maison Dalabua, enjoying more banana flower salad, stuffed peppers and grilled chicken overlooking that stunning lily pond.
