We have breakfast early and wait for our transport to arrive. Not being a good traveller on windy roads I did ask if we could possibly be picked up first so I could get a seat towards the front but they said that everyone asks for the same thing. Alas, the vehicle arrives and already looks full. The driver gets out and pulls all the luggage from the back to reveal an extra bench that can convert into a seat and all the luggage is thrown up on to a roof rack. We get to sit in the back row, at least I am by the window but it will only open about 2 inches so I hope I don't have to try to get my head out. I just keep telling myself to think of anything else.
We pass through many, many villages that cling to the edge of the road. I'm not sure if the road follows them or they follow the road. If I had my choice I would build off the road so I didn't have to deal with the constant dust and bus loads of tourists eyeing my every move but there must be a good reason why they remain where they are. There is abject poverty here; dirt floors, woven walls, thatched roofs and no running water or sanitation of any kind. In many we saw evidence of the community wells supplied by Vision Australia, French Red Cross and UNICEF. It was a journey of six and a half hours, was windy and sometimes bone shuddering and I swear I will never do this sort of travel again, but we got to Luang Prabang safely and our accommodation is very pleasant. A shower followed by a Mekong on the balcony soon cheers me up. In the evening we took a stroll towards the night market but didn't feel like mingling with the crowds so detoured to the river and had dinner there and an early night.
Sunday 18/3
After breakfast at the hotel we rented bikes for the day (20,000kip or AUS$2.50 for both of them). We followed the Mekong to the end of the peninsula where the Nam Khan River flows into it. The whole peninsula is UNESCO heritage protected, recognizing the mix of French, Lao and Indo-Chinese architecture. We consider taking a river cruise tomorrow but in the end decided on a cooking class. I'm going along to take the pictures. I tried to donate blood at the Red Cross (they insist it is safe) as voluntary donations means the poor villagers do not have to pay for transfusions, or alternately opt not to have them which costs lives. We found the donation centre but it was unmanned, and try as I might, we could not find the office. In frustration I gave up and went to the museum where it would be cooler off the streets. The museum in housed in what was the royal palace until the revolution in 1975 when the royals were exiled to caves in the north by the Lao communists. On the way home we found the Big Brother Mouse Project which helps provide English literature to children either covering the cost of book printing and publishing or having volunteers purchase and deliver copies of the books to the outlying villages as tourist groups pass through. A donation here helped appease my earlier frustration with the blood bank. In the evening we visited the night market which is almost exclusively Hmong handicrafts, we could still find the patterns hand sewn that we bought in Chang Mai in 1985. But there were other lovely current ideas too like lamp shades, shoulder bags and jewelry you are likely to see at the Mindl Markets these days.
Monday 19/3
A dreadful night with a cough irritated by the air con. Shutting it down and openning the French doors onto the balcony is cool enough at night but the street noise cannot be ignored. Even thought this is a quiet end of town we had to endure cats fighting and someone seemed to be moving furniture in the middle of the night.
We met Linda at the Tum Tum Cooking Class and discovered we are the only enrollments for the morning class. After a cup of coffee and selecting the dishes we want to cook we are driven to the market in a Tuk Tuk along with our guide Noi and 2 other women who will do all the shopping. Noi explained many of the locally made snacks and dried products and arranged for us to sample some. She checked which vegetables we were familiar with and diverted only briefly into the wet area of meat and fish. Back at the restaurant our class began with an explanation of Lao respect for rice, since it belongs to Earth, one of the four elements along with wind, fire and water, that come together to embody the spirit of ourselves. Lao people eat rice everyday, at every meal. Then she explained how important it was for a meal to be prepared considering 3 fundamentals: it must taste good, smell good and look good. We begin by learning to make the simple garnishes from tomato skin and cucumber. We are clumsy! Next we move to the kitchen to prepare the 4 dishes we chose (chicken laab salad, ginger fish, steamed fish in banana leaf and vegetable curry). We also learnt how to prepare sticky rice and cook a dessert of caramelized banana. It was interesting and fun, all the hard work is in the preparation of all the ingredients and in this class we have many staff who do it all for you with a smile or a giggle. But we also learnt quite a lot about using the wok and timing the cooking. Finally we sat down to eat our banquet which was delicious. We have a recipe book with over 20 recipes if anyone would like a copy.
At the urging of Noi, on the market run this morning, we climbed the 300+ stairs in the late afternoon to the temple on the hill in town which gave great views of the whole layout including the junction of the two rivers. Noi had said that until you have done this you haven't been to Luang Prabang. The sun was a glowing red orb in very smokey skies, evidence of the deforestation going on all around here to feed China's hunger for timber, the Vietnamese furniture industry and for cultivation. Another environmental issue that is worrying is China's plans to dam the Mekong which will be to the detriment the Thai, Lao and Vietnese food production and tourist industries.
Luang Prabang has charmed us, we love the old quarter of the city nestled by the junction of the rivers, the friendly people and the fabulous food. We see ourselves returning here, but arriving by plane next time, not bus!
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