At one point, we had planned to visit only Northern Laos, as that is the part said to have the most beautiful mountains, nicest cities, and best infrastructure. Ironically, so far I have liked the south of Laos much more than the north. Granted, Vang Vieng was fun and I enjoyed our floating and spelunking, but it did feel rather like a wealthy young backpackers' playground, or a place for 'Trustafarians' (white Rastafarians with trust funds) to prove themselves. Vientiane was like any other capital city (what little we saw of it), and Luang Prabang, while lovely, could be any small French city, complete with portly grey-haired men and their plastic-surgeried wives. In short, the north feels like a picturesque tourist dump.
We began the day by waking up early-early to give alms to the monks. Each morning, the monks from the various monasteries walk through town collecting alms in their copper bowls. Because the the monks are not permitted to make or buy their own food, lay people line the route to drop offerings of sticky rice, fruit, biscuits, etc into the alms bowls. Our guest house is on the route, and guests are invited to participate. Unfortunately, because it is on the route, hawkers also line the road selling sticky rice, fruit, etc. at hugely inflated rates. Today we made the mistake of buying from the hawkers - we thought there might be something special about the foods they offer. We were wrong. Fruit from the market is just as appropriate and a fraction of the cost. Oh well, live and learn.
The incident did however serve to highlight one the major differences between the south and the more developed north. In the south, we hardly had to be on the lookout for scams at all. Up north, however, it seems everyone is trying to make something for nothing. It seems fairly consistent in developing countries that the more foreign visitors a place sees, the more money-focused and sly the people seem to become. It is understandable, given that even the most broke backpacker has more money than many of these people are liable to see in a lifetime, but it is hard feeling like a walking ATM.
After alms, we met up with N, a friend we met while trekking in Nepal. She is doing the SE Asia circuit in the opposite direction from us - starting north and working south, so it was great good luck that we were able to cross paths again. Much of the draw of northern Thailand and northern Laos are the mountains. We compared travel notes, and agreed that after Nepal, it takes some pretty damn fine mountains to impress us.
After breakfast, we split up to run some errands, and met again in the afternoon. Cz and I opted for the fully touristy trip to visit the local bear sanctuary and waterfalls, while Nikki decided to spend the afternoon with her roommate. The bear sanctuary provided a healthy home and rehabilitation to bears rescued from poachers. There is an active bear trade with China both for bile extraction (used in traditional medicines) and restaurants (bear paw soup is considered a delicacy). Because of poaching and habitat loss, the Asian black bear is now critically endangered. At the shelter, 12 bears snooze and play and live lives that would have otherwise have been robbed from them. The shelter is in the process of expanding to accommodate an additional 12 bears, and also to expand their rehabilitation and re-release programs.
Also on site is Phet, an Indochine tiger. She too was rescued from poachers when she was only four days old. Because she was raised and has spent her entire life with humans, she can never be released into the wild. Her enclosure, however is huge, and includes among the trees all sorts of tiger-size kitty toys.
A stream runs through both Phet and the bears' enclosure. Its source are the impressive Kuang Si waterfalls. A visiting group of monks provided some choice photo opportunities.
On our return from the park, we passed though a 'Hilltribe Village'. Perhaps once this had been a genuine village, but tourist traffic has reduced it to a mall of handicrafts where children barely able to speak call out, "Hello, Hello, You can buy from Mee-eee". I understand the need for the tribes to make money selling crafts. I suspect some well-intentioned European supplied the materials and the villagers the labour, but the method of selling, and the 'human zoo' feeling of the place was really depressing. I felt exploitive walking through and not purchasing anything, but if I had made a purchase, I would have felt worse for supporting such activity. It was a no win situation that put both of us in a dark mood.
So far Luang Prabang's saving grace has been the food. Once again dinner was lovely and cheap.
After our meal, we walked through the night market near our guesthouse. anything and everything was offered up for sale spread on blankets under bare bulbs and candles. It felt like a much more genuine way of selling crafts and goods. We purchased a few kilo of oranges in hopes of a better alms-giving experience tomorrow.
We woke up early this morning to join our neighbor lady in giving alms to the monks. I know they are supposed to give up worldly desires, but surely they must get bored with oranges and sticky rice. In fact, this morning, one novice did close the lid of his begging bowl to prevent the orange from going in. I think I should have bought those strawberry lollies I saw at one of the convenience stores!
The rain did have the bonus of cloaking the surounding mountains with misty clouds, giving them a bit of atmospheric drama which they had been lacking. As stated before, after the Himalayas, mountains really have to work hard to impress us.
Even the few days of rain upriver, and now on-river caused the river to surge along in a chocolate-coloured sheet. Every now and then a whirlpool or eddy would catch the boat and give it a litttle shake, just to remind us that this is the Mighty Mekong, not some little backwater tributary.
We arrived in Pak Beng, about halfway between Luang Prabang and the Thai Border at dusk. The way up from the ferry dock involved scrambling up a steep rocky-muddy slope in the half dark. Cz was not pleased. We arrived at our guesthouse which had mercifully hot showers and clean bathrooms. After taking advantage of the oh-so-civilised facilties, we wadered back into town (which seemed a much shorter walk going downhill and pack-free) for some well-deserved curry and rice.
