Luang Prabang

We took the slow boat from the Thai Border town of Chiang Kong / Huay Xai for two days down the muddy Mekong to the beautiful city of Luang Prabang.

It's the kind of place that sucks you in and forces you to relax, no matter how tightly wound you are. We arrived on a Sunday, and the Festival would be the following Saturday. In between, take in some Wats, and hang out with some monks, giving plenty of English, French, and even Japanese conversation classes. Internationalisation at a grass roots level: Once a Jet, well, you know how it goes.

I enjoyed the two day slow boat, not least because of the "Slow Boat Family" that forms on board. The result is that when you get to Luang Prabang, you've got a very large number of people you already know fairly well to hang out with. It made a nice change from the solo traveling I've been mostly doing.
Of course, it wasn't long until i heard a familair accent. There's Cillian and I on our trusty steeds, taking on the mudiest tracks around. Go on ye good thing!

I didn't really do a hell of a lot there though as for three nights in a row I wasn't sleeping properly. It wasn't full on insomnia, but it did make me feel like a zombie during the first half of the week, and barely able to even read the notices outside the temples, or really take anything in. Another backpacker gave me some Melotonin, which helped a litttle, and then the pharmacy gave me something that saved the week for me. I was sleeping well, and feeling alive for the first time in days. The tablets had some generic name on them, which I later learned had the same main ingredient as Valium. Oh dear...


It did mean I was able to get up for the Alms giving each morning. The monks and novices filed out of their temples from half 5 each morning to collect their food for the day from the faithful. Women and children lined the streets around the temples, waiting to give their offerings of sticky rice and biscuits. Women and Children. The other thing that struck me about Luang Prabang was the women. From before sunrise to well after sunset, I saw them on the streets, manning their stalls, every day. It seems that here, the women do all of the work, and it's not easy.

There are a ridiculous number of photos form Luang Prabang here, most with comments giving more detail than this post.


After a week or "relaxing", and wandering, and impromptu teaching, finally came the end of Buddhist lent.

There are some more photos of the night itself up here.

Then, a final farewell to those of the Slow boat famil who were still around, and off with some new partners in grime the South.