CR: Luang Prabang will be the first place we spend two full days somewhere. We actually have four full days here. I am a little worried we’ll run out of things to do.
Today we had a hotel breakfast by the Mekong, followed by a coffee by the riverside also. Then we walked around for about four hours and got absolutely knackered in the sun. The highlight of the day was movie night. It might not surprise you to know that outdoor cinema works a little differently in Laos.
CR: Our hotel for the next few days has a lovely seating area facing the Mekong. Unfortunately it is flooded with mosquitos. It is nice to not be sleeping in the jungle though. And the aircon works well, which is a major plus. DW: I actually think the jungle has fewer mosquitos. DW: Caitlin is unsure of the noise levels in our hotel and there are more mosquitos around than I would like, but it does include a nice spot for breakfast. We both get pancakes that are more the thin French style rather than American fluffies. Yum.DW: There is a lot going on for a small hotel bathroom. CR: You can’t see it in the photo but above the text imploring us to flush the sign says “Service with a Personal Touch”.DW: Washing day. More expensive hotels overcharge for washing so we hit the streets to get the market rate. DW: Luang Prabang obviously has domestic wealth as well, which we hadn’t seen before in Laos. There are some nicer houses, nicer cars and Laotian people wearing nicer clothes. DW: I still don’t know how Caitlin manages to shut her eyes in every single photo I take. CR: This photo makes me mad. I don’t know why Declan can’t just take another photo straight away after. He bitches about taking too many photos and then when he does relent he doesn’t do a proper job. It would take less than a second to get another photo. DW: I would advise Caitlin to blink a little less and this wouldn’t be a problem. CR: Temple in Luang Prabang. We can’t enter any of these today because our long pants are in the wash. CR: Today in town we saw consulates, the UXO (Unexploded Ordnances) Gallery, had a good crispy pork belly lunch and got a good look at new construction happening on the outskirts of town. In general we pooped ourselves out in the sun. It’s only low 30s but we get cooked walking in the sun for even just an hour.CR: Some tuk-tuks put more effort into aesthetics than others. DW: Each region in Thailand and Laps has slight local variations on tuk-tuk. Different frames (ute or bike), cab style, engine, lift, etc. I wonder if there is some centralisation of design that the government wants when they give a tuk-tuk registration that encourages this or it just emerges.CR: We spend an hour or two at the hotel before re-emerging in the evening to walk into dinner. The hotel offers a shuttle service into town but it’s only a ten minute walk. I imagine the shuttle was introduced after some online reviews complained it was too far to town. I’ve not seen anyone use the shuttle. It’s highly likely that the hotel employs someone 24/7 to drive it.CR: The ducks are being lugged up to a restaurant. I might not run into them again…CR: Luang Prabang is framed by mountains all around. In general I have found Laos more geographically beautiful than Thailand. The jungle is less urbanised. And the Mekong provides a real sense of identity as it goes through so much of the country, unlike in Thailand where it just kisses a small part on the border.CR: The city is very pretty in the evening. Declan doesn’t like that it’s aspiring to capture the tourist market. I think it is still charming even if that is true. Wine bars are universally loved for a reason!DW: We have a nice Vietnamese meal for dinner. Holiday throwback within the holiday. CR: In town yesterday we noticed a little sign out the front of one of the hotels that says there is a free outdoor cinema at their sister resort. I enquire at the front desk as to whether we need to book. I am told there is no need and to arrive at the hotel at 6.30pm. The film scheduled for today is The Revenant. What a strange holiday pick. We arrive at 6.30pm to the hotel. The receptionist falters briefly and then says, “please take a seat, I am calling a shuttle to take you to the resort”. We get in the shuttle. It is just us. We are not guests of this hotel. Anyway off we go. DW: At every point people seem to be basically aware of the movie night as a thing, but stalling for time to figure out what actually happens. DW: When we arrive at the designated movie time we are directed to the this lawn as the movie. We are equally as confused as the lady who directed us to this lawn. She abandons us there. After a mere 45 minutes, some limited progress has been made. The method of display is a laptop hooked up to a projector logged into someone’s Netflix account.CR: While six people work (DW: they had to FaceTime someone I presume knew how it actually worked, although I’m not confident any of them did) on getting the projector set up, we kick back with a cocktail (Leo: the effort these people are putting into arranging this makes me confident these are not polluted drinks).CR: We kick back and enjoy the film. Just us. So many questions. This was arranged enough to have a sign printed and put in a plastic display case at the hotel in town. There was a schedule of all different movies in the week prior to now. Has anyone come to see a film on any of the days? If no guest requested it, why on earth did the hotel choose the Revenant as one of the films? If we ordered no drinks would we have just gotten a return private shuttle and a movie for free? You can see in the background the resort Villas. Are they pissed off that at 10pm The Revenant is booming through their holiday? DW: I give The Revenant 5/7. The film showcased the harshness of the Northwest frontier well, but didn’t have a clear sense of journey (everything was just generic snowy forest) and the Native American story felt undercooked and uninteresting given the focus on them.
Love the comment about the pictures. @Declan you should chat to Paul about this. He has been known to endure >30min photoshoots mid run in the rain/cold because I wanted a nice photo. All for me to look through the photos at the end and tell him there are no insta-worthy photos that I can work with. And throughout this, I blame the photographer (not the subject, ofc).
Is the shuttle the tuk tuk? Please use it and keep those guys in a job!
Loved the outdoor cinema drama. Is it on another night while you are there? Maybe they do romcom Monday?
Favourite photo: well I was going to say Fruit Shack Cait but it is well explained why that was a fail so I will say Cocktail Declan with extra points for the shirt 🦈
I also really liked the evening street photo with all of those bikes!! I would never find mine especially after a few cocktails and I would be worried about causing a domino fall.
MGC: Paul is to be praised and respected for his patience but chided for his photo failures.
A good photographer can find the angle no matter the subject 😉
Mum: the tuk-tuk is not the hotel shuttle but damn it would be fun if it was!
We walked past the hotel where the cinema was as advertised and there is no longer a sign present.
Declan’s shirt we found earlier in Thailand. It was a must buy on sight.
Hehe you’d have to paint your bike a frightening colour to find it.
Those bags of wash being carried by Declan must have reeked.
With no knowledge to make this comment I assumed Laos would have a fair amount of rubbish in the streets. These photos show the exact opposite. The streets seem super clean and orderly and I’m quite impressed by the quality of the footpaths.
Have you been going into any of the shops in buildings.
Really good selfie.
The movie story was funny but it must have felt a bit odd that there was so much fuss for 2 tourists.
Dad: The bags were smelllllly. It would not have been fun to be the lady washing them…
Laos does indeed have a lot of rubbish in the streets. The approach is to leave massive black bags out cooking in the sun so that they can fester and attract a swarm of flies. Surprisingly I have not made these a feature of the blog.
Footpath quality is not great. You always have to watch where you are stepping. It’s trip hazards galore.
We’ve gone to a couple of shops. Not heaps. The shops are a bit samey. If one shop has success then there are ten others that copy it.
It was an extraordinary amount of fuss for two people not even staying at the hotel.
I spot a classic gender stereotype above.
To all the men that do laundry around the world I salute you.
Love the comment about the pictures. @Declan you should chat to Paul about this. He has been known to endure >30min photoshoots mid run in the rain/cold because I wanted a nice photo. All for me to look through the photos at the end and tell him there are no insta-worthy photos that I can work with. And throughout this, I blame the photographer (not the subject, ofc).
Is the shuttle the tuk tuk? Please use it and keep those guys in a job!
Loved the outdoor cinema drama. Is it on another night while you are there? Maybe they do romcom Monday?
Favourite photo: well I was going to say Fruit Shack Cait but it is well explained why that was a fail so I will say Cocktail Declan with extra points for the shirt 🦈
I also really liked the evening street photo with all of those bikes!! I would never find mine especially after a few cocktails and I would be worried about causing a domino fall.
MGC: Paul is to be praised and respected for his patience but chided for his photo failures.
A good photographer can find the angle no matter the subject 😉
Mum: the tuk-tuk is not the hotel shuttle but damn it would be fun if it was!
We walked past the hotel where the cinema was as advertised and there is no longer a sign present.
Declan’s shirt we found earlier in Thailand. It was a must buy on sight.
Hehe you’d have to paint your bike a frightening colour to find it.
Those bags of wash being carried by Declan must have reeked.
With no knowledge to make this comment I assumed Laos would have a fair amount of rubbish in the streets. These photos show the exact opposite. The streets seem super clean and orderly and I’m quite impressed by the quality of the footpaths.
Have you been going into any of the shops in buildings.
Really good selfie.
The movie story was funny but it must have felt a bit odd that there was so much fuss for 2 tourists.
Dad: The bags were smelllllly. It would not have been fun to be the lady washing them…
Laos does indeed have a lot of rubbish in the streets. The approach is to leave massive black bags out cooking in the sun so that they can fester and attract a swarm of flies. Surprisingly I have not made these a feature of the blog.
Footpath quality is not great. You always have to watch where you are stepping. It’s trip hazards galore.
We’ve gone to a couple of shops. Not heaps. The shops are a bit samey. If one shop has success then there are ten others that copy it.
It was an extraordinary amount of fuss for two people not even staying at the hotel.
I spot a classic gender stereotype above.
To all the men that do laundry around the world I salute you.