Day 12 - Heading North to Luang Prabang

I woke up at 7.50am, jumped in the shower and as promised marched into town to get Jackie and I an iced cold coffee with milk. Whilst our drinks were being made, I noticed a basket of freshly baked baguettes. I couldn’t help myself and I ordered a cheese baguette (to share) costing the equivalent of £1.

I returned to the hotel, a round trip of exactly 1 mile, with my purchases to savour on the balcony. The coffee was delicious and the baguette was nice, the filling was grated cheese, tomato and lettuce, together with tomato sauce and mustard that it could have done without for my taste.

Over our coffee and baguette breakfast, we saw an Above Laos van drop two guests off at our hotel. A quick google search revealed that Above Laos, a more reputable (and expensive) ballooning company may have been given official permission to resume operations again. We discussed the possibility of returning to Vang Vieng for a couple of days at the end of our trip to take a balloon flight.

We completed our packing and at 9.30am we boarded the Tuk-tuk that arrived to transport us to the train station. It cost us 80,000 Kip each, whereas our full shared Tuk-tuk from the station had only cost 40,000. It seems that they cost more if organised by a hotel.

At Vang Vieng train station, it was the same airport-like security check procedure. We had anticipated this and had both placed a half empty can of mosquito spray in each of our rucksacks. Unfortunately they were more efficient (or job’s worths) than at Vientiane. I was forced to hand over my mossie spray and deodorant. Jackie had to surrender 4 aerosols, including mossie spray, dry shampoo and 2 suntan lotions. We effectively gave away about £40’s worth of sprays. Great.

The check-in and boarding procedures were utterly fuss free and efficient. 10-15 minutes before our train arrived the couple of hundred or so of us passengers were ushered out to the platform and instructed to stand behind a yellow line in our allocated carriage area. We were carriage 11, seats 7A&B. The 10.46am train arrived on time and within minutes we were seated and smoothly gathering speed out of the station.

The train reached speeds of 159km per hour as it raced through tunnel after tunnel through the mountainous region of Laos. As a result there wasn’t a huge amount to see.

An hour later we arrived at Luang Prabang. We disembarked and made our way to the pick-up area where Jackie had arranged for a car to transfer us to take us to the hotel. We were bombarded with taxi offers which I noted were cheaper than the transfer Jackie had arranged.

10 minutes later, Noy, our driver appeared and drove us the 22km to our next hotel, My Dream Boutique Resort. Now I should point out at this point that Jackie took full responsibility for booking this hotel and unsurprisingly it cost us £43 per night with breakfast. Almost double what I paid per night for the previous hotel.

The welcome reception was exceptional. We handed over a passports and our rucksacks, then we were presented with a tray with 2 cold towels, a plate of mango and 2 glasses of hibiscus juice. We were provided with useful information, then the manager came over to formally welcome us, before we were escorted to our room.

Jackie was in her element and within 5 minutes of our arrival, she was declaring we would be staying at this hotel for the remainder of our trip. Apparently the idea of a balloon ride in Vang Vieng is now history!!

We unpacked our rucksacks in presumption that we would be staying indefinitely, because Jackie loved the room. I had to agree that it was particularly lovely on the first floor, with a balcony overlooking a pool.

We toured the grounds of our My Dream Boutique Resort which we discovered had two pools and the gardens that continued all the way down to the Nam Khan River. We were more and more impressed with our tranquil hotel, which totally exceeded our expectations. Jackie was quick to remind me at every given opportunity that you get what you pay for.

We walked out of the hotel to find a cold beer and a spot of lunch. After a couple of quick right hand turns, we crossed the ‘Old Bridge’ high above the Nam Khan. The Old Bridge is for motorcycles and pedestrians only. The pedestrian footpaths were either side of the busy motorcycle carriageways on a metal sheet floor. Some of the metal sheets had bowed in the middle and made a hell of a racket when we stepped on the them.

Jackie admitted she was slightly frightened that the pedestrian path would collapse sending us falling to our death. I was more concerned that I might accidentally drop my phone sending it falling to its death.

Literally the other side of the Old Bridge, a restaurant, Khua Kao, screamed out for us to enter. It had a terrace in a lofty position overlooking the Nam Khan, where we enjoyed a lovely lunch. Jackie had tom yum soup with seafood and I had a pork omelette with rice.

Halfway through the meal we were asked if we didn’t mind being filmed by a drone for a promotion video. We obviously didn’t and the drone flew around and through the restaurant terrace. Hollywood here we come!!

After lunch we bought some drinks including a cheap bottle of Vietnamese vodka, then returned to My Dream and sat around what felt like our own private secluded pool. We sunbathed and I tried to read my book, but Jackie was constantly nattering in my ear about extending our stay here, what type of room, what floor, how much would we be prepared to pay, what if this, what if that, etc, etc, etc. I didn’t get much reading done!

At 7pm we returned to reception to catch the free hotel shuttle bus into the old town. We had time to read the restaurant menu which looked exceptional, reasonably priced and the atmosphere was made by a musician playing his guzheng.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at the Old Post Office and we walked down to the Mekong River, where the riverside was lined with tons of inviting waterfront restaurants - too many to choose from. We strolled up and down umming and aahing and eventually settled on an Indian and Malaysian restaurant. We sat down and opened the menu, but to Jackie’s utter horror they didn’t sell alcohol - it was a Muslim restaurant. We made our apologies and left, but vowed to go back another night.

We settled on another riverside restaurant which sold beer. I ordered a fried chicken dish with girolle mushrooms and coconut milk, whilst Jackie ordered a Pad Thai chicken. Both meals were lovely and Jackie voted hers the best Pad Thai on this trip.

We caught the 9.30pm shuttle bus back to the hotel, had a vodka nightcap and retired to bed shattered.

Song of the Day - Another Train by Ian McCulloch.Baca lagi