Thursday, March 25, 2010

Luang Prabang - perfection

The VIP bus (which was pushing it as a description of the quality and comfort of the ride) rolled into Luang Prabang an hour earlier than I expected. Positive. But we were droped 4kms out of town. Negative. Found my prebooked guesthouse and settled in. Result.
It was love at first sight. A beautiful place on the river with wats, bars, cafes, bookshops and lots of lovely things to buy. What more could a girl ask for? My visit started off nicely with dinner and a few bottles of French red wine with a lovely Frenchman I met at my guesthouse. He was a chef and I waxed lyrical about the cooking courses I'd done. The next day I caught up with an American woman I'd met a Jungle Beach. She'd been in LP for 10 days and showed me around. We went to UXO Laos which had an informative and well designed display about the unexploded bombs from the American War that are still killing and maiming today. Scarey statistics - they estimate that at the current rate it will take 100 years to find and defuse them all. We ate amazing street food and chilled at a bar on the bank of the river and made plans to meet at 6.30am the next morning to watch the monks talking alms followed by a trip to the Kuang Si waterfalls. LP is famous for the sight of large groups of monks taking offerings of food as is the daily ritual in Laos. I'd seen it on a small scale elsewhere in Laos but with the concentration of monestries and the number of monks in LP its an amazing sight. As well as being a bit of a tourist circus. Without the elephants. I sampled the local version of pho in the morning market. They add a sort of spicy pork bolognaise which makes it extra delicious. The Kuang Si falls are a must do even in the dry season. You ascend past small falls and pools with water the most beautiful shade of blue. But it gets better - the major fall towers above leaving you open mouthed in wonder. We slogged our way up and over ruining my already pretty wrecked shoes in the process. We drank Beer Lao and ate enormous sandwiches we'd bought in the market that morning. Then it was back to town for beer and lao lao and fond farewells to her and another friend I'd made in Vang Vieng as both of them were leaving the next day. Which for me was cooking class number three and the best yet. It was just me and a guy from Colorado and it started with a visit to the market a couple of kilometers outside town. There was the usual assortment of produce including the local version of fish sauce. If you think the Thai stuff is pungent you should smell this stuff, its unrefined and still has the fish in it. Like many things in SEA it tastes better than it smells. It was a very hands on course as we replicated dishes once they had been demonstrated by the instructors. Its the food I'm most inspired to go home and cook - so much so that I'm currently lugging around a clay and wood motar and pestle set that only cost me a few dollars. You've got to try the local version of mayonaise which is more like an egg paste. Brilliant on salad. Exhausted and stuffed to the gills I had an extremely early night digesting mentally and physically. The next day was shopping day as I've hit the accumulation phase of the trip. Don't ask how many scarves I've bought. Sadly it was time to leave. I could have easily stayed for many more days but Hanoi and northern Vietnam (and home) beckons.

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