Luang Prabang: Day 2 (Part 2)

18 November 2016

Then into the boat again, where we ate lunch bought by our guide, which was fried rice. Not very tasty and not at all spicy, I think our guide probably ordered it less spicy thinking we can’t eat spicy food. He has no idea.

Next stop is Ban Xang Hai village, famous for producing Lao wine and Lao whiskey. “Ban” means village in Lao. We walked through the village for a bit, and we saw many bottles containing dead snakes, centipedes, bear paws and herbs. According to our guide, these are whiskey used for medicinal purposes – to cure headaches in particular. There was one with a cobra! Then we were told about the traditional methods in producing Lao wine and Lao whiskey, which is made from sticky rice, and left to ferment in hand made earthen jars.

And then we got to try Lao whiskey, with 50% alcohol (known as “lao lao”). It was surprisingly smooth. Then 2 types of Lao wine (15% alcohol); one was brownish in colour made from white sticky rice and the other was sweeter and reddish in colour made from black sticky rice. I bought a 100ml bottle of the brown wine and Silvia bought the red.

Then back to the boat to another village, Ban Xang Khong. This village is famous for its wood paper and Lao silk weaving. The wood paper is made from the bark of the mulberry tree, soaked for days and then mushed up and finally weaved into paper.

We walked around a bit and saw some temples, one in particular with young monks busy sweeping the temple grounds and right opposite them, sitting on the second floor of a building and smoking a cigarette, sat and old monk overseeing the antics of the young monks. Smoking??

On the way back to the harbour by boat, we saw many young monks playing by the river, frolicking around and jumping into the water. They seemed really happy, as if untainted by the harsh realities of life, despite not knowing whether they will have enough to eat the next day, or what they will have to eat the next day. As if today is the only day that matters. It’s a wonderful feeling just watching them through half closed eyes as we cruised along the Mekong.

Then back to the hotel, where we discovered that we were not strategically located. If we crossed a bamboo bridge along the Mekong river, we could reach the city centre in about 10 minutes. However, the bridge was under repair. So if we were to walk to town it would take us about 15-20 minutes. The hotel did however provide shuttle service to and from town, everyday at 6.30 p.m. to town and 9.30 p.m. from town. But today our guide dropped us in town where we walked around the night market and picked out stuff that we could potentially buy. I was not very hungry, so in the end we found a convenience store where we bought beer and chips and sat outside the store (there were chairs and tables there) and talked and drank beer and ate chips and watched the world go by.

At 9.30 p.m. we took the shuttle van back to the hotel, then shower and sleep.