The route to Luang Prabang,
I was told, was mostly through mountainous and winding terrain. Hence, I thought
it better to start after breakfast, which was almost the same as the previous
day, except that watermelon juice replaced passion fruit juice. I had gone over
the route in detail last night and made notes. But that did not detract me from
hitting the wrong path almost immediately on leaving the hotel! I did quite a few
U-turns within the city and then thought I was on R13, the highway to Luang
Prabang. Even at 7.30 am the roads were busy since it was school hour and
people had started commute for work too. Normal working hour is from 8 am to 5
pm, I understood.
Almost one hour into my
drive I was still within the precincts of Vientiane. I had to fuel and hence, turned
into a fuel station. The fuel station attendant told me that I was certainly on
R13, but in the easterly direction, when I had to be in the northern direction
to go to Luang Prabang. So much for travelling without GPS! However, course
correction did not cost me much – maybe, an hour in time and about 15 extra kms
in distance. Once I got on to the correct part of R13 I stayed on it till I reached
a diversion to R4 just after a district headquarters of Kasi. R13 was alright
for the most part except that the surfacing needed attention and some parts
were potholed, but not unmanageably so.
The diversion to R4 was a
blessing. The road surface was excellent and remained so for about 110 kms till
it merged with R13 once again, shortly before Luang Prabang. The steep and
winding R4 cut through mountains, thick forest, rubber and teak plantations and
had to be taken with utmost care. Regular warnings asked drivers to reduce
speed and indicated the type of road ahead. Traffic, however, was not heavy and,
as I have come to expect in these parts of the world, lane discipline is always
observed. Another feature is that honking is almost non-existent and is only
resorted to either to warn or to convey annoyance. When I was driving before
sunrise from Sukhothai a truck coming in the opposite direction honked as it
passed me. I wondered why, initially. Then I realised that I had the high beam
on!
When I got into the town
portion of Luang Prabang I saw a large number of foreigners, going by the skin
color. More than I had seen in any other town or city during this journey. After
driving a while in the town and not getting anywhere near the landmarks close
to the hotel I was to be lodged in, I decided to ask for directions. It turned
out to be futile, as usual, as the language issue surfaced. I thought it would
be better to turn into a hotel and seek directions. Evidently I chose the wrong
hotel for the man at the reception kept repeating the name of his hotel! Then I
asked a touk-touk driver, a young guy, if he knew the hotel I had to go to. He
did and gave me directions in English. But it seemed a bit complicated for my
brain that cannot analyse even the smallest slice of data relating to
directions. And, here I am doing road journeys that went through some tough
routes! I requested the driver to pilot me to the hotel for a fee. He quoted
30,000 Kips and I agreed without bargaining for I wanted to get to the hotel as
soon as possible, for biological reasons. Just then he got a fare of 5
foreigners emerging from a Spa. He asked me to follow him and I was saved the money.
He dropped his passengers off at a shop on the main road of the town. I had
stopped just behind him for further guidance when I heard a voice obviously
directed at me, “So you are doing this all by yourself, are you?” That was Cloey
from New York. She was at a store, having a drink, with her friend Rachel. The
stickers on the car had aroused their curiosity. They were avid travellers too;
Rachel has been on the move for the past 18 months. She has planned to travel
to India in June. I gave her my contact address in Cochin so that I could meet
here when she visited. The touk-touk driver gave me further directions to the hotel,
where I reached without getting lost again.
The two guys manning the reception
of the Mekong Sunset View Hotel looked a bit flustered when I asked them if
anything was the matter. They made me comfortable on a sofa, gave me a drink
and a plateful of watermelon and broke the bad news! They were full up since a
couple of customers could not check out due to flight rescheduling. They said they
could accommodate me in a sister hotel that was close by for one night. I agreed
and was taken to Saynamkhan Hotel, where I found the room quite comfortable. In
the hotels in Laos I did not find anything remotely resembling a check in
formality. They just take you to the room and ask if you are happy with it. The
same happened here.
I took some time to
complete the transfer of photos and videos to a hard disk and upload some on Facebook.
The main sights of the town were walkable distance from the hotel. I casually
strolled the main street, where tents were being put up for the night market. Since
it was nearing sunset tourists were trudging up the Phou Si mountain, on which
is situated the 150 m tall Chomsi stupa, to catch the sight. I did not want to
strain my knees that much and hence only went up half the mountain. After enjoying
a good view of the city from there I leisurely took a round of the night
market, where it was mostly locally done clothes and handicrafts. Two items
made of bamboo interested me the most - a gun and an iphone speaker.
I reached the Mekong River
bank in a short while and was mesmerised by the rays of the setting Sun on the dancing
waters. I wanted to catch more of it and thought of doing it from one of the
many restaurants that populate the place. I got into one which advertised local
food. Before I left the hotel for the walk I was told that I Orlam, Laab and
Jaebong are the popular local dishes. I was intent on trying one of them. I took
a table facing the river from where I had an amazing view of the Sun going
down. On the next table were seated three women, who sounded South American, eating
dinner and drinking beer. As I was going through the menu one of them said that
she would not eat in that restaurant of she were me. Evidently she had made a
wrong choice. I ordered a BeerLao and a bowl of Pork Orlam, a soup dish. Many boats
were parked on the bank of the river, waiting for customers to take a ride. The
beer was finished and I had soaked in the setting Sun when the soup arrived. It
looked perfectly good to me. However, considering what the woman had said I took
the first couple of sips just to figure if the taste would agree with me. It did
and I enjoyed it. The soup had lots of eggplant, cucumber, spicy wood, mushroom,
lemon grass and lots of meat. It was extremely healthy in that it contained
neither oil nor spice. It just had natural herbs and boiled vegetables and
lightly cooked meat.
Luang Prabang is a world
heritage city and hence, there are very strict laws governing construction and
transport. It has made this lovely city largely pollution free. I walked about
some more after the meal and was soon being solicited for massages of all
types. I decided against any since I had a slight scare early morning when my
left arm dropped numb, as if paralysed, as I got out of bed. In a while most of
the numbness was gone, but some weakness remained. I felt that some nerves may
have been pinched during one of the massage sessions.
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