Try the adventurous menu, they said. A more in-depth look at Laotian cuisine, they promised, with hard-to-find dishes. We possibly should have read between the lines more, because what we ended up with was a platter of dung beetles, rice grubs, and super fiery chili pastes. Still, there was also a rather good smoked aubergine dip, an interesting barbecued stuffed frog, and great sweet pickled tamarind. And the cocktail was excellent.
The destination for our motorcycle excursion was the Kuang Si waterfalls and a bear sanctuary. Kuang Si was rather more swimmable than Tat Se, and came with a pretty awesome, and very popular, rope swing.
We *had* to rent a motorcycle at some point in south-east Asia, or the trip wouldn’t be complete. We were too chicken/conscious of our own mortality to attempt it in Vietnam, but Laos seemed relatively safer. (Not that they require anything as idiosyncratic as a driving license to rent a motorbike, but at least the traffic was minimal). So we rented a Honda Scoopy and set off for a park about 30km out of town. We have (obviously) lived to tell the tale, and enjoyed some lovely scenery along the way.
The Luang Prabang old town. Note the terrifyingly rickety bamboo bridge
Because what is the point of going on holiday if you can’t eat a banana split at 11 am while you watch the world go by?
At the end of our day-long trek, we ended up at the Tat Se waterfall. They are so beautiful, they almost look fake, as if they had been manufactured to order for a Vegas hotel. We approached it from above, through the jungle, which was quite magical — like we were explorers happening upon it for the very first time. Of course, that’s very much not the case. When you get to the bottom there are bars, restaurants, zip lines, elephant rides…
Khmu and Hmong villages we passed through during the trek.
A hike up through the jungle and mountains east of Luang Prabang. The tree on the second from bottom row left has sticks driven into the trunk and branches, which help the locals climb up to get at the beehives and their honeycombs.
View from our window: Villa Somphong, Luang Prabang, Laos. 7:15 am, 09 December 2013.
At home, bargaining is not unheard of. You might try to negotiate a price at a garage sale or similar, and it’s quite normal for larger purchases (furniture, car, house, business deal). But most of the time, if you are buying a snack or a shirt or a pair of sunglasses, the price is as marked, and if you try to haggle people will just think you’re weird. I prefer this system because it makes all of those small transactions quick and unambiguous. By contrast, tipping is quite normal in Canada, if not quite so endemic as in the US.