Cold hot dogs
We got to Luang Prabang, UNESCO World Heritage museum-piece city of Laos on Thursday, and it has been drizzling ever since, that ‘wetting rain’ that doesn’t look much but soaks you through in no time. At least in Cambodia it chucks it down then stops. Here it just rains, and rains, and rains. It is cool though, and the air is fresh and crisp, where sometimes in Siem Reap the air feels re-used and gritty.
Lao Airlines must have a fascination with hot dogs. The flight from Siem Reap was in two stages - the first stopping inside Laos at Pakse, then carrying on to Luang Prabang, landing amongst hills that reminded me strongly of the flight to Lijiang. On the first step we got our boxes of food from the steward - a cold hot-dog in a roll, a cake, and an orange. Then on the second stage, another smaller box, with a cold hot-dog in a roll, and an orange. Good job I’m such a massive fan of cold hot-dogs. And oranges.
Luang Prabang is cool, hilly, beautiful, and like Lijiang, all a little bit sterile. Since being designated a World Heritage city, it has apparently been cleaned up, the roads are all sealed, and unlike Cambodia there is a distinct absense of packs of dogs, rubbish, and dirty great ugly hotels. It’s a lot quieter than Cambodia as well - even the rickshaw drivers nearly whisper at you. Last night we were sat in what turned out to be the town’s only gay bar, and the police arrived just before eleven and told the owner to turn the music off. At eleven o’clock, this place goes to sleep, that’s everyone including you, and if you want to carry on having fun you had better do it quietly. The bar was apparently called the Cruisin’ Gate, but was renamed to Khob Chai (Lao for Thank You) as soon as someone twigged that Cruisin’ Gate really wasn’t an appropriate name for a bar in a town like this.
Our guest house is very pleasant, and our room is a barn - disgusting amounts of dark wood, large windows, and a bath, so a good excuse for a soak for the first time in two months. The Lao people I have met so far are quiet, polite, and unlike Cambodians, haven’t poked me in the belly and laughed. I kind of miss that.
With a Cambodian public holiday next week I might be staying in Laos for longer - to maybe get a break in the rain, and see more of the place, including all the beautiful stuff I’ve heard about, and less of the museum-piece atmosphere of Luang Prabang.
Quite Random is the blog of Nathan Nelson, a human male who lives in the UK and is not entirely sure what he's going to do when he grows up but is interested in international development, photography, secularism, technology, music and movies and other things anyone of his age would be.
