Once we jumped out from boat, we were immediately surrounded by few local villagers. They were hard selling their cheap rooms and few were holding a big cardboard with photo showing the rooms. I decided to go for a single room that costs (200B).
Before this I heard some backpackers have paid for 300B-400B on boat after the staff threaten us that most guesthouses in the village do not provide any proper power supply at night! Those naive foreigners immediately agreed upon signing up with him. I read about the price difference before getting on board. Obviously this tourist scam is not going to work on me. For sure he gonna charge them double on boat since he earned some from the commissions! What a money making business...
Apart from this, I was also quite doubtful with the words of the staff regarding the power supply at night. So I asked the guesthouse owner about this. He just smiled and denied," Of course we have electricity!" It seemed to him that my question didn't make any sense to him. It is later I read that the facilities (i.e. accommodation, water and power supply) here had improved tremendously due to the development project from tourism. The village itself is a popular stopover point for people who are traveling by boat.
It was quite a relief to see the interior of the room. The room was quite basic and clean, with A/C and bathroom. It is just fine for a night stay.
It was quite a relief to see the interior of the room. The room was quite basic and clean, with A/C and bathroom. It is just fine for a night stay.
After my warm shower, I walked out to the main street to look for food. But speaking about the town, it is just a one-street village mentioned in the book as though it is almost end of the world after the sky turned dark. I realized that description is so true especially the street further is heading up to a hill with thick forests. Anything behind is a mystery. Any necromancer or wolves are living in the forest??
I have my dinner in an empty restaurant just a minute walk from my guesthouse. The surrounding looked like a typical countryside village at night. Only some shops are with their lights on, there isn't any street lamp. Some parts of the street are great settings for shooting horror film! While having my dinner, a local guy just approached me saying he could offer my some marijauna! I immediately rejected his "drug" offer! I read that drug is common here.
Lao currency Kip looked similar.
DAY 2 to Luang PraBang
During the morning, I had my breakfast at a restaurant with a great view of the Mekong river.
The boat left at 10am. It gonna be another long day on the boat.
From the boat overlooking Pak Beng village.
It was another long journey ahead. I met some white foreigners from Europe, Aussie, few young Asians lady who are solo travelers, a few Japanese and even a Korean lady who is in her 50s is traveling alone in Lao.
After the 8 hour boat, we have finally reached LUANG PRABANG.......
We all got off on an unknown pier, which is close to the LPB airport. None of us had any idea where we were. We had no choice but to purchase ticket and hop on the tuk-tuk to the LPB town (US$2)
Sooner the driver dropped us off somewhere in the town. I checked-in to this guesthouse. Later I decided to stay for the next few days. I started to like this wonderful ancient city - Luang PraBang.
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the guest house not bad. price wise is reasonable.
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