mumbai and beyond: Vang Vieng to Laung Prabang; an eight hour road journey

We left Vang Vieng for Laung Prabang shortly after eight in the morning. Mr Phone had told us that it was a long drive but much prettier than the day before {well, I think that's what he said} It turned out that it was a pretty drive despite the down-pours we went through from time to time. We stopped a few times along the way, once which was for lunch, another to buy bananas and a few other times to admire the views/and or just to take some photos.

A rather greyer morning when we set off….

Not to far from Vang Vieng we stopped to take a couple of photos of paddy field workers….

they were a cheerful bunch :)

surely a back-breaking job!

Glimpses of Village life….

I like to think that this little girl is blowing kisses at us in the car….

Children alongside the road…

The stall we stopped to buy bananas from…..

except there weren't any bananas to be seen….not one!

there had been a lot of loud chatter as we stood around not really knowing if we should leave {I'm guessing that theses villagers rely on tourist/travellers to stop and buy their produce} and then this gorgeous girl with a beaming smile came running towards us with ripe bananas! we bought the largest bunch from her family stall {guessing they owed the owners of the bananas some cash!}

this was the best of my photos of the children….I forgot about their feet! silly me!

When we stopped before lunch to take in some of the spectacular views, I noticed the lack of bird song - in fact, you don't hear birds; period! In our guide book I read that one cannot see let alone hear birds in Laos especially in populated areas such as villages/towns etc. Apparently the Lao people have a long tradition of hunting and they have a taste for almost all wildlife. If you want to see/heard birds, you need to get deep into the jungle/hills/mountains of Laos. What you do see a lot of are butterflies and some are huge and almost all are gorgeous in colour….I didn't even attempt to take photos of butterflies from the car!

Views from our brief stop a few hours before lunch….

We stopped for maybe 45 minutes or so for lunch at what seemed to be a popular spot! Most of the tables were full; a couple of large tour companies had stopped too. We sat down and selected our lunch from the menus for 'westerners' only…there was another menu that we weren't handed but a large table of Asian tourists were…this menu had dishes that comprised of animal parts! I'm grateful we got to eat before the Asian tourists got their lunch! The 'shop' next door to the restaurant we ate in had large jars of which contained animal claws, paws and body parts in some sort of a preserving liquid! The large jars had little taps on them and I'm guessing that if this liquid was 'your cup of tea' then you could buy a glass of whatever the preserving liquid was that was 'flavoured' with animal parts! I'm sorry - no photos as I just couldn't bring myself to take a photo of a claw or a paw of an animal that should have been wild and free in the mountainous jungles of Laos! Our lunch was yum by the way.

One last stop before reaching Laung Prabang…..

Then the rain came…..

And finally after 8 hours on the road, we reached at our destination for the next four nights….the Maison Dalabua which is a lovely little boutique hotel in Laung Prabang! We LOVED it here!! Charlotte had her own over water Bungalow as did we. The hotel was really comfortable and the food was so delicious; I'd go back to Laung Prabang and stay in the same hotel and eat the same yummy food….I also loved Laung Prabang as a whole…more on our stay in Laung Prabang next time.