16th of November, 2024.
Hitchhiking in Laos: Luang Prabang
Great views again, but I’m a bit afraid it will take too much time for someone to stop again. I am wrong! This 4×4 passes by and then returns. When I see the person on the passenger seat, I think – Hum… A foreigner! – but them I see that all of them are foreigners, and I go – Wow! They are the first whole family of foreigners who pick me up in these past few months of travels.
Rebecca, her husband Steivon, and his father are from the Netherlands, but the couple has been living in Laos for about one year, and now his family came to spend a few weeks with them. Rebbeca is a flight instructor, and that’s why they actually moved here. She got a job in Laos, and after a lot of consideration they made the decision. I think it’s awesome! And what a nice job she has! Steivon can work online and remotely, as a computer science engineer, so everything worked out. They are both fluent in Laos language, which I think it’s a huge achievement, as it’s a difficult language to learn, similar to Thai and it’s difficult sounds, which sound all the same.
What was supposed to be a three, perhaps 4 hours journey tops, turns into a 10 hours driving, through what is until now the worst continuously bad road of all times! You simply cannot drive more than one minute without any potholes, or off road bits. It’s simply terrible! But the views are freaking amazing! Some of the most gorgeous views I have ever seem too. Damn it! One of the viewpoints we stop for photos is simply phenomenal! And so remote, no signs or anything indicating it’s a viewpoint. If it wasn’t for Steivon’s father find it out on his phone, we would never know.
While we are enjoying this incredible viewpoint, a senior man in his bicycle, cycling all the way from Saigon arrives. If we are suffering with this road in a 4×4, I can’t imagine how this man is surviving with his bike.
We struggle to find a restaurant for lunch at first, and we are all getting hungry, Rebbeca saves us with the Khao Taen she bough early morning. They are delicious! We stop to have lunch in a local restaurant of a small village, and we all have fried rice.
We arrive at Luang Prabang when it’s almost dark. At least it’s great that we made it before dark, as Rebbeca wisely observed. I can’t even imagine how it is to drive in this “road” during night time.
I get a negative answer when I ask in a very small pagoda to stay overnight. Bullshit! Then two or three more people I talk on the streets don’t seen very keen to help me. Until I get to Sengdeuane’s house.
There’s a pick up unloading some rice in her house, which is almost by the main road, and has a large garage, that’s why I decide to ask her if I can camp here. I talk with her and she immediately say yes, without checking or asking anybody else. Strong woman! Her father and her uncle offer me a beer. Laugh. It’s the first and last time I will try the popular Bier Laos.
Unfortunately, we don’t talk much, as she cannot speak English, but we understand each other. She shows me where I can put my tent, and we eat this strange nut together, it’s called makku, and it tastes something in between peanuts and chestnut. But it’s tricky to get it! I also have two oranges, and that’s all I will have before going to sleep.
Next morning, I ask Sengdeuane if I can leave The Hulk here in her home while I go to explore Luang Prabang. Her house is in a very strategic point slightly outside the town, so for me it would be great. I also ask her if I can have some sticky rice to take with me.
Luang Prabang is cute. I guess there is quite a few places to visit, and mostly if you are paying the entrance fees, than you will have a lot to see. There are just enough nice temples which are for free, and just as gorgeous as the paid ones. They probably just choose randomly which ones they will start charging. I feel sorry that to go up the mountain in the centre of the town you also must pay. And that’s, most likely, just because there’s also a temple up there. So yeah, I mean, all you can do is just walk around and admire the architecture, I think…? There are a lot of shops and tourist traps as well, of course. Many coffee shops and restaurant which are Westernized, and are full of tourists. Why do people come all the way across the planet to eat, to drink and or stay in a place which is the same style as your own country?
After having my sticky rice, I am hungry already, as it is nearly noon. But I am unsuccessful on asking for leftovers. I can barely get free water here and there.
After getting my backpack back, I start walking towards outside the town. Let’s see how far can I get today.
10 Years Around the World 