Luang Prabang – Cycling - and of all things - ten pin bowling!!

After disembarking the slowboat and ignoring the onslaught of touts (we were becoming more and more accustomed to this – and beginning to get good at ignoring it without feeling rude) we headed for a hostel that had been recommended by one of the girls on the boat, unfortunately it was full so we headed back down the street in search of another place. We met a tout who was cruising on his bike looking for travellers fresh off the boat. Soon after we jumped on a tuk tuk heading for his hotel, and lucky for us it turned out to be a nice cheap room – I think we ended up paying a whole £4 a night! Sharing our hotel were Roald, Chris and Arthur, and an Israeli girl called Yahel (who Roald and Chris had met on the boat). Once settled in we decided to go for a curry (Indian rather than Laos!) and just after we arrived more and more travellers began to join us, by the end of the evening there were more than 20 ‘boat people’ at our table! The curry was ok but as we were discovering, unlike their neighbours in Thailand, Lao chefs were not very good at making food spicy in any cuisine or context even if you specifically asked for it.

After the meal we decided to go and explore the town by night. We quickly came across the night market, and to Rob’s horror I dived into the many rows of stalls containing many ‘shiny things’ of handmade jewellery, scarves, clothes, cloths and other handicrafts. It was defiantly a market for the tourists but I loved it, and soon (well not so soon – poor old Rob looked bored to tears!!!) came out with earrings, scarves and a pair of trousers 

Next day after some breakfast at café down the road – which had a balcony which over looked the Mekong, an over friendly cat who finished our breakfast for us, and a kitten who looked like it belonged on a black and white Athena poster. We decided to explore the town by bicycle. Luang Prabang actually is quite a small town with a population of just under 26,000 but it a Manchester size city by Laos standards! It is incredibly picturesque with a mainly traditional French architecture with a handful of beautiful Buddhist Wats thrown in for good measure. To top all of this is the fact that the whole town is surrounded by large imposing mountains covered in many hues of unspoilt green jungle.

So we jumped on our bikes, joining us was Chris, Arthur, Yehel and an American called Brian who our friends had met on the slow boat the day before. After getting our bearings by getting lost and finding a rather if I’m honest rubbish temple (maybe I’m getting fussy now!) we eventually found Wat Xieng Thong which is Luang’s most magnificent (quoting the Book of Lies – aka the Lonely Planet) temple. This actually turned out to be true and it was indeed beautiful and while it wasn’t as large or as imposing as some of the Thai temples it had all the charm and the same feeling of religious importance. The temple was surrounded by several other buildings which was then enclosed by a large wall with several carved gate entrances. Two of the most impressive things were the Tree of Life mosaic on the back of one of the temples and a 12m high funeral chariot which was housed in one of the smaller temples on the complex, the chariot was surrounded by tens of Buddhist statues of all different shapes and sizes.

Once we had explored the complex we jumped back on our bikes and decided to go for another explore – a bit off the beaten track of the Lonely Planet. After getting to the outskirts of town and heading over a small bridge and finally down a dirt track for half an hour (which was an interesting ride as by this stage Yehel was loosing her chain everytime she hit a bump and I had no brakes - I went back to the old school bmx foot braking method) we found a small settlement which had a local shop, a few houses and a bar / pool house. The bar was an open fronted open plan room with just enough room for 2 pool tables and a tall fridge of beer inside. It was a very simple wooden building but the local men seemed to love it! I guess it did have everything they needed…………….

Although it was mid week, mid afternoon the bar was full of local men crowded round the pool tables watching, giving tips and playing. (In Lao culture the women do all the work, run the home, and also work in all the offices and shops while the men are seen to be the ones in charge – but it was fairly obvious that women ran the show too!) They looked slightly bemused to see us but made us feel welcome by clearing one of the tables for us so we could play. So we grabbed a cold Beer Lao and had a few games of pool. It was fantastic find as Luang although beautiful is quite touristy so it was lovely to find a local spot. After soaking up the atmosphere and in my case playing pool badly we jumped back on our bikes and headed back into town.

We met up later in a bar and had a couple drinks, when it came time at the bar Roald said he had heard of a place everyone goes when the pubs shut that was just out of town. It was a ten pin bowling place, so we thought we’d head there. We jumped in a tuk tuk and 10 minutes later we were there. It was a bowling alley consisting of about 10 lanes and the place was packed of people bowling and drinking – it was indeed the place to be after hours! The crowd was a very mixed one of locals and tourists so the atmosphere was fantastic. Very relaxed but frenetic. We booked a couple of lanes and soon enough we were playing. There were no bowling shoes so you had to do it barefoot, we soon discovered why most places give you shoes – pretty much all of us ending up falling over as we were bowling at some point!

It was great fun though and to Rob’s excitement the lane had a speed monitor on it so very soon a game of speed bowling was instigated, where it didn’t matter how may pins you hit just how fast the ball was travelling! Much more beer and laugher later we left. It seemed to be a very bizarre thing to be doing in what is pretty rural and poor part of SE Asia but a fun night nevertheless and a good way to escape the curfew that winds up the bars in town too early!