Luang Prabang, Laos, Tuesday 11th January

Edie:


30 kilometres outside Luang Prabang, we went to Kwang See National Park and first of all the bear sanctuary for Moon bears. They are there because the Chinese capture them
and take their bile which is the stuff that makes your saliva. Apparently, the Chinese drink it!


After that, we ran around the forest and came across this blue lagoon. We ran up, stopped still and our jaws dropped, Wwe’d never seen a beautiful, turquoise blue lagoon like it.  We went swimming  in one and ran on further and kept on seeing more and more blue lagoons with tumbling waterfalls. Eventually we got to the top and saw an absolutely huge waterfall with water spraying everywhere - about 40 metres high.  


On the way to the waterfalls, we stopped at a Hmong village. The Hmong are an ethnic group that doesn’t believe in Communism. Their religion is Animism.  We walked into the village and suddenly felt very depressed because there were people living in tattered, old houses in the middle of the mountains.  They were setting up little stalls for people to buy stuff.  There were loads of children who kept on saying “You can buy 5000”, over and over again which meant you can buy a friendship bracelet for 5000 kip (about 40p). We bought a few bracelets and other things to help the people out.


As soon as we got back in the car our stomachs began to unravel.  We kept on talking about it all the way to Kwang See.  Whenever I think about that I feel a bit depressed and guilty for some reason.  It taught me to feel lucky and to know that I should not expect too much.




12th January Luang Prabang


On our last day in Laos, in the evening, we walked over a rickety bamboo bridge over the Nam Khan river to where it meets the Mekong, a famous South East Asian river.


We walked over to a little sunset bar and ran down to the river bed with its white, dry, sprinkling sand. It is the dry season here so the Mekong is quite low.


For the first 20 minutes, Mum sat down and wrote postcards. For the last 20 minutes we ran around on the sand and took photos, feeling very happy as the sun set behind the mountains. When the sun disappeared it started to get cold.


As we walked back over the old bridge, we passed by a friendly Lao man, smiling and greeting us.  We told him it was our last day in Laos.  “Safe journey”, he said “and please come again.!”  He lives and sleeps in a tiny shack beside the ancient bamboo bridge and collects money from the people who use it.  Dad said he would never forget his smile.