It was not due to a virus pandemic but a large proportion of folks in the town of Luang Prabang were wearing face masks in the last few days. The health authorities were recommending this health protection as the Air Quality Index reached hazardous level. Sadly the sky haze from the farmer’s field burning also robbed us from some amazing views during our 2 day/1 night long-boat cruise on the Mekong.

2023.04.03 – Vang Vieng – Vang Vieng (Laos)

After breakfast, we stepped out of our hotel and started negotiating with the first tuk-tuk driver we saw for the price of a transport to the Blue Lagoon #3 – there are seven different Blue Lagoons in the area. The driver referred our request to, we guessed, the next driver to take on some passengers. With a bit of back and forth, we finally agreed on a reasonable price. We briefly returned to our hotel room to get our day pack with all the stuff we needed for our outing. The gravel road made for a very dusty ride on the back of the open-air tuk-tuk. After a 40 mins ride, we realized the driver had brought us to the Blue Lagoon #2 – not #3 as we had requested. We offered a bit more money to continue the journey to the Blue Lagoon #3. We were very surprised that the entrance fee to our lagoon included free access to all sorts of water activities and equipment. We had a very enjoyable two hours on-site along with a few other guests. The lagoon was surprisingly small hence it was easy to move around on the water. I even built-up the courage to try the small zip line over the lagoon. Back in town, we visited the nice coffee shop from yesterday for some refreshments and snacks. After more clothes washing and a well deserved shower we relaxed for the remainder of the afternoon. In the evening, we also returned to the same Thai restaurant from yesterday.

2023.04.04 – Vang Vieng – Luang Prabang (Laos)

We checked out of our room as late as possible i.e. 12:00pm as we had to wait for our 4:15 train to Luang Prabang. We visited one last time our favorite cafe/bakery restaurant where we spent two hours relaxing. The tuk-tuk the hotel staff had booked for us picked up us promptly at 3:30pm and brought us to the train station some 11kms away. The 55mins train ride was uneventful. Upon exiting the train station, I was excited to see our Loca car sharing application was available in this town and I promptly ordered a ride to our hotel. It wasn’t until later we realized that we could have taken a shared tuk-tuk for a fraction of the cost of our Loca ride. We were quite pleased by our hotel owner’s greeting and our room offering. We had our late dinner at a great value local restaurant nearby. On the way back to our hotel, we stopped and purchased several items at very well stocked supermarket.

2023.04.05 – Luang Prabang – Luang Prabang (Laos)

It was refreshing to have a nicely prepared breakfast à la carte – in contrast to those offered by our hotel in the previous town. We spent the morning reviewing the tourist attractions/sites and plotting their locations in Google maps. In the early afternoon, we set out on a 8 kms walk around towns while checking out the temples and other tourist highlights along the way. We wrapped our walk by having some refreshment and snacks at high-end bakery/cafe shop. In the evening, we had dinner at a very unique restaurant serving typical Lao food while being a training restaurant for local youth. Later, we enjoyed a nice long stroll along the handcraft and food night markets.

2023.04.06 – Luang Prabang – Luang Prabang (Laos)

After our breakfast, we went out in search of money exchange office as we had almost used up all of our local funds. Within less than a 15 mins walk from our hotel, we found a jewelry store that offered us good exchange rate. Back at our hotel, we prepared ourselves for a half-day excursion to the popular Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. We walked to the night market area where tuk-tuk and mini-van congregated were waiting to transport tourist to the waterfalls. Within a short time, we managed to negotiate a good price for our return journey in a min-van with our driver waiting 3hr at the site. Only one other guest, a local lady, boarded the mini-van with us. The 1hr ride on a winding roads peppered with potholes offered some nice scenery along the way. We spent 2.5 hrs at the beautiful waterfall site. Thankfully we arrived well before the later crowd of visitors which allowed us to take plenty of photos without obstructions. We took a less frequented steep path up to the top of the waterfall. We had pleasant time at the top where we took a short ride on raft/boat. Jenny had a short dip in one of the waterfall pool while I lingered in the water a bit longer. The drive back to town appeared to go faster than in the morning. Our mini-van driver dropped us off near our hotel. We stopped at cafe for late lunch before returning to our hotel room. Again Jenny did plenty of clothes washing as a result of our waterfall visit. As we did not feel hungry following our late lunch, we skipped going out for dinner. We spent the rest of the evening resting. We noticed in the last few days more and more folks were wearing mask as the Air Quality Index for the area was reaching 270 with the following message “Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire population is more likely to be affected.”

2023.04.07 – Luang Prabang – Luang Prabang (Laos)

We woke up to an Air Quality Index of 330 this morning. We were wondering how high the AQI would get in the few days? We had breakfast in company of two other solo female travelers who came from Germany and USA. We spent a few hours with them while exchanging on our respective travel experiences. Jenny was finally determined to get a foot massage before leaving town. I borrowed a bicycle from our hotel and accompanied Jenny on a walk to a massage parlor we had identified with Google Maps. Along the way, we stopped to exchange some additional Cdn funds which we hoped would last until the end of our Laos visit. Upon arriving to the massage parlor, Jenny was quite disappointed to be told that they would not open for another half an hour even though their website said opened now. We decided to visit the 2nd massage parlor slightly further away. In the end, Jenny preferred much more the layout of the 2nd massage parlor. She totally enjoyed her 1 hour foot massage while I cycled around town. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at cafe for some refreshments. Given the heavy haze, we decided to skip a late afternoon strenuous walk up to the hill situated in the middle of town. Atop the hill was known for offering great sunset views but the current haze hindered any chance of seeing the sun – even less for the sunset. In the evening, we had dinner at a restaurant across the street from our hotel. Later, we took one last stroll through the food and handcraft night markets. We could not resist enjoying a banana pancake/crepe along the way.

2023.04.08 – Luang Prabang – Pak Beng (Laos)

We woke up quite early this morning for our 2 day/1 night Mekong cruise hotel pick-up at 6:30am. Our hotel owner had kindly prepared some take-away breakfasts for us. The pick-up driver promptly showed up at 6:30am. We boarded our river long boat with 5 others passengers (2 couples and 1 solo traveler). The haze was still quite heavy as we left Luang Prabang. Our guide, who had traveled the previous day 14 hours on a bus from his remote village to be with us, said that the haze in his village was much less severe than in town. After cruising on the Mekong for a couple of hours, we stopped to visit the set of Pak Ou caves which were said to house 5,000 buddha statues. We had a nice lunch served on our long-boat after which several folks took an afternoon nap on the comfy benches. Given our route itinerary we had opted for an upstream cruise allowing us to move from Laos to Thailand. Most cruise passengers much preferred the downstream cruises as it was faster. It was interesting to see our long-boat struggling up some fast flowing current at times. Our long-boat appeared to be traveling at our tandem cycling speed of between 15-17 kms/h – and even slower in strong current areas. We arrived at Pak Beng pier at 5:30pm. Staff from various hotels were waiting with their electric carts for their guests in order to bring them to their hotels. We checked into to a beautiful resort-hotel with two other couples and their kids who had arrived on a different long-boat. Sadly we were the only guests of this expansive resort. I had a short swim in the pool. As we walked to the resort restaurant for dinner, we were able to witness a burning hillside – a small example of the burning season in Laos. We learned from the hotel owner that 7 flights destined to Luang Prabang had to be diverted back to Thailand due to poor visibility as result of the haze from the farmers burning.

2023.04.09 – Pak Beng – Chiang Khong (Thailand)

We woke up early and checked-out of our nice resort before 6:30am. Our accommodation owner had packed our breakfast carefully as a take-away. We brought back by electric cart to the boat pier for our 6:45am departure for our continued upstream journey to Houay Xay – a border town with Thailand. Along the way, we stopped to visit a local Khmu ethnic village. We had yet another nice lunch onboard our long boat. We briefly celebrated the birthday of one of the passengers. We arrived shortly after 4pm at the Houay Xay pier just as promised. Our guide had described to us yesterday the Laos-Thailand border formality crossing in order to know what to expect. Our cruise company had arranged for a mini-van transport from the pier to the Lao border immigration office. The Laos exit formalities were promptly completed as there were no queues. We bid farewell to our guide before boarding a bus across the Lao/Thailand Friendship bridge #4. On the Thai side, we completed some arrival forms before proceeding with the immigration formalities. We bid farewell to our cruise group members before boarding a tuk-tuk to our hotel in Chiang Khong. The other cruise passengers had opted to commute by private car to Chiang Rai. We would be taking the bus to the same town sometime tomorrow instead. After checking into our hotel, we went out for our dinner at a nearby restaurant. We appreciated having Thai local currency left over for our earlier stay in Bangkok.