Sunday, November 9, 2014

Day 19: Sun 09 Nov – Luang Prabang

Day 13: Luang Prabang Departure Breakfast at the hotel. Free at leisure until transfer for departure flight. This trip can be extended with our Southern Adventure trip starting in Pakse. We can help to arrange the flight ticket from Luang Prabang to Pakse. If you wish to fly to other city in the neighboring country, we also can help to arrange with a competitive price. (B)

Post-Cycle Tour Day 1 

Leisurely brekky followed by a pack up and move all our stuff into Michael & Kate's room. Seven of us moved to another motel just around the corner as The Dream was booked out post-tour, but we could not do that till after lunch. In the meantime Michael then took Bob, Kerry, Kerrie, Kate, Phil and I on a walking tour (from his Lonely Planet book) of the city. Wow, what a gem of a place. The lay-back, (hippie-like) quirky decor of some of the guesthouses and restaurants felt like the 1970s. Riverside cafés, temples, French era architecture, local art galleries and just walking the back-streets were all fascinating. No wonder the tourists are coming here in their droves. 

Had morning tea then lunch at a different places, both overlooking the river; great atmosphere. Pad Thai and green tea was A$6.50 at Utopia Bar & Restaurant. 

Then back to move motels, which turned out to be a bit of a laugh when three of us fronted up at once, one single and one twin room.  Two of us (boys) in the twin wanted to pay cash now, one (girl) in the single wanted to pay when they checked out. It was all too much for the guy on the deck, who only had Basic English (and intelligence) but after a lot of patience on our behalf we got there.

The room was a few stars down from The Dream, but at US$35 a night for two people, including brekky, who cares. The shower was hot, bed clean (but hard) and aircon worked well so no problem. When we couldn’t find the aircon remote in the room we saw the reception guy who wanted to charge us US$10 extra for aircon until we showed him the booking sheet which said aircon included.

Dinner with the group at The Terrace Restaurant was nice, US$13, duck & veggies with rice plus two cans of beer. However not up to the tastes of the "local" restaurants we'd been using.

USSR era relics in Utopia

Utopia Bar

Old bikes and bars

Nice house

Between the five of them, they sorted it out

In a Buddhist temple

Lunch venue, Utopia Bar and Restaurant


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Wrap-up and Comments

This was a great tour, Cambodian Cycle Tours really know how to put a package together. The food, accommodation (not too much choice in some...