Hooray! No monkeys!

4 Feb 2014

I have to say that my least favourite aspect of Kep was the family of Macaque monkeys who lived on the seafront. They’re always on the look-out for food and tend to run up behind you as you are walking along and grab at scarves or bags. Nasty grabby scratchy creatures! Happily there are no monkeys round here in Laos – but then there is precious little other wildlife either of course – very few birds or mammals. Even the geckos are less evident this year.

The view from our bungalow in Laos

I always find the lack of birds particularly surprising. There’s no lack in Thailand, Vietnam or Cambodia. The received wisdom is that the Lao have eaten their way through the bird population of the countryside. And indeed Phousi market does have a section where the remains of all sorts of unidentifiable birds and beasts are laid out on the meat counter. Apparently mist nets are still used by hunters in some areas. But even so you’d think with the extensive tree cover and inaccessible craggy forested mountains there would be enough places for the birds to hide out. Apparently not.

Last year there was a group of half a dozen white egrets who used to fly up the valley in the evenings. I haven’t seen them this year. In Kep there were hundreds of mynahs, yellow vented bulbuls, swallows and drongos in the garden at Bacoma. Here, occasional flocks of red-whiskered bulbuls and little warblers scoot by and we can hear Asian barred owlets in the woods behind the bungalow. But that’s about it.

The thatch looks a bit threadbare this year. Needs redoing. It usually lasts about 3 years.

Nevertheless, despite the lack of wildlife, this is still an extraordinarily beautiful place. In the mornings the valley is filled with mist and the temperature is low – down to 12 degrees some days. We sit on the balcony drinking our morning coffee huddled in fleeces and blankets! As the sun comes over the hill behind the bungalow it breaks through the mist and the temperature rises rapidly, reaching 20 degrees by 11ish. Then it continues to rise until by mid afternoon it’s too hot to stay in the sun and we retreat indoors and put the fan on.

Morning mists.

Basic marketing.

The sun goes down over the hill on the opposite side of the valley by 5.30 so we often head into town at that time of day, bumping down the road in the old Landrover until we reach the metalled road down by the bridge. It takes about 15 minutes to drive to the centre of Luang Prabang. We get dropped off by the post office and arrange to be picked up again there, usually at 9.

One of the many temples in Luang Prabang.

Trevann admires the temple doors.

The banks of the Mekong in dry season.

The town has been massively busy this week during Chinese New Year – much busier than last year. It’s become a favourite destination for Chinese holidaymakers and busloads of them have arrived, taking over the streets, markets and restaurants. On Sunday it was difficult to find anywhere decent to eat and it took half an hour to get through the crowds in the Night Market from one end to the other – so we won’t be sorry to see the back of the New Year holidays.

No doubt normal service will resume at the end of this week.

The streets of Luang Prabang are lined with cars with Chinese number plates this week.

Mena (Khoun and Khone's daughter) has been learning how to do traditional Lao embroidery.

Trevann borrowed Bo's guitar.

A peaceful shady spot for reading on a sunny afternoon

The village of Ban Na Dad is largely unchanged from last year. It always amuses me when we walk by a bamboo hut from which shmalzy Lao pop music booms out from massive speakers.