Laos

We arrived in Luang Prabang late Tuesday (3/3) afternoon. Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995, helping this town to maintain its charm as well as the imposed 11:30 PM curfew. The town has a distinct french flavor due to the remnants of 50+ years of French rule in Laos and is one of our favorite spots of the trip so far.

Upon arrival, we headed to a bar to drink a few beer Laos and watch the sunset over the Mekong River. At night we walked to the night market (and i think Mike purchased his 6th t-shirt). The LP night market was a lot calmer then previous markets we've encountered. Tourists can stroll at their leisure without getting overly harassed to purchase.

Sunset on the Mekong

Night market wares

On Wednesday, we set out on a self-guided walking tour after eating some pastries at Joma Bakery (Mike's new fav spot). We were able to cover a good number of the three dozen wats that inhabit this tiny town, as well as climb to the top of Mount Phousi which provided a picturesque view of Luang Prabang as well as numerous buddhas and the first budda foot imprint I've come across. The afternoon we toured the Royal Palace Museum, the former home of the king. At the end of the Vietnam War, the country fell to the communist Pathet Lao and the king and his family were exiled and sent to live in caves. His old digs are now a nice museum.

That night we had a delicious dinner at L'Elephant.

On our way to dinner

Enjoying a laos espresso

Thursday we were up early volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, a local organization promoting reading / education in Laos. For two hours we helped young adults practice their English. My buddy Leu and I had a fairly involved conversation about US politics. Mike,on the other hand, was teaching his buddy dirty words in English. That afternoon we traveled via tuk tuk taxi (12 people jammed into a 6 seater) to the Kuangsi Waterfalls. That night we had an authentic Laos dinner of whole fish and sticky rice.

katie and Leu, at Leu's restaurant where we were the only patrons (we ordered french fries)

hi bear, how ya doin? you got a tire swing, thats really cool. i produce entourage. say hi to your mother for me, ok?

enjoying a refreshing swim after a proper hike

Friday we were up at 5:30 am (if you know Mike you know how difficult this was) to watch the locals pay alms to the Monks (Tak Bat). Close to 300 Monks line the streets collecting small portions of rice for the day. While this event has become somewhat of a tourist attraction in Luang Prabang, it was definitely an impressive site and something that is still very sentimental to the Laos people. Loads of tour buses from the luxury hotels around the area cart tons of tourists in every morning. Posters around LP ask tourists to respect local culture and not get in the monks faces, stalking them with cameras.

Mike excited to be up at 5:30am

"i'm kind of sick of rice. do you have any cheesburgers today?"

Saturday morning we were up early again to take a slow boat up the Mekong River to the Pak Ou Caves. These sacred caves are filled with Buddhas. It was an interesting site but i think we were a little buddha-out at this point. It did give Mike an excuse to use his head torch which he was very excited about. We also stopped at a local whiskey village where they make Lao Lao whiskey, an extremely potent local drink made from rice, and tried to sell us crappy scarves and fake silk.

Saturday afternoon we experienced our first travel gaffe when we arrived at the bus station for our 4:30pm bus to Vang Vieng only to find out that our bus didn't exist and that we were on the 6pm "local" bus. A journey that was to take 6hrs took 8hrs and included a fully packed bus playing thai karaoke videos. I think the most shocking moment for me was when after all the seats filled up people began boarding the bus with plastic seats and just sitting in the aisle....i've never seen anything like it.

When in Laos, ride in style

After quick stops in vang vieng and vientiane, we were off to vietnam.