Lazing around in Luang Prabang
9/11/06
Well we had to get up at the crack of dawn this morning in order to get to the bus station on time. I road the scooter into town to return it with Cindy not far behind in a tuk-tuk. The woman that we rented the scooter from was really nice and really pregnant, due that day or so, and I figured it would bump our karmic gas tank if we helped her out so I gave her $10 for the baby and she was ecstatic. It’s kind of nice to be somewhere where such a little goes a long way.
The bus to Luang Prabang was, amazingly enough, actually a small bus this time! With real seats and everything! It was relatively full but there was no livestock or spitting old guys on board. We ended up sitting next to a really nice Belgian couple Maarten and Annik and talked a lot about travel routes in 
All in all, the ride went pretty quickly (for here) taking about 8 hours. The only events were hitting the occasional pothole that sent the entire back row flying a good foot into the air. Maybe that’s why they say sit in seats between the wheels!
There were several other foreigners on the bus including a young Canadian guy, a young Norwegian guy and a young Swiss girl. The seven of us all piled into a tuk-tuk for the short ride into Luang Prabang from the bus station after haggling with the driver. Actually the haggling made it more complicated as he wanted 10,000 kip a person ($1) for which there is a convenient 10,000 kip note. We negotiated it down to 5,000 for the car or 7,000 and change per person (Cindy and I generously donated the extra 1,000 kip….
All of the other foreigners on the bus had heard of a good guesthouse (although none of them save perhaps Maarten and Annik looked like they might have the same idea of “good” as Cindy…) and so we drove to the Sok Dee guesthouse. A man told us he was the owner and it was full that night but would have rooms in the morning (being old and cynical, I didn’t believe him as this ploy is commonly used (see the blog entries on 
We went out for some really good local food at a restaurant recommended by the hotel and chilled after the long day’s journey.
9/12/06
The next morning we had breakfast on the partially built patio overlooking the 
We tried to visit the
We spent the rest of the morning wandering from temple to temple including Wat May Souvanhnaphoumaram and Wat Xieng Thong. We met an English girl living in
All the way towards the end of the peninsula where the Mekong and 
Carolyn was a wealth of Information and has helped us figure out our itinerary. We are now thinking about a river cruise in southern 
At dusk we climbed the steps up to Wat Phu Si to watch the sunset over the
After a good dinner, we ran into Rob and Kate, the English couple we met in Luang Nam Tha, and ended up having beers with them until fairly late. Rob insisted on paying so now I guess either they have to visit us or we have to go to
9/13/06
Having not done anything organized in a while, we decided to do a day trip with Green Discovery, a local eco-tourism outfit.
The trek was pretty short through rice fields and sesame fields and a
After the hike it was time to hop in the kayaks for a short paddle to Tad Sae waterfall. As Angelica was trying to maneuver to the back of the kayak (which of course was not tied to the rocks we were standing on) she fell in and managed to cut her palm pretty badly. Luckily Cindy had our first aid Kit since the guide didn't have anything and we bandaged her up.
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I had to take some shots of the Water Buffaloes lazing around in the River staring at me like I was ruining there serenity which I suppose in a way I was.
We climbed in the kayaks and paddled downstream for ten minutes to the Tad Sae water fall.
We figured that an hour and a half downstream would be easy. What we realized later was that three hours kayaking in a sinking kayak was hard work. When I mentioned to Pong that the kayak seemed to be taking on lots of water, he replied "it has a hole in it" well no shit! Let's just say that we won’t be winning any Olympic medals any time soon. We had some major steering issues - Cindy refused to believe me about steering from the back of the boat, but we managed to snake our way through the Class Five rapids (ok class one) pretty well.
We finally made it to the landing point down stream and watched two young boys playing naked in the mud, diving into it gleefully and then running to rinse off in the river.
We made it back to Luang Prabang and decided to celebrate with a couple Beer Lao's and then ran into the Belgian couple Maarten and Annik again. We decided to go upscale for dinner at the Three Nagas, supposed to be the best restaurant in Luang Prabang. It was really good and we had rice and sour pork salad, water buffalo steaks, steamed shrimp and pork grilled in banana leaves, and actually a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc which was a nice treat.
9/14/06
We woke up early today to watch the daily alms giving procession where the saffron robed novices and monks from all over Luang Prabang slowly walk down the street and the local devout place balls of sticky rice in their alms bowls.
Well, last night we decided to head south and treat ourselves to the river cruise so we spent pretty much the entire rest of the day dealing with logistics.
We looked on the Internet for Lao airlines and ended up finding out that, although they will walk you all the way through reserving a ticket, you can't actually book it online, rather it sends an email somewhere in Laotian Cyberspace. This seemed like a bad idea.
Next we tried speaking with a nice but not particularity fluent Lao girl at the Internet café (which like many places in 
Over lunch, we come up with a brilliant plan that involved first calling American Airlines to see if we could extend our stay (since we used frequent flyer mileage on American/JAL we Knew there was no way we could get the change worked out in Asia.
Cindy called the
Two hours later, having finally convinced Noy that we just wanted to book our original itinerary to Siem Reap, Cindy went to Karyn's office to tell her we had been delayed. In the meantime, Noy told me that now there was only one seat left on the flight to Siem Reap.
That night we had Indian food which was a nice change other than the swishy, pre-teen gay boys pestering us to buy jewelry..."Madame! You say come back!" which of course we never did.
Tomorrow we are off to
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Tamarind, located at the end of the Luang Prabang “peninsula” by Wat Nong in the old quarter specializes in very authentic Laotian food. It is run by an Australian woman and her local partner and has excellent a la carte lunches and sample platters allowing you to get a diverse taste of real, local food (this is harder to do than you would imagine in Laos). The food is excellent and the beer is cold. They are currently only open for lunch but Tamarind also hosts special, book in advance meals that include a visit to the local market and preparation ranging from the authentic to the bizarre (with grubs and larvae, etc.). Carolyn who runs the place is very nice and very informative and actually helped us decide to forgo the Plain of Jars and instead go on the Vat Phou River trip (see the blog for details of that great time.) They also have a lot of local gourmet items that you can purchase and are working on a cookbook (10/06). If you are in Luang Prabang, do yourself a favor and go eat here!
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Sala Luang Prabang
Sala Luang Prabang is very centrally located overlooking the Mekong River with very comfortable, air-conditioned rooms (no TV) and a beautiful lobby with couches and a small library. Some might consider it a bit pricey (it was about $40/night in the off season which was a “special” price). When we were there (Sep. 2006) they were in the process of renovating the upstairs rooms which looked like they will be really nice. Across the street is the patio overlooking the Mekong where they serve breakfast (included) which is very picturesque (they are expanding the patio too). The staff are very helpful and friendly, especially Edwin who works the breakfast patio. All of the sights in central Luang Prabang are just a short walk away and the street is a bit quieter than the central road.
