Luang Prabang

We have been to the elephant conservation center and are now back in Luang Prabang. The center was in a word EPIC. I will post more later, for now just know it was incredible. This is what we did in the few days before going.

Dec 6 – To Luang Prabang

We decided to move on to Luang Prabang today. We had breakfast before going to catch a tuk-tuk to the bus. As usual, the tuk-tuk was crammed full of people. It took much longer than it should have to reach the bus since we stopped to rearrange the people between tuk-tuks. We were taking the “VIP” bus which allegedly had bigger seats, A/C and a toilet. We were also to arrive at 5pm. Typically, none of these turned out to be true. The seats were regular sized I guess but had little leg room, there was no toilet, the A/C was pitiful and we arrived around 7pm. Such is the life of a traveller. The ride was intense. We switched back and forth up a mountain and then zigged zagged back down only to switch back and forth up the next one and zigg zagg back down. It was a slow twisty turny ride. We also stopped several times to add water to the radiator. The views were pretty spectacular but with the winding road I found it best to try to sleep instead of look out the window. We finally arrived in Luang Prabang and started the usual GH house hunt. We found one reasonably priced and then set off for some dinner. After eating we checked out the night market. This consisted of many many tents set up in the street, which was closed to traffic, all selling handicrafts such as purses, douve covers, skirts, pants, and what not. The colours are all so pretty at these markets it's hard to not stop at any shops but I know I shouldn't buy anything. We did get a delicious little ginger cake.

The view from our bathroom stop

Dec 7 – Luang Prabang

I got to Skype Mom and Dad this morning before they go on their holidays. The internet has been painfully slow here so we could only use the audio. Afterwards Beau and I set off into town to see what we could find out about buses to Sayabouly and also getting to Vientiane and Bangkok. The information we did find just confirmed to us that it is cheapest to buy our tickets directly from the bus station. We spent the day wandering Luang Prabang, hunting for cheap flip flops to replaces the ones that were left behind while tubing. We had a bit of trouble finding some reasonable ones but fortunately we had success. Later, we ended up at a river side restaurant which was just tables set up on the sidewalk. We had some nice fruit drinks and relaxed with our books. We came back to the same restaurant later this evening for dinner. The prices were quite cheap and the food very good. There were candles on the table too so it was almost romantic. There was some sort of film festival going on in town and there was a huge projection screen set up in a square. After having some cake and coffee we ran into Lea from the 4000 Islands. We chatted with her and her companions for a bit and then we watched the movie the was showing. It was very strange.... sort of like Lord of the Flies, so it was disturbing. We headed to bed after since we have another bus to catch tomorrow.

I think a museum in the city

The Nam Khan River