So far, Laos has been my favourite country. Yeah, it may be a bit more expensive and it may be totally influenced by my elephant experience, but I'm loving the mellow, friendly vibes here. I didn't take many pictures as I was pretty pictured out after the elephants, so hopefully my words do it justice....
Luang Prabang is the second biggest city here and it feels more similar to Hoi An than Hanoi. Infrastructure isn't great and it's more like a cottage town than a city. Our hostel had amazing showers and good breakfasts so it made up for my prison like, bare bones dorm room.
We visited the night market more times than Simon wanted but I loved all the handicrafts available. I shouldn't have bought things anywhere else but here! No one harassed you or made you feel bad for saying no. There wasn't as much bartering as in Cambodia, but sometimes they'd go down a bit. I bought cute new slippers to wear back home in freezing Canada amongst a few other souvenirs.
The food was a refreshing change from everywhere else. They have a strong French influence leftover from the colonial days, so baguettes and croissants were popular. I think I had about four baguettes there in my time ?one with tofu, so good!) Perfect amount as now I'm ready to go back to rice and noodle dishes.
The bar scene was pretty European/tourist influenced but I enjoyed them. We went to one called Icon Klub, which could easily pass for a bohemian styled bar on queen west. I splurged and got an expensive but amazing mojito. They also had the BEST WASHROOM in all of SE Asia. After squatters and no toilet paper, it was pretty epic.
The next night, we went to the famed Utopia, a backpacker oasis. We ordered dinner, split some Beerlaos and enjoyed people watching. There are cushions and low seated tables with candlelight scattered everywhere under a big straw coned roof. There are Palm trees and lush gardens surrounding outdoor tables. There was some big long tables for rowdy patrons and a volleyball court and foosball table. It's up there on my all time favourite bars list.
 |
| Simon lounging in "Utopia" |
On our way home, we stumbled upon some local guys playing what we thought was house-league volleyball. But after a second glance, it was something totally different. There were three guys on each side of the net and they would kick (like yoga gymnastics high kicks) a ball back and forth only using their heads or feet. We were fascinated for about 20 minutes. I later found out this sport is called sepak takraw and it's very popular in SE Asia (thanks Wikipedia!). We then kept walking in this area and there was a mini carnival and for 2,000 kip we played the "throw the darts at the balloon" game. Simon was able to get three in a row and won a Pepsi. There were monk milling around, Kids playing and adults lounging with Beerlao and BBQ. Pretty cool local Saturday night.
After our time in Luang Prabang, we packed up early and boarded the slowboat to take us to Huay Xai where we will join the Gibbons Experience for three days. The slowboat takes two days with a night stopover in the one-street town of Pak Beng. It's more advisable to do this than the bus (12 hrs) or fast boat (6 hrs but people have died on it).
 |
| It's called a Slowboat for a reason.... |
 |
| Inside our Boat on Day 2 |
