Our Time in Luang Prabang, Laos!

Luang Prabang, Laos was awesome. We could have stayed a couple more days there. It's a small charming town, set in the mountains. It was so cool to get off the plane and be surrounded by those beautiful mountains. We got there sometime early evening, so we really didn't have much time to do anything when we arrived. Our guesthouse people picked us up from the airport. We stayed at the Thongbay Guesthouse. It was so cool! They were little individual huts, facing the river. So cute! But there was no air condition and no internet. It really was ok though, it wasn't as humid and HOT in Luang Prabang as it was in Cambodia. Our house was a little further out from town, so we always had to take a tuk tuk into town. We went to town that night for dinner at a french restaurant that offered free internet to the customers...so that's why we chose it! We got on quickly to blog and change emails before heading to the night market. Oh my goodness....there night market was awesome. The best yet. It was really unique. They had many handcrafted pieces made by the locals and other fun items and sovenirs. I just love looking. It's forever long, down the street, so I kept looking while Jordan went to a bar close by to get a taste of the Laos beer! We spent the rest of the night walking around the down town area, scoping out all the restaurants and bars we wanted to go to before our quick 3 day visit was up!

We woke at 7:30AM by a knock at our door, which indicated that our breakfast was ready for us on ou patio! Yes...they brought breakfast to our room. It was nice....we rolled out of bed and went to our porch where they had little mats to lay on and a try for the food. We sat there and ate our breakfast while watching the local Lao people across the river working hard in the fields and the children running around playing in the dirt and water. The weather was actually nice. There was a little breeze and it was overcast skies, so it wasn't hot hot!

A van picked us up from this tour company in town to take us to a spot where we trek up this mountain to view the Kuang Si Waterfalls. Near the entrance we saw black bears, in a cave of course and we were supposed to see this tiger...but there was a sign up on his cage, he had passed way. Oh well. So we keep trekking through the trials. It started raining. so the trails were really slippery. We saw smaller waterfalls as we kept going. It was so neat to see. We were surrounded by this forest with lots of tall tress and little streams everywhere. The water was a turquoise color, it was so pretty. Once we got to the big fall, you could feel the mist on your face. We actually got really close to it, it was so thrilling! We were able to take a swim in the lower level of the falls. It was ice cold, but well worth it. On our way back to town, stopped at this Khamu village where local people lived and selled items. We walked through the village, watching the children run and play. The place was really sad. They didn't have much at all. I kinda got a weird feeling walking through there because I felt like we were like spectators, looking at them, etc. Once we were back at our guesthouse, we hung out there for awhile. It was mid afternoon, so too early for dinner, but to late for a big lunch, so we just ordered some spring rolls and sticky rice and ate it on our porch. Yum Yum! That night we walked through the markets again, buying little things here and there. It's a little different here in Laos. In Cambodia, we used the american dollars, but in Laos, they prefer you use their money, which is called Kips. So when we bargained at the market, it was always a challenge to figure out the money thing. I usually just leave it up to Jordan to figure out. ha. We have to use the ATM machine to get Kips and the thing is, is it doesn't let you take out but so much at a time. At one point we were walking around with a million dollars....in kips that is. It was funny to say that we had a million dollars in our pockets though! We ate at a restaurant called The 3 Nagas. It was a 5 course meal. It was different, some of the food was a little strange, but it was a cool experience. Afterwards we went to this cool bar that we read about in our guide. It's laid out like stadium seating kinda where it gradually goes up. Tables being on each section and foliage just everywhere. It was a really fun spot. Very cool atmosphere, lots of people hanging out. It made us miss our group of friends!

The next morning we woke at 5:30AM to go into town to see the Monk's alm ceremony. It's a ceremony where the local people sit on the side of the streets and give items to the monks. Items were like sticky rice, flowers or fruit. At dawn the monks, dressed in orange robes with their heads shaved, walked in a line to all the people, receiving their gifts. We noticed that the monks gave to the children, instead of the children giving to them. It was interesting. It was cool to see and worth getting up at the crack of dawn for sure. We went to breakfast at this cafe called Saffron, known for the best coffee in Luang Prabang. It was on the river, so that made it even better.

Since it was still like 7:30 AM, we went back to our house and rested a bit. I sat and read on the porch and Jordan joined me, but quickly fell asleep! After his quick nap, we were ready for a full day of adventure. We rented bicycles from our guesthouse and rode them into town. We planned to just cycle around the town and look at different sights and kinds just see what we wanted to see of this happy little foreign town. Getting on the bike was a little weird at first. It'd been a while since I'd been on a bike. It got easier after we got off the beaten, rocky path our guesthouse was on. We rode everywhere, up hills, down hills, looking at all the beautiful mountain views. We stopped for a break and I got a Oreo smoothie and Jordan got a fruit smoothie. We continued on, going to the riverfront. We saw this row of massage places, so we stopped for a Lao foot massage. It was so good. We enjoyed it. And it was even cheaper than Cambodia. Laos foot massage was 40,000 kips, which translated into about 5 bucks for us. :) We ate lunch on the river, went to the main street and went into a couple of shops. Around mid afternoon, we were beat. Cycling is great exercise! We went back to our house for our daily afternoon down time.

For sunset, we walked up the Phousi Mountain, now that was some exercise, I was about to die! Once at the top, we could see all of Laos. It was amazing. So beautiful. We watched the sunset behind the mountains. It was a better sunset than the one we saw at Angkor Wat. The trek down was much easier than going up. Since it was our last night in Luang Prabang (it went by so fast), we decided to go through the market one more time. We went to eat dinner at a place on the river. We ate some traditional Lao food. Once again, very pleased!

To end the night, we both had a traditional Lao massage together. We dressed in the same outfit and laid on the mats side by side. The ladies did their thing. It was a different kind of full body massage...definitely not like what Jordan had experienced in Siem Reap. They did a lot of pushing down, standing on and really deep motions. Sometimes it kinds hurt, but for the most part, it was relaxing.

That's it from Luang Prabang, Laos. It was incredible. We didn't want to leave of course. But we were so excited about our time in Thailand. We expected it to be much different than the places we've been. We hope to keep you updated ASAP from Bangkok! We are beginning to see the end in sight...it's so depressing. :(