Luang Prabang, Laos
Luang Prabang is beautiful and almost magical. There are ancient temples, French colonial architecture, no buses or traffic, located at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan tributary and surrounded by jungled clad hills and mountains. UNESCO designated it a World Heritage Site in 1995 so thankfully it has been spared from the overdevelopment that has tainted many other cities in Indochina. It hasn’t been too hot since we started the trip but now I know what everyone is talking about-its hot here. It’s very similar to inland Florida in August, hot and humid. We are located inland between Thailand and Vietnam but on the Mekong River so we get some nice breezes from that but nothing like an ocean breeze. So everything we do requires a break and a cool drink, we are moving in slow motion. Except for the nice hotels, nowhere has air conditioning. We are averaging 2-3 showers a day and little siestas in our cold villa! We just slowly explored the city during the days, sat in cafes and ate amazing food. I now need to find a great Laotian cookbook. The French food is also amazing since they colonized here for 60 years, you can see it in the architecture and food. What a beautiful place. Everything here seems to move in slow motion and it’s a nice change. It’s like an old French outpost that time has forgotten…except that everyone has a phone! The Night Market is amazing yet stifling at the same time. With all the tents lined up against each other, there is no open area for air movement so you just sweat as you stand there! During the cooler winter months they don’t use the tents, but we are not in luck now. Besides the many locally made items, the food is the best! There are stalls with everything imaginable and at each stall you get a plate and fill it up as high as you can for anywhere between $1.20-$1.80!! That was plenty of food for me and the boys, a man might have two plates but all the different choices and flavors were mind blowing!! One afternoon we all got traditional Lao massages. They aren’t as good as Thai massages but pretty good, especially when it costs $20 total for all of us to get an hour long full body massage! It was great having our friends we met in the slow boat here. We met up each night and had a great time at the market or dinner. The boys really enjoyed having kids their age to play with. We will miss them on the rest of our journey.
