Luang Prabang

After two days of slowboating, we are looking forward to stretching our legs in Luang Prabang. Thanks to the magic of Facebook, we learned that Trevor and Kelsey from our trek had taken the slowboat down the Mekong the previous day and are in Luang Prabang as well. We had a little trekking reunion over breakfast, and made plans for dinner and drinks.



Darcy and I did a little sightseeing, but were too cheap to pay to get into every temple and too lazy to rent bikes. But, we did pay to hike up to the temples of Phu Si, a large hill in the middle of the city. The view from up top is pretty amazing.













Luang Prabang is a beautiful city. In the mid 90’s Unesco placed the city on its World Heritage list, so the development is very regulated. As a result, Luang Prabang maintains a charming, European feel.









For dinner, the group of trekkers ate at a street side vegetarian buffet. I also had a skewer of chicken. It was delicious! And I’m sure it didn’t come from the corporate coop either.



That reminds me of a documentary I saw a few years ago called “Our Daily Bread”. The film is just images and sounds of modern food production processes. In a way, it reminded me of one of those how stuff is made clips from Sesame Street, but there is no dialog or narration, so the viewer is left to draw his own conclusions. Check it out if you get a chance (http://www.ourdailybread.at). I’m really surprised people are so ignorant of where their food comes from. All that matters is that it is cheap and tastes good, right? Ba da da da daaa…I’m lovin it!

We polished the night off with far too much Beer Lao and the brilliant idea of ordering a bottle of whiskey. Such indulgence is required since we are multimillionaires (in Lao Kip). Luaaaang PraBaaaaang…









Next, we are off to Vang Vieng for some tubing.



See all our photos here.

Slowboat down the Mekong

On Friday, we took a minibus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong. We met John and Deirdre there and hung out that evening at the Teepee Bar.





In the morning, we were schlepped over the Mekong on a skiff into Laos to go through immigration. We are now in Beer Lao territory.





About 150 of us piled onto two slowboats to begin our trek to Luang Prabang. Initially, we thought we were going to be crammed on the boat, but it turned out to be fairly comfortable, all things considered.







We are going to be on the boat for 8 hours today, spend the night in the village of Pak Bang, then be on the boat for another 10 hours until we reach our final destination of Luang Prabang. There was also an option for a fast boat that carries 4 people each. We saw them screaming by, but they looked much less comfortable and they can be dangerous with all the debris floating in the river.



On the boat, we did lots of reading. I’m reading “Three Cups of Tea”. It is about a mountaineer who failed to summit K2, but was touched by the kindness and hospitality of the village people there. When he learned that they have no school, he vowed to raise money and return to build them a school. I’m really enjoying it so far. The protagonist and author also have ties back to Minnesota and Portland.

The scenery along the Mekong is incredible. The terrain in Laos is extremely rugged, and the countryside is hardly developed.





We made one stop where about a dozen children wielding baskets of snacks jumped on our boat. They were practically stumbling over each other to be the first onboard. They walked down the aisle yelling, “Chips and Coke”. I caved and bought some Nori Seaweed Chips for 10,000 kip. Later on, John passed around some Double Cheese Pork Burger Chips…mmmm…





That evening, we arrived in Pak Bang and had no trouble finding accommodations. A restaurant host convinced us to eat at his restaurant by saying, “My mother…cook for you”. Well, actually it was the free whisky shots that convinced us.



This village was interesting in that all the power is from generators. At 10:00 pm they shut off the generators. Good thing we brought our headlamps (or head torches according to John and Deirdre).



Saturday morning, we ate breakfast and loaded the boat. John offered a cigarette to some local and the guy wouldn’t stop following him after that…buddies…







I was able to catch up on some writing and everybody did a lot of reading.





At another stop, some kids showed up with grilled fish on a stick. All the locals on the boat came forward to purchase lunch. I was sitting next to a local and he let me have a taste with some sticky rice. Not bad…





We were rewarded with more incredible scenery. Closer to Luang Prabang, we encountered an incredible cave containing a temple of some sort.











We’ll be in Luang PraBang for 2 nights, then we head to Vang Vieng to do some tubing. I also keep hearing about these “special” shakes they have there…sounds interesting.





See all our photos here.

Is anyone reading this thing? I need some comments or feedback or something...

Chiang Mai…sober this time

After Pai, we returned to Chiang Mai for one more night at the Holiday Garden Guesthouse. This time we stayed in one of the rooms in the front of the building with a deck and a view. This is the fourth room we’ve stayed in at this place. It is starting to feel like home.





We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around, checking email, and hanging out.







We ate dinner at a restaurant near our guesthouse and watched the motorbikes stream by. It is amazing how much stuff and people the Thais fit on their bikes.



On our way into the guesthouse we ran into Drew and Felipe (Australia) from the trek. After our 2 lonely days in Pai, it was a nice surprise to see some friends. We accompanied them to the night bazaar, where we learned the finer points of bargaining from Felipe.



After the bazaar, we stopped into a local soup place where we cooked our own soup on the table. We were the only farangs (foreigners) in the place.



Next, we make our way to Chang Khong to begin our slow boat ride down the Mekong in Laos. John and Deirdre (Ireland) from our trek should be on the same boat, so it should be a good time.

See all our photos here.