2/26/09


Do not any drugs, crambling or bring both women and men which is not your own husband or wife into your room for making love.

So says rule # 5 at our lovely guesthouse in Luang Prabang, Laos-Compliments of the local police department. Consequences for breaking the aforementioned rule are as follows:

If you do not follow this accommodation regulation, you will be fight based on Lao PDR law.

Wow. Harsh!!!!!

Before leaving Thailand, I treated myself to a manicure and pedicure- total about $6.50 for both. Have I mentioned how cheap this place is? Especially food and beer. We generally have a large beer apiece for and a couple entrees for dinner, and rarely spend more than $8 total. Yummy fresh fruit shakes can be had for anywhere from 60 cents to $2, depending on the size and whether the vendor is in a touristy location or not. We changed our lodgings 2 times, downgrading from about $21 (we didn't need the pool) to $15 to $8. The $8 room was a bit below even my low standards, but it had a balcony and was close to all the action.

We left Chiang Mai with a few regrets, as we really enjoyed it. 6 hours in a minibus got us to Chiang Kong, on the Thai/Laos border. There we enjoyed a stay in a charming, woodsy guesthouse on the Mekong. $20 room- big splurge! Next morning we got our visas in Laos and boarded a river boat with about 80 other people- mostly tourists, but some locals- for a 2 day trip to Luang Prabang. The boat is pretty rudimentary and not entirely comfortable, but the trip was very interesting. Most memorable were the "ports-o-call", where all types of merchandise were loaded and unloaded- lumber, produce, rice, unidentified packages....We picked up a group of 5 young novice monks at one village; they caused a flurry of photography among the tourists (me included). We spent the first night at Pakbeng, a village at about the halfway point. The tourist accommodations were actually way better than we expected; but all you had to do was walk about a quarter mile to see how the villagers lived. Not at all the same, as you might guess.

Luang Prabang is a delightful city. Quite touristy, but few Americans, so even that part is foreign for us. We arrived at night, and the city was magically lit- and warm. It has been very warm our entire trip thus far, but apparently there is a heat wave going on because even the locals are commenting on it. It's been hitting 100 degrees in the daytime and the nights are very warm as well. One of the highlights of our stay here was watching a whole bunch of kids (including Monk kids) cooling off with a swim in the Mekong.

The Hmong night market at Luang Prabang was a sight to behold; hundreds of red umbrellas lit from below, and displaying thousands of colorful silk and other textiles, silver jewelry, and miscellaneous other wares. It's overwhelming, and a bit unnerving because the slightest display of interest is met with almost desperate pleas to purchase. It's hard for me to see the pittance they receive for so many hours of labor; needless to say, I'm not a great "bargainer". Jed and I made a visit to the facility where they actually do some of the weaving. It was most interesting, and just confirmed my feeling that these people deserve to make more for their skill and labor.

Next stop; Vientiane, the nation's capital. The 10 hour bus ride took us on winding roads through incredible hilly landscape and numerous small villages hugging the road. Fortunately, it was an air conditioned bus (which worked intermittently), as it was a scorching hot day, Our main purpose here is to get a Vietnam visa and arrange to fly to Hanoi. The city itself is OK; some good restaurants, nice temples, and the like- but definitely not as appealing as either Chiang Mai or Luang Prabang. The visa process is underway, and we should have it by tomorrow, so we plan to fly out Thursday.

Fast forward to Thursday, Feb 26. We have visas in hand and we fly to Hanoi at 2:10 today. We enjoyed a delightful "farewell dinner" last night at a non profit restaurant that teaches restaurant industry skills to former street kids. There is a similar one in Cambodia, and we will be sure to go there as well. The food was very innovative and tasty; the service top notch, and the place was nicely decorated and very clean.

Next entry will be from Vietnam. I will send pictures to accompany this e-mail later. Not all the internet places have the adapter I need to transfer my images.

Leaving Laos.......

Layne and Jed