Meet the Parents

Good Morning, Bangkok! We woke up after a glorious night’s rest in probably the most comfortable bed known to mankind and prepped for our departure back to Suvarnabhumi (Bangkok Airport) to meet David’s folks. They’ve been making the rounds in Southeast Asia (Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Siem Reap) for the last 2 weeks and we’re finally meeting up with them to begin our amazing adventure!

After a supremely gluttonous breakfast (the buffet here is seriously unreal, folks), David headed to the gym (okay, yes, we had to have an LA moment) and Billy packed up the bags. Mind you, David used the gym the same way he does in LA (20 minutes on the treadmill, a quick disdainful glance at the weights that won’t lift themselves…) We then headed downstairs and jumped into our pre-arranged transport from the hotel…a lovely little Benz with enough room in the back for a block party. Okay, so it was fairly snooty leaving a hotel with porters opening doors for you into your Mercedes and beckoning ‘Enjoy your trip, Mr. So-and-So’, but it is slightly nice to be pampered, so we chalked it all up to experience and dropped our ‘screw the rich’ mentality for enough time to really enjoy what it must be like to live the life.

Flash forward to the airport: we met up with David’s folks at the gate and then boarded our flight to Luang Prabang. Well, almost…we actually boarded a bus to our plane. This all should have set off huge bells in Billy’s head, but until the bus pulled up to our Ford Focus with propellers, the reality eluded him completely. Mark and Chris, who have done more traveling than Lewis and Clarke themselves, smiled glibly and jumped aboard without a thought or care in the world. David had to do some major coaxing for Billy…quoting some statistics about planes and throwing some fancy mathematical formulas out there to trick him. Needless to say, these Jedi mind tricks did their work on Billy and he eased into his seat for takeoff.

A few hours later and ten or so inch-deep nail marks on David’s arm later, we landed in Luang Prabang, a sleepy gem of a town nestled in the mountains of Laos along the Mekong River. We’ve been wanting to visit this place since our trip last year, when many a weary traveler we met along the way raved about it and told us specifically how much we would enjoy coming here. Figuring there’s a small airport with a single runway, it limits the hordes of visitors to the eager and the willing…

Words simply cannot describe the beauty of this place. It’s as if time just froze here quite a few decades ago. The people are extraordinarily gracious, even when zipping past you along small paved roads on 60’s era Soviet bikes. The ride through town was fantastic and gave us a first glimpse of what was to come.

We checked into our hotel, the breath-taking La Residence Phou Vao (that’s Poo Vow)...perched atop a hill overlooking the entire city. Our hotel is incredible…a nestle of 34 elegant rooms in 5 or 6 small buildings snaking around a pretty courtyard. Each room is replete with magnificent views…and the infinity pool claims the most startling: the gilded stupa on the top of Mount Phou Si.

We unpacked…grabbed David’s parents and headed to town, knowing we had a few hours until our reservation at the much recommended L’Elephant restaurant in tow. Mark and Chris regaled us with chapters of their own travels, and we compared notes and experiences and views of temples.

We spent the remainder of our day wandering the town a bit—there are several temples scattered around the town’s main drags, interspersed with a passel of local stores and cafes and street vendors…

For dinner, we all chose a different set menu. David was the boldest, diving into the Lao menu with fervor…although we all suspect that had a lot to do with the fact that he just wanted to ball up the sticky rice and eat it with his hands (per local custom!)

Apres-meal, we wound our day up visiting the local Hmong night market. Like most night markets we’ve experienced, the shopkeepers are friendly, don’t speak much English, but are willing to negotiate to almost any price to get you to buy. We took a long look at several lovely local handicrafts, but decided we had days to purchase and we soaked up the experience.

All in all, a small taste of discovering what seems to be one of the most special places on this planet.

More to come…

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