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Published: February 19th 2018
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Trying to keep up with what day today is... oh yes! It's Monday! And we're in Luang Prabang, Laos, and life is good! Good nights sleep and no mozzie nets required, as altitude too high for them. After breakfast in our quaint guest house we explore the Old town getting our bearings. There are lots of Wats here but we avoid them, concentrating on admiring the lovely architecture and exploring the narrow interconnecting streets with their many shops. We decide to give a miss to climbing up Mount Phousi today as far too many Chinese clambering over it.
With it's river borders, the Old town is effectively a Peninsular so fairly easy to navigate but we still take an age to locate the restaurant we have arranged to eat at this evening, called The Tamarind, highly recommended. Having been wandering for three or more hours, using ATM, Post Office, Ticket Offices, we realise the heat, humidity and maybe altitude is affecting us, and both admit to feeling lethargic and a little nauseous so decide to return to our room to cool down and rest.
Feeling much refreshed, we meet up as planned at the Tamarind restaurant, arriving together at
5.45pm, a little earlier than planned, only to find that the restaurant is fully booked tonight and tomorrow. Disaster! Leo and I book for Wednesday, our new friends will be gone. At least we two can look forward to a tasting before we leave LP on Thursday. A quick discussion leads us to the small family run place the Canadians used last night. Cheap and cheerful, good service, nice cosy outdoor seating, very satisfactory Asian food. Two hours of agreeable conversation later, we settle our bill and realise 2 Beer Laos, shared starter and main, spent under £8 per couple, unbelievable. We learn it is very possible our paths may cross again at the weekend in a North Eastern village called Muang Ngoi, who knows, such is the nature of travel!
Leo and I decide a nightcap on the main street is called for. We just catch the end of 2 for 1 happy hour, so all in all very economical day. The splendid night market is still beckoning, but we are storing up all our stamina for another evening, when we hope to do it justice. As we head homewards, we drink in the easy, happy, laidback vibe
here, altogether more grown-up and sophisticated than VV. Not many barefooted, pierced, dreadlocked and drunken types at all, but it is only just 9pm, perhaps it gets crazy when we are tucked up in our beds, we will probably never find out.
Just a note: For those of us who have used British Guest Houses over the years, our accommodation brings back outdated but amusing memories. After checking into our room yesterday, all we spotted were 'Please Do Not.......' notices. A laminated A4 sheet on our dresser listed at least a dozen of them, followed by a list in the bathroom, even the AC Unit mounted close to the ceiling begged 'Please Do Not Touch!' If a ladder had been included, then just maybe Leo could have tried to break this one, but honestly, we thought the whole Rule thing a bit over the top.
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