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Luang Prabang Airport
We arrived in one piece! We've spent the last few days in Luang Prabang, Laos which is about an hour's flight from Chiang Mai (much easier than the 8 hour bus to the Lao border plus a two day slow boat ride down the Mekong). Laos is the first communist country we've visited on our trip, and after a 1 hour wait at the airport to get our tourist visas and $80US later, we were off like a herd of turtles into town. The town itself (a UNESCO heritage site) is very different than anywhere we've visited so far. Things move at a slower pace here, and it is generally not developed (no Starbucks in sight!). There is a strange eerie feeling of an abandoned colony - old french buildings now turned into guest houses for instance. We toured the old "royal palace" in town and it was like a time warp - they even had french magazines laying around from 1952 (aparently the royal family was hauled off to a cave in 1975 and eventually died of malnutrition, although no one here talks about it). We've had fun seeing some of the local sights, such as nearby waterfalls, feeding the monks at 6am, and
Mmm....local food
Sarah enjoying one of our many food adventures - aka the SE Asia diet. trying the Laotian foods, but are pretty much ready to leave tomorrow (for Hanoi).
To spice up our blog, we've decided to write "four truths and a lie" for all the places we've visited....here they are for Laos (lie will be revealed later)...
1. The largest bill denomination in Laos is approximately $2US. You need a bag to carry around all the money you get after you exchange baht or US dollars.
2. One of the local specialities here is "Mekong River Weed", dried and served with dried buffalo skin purée.
3. There is a midnight curfew in town, and all restaurants close at 10:30pm.
4. The Laos believe that air conditioning is bad for your health and you cannot find an air conditioned room in town.
5. Young boys will often spend several months as "novice" monks (most not devoting their life to monkhood). We saw two "novices" beating each other up before morning mass, the bigger one whipping the smaller one with his orange robe.
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DeLaine
non-member comment
Reading your blog
Comparing your description of Laos to our visit now in china seems like quite a contrast. I think I will pass on the lizard guts. Hugs to you both,