Lao

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Not to be too cheesy but I will never forget flying into Lao, the rugged green mountains were a sharp contrast to the mostly flat Cambodia in which I had just departed. I also found out why Lao was so green, our plane landed safely, thankfully, in middle of the daily monsoons of the rainy season. I splurged in Lao and rented a nice quiet bungalow on the river, but it was in the town of Luang Prabang that I fell in love. The food was amazing, the people were great, and as I mentioned before it is breathtaking. Thankfully I have no problem sampling the street food which in LP is cheap and delicious, and it would be putting it lightly to say I indulged in the night markets. I loved their patterns, colors, styles, if you haven’t picked up on it yet, I loved Lao. After a dinner from the 75cents a plate veggie buffet on the street I went back to my open air bungalow and fell asleep to the sounds of the river under my mosquito net, yes life was good! The next morning after banana pancakes and Lao coffee, which is dark thick and in my opinion is only second to Indonesia sludge coffee, I set out on a jungle hike, boat, elephant trek. I was worried that the elephants were not treated nicely at these facilities so I found one that specializes in rehabilitation of female elephants. There were 4 of us on this trip and we had a great time taking off our shoes to wade through the mud and climb up to the elephant camp, only one of us fell in the muddy stream and I am proud to say it wasn’t me! Riding the elephant was great, I got to sit up on the head and try to direct in Lao. Our elephant was so hairy and her skin was so tough feeling. After the ride we fed them bananas and then went on to a waterfall. I spent that evening in town at the markets and just hanging out. By the way crepes in Lao are even better than Paris! The next day I went up another famous waterfall and went for a hike. Being the quick one I am, I ended up literally climbing up the rocks for about 45 minutes to get to the top of the waterfall where I proceeded to lose the trail and wander off into the Lao jungle. After hearing things rustle in the bushes even I started to think "okay Kays this isn’t your best plan ever." So after backtracking a bit I found that the trail crossed the river, and since it was still low I could walk all the way out to the very edge of the waterfall. Mom and Grandma would be so proud! On the other side of the river I found people who had taken the actual path up and I continued down to have a refreshing swim in the waterfalls pools. I loved getting to see Lao, and if you go there I would definitely recommend having enough time to do some serious traveling about, it is simply a fantastic place to explore!

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