Luang Prabang

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It is my last morning here in Luang Prabang. I've decided to splurge a little and picked a place right on the Mekong River to get breakfast. The weather is beautiful and the scenery fantastic. There are hardly any people out, but the silence is broken with some Thai/Laos music and I must say I like that.



I got to Luang Prabang the morning of St. Patty's Day. And by morning I mean 1 am and that was after my 30 hour bus ride. Naturally I had made no reservations so I hit the streets with the others who made the same mistake as myself and after a lot of knocking on doors I found myself a $6 dorm room. It's may sound cheap, but for what I got it wasn't but at 2 am I couldn't wander forever. Actually that's not true, I probably could have but my new friends refused to allow me to go off alone so to prevent them from worrying I settled.



I passed out after a much needed shower, but was up just a few hours later for a run and oh what a run it was! After 30 hours on a bus my body was excited to get up and go. The morning was cool and nobody else was on the streets. On top of that I found a new hostel to go to, although I still had another in mind.



When I returned, I through on my green shirt, packed up my bags and joined the other American in my room for breakfast. Breakfast of champions consisted of the Lao style baguette, what is on the Lao style baguette you ask. Veggies, sauces, crunchy noodles, and what I can assume is pork whatever mystery meat was it was quite enjoyable.



Despite knowing for sure where Spicylao Hostel was I wanted to go in search of another which included a free breakfast. I love my free breakfast, really free anything especially when it comes to food. But after a ridiculously long search the hostel was nowhere to be found. I carried my massive backpack around and chalked it up to a second work out. Plus the American guy who was wandering with me was pretty cool. He had been to 150+ countries and had done it all super cheap. He wrote a book and has hitched hike around the world basically. Just a happy to lucky 50 year old hippy who had a smile on his face the entire time.



When my second hostel was a bust I made my way back to Spicys where I was greeted by my new roommates extremely warmly. In fact there were cheers. I swear this isn't all in my head but I walked in and yays and clapping occurred. Turns out the old roommate had gotten into a huge argument with one of the guys and had even thrown a water bottle at him. I promised not to do that to any of them and so a dorm room friendship was born.



Side note my splurge meal AMAZING! So much food all of it tasty! Coffee was perfect, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and tasty seasoning, the biggest baguette I have ever seen and mixed fruits AND a banana shake. Wish I found this place sooner, I'd eat ever meal here.



Anyway, how easily I get distracted by food. In fact I'm full but I keep going back for more and more bites. Focus Erin focus!



Ok! So my new friends invited me along with them to the waterfalls so I popped on my bathing suit, grabbed some kep and boarded a van. A short time later we were at the falls. First we walked through a sunbear conservation area where bears saved from poachers lounged around yawning. They were truly adorable fur balls.



Just past them the first waterfall came into sight. The water was a beautiful color and the falls stunning to look at. The place was crowded with locals and foreigners but it didn't take away from the beauty of the place. The water was FREEZING so the best solution my friend and I had to conquer the coldness was to jump off the waterfall so off we went.



One... Two... Three, we jumped and hit the water which may have nearly given me a heart attack but was so worth it. Oh I have chills just remembering the cold. The others joined us but we honestly didn't make it very long before all of our teeth were chattering and we made our way out.



We continued up the falls until we reached the main one which put the little guys we had been passing to shame! The falls were beautiful and the little bridge we walked across adorable. We relaxed in the sun in front it and just enjoyed the peacefulness of it all.



Back at our hostel my new crew took a nap while I explored. And by explored I mean searched for food and food I found! I first had to try lap, minced meat salad. It is my favorite dish in Thailand and I wanted to see if it is anything like Thai style here. It is not. I mean its similar but Thai style is filled with spices and deliciousness and this was just a tad boring. Unsatisfied I continued on and tried a buffet. I can't really tell for sure what I ate but there were veggies and tofu and crackers and fried bananas and fruit. I piled my plate high, nearly spilled it all, and then enjoyed! Last but not least I had to get a crepe. They guys in Halong had told me they are the best crepes ever and they weren't lying. Vanilla with banana, oh my god my mouth waters at the memory.



When I returned my friends were slowly in the process of getting ready for a night on the town for St. Party's Day. I was the only one sporting any green, shame shame on the rest of them. First we hit up Lao Lao where it was buy one get one free cocktails. What they don't tell you is that those cocktails are pretty disgusting. That didn't stop us from drinking all of them, although it wasn't very easy.



From there we hit up Utopia, the main bar everyone goes to. He I ran into my Canadian friends from the bus and we all joined them for a round of beer. I was glad to find my bus friends again, it had sucked to part ways with them. They even tried to sneak me in to their hostel at 1am after the bus.



Luang Prabang, along with all of Laos and Vietnam, close down extremely early. By midnight we were all being ushered out and the thing to do here is then to go bowling. I don't know why bowling stays open absurdly late compared to everything else but it does and falangs love themselves some bowling if it mostly includes drinking.



However my little crew by passed bowling and returned to Spicys were we consumed snake whiskey and eventually snake itself. We kicked it until 4 am and by then it was time to call it a night.



Four hours later I was up and running. I can't say it was the best run of my life but it was better than I could have expected that was for sure. I roamed around the town enjoying the food and checking out the Wats. I had plans to meet up with the Canadians but they headed off earlier than they had originally planned so I ended up missing them sadly.



Yvette from New Zealand was leaving that day and we grabbed some lunch together (although I have no idea why I ate because I was so full) and then she grabbed her bus. I went off to wander some more and after indulging in a crepe felt the need to run it off. Not before indulging in a buffalo sausage, I had to try it!



Buffalo sausage was spicy and delicious. Ok maybe not that delicious. It was huge and crunchy and well if it wasn't on the list of things to eat in Laos I wouldn't have eaten it but you gotta do what you gotta do but I certainly don't have to do it twice.



When I went on my second run a young Laos girl joined me. I always think it is so cool when someone joins me running. Random but cool. We ran most of the way together and then she took me up the back way to check out a Wat and not have to pay which I am always a fan of. She mainly wanted to practice her English so we just chatted for awhile until it got late and I returned to my hostel.



Showered and relatively clean we headed for dinner. They had all decided to go to a western restaurant which had no appeal to me but I went non the less. It was overpriced and not worth it but I suppose not everyone wants to eat weird stuff for every meal so I sucked it up and dropped the kep to eat crappy food while secretly dreaming of the buffet.



The restaurant was right along the night market so when we walked out after dinner we meandered through the market checking out all the crafts and such. I was tempted to buy snake whiskey but with two more months of traveling I was a bit fearful as to how it would hold up and the thought of it shattering my bag was enough to make me pass on it.



Exhausted I practically passed out as soon as we returned to our hostel, still in my jean shorts and all.



That leads me to now. I had a great run this morning, going up and down the hills here in the town. My legs simultaneously love and hate me at this moment. I treated my body to a delicious meal and now just have the afternoon to kill until my bus to Vientiane comes along.



In an hour there is some snake ceremony that I am looking forward to and other than that I think a lot of relaxing and saying goodbyes will occur since everyone in my dorm is departing today.



The bus is just 10 hours tonight, easy peasy. Then a day in Vientiane and another 10 hour bus ride to good old familiar Bangkok where I will meet up with friends and say our last goodbyes before Erica and I head to the Philippines. Where did the time go, feels like I flew through Vietnam and not nearly enough time in Laos. Guess I will just have to come back!



The snake festival didn't include any snakes. Well at least any snakes people could see. Nope it was a family ceremony to remember those that have passed and were turned into invisible snakes that come around on this day and they feed them. Grandpa especially likes pork apparently.



To make up for that I tried 7 year old snake whiskey. I would not recommend it. I've eaten a lot of wired stuff but I nearly vomited at the consumption of that. Dreadful! I find myself back at the restaurant this morning because it is such a great deal. I believe I'll check out a Wat or two before returning back to say goodbye to the ladies. The question is one more crepe before I leave or not? Hmmmm. The answer is always yes! Banana,Nutella and vanilla I think I've gained 10 pounds in Laos alone.

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