SE Asia 2014 Day 14

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A travel day. We're up at 6:15 am to repack and have breakfast before leaving the hotel at 7:30. An hour's drive to the Hanoi airport to catch a flight for Luang Prabang, Laos.

On the bus, we are chatting with Kien. He mentions that it is his job to keep clients happy and he will do anything within reason to satisfy our needs. We tell him to find Violet a red dragon fruit.

The airport is just crazy packed. We wind single-file like ants following a trail with heavy loads through the mob of wall-to-wall people. When we finally make it to the check-in counter, it strikes me that the crowds are mostly people who are there to see friends or family off or to welcome them home. I'd guess only about 10% are actually there to fly somewhere.

Time to say goodbye to Vietnam. What an interesting, multi-faceted country! There's an indomitable energy palpably present in the people. The country doesn't feel like a communist state at all; in fact, entrepreneurial spirit is one of the Vietnamese's salient characteristics. So glad we came.

There's one of those crazy last-minute changes of gates that was not announced, but we successfully board our Lao Air turboprop. One hour brings us to Luang Prabang.

Another huge hurry-up-and-wait to get into Laos. You stand in line first to submit your landing visa application that you completed on the plane, then queue up again to get your passport back with the visa, pay your $43 US (and why is Canada saddled with the higest visa fee?), then endure another line to present your credentials, be photographed, and finally be admitted. Well over an hour to clear these hurdles.

On the other side of bureaucracy awaits our local guide Seng. We and our luggage pile into three small trams (12 people per) for the drive to the hotel. Luang Prabang is a small town and the streets simply can't accommodate full-size buses. It's stinking hot; once again we are back to humid, mid-30s weather.

Luang Prabang, population 62,000, has more of a small-town feel than a city. But it has a rich history. Its location at the confluence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers has seen it play an important role in the history of Laos, both as the country's ancient capital and then as a centre of French culture in SE Asia. In fact, the entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Today, it has fully embraced tourism, and the beautiful French villas have been turned into boutique hotels.

Compared with the cities we have visited so far, Luang Prabang seems almost lethargic. The traffic is still dominated by motorcyles and bicycles, but there's not that much of it, and everyone tends to noodle along at their own pace. Few motorcyclists where helmets here. Apparently they are theoretically mandatory, but this law is simply not enforced. The houses tend to be small, and most have identical red roofs. However, there are some magnificent establishments left by the French. They have mostly been turned into hotels, although in some cases they have been snapped up by rich foreigners.

Our hotel, the Luang Prabang View Hotel, is perched on a hill within the city with a great view of the city below. It's more of a resort than a hotel, with a central building and several separate residences linked by walkways. Our room is spacious and comfortable, although the lack of a shower curtain may be problematic. After checking in, we get back on the bus to be taken for lunch.

Lunch is at Restaurant les trois nagas. Curiously, there are two vintage cars in beautiful shape parked outside on the road that belong to the restaurant. The meal is really good. Very different food, with a considerable dose of spicy. A cone-shaped banana leaf reveals sticky rice. The dessert is especially dliecious, consisting of coconut ice cream bbeside a mound of sweet sticky rice with raisins.

The formula for a Laotian meal is different. The dishes generally arise all at the same time instead of one after another. There is always white rice, but it is usually hand-served to you by a waiter. If you need more, you just ask. Blessedly, water and tea/coffee are complimentary here, where we usually had to pay for them in Vietnam. However, the coffee is just instant, usually Nescafe. And milk is rare to find. The best they can offer you is creamer. Kien, who you may remember owns a coffee shop back in Hanoi, has nothing but contempt for Laotian coffee. He has brought his own with him.

After lunch we return to the hotel for some R&R. A couple of people are not feeling well and everyone is quite tired, so a decision is made to take the afternoon off. While the rest of the world sleeps, I toil away at the hateful blog.

Supper is also out of the hotel in town at a restaurant named Tamnak Lao. Again, quite enjoyable. We have our first meeting with chicken potato curry, which we will see again in the days ahead. There is a really unusual dish. Served in a banana leaf fashioned into a pyramid, it is completely unfathomable when you unwrap it. Only when you bite in do you realize that it's a morsel of fish covered completely with a spicy crab paste.

No activities for this evening. We take the opportunity to do laundry.

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