Chiang Mai – Luang Prabang, Laos - I left Thailand today headed to Luang Prabang, Laos. I was very impressed with Lao Airlines. It was a one hour prop plane over to Laos and they had a meal service on board. I didn’t have a visa to enter but I heard that you could get them at the airport which indeed I did. For some reason, they have a different price for each nationality. For US, it was $36 and for someone from New Zealand (person in front of me), it was only $21. I am seriously considering becoming a New Zealander to take advantage of the $15 savings! Well, if you have a bucket list, Luang Prabang should be on it…and near the top! The city of Luang Prabang is actually a peninsula at the confluence of the Mekong & Nam Khan Rivers. I am definitely in heaven in this Unesco protected gem of a city. It is a completely different world here. Everybody seems to have taken a chill pill. If you thought the Mexicans were big on the “manana” lifestyle or the Costa Ricans on their “pura vida”, neither of them can compare to here. Even the vendors at the night market are laid back!
After unpacking, I stepped out of the hotel and facing me across the street is the Nam Khan River. There was a restaurant overlooking the cliff so I had Chicken curry, mixed steam vegetables, 3 spring rolls, a bowl of rice and a 640 ml monster BeerLao. It came to 90,000 kip ($11.64). Afterwards it was off to the night market here. Lots of handicrafts but the one that caught my eye were items made from the bombs that were dropped during the Vietnam War.
Preview: Tomorrow I taking a boat up the Mekong to see the Pak Ou caves and stopping at some villages along the way.
