Nov 27
Day one of Laos adventures starting with a cross over the border and beginning of a 2-day slow boat to Luang Prabang (very calm Mekong River ride! Cold at times) Read A LOT.
Nov 28 - Thanksgiving
Pak Beng stop on the way to Luang Prabang - a little hellish haha forgot it was thanksgiving and had a boring dinner but then remembered and found an apple
November 29
Luang Prabang finally! Adorable city, has a curfew at 11:30 so gets a bit boring especially during the week. Lots of French influence and really pretty flowers and clean! Great night market with tons of handmade stuff: scarves, bags, slippers, clothes, jewelry, everything! Foooooood! So many fruit and sandwich stalls that are delicious. Thus began my coffee shake obsession!
November 30
Walking tour of city - museum, temples, got lost across bamboo bridge
Went out at utopia bar
December 1
We started the day with a late breakfast at Joma, which was a bit disappointing and left us hungry so we grabbed some shakes at the stalls in the market. We were staying in a guesthouse pretty far from the main city center so we decided to switch somewhere new and ended up at Tephavong. It was nice and very close to everything for about the same price! We wanted to check out the viewpoint that the boys told us about, but ran into our new English friends (Grant with the ponytail and Willy) so we just walked and talked with them until they had to catch their bus to Vang Vieng. We then crossed the bamboo bridge and ate a delicious late lunch at Dyen Sabai consisting of our favorite eggplant dip with sticky rice and Lao fondue! Next we stopped over at Garden of Eden again to hang out and see some jewelry! We ended up being there for quite some time and Nic even taught us how to make really cute bracelets :) We basically spent the whole night there and she even made us some great Laos food - we helped! We picked some little veggies and peppers, fried up some tempura eggplant and of course ate a lot! We even tried some pig brain, which was surprisingly delicious but I wasn't about to have more than one taste since it was not only pig brain, but also a foul looking mush haha other than that, Nic had cooked up some traditional buffalo laap which was tasty, sticky rice, pickled veggies, sautéed veggies, morning glory with garlic, soup, and a couple other things that I can't really remember haha all delicious too!
December 2
We checked out the viewpoint and Buddhas foot which were pretty cool - lots of Laos stairs haha! Our new running joke is about how Laos "stairs" are crazy and they are all uneven, steep, random sizes and shapes even if they're like 'nice' paved ones...
December 3
We woke up at 5:50am and bundled ourselves as best we could with the one outfit we had leftover from laundry day so we could go see the daily ritual of giving of alms to the monks. It was freezing cold and we had no idea where we were supposed to be walking, but soon found the procession of monks walking single file along the sidewalk receiving donations of sticky rice and bananas, and other things that I didn't manage to see. It was very crowded with tourists snapping pictures everywhere but it was still a nice thing to experience. We're hoping to catch a calmer one in a quieter town. We fell back asleep for a little and when we woke, decided to rent a motorbike to head over to the Kuang Si waterfall. The ride was really nice other than the occasional massive potholes in the road. We got some shakes at the entrance and wandered in. The first thing we saw were some adorable yet slightly awkward looking bears in a rescue center. They were a bunch and they were just hanging out in hammocks or wandering around their home. Afterwards we found the waterfall which had several levels to walk up, each being cooler than the rest. The water was so clear blue and magical, it looked like a fountain of youth or something haha. We bumped into Alex (Dutchie) and he told us Chef had food poisoning at home, so we all trekked together to the top of the waterfall! At the top Alex started feeling not so hot and on our way back down he may have spewed a bit :-/. He quickly went home while Hila and I hung around for a bit longer - Hila went on the rope swing but I was way too cold for those shenanigans... We hopped back on the motorbike and made the 45 minute drive freezing our butts off as the sun set! In the evening, we had some dinner and headed back across the bamboo bridge to Garden of Eden to hang out and drink a couple beers before going out. Nic and Lola were there and we had some delicious beer snacks - lemongrass, garlic & kefir lime peanuts + banana chips nom! At around 8:30 we walked back across to Utopia where we were expecting the lively party we had encountered the last time. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't a Saturday and the mood was pretty chill so we got bored and just wandered back home.
December 4
Today we slept in until 11 and had a nice little breakfast at a bookstore cafe while we planned our next steps for Laos. After deciding that we would travel to Muang Ngoi the next day, we booked our bus as well as some mountain bicycles so we could check out Tad Sae Waterfall. We were told the cycle would be mostly flat and about 15km, but it was mostly uphill (and we quickly found that our bikes were quite shitty) and felt like WAY more than 15km. The worst part was that we had no idea if we were even going in the right direction seeing as there were no signs for the waterfall anywhere. We reached a massive downhill (after walking up a pretty big uphill) and rested our weary legs on the lovely ride down, all the while wondering how the hell we would get back up... We made it to the bottom and kept going but after seeing the same road over and over we eventually started to get discouraged after biking for more than an hour so we stopped at the next gas station and asked for directions. With a little nod and an arm wave, we were directed left, or so we assumed, and we started pedaling up the dirt road that curved left off the main street. In hindsight, it was so lucky that we stopped and asked there because we never would have made the turn off the main road if not. Up and down some dirt hills, we finally made it to the river where we caught a mini long tail for the 5 minute ride to the park. Inside the park was beautiful! Just like at Kuang Si, the water was clear blue and the whole place looked unreal! We pranced around in the water taking pictures and dipping our feet - it was pretty late and the sun wasn't as hot so we didn't go all in :(. After seeing all there was to see, we were starved and decided to make our way back home. After no debate, the decision was made to take a Tuk Tuk back home/up the treacherous mountain so we bargained a fair price and hopped on. Little did we know that we were waiting for 3 more people and that they were taking their sweet time in the park. Several empty bags of chips and cookies (they were very empty to begin with) and an hour later, the crew finally made it back and we set off... Our Tuk Tuk driver asked us to lie about the price we were paying if they asked (can't help it that we're awesome bargainers... Just kidding we were just broke and he took our low offer) but we didn't lie. Oops. Anyways, the sun was down and the mountains were quite chilly as we drove home but it was only about 20 minutes until we were back in town. We showered and messaged the Dutchies to meet for dinner as it was all of our last nights together! Agreeing upon Indian, we all dined until we were too stuffed to move, and then we reluctantly moved... First stop was Nic's (Garden of Eden) where we bought some great jewelry and said goodbye, and then we went to Reggae bar that was unlike any other reggae bar we've ever been to. The boys wanted to play pool so they put their names on the list and we drank a couple beers at the bar while waiting for their turn. Little did we know that there was plenty of entertainment in store for us while we sat. At one point, a Madonna song came on, which inspired about 10 of the 15 people (mostly males haha) in the bar to all join in on some sort of "electric slide" dance routine in the middle of the bar, which then continued on - with slight variations for songs - for the rest of the night. The pool table was lively with some excellent players and eventually the boys were up. The Dutchies played the pair that beat the duet that had been on the table since we arrived, and they somehow managed to beat them - the first time at least, when the other team accidentally hit the black ball in ;). The second game wasn't so lucky and the boys were knocked off pretty quickly. By this time it was 11:15 and the curfew would be in effect soon, so we meandered our way home and said sad goodbyes to our favorite Dutch munchkins we'd been traveling with for weeks.
