I am sitting outside of a guesthouse near the Mekong river listening to the local children play their evening games. They are burning off that last bit of energy before time to go to bed. I hear a lot of laughter and merriment as I swat at the occasional pesky insect. The people in Laos are laid back and good-natured and I think that it is rubbing off on me. I am usually the tourist that has her nose buried in a guidebook. I am usually studying a map so hard that I miss things that are going on right in front of me. Not so in Luang Prabang. The compact layout makes it easy to see the town on foot without getting too lost (A little bit is not so bad). If you fall into one of the rivers, you have gone too far. I have spent the last two days roaming this small Unesco Heritage-listed town and just stumbling upon different places, a temple, a bookshop, a restaurant. The guesthouse and restaurant owners seem very proud of the esteemed honor and they have responded by jacking up their prices, but it doesn’t matter. There is plenty to do here without spending too much money.
This is the point in my trip where I am going to really have to start economizing. That mean rooms in guesthouses that have shared bathrooms and eating dinner at night markets. It was a huge indulgence to go to a restaurant to sample various Lao foods, but it couldn’t be helped. There are some specialties that can only be found in Luang Prabang, and I had to give them a try. Yesterday, I went to a restaurant called Tamarind that had a sample plate of the various local favorites including lettuce wraps, pickled bamboo shoots and Luang Prabang sausage. I also ordered the assorted dip plate that included a tomato dip similar to salsa, a spicy coriander and herb dip, and a local favorite made from garlic, tomato and dried buffalo meat. It reminded me of condensed barbecue sauce that was a little on the sweet side. The dip was consumed with dried Mekong river weed sprinkled with sesame seeds (better than it sounds), or a small ball of sticky rice. I enjoyed the coriander dip the most and I enjoyed having to roll my bit of sticky rice into a ball. This process slowed me down so that I could taste the food, instead of just wolfing it down with a tortilla chip.
The night market is definitely the more economical option for eating in Luang Prabang, and I enjoyed the vegetarian meal I purchased this evening for LAK 10000 (a little over a dollar). The meal at Tamarind cost LAK 65000 (around USD7). A big chunk out of my $30/day budget. Hopefully, things will get a bit cheaper down the road, but I am headed for Vientiane and….you know, I’m not going to worry about it. What happens, happens. If I have to miss a meal, I got enough fat to handle that. For right now, I am going to take my cue from the people in this fine town and just relax
