I awoke at 7am almost as excited as I do Christmas morning. I could not wait to get out and see Luang Prabang by the light of day. The air was cool from the rain early that morning, and the city failed to disappoint. I wandered in and out of various wats and window shopped. I found a small shop tucked away in a corner full of beautiful silk scarves, table cloths, and other various woven textiles. The girl who worked there names was Nee. She was 16, and in broken English explained how long various pieces took to weave (the scarf I bought took 2 days, some pieces took several months). She then took me in the back to her loom, where she showed me what she was currently working on, and showed me how different parts of the loom effected different things. I must have spent nearly an hour with her.
I had lunch on the banks of the Mekong, looking out at boats, fisherman, and the village on the island across the way. I had laap (cooked for us westerners) and sticky rice. That afternoon it got terribly hot, so I headed to a spa for a very inexpensive Laos massage.
Laos celebrates Songkran as well (start of the New Year, and an excuse to have a giant water fight). So far people are very nice about throwing water on people, and only seemed to be throwing water on people who are participating in the festivities. You can still walk through town and stay dry. We’ll see if that continues through the weekend.
I got dinner at the night market from a noodle vendor. Everyone crowded into one table. I had my camera sitting on the table next to me, and one of vendors little girls ran up and jokingly pressed the button. I got out my digital camera and let her take a picture with it, and she was thrilled taking of course my picture and laughing about it for about five minutes. Later I met up with some girls I had met in Vientiane for some Beer Laos. It was nice to have dinner with someone I already sort of knew, I am starting to really tire of the standard beginning to a conversation. I hate to say this, but I am starting to want to say I am from someplace boring like Nebraska so people don’t ask me the same questions about Alaska that I constantly get. I feel like I am just having the same conversation over and over and over most of the time.
