sabaai-dii from Laos

 

I’m very sorry it’s taken me over a week to post! As always, so much has happened I wish I could share all the details with you. The little details are really what make traveling worth the time, energy and money!

Last time I blogged I was in Ha Noi. From there I took a flight into Luang Prabang (my abbreviation – LP), Laos. Laos is landlocked and sandwhiched between Thailand and Vietnam. One word for my encounters in Laos so far – outstanding. Oh, it seems that each stop gets better and I hope it continues that way. The Laoation people are simply amazing. As soon as I entered the small, small airport at LP you can tell it’s different. The entire population of Laos is only 6.5 million so it’s darastically slower and more relaxed when compared to Vietnam (85 million). I was reading today in a magizine that they Laoations are described as ‘kindhearted people’. I sincerely think that’s the best way to describe them.

Goodness, I really don’t know where to begin other than in the beginning. LP is so charming it’s unreal. I think if I had to live in any of the cities I’ve visited so far it would be there. Part of it’s beauty is the main square is a peninsula of land with the Mekong River on one side and the Nam Khan River on the other. In the center of the town is an elevated section of land called Phu Si. It’s scattered with a few different Wat’s. The 400ish stair climb to the top is worth every breath as the most incredible view of the town is spread before your eyes. This would be the ideal place to see the sunset over the Mekong.

Crepes are also scattered all throughout LP. I promise I had at least one banana and nutella crepe a day. Nice tasting but bad on the waist. I’ve decided I’m going to enjoy the good eats while I’m here and as my father told me I might gain 4 pounds, I’ll just have to work hard to loose it when I get home…at least I will have had a lovely two months of holiday food!

I don’t have much more time left on my Internet connection but I’ll try to do my best at summing up two other highlights of LP… (forgot to mention I’m not in LP anymore, I’ve also already stopped in Vang Vieng and I’m in Vientiane now – headed further south tomorrow!). There is a beautiful waterfall just south of LP called Tat Kuang Si. It’s a series of tiered waterfalls. You can climb to the very top of the falls via a lot of half hearted steps and hand hold. It took a good ten minutes to get to the top. I didn’t really know what I was climbing up to or if I could even see anything (sounds very similar to my journey to the top of Phu Si – I guess I just start climbing and hope for the best. There must be a path for a reason right?) but once I got to the top the views were incredible and breathtaking. Again, I can’t really find any other suitable words to describe it. The photo here is from the top of the waterfall and you can see the water begin to trickle over the top of the fall. Then below you can see my feet at the top. It’s hard getting photos of yourself everywhere so I figured I would at least take a photo of my feet in the falls! 

Once I climbed back down I was able to take a dip in one of the refreshing pools below. There was a Tarzan like rope swing I tried out a few times. Definitely fun but my shoulders and arms were a bit sore the next day. I should have a few Jane like photos coming in the next week or two. 

Oh yes! The highlight of my stay in LP. Long, random story short… I met two French Canadians on the plane from Ha Noi, we grabbed dinner together, decided to try this bar out that was supposed to be opened by French Canadians called the ‘hive’, sat down and was attacked by ants on my feet, was offered to have a shot of tequila by some American students on their GAP year (so glad to hear the concept is at least starting to take off in the states), went bowling with all of these people after the bar closed at 11:30 because it’s the only thing open in LP late at night and then we were invited to a local duck bbq that was taking place with some of the local Lao workers with the GAP year organization.

The evening was unforgettable. They bought two ducks and bleed them to death before chopping them up and making them into more dishes than I’ve ever seen before! I didn’t see the bleeding of the duck but that wasn’t what was a amazing. All of the electricity went off in the entire town and you could see the stars so beautifully. I wondered around outside and enjoyed the view for a few minutes before I noticed all the candles in the house and shadows moving. I figured it was time for dinner, walked in to about 25 people sitting down (there were about 8 foreigners and then a good 15 or so locals) on the floor (don’t forget shoes off!), with candles scattered all about and SERIOUSLY about 40 bowls of food (probably about 10 different types of food but divided up and spread all over the floor – including duck blood soup and the most incredible tasting salad I’ve ever had before – no joke! We all enjoyed the dishes with our hands (it’s much better that way) and sticky rice… laughed and enjoyed lots of beer (more sharing and drinking from the same cup)

My two friends and I brought three bottles of wine to share. It was so cute to see one of the locals try it for the first time. I coached him (hand motions – no words) on to not chug it like beer. I wish I had a photo of his face! Oh he puckered up so big .. he thought it was disgusting and motioned for me to have the rest and couldn’t stop thanking me from taking it. Ok this is getting long, so story short, we ripped up the table cloth and danced to lots of Akon, shakria and then crazy lao music! Ah it was unreal, unforgettable and something truly Lao.