Luang Prabang - Our last stop in Laos :-(

2/12/2015

9 - 11 February 2015

The only thing that got us our of our soft bed was that the included breakfast only went till 10 AM. After breakfast we returned to the room to enjoy some more R&R...after the kayaking trip we needed a bit of a break, plus, Tim felt like he was coming down with a head cold so we decided to just take it easy. Around 3:30 we finally wandered out of the room mostly because I needed lunch.

Luang Prabang is a really cute city with a main street lined with French inspired architecture:

Cute lunch spot. Looks better than the food tasted.

After lunch we returned to the hotel since Tim was feeling a bit worse. Luckily he didn't have a fever, so it seems to be just a cold will hopefully run its course by tomorrow morning. Around 7:30 PM I ventured out alone looking to buy some street food from the venders. I bought some spring rolls, a small grilled fish, grilled tofu, and some steamed rice. Of all that food,all that was edible was the tofu and the rice...we are not looking forward to leaving Laos, but we are definitely looking forward to the better food of Vietnam.

The next morning I woke and went down for breakfast san Tim although I did bring him up some toast and orange juice...yes I am the best wife ever. Anyway...I gave Tim till noon till I forced him in the shower so we can start our walking tour of Luang Prabang...maybe I'm not the best wife ever? After the shower he felt good enough to give it a go, so we headed out to follow the walking tour our guide book suggested. The plan is a 3 mile walk that covers the highlights of Luang Prabang. First stop That Chomsi, a gold gilded stupa built on the top of a hill situated in the middle of the city. Here are some pictures taken on the way up:

Anti-aircraft cannon left from the war years.

Here are some pictures from the top:

And pictures taken on the way down:

Schoolgirls touring the area.

Squatting in the Buddha footprint cave.

Wat Siphoutyhabat Thippharam...that's a mouthful!

Next was a walk around the streets which was quite impressive with amazing looking alleyways:

We continued on the tour and saw some more amazing scenery including temples and gardens. Here are the highlights:

Monks cloth drying.

Cool tree with fuzzy moss growing on it.

Wat Xieng Thong

Tim and cat.

After walking around 3 miles we were ready for a beer. We stopped at one place and tried a new beer called Lane Xang...not the best, but it was palatable and it had a cool elephant on the label:

After one beer we headed to a place suggested by our guidebook called Utopia which is kind on an ironic name considering it was decorated with cluster bomb dispensers:

And the ultimate irony is that they had a yoga class going on when we arrived...I love this picture!

Bomb in forefront, downward-dog in background.

You may not believe it, but we finished off the night back at the pizza place we went to the first night. Tim wanted to go there again and I wasn't going to complain since he was a good sport walking around all day when we wasn't feeling very well.

The next day we checked out of our hotel after breakfast, left our luggage for storage, and walked around the city. We had till 5:00 PM till we had to be back to the hotel for our ride our of town. This time our plan was to just walk and find see sites we missed the day before. I don't know the name of any of these places, but there look pretty cool:

We were pretty much done walking around but we still had a few hours till we had to leave, so I decided to finally have that massage I have been putting off all these months. For the incredible low price of of $8 USD I got a 1 hour massage with lemongrass scented oil. I don't know why I haven't been getting these massages the entire time we have been traveling!

It was finally time to go, so we went back to the hotel, grabbed our luggage, and loaded on to a tuk-tuk for the airport. What is that?!? The airport?!? That is correct. At this point we had the choice of taking a 26 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang for $50 USD or taking a plane for $125 UDS that gets us there in 1 hour. After doing some research and learning that the bus ride is regularly called "The Bus Ride From Hell" we opted for the 1 hour plane ride on Vietnam Airways.

We took off at 7:25PM from Luang Prabang, Laos and arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam at 8:35 PM. Our hotel sent a driver to pick us up...I can get used to this pampering...and we arrived at in our hotel room just before 10 PM. Awaiting us in our room were rose pedals and a fruit basket...all for the low, low price of $36 USD per night!