luang prabang

Everything I'd heard about the old capital of Laos turned out to be true - right down to the 11pm curfew. It's an extremely picturesque little town, with old french colonial buildings lining the streets and a relaxed atmosphere which slows everyone right down. I spent almost a week there enjoying the easy-going town and a few of the local attractions. I arrived a day earlier than John, Neha, Connie, and Kimberly to meet up with the Hong Kong Kellogg crew who were doing a rapid tour of SE Asia over their Chinese New Year break. After an arduous seven hour drive through endlessly winddy mountain roads from Vang Vieng, I arrived mid afternoon and made my way to the main street to rent a scooter. "$18 for one day - you've gotta be out of your mind!" And so ended my quest to rent a scooter. That evening I met up with Amity, Ashley, Darren, and Chris for some dinner, drinks, a massage, and a stroll through the night market. These activities would be repeated a number of times throughout the week.

Though we had every intention of making it to the local waterfall the next day, the unseasonably cold weather dictated that we find something else to do. And so we did - spending the day sampling the street food on offer, and specifically the pho - or foe as they spell it here. We also made a little trip to the locals market to take in the sights and sounds and this didn't dissapoint - rats, frogs, dogs... you name the animal, it was chopped up and ready to be cooked. I'm not entirely sure what else we accomplished that day - unless you consider the aforementioned - dinner, drinks, massage and stroll through the market an accomplishment. A cold, yet relaxing, day all around.

The next day, with John, Neha, Connie and Kimberly back in the mix, we all rented a long-tail boat (and its driver) and made our way down-river to the waterfall. Now that the weather was once again cooperating, this turned out to be one of the nicer waterfalls yet - even during the dry season. The rest of the day we did what we do best - eat, drink and enjoy a massage :)

We kept up the same routine almost daily for the rest of our stay.mixing in a few other activities including treks up into the local villages and even a tiny little bit of wat-seeing. Overall I really enjoyed Luang Prabang. It's clearly in the midst of a huge tourist boom, and is clearly changing on a daily basis. I would certainly recommend it to anyone traveling through the area, especially if you want to relive a small part of colonial French Indochine.