So. Laos.
We had a pretty quick stay in this country, only two nights. Our flight in was kind of delayed so we didnt land til after dark. Our on-arrival visas cost $42 each - the most for any country in their huge list. I don't know what Canada did to Laos, but I would be more surprised if it was nothing. Anyways. We cabbed into town with a few otyer tourists and were dropped off at our hotel on the peninsula of Luang Prabang. (pronounced more like bong than bang). We went wandering for food, and found a strange mix of places. Some were empty (bad sign?), some were too full for us, and a mix of indoor and outdoor. We found a spot finally. The Lao food was significantly different than anything yet, but yummy. Mine smelled kind of like feet but it tasted really good. They eat everything with sticky rice there, that is their thing.
Yesterday we woke up kind of late and had a nice breakfast by the river. Tue worst thing about Luang Prabang is the tourists (including us no doubt). At breakfast, we watched this group of three girls take every kind of selfie we could imagine, and more. Its actually amazing how much these asian girls love selfies. So many of them have selfie sticks, and its not for a lack of friend to take the photo; the whole group is doing selfies and rarely taking pics of each other. Is this me feeling old? Or just rationally Canadian?
After breakfast, we climbed the big hill to Mount Phousi, which (like everything there) had a nice Wat and a bunch of Buddhas on top. And a gorgeous view of the city. We exited by a different stairwell and were glad we did. The up-route was boring and plain, but the down route had all sorta if golden Buddhas, caves, Nagas, and other stuff. Even an anti-aircraft gun! So much to look at.
While not watching my feet, I misstepped on a down stair and started falling to my right. Thanks to my extensive fall-related training, i released the object in my right hand and executed a perfect reach to grasp reaction, getting a good power grip on the Naga handrail. Unfortunately, the object in my hand was our SLR camera. I watched in slow motion as it fell down onto a nice rock slope, then tumbled down about 20 more stairs before coming to rest. Lisa walked down, picked it up, aimed it at me, and took a photo. Whew. Somehow, it is dented and chipped everywhere except on the stuff that matters. Hopefully its not *just* off - hopefully all the pics from now on are not just a little blurry. We will see.
We got down from the mountain, said hi / sa bai dee to a few monks, and crossed the river to lunch restaurant dyei sabai on a bamboo bridge. A few days ago, instagram @natgeo posted a pic of monks crossing the bamboo bridge. Kinda neat to be there ourselves right after. For lunch, we had Lao Fondue. This is a fun mix of Korean BBQ, pho, and actual north american fondue. And so delicious that i ate toooo much again. In Laos they ask you yo take off your shoes a lot. So bending over to do up my shoes after lunch? Not so easy.
We walked back over the bridge and walked over to the former palace / national museum to look at their Things. They're nice. Canada gave them a nice plate (*cough*$42*cough*).
Then it was time for changing the clothes and lying in the AC. It was 34 yesterday. I haven't sweat through a shirt like that in quite some time! And how!
We regrouped in time to catch an awedome sunset over a beer and scrabble. Thry have restaurant kiosks set up all along the rivers, but they lack certain facilities. In our next quest for dinner and a washroom, we walked and walked and walked and ended up at a hotel and thought okay fine. But then too many china mainlanders were yelling and being jerk tourists so we left. Finally we fought through the night market and found a table! We are rarely so happy to find an overpriced tourist restaurant.
FYI we are here in the so-called "dry season". (that's called foreshadowing). No sooner did we order than I saw some flashes of light down the street... Five minutes later, after a shrewd table change, there was a torrential downpour. Lights were flickering and people were running and shouting like rain is a new thing. The night market disappeared instantly. Tourists were huddling on our patio to get out of tue rain, so we offered a seat (since we are soooo nice). Eventually a couple of germans sat down, and while one beer turned into three, the rain stopped and we had a nice little night.
Amid all the distraction, we forgot to take our WITH FOOD malaria pills with the food. We took them when we got home. Bad choice. I had the worst dream hallucinations i have ever had, not even close. To sum it up... I caught up on Breaking Bad (apparently its not over / now it features James Franco), stressed out over leaving work for my upcoming four week vacation, and finally blew up during a weird family board game of paper ball baseball in chairs (what?). May i never have such night terrors.
Because of all of that, we skipped getting up to watch the Luang Prabang monk alms giving ceremony. There are mixed reviews about how much tourists, especially non-buddhists, shouod be involved anyway, so its okay i think. Wr have seen and continue to see our share of Wats and Monks.
We strolled around for a bit then caught a tuk tuk to the airport and flew to Chiang Mai in Thailand. That makes five countries in the last 9 days, which is kind of nuts. We slow down here for a bit which is well timed. Next stop is the beach and the doing of nothing.
We hqve explored Chiang Mai only a little bit so far, but we like what we see. Unfortunately, neither of us are feeling our best today - Lisa with the tummy and me with the sinus dry and sad. I feel like such a delicate Canadian flower: ohh, it's too hot outside and i need the air conditioning; the AC is too powerful and it makes me throat dry and my nose all stuffed up. #firstworldproblems #suckitup. Jeanie why did I not bring my Rhinaris? Anyways, if anyone knows how to defeat the dry, let me know. I had a nap with a shirt over my head today and i think i will keep that going.
Bedtime now! After a big dose of JD, we hope to sleep off the mean and wake up to the nice.
I wanted to add pics but the internet is too slow. Maybe later.
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