LuangPrabang

The day after the last blog was written, I woke up and had some delicious Mango Sticky rice, it was a perfect breakfast. No offense to Ryan, but this was a lot better. 

We didn’t really have a definite plan for the day because we had gotten a taxi for the next day to take us to see all the really cool stuff. So, we just started walking down a road that we hadn’t been down yet, and eventually came to a museum that Sis. Peterson wanted to look at. She went in to have a look while Elder Peterson and I continued through an awesome real-life neighborhood to a temple at the top of the hill.

I think that was the most I’ve sweat since coming here.  The temple at the top wasn’t that impressive, but the view was great. There was a really nice old lady at the top who didn’t speak any English, but was still nice enough to get us the cold water from the other cooler instead of the stuff sitting out on her table.

We were pretty exhausted after the hike, so we went down road a little further for some lunch. We chose ‘The Pizza LuangPrabang.’ All I needed was a cold 7up because I was still full from breakfast. Right after lunch, I went off to find a place to stay that night, and managed to find one for about $7.50, with no air-conditioning this time, but that wasn’t a huge deal. The mosquito net was fine. Elder Peterson had already gone for a massage, and once I got settled in the new place, I went too. How can you refuse a 60-minute traditional Lao massage for $5?

We met up for dinner and then headed up to the night market. There’s hundreds of tents set up with people setting up all their things out on mats. Some of them are really hand-made with the people working on them right there, and others are the more general made-in-china and shipped in to sell. The prices are very flexible, but it takes a lot of work to get a price down when you’re white. We came back the next night too, and I think everyone ended up happy with what we got.

There's also a little side street with a bunch of people selling food:

 

We met up early the next morning for our ride out to the cave and waterfall. It’s pretty hard to describe how beautiful it was, so hopefully the pictures will give you some idea, even if it’s not even close to what it’s actually like there. Swimming under the waterfall was one of the greatest things I’ve ever done, and the view of the main drop is probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. There’s a trail that goes up to the very top of the falls, but right as I started up someone on their way down said the view wasn’t really worth it. So instead I just went up a little way, got my fill of shirtless-barefoot jungle trekking (including using a vine to help myself down the slope).

On the way back into town, we stopped at 2 villages of mountain tribes. The first was a Khmu village. That brought back so many memories of my mission because most of the Lao members in Richmond are Khmu. Sis. Peterson bought a woven fish-trap, and I got a little stool that I’ll hopefully be able to fit in my luggage on the way home.

A little further down the road we stopped at a Hmong village. All along the little trail there were little girls selling little hand-made trinkets. Some of them spoke Lao. None of them spoke English except for the phrase: “You can buy one five-thousand” which they sang (Hmong is a very tonal language) while waving their hands up and down over the stuff they were selling. 

After we got back, I was off to find another place to stay, so I tried next door to the last place. This one was only $6.50, and it had a TV and air-conditioning. We ended up at the night market again because Sis. Peterson wanted to get some scarves for her family. I think I’m getting better at talking prices down, I got a pretty nice pair of pants and the shirt to go with it for $6.50.

The next morning I got up and walked around the other half of the city that I hadn’t seen yet, and then it was back to the Peterson’s hotel for the ride back up to the airport.