Laurie's World

Well here we are ready to roll (onto our next destination). Just waiting for the shuttle that will come get us from our hotel and take us to the bus depot where we will take the VIP bus to Vang Vieng. We know from past experience (and things we have heard specifically about this trip) that it may not be what it seems. It highly unlikely the actual bus will look like the picture we saw. The dude at the travel shop promised everyone gets their own seats…but we have seen in the past this is not always true. BK, Russ, Ruby and Jay…do you guys remember that bus we took from Surat Thani to Krabi in 2009 where some, if not all of us, had people sitting in our laps as we were the lucky ones with seats…but others were in the aisles for the whole trip? That is a long time to stand…I have heard that they sometimes put little stools in the aisles if you are lucky….

Sounds horrible….but I guess they have to pack as many people on as possible…cuz then that is more money! Maybe with it being low season here it won’t be an issue. ; )

I guess I shouldn’t complain as it is only cost 310,000 kip ($38) for the two of us to make the trip ; )

I will check in again when we arrive….

Hey everyone….just like I said….here is the rest of the day….

We had breakfast…4th day in a row of crepes and fruit…I am ok with it…but Troy is so ready for something new (how about eggs and toast?–we only had that for 11 straight days before the crepes started)!! Hahahahahahahaha

Anyway…we decided to take tuk tuk to the caves instead of the boat trip….only because…uh…ok, not sure why….but we did.

So I would give these caves a 2.5/5 rating….I think if I had never been to a cave…I might have been all over it…but we have seen some magnificent caves in Thailand over the last few years…so I had high expectations…and was kinda disappointed. We used the same driver we hired to take us to the waterfalls a few days ago…so it was great that his English is very good and he could explain lots of things to us…

We had to take a very short boat ride across the Mekong river as the caves are on the other side. A father/son team took us over…the boy looked about 10 (and very capable!)

Once we got there….there were the lower caves and the upper caves. We decided lower caves first as “upper” sounded like a climb was involved and we were putting that off.

The thing to note in these caves is that there are over 2,500 little Buddha statues in the lower caves and over 4,000 in the upper. Over time, people have brought them here and left them as part of their worship.

After the lower caves were explored…that only left the upper caves…stopped part way up for a breather. The sign said it was a 61 meter climb (almost 200 feet)! Sure felt like more in the blazing sun ; )

After we left there….we went to a paper making shop…this is very cool process and all done by hand of course.

Starts with the lady who boils the tree bark in an old oil drum…

Then that gets ground up with a huge mortar and pestle. Then they float that goop on a screen in a water bath and this is when they put the little leaves or flowers or whatever they are working with that day. Today was grass fronds.

Then they pull them out to dry in the sun for 4 or 5 hours.

We also went to a whiskey village…they make and sell Lao Lao whiskey. It has to be the nastiest concoction on the planet. They put snakes, scorpions and other nasty things in the bottle…they will give you a free sample. We passed on that…thank you very much…But we did wander the other shops and when we were coming out….we saw a group of young people taking the samples. 2 gals and 2 guys. I was like REALLY? People take the samples?? Then they had a second….I am not sure how that ended up as we got back in our tuk tuk and left. Too much for me!

We had asked our driver to take us to see the grave of Henry Mahout. I won’t bore you with the history of this as it is not the most interesting thing…I have something far more fascinating…but the quickie history lesson is he was a dude from France who came over to SE Asia (specifically Cambodia) and discovered the buried, hidden and overgrown Angor Wat back in the mid 1850s. He did a bunch of drawings and maybe even some photos and then went back to France to share his discovery. He should have left well enough alone…but he didn’t and he decided to come back to see what else there was. He got as far as Luang Prabang and he got malaria and died. So here he rests.

We had to hike along the Nam Khan river for about 10 minutes to get to the gravesite…it is just tucked in among the trees on the riverside.

Now for the real story ; )

Our driver said something about the road “not being very good” to get to the site. So we thought…ok maybe a little rough, potholes or some such thing. Ok…the whole road was under construction it was a tear down…like in the USA, the whole thing would be closed for a year. But they just let the cars through here…the equipment pulls out of the way and the cars, bikes, motorbike, pedestrians, whatever…just goes through and then they resume the work. I took some pictures…it was crazy!

It’s like they are just carving a whole new road into the side of this mountain, and life just goes on around it.

Plus they are building all the gutters by hand. They lay the stone and then pour concrete of top to set it.

Jackie is heading back to Woodinville today and Rachael tomorrow….so will be anxiously awaiting to hear how they are doing ; ) shout out to the grandparents for each taking one of them and keeping them safe and happy for this long!!

Apologizing in advance for lame blog entry tomorrow…it is our travel day to Vang Vieng, so prolly won’t be much to report…unless there is ; )) who knows…every day IS an adventure and you just never know what will happen. We are taking the VIP bus, so that sounds good doesn’t it??????

TTFN

Laurie

….it is 7:14am and I have been up for 1 1/2 hours! I must say the temperature is much more bearable at 6am : )))

It was my mission to get up one day this trip to see the monks taking their alms. They do this starting at 5:30 am. I guess if they can do it every day…I can get up once to observe. The Buddhist monks only eat one meal a day and it is donated to them by the people. They walk the streets in the morning and the locals kneel on the sidewalk and give them what appears to be mostly sticky rice and fruit. It has become a bit of a tourist spectacle here in Luang Prabang…so much so that they have posted the “rules” in the street…

I saw people violating these rules this morning….I saw lots of flashes going off, I saw people getting way closer than 3 meters, and I saw a woman not just watching in a tank top, but actually participating, then standing up behind her husband and children taking video..so disrespectful!

Thanks to the zoom…

There had to be a few hundred monks….some very young to some very old…I was worried about the last guy in line until I saw what happened next….

They were all in a big line for this section, then after this long block, they divided up into small groups that broke off and went down side streets.

My plan was to head over to the morning market….so I wandered down main street and it was eerie to say the least….all the shops were shuttered and it was so quiet, just me and the monks : ) all the tourists were back by the school. After a couple blocks, the group of monks that were going the same direction as me (on the other side of the street) broke off down a side street and it was just me.

So I did find the local market….this is clearly where all the “morning” people are that aren’t giving alms : )

So to preserve some of your eyesight…I was cautious in the photos I took, but I did get a few things that I thought I could stand to look at again. Yes these are frogs….you can have fried on a stick…or live….you choose.

I would also like to see the bird that laid the pink eggs…

Did not get too close on this shot as most of you (and me too) don’t really want to know where our meat comes from…but this is the butcher….

Yes…this is a cart full of bags of pig feet…Blech….

This is the baker….

And I could not find candle stick maker (at this market)! Those are the super delish rolls they use for the street sandwiches! Yum….

I also found where I could get those special little angry bird treats in bulk! Hahahahahahahaha

Found Patongo!! These are the Chinese donuts we love so much from Thailand….no pandanas custard though : ((

Brought some back and am indulging right now as I blog as a matter of fact!

Well today is promising to be fun filled and adventurous….we are planning on heading up to the Pak Ou caves…2 hour boat ride up the Mekong River to get there (only one back apparently due to current assist) plus however long we spend there…and yes….caves equal bats…and apparently there is another outstanding hike should we be so inclined….so we will see….I may be a little tired considering my early morning ; ))

…..who rent bikes!! And toodle around Town : ))))))

I loved it so much I mIght do it again in Vang Vieng!

After a VERY slow start (or maybe I can say it was because I was blogging) we went to the Scandinavian Bakery around 12:30 for a sandwich. Have to say it was twice as expensive and only half as good as the sandwich we got from the street the day before…lesson learned! And we will be loyal to street sandwiches from here on out….

Then we went in search of bikes….everyone rents them…restaurants, travel places, money exchangers, guest houses, Wats…not hard to find bikes around here! They seem to range in price from 20,000 to 40,000 kip per bike per day. So why would I pay 40 when I could pay 20? Right? That is either $2.50 or $5! So we go to the place we scoped yesterday and they say I have to leave my passport with them. So even IF I had my passport on me (which I didn’t) not sure I would just leave that with some kids at a bike rental place. I am not quite that trusting yet. So we try another place…same thing…sigh! Looks like that is the standard policy here. They must have found that tourists will abandon the bikes on the roadside if they don’t have a good reason to bring them back?? So I decide to offer my drivers license….but we did have to come all the way back to room to get it….not sure how many folks actually carry those things around….but I sure don’t!

Anyway…knew right away I was gonna love this mode of transportation. It is very flat here some small inclines every so often…but nothing we couldn’t handle. So we went all over the place and it was awesome. Saw so much more than we would have on foot. Today was “save the feet and abuse the tush” day though : )). Been a while since we rode a bike for that long….plus they weren’t exactly posh seats…they must have the safe philosophy on making bike seats as they do for making mattresses ; )

Troy took pictures of me and I took pictures of him….so I will get pix from him and put them up to prove I was biking too ; )
My bike even had a basket…it was too cute for words!

There was this one place where we crossed a bridge that was for 2 wheel traffic only. And probably foot traffic I suppose as walking seems to be a very common way to get around this place. Anyway….it was cool. I tried to get pictures….they are a little blurry as I was trying to take the pix and stay on my little track too ; )

We stoppped and picked up some banana chips on our travels. My persoanl favourite! I am in fact sitting here eating them as I blog. All things considered, today was the best day so far to have rented the bikes. It is still very warm and humid, but it is a bit cloudy and it tried to rain on us….but did not quite succeed. If we had tried to do this in the blazing sun….it would have been an entirely different experience!

Considering how little we did yesterday…
I am disappointed I couldn’t muster up the energy to blog last night ; )

Despite being up at 7:30 (laurie only!) Barely made breakfast by 10. I have thoroughly been enjoying the kettle and the balcony in the mornings!!

We decided to go to a walk….despite the fact that it was very pleasant in the early morning….by the time we decided to head out…around 11…it was stinking hot! Consensus is, that it is hotter here than in Thailand…and much more humid. I know that story line is getting old….but every day I just can’t get over it.

We wandered down some main roads and some small side roads….this town is very small compared to Chiang Mai. Population ~50,000 (whereas Chiang Mai is ~2 million)

So it seems like a sleepy little town…seems like 100s of guest houses though! I guess everyone likes to make a little side income with so many tourists…

Anyway…as we wander down main street we see a long row of sandwich/shake ladies….NOT what you think ; )….Fruit shakes : ))

So we decide to give it a whirl as the sandwiches were highly recommended to us! I had chicken and mayo and Troy had chicken and cheese. They also have nutella and banana….Which I am TOTALLY trying next!

So there we sat on the street side eating an absolutely delish sandwich! Subway….eat your heart out….you got nothing on this. The bread was fabulous…kind of like sourdough….but not really….it’s hard to describe….I will slow down on my next sandwich so I can come up with better descriptors!

In our travels…I saw this beautiful window decoration. All windows here are open air….as in no screens….with wood shutters…so this fancy bit on a house down a side street caught my eye.

I mentioned in an earlier post about the French influence…here are some street shots of the part of town that is protected as a world heritage site. I think you will see what I mean.

Very French colonial style…some in better condition that others ; )

We have seen some very old classic cars here….Mercedes mostly….not sure how this works….but they are old as the hills I am guessing.

After a rest (aka nap) in late afternoon….We decided to give a massage a try before supper…twist our rubber arms eh? Troy went for Laos massage and I the footie : ) we ARE getting predictable aren’t we? As always we were very pleased. The girl who did my massage was beautiful, all business and teeny tiny….she couldn’t been more that 4’10” and 80 pounds soaking wet. But I am pretty sure she could have put her fingers through my skull when she was massing my head if she had wanted to (not that she WOULD want to). Everyone here is very nice….thinking not much English in that massage place though…just enough to say what we wanted and how much! I think it’s funny how I got a “foot massage” but I talk about her massaging my head….that is just how it works….

We wandered across the street after our massages for supper. The Garden restaurant! Tempted to go for Indian again…but was afraid to tell the desk guy here at the hotel that, twice, I had not had Laos food. ; )

I had fried sweet and sour chicken with steamed rice. Yum yum!! Troy had Tom Yum vermicelli noodle soup. He said it was also very good! Even though that is technically Thai food…I let it slide (at least it was not a burger!). Cost 88,000 kip ($11) for spring roll appy, 2 meals and bottled water. Seems like good deal right? Compared to USA yes….but compared to Thailand we find the food a little more expensive. That meal in Chiang Mai would have been 8-10 dollars.

FYI…The desk guy did ask what we had! So I was glad went with the local food.

After eating I dragged (yes dragged) Troy to the night market. It is similar concept to other big markets we have been to…local folks drag their wares down to main street and hope that some tourist will come by and buy something. Major differences to note. There were no tables….everyone sets their stuff out on mats on the ground, 95% of the vendors had matching pop up tents, (mostly red, but there we a few white ones), it was 100% tourists that were shopping, and it was not nearly as busy! The other markets we have been to seem to cater to locals and tourists. There was also much less variety in the goods. There were a handful of t shirt guys and they literally had exactly the same t shirts. Same with the dozen or so scarf ladies…literally identical. So not sure how a vendor distinguishes themselves? Maybe price? Not sure if they have agreements amongst themselves about how low they will go? There was jewelry, wallets and pouches, dresses, blankets, silver, keychains and artwork among other things. I got a couple things, but will go back myself tonight probably to get a few other things that caught my eye. I am unsure how much shopping there will be in Vang Viene….as I think it mostly a drunken tubing party town for young Europeans….so don’t want to be left hanging….we packed tight on this trip with only 2 small backpacks….so will be going to town to get another bag today I think ; ) not buying as much as in past years, mostly because we already have a lot of the trinkets they are selling (in Thailand particularly), although I can see the stuff here in Laos is slightly different flavour….so that may bump up my shopping here : )

There were vendors who were getting their first sale at 9pm at night! You can tell bcz they take the money and slap all their goods and their money pouch for good luck. If they like their neighbor and they have not made a sale, they will take the money and slap it on their stuff too. Supposedly they give a good discount to first customer….no idea if this is true or not…but it is fun to think you might be first customer and getting a super good deal. I bought some stuff last night that opening price was 420,000 kip and I got it for 240,000. So felt good about that, but you always ponder if you could have gotten it for less. Probably…but then I always look at these things like this….what would I pay at home (if I could even get it)? What is it worth to me? And….do I need the $1 USD more or less than them? So you can see this is not easy for me…especially when they put their CUTE little babies out.

We went to a Hmong village a couple days ago and it was so unbelievable….all these tiny children….absolutely beautiful. I can’t get over how beautiful their children are here (same as the Cambodian children). They cluster around with handfuls of little hand made bracelets all fanned out and all they know how to say is “please madam, 5,000 for you” then when you keep walking they say “ok madam…4,000?” “4,000?” “ok madam, 3,000?” you see how this goes?? It is hard!! Then you keep walking and they leave you bcz they spot a new tourist coming in….and you have to walk past a lady breast feeding her baby on the ground and she is gesturing to her table with colourful hand made water bottle carriers and all she says is “baby-no money” “baby-no money”. Sigh

But the children are beautiful….

In the last picture….the little girl doing the carrying is probably only 5 years old! She liked my hair clips….and she wanted them. IF I had brought more than these ones with me….I would have definitely just have given them to her…..she was so cute!

So our first full day here in Luang Prabang started slow….we got up at 8am….and I did have my coffee on the balcony (as I am sure everyone has been wondering). Played some words….life is good!

We made it over to breakfast by around 9:30am. The french influence here is evident in the breakfast. Did I mention that yesterday? Maybe I didn’t…this town/area used to be a French colony or something like that. I will have to look that up again to be accurate. It is evident in the architecture big time. It doesn’t look Asian here really at all. Have to put up some street shots to show you.

Anyway breakfast was fruit (yummy mango, pineapple and banana) and sliced baguette and a crepe. It was good, but just “frenchy” : )

So we bug and sun screened up (it was already a million degrees by 10:30am and full on sun)! And headed out for a walk about. We saw a very colourful friend on a menu….not at our hotel ; )

Oops…back track a little! This is the view from our breakfast table!

You know it’s hot when the locals are hot…

I think I need a plant like this back home….maybe the deer wouldn’t eat it!

We stopped and watched 4 foreigners playing a game (that seems similar to bocci ball) with some locals. These 4 guys were on the same plane as us….not the Canadians….we think Chilean. Anyway….it was quite animated and the locals ended up winning (shock surprise). And the tourists forked over some money ; ) so either pay to play or a small wager was taking place!

Right after we wandered away from the game…a tuk tuk driver approaches (prolly the 53rd one since we got here yesterday) and wants to know if we want to go to the caves or the big big waterfall. We actually do want to do both these things….so we actually have the conversation with him. He wants 200,000 kip ($28usd) to drive us there and back and he will make a bunch of stops along the way so we can see a working rice field, vegetable gardening, Hmong village, some scenic stops etc. the drive is about one hour each way…seems reasonable enough. So off we go….with one quick stop at a gas station (and I grabbed a mystery can–it had coffee beans on the can so how “weird” could it be) turned out to be iced coffee…which I love!

I got a few shots of the countryside….

That last one is the tuk tuk mafia of Luang Prabang I think….our driver had to stop at 2 different little huts on the side of the road and have them “sign” in his book and he even paid some money at the first one….so we don’t really know what this is all about yet…but we might figure it out…

There is a bear preservation camp up at the waterfalls. So we got to see this little cutie eating some pineapple for lunch…Apparently bear poaching is a big problem here…so they are working to improve life for as many bears as they can and educate the people about bear safety etc.

So the Kuang Si falls were amazing! Troy has all those fabulous photos….

As we are inclined to do….we often decide to undertake some pretty serious hiking when we are presented with the opportunity…so once again we see a sign directing us to the top of the waterfall and/or mountain or whatever it happens to be and this time was no different…somehow we forget (or maybe we just never learn)…but we always like to get the best experience we can….so we always go for it!

There is never any indication of distance or elevation or difficulty or anything really….so off we go! Well let me just say….this had to be top 2 challenging hikes we have done while vacationing in SE Asia. Not sure of the details yet as Troy has to get the data off his gps tracker thing….but it was a long way up and pretty much straight up. No steps, rails or assistance of any kind! There was switch back after switch back and the switch backs were even straight up (if that is possible). The further we went up…the more committed we were and did not want to turn back…bcz all you think is “we must surely be almost there!!”. Here is a picture….not sure how well this captured it. But it just went on and on and on…

We get to top finally and there are 2 girls bare foot with their flip flops (yeah right!!) in their hands that answered our question of “was it worth it?” with a resounding “NO!”… But we decided to form our own opinion. Pretty sure we both agreed it WAS worth it–even though definitely not for the faint of heart!!

It was super cool…we were at the top of the world or at the very least the very tippy top of these gorgeous waterfalls…right where they start. I have not had that experience before…so definitely worth it!!

But what goes up must come down….and the trip up paled in comparison to the trip down….now we know this from previous hikes up to waterfalls….and we certainly were keeping it in mind the WHOLE way up….but we didn’t really have a choice did we? Anyway we survived and it was fun!!

So we enjoyed wandering around the market at the bottom of the waterfall after we came down and we have some banana chips and Laos made potato chips and some water for a snack….pretty good stuff! Well earned.

We did make some stops on the way back to town to see some locals working in the fields..Our driver spoke pretty good English so he was able to tell us lots of things!

We got back a little after 5pm so we got great value for our 200,000 kip : )

So we relax for a bit (1 hour) bcz the plan is to go up to the temple at the top of a “hill” right in the center of town to watch the sunset. It is called Mount Phousi. So you can imagine now what that means….more climbing!! But at least these are stairs…right? It was gorgeous up there….here is what we saw : )

You get an idea of how high up we were…it was no small “hill”, even though they call it that.

So after the sun sets….we now have to go down the “hill”…I am going to see if I can look up how many steps it was….cuz it was a lot….and remember it is stinking hot here…we were soaked in sweat (sorry Jackie) but “true story”!!

We had a fabulous Indian meal tonight….there was a place that was recommended to us! And boy were they right…it was awesome! When we got back to the hotel, the desk guy asked us if we had eaten dinner….and we said “yes” and then he asked “where?” and we told him…he laughed….he said “you come to Laos for Indian food?”

Well he probably has a point….

Good night all!

For anyone who can tell me what this might be….

As much as I would like to start right in on Luang Prabang….I will do this in order and go back to this morning when we were still in Chiang Mai…

We started the day bright and early getting up at 9am…which squashed our plans of going over to the Raming Lodge for their big buffet breakfast…so we stayed at our own hotel and had eggs on toast (again!!) I am not complaining….the eggs are very good here : )

We then packed up and put our stuff in storage and started the walk over to Sopa’s for one last massage : (((

Wan was not there….but the other girls were very good to us and I think we got VIP treatment as we did not get out until 12:20…

We did not have time for a last lunch at Ginny Cafe now (as we need to be at airport by 1pm)…but we did stop by and say good bye to Tee and Ian…

So we go back to the de Rachemanka and pick up our bags and grab a songtao to the airport! No turning back on the adventure now!! Luckily we had a few minutes to grab a special frosty treat from DQ (international company that it is!)

The flight is reasonably uneventful other than there were no less than 10 other Canadians on the plane….and other than three girls traveling together and one couple….none of them knew each other….I figured out one couple when I saw he had a Toronto Blue Jays cap and a maple leaf on his bag…so I asked them…then a few more peeked up when they heard us talking…then one more joined in when he heard (and he got out HIS blue jay cap) then when we get on the plane and another surfaces…..other than us 2 westerners, they were all from Ontario and weirder yet, three of them were lawyers! 2 had just finished articling and are on their 3 month gap between articles and employment and the third is starting his articling in August. Wow right! So worried that if something happens to the plane this will Most certainly make the news in Canada! But as you are reading this now….you can tell nothing happened to the plane ; )

Here we are coming into the Luang Prabang international airport. Some glare off the window…but you can hopefully see how mountainous it is!

Here is the airport…..not quite SeaTac….but maybe someday ; )

Here is our plane…apparently LaoAir used to not be a recommended Air
Line…but we felt great in this plane…quite a bit of turbulence….but that isn’t the plane’s fault.

Immigration was an ordeal….but we are used to that…many steps…just pass along the money and all is good. Found it curious we had to pay $42 as Canadians whereas Americans pay $35!! We are neighbors after all….

Here is the obligatory self portrait on the shuttle from plane to airport…gotta squeeze that in ; )
You can see what Troy thinks of this….

Ok…so funny story…the Laos currency is one of those super inflated currencies…where 8,000 kip equals $1 USD. So we go to the ATM to get cash at the airport and there we all are….the whole pack of Canadians trying to figure out how much we need and having high anxiety typing one million into the machine (which is only $123 USD) but let me tell you it feels weird! Anyway 2 of the lawyers whipped out their iPhones with currency converter apps and double checked it….so we all went ahead and did it….here is my millionaire husband! Yeah we took a picture….only time we will ever be millionaires (sad it has to be kip not dollars ; )

So we share a ride into town with one of the Canadians (go figure) they charge 50,000 kip flat rate to get to town from airport maximum 3 persons. So seems silly not to let one of the singles ride in what we believe will be a little tuk. Hahahahahahahaha….no! He walks us out to a 10 seater air con mini van…but 3 person max!! I guess it is an employment stimulus program….keeps more drivers employed! If they filled the van, then only 3 people work….if they cap it…. 20 people get work?? I dunno….but we have seen weirder things here in SE Asia!

So we get to our hotel and we are SO pleased! We are staying at the Saynamkhan Hotel. I got a river view room so as to guarantee a nice view. But bonus! We have our own private balcony!! Love it!! And there is a kettle….so guess who is going to be up drinking coffee and playing words in the morning on the balcony with her own cup of Jo?? I am so excited!!

Girls….everyone enjoyed posing for the picture with the swans….look at those towels! I hate to break them up!!

We went out walking after we got here to explore a bit and in honour of my funny signs tribute….this one got my attention. I must note that the first picture (of the sign) is just tacked to a tree on the riverside (Mekong river). Then the next photo is directly below the sign…I will say no more…other than maybe “how bad would it be if the sign wasn’t there encouraging folks”??

We had some loose plans with the Canadian crowd to meet up at a bar/restaurant called Utopia later in evening….so to us, that means 7pm….so we trot ourselves down to Utopia around 7pm. We don’t see anyone we recognize…but that’s ok….we go ahead and order fruit shakes and lemonade and then our supper….by now the sun has set and it is pretty much completely dark and we have no idea if our crowd has surfaced at all….the lighting at this place was sub-par at best…but it was way cool! It faced the river and was all these little nooks and crannies with little tables out of rocks or tree stumps. Hard to describe….we might try to go back in the day time and take pictures. They have morning yoga apparently….so might think about that…anyway here is a picture of us on the bamboo patio thing with mats. Very comfy actually….more comfy than the table me ended up moving to when our food came. It looks out over the river….no railing or anything….apparently only 2 people have ever gone over….

As we are inclined to do these days….we talk to strangers…and we ended up starting a conversation with the owner….and believe it or not he is CANADIAN! So did we ever have lots to talk about….he is an engineer who has a keen interest I business….he refers to this place he runs as a “business experiment”! But I would say it is going very well….the place was really starting to bump by the time we were leaving. Did a quick look around for the other Canuck crowd we we expecting but did not see them….so we started the walk home….lo and behold who do we see coming down the lane but 3 of the group….they had waited until after dark to start the walk and they got lost…no sign of the rest of the group….but I hope they found it bcz it was quite a place!!

I think that’s all for now….just know that we are safe and sound and having a blast….and I think I LOVE this place!

Landed safe and sound in Luang Prabang, Laos! Will blog again later….just wanted to let you know : )

So what did we do with our last full day in Chiang Mai? Ha! Not much…

Went to a place called Hot Chili for lunch….sounds western doesn’t it? Well it wasn’t…it was a Thai restaurant that had been recommended to us by our hotel guy. (who is very nice BTW)

Troy had pineapple curry which was very good and I had Pad Thai made with glass noodles wrapped in an Thai omelette. Sounds weird right? But I do love me a good Thai omelette!

Then we wandered over to Sopa’s for a massage. I think I definitely had far and away the best massage ever! Head, neck, shoulder and back massage. But she spends some time on the legs too…so it ends up being an everywhere massage…awesome! Troy had a footie….so he was pretty darn happy too.

Then we spent the rest of the evening with Ian having supper (last khao soi gai for me) and mostly talking about Laos…we’re heading there tomorrow at 3pm….so we will check back in once we are settled there : ))

TTFN

L