After a week of sleepy river life, it was time to hit the big bad city, Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is a northern Laos city on a river filled with wats, neon-orange-clad monks, and coffee shops. In contrast to northern Vietnam, the dry-season heat was oppressive, magnified by the heat-island effect of sidewalks and streets sans trees. From roughly 1-4pm, the day would enter what I like to call the "doldrums of the afternoon", where all I could manage to do was find an ice cream or fruit shake and some shade!
My favorite attraction of Luang Prabang was, not surprisingly given the temps, Kuang Si falls, the postcard waterfall of Laos. It looked like all the photos I've seen, tiered green pools of sunkissed perfection, and the icy waters were a godsend! The attraction also had a cool sun bear rehabilitation sanctuary, where bears rescued from "dancing bear" outfits, being farmed for herbal remedies, and abusive situations can play together amongst tire swings and hammocks. Pretty sweet digs, thems lucky bears!
Along with my official LP adventure pal Rachel from Australia, I also explored enough wats to find a silver elephant like photos I've seen (2), and visited the museum, which thank the gods had A/C! My favorite room in the museum featured gifts given to Laos leadership by other counties. China and India gave some impressive jade/ivory carvings, Russia apparently thought a little-orphan-Annie decoder pen/spy ball was appropriate, and Australia sent a boomerang, which seemed to disappoint Rachel. My good ole alma the US of A send a gift seemingly oozing with bragging rights and nerdiness: a model of the lunar lander and piece of moon rock. Well played! Definitely a cooler present than the lame plate sent by our northern brother. :-)
And finally, rounding out the backpacker LP experience, Rachel and I, along with pals Jessica (Canadian and crazy), Rory and Niki (biking SE Asia and soon, the US!) enjoyed 10000 kip ($1.25) all-you-can-eat buffet, followed by the only thing you can do after 1130 pm in LP: bowling! That's right, it was just like high school, except everyone was bowling in flip flops, and the most amusing part was watching the "working girls" bowling and doting on the 2 men next to our lane. As classy as bowling can be!
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