Luang Prabang

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  Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Thursday, August 25, 2005

I loved Luang Prabang as soon as I arrived there. It was like an old Tokyo or other Asian cities in the pictures from a few hundred years ago. When we got off the bus at the terminal, some runners of guesthouses gathered around the bus passengers, but first of all, we wanted to head for the city center and to feel the atomosphere of the ancient city designated as a UNESCO's World Heritage Site. I heard that the number of guesthouses in Luang Prabang was on the rapid increase those days and so I had a lot of choices. Eventually, We stayed in a cozy guesthouse near Mekong River for 2 USD per night. The landlady had been a teacher and spoke good English, although her husband didn't. They gave us free bananas when we arrived and left.
In the city, we took two different tours. One was for a waterfall and the other was for a cruise visiting Pak Ou Cave and a tourist village on Mekong River. In my opinion, the most important thing to make the city more attractive may be a night market on the street. A lot of food and souvenir venders laid them on a large sheet spread on the street. It was very fun even just to stroll and look around on the street. However, I had to leave my Spanish friend at Luang Prabang, because he had booked a flight to go back to Auckland and another to go back home. I gave him chopsticks as a farewell gift to practice using them. After he left, I didn't want to stay long there, although the landlady gave me a special deal for my room. So I left for Thailand two days later by jet foil.

When I got on a jet foil, I met a Spanish and the Japanese boys I saw in Nong Khai, although they didn't remember me. From there, we travelled together to Chaing Mai by way of Huay Xai and Chaing Khong border. On the way, they lessen the number of the boats to save gas and the Spanish was angry with it.  It was a big mistake that I didn't change Lao kip at Chaing Khong, because in Thailand, there is no money exchanger to deal with Lao kip. Actually, to spend Lao kip, I took a tour to Golden triangle tour later. On the way to Chaing Mai, we were aftraid of an accident, because our minibus driver was driving on a long distance in the evening. So we gave him a can of coke to wake him up. When we got to Chaing Mai, it was almost 10 P.M. and no guesthouse was open. But I knocked the door of a guesthouse, a guest inside opened the gate. She was not working there, but she told me to use a room and pay in the next morning. Without hesitation, I decided to stay there, because I was so tired. Unexpectedly, I had stayed in the guesthouse more than two weeks, because I took a Thai massage course at the Old Medicine Hospital of Chaing Mai.

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