Night Market

Trip Start Jan 02, 2008
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Trip End Jun 17, 2008


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Flag of Lao Peoples Dem Rep  ,
Monday, March 31, 2008

Out of all of my friends I only succeeded in convincing one of them to follow in my footsteps.  I worked with Ling in New York and I motivated her to quit her job and go travelling.  We hoped to bump into each other somewhere in SE Asia and we just happened to be in Luang Prabang at the same time.  Ling and I spent alot of time sitting in cafes, drinking fruit shakes and thinking about how great our lifes are right now.  The only decisions I need to make are; what to have for dinner, when to catch the bus, and whether I should set my alarm clock or just sleep in.  I don't think I've ever been this relaxed.

Other than drinking fruit shakes we did achieve a few things.  Shopping being high on the list!  We window shopped in the boutiques and then haggled at the Night Market.  Got a few good bargains...it's really ridiculous how much the price drops, but I guess we were pretty hard bargainers!  In order to save money for clothes and jewelry, we lived off street food most of the time (vegetarian buffet for 30p/plate). 

As far as sight seeing goes, we climbed up Phou Si (Sacred Hill) to watch the sunset, got up early to watch the monks receiving their alms, saw another temple, and found a man with a boat who took us across the Mekong River to the sleepy village of Xiang Men.  It was very different to Luang Prabang, because it's very local and not catering to tourists.  It's obviously a lot poorer, with people living in wooden huts, bathing and washing their fruit in the river that smelt of sewage, and even the temple (Wat Chom Phet) we climbed up to see was abandoned.

I spent 5 nights in Luang Prabang.  I really loved the city.  It's so quaint and peaceful...reminds me of Hoi An.  But it's time to move on and I've convinced Ling to come to Luang Namtha with me.  So we worked out where and when to catch the bus and then prepared ourselves for the long journey with a relaxing Lao massage.
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