Off the beaten path
Luang Prabang is considered the jewel of Laos by many (and I am in complete agreement. the city is incredibly charming, therapeutic even). It is adored by travel writers who dedicate pages and pages to the city sites and activities in travel books abound. And during our six days spent in the city we managed to visit ONE site mentioned in these books.
Yes, that’s right just one.
This ONE site that we visited happened to be the Phu Si Temple sitting at the top of a hill in the middle of the city. Which meant, we had to climb 300+ stairs to get there. We saved this activity until the end of the day so that we could catch the sunset (two for one kinda deal). After huffing and puffing in 90+ degree heat (alright, it may have been a while since I hit the gym too) we arrived at the summit to see a breathtaking view:
i lose things a lot
lets see…
my camera, which i just got for christmas (thanks alika), fell out of my pocket in a tuk-tuk in phnom penh. less than a week after i had taken my first picture with it.
my shades were forgotten in an internet cafe in phuket. next to the keyboard. they were the longest lasting pair of shades i’ve had since college — a record seven months. in the past 2 and a half years i’ve gone through a pair of dragons, electric, spy, hoven, fox, and arnette shades. unfortunate.
i also thought that i lost my pants last week. not while i was wearing them, but i couldn’t find them while packing last week. found them yesterday. turns out they were just wrapped inside my sweatshirt.
so yesterday, as we were walking down the street, i remarked to anh that “i seem to lose all of the most expensive stuff i brought with me,” to which i amended, “oh wait, i still have my ipod.”
now, i didn’t lose my ipod, but whilst my favorite apple product had the highest monetary value of anything remaining in my bag, i forgot to include those things that are, how-you-say, worth more than money. such as my passport.
when we purchased our tickets from luang prabang to hanoi yesterday, they asked for our passports. my favorite storage location — anh’s purse — came up empty in the search. un poco problemo.
The journey to Luang Prabang
I’d like you all to meet Jim:
“Jim” the tangerine and I got very well acquainted with each other on our 6 hour bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang as I had him practically stuffed up my nose for the entire ride.
Unfortunately, I get incredibly car sick quite easily and lucky for me, the 6 hour bus ride we had today was loaded with fun-filled exciting twists and turns through the mountains of Laos. We went about 45 minutes before making a pit stop on the side of the road at a restaurant/food stand. Most of the passengers were wondering- why the heck are we stopping already, when we’ve got 5 more hours to go?
But oh what a lucky stop it was for me.
a quiet float down the river
i thought that’s what we were signing up for yesterday. 40,000 kip got us both a giant inner tube and a ride in a tuk-tuk to the starting point 5 km away.
in our lonely planet guide it says something like, “the journey takes about 2 hours or more depending on how often you stop at the small bars set up along the way down.”
what does that mean to you?
when i hear small bar, i think foodstand-esque. somebody selling drinks out of a cooler. you float down the river, grab a drink from a vendor, and pick up a little buzz on the mekong.
the image in my head was all wrong.
Boop!
Boop to all your faces from Laos 
Hello hello everyone, once again please forgive the delay in posts. We were making our way through the Thai Islands (or at least 3 of them) and we’re currently in Vientiane, Laos and heading to Vang Vieng tomorrow morning.
Prior to coming to Laos we heard rave reviews about the country and I have to say, I must agree. Thailand was great but there were so many tourists (just like us) everywhere especially in the islands. And while that’s all fine and dandy, it’s a bit umm, what’s the word- artificial at times. But Laos- there’s just a really laid back and chill vibe here and it’s very enamoring. The people are super friendly and the food has been pretty tasty (but we’ve come across good food everywhere we’ve gone, I’ll dedicate a post to food in the near future).
Today we went motor biking to the “Buddha Park” (and yes, it’s a park full of, Buddhas: reclining buddhas, headless buddhas, only the head of a buddha- but it was a giant head that you could walk around in, fighting buddhas, buddhas carrying dead bodies, buddha & his ladies, lady buddhas…this could go on for a while. but in the buddha park, there were a couple buddhist monks, surprise surprise. one named Keo happened to befriend us and invited us to his temple, but I digress) 24 km outside of the city. Motor bikes/ mopeds are a primary means of transportation in Southeast Asia. People do it everyday, all the time, no big deal.
But-
It was my first time driving one (on a previous trip to Vietnam with my mom I DESPERATELY wanted to ride around on a moped and my mom sent out the executive order to all my cousins forbidding me to drive a motor bike- and any accomplices of mine would experience the wrath of Teri Ha and trust me that’s a scary threat. So I didn’t get to drive. And for the record I was 21. Love ya Ted) and it was oh so much fun. Maybe not as fun for my passenger in the back (Will) especially when I was ripping through the potholes (some were puddles) on the dirt road and he kept screaming:
“Babe! Go AROUND the holes!”
But it was exhilarating for me anyways. I think we’re going to rent motor bikes in the next city we go to, and who knows maybe on the next trip I’ll get to wheel my mom around town on a moped.
