Laos activities

We are still in Luang Prabang. We've been taking it easy as we have been battling colds and weariness. Today we are planning on trying to get to some waterfalls and some sort of bear sanctuary. It should be interesting to get outside the city a little way and see what there is to see. So far we have only seen tourists and their antics.

The old town of Luang Prabang is settled on a 1km by .25km stretch of land where two rivers meet. It is packed with Buddhist temples and is still the center of Laos Buddhism. It is also almost entirely made up of guest houses, restaurants, tourist agencies, and other tourism industry support services. I doubt that there is much of interest to see outside of this area which is probably why it developed the way it did. The restaurants try to cater to western desires serving eggs with ham or bacon and toast with jam. They also serve coffee with orange juice. What we learned yesterday morning is that the ham is processed ham, the toast is a baguette from yesterday, the jam was seriously strawberry jello, the orange juice was tang, and the coffee... well it may have given me nightmares lastnight.

We are morning the loss of hostels that provide breakfast (even if it is just bread, butter, and jam). We are also learning that it is much better and cheaper to eat the local food here. The past three nights we ate at a buffet type street vendor. We learned quickly that if you go right at five o'clock the food is still warm and the flies have not had much chance to get on it. We have felt bad about eating here though because by the time we are done with choosing our food we have a mountain of noodles and vegetables on our plates. We have stuffed ourselves full every night and feel a little shameful for it. The cost of this buffet for two people is 20,000kip; around $3.

Tomorrow or the next day we may be moving on to the north but we will see. We are still trying to figure out transportation in this country. Buses are replacing boats but everything is still a bit up in the air. Meanwhile we are taking each day as it comes and enjoying our time.