Luang Prabang

Greetings from Laos! We survived the slow boat experience with only minor nuisance. It was a very pleasant and relaxing time, boats generally are. The boats, that now serve as floating buses, began their lives as cargo boats. This means that the seats in them can be anything from comfortable chairs at desirable table settings (we did not have those on our boats), to old van seats screwed to the floor, to plastic patio furniture (we did have both of these). The boats are very long but narrow, I'd say 10-12 brothers long but only a brother and a nephew wide. On it we weaved our way down the Mekong river. We stopped at various fishing villages along the way to drop off and pick up both people and packages. Along the way were many young children playing in the water. Most of the boys were nakies and they loved showing off when we passed. They would wave and shout while jumping off rocks and doing flips. There was many a camera click along the way.

We were caught in a tourist trap on our first night. A small town mid-way between destinations making it the perfect place for a trap. I think it has more tourists than infrastructure which is why when I turned on the water at our bathroom sink half of it went down the proper channels and the other half went on the floor. Obviously the plumbing needed improvement. We also found when we went for dinner that "noodles with vegetables in coconut milk" actually meant "microwaved spinach and cauliflower in strained ichiban." It was a minimalist culinary masterpiece. Unfortunately they used the ichiban spice package with the noodles so that was the only flavor. For those of you who may not know ichiban it is cup o' noodle in a small brick instead of a cup.

So here we sit in Luang Prabang. It is a very busy town but it has a very charming character. We have already found the night market and the street food market and have been happy with both. We will take a few days here to swim, relax, see the sights and enjoy the scenery. We will also hopefully enjoy the bakeries and baguettes courtesy of the French conquerer types. Who knows maybe we will rent scooters and run amok.