To be completely honest, our trip to Laos is probably more exciting to hear about to our time spent in Laos. So I'll start there. We left Thailand through Chiang Khong in the north where we bussed it to Huay Xiao, Laos to take the aptly named slow boat down the Mekong river into Luang Prabang. It takes two full travel days on the boat to get to Luang Prabang, with an overnight stop in a tiny town called Pak Beng. Truth be told, I think the tourism coming through the little town is where it gets most of its income. The second you dock, you're swarmed with people selling everything from lodging for the night to three meals for the next day. Oh, and beerlao of course! The people have a knack for emptying your pockets here. The trip put our patience (with humanity) to the test. It was frustrating to wait two to three hours each day before our boat left the dock but admissible because we were eager to continue. However, when we were dropped on the shore outside of town presented with a highly overpriced taxi as our only option to go the final 10 km, we seriously considered walking the distance with all our gear fueled by pure American tenacity. Eventually we set our pride aside and joined all the other exasperated travelers in the back of the truck. I can proudly say that when we finally arrived in Luang Prabang, after two long days sitting in our loosely bolted seats which no doubt were reclaimed from some airline in the past, we arrived happy with each other and with some faith remaining for our time in the country. Nothing can bring us down!
Wrong. Something can bring me down. And that thing is Laos food poisoning. Being sick is crummy. Being sick in a bathroom with your oh-so-handsome travelling partner on the other side of the half-door in the teeny tiny guest house bedroom is even worse. The fact that he didn't catch the next plane off the continent still surprises me. What a lucky, lucky, girl I am. Needless to say, I spent the rest of those 24 hours in bed.
The rest of our time in Laos was mellow. Luang Prabang is full of retirees, so we fit right in. We walked through the markets, frequented a noodle soup place that Nate fell in love with, watched the beautiful sunset over the Mekong River, and spent an afternoon at some mega-hippy bar where Nate assured me that the people were not hippies but just travelers like us. He enjoyed it, so that was great. I went straight to our room and showered. We found a bookstore/cafe in town where we spent some mornings catching up online and we laid poolside at a resort in town for one afternoon where you ordered one drink and they brought you two. How fun!
We took a day trip to the gorgeous Kuang Si waterfall, about an hour outside of town. The water carried calcium carbonate which made it the same blue-green shade that we couldn't get enough of in Havasupai. The falls fed into a wide stream that had multiple swimming holes. Unfortunately it was pretty chilly outside so we only swam for a little while but we made our way under one of the cascades and Nate found a tree to flip off of while I sat in the sun.
The trail to the falls passed through a bear sanctuary. It was feeding time on our way out so we stopped to watch the bears feast for a while. At the base of the trail there was a tiny town with lots of food where we ate our own whole fish. I usually have a hard time eating food that is looking at me but I guess the bears rubbed off on me because I stuck my head right into the water and grabbed that thing out with my own teeth. Talk about fresh! Just kidding, it was already cooked but it did taste pretty good.
And that pretty much sums up our time in Laos! We considered but ultimately decided against spending another week or so in Vang Vieng (to the south) because Nate had already been, Laos was fairly cold, and we were getting antsy to get into Vietnam.
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