Luang Prabang

After the hell bus, Luang Prabang was just what we needed.. It's a small town in northern Laos, on the banks of the Mekong river and is also a unesco heritage site. Our guesthouse was so quiet and relaxing, with a large garden and porch out front. The city is small and easy to get around on foot, with lots of day trips available to the surrounding waterfalls. We opted to just explore the town and visit the many tea and book shops during our stay rather than going to the sights outside of town..The city is a perfect place to put a good dent into a book, and relax. It was pretty hot during the day, but you could walk through the town from one cafe to another and escape the heat. There is a nice paved sidewalk that circles the downtown area, so it made for some good early morning run views along the river.

We booked 3 nights with our guesthouse, and ended up staying an extra day. The people in town were super friendly and it was a nice refuge away from the busy city we had grew accustomed to in Hanoi. There are tons of riverside bars and restaurants to relax at, but everything closes at 11 pm so things don't get too crazy in Luang Prabang.

One thing we did that was pretty neat/different was a stencil art class.. There was a little bookshop that had all these pretty stencil artworks hanging and by them was an advertisement for a class. You use a pattern, different sized metal tools and a hammer to punch out paper so when it is opened, you have a design. The class was taught by a former novice monk who had a passion for the craft and decided to share his passion with others. It is a kind of active meditation, because you have to focus on getting the tools lined up with the pattern just right, and then hammer to cut the pieces of paper out. We spent like 2.5 hours working on our stencil art and I will say I felt very relaxed afterward.. These monks were on to something. By the end I had a beautiful Buddha piece and Paul had created a tree, which we thoughts were some cool souvenirs considering we had created them!

You had to be very particular about which tool to use, so that the curves of the lines would come out exact.. It was a lot tougher than it looks and takes lots of patience!

We also spent our days walking around and seeing all the local temples and sights. I can see why this place is a heritage site, and I am glad it hasn't over developed into a place that's too touristy... All of the buildings are low and many are original and over hundreds of years old. It's really a beautiful place to spend a few days. I definitely could have stayed there longer but we are in a bit of a time crunch to see everything we want to see in Southeast Asia!

Luang Prabang was a great place to shop.. The night market had some great finds, not like many of the other markets we have seen. There were stalls with good quality clothes, antiques, embroidery, and your usual "Beerlao" shirts or other Lao cotton tees. There was also an all you can eat buffet for 10,000 kip! That worked out to be a $3 meal for both of us.. There is also an area called "Shake Street" where you can get sandwiches and all kinds of fruit shakes, stall after stall of vendors.

We were sad to leave Luang Prabang, as it really gave us a good introduction to the Lao way of life... Laos is a communist country, the Lao PDR (people's democratic republic).. But it's commonly known that PDR actually stands for "Please Don't Rush". Everything is slowed down here, and there is a relaxed feeling everywhere. I've seen more people sleeping in hammocks than I've ever seen before in my life. You order food and one meal comes out, and the other comes 15 minutes later.. It's just the way it is.. Very different from the hustle and bustle of Vietnam, and it was a nice change of pace. Most places open early and close early, and from what I've seen the people here are all about family. If we had any bad tastes in our mouth after the tuktuk incident following the "Hell Bus" ride, it quickly dissipated not long after being in Luang Prabang. What a great place!