Luang Prabang is a really lovely city tucked into a nook at the convergence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers. The city was named a Unesco World Heritage site in 1995, so they have done a good job of preserving what was left as of then, while implementing regulations to ensure proper growth management.

While there are plenty of western tourists who pass through Luang Prabang (typically via boat trips from Chiang Mai, Thailand), we found a wonderful Lao experience just off the beaten path.

Let's first back track. Once we arrived in Luang Prabang, we needed to figure out how to leave. After our troubles getting out of Vientiane, we knew we needed to invest some more time up front researching our options. We went to Internet cafes and talked with various travel agents. Finally, we decided to buy plane tickets from Luang Prabang, Laos, to Siem Reap, Cambodia, by way of Pakse, Laos.

Due to the busy New Year holiday (Chinese New Year, aka Tet in Vietnam) throughout Asia combined with a glut of western tourists (primarily European and Australian), the only flight we could get out of Luang Prabang would leave three days later than we would have liked. To get around this, we tried to change the plan and go to Vietnam first instead of Cambodia, but we had no luck on that front either.

After buying our tickets to Cambodia, we decided to make one last attempt to get better flights, and we stopped at a hole in the wall tour company that really came through for us. They magically found tickets for us to get to Hanoi, Vietnam, after two more days in Laos, right when our Vietnam visa took effect. While this would cut short our Laos time, it would maximize our Vietnam time, and then we could figure out how to get to Cambodia at our leisure.

We went ahead and bought the tickets to Hanoi and got a refund for the ones to Cambodia. Now we could relax and enjoy our final days in Laos. We lost the better half of the first day to making travel arrangements. On day two, we mostly strolled around the city and soaked in the mix of French colonial architecture and Lao culture. We visited a wat, tried a variety of Lao food, and walked to the top of the highest hill in town (Phu See Hill) to get a great view of the city from above while taking in a fantastic sunset next to That Chomsi, which is the highest point in the city and is thus used as a landmark to find one's way around town.

On our last night, we met up with the director of the North by Northeast travel branch in Luang Prabang, Jason Roland, who was instrumental in setting up our village home stay in Ban Nong Hoi Yai in Thailand, so we were excited to meet him in person. We went out for drinks at a pretty funky (good funk, not bad funk) place called the Hive Bar.

Jason is from Lubbock, Texas, and has a pretty interesting background. He graduated with an International Studies degree and wanted to teach in Thailand, but through his network he found out about the opportunity in Laos and has been working with North by Northeast ever since. Of note, he also speaks fluent Thai and Lao. We also found him to be a gentle soul. He fits in well with Laos culture.

After the Hive Bar, we took Jason up on his offer to experience an authentic Lao disco, which was an absolute hoot. With dim lights, black lights on stage, a Lao band, and old couches dotting the sparsely decorated establishment, we had all the trimmings for a fun night.

Jason's buddy was up on stage singing a tune with the band, and he shortly joined us for some Beerlao (the local brew) and dancing. Before arriving, Jason described the scene as "Lao Meets 1950's Prom," and we completely understood once we got there. The range in tunes was hysterical; from Lao love songs to John Denver to techno.

The dance floor was usually packed for every song, but there is very little contact, men mostly dance with men and vice versa, and there are few, if any, suggestive moves on the floor. Bev felt like she could have been in the Poconos at the resort in Dirty Dancing. In the Lao culture, it is completely taboo to have any physical contact between the sexes in public. This includes holding hands. I spent the better part of each day trying to keep Bev at arms length, but my animal magnetism kept drawing her dangerously close.

Anyway, we boogied down with Jason and around thirty of our best Lao friends, and then we walked back to the guest house. Jason offered to take us to a less traveled location to participate in tomorrow's alms giving, so we took him up on his generous offer. We met at 6:20AM the next day and walked to the wat, where we bought sticky rice, sweets, and bananas to place in the monks' food bowls.

Each morning, the monks wake up and pray at 4AM, and then at 6:30 AM, they leave the wat to walk barefoot through the town with their alms bowls. Lao people (and visitors, if so inclined) get on their knees, remove their shoes, and drop food into the bowls as the monks walk by. Alms giving is an important ritual in Lao, or any Theravada Buddhist, culture. It earns merit in this life, and when one has accumulated enough merit, one transcends to Nirvana.

After alms-giving, Jason took us through the bustling morning market, and we were just about the only westerners there. Each time we go to these markets, we figure that we have seen so many markets by now, how could we possibly find anything really new? Well, this market did not disappoint. If it walks, swims, or flies, there's a good chance it is for sale in the market.

On top of the typical Southeast Asian fruits, vegetables, and meats, we also saw several songbirds, bats, forest rats (enormous), whole severed buffalo legs, and of course, every organ from every animal, chopped every which way. We saw virtually no wild animals while in Laos, and the skies were conspicuously absent of any natural sounds, particularly birds. By the end of the tour, Bev wasn't feeling so hot, so we stopped off for a little Lao coffee and a light breakfast, where "light" is a euphemism for "please no freaking chopped up animal bits."

If you recall from a previous post, our food axiom still holds, "Meat + Crunchy = Bad." Codicil: "Meat + Minced = Risky." Anyway, we chatted with Jason some more, and then it was time to get ready for our flight to Hanoi. We were a little sad in the end to leave Laos, as there is an awful lot of natural beauty in the country that we would have liked to explore along with more cultural nuances to understand, but the clock on our visa in Vietnam was about to start, so we are going to make the most of it. Hanoi, here we come!