Luang Prabang

Hi Everyone,

I am here in Luang Prabang, Laos. It has been great so far, at least since we got off the pane. The flight started off rough. The original flight was supposed to be Toronto - Chicago - Tokyo - Bangkok - Luang Prabang. However, when we arrive at the airport, we found out our first flight to Chicago was cancelled. So instead, the rerouted us to Dallas. On the plane, I was seated at the back between a father and daughter. When I realized this, I offered to change seats one of them, but they said "no, I like the aisle, and my daughter likes the window seat, but thanks for the offer." They then proceeded to talk over me for about 3 hours while I tried to sleep. After that though, besides beeing long and grueling, the flight was alright.

Luang Prabang is really fun. It situated next to the famous Mekong and the not as famous Nam Ou rivers. It is super hot in the afternoons, but the temperature drops enough in the evenings that I was shoes and socks and a long sleeve and a jacket. I don't know how I'm going to manage it in this part of the world as it gets warmer though. I'm pretty far North, and its only going to get hotter as time goes on and I go south, and I already can't manage the afternoons.

Anyway, the highlights so far have been these three things:

1) We took a boat accross the river to walk in a nearby village and see the temples nearby. While we were there, we were approach by two Laotians who worked for the government tourism department. They are thinking of opening a new official trekking route for tourists, and were going on the route to survey it and make sure it was entertaining enough, and wanted to know if we wanted to join them as the sample audience. Of course we said yes, so our one hour walk turned into a six hour hike with a free tour guide. We saw a bunch more temples and statues, how suger is made from sugar cames (and got to chew on sugar cane until we felt sick), and a buddist monestary. In the monestary, a beautiful tamed bird came right up to our feet. That was really cool, until it started to crow loudly and peck at our feet, and chase us around as we ran away. The tour guides and monks really enjoyed that.




2) Today we went to a famous waterfall near Luang Prabang. I don't remember the name, which is embarrassing, but it was spectacular. We walked to the top, behind it, and down the other side. If anyone ever visits here, it is a must see. I will post some pictures on this blog eventuially.



3) My dinner today, consisting of an all you can fit on a plate vegetarian buffet and a fresh pineapple, papaya and banana smoothy, was about 90 cents. Granted, this is the cheapest meal I've had so far (not the norm), but still pretty cool.

The day after tommorow I am going up the Nam Ou river for about a week, and then will cross the border into Northern Vietnam and take about a week to get to Hanoi. In that time, I will be mostly in very rural areas, so I will probably not check my email or add any new posts until then.

Also, in answer to a couple questions, My plan is to travel for five months and to go to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, maybe southern Laos again, Thailand, Burma, and the Phillipines. I am just going to have fun, but me and Nika, my travel partner, are trying to arrange to volunteer for 'Hope" organization in Cambodia for a couple weeks. Also, if you send me your mailing address, I will send you a post card. When I download some pictures, I will post them with the appropriate entries and let you know there are new pictures.

Bye!

Eitan