September 8 to 10—Two Nights, a Festival, Extra (Rained-in) Night in Luang Prabang, Laos

Dear Family and Friends,

Saturday, September 8, we packed and checked out, saying goodbye to Joe and his nice set of bungalows by 8:00 AM. We lugged our packs up the hill, across the bridge, and to the bus field, where we bought two tickets for 90,000 kip (about 9 USD) each on the 9:00 AM mini-bus to Luang Prabang in the central-North of Laos. Dani ran off to get us bread with jam for the road as Martha settled into one of the fold-down ‘jump seat’ next to two of the four guys from Finland in the bus. The two girls from France took up the back seat. Dani was half hanging off the short seat in front of Martha next to the other two Finnish men.

At the first of many stops along the ‘six hour’ trip, Dani went back to the large back row with the two tiny French girls. Two more stops allowed twenty minutes for the driver to eat and for each of us to wander around to potentially buy some food or other items. The drive itself gave us beautiful views of the rolling green hillsides and ragged limestone cliff faces. As the mountains rose, so did we, riding around bends, holding onto the seat as sign after sign gave the driver an idea of the road’s path ahead or simply warned that a dangerous curve was coming up. Up, up, up, our ears popped. Mountain tribes people had built their homes along the sides of this major highway. The homes numbered many more than when Martha had ridden this same curvy path in the past. So many small villages between mountain views.

The locals were busy with their daily lives as we rode past. Many were washing up at the new water stations installed by UNICEF where people could shower and get clean water. Others walked home from the fields carrying rice on their heads or a machete in hand. Through the villages, kids laughed and chased each other and women held watch at their food stands. Even though we considered the mini-bus full with the two of us, the four Finnish guys, the two French girls, and the three Laotians across the front seat, we were wrong as the driver picked up a young mother and her coughing daughter about halfway into the trip. The sky turned threatening as the day wore on, and we could see the cascading rains move across the valley and finally hit the windshield of the minibus.

Our arms were tired from holding on by the time we arrived in Luang Prabang, around 4:00 PM. Across the street from the mini-bus station to the main bus station, we contemplated getting on a bus the next morning to make it to the Field of Jars, many many miles away. As we stood there, sore and loaded down with our packs, we decided it was enough. The idea of another 20 hours on a bus in the next two days was just too much. We decided to stay in Luang Prabang two nights and then just head South back to Vientiane and onward into Thailand.

After the long day’s ride, Martha did not take too kindly to the tuk-tuk driver who kept calling her ‘Sir.’ Dani tried to calm her by explaining the language issue to him, but eventually we gave up and accepted his services to town for 15,000 kip for the two of us. The rains started just as we got into the back of the tuk-tuk, and ended just before he dropped us off at the nearest guest house mentioned in the guide book—Rattana Guest House. It was a lovely place, where for 8 USD per night, we got a clean, quiet room with two beds, a fan, and hot water for the shower. The nicest lady showed us both the cheaper room that we took and the luxurious pricer room with its soft bed, extra space, and television. She said we should shower and relax before coming to check in, and brought towels and a water bottle with two glasses.

After taking her advice, we explored town as evening approached. First, we walked through the evening food market looking for dinner. The stalls were full of fresh veggies for those who could cook at home. The assortment of pre-prepared meals were foreign to us, except for the heavily salted fish and the skewers of meat products, which tempted Dani but did not reel her in. In the end, we opted to watch the sun set over the river, dining at one of the many restaurants that lined the Mekong River. Martha had the red vegetable curry and sticky rice, and Dani ordered the wild boar steamed with vegetables. Each of us took turns capturing the colors of the sunset reflecting off of the lake, certain with each snap that the colors could not get any more beautiful.

Not yet ready for bed, we walked the evening market to see the beautiful craft work created by the Hmong mountain tribes, and wished we had enough room in our luggage for those beautiful bed spreads with their hand-woven designs. We did buy a thing or two, however, and watched as the superstitions of the region went into action—after a purchase is made, the vendor smacks all other items near the one that sold with the new cash and says “lucky lucky.” As we walked up towards town and our beds, we decided to go back to the room for an early night and leave the exploring for the morning. Back in the room we enjoyed the motionlessness to read, but Dani was sound asleep a short while later.

Sunday, September 9, our early night paid off as we were up by 8:30 AM. Martha was reading to finish her Agatha Christie novel, while Dani typed away at notes for the blog. In town the night before, we’d seen several places that did one-for-one book exchanges and a café touting WiFi access, so our morning seemed well laid out. The first café ‘with WiFi’ said it was not working, perhaps it was that they did not know the password because Martha found the signal was strong. The next café down the block that also ‘had WiFi’ would not connect, but Dani enjoyed her mocha and Martha a Lao coffee (prepared by an espresso machine) while Martha made the attempt to use their service. OK, so we’re not supposed to work on the blog in Luang Prabang. Darn.

Next stop should therefore be food. We walked up along the middle of the three main streets in town, and stopped by a book exchange that was free with a 1 USD donation to the orphanage—but they were closed. We found ourselves on third street however, which was also along the riverside. Men were spending their weekend playing with silver balls (a game that we imagined was like Bochee Ball at home). Other folks were down in the river fixing a boat. We enjoyed a relaxing walk in the shade, stopping to take photos, especially of the boys across the river who were jumping from a stairway, doing flips and splashing about.

This river arm connected to the main Mekong body that we had enjoyed the night before, and the path rounded the bend and headed back into town as we had reached the end where the three main roads connected. We stopped for a drink and hoped for breakfast where a bunch of people were sitting and dining. A man at another table spoke some English and tried to help, but no, they have no noodles. OK, we decided, then we’ll have what you’re having. So, we split a plate of curried meat (most likely goat) and some tangy field greens with beans and dipping curry sauce. Yummmmy, but, not a filling breakfast.

Walked slowly down the Mekong back towards town. Days before, our lovely Duck Ladies had asked if we’d tried the grapes here, and it made Dani realize that she’d almost completely skipped any kind of known fruit, opting for the exotic Asian fruits every time. However, in Japan, Dani’s favorite thing had been the pears. So, we stopped at a fruit vendor and picked up a small orange, some grapes, a pear, little finger-sized bananas, and a pomegranate for 16,000 kip (1.60 USD). The vendor first mistakenly said ’60,000 kip’ and then laughed at her own mistake (and our confused faces) and corrected it. Martha also found another book exchange, turning over her book and a dollar for a photo-copied version of ‘Diary of a Geisha,’ a book she had wanted to read for some time.

Back in the room, the nice daughter at Rattana gave us two plates and a knife for our fruit, to which we added the remaining langsarts from a few days before that were still in our room. Upstairs in the shared area, we stretched out on the mats there for fruit and siesta. Dani cut up the fruit and we ate. Martha then typed away while Dani read (and eventually snoozed in the afternoon warmth).

We dawdled in that comfortable space for quite a while, so that when we went out to catch the sunset, we were too late. It was still a pretty evening, so we settled beside the river for some more food. Dani ordered the green papaya salad and Martha ordered some fresh spring rolls, making for a light dinner after our fruity afternoon. OoooOOOOoooo Doggies! We finally hit the big time with the spicy food, as Dani’s face turned red and her eyes filled with tears over the UBER-SPICY papaya salad. Dani was not happy. Of course, Martha tried to help her eat it, and shared her spring rolls with Dani to make up a bit for her pain. Even though neither of us likes to waste food, we finally had to surrender and leave the spicy papaya salad when our cold beer glasses emptied too quickly.

Again, we returned to the street market to buy a few items that we had "slept on" the night before … so close to being done with our Christmas shopping! Martha went back to the room for clickty-click time while Dani wandered town looking more at the market items. The locals fair was getting bigger as the next day was a festival day, including a big boat race along the river—hopefully we’ll get to see some of that before our bus outta town! Dani saw a neat photo sticker maker like she’d seen popular in Japan 10 years ago, but now it was just a computer instead of a stand-alone machine that people could enter to have their stickers made. When she went to check out the Internet café to read emails and make sure nothing urgent was going on at home, she forgot to send a note out telling people we were okay in order to make sure that she returned in time to keep Martha from worrying about her. Oops. So we planned to get online tomorrow again before heading South in the evening.

Monday, September 10, was supposed to be our last full day in Laos. We packed our bags in anticipation for a 7:30 PM departure from Luang Prabang on an overnight bus all the way back to Vientiane. Dani set the trip up with our hostess at the guest house (buying the tickets from her would cost us a dollar more each than paying 3 USD to take a tuk-tuk round trip to buy the tickets at the bus station). We checked out of Room #102 by 10:30 AM. We left our things in the lobby of the guesthouse and went out into town.

Fiesta! Tons of people walked the market stalls that had appeared overnight up and down the street just a block, starting just a block and a half from our guest house. Martha’s stomach feeling rough, she opted for a solid baguette with chicken, cheese, tomato, and onion for 10,000 kip (1 USD), and we split it. The streets were filled with locals, and we could imagine that most of the town was enjoying their day off together with people from neighboring villages who had made the trip into town for the festivities by motorbike, boat, or car. We finished up our shopping in town when we ran into a woman from two days before; she had offered us a decent price on a particular item that we had bypassed in VietNam, but Martha still had to think on spending the money and carrying the item until Munich, Germany, a week plus away, when we would see our friends from home and they would take some items home for us. She bought it, making the woman happy as she pat the money across the other items she had up for sale.

The wares were beautiful, full of color. Dani noticed some women working on hand-embroidered items there as they waited for customers in their stalls, proving the hand-made quality of these items. We imagined that some of the women behind the booths had traveled overnight from their villages in the remote mountains, carrying the handiwork of many of the local women who had entrusted them to bring home money to help sustain their families for weeks or months to come. Security also had a presence here. We felt very safe among the crowds, enjoying the spectacle of children with balloons, and being slightly horrified by the many realistic-looking guns that the children carried around, occasionally pointing one at the other’s head and play-firing.

Having had enough of that scene, we walked down to the river again to see if anything was going on, but guessed by the number of people in town that there wouldn’t be anything along the riverfront quite yet. We sat to write a few postcards to family as a storm developed. We hiked back up into town and made it under the awning of the post office’s back door just in time for a tumultuous downpour, one of the worst and longest of the trip. Martha went to the front of the building and mailed the cards while Dani waited with the computer bag. Still no luck on finding a café with working WiFi, especially with this downpour, so we decided to go to an Internet shop to wait out the storm instead of standing under the awning. Soaked, we arrived at the shop where Martha was told that the Net was down there, as well.

We went to JoMa’s for coffee instead, watching through the window as the locals were forced to take down their stands and the festival came to an end for the afternoon. We were not the only ones sad for them as we heard other English-speaking JoMa patrons having similar pity for the short end to day’s events. We tried to wait out the storm by playing gin rummy and enjoying LARGE mugs of coffee, which also came with a free refill. After a time, a nice Israeli couple took the seats next to us. We struck up conversation with the lady of the duo as the gentleman was out in the streets on an errand, learning about their sons and daughter, the oldest of whom had become a professional traveler, telling his parents that he had a ‘PhD in Travel.’ She literally clapped at us, commending us on taking up this adventure, which so many people around the world do but that so few Americans do. She and her husband were planning a similar tour to ours, but in the opposite direction, with les time, and with flights instead of busses. They were next headed to Hanoi, so Dani offered to exchange the 50,000 dong note that she had somehow ended up with after our departure for 3 USD, giving them some change for the border quarantine and us a few extra smackeroos.

The couple decided to join us and check out our guest house as we headed back to drop off our new purchases. As soon as she saw Dani, the Lady of the Guest House looked relieved that she had shown up in the middle of the afternoon instead of at 7:00 PM, the latest we were supposed to return before our bus ride. The bus had been cancelled because of the rain! Martha and Dani took the news rather well, quite surprised that in all of their land travel in such a rainy monsoon season that this was the first time their travels were delayed because of a downpour! Thankfully, we had built an extra day into our schedule to return to Bangkok, so no worries on our end.

We discussed our options: 6:30 AM, 8:30 AM, or 7:30 PM busses left the next day. We asked her to please reserve the 8:30 AM bus for us, just in case the earlier one was also canceled or too full with hopeful travelers from tonight. We checked into a different room in the guest house because the beds were a bit too firm for Martha’s back in the one we had occupied. Ooo, softer beds in the room upstairs, so we resettled. By nightfall, the rains had calmed, so we headed back out into town to enjoy our last evening in Laos. The Internet shop was now functioning, so Martha sent notes out to the family while Dani walked to the ATM since our kip was running low enough to make us worry about being able to eat the next day.

The sign on the ATM did not have the Visa symbol—hmm, still not everywhere we want to be! She walked back to Martha. Martha finished her messages, but wanted to try the ATM since Dani hadn’t made an attempt but just trusted the sign. No luck. OK, we still had a few kip, and we had dollars that we knew would be accepted for our night’s stay and around town if absolutely necessary.

We had passed a place the previous two nights that was full of hippies enjoying the vegetarian fare, so we went there for 5,000 kip (0.50 USD) per plate buffet. We loaded up our plates, then passed them over to the lady behind the counter for her to throw all our chosen veggies into a wok to warm them up for us. What else should we do tonight? Go to concert in sloppy wet grounds? Go to see if any temples are open? Not really in the mood for anything, we walked back to the room and worked on notes for the blog.

Dani pulled a picture from London of Martha and put it next to a picture from today as she happened to be wearing the same outfit. The pants were now baggy, the shirt easily fit across her chest and shoulders. What a difference 120 days of not working, eating better, and exercising can make! Yay! Martha lay awake all night, reading her book and dealing with too much coffee in the afternoon, while Dani slept soundly for a few hours.

In love and light,

Martha and Dani