Luang Prabang, Laos

I read somewhere that Luang Prabang is the prettiest town in Asia, and I'd have to agree. The streets are clean and the buildings are nice French colonial style buildings that are well maintained and well lit (not fluorescent lighting!), and no shacks that are crammed into every possible open space. We were pleasantly surprised by the peaceful, calm and serene atmosphere. The Laotians are very laid back too so there are no touts or tuk-tuk drivers constantly badgering you to buy stuff. It's just such a nice break from the constant assault on your senses that happens in all the other Asian towns.

My camera's really gone by now and only 1 in 10 are coming out so here's all I have of LP:

We didn't do any research on LP, so we didn't realize that it's set in the midst of mountains and that it gets chilly at night. I know it's pretty silly of me, but I just never thought it got cold anywhere in Southeast Asia. I ended up catching a cold but it's such a laid back town, it was a good place to rest and recover. We did catch the early morning procession of monks receiving alms from the locals. That's the main tourist attraction, and is what made Luang Prabang so popular.

A psychedelic version (thanks to the broken camera):

Mist on the Mekong River in the early morning after the procession:

However, it's gotten so popular that some tourists forget that it is a religious event which should be respected, and instead will walk right up to the monks (you're supposed to only observe from across the street), sometimes even getting in their way, to take pictures. It's like walking into a church during a service and getting right up to the minister to take pictures. We saw more ugly tourist behavior around town – at a Buddhist monument people were climbing up onto the stupa just to get a better sunset picture, backpackers brought beer and were treating the place like a bar during happy hour. The lack of respect for the locals is just so wrong! It makes you wonder if ugly tourists are the ones that teach the locals to become rude and cunning, and ruin it for the rest of us.

A local village nearby was celebrating their new year so we went to check it out. It's like a very simple, local fair. As we strolled around we saw locals forming 2 lines facing each other, tossing tennis balls back-and-forth. I found out later that it's a way for guys to court girls, so he can get a chance to talk to the girl while the ball is tossed back and forth.

Other than that, we didn't do much else. We had local Laotian BBQ by the river which is a combo grill & hot pot so you can grill your own meat AND cook veggies in the soup, but the dipping sauce is the best part. We also met up with our friends Tim & Anna, whom we met in Mongolia, for the 3rd time and found out they got engaged! It's a nice coincidence that our paths kept crossing and we happened to be in the same place at the same time.

The trip back to Bangkok was an adventure in itself, and involved almost every mode of ground transportation: 11-hour bus ride to Vientiane where they played Casino Royale but every time we hit a bump the video would go out and only the sound stayed on, but we did get to see the beautiful Laotian mountains; taxi-autorickshaw-bus-autorickshaw to cross the border into Thailand; 6 hour wait for the train where we filled up on good Thai food at the Tesco foodcourt; and then an overnight train to Bangkok. 48 hours total travel time. The flight would have taken 1.5 hours. Not sure it was worth the $200 savings. At least we got to see the beautiful Laotian landscape.

And so ended the Southeast Asia portion of our travels....