Slow paced Luang Prabang

Dan (the pommy) and Jacqui on the way back to the Brittania guest house
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Have been in Luang Prabang for 5 days now - it is very relaxed, quiet, and the tourism market is very obvious... Our last couple of days in Chiang Mai were relatively low key - on Saturday we watched the AFL Grand Final at the United Nations Irish Pub along with quite a few other Aussies who came to watch it on the big screen, as well as Dan and Joe who we met on the trek. Quite a disappointing grand final match unlike the past two years competitive nature! At night we went to the night bazaar for some dinner and beers with Dan and the French couple.

We survived the the flight in the small Laos Airlines plane.
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On Sunday we rushed to get adequate foreign currency for our time in Laos - as the situation here is a lot different to Thailand and the rest of the western world. The lonely planet said there was only one ATM in Laos (Vientiane not Luang Prabang) so we needed to go to the ATM. Note to all fellow travellers planning on visiting Luang Prabang, there is actually an ATM here now that takes Mastercard only. You can cash advances out on Visa or Mastercard at 2 locations also (with additional 3% tacked on). Then comes the issue of the local currency - they accept the local kip, Thai baht or US dollars! When you pay in baht or dollars however you can often lose out (not much) when they round up the conversion. Having tried to get our head around the conversion for a day we decided to exchange our baht for some kip - 800,000 of it!

Mike scared him by letting him taste Vegemite!

Luang Prabang, by the river at sundown.
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Back to the flight from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang on Sunday - we previously mentioned it was a propellor plane and I can report the trip was fine. The weather was clear which was reassuring and the in flight service was in fact better than Jetstar or Virgin Blue! For a 45 min flight you get a lunch pack and beer/any drink. Recommend Laos airlines as a convenient way to avoid the 2 day boat trip down the Mekong. Also Visa on arrival at the Luang Prabang international airport was very easy - basic form, a photo and $US31 later and we were in.

Night markets - many light bulbs.
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Spent the afternoon and night wandering around the streets having a look and splurged on a French restaurant - Luang Prabang has French colonial history. Had first glass of wine in two weeks it was fabulous! More on Luang Prabang - it is a United Nations (UNESCO) world heritage listed city so commercial development is regulated. The tourism market is however very evident - restaurants and bars line the main street and also all along the river. Very pleasant to sit at and have a beer Lao or a fruit shake.

Tuk Tuks come in all shapes and sizes.
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As a summary of the last few days activities - we went to the national museum, climbed the stairs to the top of Phu Si for views of the town and the temple, went to Tat Kuang Si to see the beautiful waterfalls (and swimming!), full day Laos cooking class (nothing on the 2 courses we did in Chiang Mai - we can't speak highly enough of the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School), various meals and drinks on the river, hired bicycles to look around the city (hilarious - check out the style and size of them in photo) and met up with Dan who we met in Chiang Mai.

The view from top of Phusi mountain in Luang Prabang. Many steps to reach the sumit
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A few notable things we have seen in Luang Prabang - flies all around on the food so that the women have made a "device" comprising a plastic bag tied to a stick to continually wave and try swat and catch flies (probably one of those have to be seen things!). The motorbike with the whole family on the back sights continue - not exaggerating but we saw an 8 or 9 year old riding the bike with 2 younger friends (maybe 5 years old??) on the back - we could not work out if they had stolen the bike from family or were genuinely allowed to use it?!? On the trip back from the waterfalls (37km south) the tuk tuk driver picked up some locals who were heading into town. The boy knew some English so we tried to converse with him and Mike scared him by letting him taste Vegemite! The ladies were amazed at our skin and/or hair and kept touching our leg. Quite an interesting experience and probably one of very few for them with falang!

We dont know exactly what they do, but the like a clean Wat.
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We are going to take a bus tomorrow to Vang Vieng for a couple of nights and do some tubing and maybe rock climbing (very western tourist place) before going to Vientiane and flying to Hanoi.