We have arrived in Laos. What a difference from Thailand! It is soooo quiet and laid back here compared to the hustle and bustle of Chiang Mai and Bangkok.
Laos has been conquered or occupied by a lot of countries over the years - Burma, Northern Thailand (Lanna Kingdom), Siamese, Khmer (Cambodia), Chinese, French, U.S., and Vietnamese. There are only six million people in the country and they have few industries other than agriculture and a little tourism and mining.
The travel editor for the NY Times must eavesdrop on our travel plans. Last year, just before our trip to Cambodia, the newspaper had a big article about travel to Siem Reap. On Sunday, November 4, the following article was published about the hotel we are staying in here in Luang Prabang:
La Residence Phou Vao
A lot has happened since our last post. We flew over from Chiang Mai on Monday afternoon after some heavy duty shopping in the morning. We found a small street with several really nice boutiques. Caren checked off the names for a lot of gifts she needed to purchase.
We have really gotten frustrated with Caren's lost luggage. Our tour guides have been raising hell with Thai Airways, but we still have no bag. Our patience ran out earlier today and we blew up over the situation. We are certain that anyone else other than us would have left the trip and headed home by now. But we are pretty easy going and having a great time.
This AM we did our first bike ride in Laos - about 18 miles from the hotel out towards the junction of the Ou and Mekong Rivers. Rolling terrain on a very well paved 2 lane highway with little traffic other than a few trucks and some motorbikes.
We then jumped into a couple of long boats and motored down river to the Pak Ou caves. In the caves are over 4,000 buddha statues. It's a mini version of the Pindaya caves in Burma that we visited in 2004.
Lunch consisted of a spread of traditional Lao dishes and bottles of BeerLao, the only beer you can buy in Laos. It's a national monopoly - remember, this is a communist country. We continually joke with ourselves that Sheriff John would never eat any of these dishes.
We visited the Lao National Museum which consisted of a lot of antiques from the deposed monarchy.
Dinner last night was at an outdoor pavilion with the meal catered by the hotel chef. We were entertained before and during dinner by young girls and musicians from the Lao Cultural Heritage Center. We had a long talk with the woman that runs the center - she spent 2 years living in Honolulu and we visited her house today. Definitely a charity worth donating to - they are working hard to retain old Lao cultural traditions - music, dance, and art.
We took a lot of photos and video, but we don't have time to upload them to the blog right now. Perhaps tomorrow or when we get back to Bangkok.
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