Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is a town they say that you can do all kinds of fun activities or nothing at all.  I went for the lots of activities plan and had a really good time. After a long shower to get the overnight bus off me, I met up with Maree and Jeremy, an Australian couple who had been on the Gibbon Experience. We had breakfast at a great little French cafe called Le Banneton before bargaining with the tuk-tuk drivers for a fair fare to get to Kuang Si falls. We talked one down to 40,000 kip and satisfied that we were paying the right price, we were on our way. The falls were with the $5 trip! There is a large sun bear sanctuary on site too which was a nice surprise. The bears were so cute!

We also got the chance to see what monks do in their free time - and it's not praying!

For dinner, I met up with my new buddies at the night market for a street food feast. There are rows of stalls with all you can eat for 15,000 kip (or about $2). You literally just fill up a bowl with as much as you can, hand it to a lady to cook it all up on a frying pan and voila! The good news is I've been in Asia long enough that it didn't make me sick either!

We shopped around a bit in the market after we ate, but it had my fill of souvenir shopping, so I didn't pick anything up this time. The next day, I joined Jeremy and Maree again for a kayaking trip to the Pac Ou Caves. It rained most of the day, but since we were already in the river, it didn't really matter. The caves were full of thousands of Buddhas that are taken there annually in some ceremony in October. I think that makes my fifth or sixth cave (I have lost count at this point) on this trip. I've said this before, but now I'm really caved out.