luang prabang

Considering I hadn't heard of Luang Prabang before I started reading my "Lonely Planet," I didn't really know what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is a lovely little town with a lot of character, a great night market, and a lot of great bakeries.

Since Laos was colonized by the French back when colonizing was the thing to do, a lot of the architecture in Luang Prabang is French, and it provides a great contrast to the Buddhist temples spread throughout town and monks dressed in tangerine-colored robes wandering the streets. It's the kind of town where you can sit and drink a cold soda at a street-front cafe and watch tourists and locals walk or ride by on bikes and motor scooters for hours. Coincidentally, this is something Amy and I are quite good at.

I woke up Monday morning with a high fever and the chills, not a pleasant way to start your adventures in a new country, especially one without decent medical facilities. On top of that, all the power in the town had been shut off for the day (apparently not a rare occurrence here). So Amy and I did what we could to stay cool and rest, and pretty much our only option was ordering iced drinks at cafes on the main street in between naps. Although the day was almost unbearably hot, we survived and managed to enjoy parts of the day.

Luckily I woke up the next morning feeling fine, so we headed up to some waterfalls outside of town with some Swedish girls we met on our boat. The falls were gorgeous, and the water was a great shade of blue-green.

I really liked Luang Prabang, but this morning we headed off again down south and are now in Vang Vienne. The bus ride was a bit of an adventure, but that's a whole new story.