Luang Prabang

This was a place I had been really looking forward to visiting!! There are some amazing treks in the hills surrounding, awesome Wats, and its just supposed to be a great place to chill out.

Well, after a crazy bus ride, where I thought we might go over the side of hills (think roads crazier than NZ!) I made it. At least I had a seat to myself and could stretch out and not get too cramped.

Great, well, as I could hardly move by the time we arrived. I realized there was NO WAY I could do a trek. Instead I explored the awesome night market, found amazing vege food I could eat. Ok, so my excitement was over cucumbers and tomatoes mostly.. but hey, i got a whole plate of food for under $1. Which I could've had that more often!

I went on a walk with the couple to the river and met this lovely Laos guy. We ended up talking for awhile, walking around, and attempting to communicate. He's learning english... and its always a fun adventure. He was going to take me to a Laos bar outside of town but I bailed as I was hurting WAY WAY too much. The couple hours spent with him make me love traveling!

A huge 'tourist attraction' in LP is the morning monk procession. Now, I'm not sure why its so popular there... but I decided to get up and watch. Monks traditionally live off the donations and alms they receive. They walk around at daybreak to receive them.

I couldn't get a straight answer on time. It varied from "5, done by 530, to 6 or done by 6." I decided to get up at 445 and just go with it. I had to break out of the GH and instantly was followed by drunk crazy guy. Turned around, walked the other wahy.. he followed. Repeat and repeat. Walked up to a couple and started talking to them. Turns out, he'd followed them earlier... and continued to follow all of us. He wasn't threatening just creepy and obviously drunk. We wondered what time this process took place and sat on the kerb and waited. The women selling rice showed up.. so at least we knew we were in the right place.

I guess at one point the monks decided they would no longer go around and take offerings because it'd turned into too much of a tourist charade. The city told them they'd hired actors and pretty much MADE them continue doing it. There are MANY customs that go with this tradtion. Including such things as woman being lower than the monks, etc.

Well, the monks soon came.. and soooo did the tacky ANNOYING stupid tourists. I HATE stupid annoying tourists. Again, this deserves its own blog, so I'll stop there. Anyways, I watched, others were rude and in the monks face taking pictures.

I had planned to rent a bike and cycle around to the wats. But that morning I could barely move. Like WAY worse than the day before. I headed back to lay down for 2 hours. Walked around and saw a few Temples. Spent time indoors attempting not to melt in the heat (boy was it hotter than it'd been since Cambodia). I basically spent the day upset that I was in soo much pain that I couldn't do what I'd wanted and knowing I was getting on another crazy long bus ride that night. UGH