Luang Prabang, Laos

The main reason for our stop in Bangkok was to catch a flight to Luang Prabang, a town in north central Laos along the Mekong river. Several of our friends had raved about this UNESCO World Heritage site as being the perfect place (that's not a beach) in Southeast Asia to chill out for a few days. According to my guidebook, the Laos people believe stress should be avoided whenever possible -- sounds like my kind of philosophy. 

We actually didn't go into any temples; we were satisfied this trip ju taking them in as part of the landscape. Nor did we arise early for the famous procession of Buddhist monks; we did, though, occasionally see a few novices, young men in bright orange robes going about their way on the town street.

Luang Prabang has perhaps the nicest market we've been to in Southeast Asia. It had more quality goods than the trinkets you'll sometimes see; many of the fabrics have been certified as handmade (unlike the factory batiks we got ripped off on in Bali). And the atmosphere is very laid-back -- no jostling through the crowd, no aggressive hawkers. I always let OD handle the bargaining, but I gave it a try at one of the stalls -- though apparently, my approach was humorous, as the woman kept laughing at my too-low then too-high bids.

We rented bikes for an afternoon and rode along the river (the town is sleepy enough that you don't have to worry about getting hit by traffic). We passed slowboats, a quaint garden, upscale inns, riverside eateries and a bridge crossing the river. The weather was mild and the scenery subtly beautiful -- one of the highlights of the trip.

Along with every other tourist in town, we hiked up the steps of Phou Si to catch the sunset. If you can get your camera above the other tourists' heads, you can get good shots of the surrounding area.  

For food, as a former French colony and now a major tourist destination, Western food was abundant (as well as better and cheaper than in Singapore). I did try a few Laos dishes, including fish steamed in banana leaf (mok pa) and the staple of steamed sticky rice. On reading up on Laos cuisine in my guidebook, I came across the warning to watch out for "happy" on menus, as this may mean the dish is laced with drugs (opium, a traditional crop, is still grown). Lo and behold, at a restaurant one evening, the special drink of the month was a "Happy Smile with Coconut Smoothie."As the place was a mid-range Westernized restaurant, I didn't really believe they meant that kind of "happy", but alas, we did not order the drink to find out for ourselves.