Slow Sunday

We woke up casually to a cool, cloudy morning in Luang Prabang. It was the first time I really felt a chill in the air as we ate breakfast along the Nam Khan River. 

It feels nice not to be sweating all day every day. We ate at our hostel because it was free, but we're not going to eat at our hostel again because it made us realize why it was free. 

After breakfast we had decided on taking the morning to walk around the many Temples and along the mighty Mekong River and the smaller Nam Khan. 

In Wat Xieng Thong area

In Wat Xieng Thong area

The Mekong River

The buildings around town are supposed to have a French influence to them. I'm not sure what that means, but the buildings are beautiful. 

Luang Prabang has a very relaxing vibe to it, especially considering its one of the larger cities in Laos. We spent a couple hours reading, writing, cribbaging, and napping in a cafe called L'etranger. Every night they play movies in English on one of their tvs (random, I know, but different).

We decided after two weeks it was time to exercise so we went for a quick 4K run along the two rivers. Since we were running along the more touristy area it was somewhat polluted, but the city as a whole is pretty clean. 

There are a million places to eat, so we decided to go to L'elefant. It is a fancier restaurant but it allowed us to get a bunch of different Laotian foods. It's like one of those fancy restaurants that gives you a small portion of everything. 

We were one of two couples there so the waiter was literally just standing 10 feet away watching us. At the end of the night, with four glasses of wine, it came to $52. What a joke! That's like a happy meal in the states. Here's the menu of what we ate to give you an idea of Laotian food:

If you can't read it I can email it to you too. After dinner we walked along another market and bought things we didn't need for cheap. We grabbed a quick drink before heading back to the hostel. 

We noticed a lot of older white Americans and European tourists throughout the city. There are obviously other younger people and other Asian people but a higher percentage of older white folks here. Not sure why; maybe because it's kind of French/European here, but that's just the way it is. 

Tomorrow is more exploration, spa, and climbing the hill for the sunset.

"The traveler sees what he sees. The tourist sees what he has come to see."

- G.K. Chesterton