inspired by experience
Saturday, November 29th, 2008by Mama
Luang Prabang, Laos
“Sabai dee, Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Would you please take a seat and put down your electronic games as I am about to perform a puppet show for you. Kop chai lai lai”
Elephant made out of traditional Hmong material parades across the windowsill, puppeteer is sitting inside, audience is out on the balcony. Elephant goes “fishing” and slowly a purple yo-yo is raised up from outside, to the obvious enjoyment of the smaller members of the crowd who giggle in delight. Giggles turn to rapturous raucous laughs as the fish turns out to be so large it pulls the elephant into the river.
It was only a short show, but it was replayed a few times, anticipation building each time just before the elephant’s ill-fated fall. We may not get to the masked ballet here (as much as we’d like to support local arts, at US$8 for the cheapest seats, it’s just a bit too pricey for us), but I think our children have been inspired just seeing the puppets for sale on the street and riding elephants up a river. Don’t you?
We walk through the night market (which is literally a two minute walk from our guest house) and ER2 calls out, “How much? 20 baht.” She’s not got the currency right for Laos, nor the quantity (everything is in thousands here), but she’s got the idea. Actually, did you know kip and US dollars are used interchangeably here in Luang Prabang, and at a pinch baht WILL be accepted too? It can be somewhat confusing when you haven’t checked the exchange rate for a few days and need to make a further conversion back to NZ$. You give one currency and get another in change. Keeps the brain cells ticking over.
that's our balcony on the right up there
The New York Times touts Luang Prabang as the ONE "must see" destination - period. What makes a destination suddenly become 'chic' ... 
rayres