Catching our breath in Luang Prabang, Laos
Thursday, February 7th, 2008Despite our hectic arrival to Luang Prabang, it was impossible to stress out for too long. Luang Prabang the type of town that must make the cover of “Traveler’s Magazine” time and time again. The buildings are of French architecture and there is beautiful soft lighting in the evening which make for a very romantic ambiance. Plus on top of that, there is hardly any traffic or loud noise. The aggressive street touts common in Vietnam seem nonexistent here. Another thing that we were delighted to find was pastries of all varieties (chocolate cake, brownies, banana bread, chocolate croissants). If you know Dan and I, this made it into a little piece of heaven for us.
For dinner we decided to head to a restaurant that was highly recommended in our guide book. As we started walking we stopped to see a beautiful night market which sold handicrafts, jewelry, purses, souvenirs and clothing. We saw a stand where fried noodles and fried rice were selling for only 30 cents a plate and decided to partake. They were quite delicious and filling. We then moved on only to find another market that sold only food. There were vegetarian buffets,fish and meats cooking on the grill, and other delicacies for sale, such as grilled pig heads. They had long picnic tables set up which were completely full with people dining on this delicious food. We grabbed a bit more food and realized that the way to dine well in Luang Prabang is not inside at a restaurant but on the street at these delicious food stalls.
According to our guidebook, Luang Prabang is the perfect city for sightseeing by bicycle. We decided that we would spend our second day in Luang Prabang doing just that. We spent the morning looking for bicycles to rent…the dialogue went something like this:
us: Do you have bicycles for rent?
them: no
us: Do you know where we can rent a bicycle?
them: no
So, after talking to about ten people, finally, one kind Laotian guest-house clerk decides to say a little more and explains that it is against the law to rent bicycles to foreigners in Luang Prabang. Forgetting that you are not supposed to criticize the Laos government, I express my disbelief and then share my thoughts on the gross stupidity of that law. Later, while walking around we run into two other groups of foreigners who are on the wild goose chase of finding a bicycle to rent in Luang Prabang.
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