Friday, January 25th, 2013 Chaing Mai to Laos

The last night in Chiang Mai was spent in a very nice hotel -- one of the nicest to date.  In fact, after the home stay, I am convinced that our places will be of great comfort.  The gardens and restaurant were very lovely indeed.

This morning we set out to visit our last temple site in Chiang Mai before going to Laos.  After completing some important travelling tasks, we set out on what turned out to be a very long, time-consuming journey to the site, which was a long distance away.  When we got to the site, it was time for us to leave to go back, get our luggage from the hotel and go to the airport.  It was an amazing race.  We arrived 1.5 hours before our flight left, the recommended time for international departures.  However, the flight was delayed by one hour.  Had we known we could have seen the site -- alas.

Our flight was one hour and ten minutes long.  Long enough for them to serve us a light dinner and free beer -- Lao Airlines is great.  Upon arrival in Laos, Canadians paid $42.00 for a Visa while other nationalities paid less -- interesting.  We were just ready to grab a taxi when we took my knapsack out of its carry bag and noticed it was green not blue -- yikes.  Gerald had grabbed the wrong luggage.  We raced back into the airport and retrieved the blue knapsack.  This was a first but a lucky SAVE.

Driving into Luang Prabang we could not believe the difference from Thailand already, especially in terms of pace.  Magical Luang Prabang is one of Southeast Asia's most alluring destinations. Lacking any world-beating 'sights' it's thoroughly pervaded by a heady charm -- a unique place were time runs slowly amid the fragrances of frangipani and fresh coffee.  Colonial and psuedo-colonial buildings emphasize the tropical with many characterful structures reworked into handicraft stores, patisseries and boutique hotels.  The city is encircled by hazy green mountains a the meeting of the Nam Khan and Mekong River. 



Luang Prabang is an Unesco World Heritage site which means a ban on buses and trucks in the old centre where most road users are on foot or bicycle.  This is not a party destination as Bangkok and Chiang Mai seemed to be in different places in in their locations.  Luang Prabang is Lao's former royal capital with riverside bar-terraces and French restaurants.  The surrounding countryside has plenty of waterfalls and caves to explore.

Arriving in Luang Prabang around 5.30 pm. we began looking for a Guest House to stay at.  The one we were looking for was booked solid for a few days.  However, the Guest House across from it, another very lovely one, had one last room available on the main floor -- it was $25.00 a night, with breakfast included.  The next day, we would be able to move to a room upstairs, which again was very lovely.  We considered ourselves very lucky, as we watched many backpackers pass us by.

We settled into our G.H. and proceeded to explore the town.  They were many restaurants around our G.H.  and the night market was/is very close by.  We went out for a very lovely dinner and then settled in for the night.