Bianca wanted to try a pattisserie she had seen so we set off for breakfast (Bianca, not me. I started my "normal eating" pattern today to get rid of some of the excess stomach insulation). While sitting there I noticed a travel agent and checked out a trip that sounded interesting. I asked if the trip went on specific days or every day. He coudlnt speak much english but did tell me that it only runs on days that they have customers. That's great. I'd hate to think that they run the trip on days that they don't.
We soon met up with a lovely lady, who is a friend of a friend of a friend, who took us to meet a hairdresser in the hope that we could arrange for wedding do's. Sure enough, another tick, another thing marked off and one less thing to worry about. Tomorrow B goes for a trial. Yay.
To kill time we climbed the 400 off steps to the top of Phousi Mountain. Nice views but still just a view from the top of something and nothing outstanding to look at. The city is amazingly green and quite pretty, but unremarkable from above.
Time for lunch and that was even more unremarkable. Stuffed lemongrass, coated in panko crumbs and deep fried. Finding anything that is not starchy bread like and full of carbs, and not fried is quite difficult and I am starting to long for proper local food and not tourist versions. Lunch was edible yes, memorable no, but it filled a spot before we ambled back to the wedding venue to check some things out.
The walk back gave us a few laughs from a few nice encounters with cute critters:
A desperate need for a cold drink and a snack saw us sitting at a cute place called Khmu, that was set in a lane, quaint, lousy service but the satays (neither carbs, not fried so a good dose of proptein to keep me going) despite being dry and over cooked were very tasty with a real zing.
Time to wander the famous Luang Prabang markets. Said to be the most visited tourist attraction in Laos. Definitely a step up from most markets with many many stalls, beautifully presented stock and the tourist stuff was a step up from the usual tourist junk. Much of it of reasonable quality and some of fhe fabric items are beautiful. Although promoted as hand crafts it is pretty obvious from the volume of product that much of it isnt hand made but aside from the harem pants that grace markets all over the world the other products were mainly unique to Laos and quite nice. We looked but didn't buy and found a few things that we can return for if needed later.
Dinner was at a restaurant we had spied yesterday called "Salt and Pepper". The lovely setting and environment wasn't reflected in the food and service, but the food was certainly edible.
Time to wander back to the hotel where I battled for hours with internet connections (or I should say, lack of them) trying to confirm some room bookings for my BnB and upload some photos. Frustrating is not quite the right word.
I wasnt sure what to expect of Luang Prabang. I had been told I would love it. I had read of people that hated it and I couldn't understand why opinions could be so divided. Now I know. I don't love it and don't hate it but am looking forward to getting away from the tourist part of town, to where people live, eat some real food, maybe some street food, and check out what the locals do. It is undeniably pretty with the river running along the edge, the undulating topography, the cobbled lanes, the lovely shops (almost exclusively tourist shops around here) and feels a little bit like a British village. It certainly doesn't feel as though it is Asia. Most shops have beautiful carved wood signs in both English and Lao and that is probably the biggest give away, bar the fact that the people are obviosuly not Brits and it all has an air of the 1960/1970's about it.
Time for bed. Eventually I have given up trying to get a wifi connection from within my room and went outside my room, where I had a feint signal until the battery died.
Goodnight.
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