We did what?

We had a full day just relaxing in Luang Prabang before we headed out on the next leg of our holiday so instead of sleeping in and lazily enjoying the town we signed up for a cooking class and got up early so that we could be there at the early morning time of 08:00.

First they took us to the local market so that we could learn bits about how to select the proper ingredients.

Learning more than I need to know about rice.

From the market it was back to the restaurant so we could do all the prep work for our meals and then into the kitchen for the good stuff.

Cooking lemongrass chicken.

Tasting the beef soup.

We finished up and served ourselves lunch around 11:30, and I must say that it was right tasty. A fun way to spent the morning, they gave us a cookbook with Laos recipes, a certificate saying that we paid them to be in their kitchen, and we got to eat three great meals for lunch. After that we were free to take that nice leisurely stroll around the town.
The next day we were whisked to the airport and off to three nights in Hong Kong.

From Phonsavan to Luang Prabang...

Ok, we're back again and hopefully now our VPN issues have been corrected and we can return to a somewhat more regular schedule of postings. After our day traipsing around the stone jars we hopped back in the van for the long ride back to Luang Prabang, and we told our driver that we would want to make some stops at picturesque little villages that line the road and cling to the upper ridges of the mountainous terrain. Enjoy the photos.

This girl was 3 and carrying around her 8 month old brother.

Returning home from gathering firewood.

They almost knocked Tina over when she tried to show them the photos she had taken.

They told us to come back again the next day when they had school.

We pulled back into Luang Prabang around 17:00, and on our walk over to the Goodwill - where we donated some of our old clothes - we found this van that had been converted into a bar. So we stopped for a quick drink...
Then a nice dinner with a good bottle of wine, what a great way to end the day.

Luang Prabang to Phonsavan.

Just a quick post today on the long drive from Luang Prabang over to Phonsavan in the eastern section of northern Laos. We have guests arriving tomorrow for a quick weekend, so hopefully we will interrupt these stories with their guest posting. If they are too tired, don't expect a post tomorrow - the Laos stories will return on Monday. We think...

So for the ride to Phonsavan, it's a little over a 6 hour ride on nice tight winding roads that are really in pretty good shape. Once a short while out you get great sights of the mountains and the small villages that are situated along the road way.

You can click the photo to get a better view of the small village there.

We were picked up sharply at 09:00, and since we only made a few photo stops as we were going, by about noon we were pulling into what we believe was Muang Phou Khoun. Basically this is a small stop where the road splits, you can either take the route that we took last year down to Vang Vieng, or over to Phonsavan where we were heading this trip. It's three streets with lot's of shops and markets. We were a little shocked as some of the items that were for sale...

Stacks of edible bee larvae, and not tiny either. Sized like the tip of a pinky finger.

Fried rats.

Fried bats.

Seriously, stacks of rats along with homemade drink.

We didn't try any of these items, instead deciding to stick with a beef noodle soup. Last time the VIP bus that we took zoomed straight past this intersection, I'm sure some of those backpackers would have tried one of these just for the shock value. Seeing that we were alone this time there was no need, I've given up on trying to shock Tina with my antics.

A short time later and we were back on the road and within a few hours the mountains slowly gave way to gentler slopes and gradually to more and more signs that we were approaching a city.

Signs of civilization.

On the way we stopped to visit an old cave that housed an Buddha that was more then a thousand years old and then another that had been used as a hospital whilst Laos was involved in fighting in Vietnam with US support (look up the secret war for more information on this whole non-war war). In one section of the cave the ground was littered with thousands of small bottles - "Operating room" our guide said. It's amazing just because of how hard it was to get into the cave when we were in somewhat good shape and not being bombed.

Gurney that was left in the cave.

Butterfly outside the cave - damn bugger wouldn't stay still.

By nightfall we had pulled into Phonsavan and checked into our hotel - one without air-conditioning. When we questioned the no-a/c we were told that it gets too cold, that no place has it, and that they have fans and screens on their windows. The screens on the windows is something we never would have expected, and it actually was quite comfortable at night.

Phonsavan main street.

Marketing skills - using kids to sell hot peppers.

Beerlao and boat races...

After a full day of traveling - Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Hanoi, and finally Luang Prabang - once we checked into the hotel we just wandered up the main street and enjoyed a bottle of wine at one of the many outdoor seating bars ant restaurants that line the main street before returning and heading quickly to bed.

The next day we awoke fully refreshed, enjoyed a good breakfast at the hotel with an excellent baguette. It's amazing how much we appreciate good bread after our time in China. Then for a quick trip to one of the many travel agents to plan the middle part of our trip, and some quick wandering through this tiny UNESCO town.
When we had left the hotel that morning the receptionist told us that we could go down and watch the boat races, that we were lucky to have arrived when they were going on. When we sat as a small restaurant just before noon we could see them practicing along the other side of the river.

And the other side of the river was starting to full up with people, so figuring that this was the best place to go and watch we paid 10,000 Kip (1.17 USD) to get a ride across and then took to finding a good place to watch from since we now realized that we were on the side in direct sunlight. As we walked along where all the locals were crammed into tables with coolers and grills set up we saw an opening on the bench and asked if we could sit up there with them. No problems, and soon we were under the protective tarp with a great view of the river.
To our right was a big group of women, most in bright orange shirts, so we decided the we would also cheer for the orange boat when came by. We ordered some sticky rice, and a couple other plates along with two Beerlao for us to enjoy.
The women had the delivery guy bring them down enough Beerlao to keep them stocked throughout the day's races.

One of the first heats of the boat races - blue won.

There was a lot of cheering and just good fun, some of them were trying to use our Lao guidebook to look up things so we could see the English translation. The kids did the best with helping with this, and it was very good when we needed to use the bathroom after the third or fourth race.
From there it deteriorated as any good outing should into a series of cheering each other to finish your drinks. Somewhere along the road we got invited in to be drinking with them and soon they were filling our cups, or providing us new ones, whenever we were empty.
In the end one of the boats won and there was much cheering. They all lived on that side of the river so we got their address and mailed them a good stack of photos from the day. At one point Tina and I didn't have our camera's and the girls were running around snapping up photos, as we took our turn at purchasing the beer and filling their cups up.You may have noticed that Tina's hat was passed around to most of the women for the pictures, they really took a liking to it for some reason we couldn't fully understand. That final photo is of the woman the Tina finally left it with.

After a full day of snacks, drinks, and boat watching we headed back to the other side of the river. The return trip we bartered down to 5,000 Kip, and after a quick bite to eat we were off to bed so we could get up early the next day for the 6+ hour drive to Phonsavan.