sunscreen in february? yes, please.

Major happenings since my last post:

*Luang Prabang, Laos

On the weekend of February 11^th – 13^th we traveled to the country of Laos.

Laos Airlines, there's no better way to fly!

A few things about Laos: they drive on the right side of the road in Laos! (I definitely was not expecting that), you can also pay using the Lao kip (which amazingly is 8,000 kip to a single US dollar) USD’s or Baht, Laos was colonized by the French and evidence of this is still very evident – a vast majority of the architecture, the fact that there are a ton of French tourists in Luang Prabang not to mention BREAD!

There was so much bread in Laos (croissants, bagels, baguettes, muffins, and other pastries), it was wonderful and definitely not what we are used so far in Southeast Asia.

some of the beautiful architecture found throughout Luang Prabang.

the view from our guesthouse balcony.

our beds at the Vanvisa guesthouse.

On our first day in Luang Prabang, Friday, we settled into our guesthouse and were off to watch the Royal Ballet at what used to be the Royal Palace.

It was a fantastic show, and lots and lots of tourists filled the seats to watch.

the Royal Ballet at the old Royal Palace.

Afterward, we ate dinner together as a group at a lovely, little restaurant called the Coconut Restaurant, which serves a fusion of Lao, Thai and Western food.

That evening I indulged in the Lao take on pizza, which was fairly good.

After dinner, a bunch of us walked through the night market lining on of the main streets running through Luang Prabang, which also led to our guesthouse.

The market was amazing – definitely my favorite market since arriving in Southeast Asia, and we have been to a few so far!

Everything at this market was beautiful and unique; definitely a very dangerous place when trying not to spend a ton of money.  Although another thing I really liked about this market was just how much the sellers were willing to barter with you; it was wonderful.  Not only were we able to pay in kip, baht or USD, but we definitely got our fair share of math practice through all of the various conversions we kept having to figure out in our heads.  It was also fun (and weird) paying in dollars again.

On Saturday, we started our day with a delicious breakfast at n adorable café called Joma.

Joma is by far my new favorite place; the food and the people there are wonderful.  Apparently there is a location in Hanoi, and my fingers are crossed we will be able to find it!

After breakfast, we haggled and haggled until we finally were able to get a ride to and from the Kouang Si waterfall.

the beautiful Kouang Si waterfall.

a glimpse of the BIG waterfall.

There were many different areas to this waterfall for playing, swimming, and simply marveling at the beauty.  I had never before been to a waterfall, so this was definitely a treat.

most of us took a turn on the rope swing! this was aaron's first try.

We spent most of our time here swimming and jumping off of a rope swing into the freezing water below.  A couple of us (myself included ;] ) were even brave enough to jump off of the waterfall itself, which was slightly scary at first but a ton of fun.

one brave kid. he was frolicking in the "do not swimming" area :]

That evening, after a refreshing shower and some down time, we ventured out for another delicious dinner and some more shopping at the night market.  These adorable elephant slippers and “SAME SAME, BUT DIFFERENT” t-shirts seemed to be the staple of souvenirs of Laos.

Sunday morning meant another breakfast at our precious Joma.  That day I had one of their sandwiches paired with a pineapple smoothie and it was delicious.

After breakfast we went and signed up for a tubing tour for later that same day, and stopped by a Wat across the street from our guesthouse.

one of the many buildings comprising the Wat across the street from our guesthouse.

After purchasing a hat for the tubing which lied ahead and checking out one of Lao’s many Wats, it was time for our tubing adventure to begin.

It ended up being Erin, Aaron, myself and our tour guide all in round, black inner tubes floating down what I believe is called the Ma Khan river, which feeds into the massive and well known Ma Kong.

I had never been tubing before either, and this river actually ended up being rather shallow at parts.

I never knew how much paddling was necessary for tubing either!  My arms definitely got a good workout that day.

Our tubing adventure ended up lasting a total of 3 ½ hours which was about an hour too long, but still fun nonetheless.  We were extremely worn-out and tired of being in water by the time we had finally floated to our stopping point.

the river we went tubing down!

We saw so many different Lao natives while floating down the river, all enjoying just another Sunday afternoon in their country and many of them were very eager to say hello and wave to us – especially the children.  We witnesses children playing in the water, families picnicking by the river, boys and men fishing with nothing more than goggles and a spear, and women bathing their children and washing laundry.  The scenery of lush mountains and tress was simply beautiful.

That evening we had a very nice group dinner at a restaurant called 3 Nagas; the food was wonderful.

Later on, a few of us attempted to find some fun Lao-nightlife but failed miserably.

Oh well, at least we tried, right?  :]

Monday was Valentine’s Day and Barbara, Drexler’s wife (AKA the sweetest woman in the world), gave us all Valentine cards with tasty candy inside!

That morning, Erin, Aaron and I visited Wat Xieng Thong because we missed seeing it the day before due to tubing.

Wat Xieng Thong.

The Wat was very pretty, and there were even a bunch of Buddhist novices (young boys not quite old enough to become monks yet) who were out at round tables studying and practicing their English.  I was busy taking pictures when I heard a little voice behind me say, Sa-Bi-Dee (hello in Lao).  It was a novice named Sivone, who quickly switched over to English and was very eager for me to sit and chat with him.

Initially, the situation took me by surprise, but Sivone could not have been nicer; it is amazing to think about how one’s life would be like at 15 years old, already a novice living at a Wat in Laos, on the way to becoming a monk.

more Wat Xieng Thong, and some beautiful flowers.

Later this morning we ate our last breakfast at (the Laos location :] ) of Joma, a total of three visits in all, all of which outdid the prior.

After breakfast, it was off to the Luang Prabang airport and back to Chiang Mai.

the view from up above - somewhere between Laos and Thailand.

Overall, our trip to Laos was a “great success” and I wish we could’ve had more time to just wander the city, although, perhaps I will return to Laos one day and do just that.

More to come soon on our visit to the ancient city of Sukhothai, Thailand.