Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai countryside

Friday, February 22nd, 2013 Chiang Mai countryside

 The night before last we had our last dinner in Luang Prabang at Tamarind restaurant again. We ordered one plate of the chicken stuffed into lemongrass and another plate of something also good but I can't remember the name. Both are traditional Lao dishes. The lemongrass is used just for flavour when cooking and then discarded. You break up the chicken with your fingers, add a ball of sticky rice and dip it in the sauce. This was one of the best meals I've ever eaten.

 This is the other dish, a traditional Lao stew.

This is a happy diner. After dinner, we ordered "purple sticky rice" a dessert that was also fantastic. Again with 2 640ml beer, the whole bill came to $17.69 US. It would almost be worth staying in Luang Prabang just for the food.
However, yesterday morning we got up to watch the "Bat", the daily ritual of the monks receiving food. After  packing up, we had breakfast across the street and went uptown shopping for toothpaste, which is finally running out. We packed light for this trip but in fact we've only used 1/2 of what we brought. We have running shoes that we haven't worn since getting off the plane December 31st. Really, by wearing quick dry clothing and buying more if you got cold, you could travel with one change of clothes and little else. We'll keep working on it.
We spent the last of our Laos money at the airport on a change purse and a donation to the Laos Red Cross. There wasn't enough to bother with currency exchange.
Some final Lao thoughts: excellent food, smiling faces, conservative attitudes not as westernized as other places like Thailand, lots of wats, hordes of monks, beautiful mountain and river scenery, Mekong boats, women's hair piled high and pointy for ceremonies, mid-length skirts with decorative trim around the bottom, and various tribal weaving styles, clothing and customs.

 Anita has both our day packs while I take a picture of our Lao Airlines plane. It was a comfortable one hour flight to Chiang Mai. We had arranged for a taxi to take us the 40 minutes or so from the airport to the little country bungalows we're staying in. It's nice to collect our luggage and walk out the door straight to a driver holding a sign with my name on it. It was 600 baht (about $20) for the drive to the outskirts of a little village that we would have never found on our own. We could never afford this style of travel in Europe or North America.

 This is our room this morning after it had been cleaned. When we arrived yesterday, for the 2nd time on this trip, we noticed that the bedding hadn't been changed since the last guest left. We complained to the assistant manager and he had the maid fix it right away. Then we looked closer and saw too much gecko shit in the corners and out of the way places in the room. There's always a gecko in every building but this was too much. So we complained again and said it had to be thoroughly cleaned today.

The manager returned on the night bus from Bangkok at 7 am. When we met him at breakfast, he apologized profusely and sent the maid and the assistant manager to clean the room while we ate. Breakfast was more than adequate and we chatted with the manager for a while. He's French and said that he has a hard time convincing a Thai village person who lives in a simple wooden house how to clean a room to the standards expected by foreigners.
Anyway, the cleaning took so long we went for a walk into the village, avoiding at least 10 dogs on the way. When we got back our room was spotless. We don't like to complain but sometimes we have to make our wishes known. When the manager promised to change our bedding every day we told him that's not necessary. However, he said he wanted to do it to make a point with the maid. No matter what he says to her she just smiles. If he spoke forcefully to her, she'd just go home. You have to work with the culture.

 This is our bungalow.

 This is the view from our porch toward the other dozen bungalows.

This is the little pool that has whirlpool jets at one end.
Last night and early this morning we could hear some announcements on a loudspeaker from the village. We asked the owner what it was. Apparently, it's like village radio only broadcast by loudspeaker. I don't know why since everyone probably has smartphones. He said sometimes they'll announce the donations to the local wat, giving names and amounts off a list for 15 minutes. Right now there's some kind of bad singing accompanied by a bad whiny stringed instrument. It's been going on for close to an hour. It must be the start of some kind of festival at the wat.