Last night we finally ate at Tamarind. It was worth the wait. We ordered a sampler plate of different dips plus a buffalo meat dish along with sticky rice and beer. The traditional way to eat Laotian food is to pick some sticky rice up from the basket, squeeze it into a ball in your fingers, add a piece of meat and a few fresh herb leaves and then dip the whole thing into a sauce. We enjoyed the meal so much that we reserved again for tonight. Since we're running low on kip and don't want to get more and be stuck with them, I paid with my Visa card. The waiter apologized for the 3% surcharge they'd have to add. I said it was okay. The final bill was $13.99 US for a fantastic dinner for two with 2 640 ml bottles of BeerLao. Excellent deal.
After dinner we walked up the main street near the Royal Palace. In the evening they close a section of the street for a night market. There are at least a couple of hundred vendors who all have canopies and electric lights and all their wares laid out on mats on the street. In the morning, you'd never know they were there. This is a big job every night but it's really a cool place to go. I bought an XL tee shirt (that I discovered is too small) for 25 kip ($3.12) and Anita bought a folding paper lampshade for 25 kip ($3.12) that will hopefully make it home in one piece. We'll likely go back this evening to see if I can find a bigger tee shirt. Sizes mean very little here. I have L tee shirts bought in Cambodia that are bigger than XL here.
This morning we went to the ferry dock to find the boat driver that we liked the best from our search. He recognized us and remembered the price (100,000 kip = $12.50)and went to get his boat (above) right away. Off we went upriver for a one hour cruise.
It's really beautiful out on the Mekong with the hills all around.
People have temporary shacks and gardens out in the flood plain during the dry season. The water is really low right now but still has quite a current.
Not sure what they're growing but it must be worthwhile to re-build a shack every year when the water goes down.
We stopped here for a minute because our driver wanted to negotiate the purchase of a small boat from 2 German (I think) guys who were camped next to this temporary bar, which our driver described as "BeerLao Disco".
The ferry was in the way when we returned so we just pulled up to the other side of it and walked across it to get to shore.
After that we walked over to the other side of the peninsula and crossed the Nam Khan River on this bamboo bridge. There are other bridges to get there and roads on the other side but this is convenient for pedestrians.
We were out in the suburbs on the other side with the usual chickens, dogs and buffalo.
People in the hill villages live in thatched bamboo stilt houses but a lot of people in Luang Prabang live in nice modern homes. The tourist trade has brought a lot of money here.
Back across the bridge we went. Note the monk in the background. Couldn't let a day go by without a monk picture. They're everywhere.
Anita tried a traditional Lao skirt but didn't buy. This type of skirt is worn by most of the older women here as well as the school girls for a school uniform. The younger women dress in jeans and the usual garb we see at home but nothing that shows too much skin. This is a very conservative society.
Tonight we go back to Tamarind. Tomorrow we fly to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We had considered going by boat up the Mekong to Pak Beng, staying overnight and then boating another day to a town at the Thai border. After crossing the border, we'd have to bus 5 or 6 hours to Chiang Mai. A bit too gruelling. Boating on the Mekong is great but we thought it would lose its allure after a couple of hours on a hard wooden seat. Two days would be way too much.
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