Lazy in Laos - Luang Prabang

The leisurely trip to Luang Prabang set the tone of our stay as well. We started off not wanting to do much so we did exactly that. Luang Prabang is not a very big place. One good indication of its size is that the map's scale is so large since most of the city fits into about 1 square kilometer. We decided to walk around all day and kept running into people we had been on the boat with. That was a pleasant surprise. We met Mook and his girlfriend Thum and asked them what they were doing. We mentioned that we were looking for some coffee and breakfast and asked them to join us. We sat on a table overlooking the Mekong and had our breakfasts and off we went to check the city out. We were all on bicycles that we had rented for the princely sum of 10,000 kip (roughly, USD 1).

After checking out the city, we went to a Hmong village. The Hmong are a hill tribe in South East Asia, found in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and maybe elsewhere. It was very nice because it happened to be Hmong New Year and there was a very interesting ritual of picking mates. The boys and girls stand in two rows, one with the boys and the other with the girls, tossing oranges to each other. I could be wrong but I think the woman accepting the orange by not tossing it back has accepted your courting and is willing to be your mate. The Hmong have very beautiful features, but distinct from the Thai and Lao peoples. We drew a lot of curious stares because I am sure it was not common for them to see tourists in that setting. Kids ran around, lusted after toys and other foods on sale at the various stands and were doing what they usually do. In a couple of stalls, strange foods were for sale in addition to various drinks. More strange than that was the fact that you could buy Lays or Pringles ! Interestingly, they serve drinks in plastic bags, with a straw dropped in. Of course, there were no garbage bins so all the plastic bags and chips wrappers were littered everywhere, making me feel that the companies selling them this stuff should be required to teach correct disposal methods as well. It was a great experience and we shared lots of smiles with the people around. It was frustrating to not be able to communicate better with some of them.