Setting up for the night market
Setting up for the night market
On Jan 26 we returned to Luang Prabang via bus again. The process is: You wait at the bus station, they fill busses as long as they have enough people. Then they try to get enough people to fill a van. Which means if you are have a ticket for the 9am bus, you may not leave until people start showing up for the 11am bus. And they won't go without a full bus or van, though they are okay stuffing extra people in. We were in the last group, so did not make it into one of the busses. There were 8 of us and then 2 more showed up so they happily got us a van that had 9 seats available, but four had to stuff into the back. I guess we were lucky we left at 9:45am and not 11:00. The van drops you at the Luang Prabang bus station and from there we all took a tuk tuk into town. As we walked from the drop off point to our hotel, I noticed coils of wrapped extension cord laying on the street, which seemed odd. When we walked around a bit later, near 4:00, they had stretched out extension cords all along the street, on both sides, and people were starting to set up booths for the night market. Traffic got bad as people were trying to get to their stalls and cars were trying to get through before they shut the road down. Our hotel was just at the beginning of the market so a perfect spot!
Our BBQ skewers
We ran into two of the girls from our van trip in town, which was fortunate because they gave us 3 valuable tips: 1) the location of a great restaurant nearby, 2) there is a quaint story telling theater, and 3) Vietnam is not issuing any evisas during the Tet holiday, which meant if I didn't have one issued yet I would have to get a visa on arrival. This prompted me to check on my evisa, which had indeed not been issued and then I realized that I needed a letter of authorization for the visa on arrival. Lucky I ran into them so still had time to get one for "only" $160!
We ate some delicious BBQ skewers at the night market and then did the much touted "Climb to Mount Phousi" for the sunset. It was not nearly as inspiring as it sounded. We bought the ticket and started to climb the steps. People were going up on one side and down the other so basically you just followed the folks in front of you for 683 steps. About halfway up there was a view and a little break so you could step out of the cattle drive and take a break if you wanted without getting trampled. Finally we got to the top. There was a sloped area to the left filled with over 100 people sitting, waiting for the sunset. I took a look at the sky and thought "there's not going to be any sunset tonight." There was a thick cover of clouds along the horizon and no clouds above to reflect nice colors. I snapped a picture, and we decided to head down and catch the story telling theater. Moo! Back into line, this time headed down. 
BBQ place in night market
"sunset" from Mount Phousi
The master story teller in action
I think it may have been fortunate that we had a crappy sunset as the theater was entertaining. It was a 2-man show. One story teller and one musician on a Lao mouth organ called a khaen. The story teller spoke British English, which combined with his Lao accent was sometimes a bit hard to understand, but he was very lively. He told us myths about the history of the area, sort of like a story your tour guide might tell you. Afterwards we walked through the night market and found these amazing little coconut pancakes. They were delicious and only 10k (about 45 cents) for 10 of them. At the end of the street there was an adorable little girl with a kitten! They were both so cute! I bought some bananas from her and tried to tell her mom I had cat food and cat treats to give them. I'm not sure she could read because she didn't seem to understand me and when I came back the next night with Cosmo and the food, they weren't there. I was so hoping to get a selfie with the two cats and us.
coconut pancake stall
delicious coconut pancakes
cute little girl with cute little kitten
One guy doing it all on the boat
The next day we had a very interesting sunset cruise on the Mekong River. As my sister Lisa and her husband Joe have told me, you need at least 2 people to dock a boat. They were proven correct as we got stuck against the boat on the side on the way out, smashed into the boat to the front and slightly left when we came back in to pick up some latecomers, and bumped into the boat on the side again a couple of times coming back in. While out on the open water, all was good. We cruised past a bride and groom both dressed in white taking selfies with her mother and I couldn't help photo bombing them. I didn't think they saw me but was a bit embarrassed when a few moments later the mom turns to look at me with that "you're in trouble" expression on her face. The bride didn't mind and was taking pictures of me so I waved and took a picture of her.
the bride and groom who I photo bombed
sitting on the sunset cruise on the Meekong Delta
little girl selling paintings
Dawne and I shopping at the night market
Monks accepting alms from the village
Monks giving rice and unwanted treats to the needy
Dawne left the next day. We got up early and watched the daily alms giving from the villagers to the monks. It has become a tourist attraction to see and also to participate with vendors selling sticky rice and treats for people to give to the monks. Unfortunately, they don't accept treats and throw them away, along with any rice contaminated by touching the packaged treats. I did find it cool that some needy people sat near the end and monks threw treats and rice into their "garbage baskets" so these folks would benefit.
Dawne and I drinking butterfly pea tea
Before Dawne left we had this butterfly pea tea which tastes wonderful. Please note it is butterfly P-E-A not butterfly P-E-E. Later that day I went to Nahm Dong Park for their adventure package and had the same tea there. It's really good!
zip lining with Cosmo
ziplining
Then Cosmo and I did the tree top walk and zip line there. He was great, staying in his backpack the whole time. When we finished, we took our time and walked back up slowly so he could explore the area, I think it may have been his favorite time of the whole trip! He even found a lizard to chase.
Cosmo enjoying his walk after the Zipline
Corn cheese stall
Corn cheese!
The local ferry across the Mekong
The next day was my last and I wanted to go to this pottery village across the river. Cosmo and I walked to the ferry crossing and took it across. They stuff 6 cars and tons of motorbikes and pedestrians on to each ferry. Once they get 6 cars, they move off to the other side. It takes 15 minutes and only costs 10k (46 cents). From there we walked 3.1km (just under 2 miles) to the pottery village. Cosmo was resting his paws on my shoulder for most of the walk and got a lot of attention from passing motorbikes as well as people on the side of the road. Some small children ran over and petted him, which he bore stoically. The pottery village was pretty dusty and seemed like it has seen better years. I think tourism is quite down in Laos. But I was able to buy some cups and small animals for very good prices. This is the place when The Namkhan buys the elephants they give guests at checkout.
A creative family vehicle in Laos
girls playing badminton stopped to feed and pet Cosmo
Cosmo being watched by kids going to school
small children ran over to pet Cosmo
The pottery village
my favorite smoothie place
Once back in town, I bought one last mango-passionfruit smoothie before leaving Luang Prabang.
This featured blog entry was written by nutmeg2000 from the blog My Semester off for travel 2025.
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