Laos Days
We sleep in the cold under mosquito nets and heavy covers until the roosters wake us up early in the morning. Though lacking heat, the hotel has plenty of French colonial charm. My partner and I are on our third day in Loang Prabang, one part of a seven-week vacation in Southeast Asia. Between about 11am and 4pm it is warm t-shirt weather, the rest of the time we are in our North Face jackets (which we almost left behind in DC!). With a smile and a "sabaidee" greeting, the people here seem very friendly. The city is small, we walked around most of the center in one afternoon. Plenty of guest houses and small hotels geared towards tourists. Lots of informal outdoor restaurants offer offer both local and Western fare. We had a great German meal at The Blue Lagoon. We got on the river in a long boat to see the "thousand bhuddas" cave. It was a long cruise up river in the swirling, fast-flowing, light coffee-colored water. Climbing up into the caves...
