Day 47: Hanging Out

Another sleepy day in Luang Prabang. We woke up late (read: Abby slept until 10:00am when Beth woke her up "I've been up for 4 hours and I'm going crazy!"). It's Sunday so... Well, we've kind of lost the meaning of days, so it really doesn't matter what day it is!

We walked around town quite a bit - strolling along the shaded street that runs next to the Mekong. It was very quiet there and we watched locals going about their business. We walked by a group of men offloading pigs from a boat to a truck, and those pigs were NOT happy - the girls were slightly traumatized, but I didn't hear anybody swearing off bacon.

We walked down a set of concrete stairs that led down to the river, and I was a little shocked to see a measuring stick going all the way to the top of the stairs that ended at 15 meters above the river - does the river really get that high? I will have to research.

After lunch, the girls were whisked away to do some tie dye craft, so I hunkered down trying to get my lengthy blog from yesterday posted. I've been asked how I get blogs posted virtually every day, and up until now, it's been very easy. There has been wifi at every hotel and virtually every restaurant we have been to in Southeast Asia. I've also bought a local SIM card and data access packages at every country except Japan. This has been very useful for GPS mapping and looking up reviews for restaurants and activities.

The last few days has been hard to get pictures to upload, as for blogs, it's "all or none" when it comes to uploading a file, whereas YouTube videos can upload slowly and incrementally so they usually eventually work.

But I digress, I went to a restaurant and finished a longish blog, then headed over to the national museum that also has this beautifully constructed temple on the grounds.

The museum itself, the former home of the king, does not allow photos but it was an interesting building with lots on display. They also had a garage with all of the former "royal" cars and it was funny to see it start out as the Citroen then move to huge clunky American cars right about the time the French lost influence in the area. I could just imagine the executives of the U.S. Car manufacturers lining up to do the junket to Southeast Asia to compete on which company could give the best car package to all of these kingdoms. Buddha I'm sure would not have approved....

After the museum, I found a perch on the side of a hill overlooking the night market street, and I half read, half people watched for an hour until I spotted the girls coming back in a Tuk Tuk. We strolled around the shops and streets for a while, when Beth started shouting in ernest "Guys! A-ha. I found them! Woo-hoo!" We rushed back thinking she'd found a trove of diamonds laying under a rock along the side of the street. Nope, even better - she'd found the precious flag pins we (she) have been looking for! We had found one in Vientiane, but I thought they looked crap as they were very old and I assured her we would find more. Well, I was right, but it took Beth's single minded focus over the last 10 days to finally find one (yes, she had already googled where to buy one online, lest her trip was sullied and incomplete by not finding one).... Ok, we were all happy, but three of us are trying not to show our pin-obsessions!

We grabbed a fruit drink (that is, if Robin's Oreo shake could be counted as a fruit drink!) and climbed up Mt Phosi to check out the stupa and view that rise above the old town and the Mekong River. Quite a view.... Now if I can only get the picture uploaded....