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Day 5 Luang Prabang.
The day dawned cloudy after heavy rain overnight. It looks like 'being officially hot' has been cancelled for today.
Today is a 'at leisure day' (Julie has reminded me that I need to read the dictionary definition of leisure). I have planned a quick hop over the overside of the Mekong to see true village life.
After negotiating for the boat across the river with a local fisherman (the trip across the river that is and not purchasing the whole boat, although for what I paid I probably could have bought a whole boat). This was the point that the light rain turned to a monsoon and were committed to our jungle trip.
We scrambled down a muddy riverbank (during which Julie was heard to mutter 'this is madness!', and were deposited on the other side of the river. We then embarked upon an hours trek along the Mekong and through the jungle, visiting several small temples including one in a cave where the electric lights were few and far between ( again Julie was heard to say 'this is madness!',).
An hour later, we were returned to a much more 'user friendly' port. I then exchanged some dollars into Lao kip at a small kerbside currency exchange, to pay the ferryman and learnt my first lesson! No matter where you are in the world all banks are a bunch of sharks, as I was ripped off by 20 dollars.
We returned to our hotel where Julie got our first washing load together, which we left at the laundry shop. 4 KGS washing costing $5, the equivalent of 0..90p per kg - bargain!
After a short rest, we went to the 'Big brother mouse' (not a typo - mouse and not house where we spent an hour talking English to help Laotian students with their English. My hour was spent teaching maths to a Buddhist monk whilst julie spent an hour teaching French to 3 students.
Then off to dinner before a late night drink at a bar called Utopia. This was a bar I had carefully researched as the place to be seen at. However, as you can guess from the name it was full of youngsters lying around on the floor like some aftermath of a swinging sixties party. I'm sure we gave one or two guys/girls a shock as they thought for a moment that their mum and dad were at the bar.
Deciding this wasn't the place for us we left for our hotel.
Footnote - on the way home we were offered opium. Either the pusher was really short sighted or we really do look like someone from the sixties still trying to find our way home.
Comments:
Sarah T (the elder) Sounds like you're having a great time! Unfortunately I have stopped receiving your notifications of updates for some reason so I just read all updates after Day 1 in one go! Give the opium a miss, you don't want Grandad's predictions coming true!!
Mar 24, 2015
Annette & Mike What happened to sun beds and gin and tonic by the pool ? But you sound like you're having a great time!
Mar 24, 2015
John Madness, fun, boating, trekking, receiving and providing education, optional opium - - - - - wow! (I agree with Sarah - stick with the beers). Keep the blogposts coming!
Mar 25, 2015
Matt Hahaha- I can just hear poor mum saying "this is madness!" Sounds like fun, though!
Mar 26, 2015
- comments
Sarah T (the elder) Sounds like you're having a great time! Unfortunately I have stopped receiving your notifications of updates for some reason so I just read all updates after Day 1 in one go! Give the opium a miss, you don't want Grandad's predictions coming true!!
Annette & Mike What happened to sun beds and gin and tonic by the pool ? But you sound like you're having a great time!
John Madness, fun, boating, trekking, receiving and providing education, optional opium - - - - - wow! (I agree with Sarah - stick with the beers). Keep the blogposts coming!
Matt Hahaha- I can just hear poor mum saying "this is madness!" Sounds like fun, though!