We spent 4 nights in the tranquil city of Luang Prabang in Laos. The town is only 50,000 people and is set in a beautiful landscape of rolling hills covered by lush forest. We could easily get to wherever we want to go on foot. We spent our days exploring temples and sights, and our evenings checking out the restaurants and browsing around the fantastic night market.

One highlight was a day trip (about an hour and a half each way via tuc-tuc) out to the Kuang Si Falls. At the trailhead, there was a bear reserve where there were a dozen or so Moon Bears (aka Asian Black Bears) lounging and playing in a very nice natural habitat area. While the waterfall was not enormous, the water was a beautiful aqua-marine color that we have only seen in swimming pools and in tropical ocean water. After spending a few hours hiking around the falls and up to the top, we walked up the road to a butterfly habitat that was set up by a nice Dutch couple. They gave us the tour and we spent some time on our own hanging out with thousands of butterflies.

The food was very tasty, which was no surprise since we both have some friends from Laos and have had Laotian food before. What was a surprise was that we found a great Lao cooking class so we are hoping to make some Lao food when we get back, maybe we can drag a few of you over to be our taste-testers :) Because it is the slow season (have we mentioned how hot SE Asia is this time of year?) we were the only two people in the class so we got the instructor's full attention. Hopefully that translates into even better cooking skills when we get home.

Another memorable moment was one afternoon, after having beers with a nice couple from NYC that we met at one of the temples, we were walking through town when the skies opened up with sheets of rain. We were absolutely drenched in a matter of seconds all the way to our unmentionables (which have now been mentioned). We enjoyed our warm-shower of rain (while still in the nineties) on the way back to the hotel and as we strolled along, at least a dozen tuc-tucs stopped to offer a ride, but we just kept walking. I'm sure it is nothing too new in Luang Prabang, but we thought it was hilarious.

Overall, Laos got an A++ review from each of us. Our 4 nights flew by far too quickly, and we would love to come back to Laos to explore some more of the country.