Berry's SEAJ trip Day 21: Sayonara Nam, Aloha Laos (6/26/15)

Woke up and had breakfast before heading to the airport where I caught my plane; a small one with 2 exposed propellers, and eventually land in Luang Prabang which is in the middle of the mountains. The scenery is beautiful as it is a stark contrast to Hanoi's developed and sprawling city. I met some ladies from SC (Hana and Haley) in the airport and we split a cab to the hostel as it turns out we are staying at the same one (Kousavan Guesthouse). We check in and put our bags down (we are even staying in the same room) before heading out to explore the city (the main part is pretty small). The city is great; minimal traffic compared to Hanoi, very relaxed vibe, and  the best part, the vendors are not pushy or annoying as they keep to themselves for the most part and listen when you say no. I am in heaven! :) We find a row of carts that have some grub and smoothies so we all get some before grabbing some beers.

Creepy dragons trying to get Berry. Somehow he still smiles.

Berry looking up at the golden temple on the hill. We didnt get to go up to it as the sunset was mostly blocked by the clouds so we explored the city below.

Berry was looking over the fence getting a glimpse of the temple on the other side.

Berry was watching the night market set up below us. 

Grabbing a Laotian beer with some new friends before going out to the night market to see what they are offering.

After them, we explore the food street; a extremely tight alley with food vendors making all kinds of meats on sticks and other eats which is pretty cool especially if you are hungry and don't mind tight spaces. After that, we go explore the night market which was awesome. It is tight as well but manageable. Once again the best part is the vendors sit there and keep to themselves until you engage them asking about the prices of something. Cannot stress how relieved and happy this made me. I had a friend who asked me for a key chain and I had seen these cool ones at some of the tents so I stopped and asked the lady how much they were to get an idea. She tells me 20k Kip which is ~ 2.5$ which seemed fair but I wanted to mull it over so I said thank you and walked away. As I was starting to walk away, she says 15; I am just thinking to myself “lady I am not trying to barter and if I was you should wait for my counter not just go against yourself”. So I keep exploring the market and decide to get one of the key chains so I walked back to the same lady and look at her and say “key chain, 20k right?” and she just looks at me, says yes and we make the transaction. After that I go to a lady with pretty table runners and other items (there was plenty of beautiful art, clothes, items that I could have easily loaded up with and shipped home if I was so inclined but I did not) and start bartering with her for a gift for a different friend back home. The SC ladies pretty much just tell me what to do and I get them to take off ~8-10 dollars I think. After that we head back to the place and play some card games while having some beers. Eventually we go to a store nearby and they purchased a 750mL bottle of 40% white lightning for the price of 2 beers so they drank that the rest of the night while I drank some beers and we played some games until bed.