Travel Diary - First impressions of Luang Prabang

We woke up early to have time to get some breakfast before departure. No restaurants were open and so we had to walk to the opposite side of the village in order to at least get a couple of baguettes to go. We got to the boat close to an hour before departure and realised that we were basicly the last ones to board, disregarding a few stragglers. Everyone had adopted the "first come first serve" rule as noone wanted to be seated at the back with the rumbling engine drowning out whatever conversation that sprung to life. We cought a bit of luck however as 2 seats close to the middle were empty by the time we entered the boat, and so when we parted with the small village we could zone out with our books to the now distant humming of the engine.

The farmers used the hillside as fields for crops. Strong legs a must!

The clouds hung low throughout the day

The same scenes as yesterday was presented to us and although beautiful, by the time we arrieved we were glad for some change of sceneries. That relieving feeling didn't last long however as we realised we were dropped off way outside of Luang Prabang in the middle of nowhere and the Tuk-tuk drivers had a set price that forced us to pay waay over what should have been the normal price. With no other out and the rain pouring down we jumped into the closest one and asked to be driven to one of the hostels we knew of. We got dropped of at the same place as every other traveler... One of the hawkers approached us as we were very reluctant to get of the tuk-tuk when the driver even faked a breakdown to get us out. The hawker showed us really nice pictures of a hostel that was also dead cheap. He even paid for a new Tuk-tuk to drive us there and all things considered, it didn't turn out that bad for us in the end. 

We rested a bit and with the darkness creeping ever closer we decided to get out for some dinner. After walking almost blind in the dark for 15-20 minutes we stumbled on a foodmarket which had a variety of dishes beening prepaired right before us. We chose a buffeé menu and loaded up with everything new we saw untill the plates were full. It wasn't the best quality but cheap, and first and foremost it was something different than baguettes! Robert also got a cold beer with the Americans and we all let go of the whole Tuk-tuk aggrivation that had been boiling inside. 

The pictures just got worse from here and so lets just say we had a good time and then headed of to bed. Come the morning we would have a whole new city to explore!

//Wayu & Robert