Today was a very busy day. We left the hotel in Bangkok at 7am to catch our Bangkok Air flight to Luang Prabang. It was an exciting time as it was the first time that the whole group got to meet each other. They are an interesting and fun group of people. Our flight to Luang Prabang was on a small propeller plane seating about 100 people. We got here in one piece. The views from the plane as we were landing were great. You could see the forest extend for what seemed to be forever (pictures below). The airport in Luang Prabang is very small and it felt a bit like stepping back in time as all the decor felt like it was from the 70s. Nonetheless it felt very welcoming. To give you an idea of how small the airport is, there is only one baggage carousel and for some reason it is still labelled with the number 1. We cleared customs and met our tour guide who got us to the hotel.
The hotel we are staying is called the Villa Santi Resort and yes, it is as nice as it sounds which was a welcomed surprised. We had a quick dip in the pool before heading out to tour a few of the Buddhist temples. Laos has a strong Buddhist following and women need to have their shoulders and knees covered or they cannot enter them. We were told that there are temples that the women cannot enter at all. We visited one temple in particular that was on the top of a big hill that we had to climb a lot of steps to get to. The view from up there was great and well worth the climb (photos are on the camera so will have to wait until I get them off). Apologies that I haven't mentioned the names of any of the temples. The simple reason is that I don't remember them and they don't had out flyers with information about the temples.
Following the climb down from the temple, we headed off to the famous Laos night markets. There are heaps of stalls that the vendors set up and take down each night it seems. There is so much colour and craft at the stalls, but it does get a bit repetitive. Not wanting to spend all my money on the first night and the first place we'd been to, I was controlled. It also helped that the market vendors are nothing like their counterparts in other Asian countries I've been to. Not once did I get hounded to buy something and every time I stopped to look at something, the vendor would politely say hello or "sabaidi". When you did want to buy something, you didn't even feel compelled to haggle. Most things are quite cheap here. Finally, we all had dinner as a group and some kicked on for what I presume will be a long night. Given tomorrow is our first day of riding, I thought I'd be a good boy and give it a miss. Don't want to go too hard too early. :-)
Following the climb down from the temple, we headed off to the famous Laos night markets. There are heaps of stalls that the vendors set up and take down each night it seems. There is so much colour and craft at the stalls, but it does get a bit repetitive. Not wanting to spend all my money on the first night and the first place we'd been to, I was controlled. It also helped that the market vendors are nothing like their counterparts in other Asian countries I've been to. Not once did I get hounded to buy something and every time I stopped to look at something, the vendor would politely say hello or "sabaidi". When you did want to buy something, you didn't even feel compelled to haggle. Most things are quite cheap here. Finally, we all had dinner as a group and some kicked on for what I presume will be a long night. Given tomorrow is our first day of riding, I thought I'd be a good boy and give it a miss. Don't want to go too hard too early. :-)
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