Louangphrabang, Laos

Travel - Louangphrabang, Laos 

Upon a 6 am start to the day, we boarded the slow boat again. This time we were on the boat for 8 hours. In Laos you are not allowed to wear bikini bottoms so you have to wear shorts and a bathing suit top. Thus, I have a shorts and bathing suit top burn. I'm so red that a bull would charge at me in the streets. It was cloudy out and not that hot is I didn't believe I was going to get burnt. I did apply sun screen twice but the sun is too strong here for my 60 SPF. I also have a shorts tan that sits on the middle of my stomach because I pulled them up half way through to avoid a shorts tan. It didn't work. I'm a lobster with a week left to go of pure Asian sun. 

Half way to Louangphrabang , we stopped at a cave temple. It is literally a temple built into a cave. It has 8000 Buddhist statues in it with another 2000 in the upper caves. It's a stunning view down from the cave. It was found in the 18 century but there are statues dated in the 1600s in the cave. It is monitoredby the people of Louangphrabang each night as part of their civil duty. 

We landed in Louangphrabang on the boat to then hop on bicycles with our luggage and peddle up this hill to our hotel. My suitcase is 41 lbs even with all the shit I've been eating and leaving behind. It was horrific. I didn't realize that a backpack wasn't a suggestion, its almost mandatory. The temple we saw this afternoon was pale in comparison to the Thai temples. It was dingy, small, and being rebuilt at the moment. The city is the headquarters for Buddhist monk training so the town is filled with orange cad men.

As such, the city has a 1030 noise curfew and a midnight people in houses curfew. The police were monitoring the tourists to make sure they followed the rules. If you are arrested in Laos, you need to have family and friends come visit you in jail as food is not provided in Laos jails. In addition, the penalty for missing curfew by a half hour is $500 USD, missing curfew by an hour is the death penalty. It is a serious offense here to brea curfew. The police slash military don't look older than 20 with machine guns and camo wear as we were walking back to the hotel. 

I'm tired of markets and deep fried food. 

AFN