This morning I had a 5 am wake up to head out to the old American airstrip. It was pitch black when they were setting up the hot air balloons. Six of us got to be in a basket with a Chinese ex-fighter pilot. We got into the air when the sun was rising. Unbelievable to see the sun come overs the limestone mountains. Th highest we got was 400 m above the city. They have incredible control over the balloon when the wind isn't super strong. It was neat to go see everything from an aerial view. This is one of the few cities that seemingly was a little wealthier. Houses are not shanty shacks - they have stucco and proper roofs.
Once we landed, I walked to the Luang Prabang Bakery. I met a couple random guys who were watching the super bowl. So I sat down and watched the super bowl in Laos. Great game. Good food for once too. I had a chocolate croissant and coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Nothing healthy is available to eat. You can't have veggie that aren't steamed, no lettuce period, no fruits, no ice, no tap water washed or cooked items, and the list goes on and on.
After the Giants won, I had a two hour traditional massage. Glorious strong massage for once. I guess the last Lao massage was improper. It cost me 70,000 kip which is $7.98 Canadian. It is one of the best features of Asia. I've had six massages since I've been on contiki in 11 days. The place local next to the massage studio was a yoga studio. I did an hour of hot yoga. I miss working out and yoga. It was interesting to not understand the instructions and only be able to determine what I should do via others.
The afternoon was spent on a kayak going down the Nam Song river. I decided to not tube as the risk of dying and being stuck with drunk people wasn't going to be fun. I kayaked 10km down the river. We passed through the tubing area. It didn't seem like my type of fun. From the tubing bars the tour company took the kayakers into this cave on the side of the river. We needed flash lights as literally we crawled into this area. Hands and knees were common to get through the hour long cave exploration. It was awesome to freak others out by grabbing ankles or pretending a spider was on them. The cave was actual a place where'd the Laotion people hid while the bombing were going on during the Vietnam war. Right now it's currently low season and it was still a little tiny. I could only imagine it during monsoon season. To get out of the cave, we had to jump across four feet and climb up the side of a rock formation. If you fell you would have fallen down 30 feet to the bottom. That was terrifying exhilarating at the same time. Oh, did I mention I did all of this is a bathing suit top, beach shorts, and flip flops?
I had dinner at this glorious little organic farm restaurant. It was all fresh veggies and chickens that you got to pick which one to eat from out back. I don't enjoy selecting chickens to kill. I prefer my meat dead not squawking.
AFN
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