Luang Prabang, Laos: Day 1

Friends! My soul has found a quiet place to rest here. Luang Prabang is an French colonial town nestled in a valley between two rivers in the middle of Laos. In 1995 it was designated a UNESCO world heritage site and has somehow managed to preserve its relaxed, beautiful character. The joke goes that Laos PDR actually stands for "Laos, Please Don't Rush." If you've known me for ten minutes at all you know this might as well be my motto also.

The French influence especially shows in the architecture and in the food! There's a fantastic coffee and croissant culture here intermixed with the Lao food. You -know- how I feel about coffee and croissants.

I decided to spend three full days here. On the first day, we wandered the streets drinking coffee and poking our head into shops with handmade Lao products. The guidebooks insist that "atmospheric temples" are everywhere, so around Mt Phousi we got lost in some Wat complex. I heard laughter and shouts from around the corner of this 'serene' place and my curiosity got the best of me. I gingerly stepped closer to the noise pretending to be looking at a particularly uninteresting building when a group of Lao men hollered at us, "Sabaidee!!"

Sabaidee might be my new favorite word. It's the greeting used for everyone and by everyone (cute kids riding with mom in the night market!) - and I humbly submit to general linguistics study that it's impossible to say without a smile.

So we grin back to the men, "Sabaidee!" and before you know it, we're joining them at their table and they're passing me shots of whisky Lao. It turns out that they're teachers for the novice monks, and they're celebrating international women's day with drinking games. I invite myself into their fast paced card game. Ms. Skovgard, it may be to your amazement that these men were playing a form of asshole! Despite your great skill at teaching me this game, I failed miserably and ended up buying a round of Beer Lao.

Now, after an hour of losing regularly I desperately needed to use the restroom. I followed pointed fingers around the uninteresting building and came face to face with a dozen young adult novices in varying stages of undress. I was at the shower! I can't remember the last time I blushed so hard and I fled back to the safety of my drinking buddies. When they caught on they bellowed in laughter and pointed me back. When I peeked back around the corner the novices were grinning and pointing me to the right door. I half ran saying "Sabaidee!" and "Khop Jai!" until I reached safety.

After several games it became clear to me that neither my liver nor my wallet would keep up. We bid adieu to our new friends with an invitation to visit them at Wat Xieng Thong the next morning for some sort of monk related religious event.

While the event was beautiful, we did not run into our friends again. Day 2 brought its own special adventures...

Katie