Well we left Thailand on Tuesday afternoon and hopped on a small 30 passenger plane to Luang Phrubang, Laos. It was a short flight, about an hour long and we across the runway into the airport to get our visas. The airport was a little rinky dink place that looks like Knights of Columbus with a runway behind it. We used the ATM and took out 1 million kip (only about $150 USD but it felt cool to be a millionaire at that moment). We then got a cab into the city to find a guesthouse for the night. Luang Phrubang is is a beautiful little city. It's a small peninsula nestled between the Mekong River and the Khan. It is certainly has more eye appeal than all the places we had been on this trip except Bangkok but that's like comparing apples to oranges. It is a thriving community. One of the most expenses places to visit in Laos and you could understand why with all the steps they are taking to improve the community. They are building new beautiful buildings and they are improving the existing.
We walked around for a little while to get our bearings and work up a bit of an appetite so we sat at an outside restaurant that over looked the Mekong. There was a beautiful view of the sunset above the big mountains that sat behind the Mekong. The only problem was the smoke in the air got thicker as we traveled to Laos and the sunset was about all you could see of the sun. During the day the haze was so thick that you couldn't make out where the sun is in the sky. It was almost like a foggy day through amber sun-glass lenses. But, while it was close to setting, it glowed a bright orange. It appeared about the same size of the moon when it's full and then before it met the mountains it disappeared behind more smokey haze and the night sky quickly followed. Our dinner came out with the evening and I don't think I could have had a worse meal than I had that night. It only cost about $3 but I have never felt so ripped off before. I ordered a cold beer and stir fried chicken with basil. What I got a was a warm beer and one of those rubber chickens thrown in a deep fryer for about a half hour. Service took forever too. We went to a night market on the main strip and examined the merchandise they had for sale and not too my surprise, it was similar to all of the popular touristy places we visited and all similar to one another.
I decided to try dinner again that night so we went to a little cafe and I ordered a club sandwich, safe right? No. I got a hard boiled egg a slice of turkey and one piece of bacon on three pieces of "wonder" white bread. How could this be? An awesome little city with with all this tourism. Could the food really be this bad? I looked around and I wasn't too impressed with anything I saw people eating at any of the restaurants around us. A Seven Eleven could have produced a better sandwich than I had but it was at least edible so I didn't go to bed on an empty stomach.
We are getting kicked out of the internet cafe so I will have to continue this in the morning.
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