Moving into Luang Prabang

We woke to cloud in the valley and sat around the fire eating our breakfast as it was quite cold this morning. We reluctantly packed our suitcases and sat watching the view as the clouds slowly lifted to another lovely day.

Our room on the top 

Luc and Moon

Me as Him

Richard and Susan went off to do some kayaking, and we played with Luca who is three and very naughty. The also have Lucy who they adopted when she was seven, rescued from an abusve step father, a horrible story and she is a lucky girl to have managed to get away. And also a lovely girl, I hope she can recover from the bad start.

At about one, Moon kindly drove us half an hour into Luang Prabang and our hotel, Le Sen. What a lovely little hotel. Rod is quite impressed, I think I got a gold star for this one.

Anyway, driving in Laos so far.  There seems to be no particular side of the road Laos to drive on. You just seems to pick your own. One minute Moon was driving on the left then the right.. Interesting concept. And to confirm that it wasn't Moons style of driving, everyone does it.

We settled into our lovely room overlooking the pool. I think would both have been happy to just sit on the balcony, but up and on.

The hotel dropped us into the centre of town, we are just on the outskirts and we walked around the city for about three hours. It is so different from Chiang Mai, much more low key and feels elegant. It seems more established and you ca see the French influence everywhere.  Lots of bicycles. We got a feel for the place and layout, had coffee and came back in the early evening.

Luang Prabàng is on the Mekong River, and it snakes around the city, leaving islands on the middle.

Local bus service

Laos is a communist country, but I haven't been able to work it yet. Must do some reading.  There is lots of small commerce, but any big concerns are overseas companies.  There is obviously great poverty here, but Luang Prabàng appears quite prosperous in many ways. We will see.  But you do have to be careful, or the LSO people do, everyhote and business he government spies, and the have to be careful what they say.

In the evening we went down to the bar and had a glass of wine chatting to a couple from Vancouver and a Burmese lady who lives in San Diego. She was quite a character.  Later after a lovely dinner we met a couple from Hamburg. We should think ourselves very, very lucky that so many people speak English.

It's only a small hotel, tucked away. But they had worked hard to make it special and they have.

The bed in our room is soooooo big and sooooo comfortable.