Laos highlights

The night market happened every night, and we were there every night for it.

One day we went kayaking down the river. Nile lost a lens from her sunglasses, but Takashi lost his entire glasses. We were laughing about it later. It was a fun day.

Monks studying under the bougainvillea.

Nile, Yoshie, and Takashi having Lao BBQ!

The orange prosession

Every morning in Lugan Prabang, the monks had a presession to gather food for the day. A representitive from local familys will be out early (6:30am) to provide food for the monks walking bare feet. To show respect, the people are sitting (to be lower than the monks) and are also not wareing shoes. There are a lot of monks in the town, and you can see how far back the orange line of monks go in the first picture.



After breakfast, the monks put thier shoes back on and even ride tuk-tuks

Luang Prabang 1

In Luang Prabang we encountered this girl who had a 3 month old monkey. A local version of the pedestrian crossing sign.

Banana in bloom.

Every day we had great sunsets. This is sunset number 1.

The monks were everywhere. Here is a row of them surfing the internet. Notice that the one in the middle is using MSN.

On the night of the full moon, many people were out worshiping. The night market was the main event every evening.



We rented bikes every day. A local dog by the basket store. And a hand made paper store.

It was very peaceful here.

The food and gift fair

We were lucky that the day after we arrived was the Laos food and gift fair! The night before they had set up the archway decorated with food. There were no gaurds over night, but not a single water mellon was stolen.

This woman carved this watermellon. We forgot to ask how long it took.

Yoshie's pants match the flowers. This is what she was taking a picture of.

We rented bikes that day so we could cover more area. This is the symbol of Laos. Takashi suspects there is a little piece of Budda's bone here. It was close to a full moon.

The next day we piled into a tuk-tuk to go to the airport. We boarded through gate 1. The only gate in the airport. Next stop: Luang Prabang

Laos!

This is in Vientien. They say there is a dragon living under this that saved the city a long time ago. Laos is a lot quieter and laid back than Vietnam. It is a gem of a country. We highly recommend visiting.

Plumaria is the national flower and they were in bloom and the city smelled fabulous.
As always, we went to the market. Here Takashi is very excited.

This was a very big market. They had fruits, nori from the river, and insect pupa.

Here is the food court. Here is a thread store. They had a lot of silk and cotton.

Back to Hanoi

After Sapa, we went back to Hanoi. You might notice something odd about these maniquens. The zipper on the pants and skirts are undone. Nile tried to take this picture at another store, but the owner turned the manequin around before she could get the picture. On the right, these dolls are the Vietnam equivalent of Barbie. I guess Barbie is everywhere.

You may have heard of some of the finest and most expensive coffee which has passed through the digestive system of a cat. (This is the way they do it in France.) In Vietnam, they use weasles. Nile didn't want to get any closer than this picture. They also sell fake weasle coffee for people like Nile. Instead of using real weasles, they simulate the process with similar chemicals.

There is a bread culture in Vietnam. Nile and Matt had high hopes for fabulous bagettes and crousants. The bagets were easier to find, but are different than the French kind. The Vietnamese kind are shorter and wider, but have more air.

This is where Nile had the best croisant in Vietnam. We thought it wouldn't be good because it was famous for being where Catherine DeNuve ate, but it was surprisingly good.

Nile, Takashi, and Yoshie went to see the water puppets in Hanoi. Hanoi is more famous for water puppets than Saigon. They have their own theater that seats almost 200 people. They even had a live band performing the music and songs for the puppet show. Traditionally the pupetteers were all men, but now they have women as well.

Kenneth, here is a picture Nile thinks you might enjoy. At a distant corner of the Hanoi airport they have a collection of life sized flight attendant cut outs. Here are a few of them, facing nowhere in particular.