Tomorrow, Friday, February 17, Bruce and I will be setting off for a big adventure within an adventure! We will leave Chiang Mai and go to Luang Prabang, Laos. To get there, we've decided to take a "slow boat", requiring one day in a van to get to the border town of Chiang Khong where we'll spend the first night, and then 2 days on a slow boat, floating down the Mekong River to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang. The second night will be spent in the small town of Pak Ben, Laos, at lodging that we'll find ourselves.
Mind you, 4 months ago we had never heard of Luang Prabang. But, Brittany, our housemate in Guatemala, and then our Kiwi friends, Simon & Vicki, plus a few other folks, all urged us to visit Luang Prabang. Everyone speaks of it with a touch of reverence. We decided we had to go.
After including it in our itinerary, we needed to figure out how to get there from Chiang Mai. The options were a very long bus ride (perhaps a bit tedious), an airplane ride (apt to be pricey) or a slow boat (a little primitive but offering a BOAT RIDE, beautiful scenery and relaxation, as well as a certain timelessness). Being children of the 60's, just the name, Mekong River, holds a historic and intriguing place in our psyches. In short, the river called to us.
So, as evening descends here in our dorm room in Chiang Mai, we are all packed up. We've left one bulging suitcase under Barb's desk at CMIS, (full of cold weather clothes for Scotland), mailed home one small box of stuff we don't need, and stocked up on snacks and water. At 9:30 am, we'll drag our baggage a few blocks away to where the van driver can easily find us and then head north.
We'll let you know how it was when we get there!
Mind you, 4 months ago we had never heard of Luang Prabang. But, Brittany, our housemate in Guatemala, and then our Kiwi friends, Simon & Vicki, plus a few other folks, all urged us to visit Luang Prabang. Everyone speaks of it with a touch of reverence. We decided we had to go.
After including it in our itinerary, we needed to figure out how to get there from Chiang Mai. The options were a very long bus ride (perhaps a bit tedious), an airplane ride (apt to be pricey) or a slow boat (a little primitive but offering a BOAT RIDE, beautiful scenery and relaxation, as well as a certain timelessness). Being children of the 60's, just the name, Mekong River, holds a historic and intriguing place in our psyches. In short, the river called to us.
So, as evening descends here in our dorm room in Chiang Mai, we are all packed up. We've left one bulging suitcase under Barb's desk at CMIS, (full of cold weather clothes for Scotland), mailed home one small box of stuff we don't need, and stocked up on snacks and water. At 9:30 am, we'll drag our baggage a few blocks away to where the van driver can easily find us and then head north.
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