Luang Prabang

Entry/Visa
Luang Prabang - if you want to experience the "old" Asia. Perhaps even better than
Hoi An.  Lao life with a good dose of the old positive French colonial influence.
Lots of small lodges, cheap and clean. What a lovely scenee at LP where the
NAM kHAN RIVER meets the Mekong. We felt safe during day and at  the daily colorful
nite market with abundance of colorful silks and cottons handicrafted by the nearby
tribes.  -- Do NOT compare LP with trashy Vientiane. 
 
Even more intiguing is the travel to get to LP. Fly into Chiang Rai, take overland taxi
to the Lao border, book the overnite trip via Mekong river cruise starting at Huang
Sei (take time to try to make it to the sapphire mines nearby) drift down the Mekong
to LP,  stop a tribal villages, try their Lao booze, watch gold washing along the
way, stay overnite at the Huang Sai Lodge (part of the river package) and voila -
there is LP after two days. No nite river travel; no navigation markers there, no
garbage on the upper Mekong and lots of whirlpools and rapids  -- depending on
the water level (and what the Chinese upriver do to the Mekong water flow)
 
for foodies: Lao-French fusion food with top ingredients or go local. You get the
smell of fresh croissants in LP when going for breakfast -- and dont forget to
load up on Mulberry tea and try tamarind jam (a bit like Pflaumenmus but just
more delivious... eat your crepe at night on main street LP and sip your Petrus-
substitue  ---  
spicKP D Foo 
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