~laos/luang_prabang/arrivals/sara

Sara is here! I met her yesterday. She was arriving by ferry, which when it arrived turned out to be nothing more than a glorified canoe with about 50 tourists crammed into it. She had been traveling on that thing for 2 days, crazy! She vows never to do it again though... dont blame her.

So i waited at the port in the immense heat and humidity for about 2 hours for her to arrive. I was so relieved to see her, i had spent the whole day on my own in Laos, and wasnt completely sure she would turn up. We hadnt really arranged a meeting point or time, so i just guessed when and where she would be arriving. (I'm a badass invincible rendezvous guessing mo fo!)

Anyway, so the yesterday was spent organising hotels and stuff, trying not to sweat profusely all the time, dodging cockroaches and contributing to the local economy by purchasing one of everything on the night markets... which suffered a power cut and was candle lit! Fantastic!

It is so so hot here, and 100% humidity, which makes putting your socks on an arduous task! But our guesthouse last night was overlooking the Mekong river, which is (like everything else in Laos) stunning. All the locals drive around in Tuk Tuks and motorbikes. You even find very small children operating motorcycles, it seems it is the only cool way to travel. Only a few have cars.

The town of Luang Prabang (where i am staying) is littered with Buddhist temples. It seems every corner has one, and not a minute goes by without you seeing a gaggle of monks walking in bright orange robes and matching orange shoulder bags and matching orange umbrellas to keep off the heat.

Sara and I have been discussing what our plans are, and we are not completely decided at all, but we do share a common gripe about Luang Prabang. That is there are too many bl**dy foreigners! There are only about 50 in the whole town, but the town is so small that you bump into people you know all the time. So we are planning to get out of the town and into the countryside.. possibly to see some temples, Buddhist caves, take a boat on the river or go swimming in one of the many spectacular waterfalls nearby. Time shall only tell how we spend the next few days...