We ventured out at night to attend a local fashion at a place called Hive Bar. As we walked in we were greeted by Troy, the owner. He informed us that the fashion show goes in hiatus during the rainy season because many of the models live far from LP in small tribal villages. Instead we got to see a B-boy show with local dancers. The dancers' amazing hip-hop moves were paired a variety of tunes that reminded us of the prom or a fun wedding. We also ate delicious bacon satay with mango sauce.
The Canadian owner did bacon so well that we ordered three dishes with bacon for dinner.
Troy hung out at our table for a while and he told how he ended up moving from North America to Luang Prabang. He also introduced us to his wonderful girlfriend who works with the monks in the town and manages a spa. She told us all about how the monastaries work and how we could get involved while we were around.
Remember the cute kids on the stairs from our last post? One of the little boys lives across from Hive. He visits the bar often and we got to share some pizza with him. Seeing how Troy and his girlfriend cared for the local boy was a very heart-warming experience. The young boy has Down's Syndrome. Seeing a kid like this always pulls at our heart strings, but this kid seemed special. When the couple met him he could not speak, but after a short six months he could communicate with us that he wanted some pizza! He was also showing lots of love to the couple through hugs, kisses, and many rounds of "I've got your nose." It brought is right back to our teaching roots.
He loved having his picture taken and then looking at himself!
After Hive we went to the popular backpackers' hangout, Utopia. Our Israeli friend from the bus and our new friend Perrie joined us there. (Hi Perrie if you're reading this!!)
Everyone leaves their shoes outside the joint and hangs out on mats on the floor. We made sure to hide our cute sandals so we could get them back at the end of the night. At about 10:30 we called it quits so we could be ready for our very full day on Saturday.
Saturday was one of our favorite days of this entire experience! We booked a day trip with a local tour company that included three activities.
First we visited the elephant park, which was by far our favorite. We got to greet the elephants upon arrival and then we walked up to a tall porch to get on benches on the elephant's back! We rode our elephant, Kool, through the town for about 45 minutes. Nicki even rode on the elephant's neck. Fittingly enough, we had the touble-making deviant elephant. Kool marches to the beat of her own drummer. Each time the guides tried to take a group picture, Kool would turn around. Seeing this naughty behavior was very familiar to us and naturally we went with the flow and enjoyed the ride.
After the ride we were able to hang out with the magestic creatures. We pet the elephants for a while, hugged and kissed them, and basically stared at them in awe for as long as we were allowed. We then proceeded to talk about them like love-sick teenagers for the rest of the day.
Later we explored the Pak Ou temple. In order to get here we crossed the Mekong in a small boat. The temple is spread out between two caves. One was accessible from the water and the other involved what seemed to be a sky-high hike to the top of an infinite stair case. These caves are filled with statues of monks and Buddhas that people have donated over the years. While we were almost too sweaty and hot to enjoy our time here we did enjoy how it felt pristine and untouched. This was after we diagnosed ourselves with climb-induced asthma. Our guilt about not visiting the gym was quickly sweat away.
Finally we took a 90-minute car ride to the biggest waterfall in Luang Prabang.
On the ride we got to help our guide, Pong, practice his English. We shared stories about our families and learned about all of the interesting jobs he's had. He told us about a company called Pencils of Promise that sets up sister schools in developing and developed countries. This is something we hope to get involved in later on. We also helped him practice saying the word massage which seemed to be very tricky for him. Every time we end up in these situations we really notice our Chicaaaago accents. Every American we meet loves to point this out.
When we arrived at the national park we were suckered in to buying $4.00 ponchos. It stopped raining about 10 minutes later so we were not pleased. Seeing the baby bears in the park (who were in enclosures) and the beautiful views of the falls made up for it! This was the most beautiful waterfall either of us has seen. There are about four different levels to the falls and each has it's own lush scenery. Nicki was able to jump from a tree into one of the pools. It appeared as though she had a brush with death as she landed a little too close to the rocks, but everything was fine in the end. She came out without a scratch on her and a really good story.
We headed back to town, grabbed dinner, hit the night market one last time and crashed. We know we haven't had the most exciting night life while abroad, but we are beat every night from our long days of exploration. We tried to go to bed REALLY early last night because we planned to wake up at 4:30 AM!! Each morning at sunrise, the monks of Luang Prabang walk to streets to collect their food for the day. Perrie joined us for our early morning adventure. We waited for a while for the monks to show up, but when they did we got the most out of our experience.
Troy's girlfriend explained that the monk programs in Laos take in many young boys. Families from the small villages send their sons to the city to receive food and education through the monastaries. They are only allowed to eat the food that is donated to them each morning. Most of the street vendors sell sticky rice and stale crackers to donate. We were informed to get something with protein because the kids are not getting enough. We bought some milk and nuts at the store and we even donated snacks from our personal stashes. We got a little duped to buy food from one of the vendors once we ran out of our donation ration. While it felt wonderful to give back to the community, we felt a bit taken advantage of when we had to pay the woman triple what we were expecting. It just goes to show that people are looking for any way to make money.
After our early morning activities we napped at our hotel to prepare for our journey to Thailand. Since we have been dreaming of this for years, we wanted to be as rested as possible. This post is coming from our flight to Chiang Mai.
We truly cannot wait to take advantage of every moment in Thailand!! Our journey will take us to Chiang Mai, Pai, Phuket and Bangkok. While we can't wait for our next adventures, we are also anxious to see all of you at home. We hope this finds you well.
Love,
The elephant-obsessed Frizzy Girls
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