On Laos-Time

I've been feeling extremely lazy (more so than usual) and the only thing I can think to explain it all is that, I'm on "Laos-Time".  Laos-Time, if you haven't guessed it, is just a prolonged sense of the time the rest of the world seems to run on.  If a Tuk Tuk driver tells you it'll take twenty minutes to get somewhere, you can generally expect that it'll probably take an hour.  If a restaurant tells you they can prepare your meal in ten minutes, what they really mean is 30.  Just like when our bus out of Luang Prabang was supposed to be 6 hours, but was actually 8.  So this is the way my mind and body have begun to function.  Time therefor, has more or less become irrelevant.

When we were in the jungle, trekking, Laos-Time was less apparent.  We got up with the sun and the gibbons and always seemed to have a schedule (if not totally monitored by a clock).  In Muang Noi, this was not the case, though the generators always let you know what time of day it was.  In Luang Prabang, we lost any sense of time all together.

Our first day in Luang Prabang we walked up the 286 some odd steps to the top of the Phusi temple to watch the sunset.  (Andy's motto in life is the infamous carpe diem and is good at urging us into activity no matter how long we've just spent in a hard wooden boat.)  From there we wandered into the night market (which couldn't be helped since it lines the streets at the base of the hill), and found ourselves some dinner at the local food market.  It's a pretty genius place.  You can get bbq fish, chicken, sausage or pork (for about 15,000 kip = $2) and a large plate of buffet style vegetable dishes for 10,000 kip = $1.25.  All the times we went I don't think Darren and I ever managed to finish a meal, and we always shared the plate of vegetables.  After dinner, we headed to a trendy little bar/lounge called "Utopia" where we were supposed to meet up with a bunch of other people from Muang Noi.  People slowly drifted in (they were all on Laos-Time too) and by the end of the night we had sort of overrun the place.  It was a little expensive but a really great little bar.

Thanks to our new friend Mike (from Sydney) we also got wind of a great little bakery/cafe called "Arthouse Cafe", owned by a Canadian woman, that has the best breakfasts at a great value.  Fruit salad, a bagel with cream cheese and refillable Laos coffee for 25,000 kip = $3.  We went there everyday, and everday breakfast would take us at least an hour, most times longer.  It's one of the only places in all our travels thus far where they will refill your coffee for free.  Everywhere else is more like Starbucks or Tim Hortons--if yo want more than one cup you have to pay for it.  So we often sat talking, long after our meals were finished, just drinking our delicious cups of Laos coffee (and taking advantage of the cafe's air con).

Despite our inclination to do nothing, we did head to a waterfall on our second day (Andy was a factor in the planning and getting us motivated of course).  I think it was the Tad Sae waterfall.  It was absolutely beautiful.  It was the hottest day we'd experienced yet (in Laos) and was absolutely perfect.  The waterfall pools in teers down the mountain.  At the bottom there is a park-like set up with picnic tables and changerooms, but we started by climbing right to the top and going for a dip with not a soul in sight.  It was amazing and the water was so refreshing.

After a lazy day at the falls, we headed into town and began our ritual of walking through the night market, eating and walking back.  A good chunk of our time in Luang Prabang was spent eating and talking and doing a bit of nothing (no wonder I love the place so much).  The city was suprisingly quiet (because of the low season apparently) and the market was almost bare.  It was so peaceful, everyday and everywhere you went.

Continuing on our quest for relaxation, our last night in town, Darren and I went for the best massages!  Anisa, a girl from New Mexico, had a 3 hour massage earlier that day; consisting of, a 10 minute hot shower, 1 hour aromatherapy massage, 1 hour facial, and 50 minutes reflexology massage.  I checked it out, and this 3 hour package was 150,000 kip = not even $20.  We didn't have quite that much time, so Darren got a 1 hour full body traditiona massage (40,000 kip = $5) and I got a 1 hour facial (60,000 kip = $8).  The facial was amazing.  She started with some sort of cream cleanser, then an herbal scrub, then warm honey, some other sort of cream, then a tightening mask, taking her time to massage all of these things into my skin one by one.  During my 1 hour, she also massaged both my arms and hands, my feet, and even spent a few minutes on my neck, shoulders and upper back.  I almost felt light headed afterwards, I was so relaxed.  Darren and I closed the place down, went back to our guesthouse and slept like babies!  I wish massages were this good and this cheap back home!

Anyway, not a lot to tell.  We're on Laos-Time.  We're in Vang Vieng now, the infamous tubing destination of Laos and will get to doing something eventually.  Other than breakfast and switching guesthouses (bed bugs :S) we haven't done a thing.  We'll probably grab lunch at a restaurant which runs "Friends" episodes non-stop, all day, and then evenutally eat dinner; but, that will likely be as exciting as today gets.  Don't worry though, we're not staying here for too long and I do want to go tubing (of course), see some caves, and we'll possibly go rock climbing as well.  So Laos-Tme or not, things will pick up.  Keep checking in!