Day 63: Wandering through more wats in Chiang Mai

Our last day in Chiang Mai was spent working and wandering through wats. It wasn't the most eventful. I have been fairly anxious to get out of SE Asia, and I may have rubbed off on Andrew more than I should have. Both of us kinda felt like we were waiting the entire day just to get on the bus down to Bangkok. We stumbled upon these two wats and a tailor willing to fix my backpack by chance. My brand new (knock off) Roxy backpack made it a whopping 12 hours before it ripped at one of the seams… I almost kissed the tailor who allowed me to dump out its contents in his shop, so he could sew up the bag in a matter of minutes. 

Our bus down to Bangkok wasn't all that bad. We avoided the tourist bus, and skipped out on the train simply because there weren't seats next to each other (which is preferred on an overnight sleeper). We ended up on a Nakhon Chai Air Bus that was a little like being on an actual airplane; flight attendant included! She was adorable, and I really wanted to get a picture of (with?) her, but thought it might be creepy, so I didn't. Sidenote: I think I would like American flight attendants a little bit more if they all wore little hats. Think on that Delta, United, American!

Day 62: Sunday walking market in Chiang Mai

Back in Chiang Mai, we couldn't have timed it more perfectly to be able to hit up the Sunday walking market. At first, we expected it to be a morning/early afternoon kind of thing. Obviously this wasn't the case, so we stalked the area (before lunch, and then after a mid-day coffee) until we finally saw vendors setting up around 4pm. Officially, the market gets going right at dusk, including a pause for the Thai National Anthem. (I was not alone in the "Wait, what's going on?" feeling as many other tourists found it amusing that the entire market stopped to pay respect. It was like going to an American ballgame, only without the stadium, peanuts, oh yea, and actual baseball.

Our favorite part of the market was the multiple areas devoted to streetfood stalls. We failed on our first two orders (fried wontons with quail eggs inside and some overly fishy papaya salad) but made up for it with an order of grilled chicken, samosas, a spring roll, a bowl of Khao Soy (Andrew's favorite) and one fried banana roll. 

"Why can't America have this?" Andrew asked as we sat on tiny plastic stools with our knees higher than the table in between us. 

"It does. At fairs. Only EVERYTHING is fried and it's at least 10 times more expensive…" And I sighed, knowing this is going to be problematic for both of us.

Day 49: Kuang Si Falls

Kuang Si Falls is a beautiful three tier waterfall an hour outside of Luang Prabang. Not only is the actual waterfall a beautiful sight, but the water that collects in turqouise pools down the mountain is equally breathtaking. It's a bit on the tourist side, but there are different pools you can seek out to get away and swim in the cool mountain water. There's also a fun rope swing that attracted quite the line by the time we walked back down to go swimming. The night before we ate dinner next to a girl who broke both of her middle fingers (she enjoyed showing those injuries off) jumping off of the rope. Her double bandaged middle fingers scared me a bit from jumping off the rope, so I wimped out and headed for another pool instead of breaking anything today. 

On our way back "home" we heard lots of drum beats and cymbals crashing around from a few steps up into a wat near our guesthouse. We decided to investigate, after all, last time we checked out drum beats, we encountered a dragon in Vietnam. This time around, it seemed like a monk jam session. I have no idea why, but in two different structures, housing big drums, several monks were inside each, beating the big drum, as well as other smaller drums, triangles, and cymbals. It was beautiful, but ended rather abruptly, as if both sets of monks in their respective drum structures had a count going or something, and they all disappeared. Oh Buddhism, so many questions I have for you!

Day 48: Lotsa Buddhas in Luang Prabang

You know you're going to have a good day when you start it off with a chicken, avocado, bacon, and cheese sandwich from a street stall followed by an afternoon strolling around the wats, chatting with monks, cooling off at a pool only to circle back to another street stall: buffet style! Luang Prabang is my favorite city in Laos. It's the one city so far in our travels that I could imagine living in. It's small, but there is quite a bit to do and if you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a sucker for street food. Luang Prabang is full of it. Sandwiches, crepes, noodles, fruit shakes, you name it, it's here and it's delicious! Oh yea, and a night market every night? Full of beautiful silver jewelry and handmade tribal clothing? Yes, please!

We strolled through town with bigger sites circled on a map, a map that was tucked away in a pocket, while we ducked in and out of smaller wats on our way to the bigger, more famous one. While we were taking pictures of one giant gold Buddha, some monks said hello and let on that they were studying English. We sat with them for a little bit in the shade, practicing pronunciation and involuntarily teaching new vocabulary just from our conversation. They were really sweet, three of the four very shy, the outgoing one surprised me when he said he wants to study banking after he finishes secondary school. I wanted to ask so many questions about Buddhism, and being a monk, because I can't speak Lao, I stuck to "Do you like being a monk?" To which he answered, "Yes" and elaborated that it's quiet (except for the morning alms full of tourists and flash photography) and he gets to study a lot.

Wat Xieng Thong is the biggest, perhaps most famous in Luang Prabang. Built in the 1500's by Lao King Setthathirath, until the 1970's it was a royal temple where kings were crowned. It is said to display traditional Lao artwork and is one of the most important monasteries in Laos, even though we only saw one monk there. The wat felt old, and while some details were certainly eye-catching, I preferred the many statues of Buddha within one of the many buildings within the temple walls. 

Over breakfast, a girl staying in the same guesthouse told us she had stayed in Luang Prabang longer than planned (obviously easy to do) mostly because she had been going to a local swimming pool for the past five days. We haven't had enough beach time on this trip, so I've been itching for some sunbathing and swimming. La Pistoche swimming pool is a big fat MEH in my book, but it was better than taking a nap in our guesthouse. After the pool, we headed straight for the night market and the 10,000 kip (a little over $1.00) buffet, and maybe a little bit of market shopping.