2011 - NZ To SF - Day 87

Day 87: (8 August 2011):
-  wake up & have (pancake - thick & delicious in SE Asia) breakfast before heading to bus station. Vague info about 9:30 bus in LP so get there 9:15 or so.
- 90k for VIP bus @ 10am (8hrs). look for minivan leaving soon (7hrs). Decide on minivan, although in retrospect, bus may have been more comfortable & better views of landscape.
- Full, slightly cramped van. Fast driver. “At least the risk of armed attack is lower now.” Roads better than I expected, then in mountains, about what I expected.
- Driver take cliff corners without guard rails fast, some screeching at times. Like race between vans. Worried about oncoming traffic & slippage.
- Lots of small landslides: rocks on roads, trees & piles of rock/mud blocking ½ the road, at some blind corners too. Just honk to warn oncoming traffic. Some road collapsing near edges.
- 2 big landslides blocking road. Wait” eat cookie. Try strange red fruit. 1st: park with line of vehicles & wait ~30 min for bulldozers to clear. Stream flow on road after work.
2nd: villagers clear by hand (no shovels) then all (2 dozen?) push vans/trucks across. Collect a toll. Our driver speed up & crash through.
- Beautiful mountains along way. Some sharp, some rolling.
- Small houses/shacks on rolling hills.
- Lunch stop: Eat the muffin. Nice view of hills.
- Share tuktuk to an LP guesthouse in Luang Prabang.
- Intercepted, but nice clean GH for 60k/night.
- Walk along river (not Mekong). River confluence.
- Famous Wat. No one collect entry fee, but will come back next day anyway. Close as w eexplore. Miss the big yellow temple bld. Great murals. Reflective mural on Red chaple. Very violent scenes. Sweeping curved roofs. Looks old in a pretty sense.
- Walk back along main road. Very quaint town. Immediately like. think should have come up sooner. Weather clearing too. Close-by vat. Tourists taking photos of monks chanting, some with flash. Bad. Lots of monks & vats. Chanting from some vats.
- Night market: very big, but all same things. Pre-made shake cups.
- Go to LP rec’ed restaurant. Lost on way, walk too far, to end of penninsula. No bamboo bridge. Shakey boat across, slippery but bright path.
- Beautiful setting by river. Private shacks, see river flowing through bamboo.
- Did not choose recliner due to Felix’s knees.
- Food expensive, but very delicious. Marinated buffalo skin. Seaweed (nutty taste) & others. All surprisingly good.
- Shakey boat back. Quiet, moon, hills. Beautiful.